DHCP and HDCP
I have a great job. I love what I do, I like the people I work with, and I like having a lot to do. I work with technology. Not the sexy cutting edge stuff (usually) or the cool high ticket gadgets but a lot of the little things that make everything else work together.
I realized a while back that we are some of the few people who know the difference between DHCP and HDCP. Most people in fact, probably don’t have a clue what either one does, is, or that they even exist. So I am even eliminating the masses. Of technically trained people, I bet there aren’t many who know the difference. I would guess that most of the technical world would know one or the other– DHCP has to do with networking, and HDCP has to do with High Definition video, so that covers the spread of ‘geeks’ pretty well. Of course, there are people that do know what the two FLAs stand for, or at least the applications, but percentage-wise I bet we are few.
I wouldn’t claim to be a networking guru, and while I’m pretty confident with HD applications, I’m not an expert in the true sense of the word. My job is fun because I have to stick my nose in a lot of areas. Within 10 minutes we can talk to someone who is on a government contract looking at 10s of thousands of dollars of video equipment, next a stubborn old man who is too cheap to throw out his 7 year old printer, then an avid jogger who just got a new iPod. We try to understand and relate to all of them, and try to find the best way for technology to fit their needs. It keeps it interesting. Sometimes money is not an issue, often money is the issue. Sometimes we are dealing with constraints of time, size, weight, software, etc. etc. but we can usually find some kind of solution.
I think for me the problem solving makes it interesting, and the technology behind it makes it fun.