Transaction Complete

Transaction Complete
Originally uploaded by analog_chainsaw.

*Look* how happy this man is. I want to be that happy, dammit.

Not wild about Larry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_Cyclone_Larry

Sparing a thought today for the friends and family around Cairns who
will be
losing roofs and the like. I've heard of two lost roller doors and a
skylight so far and this is in town, not even getting the brunt of the
storm.
A lot of people have lost power, there's been evacuations, and it's not
over
yet...

Goodbyeeeeee

Have you seen those irritating flash ads with the talking smileys?  Well, more likely you've heard them bellow out 'Hellooooo' ,after being loaded as the banner ad on a normally pleasantly *silent* web page.
Having reassured myself that my computer was not, in fact, emulating the one from Electric Dreams (I'm old, so there), I loaded Adblock into Firefox... specifically for this ad.  RIP, f**king smilies.  +1 nomination for Most Annoying Flash Ad ever. 
Yes, I've seen the crazy frog ones. 

Changing gears on the weekend

I've caught up with some much needed sleep, come up with strategies for dealing with the new challenges of my job, and importantly, I've pencilled (iCal'ed?) some time in today to work on the webcomic.
Most things are either archived in VoodooPad or my sketchbooks, I'm going through those at present and getting a grip on where things are. You tend to know your characters pretty well but I need to pick up all the threads of plot I've written down but not woven in yet.

If I get some time after that (I'm on dinner duty tonight) I've got a Cisco PIX manual to read over. Which is easier when you've had enough sleep and your eyes focus. I think I need new glasses though, my eye fatigue plus these current glasses are giving me this weird sort of tunnel vision where I don't see and note things in the immediate periphery of the small area I'm focused on, in emails and stuff.

Maybe I need bigger frames as well. I definitely need some distance vision assistance for reading projectors and stuff.  

New Mac Mini, integrated graphics

Hmmm, I dunno. Intel Integrated GMA950 ? I just hope thats not what ends up in the MacBook, though the Mini and the iBook ran very similar hardware previously. 
And the Hifi box, I've seen better. And cheaper. This event rates a big 'meh' from me.

MacBook P0rn

Oh hell YES.

I really, really want one of these babies. But unless I can somehow make it pay for itself, I can't afford one. *deep sigh*

I've adjusted my expectations, and my next laptop will be a iMacBook 13", or whatever the next iBook equivalent will be (I wouldn't mess with 'iBook' as a name, but it'll probably get Steved). Even the 13" MacBook Pro, should the make such a creature. In fact please do, it will probably fit in my existing (and much-loved) laptop backpack.

Spreading stupid

So in my final weeks of tech support, front-line sh*t-filtering tech support, I’ve had phone calls from some characters of amazing density. I mean ‘IT Managers’ who need step by step guides *with pictures* to do routine tasks. It’s a stupidity so refined and intense that I’d have no problem using Balefire on them, I mean if I went far enough back and wiped out their ancestors too, I’d probably prevent the low-fat diet craze, the RIAA, and ‘Dancing with the Stars’. (Yes, they probably are getting paid more than me. Why do you ask?)

And that’s a couple of generations ago, with the reading writing and ‘rithmetic. I probably won’t retire in time to avoid dealing with the next generation’s ‘business leaders’.

Retrocomputing

Feeling the need for a PDA, I dragged my Palm iiic out of mothballs. I bought it a USB adapter and dug some OSX drivers up from an obscure but *thorough* Taiwanese manufacturer’s site (Linux drivers too. Warm fuzzies) . I hooked it up to my iBook.

 

The Palm desktop is set up and works like a charm. iSync talks to the Palm and my muuuuch newer phone. Avantgo is up and running via a third party conduit. Mail.app won’t sync and crashes but I think that may have more to do with my colossal email archives than the plugin.

 

 They really don’t make stuff like the Palm iiic anymore. The battery is still fine after lying in a drawer for a couple of years. The UI is fast and straightforward. Theoretically I could have used my phone as a PDA but the interface is awkward and the software is slightly sluggy.

 

I really think Palm peaked with the Palm V and the iiic, I see a lot of them around still. The Treos that periodically emit their peeping alarms around our office, really don’t compel me to upgrade.  The news that Palm are moving to a Linux OS sounds really interesting though, I’ll keep an eye on that development. Palm might get interesting again.

