Employee education

Hello everyone, in my new article I want to talk about education. You have to learn the new things in every domain. In some you needn't learn so much because changes are slower but my field is information technology and here is every day something new. You have to be more careful, what you learn. There is so much information, that you have to chose only the most important for you. In this article I don't want to talk about education in general. I want to describe how I imagine the ideal way how can your employer support you in learning.

The best way is for your employer, when you learn from your work. If you start with new job or new project, you have to learn these new things. So you just do your job and learn in one moment. But after a while you know everything you need for your job and you will need something new. You can change your job, but this is last resort. If you are in the good company you can have fresh projects and new challenges and you have every time something to learn. But still the company can support you in your education.

From my point of view is the best way how can your employer support you, when you get free time and free hand. The time is the most important. The people usually dont have enough energy for education after 40 hours in their jobs. So it helps a lot, when you get from your work time a few hours to your learning. I think good compromise is around 5 or 10%. Other thing is what I should learn. The company shouldn't determine learning topics because you knowledge base become wider and wider which ultimately will help the company.

Some managers can think that give some time to their employees is bad idea, because they have less time to do their job. This is misleading. The employee have less time but he works more effectively. He have better knowledge and can use modern approaches. And he is happier too, because he see that the company give him opportunity to learn.

What do you think? Do you appreciate this way of education?

My way to Mac OS X

Hello everyone. My next topic is about my switch from Windows to Mac OS X. At the beginning I want to say that I'm not Apple fanatic. I don't like fanaticism at all. The reason, why I switched to Mac, is that I wanted to discover some new things and get experience. In this article I will describe the main differences between Windows and Mac from my point of view. I won't discus technical aspects but only my user experience.

Installation

When you get new Mac you will have your operating system preinstalled. The installation comes when you will get your first major update. Apple has different distribution. You can get a new version through AppStore. The installation itself is easy. You have to do just few clicks and wait. Everything is clear and everyone can do it.

Control

I have experience only with the touchpad on Macbook Pro, but it was big surprise for me. I used the touchpad on my old notebooks only in emergency. On Macbook it is much bigger and it have multitouch gestures. Usage is very friendly. I have learned that very quickly. You can scroll in vertical or horizontal direction with two fingers or switch between applications with tree fingers. Now I don't use mouse at all. Other thing is the keyboard. I have Macbook more then 2 years and I still have some problems with the Apple keyboard. The most I miss the key Delete and all shortcuts are CMD+letter (copy and paste for example) but CMD key has different position from CTRL on PC keyboard. Maybe the reason is that I use Mac only at home and I can't learn it properly. The next difference is behavior of the window's control buttons. There isn't any maximize button but there is another one. I don't completely understand its function but it's something like "switch to the best minimal size or to the best maximal size" but I like Windows approach more. The close button ends not the whole application but just the window and the application is still in background. I learned these differences but it wasn't so pleasure like the touchpad.

Applications
Basically you can find some alternative for your favorite application from Windows for Mac. 

Sometimes it's better sometimes it's worse. The easiest way how to get the application is to use AppStore, but it needn't be the cheapest one. My favorite development tools are available on both platforms so it is OK for me. Sometimes I miss good free file manager and for professional work I would consider buying some. Game players will be disappointed because the game offer isn't wide enough.

Conclusion

Mac seems to have more disadvantages but it's not true. Macbook is nice piece of hardware and Mac OS is very matured system. If you are openminded and have some money to spare I can recommend it. You can discover new approaches and ways. If you have more Apple devices you can profit from cooperation between them and the whole Apple ecosystem.