IT Crowd (UK) Coming Back For Season 4 165
sammyF70 writes "Every geek's favourite non-sci-fi show (the original UK one, not the abysmally bad German and US remakes) is coming back for a fourth season! According to the IMDB's message board, it should be on the air 'Juneish.' While you wait, you can check out what kind of vintage hardware will be on the show this time, and remember: if you illegally download movies, you will face the consequences!"
I'll be sure to set the VVCR (Score:4, Funny)
By which I mean the RSS'd BitTorrent client, and the batch script that passes its products to Handbrake, then loads the transcoded files into iTunes.
Also, the batch script that restarts iTunes at 5am to force it sync with the iPad and hacked iPod touch attached.
Re:I'll be sure to set the VVCR (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I'll be sure to set the VVCR (Score:5, Insightful)
Sounds more like a typical *nix user setup, you did know that OS X is a UNIX system, right?
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Memory is RAM!
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Or you could just use EyeTV, and it will automatically transcode for iPad/iPhone/iPod and then send to iTunes. You only need to sync your iPad.
Re:I'll be sure to set the VVCR (Score:4, Funny)
Pff.
mldonkey -[query]-> eztv.it -[RSS]-> disk
fcron -u p2p -[run]-> (dlrss.bash -[RSS]-< disk) -[new torrents]-> mldonkey
mldonkey -[mail:done]-> me@(sleeping)
me@(woken up) -[watch:new files]-> homeCinema=(projector + dolby digital 5.1) -[epic]-> WIN
Better than any TiVo :)
Well... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Well... (Score:5, Insightful)
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I find some perl programs quite amusing. Oh, wait...
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At least it's funnier than The Big Bang Theory.
Thank god.
My roommates like BBT. I saw an episode and it baffled me. It seems more appealing to people who like to pretend they're not geeks, watch lots of TV, and laugh at "real geeks" for being socially inept.
Not my cup of tea.
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It seems more appealing to people who like to pretend they're not geeks, watch lots of TV, and laugh at "real geeks" for being socially inept.
Yeah, exactly. It also annoys me the "real geeks" in TBBT don't behave like real geeks at all. For example, in the first episode of TBBT the geeks boast about how many friends they have on MySpace. WTF? That's something a highschool girl would do. A real geek wouldn't be on MySpace in the first place, because they don't like giving up their privacy like that and would tell people who try to lure them into the web 2.0 social networking hype to get off their lawn.
Re:Well... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Well... (Score:4, Interesting)
IT Crowd is more centered on life at the office than TBBT, and is fairly indiscriminating about who it pokes fun at. Sometimes it's the geeks, and sometimes it's the rest ( see the "Jen, this is the internet" [youtube.com] episode). I guess whether you find it funny or not depends a lot about whether you ever worked in such an environment or not. I did, and I love the show for its over the top depiction of stuff that I did experience (or did ).
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Here's the cure for that (slightly spoilery if you haven't seen Breaking Bad Season One):
Breaking Bad: Acid Bath [youtube.com]
(Note: I'm not trying to imply that you should be dissolving your non-geek friends in acid here.)
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Hey, I happen to like that show!
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Oh, I thought you meant "The Big Wang Theory"...
Always amuses me... (Score:4, Insightful)
Some people like it. Some people don't.
Re:Always amuses me... (Score:4, Funny)
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Obviously you haven't heard of Comic Maturity Model.
You are a level 1: you laugh at ad hoc jokes and individual antics of stand up comedians.
There was a german remake? (Score:2)
Never heard of it. I guess it was really bad.
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There was "Das iTeam - Die Jungs an der Maus", which was a crappy shot-by-shot remake. It was really bad.
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There was "Das iTeam - Die Jungs an der Maus", which was a crappy shot-by-shot remake. It was really bad.
I don't know why, the Germans normally have an excellent sense of humour [anenglishmanscastle.com] ;-)
Re:There was a german remake? (Score:5, Informative)
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I guess I should be glad I missed it. But the original seemed quite good.
At least they did something right with "Stromberg".
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There was a german remake? Never heard of it. I guess it was really bad.
Yeah, it focuses on an IBM support team in WWII Germany.
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well.. it worked for "Hogans Heroes"...