 

 

Not all together..

Having trouble getting going this morning. Its another birthday (yay, I’m not dead!) . So far scored a few things, like the Serenity DVD (better the second time around).  Instead of having a nice relaxing unemployed day today I’m off to $other things, but it’s still 2 weeks until I get to transfer out of here. (I checked out, but I didn’t leave).

 

 

 

Clan HoldTheFries

Today’s Earworm – ‘Queen Of The World’, Tina Cousins

 

Thinking of starting a WoW clan called ‘HoldTheFries’. We would not be exclusively low-carb, though we would be low carb friendly.  We probably would be banninated under current management though.

 

I’ve an internal interview today for another department so wish me luck. Damn I wish I could let on the real reasons I think I’ll perform better in a different department…. But you know, if you have nothing nice to say… etc.

 

I’m hopeful but I’m also wary of things falling through, so come Monday I could have those glorious few days-to-weeks off I’ve been fantasizing about since I transitioned here from $old_werk with no time in between. Except of course, for the problem of actually being unemployed, and the longer you’re out of the game, the harder it is to get back in.   

 

I need to line something else up before D starts sending filled application forms to fast-food joints on my behalf.

 

At least I’m at that point where lack of experience is no longer a problem, just lack of paperwork.

Wiped out

I was doing so well, I'd gotten the morning off ex-werk and had an interview with a recruiter scheduled for today. Then I got freaking *dysentry*. It's 50/50 as to whether I get to work tomorrow.
All I really feel like eating is bananas, an apple, or peanut butter, weirdly enough, and not available in our carb-avoidant household. If it means I can get through work tomorrow though I'll eat a bit off-plan.

The TroppoBook

iBook_dark
Originally uploaded by MidBlueMac.

Here's my iBook after I applied a flower decal over the Apple logo. My iBook's getting on a bit so I've been on the lookout for stickers for it, and I couldn't find anything that wouldn't get peeled off in a couple of days. But this is nice. Sort of a tropical theme to reflect the hot, hot summer days Melbourne has been having lately.

I've switched from coffee to tea or iced tea (mostly). It seems too hot for coffee, and tea doesn't rattle my nerves as much. And even at McDonalds, tea is served in a teapot with a jug of milk. It's a more deliberate, civilized sort of experience. The only problem is I can't drink tea without some sort of sweetener. I'll have to buy some more Stevia to carry around with me.

On that topic, weight loss continues, doing very well thank you very much.

On the job front, I'm encouraged by interest from recruiters and I'm applying for more jobs, in the likely event that the current roles I'm pursuing with them fall through.

The other thing I'm working on is swotting for my MCSE exams, I've been putting those off for an embarrassingly long time. At this stage, I have experience but not the certs, and those certs could mean the difference of about 10k in the job market. It means more flexibility too. I'd like to be able to *avoid* the sorts of jobs I've had up until now.

One could argue that doing the certifications once you *have* experience means you'll get more out of them, and God knows I need more confidence.

Without the certs, I'm doing the work of people who *did* get the certs and are getting paid more than me, and who needs that?

Gaming it

Listening to ‘Landed, Ben Folds’

 

Playing phone tag with recruiters today. Actually I’m fairly chuffed considering how many applications it took to get *one* phone call the last few times I’ve been down this road. Feeling hopeful. Which is good because once the buzz from my impulsive Recovery had worn off and I was starting to feel a bit silly.

 

 

Treating the process like an RPG as much as possible, in terms of strategy and trying vs failing. Seems to be working out so far.

Recovered

Well, one thing led to another and I made a decision to move on from
$current_werkplace. So now I'm looking around for some new
employment. I might put up a quasi-CV listing my 1337 sk1llz later
today. I was up to 2:30am hunting down leads in my bookmarked job sites.
Hey, if you shake enough trees something is going to fall out.
There's a Unix gig I have my eye on.

It is what it is

So I’m back after a couple of days on holiday.

 

I got asked to write some notes on the stuff I’d done. I wrote a beautiful phone book, and arriving here found none of my cases had been touched, and nothing I’d done had been acknowledged.

So tell me why I was here doing an hour’s overtime, again?

 

 

And so it begins

http://www.apple.com.au

 

 

 

On Interruptions

“Conversely, forcing someone to perform errands synchronously is bound to limit their productivity. The cost of an interruption is not just the time it takes, but that it breaks the time on either side in half. You probably only have to interrupt someone a couple times a day before they're unable to work on hard problems at all.”

