BEST. PRATFALLS. EVVVVAAAHHHH!
That is all.
Bet you thought this was going to be some dry chaos physics post dincha?
Sunday, 20 April 2008
Using IT or losing IT.
Working freelance again is exhilarating. Jump into a job, say hi to the people, fix their problem, and never see those people again for a few months. Ideal way to have it actually.
One thing that is less than ideal is one company phoning to book me while I'm working at another's job, or finding two emails in my inbox for the same timeslot. That involves choosing, acrimony on the part of the person whose job I had to decline, and all sorts of play nice required to soothe things.
So recently and rather cheekily I made a booking sheet on Google Pages that refers the potential hirer to one Google calendar where I am putting all the things that chew into my work day, so: illness, other appointments, days I want off, etc.
Most of the companies that provide me with work have been enthusiastic. After all, they now have a clear preview of where I am and at what times, and they don't need to email or phone to find out if I'm available. So cheek has paid off, and the only thing that amazes me is that these companies haven't used Google's ubiquity and shareability themselves to form a resource scheduling system where the resources can book themselves out.
Strangest thing has been one reaction I've gotten. One contract manager has expressed that they don't think they should need to check a booking sheet every time they want a job done. I guess they are out of luck then, because with itinerant IT resources being scarce on the ground as we currently are, they've just missed out on using the very stuff they're supporting to make it easier to support it...
I guess they think I should just maintain myself at standby readiness for two - three weeks at a time so they can send me on the one job they have in that time of re-installing a printer driver or whatever.
Actually, what I reckon I should work on is a bidding system for my time so that I get more well paid hours and less of the almost "love job" hours. (Not that I'd abandon either just for the money, mind you, I like the freelance/contract work too much - but it would be nice to earn a bit more doing it... %)
One thing that is less than ideal is one company phoning to book me while I'm working at another's job, or finding two emails in my inbox for the same timeslot. That involves choosing, acrimony on the part of the person whose job I had to decline, and all sorts of play nice required to soothe things.
So recently and rather cheekily I made a booking sheet on Google Pages that refers the potential hirer to one Google calendar where I am putting all the things that chew into my work day, so: illness, other appointments, days I want off, etc.
Most of the companies that provide me with work have been enthusiastic. After all, they now have a clear preview of where I am and at what times, and they don't need to email or phone to find out if I'm available. So cheek has paid off, and the only thing that amazes me is that these companies haven't used Google's ubiquity and shareability themselves to form a resource scheduling system where the resources can book themselves out.
Strangest thing has been one reaction I've gotten. One contract manager has expressed that they don't think they should need to check a booking sheet every time they want a job done. I guess they are out of luck then, because with itinerant IT resources being scarce on the ground as we currently are, they've just missed out on using the very stuff they're supporting to make it easier to support it...
I guess they think I should just maintain myself at standby readiness for two - three weeks at a time so they can send me on the one job they have in that time of re-installing a printer driver or whatever.
Actually, what I reckon I should work on is a bidding system for my time so that I get more well paid hours and less of the almost "love job" hours. (Not that I'd abandon either just for the money, mind you, I like the freelance/contract work too much - but it would be nice to earn a bit more doing it... %)
Thursday, 17 April 2008
It never rains
. . . but it pours.
I've noticed that with a certain IT company I contract to from time to time, that every second job has taken place in rainy or cold weather. But it's been interesting work so far so I'm prepared to put up with the occasional drenching.
I did notice though that my consultants are all in a shark feeding frenzy, they must be short of resources out here in the West. It's already led to several attempted double bookings, and I've had to start a Google calendar for the consultants to refer to before they phone and try and book me as I'm sitting in another client's office...
Makes me wonder why they can't institute something that simple amongst themselves internally. Because in the last seven jobs I've had, this has happened six times. You'd think they'd learn. But maybe there's something about a dispersed and horizontalised organisation that just makes that kind of organisation impossible.
Anyway - I shouldn't complain because it makes my work days "interesting" in all senses of the word including the Ancient Chinese Curse sense, and of course it's good to keep my hand in at the general IT support and engineering areas.
