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This past Summer I had a second job which helped make ends meet or almost (I've seen what an actual economic recovery looks like; A real recovery looks like 1983, not like 2013). This was opening at a small convenience store (once upon a time such things were merely "gas stations") every Sunday. I had this job before, where I'd opened Saturday and Sunday every other weekend for a couple years, and had left it (on good terms) a year or two ago. This Spring things didn't go quite as I had hoped and when I stopped for something or other, I was asked, "You wouldn't, by chance, be looking for a few more hours, would you?" And I stunned the asker with a reply that started, "Funny you should ask that..." Thus this Summer I had that job. And having had it before, I noticed something. Well, most things were simply repeats of the earlier experience. One was not, and it's not a good sign of things. The standard things first...
* A convenience store is NOT a gas station first. Sure, that might be some of the draw, but that's not the big deal. Fuel is more a headache as folks complain about prices we have no real control over. At best the manager will try to delay a price increase to outlast the other places at the old, lower price and try to lower it first. A convenience store is really a Cigarette Stand that happens to sell motorfuel and a few other things on the side.
* If you hear, "Ready on pump no. 3" or similar, you need to come inside to pay. If your card had read properly at the pump, you would not hear that announcement.
* If you get back in your vehicle to write a check or sort your cash after hanging up the pump nozzle, I will take down your license plate number because you are looking like a potential drive off. If that offends you, too bad, don't give me reason to suspect you. Actually, if you go to the far side of the farthest pump(s) in an empty station, you're suspicious right there. Guess where most drive-offs take place from? Some seem to think they are "clever" when what they really are is "obvious."
* The owners might prefer you come inside even after paying at the pump, or buy stuff after using the restroom. The cashier is quite happy for you fill your tank (paying at the pump) and/or empty your bladder and leave. The feeling isn't one of annoyance at a potential lost sale, it's one of relief of one less thing to have to deal with.
* The Star Tribune has an "Early Sunday Edition" which is really their standard Saturday edition, though they add (standard, it seems) the Sunday comics. No big deal, now. But a couple years ago they didn't explain or claim what it was. That made it seem like a special Sunday Morning thing - which is odd when it has no Evening edition. Indeed, are their any genuine evening papers left? They've fixed that now, so at least there is one thing the (Red) Star Tribune isn't lying about.
* Smokers are either getting used to the "new" (now a few years old) names since Light, Ultralight, Medium, and Mild are no longer permitted or else I was simply seeing the new generation of smokers who had not learned the old names. Soft-packs are usually only bought by rather older folks. Minnesota's new, higher, tobacco tax might be driving some to quit, but it's also getting folks to drive out of state for cigarettes, or getting people to go the roll-your-own way or at least try the e-cigarettes.
* There is a form used to keep track of scratch-off lottery tickets (by the brick or bundle - these need to be activated, so if someone were to swipe a brick of them it would do them no good: none of the tickets would be considered "in play" - and even if they swiped one after activation, they can be deactivated - try to cash a stolen ticket in and the machine will pop up a message: CALL POLICE - STOLEN TICKET) which is, at the place I worked, filled out by hand. I took to writing the game names in cursive and often that stuck and I'd next see the form (changed at least daily, if not per-shift) still in cursive. Well, almost. Some shorthand would happen such as 'crossword' becoming 'X-word' and 'star' being replaced with a five-pointed star. Also the letters, especially capitals, would revert to printed for Q, Z, and curiously often for G as well. Q and Z make sense - they are fairly rare and the capital cursive isn't seen much. But G is quite common and yet reverted nearly as often.
* Machine tickets (Powerball, Mega Millions, etc.) are easily printed by the machine as separate tickets or five-to-a-ticket. Anything else on the same ticket is a pain as the machine is not fast even when the everything should be local - it needs to communicate for the actual ticket generation, but even the setup is slow and each screen-switch is a delay. Buying tickets and want to get out faster? Don't ask for a single ticket for a couple plays. It's actually faster to print two tickets. Print-n-Play stuff takes the longest.
