I blame it all on Microsoft. Maybe to keep the campus in business, it's always coming up with new stuff. In the last few years, we've gone from vs6.0 to 2008, with tremendous shifts in paradigm. Today I got a call for a prospective job, and they are dangling `working with SqlServer 2008` as bait. I didn't even know there was a SqlServer 2008. Heck, I am barely conversant with 2005; I still haven't used 2005 to host my VB-written assemblies... and God alone knows what other capabilities its got.

And I suspect that even some `experts`don't have a solid understanding of the new technologies; this, from some of my experiences in the industry. Visual components which are dropped on forms, but which directly interface with the underlying security system (?!), interfaces which are implemented on single objects only (?!!), mishandled application blocks...

Then, there is this rush to use the `latest` technology, without much ryhme or reason. I was once asked in an interview in Jan 2006 how many months' experience I had with VS 2005. Of course, I hadn't had any commercial experience at that time, but how many could have? The question annoyed me, and I asked the interviewers back in reply, `What specific problems are you attempting to solve by using VS 2005 over 2003?` I didn't get an answer or the job, but I felt good!

So now I've got books on XML (haven't read it), VB 2005, VB 2008 (haven't read this either), C# (haven't even opened this), sql2005 (dipped into it, couldn't figure out what I was reading), asp.net (read a bit months ago, have forgotten it all now I think), reflection (read some of it, probably forgetting it a little more every day), remoting (read it, used it, forgot it), multi-threading (dipped into it) and God knows what else. And Microsoft's banging on about LINQ (won't that just be a Microsoft verion/standard of SQL, and won't idiotic project managers start asking for 6 years' LINQ in a years' time?) And don't even mention Business Intelligence! I have a certain amount of Crystal Reports experience, but BI seems to be yet another foggy, gaseous, far-off cyber universe!!

Am I tired of it all? Are you freaking kidding me???!!!