Passionless IT guys

I have to admit that there's plenty in the world of IT that I'm not an expert on. I consider myself a jack of all trades in the world of technology. While I pride myself on having a broad understanding of technology I still become dumbstruck when I'm talking to an IT Director or an owner of a company that is technology based and they aren't up to date on news in their industry.

Fortunately I have met a good share of IT support people that truly enjoy what they do. Those are the guys that tell me that when they go home after work they're still playing with computers. I can relate, I talk about phones all day and go home to read about them on the internet. I feel that however that some of the tech guys out there just happened to get their degree in IT and they have pigeon holed themselves into something they don't have a passion for. While this may be an excuse to not be giddy about going into work it cannot be an excuse to be ignorant about your industry.

Recently I met with the owner of an Internet Service Provider (ISP) to talk about cell phones. We were having a great conversation and I asked him about his thoughts on Net Neutrality. He stared at me blankly and asked what Net Neutrality was. Think of what it would be like to ask a GM dealership owner what he thought about GM having to get money from the government to just survive and he looks at you blankly. Not good.

In case you dont know net neutrality is a movement that ISP's can't put unfair stipulations on the internet you receive. It keeps ISP's from being able to throttle the speed of your internet connection just because you're taking advantage of your asterisked unlimited plan. Comcast, one of the largest ISP's, wants to be able to restrict access to Netflix because they're a competitor and any law pertaining to Net Neutrality will likely prevent that. Is it starting to seem like something the local ISP owner should at least be aware of?

That is the most recent case of ignorance or ambivalence. Seriously though, how many IT guys are just glorified support people because they're not staying involved. There's a plethera of innovation and companies are missing out because there is no one with that drive in their organization. Seriously guys, if you're not where you want to be then you only have yourselves to blame.

Getting paid made easy

Today I had a chance to use Square for the first time. Square is a personal payment company that makes credit card billing accessible to the average person. Head over to www.squareup.com for details and to sign up for free.

Signing up initially was very simple and painless and it didn't take long at all to link my personal bank account with my Square account. Less than a week later I received my free Square credit card reader that works on both iPhone and Android. The final step was to find someone willing to give me money via their credit card.

That opportunity came tonight when I sold a personal cellular device to a customer. After I typed up a receipt and we both agreed to a price she handed me her credit card. Knowing that it was not store inventory and was in my personal possesion she still expected to have the ability to pay by card. For the average sales rep this would be impossible but thanks to Square our transaction went through without hesitation.

I am currently using an iPhone (for testing purposes only) so after plugging in the card reader to my phone I went to the Square app. The first thing that was asked was the amount which after I typed it in I was asked to swipe the customer's card. I quickly got an approved message and the customer signed her signature on my phone with her finger.

I was a little nervous to use the app at first since I was having to go through everything without any practice but it couldn't have been any easier. Gone are the days of sending customers to ATM's to retrieve cash.