Well thumbed Oreilly books - and memories of Foyles
Miss Verity, what a superb article. I remember expeditions to Foyles also, to obtain many Oreilly books, and more obscure books too.
I completely agree with your point on having well thunbed Oreilly books on display. It is the system admin or developers equivalent to mating plumage - it says "Oi! I can prgram in XYZ and don;t you doubt it - I've read this book here".
I admit to arriving at each new job with a box of Oreilly books which I carefully line up on my desk.
In the absence of military style badges of rank or epaullettes on our polo shirts, or medals for bravery under helldesk fire, that's probably the only way we can signal to others in our profession what we (at least claim) our proficiency levels are.
But say... a rather smart military style uniform with engineering medals and rank badges would be a good idea... I'm sure cheif Engineer Scott got his fair share on the Enterprise...
Biting the hand that feeds IT