WIsh the show had more bits like that piracy ad (Score:3, Interesting)
a) Though it's case-by-case, I've liked more sit-coms than it's smart to admit. British ones, esp.
b) As I just wrote in another comment, laugh tracks are obnoxious, but eh, I overlook them generally. When I was small, I thought that they were all recorded from the "live studio audience," but that's just what they *want* you to think.
c) There's a lot of workplace humor in The IT Crowd that rings true (slightly exaggerated if at all - like managers who don't actually understand the thing they're supposed to "manage," and huge, often willful communication gaps between departments), but I also like the more over-the-top absurdities, like the soul-searching goth (Mason? might have the name wrong) who lives in the back room.
d) All that said, I wish they worked in more wacky sketch-like stuff like the piracy ad linked in the post.
timothy
Re:WIsh the show had more bits like that piracy ad (Score:4, Informative)
See above [slashdot.org]. The laughing is real, is recorded in the studio and well...I was alive the last time I checked.
Cheers,
Ian
Re:WIsh the show had more bits like that piracy ad (Score:4, Insightful)
One thing that surprised me was the difference between takes. There'd be different styles, sometimes different dialogue (a lot is improvised, at one point Chris O'Dowd was clearly just making it up on the spot and reducing the writer to fits of laughter let alone us in the audience) - the point of the scene stays the same but there's much more variation than I was expecting to see.
Perhaps, if they do cut'n'paste laughter from take to take, that's why it sometimes seems out of place? There were a couple of takes I can think of that were for a purely technical reason (shadow was falling in the wrong place) and they repeated that three or four times. Perhaps if they use laughter from take one where it's fresh to us, but then use video from take four where it's technically right then that's why it sometimes sounds out of place. I've no definite knowledge they're doing this, but it would seem to make sense.
Cheers,
Ian
Re:WIsh the show had more bits like that piracy ad (Score:5, Interesting)
My dear mum went to see an episode being recorded just a few weeks ago. She said that the compère had to ask the studio audience to laugh less, as they didn't want it to sound like an over-the-top laughter track. She said that it was indeed that funny; the audience were in hysterics.
I enjoy the show; its pleasantly surreal, and makes a few low-key geek references which are worth appreciating. Its not my favourite, but I still watch it when its on.
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Think you mean Richmond. He wasn't in series 3.
He got scurvy.
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Actually he's done a lot more than that
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Serafinowicz [wikipedia.org]
Ob (Score:5, Funny)
So they tried turning the show off and then on again?
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So they tried turning the show off and then on again?
Nah, they were still in shock from Jen's destruction of the internet.
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So I'm not the only one waiting for a reboot of the series?
Depressing (Score:3, Interesting)
As an IT worker, I found the show more depressing than funny. Too many similarities with my life and theirs.
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Well, my favourite... (Score:3, Informative)
Dweebs (Score:2)
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The US Remake (Score:2)
I don't know about the German remake, but I thought the US remake got canned during the 2008 Writer's Strike.
US Version? (Score:2)
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Favorite IT Crowd Quote (Score:2)
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You must have watched an outtake.
The quote is actually "God damn these electric sex pants".
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USA Version (Score:3, Informative)
American version? (Score:2)
Did that ever get aired or leaked online? I never saw it. I read it was awful.
There isn't one (Score:5, Informative)
Though obviously it takes a long time to film and so things don't flow as seamlessly as the TV episode itself, and perhaps they reuse laughs from one take over the top of acting from another take...it's still actually real. The writer came out to the audience and specifically talked about laugh tracks - he said he filmed in front of a live audience so that a) he was sure enough things were funny and b) because the actors could spark off the reactions.
I'm not going to give anything away about it, but we saw two episodes - one already filmed and edited, the other was being filmed on the night. They are both great, so tune in and have a watch this time.
Cheers,
Ian
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To me that is just as real as using canned laughter that was recorded for a completely different show.
But that's just the language of television. You can't reconcile having a television show with potentially multiple takes, and the typical audience-at-home experience of seeing all the jokes for the first time. If you picked the real laughter from the takes, it would be all over the place as sometimes you'd have a first take where the joke was new and sometimes you'd have a late take where it's not funny anymore.