* The lottery, especially the scratch-off stuff, is set up like B.F. Skinner's Operant Conditioning. If a pigeon pecks a button and gets a food pellet every time, when it stops delivering, the pigeon will give up on the button after a short time. If the system gives pellets after varying tries, when the system stops delivering, the pigeon keeps at at it pretty much forever. "Just one more..." Actually, all gambling is generally this way, pigeon. It's meant to be addictive and for you to lose money.
* Some lines are tired and reveal the speaker to be an idiot. "Pick me a winner." is one of them. If I could do that, would I be working at a convenience store? Even if I couldn't do that for myself, I'd at least have a 900-number. Another is "Busy is good." which has never been said to me by anybody who was actually busy themselves. It's said by folks who are very clearly not working.
* Some bad lines aren't standard, but for a single person. The same (unfunny even when first heard) joke does not get funnier with each telling. Even if said every week, all Summer long.
* Just because, supposedly, someplace somewhere else will take an EBT (foodstamps) card, does not mean this place, here will. And somehow these poor folks can travel from there to here, whine about not being able to use EBT here, and yet still manage to have cash for beer, cigarettes, or lottery tickets. There's good reason I believe some folks on EBT should have it cut back if not off. Anyone who can buy beer, tobacco, or lottery tickets does NOT need my (or your) money to subsidize their lifestyle.
* Despite that commercial (of a few years ago - maybe a variant still airs, I don't know) paying cash is generally faster than paying by credit card. But the only thing slower than paying by check is paying in all coin for a non-trivial purchase. Oh, if you dump it all on the counter and don't help at all, I will be in no great hurry either. Too bad if you're desperate for that nic-fix.
* Exact change sounds nice, but it's easier and faster to go to the next dollar amount up (especially if the system use an automated coin dispenser) or with a standard bill ($5, $10, $20, maybe $50). The cashier has things set up for him (or her) to make change faster and more easily than you can fish it out and sort it. If there's no rush (and that includes folks behind you and whatever else the cashier needs to get done) then go ahead and get rid of your change. Want speed? Break a 20. Or better, pay in $10 bills. Those run out most often, if they're even there at all.
* Paying by check and want to write it to the next dollar up, or a few? Fine. Want $50 back in cash? Nope. "The manager lets me do it all he time." is utter bilge. I know, because I know the manager. Someone once tried using that line on her and got a shock when called on that BS. No pity for them at all. There is one possible exception (It likely varies place to place, so I won't go into specifics) and it's Not You. Really.
* Maybe you don't know when the shifts change, but you probably know when a place opens. Right then or just after is a Bad Time to break a large ($50, $100) bill or try to cash in a similarly large winning lottery ticket. You're emptying the fresh cash drawer that can't be simply restocked - where it is stocked from has to remain balanced and no, you are NOT a special exemption to that. Right after opening, if you buy $30+ worth of stuff and pay with a $50, that's fine. If you want to buy a $0.79 item and pay with a $100, you're an asshole. Actually, even well into the shift that second one indicates a failure on your part.
* Sundays are generally the slowest day, depending on what's going on in the area and the weather. The one exception is Easter Sunday which, being Day 3 of a three-day weekend is a travel day for many, therefore traffic is up. Generally, nobody is added to the schedule for this. Expect delays. The delays are not there just to annoy you - the cashier generally wants folks out as fast as possible as then they (you) are one less thing to worry about.
* Regarding weather: Rain is good, snow is bad. Not for business, but for avoiding being harried. The folks who don't go out or don't make any unnecessary stops in the rain (what, they'll melt?) all seem to have to show they can drive in snow - or forgot to fill the gas can for the snowblower before they needed it.
* Cashiers or clerks suspect that ESP is real, but useless except to annoy and the Universe conspires to make things irksome. Want someone to show up at the register? Step away from it. Want a steady parade of customers? Have a full bladder. If a few folks come in over several minutes, they'll all mysteriously decide to check out at once. The little old lady who is paying by check will somehow get to the register first.