 

http://www.paulgraham.com/procrastination.html

 

And if what you do is nothing *but* interruptions?

 

The other source of procrastination for me is just how long I spend avoiding other people (with some of the people I work with, understandable) if I’m depressed, which is most of the time lately.

In which KrisTheGrumpy survives a Random Spider Encounter, and discovers that she *really* signed on for paperwork, not computers

The day began with a Giant Spider Encounter in the shower. (I think the rude little bastard stole my towel, too). The fly plague is perpetuating a spider plague, and I predict in a month or so you won’t be able to leave anything on the floor without it sliding away a few minutes later on a lot of hairy little legs. I suppose I can hope that they don’t like 40 degree temperatures, and that would explain the tarantula lurking near the plughole.

I’ve gotten into World Of Warcraft, and if I wasn’t spending 8hrs a day shuffling papers this entry would look a whole lot more like ‘NElf Druid, lvl 10,  lvl grinding atm, gg’.

On the paper shuffling, I think I’ve gotten myself pigeon holed here, set up a situation where I’m not going to be able to extricate myself.

See, I didn’t get hired as an engineer. I got hired as tech support, at the time an estrogen-only zone. There’s arcane rituals, filing,  answers to questions that sound suspiciously like ‘because I *said* so,’ and ‘do as you’re told’ , bonding over shoes, and a pecking order. It’s a feminized environment, and not in a good way.  It’s the checkouts at Woolworths, or the typing pool.

In a different department, or a different company, where there’s a more male style of communication and expectations I do well. Blame my chart for having Mercury in Gemini.  I know the geek community gets a lot of crap for ‘RTFM!’ but IRL I’ve never found it to be excessive unless your query really did go ‘HELP ME PLZ’.  Knowledge is power, so they express it by sharing information. Sometimes too much information, but the point I’m getting to is that it’s a different psychology.

 

 

 

Today's quote of the day

From one of our beloved customers -

Why do I need to (follow procedure to get replacement copy and reinstall software)? I have already done all that. Are you guys trying to punish me because your software didn't work properly.

Lets do a multiple choice 'MAD Magazine's snappy answers to stupid questions.' It writes itself.

a) No, but damn, I really wish I could.

b) Letting you live is punishment enough.

c) The correct question is why are you punishing me.

d) You better believe it, worm. You can't have your software until Mistress says you can.

Happy Holidays

Today's Earworm- Wires, Athlete


And how was your giftmas?

Mine was pretty quiet. I spent Christmas Dinner with family in Geelong. Mostly stayed off the carbohydrates, but I had some pudding. I've also been working my way through the light beer my mother had sent, and the occasional vodka. Doesn't seem to have done me any harm. D remained strict on what he ate and he's doing really well as a result.

I bought D a 200G Western Digital drive for Xmas, and installed it. Arconis True Image didn't properly clone over the boot sector, or so it seemed, and in the end after trying to clone the original drive a couple of times I gave up and added the new drive as a slave. It turned out that the original 30G drive was a WD 7200 RPM anyway, so replacing it with the new one without a fresh XP install would have negligible benefit.

Turned out too that the video card was running Too Damn Hot so I prised off the original wussy fan, and replaced it with a Blue Orb I had lying around. I wish I hadn't spent several hours scowling at the computer, and probably D too as he lurked in the doorway, waiting to get his computer back.

I mentioned up that I was thinking of upgrading the hdd on my iBook, he agreed with me that it was probably a very bad idea on a stress level. It's my primary machine now and full of tiny, tiny parts packed into a very small space that will cause me many hours of fun (panic, take a deep breath, try again, panic, etc etc).

Like most non-geeks he doesn't appreciate *why* its necessary to do these things that stress us out (or, frankly, why, for example, a video card periodically freezing WinXP is an unacceptable situation that must be *immediately* rectified. Possibly expensively). I know why I got stressed out over the hard drive thing, I've been in happy Mac land so long I'm worried I'm losing my hardware mojo. Also, at work, my whole world is brittle proprietry software. I do sometimes deal with Linux but its usually through a human filter who likes to click on irrelevant things and has a small seizure when I suggest we'll need to modify httpd.conf. (Cue usual whine on Pakled sysadmins.)