And it's getting me out of the house and doing things, which can't be a bad thing. I've dealt with some of the biggest businesses in Perth thanks to this company, also a good thing, and I've managed to have more long blacks in the CBD and Freo in the last month than I think I have in almost a year. And that's a definite Good Thing.
I've noticed that with a certain IT company I contract to from time to time, that every second job has taken place in rainy or cold weather. But it's been interesting work so far so I'm prepared to put up with the occasional drenching.
I did notice though that my consultants are all in a shark feeding frenzy, they must be short of resources out here in the West. It's already led to several attempted double bookings, and I've had to start a Google calendar for the consultants to refer to before they phone and try and book me as I'm sitting in another client's office...
Makes me wonder why they can't institute something that simple amongst themselves internally. Because in the last seven jobs I've had, this has happened six times. You'd think they'd learn. But maybe there's something about a dispersed and horizontalised organisation that just makes that kind of organisation impossible.
Anyway - I shouldn't complain because it makes my work days "interesting" in all senses of the word including the Ancient Chinese Curse sense, and of course it's good to keep my hand in at the general IT support and engineering areas.
And it's getting me out of the house and doing things, which can't be a bad thing. I've dealt with some of the biggest businesses in Perth thanks to this company, also a good thing, and I've managed to have more long blacks in the CBD and Freo in the last month than I think I have in almost a year. And that's a definite Good Thing.
Saturday, 12 April 2008
Teh War On Spamz, Escalated to Level Two Alert...
Just admirable, that the people who run botnets and trojans are now getting hacked back. This is the next step in what will end up in another elevating arms race.
I wonder if the big virus protection companies companies will now rush out a signature and fix for Joel's brilliant counterhack... %)
I wonder if the big virus protection companies companies will now rush out a signature and fix for Joel's brilliant counterhack... %)
Country Folk Wisdom
Fences need to be horse high, pig tight and bull strong.
Life is not about how fast you run, or how high you climb, but how well you bounce.
Keep skunks and lawyers at a distance.
Life is simpler when you plow around the stumps.
A bumble bee is faster than a John Deere tractor.
The trouble with a milk cow is that she won't stay milked.
Don't skinny dip with snapping turtles.
Words that soak into your ears are whispered, not yelled.
Meanness doesn't happen overnight.
Never lay an angry hand on a kid or an animal. It just ain't helpful.
Teachers, Moms and hoot owls sleep with one eye open.
Forgive your enemies. It messes with their heads.
Don't sell your mule to buy a plow.
Two can live as cheap as one, if one don't eat.
Don't corner something meaner than you.
It don't take a very big person to carry a grudge.
Don't go huntin' with a fellow named Chug-A-Lug.
Every path has some puddles.
Don't wrestle with pigs: You'll get all muddy and the pigs will love it.
Life is not about how fast you run, or how high you climb, but how well you bounce.
Keep skunks and lawyers at a distance.
Life is simpler when you plow around the stumps.
A bumble bee is faster than a John Deere tractor.
The trouble with a milk cow is that she won't stay milked.
Don't skinny dip with snapping turtles.
Words that soak into your ears are whispered, not yelled.
Meanness doesn't happen overnight.
Never lay an angry hand on a kid or an animal. It just ain't helpful.
Teachers, Moms and hoot owls sleep with one eye open.
Forgive your enemies. It messes with their heads.
Don't sell your mule to buy a plow.
Two can live as cheap as one, if one don't eat.
Don't corner something meaner than you.
It don't take a very big person to carry a grudge.
Don't go huntin' with a fellow named Chug-A-Lug.
Every path has some puddles.
Don't wrestle with pigs: You'll get all muddy and the pigs will love it.
Saturday, 5 April 2008
When Is A Credit Card Not Like A Kitten?
I just received one of those pieces of advertising that seems kind of clever when you first read it - but then... No... Fail...
"If kittens make people happy by reducing stress," it says,
---------------
--------------- "why can't a
--------------- credit card?"
---------------
... is the message on the envelope I just got urging me to feed the credit cycle. And when you look at the nice picture of kittens, just for a moment, you think "Awww geee that is so cute!"
Unfortunately that message sends you to too many other places if you think about it...
Firstly there's those kittens. Probably bought on a credit card and now costing money to feed and care for, veterinary expenses, the cute basket they'll outgrow in a few months meaning some more outlay of credit. Remember, credit is money you don't have right now but promise to repay along with extra money you can't afford but which is known as "interest."