Re:There isn't one (Score:4, Insightful)
Laugh tracks are done because laughter is a communal thing - other people laughing at something can make you find it funnier than it otherwise would be. So it's not to tell you that it's funny, it's to make it funnier.
Of course, none of that excuses bad laugh tracks, or ones done to try to disguise a poor quality programme.
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I don't care if the laughter is real. I don't need to be told if something is funny.
Wow, you must be *so* much fun to go to live comedies with!
I can imagine when the audience laughs at a joke, you start shushing them because you already that it's funny.
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I found it quite funny, but have the same objection. I wonder if the presence of laugh tracks is a preemptive move; later, they can offer a "regular" version for download, or, for twice the price, one with the laughtrack stripped out. My hopes on that front have dried up, though. I actually like certain sit-coms, but unfortunately for sit-coms they generally include it by default. (Arrested Development in one exception, but not the only one.)
Related aside: I used to watch the show MASH a lot -- it was my fa
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As I understand it, MASH was broadcast in the UK without a laughter track. I vaguely remember there being complaints when they accidentally showed it with one.
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I never realised until you just said it but yes, I don't recall ever having heard a laughter track whilst watching MASH over here.
God, it must be awful with one...
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I just dug out the series 1 box set, bought in Belgium and sitting in a drawer ever since. According to the box it has "Francais, Anglais and Anglais, piste des rires."
I'm afraid to even try it!
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I can see many possible positive interpretations to adding a laughter track to Schindler's List. The Nazis' killing of millions of Jews, gypsies, homosexuals and other deviants[tm] was obviously unacceptable and inhuman (or "very human", if you're appropriately cynical), but Schindler's List is a fictionalisation. Some possible purposes/interpretations might be:
(1) Experimenting with causing discomfort in an audience by juxtaposing happy emotions with ones of horror;
(2) Getting the audience to see things fr
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... why not smile and be happy while you're doing what you think is the correct thing?
Especially when it's springtime.
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The branch of the linden is leafy and Green,
The Rhine gives its gold to the sea.
But somewhere a glory awaits unseen...
Fascism is dangerous because it can be made so appealing and positive.
I'm not sure whether this makes me happy or sad for characters like Moss. On the one hand, he'd be completely uninterested in the sort of social ritual that was Nazism. On the other, he might be too singlemindedly unaware to realise the implications of working in the basement of the IBM office which processed the census th
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Especially when it's springtime.
Can you imagine Shindler's List to the soundtrack of this song [youtube.com]?
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godwinned.
Is that when God wins? It's not really surprising. He makes the rules, after all.
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I can confirm that this was (is? Jesus - let it go) a crap comedy, and yes I'm talking about the UK version. Cheap, lazy, easy jokes, of the sort that plagued my childhood every saturday evening.
Re:Favourite? hardly, it's awful (Score:5, Funny)
I watched one episode of this garbage when it first came out. A few weeks later I accidentally watched a small portion of another episode. Never again. The first one was dire and the second was just as bad.
One-dimensional, cliched characters that portray IT people as social inadequates. Tacky sets and embarrasingly bad plots (well from a sample size of 2) and utterly forgettable dialog. No thanks.
They should cut out the jokes and content and just make it a long list of references to things that make the viewers feel intelligent. They could call it "xkcd: The TV Show".
9:30pm xkcd: The TV Show
Ep. 4 "More White Knightin'"
Jen says something intelligent and profound so that
the female viewers will want to have sex with the
writer. Moss mentions Maxwell's equation.
Writer: Randall Munroe Subtitles 888
Re:Favourite? hardly, it's awful (Score:5, Informative)
Of course the characters are one-dimensional and cliched. IT Crowd pokes fun at the stereotypes (and not just at the ones about the computer nerds either.) So you don't like over the top British humor. I feel sorry for you.
Forgettable dialog? Have you tried turning it off and on again? You wouldn't steal a car! Peter File. There are some police men here, they say they need to speak to you about irregularities in the pension fund. Memory IS RAM! I have it on good authority: Never ever type Google into Google! This, Jen, is the internet.
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So you don't like over the top British humor. I feel sorry for you.
Define "over the top". I like some Brit humor and not some others myself.