* Most people are fine, but there are plenty who are either just plain stupid or have a "That doesn't apply to ME" entitlement mentality. I have seen people remove the "Out of Order" glove over a pump nozzle and attempt to use the pump. I've heard stories of worse (Guy crashes into pump, knocks it off-kilter to 30 degrees. Lady drives up and tries to use that leaning pump and comes in to complain that it doesn't work. Evidently the off-base, leaning pump, severed from the pipes and the marked squad car wasn't enough of a hint that things weren't quite right.) Sadly, this sort of thing is anything but rare.
* And the big change from even a couple years ago: More people are paying in change (coins). A few years ago it was only younger kids who scraped up what they could to get some treat and the occasional guy desperate for cigarettes and willing to get the cheapest, nastiest things just to get his nic-fix. Now it's all ages - and not just the extra quarters left over from a laundromat visit, or just the very rare person spending the collected change rather than having their bank sort it. This wasn't just my observation, but that of others as well. There might not be any formal tracking of such things, but I can't see it being an economic indicator of anything good.
Actually, I think that should be the "Unrealized Truth About Managing People." About a week ago an article in ComputerWorld made the rounds, The unspoken truth about managing geeks, and got a lot of positive reaction. While it talks about IT Professionals, it applies to anyone with enough brains to not swallow every bit of nonsense some idiot salesman says. I've extracted a few key bits, but the entire article is worth a read. It should probably be required reading for anyone even contemplating a management job. I doubt that will ever actually happen, after all Dilbert is a documentary disguised as a comic strip.
On perceived ego: "It's not about being right for the sake of being right but being right for the sake of saving a lot of time, effort, money and credibility."
Mentality: "When things don't add up, they are prone to express their opinions on the matter, and the level of response will be proportional to the absurdity of the event. The more things that occur that make no sense, the more cynical [they] become. [...] Presuming this is a trait that must be disciplined out of them is a huge management mistake."
and
"If you are dismissive of complaints, fail to recognize an illogical event or behave in deceptive ways, [they] will likely stop complaining to you. You might mistake this as a behavioral improvement, when it's actually a show of disrespect. It means you are no longer worth talking to..." [Emphasis mine.] This is so very true. It's a off-net version of dealing with damage by routing around it.
Insubordination: "[They] are not anti-bureaucracy, as many observers think. They are anti-stupidity."
"Arbitrary or micro-management, illogical decisions, inconsistent policies, the creation of unnecessary work and exclusionary practices will elicit a quiet, subversive, almost vicious attitude..."
"They may work on big projects or steer the group entirely from the shadows while diverting the attention of supervisors to lesser topics. They believe they are protecting the organization, as well as their own credibility -- and they are often correct." [Emphasis mine.]
Credit whoring: "[They] would prefer to make a good decision than to get credit for it. What will make them seek credit is the danger that a member of the group or management who is dangerous to the process might receive the credit for the work instead. That is insulting. If you've got a lot of credit whores in your group, there are bigger problems causing it." I don't like saying "I did that" just too much when it is or should be a team effort, but if a slacker is getting equal credit because the rest of us are working our asses off to compensate for his lazy butt, well, don't be surprised if you hear a bit more detail than you think you need to hear.
Antisocial behavior: "Like anyone else, [they] tend to socialize with people who respect them. They'll stop going to the company picnic if it becomes an occasion for everyone to list all the [...] problems they never bothered to mention before."
And this really goes for everyone, at least everyone with any work ethic at all: "[They] work their butts off for people they respect, so you need to give them every reason to afford you some. Also true is, "Standard managerial processes are nearly useless." Earlier the article mentions that professional courtesy is not the same as respect and while that professional courtesy may be an automatic thing, respect is still an earned commodity. I once told the expediter (dock supervisor) at the Post Office that I stayed later than scheduled because I was helping him and NOT because of the regular supervisor who was a micromanaging buffoon. Had it just been for that fellow, I'd have clocked out exactly as scheduled and not felt the slightest remorse about it.