Oh yeah. And kittens are made out of fur and flesh, bones and blood. Credit cards are made out of plastic. Bank managers understand plastic, but unfortunately the only thing they know about the other stuff is that it's their job to wring one of the other items out of stones...
Which makes you think of that rock and the hard place in between which you'll find yourself.
So while on the surface this is a very cute and appealing ad campaign, - well - I've decided to decline their offer.
"If kittens make people happy by reducing stress," it says,
---------------
--------------- "why can't a
--------------- credit card?"
---------------
... is the message on the envelope I just got urging me to feed the credit cycle. And when you look at the nice picture of kittens, just for a moment, you think "Awww geee that is so cute!"
Unfortunately that message sends you to too many other places if you think about it...
Firstly there's those kittens. Probably bought on a credit card and now costing money to feed and care for, veterinary expenses, the cute basket they'll outgrow in a few months meaning some more outlay of credit. Remember, credit is money you don't have right now but promise to repay along with extra money you can't afford but which is known as "interest."
Oh yeah. And kittens are made out of fur and flesh, bones and blood. Credit cards are made out of plastic. Bank managers understand plastic, but unfortunately the only thing they know about the other stuff is that it's their job to wring one of the other items out of stones...
Which makes you think of that rock and the hard place in between which you'll find yourself.
So while on the surface this is a very cute and appealing ad campaign, - well - I've decided to decline their offer.
Tuesday, 1 April 2008
The Anonymous Achilles Heel Of The 'Net
People value anonymity on the Internet so highly, you begin to wonder why...
A quote from this week's WXP News sort of focuses and highlights this odd behaviour: Will New Laws and Technologies Destroy the Anonymity of the Internet?The real or perceived anonymity of online communications is a big attraction for many people - and not just those who are up to no good. For many folks, the 'Net has long served as a place where they can interact with others without dealing with issues such as race, height, weight, or physical attractiveness. Or, as famous New Yorker cartoon by Peter Steiner, published way back in 1993, put it: "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog."
All through mankind's history, identity has been one of the keys to our development. By clinging together in a pack, we improved our survival chances. Being in a pack, we soon realised that the others in the pack were not grey and faceless but instead had specific skills and attributes. In trying to define that difference we developed our thinking and our language.
Whenever one human or group of humans wants to do something terrible to another human or group of humans the first thing they do is depersonalise that person or group, i.e. take away their identity and replace it with anonymity.
For myself - personally - I can't wait for the moment when the Internet is no longer anonymous and faceless. I'd love to be able to know that the person who's sending me half to 3/4 of the spam in my In Folder has a real face and I can send the police around to his place and have that face arrested. And wouldn't it be nice to check on the website that's about to charge you $250 to join a Russian Brides Club and see that it's run by some 12 year old boy who used to masquerade as a Russian noblewoman before the Internet became transparent?
Anonymity, my ass.
A quote from this week's WXP News sort of focuses and highlights this odd behaviour: Will New Laws and Technologies Destroy the Anonymity of the Internet?The real or perceived anonymity of online communications is a big attraction for many people - and not just those who are up to no good. For many folks, the 'Net has long served as a place where they can interact with others without dealing with issues such as race, height, weight, or physical attractiveness. Or, as famous New Yorker cartoon by Peter Steiner, published way back in 1993, put it: "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog."
All through mankind's history, identity has been one of the keys to our development. By clinging together in a pack, we improved our survival chances. Being in a pack, we soon realised that the others in the pack were not grey and faceless but instead had specific skills and attributes. In trying to define that difference we developed our thinking and our language.
Whenever one human or group of humans wants to do something terrible to another human or group of humans the first thing they do is depersonalise that person or group, i.e. take away their identity and replace it with anonymity.
For myself - personally - I can't wait for the moment when the Internet is no longer anonymous and faceless. I'd love to be able to know that the person who's sending me half to 3/4 of the spam in my In Folder has a real face and I can send the police around to his place and have that face arrested. And wouldn't it be nice to check on the website that's about to charge you $250 to join a Russian Brides Club and see that it's run by some 12 year old boy who used to masquerade as a Russian noblewoman before the Internet became transparent?
