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I've just got emails from Microsoft confirming that I am now an MCSE and an MSDBA. It looks like you get a bit better stuff from this that just MCP - possibly free MSDN subscription for a year. It's not quite clear from the mail but they promise they've sent me a welcome pack which has the full details (and my badge :) ) so we'll soon see.
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Fortunately, not being certified doesn't seem to have had much impact on my job chances. Experience still seems to rule the day. Although, I guess having a good maths degree probably mitigates the lack of MCSE et al.
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It's actually made me very skeptical about MS qualifications as they claim that you can't manage the exams unless you have some experience which is just not true - the only one I did that you could describe me as having genuine experience with was the database design and implementation exam - the rest of them I just relied on the course for.
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You're the first person I've ever encountered who's said such a thing. I used to wonder why people were anti-Microsoft (back when I used a Mac and never had to use their products). Now I use a PC at home & work, I know why. Every day I'm staggered by the poor quality of the software we use.
So, you're pro - why, exactly?!
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Even so, I wouldn't support MS as much as I do if I didn't like their products.
It wasn't always this way though. I used to love my old Amiga. Hated PC's when they first came along. I was disappointed that the PC won out over more innovative platforms, but that's business I guess.
I guess I just don't see all the bad things that MS is alleged to do. All I see is a company that is phenomenally good at competing in the marketplace, doing what any company would do in its position.
Frankly, if you're going to be an evil capitalist (and I do believe capitalism is evil), you may as well be good at it.
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I have *never* found a development enviroment that I like using other than text editors. That's not even an anti-Microsoft thing really, although most of the one's I've tried have been MS - even in Dreamweaver I never use the GUI except for previewing. It seems to be something in the way my brain is wired - I just can't seem to get the hang of them.
Possibly it's a manifestation of my control-freak nature.
On the products front, I'm mixed. I like using Win2k because, thanks to the training courses, I know it like the back of my hand and I can see that it makes a reasonable compromise between fending off users who don't know what they're doing and allowing those who do to turn those bits off (although the security is still a little lacking) and things like SQL server seem to be quite good from my limited experience (they work fine for me) but I hate Word with a passion. And Powerpoint. Everything is so fiddly! I usually end up writing documents and presentations in HTML because I haven't got the energy to force Word/PP to do what I want.
The other thing which concerns me with Microsoft is their attempts to gain hegemony over everything. I realise that this is natural behaviour for a company in a capitalist society but it is also recognised by society through competition and monopolies legislation that it's rarely a good thing for the consumer if one company controls the whole of a market, leading to higher prices and less innovation (similar to the way you often find that you get much farther with a problem if you discuss it with another person - their ideas/actions spark things in you which might not otherwise have arrived). It's been shown in both nature and business that diversity ends up being much stronger than mono-cultures and I hope that governments continue to restrain Microsofts efforts to create a mono-culture.
Wow. That turned out to be longer than I expected!
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I would begrudge MS's unpleasant and illegal business practices a bit less if their software actually was the best available, but it's just not. It just happens to be, too often, all that's available.
Sorry to rant... but sitting at the computer right now only serves to remind me how much I miss using a Mac!
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As for Outlook Express, yes it lacks several useful features that have been standard in Outlook for several versions now, which is annoying. I'm still not entirely convinced it's superior to Pegasus Mail, which is what I always used to use. On the other hand, I dunno which version you're using, but in version 6 on the PC, I can still change the font colour and send blind copies. I dont remember those features ever being missing.
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just like Blue Peter
Jrmy
Re: just like Blue Peter