And this is also true: "...the fight in most [..] groups is in how to get things done, not how to avoid work. [They] will self-organize, disrupt and subvert in the name of accomplishing work. An over-structured, micro-managing, technically deficient runt, no matter how polished, who's thrown into the mix for the sake of management will get a response from the [..] group that's similar to anyone's response to a five-year-old tugging his pants leg." That's not just IT folks, that pretty much describes every place I've ever worked. Things get done in spite of micromanagement, but never because of it. This was (and is) as true at the Post Office as it was (and is) for programming.
In fact, when that micromanager at the Post Office wasn't there, his substitute tended to be rather scarce and barely appeared to do much at all. One of the things he realized was that everybody knew what had to be done and how to do it. So he simply got out of their way and let them do the job. He was only needed when things really didn't go right or something unexpected happened. The result was a much smoother operation and a much happier crew. And this wasn't IT or programming or engineering but was largely grunt-work.
Farker vossiewulf summed it up in three rules:
1. Don't bullshit [them] and keep all marketing weasel speak out of your vocabulary.
2. Don't tell them how to fix a problem, define the desired behavior and let them determine the best solution.
3. Give them the tools they need to get done what you ask of them.
If you don't want to believe that, consider this bit of information from Farker sseye "That was actually a decent article. I've seen a few companies that would still be worth something, or still in business, if their management took that advice."
Marketing weasel words and similar nonsense merely trips very sensitive bullshit detectors - and once those go off, everything is dismissed as the drivel of an idiot and/or liar. The person spouting such garbage gets all the respect of the proverbial shady used car salesman - because that's all he deserves.
Good Things
6 October 2006 13:07Arrangements have now been made for sharing a room at MFF, so that's one less thing to worry about.
Someone at work remembered that I've been there for ten years. The upshot is that I got a check I had not been expecting. That will help with MFF.
And yesterday and today I saw readings below 160 on the scale.
Cops showed up outside work and hauled a raccoon away.
For some time at work I've had a non-ideal monitor arrangement. The monitor was low and I was always looking down at it a bit. I'd asked around about a monitor stand on and off for a while. Nothing ever came of such inquiries.
Yesterday, just before leaving for the day, I looked around for something that might be a workable substitute. The only thing that had come to mind before were books or a ream of 11 by 17 paper, neither of which was really a good idea. Then the obvious finally got noticed. For the last year, if not longer, I've had an NCI 7820 sitting around taking up shelf space. I'm not even sure why I have the thing. I suspect there was a short-lived reason and whoever had it before really didn't want it back. I don't recall ever having to work on one. But it's an ideal monitor stand! The height is just right, and the feet in the corners are adjustable so it can be leveled nicely.
After a bit of cleaning and moving things around, I now have a little more shelf space and a monitor at about the right height. The only annoying thing is that it took me so long to realize the solution was sitting only a few feet away from me. D'oh!
Halloween so far..
31 October 2005 09:10Friday there was an e-mail telling folks to dress for Halloween. This hadn't happened for the last few years. I hadn't really planned on anything, as I had no real reason to dress the part, I don't really feel like cheating with my faire garb, and the Orvan outfit, even if I could get away with it, hasn't even been started, really. But I didn't want to do nothing. So today I'm wearing a set of horns. Not the ones in the icon, but rather similar. I didn't do any more than that. No makeup like in the icon, either. Long hair hides the string holding the horns in place quite well. I've already gotten a few positive comments. And I get to use the current mood without its usual connotation.
The omitted word.
8 September 2005 13:25There are times I accidently drop a word from something I write and it changes the meaning of a sentence rather badly. Often the word is "no" or "not" which reverses the meaning. Today someone at work (no, not me) sent a short e-mail and omitted a word in a rather embarrassing manner.
There was no body, just the subject:
Small black found in parking lot.... Does anyone own it???
