Careers: There’s only way to determine whether you’d prefer to be a hardcore programmer, IT guru, or a CIO. “Hang out with people who do the work, and choose,” explains Nick Corcodilos in CS or IT? Two bits worth of advice. “What I’ve learned in all my years doing this is that a core expertise in computer science or engineering makes a stronger IT worker or manager — and it is obviously necessary for the systems designer.” Related: CS or IT? Part 1. Columnist’s corner: Dreaming of a RAID 5 array, our Off the Record author did the research, found a $60,000 solution from EMC, and wrote up a proposal for the boss. “You can guess what the VP said: ‘No. Too expensive.’ I pleaded my case to him and even went above his head to the owner of the company.” Another no, of course. Cheapskate VP blows half a million. After an untested product was forced upon him, three failures in a month that left the company without a computer system, a call came from the owner inquiring about how to prevent any more problems. Profanities flew. “I didn’t get fired, and I didn’t get my RAID array for another couple of years.” Podcasts: To hear Mario Apicella tell it, IT’s voracity for capacity just might spell disaster, if we don’t bother to compensate for drive failure rates. Parity pioneer Panasus does just that to limit data corruption. Tune into Storage Sprawl. Best of the blogs: Everyone dreads, though some more than others of course, when your boss tells you to terminate someone. It’s even harder when said employee turned around from being “a long-term employee with stunningly inadequate performance,” into someone whose performance is currently satisfactory. “Tough situation. I don’t see any great answers. Which is to say, you do have to fire the employee,” Bob Lewis begins. “Nobody ever promised you that you’d agree with everything you’re instructed to do.” Careers