Forgettable dialog? Have you tried turning it off and on again? You wouldn't steal a car! Peter File. There are some[...]
None of those quotes stand on their own at all. A funny quote is funny in or out of context. If these are the examples of the finest humor in the show, it's certainly not worth watching. Might as well flip on Family Guy, at least their unrelated gags are funny.
I haven't seen the show, but "buh huh it has computers" is not sufficient reason to check it out, either, and nothing anyone has said about it is convincing. Anyone care to try a
Re:Favourite? hardly, it's awful (Score:4, Funny)
The presenter certainly didn't convey the context in which those quotes are memorable.
However, based on your responses I'm not sure what you would find humorous.
We'll look into finding some of the comic strips from the free prizes in cracker jack boxes.
It's good to start slow and gradually work up to substance.
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I haven't seen the show
Perhaps you should change that and come back later, then.
What do you want me to do? Shall I recite whole dialogs, for example the one about the internet (the WHOLE internet), which is a small, light, wireless black box with a blinking LED, sits on top of Big Ben (because that's where you get the best reception) and has been demagnetized by Stephen "The Hawk" Hawking himself in preparation for Jen's speech, where she will - with the approval of the Elders of the Internet - present it to the higher-ups of the
Re:4 series to poke fun at stereotypes? (Score:5, Funny)
Call the whambulance: 0118 999 881 999 119 725 3
Re:Favourite? hardly, it's awful (Score:5, Insightful)
Brilliant. If I had to guess, I'd say you were offended by the programme's portrayal of "IT people as social inadequates", which perhaps means you missed the point a little
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Possibly. Although satirising the socially inept seems a bit like priding yourself on your skill at boxing against quadriplegics. It's not particularly clever or difficult, at least not unless the person doing it is severely disadvantaged in their own right.
With the IT crowd, I'd hoped for a show to poke some affectionate fun at IT pr
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Although satirising the socially inept seems a bit like priding yourself on your skill at boxing against quadriplegics.
I've demonstrated social ineptitude in the past and I think one of the healthiest things to do about it is to laugh at myself and not take my fuck-up so seriously. Consider social anxiety: this is often caused by people being told that they should behave in a certain way and take trivial social rituals as of high importance, when in fact there's always the option to play along and not really care - or even not play along and not care.
As long as you've played fair and tried your best, who cares how you come
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Yeah, I'm not saying we shouldn't laugh at ourselves. I just thought there was something mean spirited about the later episodes in this particular show. Maybe it's a sense of humour failure on my part, but I don't think I would have found that funny regardless of the group it was targeting.
Also ... if you're going to make a satire, pick on the
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I'm really good at that. It's like they don't even know the proper stance!
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I'd say you were offended by the programme's portrayal
No. You can only be offended by things you consider to be true - or containing some truth. This show doesn't contain any elements I recognise from my life in IT (and it's been a long one). It's closer to portraying people with a disability and mocking them for it. If that's what you consider humour, I would suggest you seek help. Or at least, don't go around advertising that you think it's funny.
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As Mr. Linehan has stated, "This is a British Sitcom. It has nothing whatsoever to do with reality, for example, Goths actually can't cling to the ceiling."
I suppose you found "Office Space" and "Real Genius" equally unrealistic and unfunny.
Re:Favourite? hardly, it's awful (Score:5, Insightful)
I watched one episode of this garbage when it first came out. A few weeks later I accidentally watched a small portion of another episode. Never again.
If you have no sense of humor, why were you watching a comedy? I mean, how can anybody not enjoy the character Moss? Forgettable dialog? Yeah right. "You there, computer man. Fix My Pants." is not forgettable dialog.
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And of course, the Scotsman obsessed with money is an rather old joke,
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I have talked to people who don't like Red Dwarf because they cannot understand what is being said, mostly because they only hired one actor, Chris Barrie, for the show.
And of course, the Scotsman obsessed with money is an rather old joke, as well as the geek who gets bullied.
You've never actually watched Red Dwarf, have you?
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One-dimensional, cliched characters that portray IT people as social inadequates.
I'd say The IT Crowd takes these cliches to absurd levels, which actually makes them less cliche and more just parody. I believe that if you see through it, they actually make fun of the cliches you mention it, instead of embracing them.