Before I could reply (to sender only!) that I was sure there was an amendment forbidding such things, someone replied to all, with an addendum. Just one word added in the body:
CAT
An instant later the original sender re-sent, again no body, just the subject:
That would be a Black CAT
I'd expected the return to work after a week away to be annoying, with a backlog of email and a few orders that are wanted yesterday if not sooner. No such luck. That would have better than what actually happened. The backlog of email was sorted out quickly, but it had something far nastier than an urgent order in it. A sudden company wide meeting announcement for a meeting in the production area is seldom good news. It sure wasn't this time.
One of the IT guys here died of a heart attack last Thursday morning. It happened about 3 AM, or the first attack did. From what I've heard (which is likely fourth-hand or more by now) he was on the edge on the way to the hospital, at the hospital, and didn't make it through the emergency flight to Minneapolis.
I knew he smoked, and now I know he had a family history of heart trouble. That's not a good combination, even if he did seem rather energetic. Even when frustrated he was laughing at the situation, and I never saw him in a truly lousy mood, at least not that I could detect. I'll miss him.
While it is not my birthday, nor the anniversary thereof, there have been a couple folks at work yesterday and today that did have their 40th. They both wound up with black balloons and that sort of thing to indicate aging and such. It seems to be a tradition, but really, it's not so much a tradition as merely a rut. It's a default bit that isn't very amusing as it's been done so many times that it lost any humor value it might have once had.
I expect I'll take my 40th off, when it eventually arrives, just to avoid some of this nonsense. I toyed with the idea having someone call in to work saying I wouldn't be there to my death (if they're going to celebrate it mockingly, why not go further?) - but that might set things in motion that would complicate my life when I showed up the next day.
There's a fascination with numbers divisible by 10 when it comes to age. I was fortunate enough that when I turned 30 nobody really noticed and I didn't have to put up with this unfunny bit of attempted humor. Why not use other numbers? How about a Jack Benny theme when someone turns 39? Or a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy theme at 42? Well, at least for those who'd know and could appreciate it. At least it wouldn't be the same old tired default. But that could require some creativity and effort and not just a couple dollars at a drug store for the by-the-decade pre-fab junk.
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rillaspins reminded me of a bit about the water dispensers at work. We used to have the typical water cooler with the 5-gallon or so jug that would need replacing every day or two. Then a while back we got these gadgets that filter the city-supplied water into something that doesn't taste as miserable as city-supplied water.
These dispensers have three buttons. One button is blue. Two buttons are orange. It was obvious to everyone that the blue button resulted in cold water being dispensed. That was no problem. What was a surprise was how many people didn't realize that both orange buttons had to be pressed to get hot water. I can understand trying one button, then the other, then both, but it came as surprise that the simple safety feature had to be explained to some. It is a safety feature, too. The hot water is steaming hot - I don't need to bother microwaving the water for hot tea.
I've seen discussions, or rather arguments, about whether MixedCaseVariableNames are better or if underscore_linked_variable_names are better. I have dealt with both. From my Forth background, I rather prefer the MixedCaseVariableNames as one of the Forth tools I have results in printouts with underlines, which make underscores indistinguishable from spaces - this is a Bad Thing when trying to debug. Of course, in Forth I can use ~Variable-Names-With*Unusual-Characters-in-Them! if I am so inclined.
Now that my bias has been revealed, I'll address one of the notions of some of the underscore users. The idea is that say, this_is_a_test won't have the missing capital problem that ThisIsATest might if someone flubs and uses ThisIsaTest instead. This error could be found with a system that demands all variables be explicitly created. But not all systems are like that. Many are, or can be, quite lax and let the first instance of something substitute for an explicit declaration.
But the problem is not even that. The problem is that of case sensitivity. In an ideal system, case would be preserved, but not distinguished between. That is, if I make a variable named CustomerID the system editor won't go changing it on me to be customerid or CUSTOMERID but will leave it alone as CustomerID. But it will also accept CUSTOMERID and customerid and customerID and they will all point to the same information as CustomerID. Not that the programmer should go around not caring about case. Ideally each instance of the variable would look like all the other instances of the variable - but that's something the search-and-replace function of an editor can handle if need be.
