college degrees and such

Ok, time for my .02. Credentials: I don't have a CS degree. 1 - I suffer from it all the time. There are sorts of algortihmic things that I have to figure out the hard way - or drop a note to my brother (the topology Phd) and ask for help on. I intend to correct this some day. 2 - In the meantime I have noticed that CS and business computing bear little relationship to one another. I was stunned after working with the first few CS degreed folks that I ran into that concepts like a 'file' were not in their basic repertoire. They knew all sorts of neat things about theory and algorithms, but when it came down to reading data from someplace they were clueless. Furthermore they got wrapped up in all of this theory and concentrated on how to make things work best or right from a techincal aspect and NOT on a) getting the job done b) what is right for the customer. So while I feel there is value in a CS degree, I feel there is more value in common sense and business experience. When I needed a fast sort, I found a book on sorting and pulled out a heap sort which did the trick. When I had a brain-stoppage on a simple algebraic function I asked my brother and he steered me right. There are always plenty of folks to turn to and ask help of (to wit this group), but knowing what to ask is not handed down by some pedant in a classroom. cheers j. _____________________________________________________________________________ Jack Parker - Hewlett Packard, DMD/IS Boise, Idaho, USA jparker@hpbs3645.boi.hp.com _____________________________________________________________________________ "I'm with the IRS, I'm here to help you" _____________________________________________________________________________ Any opinions expressed herein are my own and not those of my employers. _____________________________________________________________________________