Here’s Part 2 of yeaterday’s article on technoogies you mght wnat to avoid when goingto school in the Philippines. Part 1 is here:

6. C programming As the Web takes over, C languages are also becoming less relevant but C++ and C Sharp are still alive and kicking.  A school that teaches only “straight” basic C is not one that is going to prepare you for the real work world. (see also:“Hot Skills, Cold Skills” )

7. PowerBuilder Developed by Powersoft Inc., this client/server development tool in 1994 was bought by Sybase Inc., which was once a strong Oracle competitor.  Today, PowerBuilder developers are at the very bottom of the list of in-demand application development and platform skills.  Nevertheless, the product keeps on trucking, with PowerBuilder 11 expected this year, which has the ability to generate .Net code. (see also: “35 Technologies that shaped the industry” )

8. Certified NetWare Engineers  In the early 1990s, it was all the rage to become a Certified NetWare Engineer, especially with Novell Inc. enjoying 90% market share for PC-based servers. This is one of the market factoids that truly amazes me,  I cut my teeth with NetWare and with the reputation NetWare had and the huge penetration into important government and commercial markets they looked invincible.  Many of NetWare’s nascent competitors were nearly laughable, especially Microsoft’s early efforts.  And Cisco?  They were a shaky little startup that really did nothing better than NetWare and often did less.  Today, however, you don’t have to look far to find CNEs retraining themselves with other skills to stay marketable.

9. PC network administrators With the accelerating move to consolidate Windows servers, there will be substantially less demand for PC network administrators. There will always be networks for the foreseeable future in my view, but much better to equip oneself in a broader, more forward-looking area.  You don’t need to look much farther than Google to see how on-line applications are taking over many traditional desktop tasks … and if a company’s users do their correspondence and spreadsheets on Google, why will they need an administrator?

10. OS/2  This is the one I disliked writing up the most. OS/2 is the “Betamax” of operating systems (yes, Virginia, there was a video tape standard called Beta and it was first on the market and distinctly better than it’s poor choice competitor, VHS, but find it now).  As a joint effort of Microsoft and IBM, OS/2 seemed destined for greatness and the “mechanics” of the operating system are certainly better by far than Microsoft’s or Apples systems.  But IBM and Microsoft, while they could write code, couldn’t play well in the sandbox and OS/2 became and unfortunate collateral victim of the inevitable divorce.  The one place I could recommend OS/2 coursework is in the field of banking.  OS/2 is still supported by Serenity Systems International still sells the operating system under the name eComStation.

Well, there’s a rundown on my list of training you should avoid.  Let me know if you have any suggested additions or deletions.

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