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mrbluze writes:
"An interesting blog post by Charles Hugh Smith on Why Banks Are Doomed: Technology and Risk.:
The funny thing about technology is that those threatened by fundamental improvements in technology attempt to harness it to save their industry from extinction. For example, overpriced colleges now charge thousands of dollars for nearly costless massively open online courses (MOOCs) because they retain a monopoly on accreditation (diplomas). Once students are accredited directly--an advancement enabled by technology--colleges' monopoly disappears and so does their raison d'etre.
The same is true of banks. Now that accounting and risk assessment are automated, and borrowers and owners of capital can exchange funds in transparent digital marketplaces, there is no need for banks. But according to banks, only they have the expertise to create riskless debt.
...
One last happy thought: technology cannot be put back in the bottle. The financial/banking sector wants to use technology to increase its middleman skim, but the technology that is already out of the bottle will dismantle the sector as a function of what technology enables: faster, better, cheaper, with greater transparency, fairness and the proper distribution of risk.
There may well be a place for credit unions and community banks in the spectrum of exchanges, but these localized, decentralized enterprises would be unable to amass dangerous concentrations of risk and political influence in a truly transparent and decentralized system of exchanges.
It's still early days, but can new electronic currencies such as Bitcoin become mainstream without the assent of governments?"
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Nobuddy on Monday February 24 2014, @11:34PM
I disagree. When i went in to IT, there were no IT degrees.
none. anywhere.
You could be an EE, or a degree in mathematics, or business... And maybe have a digital/computer systems focus. Maybe... schools that has such were rare as hen's teeth.
So, to enter the field, you had to be self taught. I argue that NOTHING better prepares you for keeping your skills up to date than having to learn them on your own. Through the years I saw degrees form, and people start arriving with these degrees. And they knew nothing- if I was lucky. Most were so mal-informed and outdated that they were a negative overall benefit compared to hiring someone who knew nothing. And as I sit here teaching a recent grad how to be a sysadmin, I argue that this has not changed one iota in the 20 years interim. I'd rather teach some gamer kid how to do this job. At least he is more likely to shut up about what he has already learned and actually pay attention to what he's being taught.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 25 2014, @12:51AM
This seems odd to me, since the first Computer Science degree in the US was offered in 1962... so does that mean you got your degree before that? Are you really over 70?
(Score: 1) by GeminiDomino on Tuesday February 25 2014, @03:43PM
Not all that odd, when you consider that a computer science degree has about as much to do with IT as an Astronomy degree has to do with crafting telescope optics.
"We've been attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of our culture"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 25 2014, @09:39PM
Said by someone who clearly didn't study computer science in the '70s and '80s, before "IT" became all about networking PCs, setting up e-mail, file servers, printers, and antivirus. Back then, you had to understand both computing theory and how machines actually worked.
Before Token Ring, Banyan Vines and Ethernet changed the face of business computing, "IT" as we know it today didn't exist - so of course there were no degrees in the field.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 25 2014, @11:11PM
A computer science degree has a hell of a lot more to do with IT than EE, mathematics, or business do. Funny how you left out that option.
(Score: 1) by Nobuddy on Wednesday February 26 2014, @09:27PM
That was no more applicable than an EE or mathematics degree. It was just an EE focused on digital design.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 03 2014, @10:39PM
> It was just an EE focused on digital design.
Uh, yeah, digital circuits... those things computers are made out of?
Face it, the only "IT" that existed before minicomputers came along involved men in white coats plugging patch cords into panels, reading off blinkenlights, threading magnetic tapes etc. It's just stupid to say there "were no IT degrees then." Information Technology IS computers.