"But that means you can't use each separately!" That's right. Which means I'd have to think up names that won't overlap in mental name-space and be confusing. It would require that I not obfuscate my code, at least not by abusing case.
Now, MiXedcAsevaARiabLeNAMe is something that does deserve to be editted out of any respectable program. Unlike MixedCaseVariableName, nothing is gained in readability by random capitalization. Rather, it just makes the programmer look like an idiot.
At work I occasionally have a problem booting my primary computer. It takes longer than normal to boot, and then eventually shows me the desktop wallpaper, but no icons. If I wait a while long a window opens up and looks like it's running through a script (which is normal) and then stops with a few lines of "An unexpected error has occurred." And that's that. Nothing more. I can't close the window as the close button and the corner buttons are grey-out and inactive. All I can do is give the machine the three-fingered salute and tell it to shut down and then try again. Sometimes I get to go through this a couple times.
I'm not sure if this an XP weirdness (the 95 box doesn't do it, for what that's worth) or if the Novell networking is to blame for the weirdness, or if they just don't get along all the time. I'm not sure, but it might be something trying to reach a network resource that's in use and not responding very fast. I get the feeling, but am not certain, that this happens the later I start the computer and that the mealier I boot it the less likely I am to run into this. Since it's an intermittent problem, it's not that easy to confirm one way or the other very quickly.
I wonder, also, just what errors the system is expecting if it tells me about unexpected errors. Aren't all errors unexpected? Oh yeah, I forgot, this is Windows. Oops. Still, it's frustrating to see this after having dealt with MS-DOS, PC-DOS, FreeDOS, Window 3.1, Windows for Workgroups 3.11, Windows 95, Windows 2000 Professional, RedHat Linux, Mandrake Linux, muLinux, Vector Linux, DeLi Linux, OS/2, HP-UX, and FreeBSD at home and never having running to this "Hi, I'll only almost boot for you. Ha-ha!" problem.
Rather than do the list of jobs bit, I figured I'd mention a bit about one place I worked. The place was a little shop that did some design, some electrical assembly and some motor repair. I started doing some assembly there as a part-time job during school, I think, or else it was just a Summer job at first.
The electrical assembly wasn't small stuff like putting a radio together, but putting together things like control panels for industrial applications. This wasn't pure 'stuff the part in and solder'. Instead it was: remove packing from console case, remove steel panels from case, layout mounting holes (we had templates for most of this), drill the mounting holes, tap the mounting holes, mount larger parts and rails for smaller parts, mount the smaller part, wire it all together. There was also a tiny bit of welding using a stud-welder to put grounding points in the case. It may sound simple and overall it was simple. It was also my first encounter with poor low-level management. More on that a bit later.
When the "panel shop" was slow for a while, I wound up working in the "motor shop" - the shops were effectively two different buildings that had been joined by a short hallway. Here, I mainly wound coils. Sometimes I'd do tests on the stators (the non-moving outer part) of motors to make sure that they did not need repair. This involved passing a well-insulated cable through the stator and turning on a current, then feeling around the stator for hot spots. If the laminations were shorted, induced current would rapidly heat that area. Most tests were no big deal and I think I only encounter a bad stator once. One larger motor required a large current. You get to wondering just what all can go wrong and what electric field might do when working up close with 400 Amps.
Both jobs could be done by pretty much anyone, really. It was the panel shop supervisor who kept reminding everyone of that - which didn't help any. It further didn't help when they did hire someone "off the street" and that person turned out not to do so well after all. The other bit was the "shut up and get to work - if you're talking you ain't working" bit. Talk was needed, some for the job, and some to keep it from being mind-numbingly boring.
