An Introduction - Moving to KC

[Jonathan Hutchins]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bryan Richard" <bryan at pyzine.com>

> The sad result of my stay on the West Coast is that I don't really
> know what the tech climate of the Kansas City area is. I realize it is
> probably a bit slow, but I'm more interested in what companies are
> using, how Linux is doing, what the general feeling on Open  Source is,
> &c.

Slow.  Um, yeah.  Geologically slow.  Dead doesn't begin to describe it.

Companies use COBOL.  They've finished the Y2K modifications of their 1970's
code and have fired all the contract programmers.  Some are still moping
around, trying to find work, so if there were a market it would be
saturated.  System administration is done by the guy in the Accounting
department who read a book from Microsoft.  Hardware repair is the guy in
Sales who can usually fix the copier.  If they need anybody with an  IT
title to deal with the outsourcing or third-party service, they can always
send a secretary to a certification program.  She will become the CIO and
make all technology decisions, usually based on the color of the case and
how cool is the logo.

Open source is that radical communist stuff they do out on the coasts, we
don't have anything to do with such things, and anybody attempting to load
such viral software on a company owned PC will be shot.

This is a great place to move to if you want to get out of IT and become an
insurance salesman.  Or maybe real-estate.