Now, if you want to see real cliched characters (and storylines), try watching an episode of The Big Bang Theory.
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There's a good reason why certain things become cliché. Being a cliché isn't automatically negative.
FWIW I enjoy both IT Crowd (especially the first few episodes were pure genius) and Big Bang Theory.
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Is that a WHOOSHing sound that i hear?
Why yes, yes it is.
The whole point of the show is to poke fun at clichés and 1D character personae.
Surely you weren't offended by the portrayal of IT types as idiots?
Tacky sets? That was only the basement set, which was a mess on purpose due to being built around the personality of the characters.
It showed other IT people as perfectly normal people going about their day as well, in perfectly decent sets in office buildings.
You can't form a solid opinion on somethi
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For a real geek comedy show see, The Big Bang Theory
Are you having a laugh?
Re:Every geek's favourite non-sci-fi show ? (Score:5, Funny)
Not if he's watching Big Bang Theory.
Wet rags aren't funny.. DAMP on the other hand (Score:2)
http://thedilbertstore.com/comic_strips/search?hidden_pc_terms=&pc_terms=damp+rag&start_date=&end_date=&x=0&y=0 [thedilbertstore.com]
are great.....
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I worked in all three categories ( maintenance, Web dev and ~real~ programmer (c++ mainly), and I guess you are right that if you worked in IT support, a lot of the situations just make more sense. On the other hand, th
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Bad news, everybody, unlike with "Futurama," the lead sentence does not write itself.
You have my sympathy and it's times like these that I call upon the power of IT, Instant Tautology. If and only if one is a geek, than one's favorite non-sci-fi show is "The IT Crowd." Not your favorite non-sci-fi, not a geek, ipso facto, and please stand over there with the nerds or the norms. Thenk you.
Thinking about comedies, episodes of Monty Python, I Love Lucy, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, WKRP in Cincinnati, SCTV, Sein
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Actually, even with Monty Python's Flying Circus, provided Graham Chapman rose from the dead, I'm rather sure that a slashdot article titled "The Best UK show ever is coming back!" would be greeted with "who cares? never understood it!" comments. Still, let me apologize if you felt left out of the "geek" crowd by my, as you put it so accurately, hyperbole which was, in all probability, the result of personal excitement.
On a side note : I'm not a big fan of Futurama, so I just ignore the articles about it
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What I am starting to notice is that when I talk about IT, I am talking about programmers, developers. But others are thinking about tech-support which I personally put closer to janitors and such
What if it's a small shop and the same people both run the building and keep it running. How does that fit into your uppity view of IT?
Re:What is IT? (Score:4, Interesting)
What I am starting to notice is that when I talk about IT, I am talking about programmers, developers.
That's interesting, because the very last thing I would think of when confronted with "IT" is programmers and developers. When I hear "IT" I think of mindless middle-management and bureaucracy. It's such a meaningless term. It could mean anything from an abacus lubricator to a librarian.
Why would a programmer want to be associated with such a term? Programming has much more in common with mathematics and writing. After all, it is the mastery of languages and numbers. It deserves a much higher station than "IT."
IT is basic janitorial work.
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1. isnt it called ITS now.
2. isnt all janitor work basic.
3. IT is really more like HR for technology, TR more like it.
Developers/programmers are more in the game of implementing business logic/processes into working automated systems/applications.
We developers are like god, we create digital life, the things that do the magic that mere mortals could never create.
Muwhahaha
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1. isnt it called ITS now.
I don't really give a fuck what it's called anymore. I never liked "IT" in the first place, it was always a meaningless bullshit term. "Information Technology" could mean a pencil, for fuck's sake. An IT worker could be someone who operates a pencil sharpener. And it's only gotten worse since they tried to think up more "clever" initialisms.
2. isnt all janitor work basic.
Perhaps, but some clogged toilets could get pretty complicated pretty quickly.
3. IT is really more like HR for technology, TR more like it.
I might have some witty response if I knew what "TR" meant, other than "table row" or "Tota
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What I am starting to notice is that when I talk about IT, I am talking about programmers, developers. But others are thinking about tech-support which I personally put closer to janitors and such.
Wow, you're an asshole.