The motor shop supervisor was almost the exact opposite. He never said anything, that I recall, about getting just anyone to do something or other. His rule was, "So long as you're moving and doing stuff, being productive, I don't care how much you talk or what about." This made the much more boring job of coil winding much more interesting than the panel shop work. There'd be the usual talk of the news and sports, but also all manner of other things. Some things which some folks might never expect in a blatantly blue-collar job got serious and interesting discussion. Public Radio was often the radio station of choice. One guy even took his lunch late just to listen to Chapter A Day in peace as he worked.
The difference in attitude between the shops was amazing. The panel shop was often depressing, and not just from the country music some liked to have on the radio. The motor shop was almost never depressing. It was often harder, duller work, but that didn't matter.
One shop never turned a profit. The running joke, even after I'd left, was that it was the non-profit division of the company. The other shop was profitable - and set production records three months straight in a particularly hot and nasty Summer. It should surprise nobody which is which, yet both were at the same company and in the same location.
That message is one I expect to see if I made changes to some file and tried to exit the program without having saved the file. That's fine. I like that reminder. It's useful and has saved me headaches and re-work.
What I do not like is using Word, saving the file, printing it, and then being asked if I want to save changes. Huh? I made no changes. I printed the file. Printing is not editing. Or with Excel, I open a spreadsheet, look at it, make no changes - not even moving the highlighted cell or scrollbars! - and when I close the thing I get asked if I want to save changes. There were no changes. Why ask if I want to save changes when there aren't any?
Is it any wonder I prefer to use third party software whenever possible?
I like to believe I'm a fairly good programmer. I don't claim to be Wile E. Coyote, programming super-genius. But evidently some folks at work figure I can re-program external reality. (If I could, do you think I'd have left it in the condition it's now in?) This morning was "How is the ____ program coming along?" in regard to a problem that showed up yesterday afternoon during what should have been final testing.
After some digging and some more testing, I was able to demonstrate that the program actually did do exactly what was asked. Actually, two programs on two different pieces of hardware that had to talk to each other. Connected by cable, they worked just fine. Connected by a radio link, a necessity for this particular project, things got shaky. I have exactly zero control over the radios. But somehow I'm supposed to fix them in software on other hardware. I don't think so.
It turns out that not only were the radio-modems never properly configured, the guy who was setting them up didn't have the configuration tool for it. And that should have been a clue - we stopped using that brand of radio-modem a couple years ago. Gee, maybe there's a reason we switched brands? That was pointed this morning. Now, this afternoon, it finally dawns on the guy with radio-modems that maybe he should use the radio-modems that work.
*POOF*SOOT*
26 August 2004 17:47For a while in the late 1980s I worked in a place that rebuilt electric motors. Actually they did more than that and I was usually doing things not at all related to rebuilding motors. Usually. There was a time of about a month or so where the area I was in didn't have much going on, but the motor shop had plenty to do.
I spent most of that time at a machine winding coils. It was from there that I sort of witnessed a rather memorable event. The shop was divided into sections, with walls that didn't quite reach the ceiling. This was similar to cubical walls only higher and far more substantial. I was up front at the winding machine and a few others were stuffing the coils into place and such.
The rebuilt motors had to be tested, of course, and that was done in the next area over. The sound of electric motors starting was common. After a while a person hardly even noticed it. It was just another factory sound.
We all heard it. It was the sound of a large electric motor starting... almost. It didn't sound right. It was too growly. We all stopped and looked over toward the test area and then we saw it. The area was bathed in an intense orange glow that we saw above the wall. Something popped with a loud electric snap and the glow went out. A cloud of white smoke came up. All this happened in about a second or two.
The supervisor came tearing out of his office and rushed to the test area to see that everyone was ok. Everyone was. It was unnerving, but all that had happened was a bit of dirt was on a contact. It was what kept the motor from starting properly and the current had cooked it. That's where the glow and snap and smoke came from. It wasn't bad, but it sure looked and sounded bad.
What's that smell?