Anonymity, my ass.
Sunday, 30 March 2008
What I Did In My Summer.
SL. Lots of it. Feeling sick. Lots of that too. Hating the high humidity and heat. REALLY lots of that...
So it's been one of our hotter and more humid summers, and with advancing emphysema it has been unpleasant. Other people see to write more at such times but I find I tend to write morose depressive shit at those times so I've avoided it.
I'm amazed at one particular humour newsletter editor who's taken it upon himself to single-handedly campaign against global warming. His platform? "Oh look at all these pictures of MUCH MUCH colder than normal winter weather - that's not global 'warming', pah!"
Some people are so thick it amazes one...
I've noticed that for the first time in 15 years or more, we actually had a reasonable amount fo rain over a few weeks. Unfortunately, that is still a few dozen weeks short of the rainfall we used to get back then, but a bit more of Manfred's "Global Freezing, Not Warming - So Screw You Al Gore" weather will see Western Australia out of the long dry 20 year drought. And the rest of the world into climate and environment changes...
Oh and today brought with it my espresso emergency, in the form of one of those "what the heck is that puddle of water doing under the machine?" experiences. Let me tell you the lengths I'll go to to have espresso on tap:
First of all, Breville have a unique manufacturing style - apparently they hang the steam pump in mid-air and then attach the rest ofthe espresso machine to it. Disassembly took an hour, over 30 screws removed, and every last panel and chassis member removed. Also about 2 sq cm of skin from various fingers, knuckles, and other parts of the hands.
The problem turned out to be a cheap plastic snap coupling for the water supply to the main boiler. Out of three snap tongues, two had snapped, one uncountably long ago as I couldn't find the missing plastic bit, the other more recently because I found that piece in the innards.
Since the fitting wouldn't hold worth shit with only one of three clips, I had to either find another fitting (impossible because it was custom molded for Breville,) buy a new espresso machine, or fix this one.
The coupling is now araldited and held in place with several ties, and the re-assembly only took another hour. Oh and it works. No bad taste in the water, I must have managed to sanitarily place the epoxy only on non-water surfaces, and no water under the machine. My morning coffee is assured, the weather has started cooling a little, and I'm feeling much better.
Watch out world...
So it's been one of our hotter and more humid summers, and with advancing emphysema it has been unpleasant. Other people see to write more at such times but I find I tend to write morose depressive shit at those times so I've avoided it.
I'm amazed at one particular humour newsletter editor who's taken it upon himself to single-handedly campaign against global warming. His platform? "Oh look at all these pictures of MUCH MUCH colder than normal winter weather - that's not global 'warming', pah!"
Some people are so thick it amazes one...
I've noticed that for the first time in 15 years or more, we actually had a reasonable amount fo rain over a few weeks. Unfortunately, that is still a few dozen weeks short of the rainfall we used to get back then, but a bit more of Manfred's "Global Freezing, Not Warming - So Screw You Al Gore" weather will see Western Australia out of the long dry 20 year drought. And the rest of the world into climate and environment changes...
Oh and today brought with it my espresso emergency, in the form of one of those "what the heck is that puddle of water doing under the machine?" experiences. Let me tell you the lengths I'll go to to have espresso on tap:
First of all, Breville have a unique manufacturing style - apparently they hang the steam pump in mid-air and then attach the rest ofthe espresso machine to it. Disassembly took an hour, over 30 screws removed, and every last panel and chassis member removed. Also about 2 sq cm of skin from various fingers, knuckles, and other parts of the hands.
The problem turned out to be a cheap plastic snap coupling for the water supply to the main boiler. Out of three snap tongues, two had snapped, one uncountably long ago as I couldn't find the missing plastic bit, the other more recently because I found that piece in the innards.
Since the fitting wouldn't hold worth shit with only one of three clips, I had to either find another fitting (impossible because it was custom molded for Breville,) buy a new espresso machine, or fix this one.
The coupling is now araldited and held in place with several ties, and the re-assembly only took another hour. Oh and it works. No bad taste in the water, I must have managed to sanitarily place the epoxy only on non-water surfaces, and no water under the machine. My morning coffee is assured, the weather has started cooling a little, and I'm feeling much better.
Watch out world...
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