30 April 2004 12:17Arriving at work this morning I started for my desk and noticed a strong smell of something perfume-like. I asked Kevin if there'd been a perfume spill and he said he was wondering what happened as well. A little perfume is one thing, this was a bit much - and it lingered. I was starting to wonder if one of the office (im)practical jokers had left an open vial taped under a desk or to the back of a drawer or something. I'd heard of that little stunt getting pulled from to time.
Turns out that it wasn't anything that demanded a thorough search. Craig had thought something smelled a bit musty and gave it a shot of Lysol. I'm not sure what's in original scent Lysol but I know I won't be buying the stuff. It smells too much.
The BBC is reporting survey results that indicate many people would be willing to reveal a password for a chocolate bar. Generally people don't like passwords unless they see a need themselves. And they really don't like having to have a bunch of different passwords, and then have to change them constantly. It gets to be hard to keep track.
I have a story of a couple passwords, now long expired and not re-used in case anyone is wondering. It started when a fellow at work left to go work for someone else. The stuff on his computer was backed up, but backup tapes are notoriously poor, so it was decided to keep his computer around and not have it immediately wiped and re-used elsewhere.
But to prevent someone overzealous with re-use mucking things up, Gene, who would need the data most, decided to put a BIOS password on. This is defeatable, but it means popping the case and therefore might get someone to think that maybe there's a reason that that password is there. On this system, two passwords were possible and he wanted to use them both.
I was asked, since I was in the room (the fellow who left and I had shared the room), what passwords might be good. I jokingly suggested "goaway" ala Slappy Squirrel for the first, and then "byebye" for the second. To my surprise, Gene used these suggestions.
All was fine for a few weeks. Every once in a while Gene would boot the computer and check something or copy something off. But eventually someone else had to check on something. Brian came in and tried to boot it and ran into the password screen. By then, I think I'd forgotten the passwords since I'd didn't need to use that computer and so didn't use the passwords regularly. I told Brian that Gene knew what the passwords were.
Brian phones Genes and asks about the passwords. Gene tells him. And Brian wonders why he was so rude. Gene had related the passwords without any explanation and Brian heard, "Go away. Bye Bye." A short walk to meet face to face cleared things up. Gene later accused me of setting him up. It wasn't a setup, at least not intentionally. I just suggested those passwords because it amused me at the time. I hadn't expected the results they eventually got.
It took (yet another) a Google search for "Windows Explorer Annoyances" that lead to a page about Windows Explorer harf on Windows Me but, finally, I have what *I* want. The trick? Command-line switches that XP's help seems not to mention.
How about them apples? Windows XP is what you get when you infect the stability of Windows 2000 with the poor user interface choices of Windows Me.
Target: C:\WINDOWS\explorer.exe /n,/e,C:\home\neubauer\
Now I have what I want rather than what some imbecile in Redmond believes I should have.
XP Annoyance
22 March 2004 09:08Windows Explorer in XP, or whatever XP calls the file manager, is trying to be helpful. That means it is really being annoying. On the desktop is a shortcut for "Documents" that opens the file manager to a documents directory. This directory is, however, not the one I really want. I want C:\home\neubauer instead.
I figured I'd just change the shortcut and give it the properties I want. It almost worked. It will give me direct access to C:\home\neubauer\ BUT that's now seemingly a ghost of the real thing. I'm not really there in the directory tree where I can, if I want to, easily jump to another directory, like C:\usr\bin or some other that I want to get to fast from time to time.
Instead of doing what I want, the system is trying to guess what I need and getting it wrong. It wants to be helpful in the worst way. And it is that: helpful in the worst way. I don't want this incompetent help. I want it to get out of my way. The Win95 box's Windows Explorer comes up at C: and shows the whole directory tree. That is acceptable. At least I can navigate directly from there without having to go through the extra step of clicking a "Folders" button. Even Windows 2000 got it right. But XP just had to go improve things the Microsoft way. The result: it sucks.
I've put up with this silly XP behavior for a few weeks now and my patience is running out. Anyone know how, or even if, the XP file manager can be whacked into doing the right thing? I haven't looked into replacement file managers just yet, but it may come to that.
