Author: sean

And We're Back

Decided to delete the old stuff, start anew.  Would have been a lot easier on a fresh server, but….
Regardless, here it is.  New beginnings time.  In my personal and professional life, I’m getting a hearty dose of Hope & Change.

Plus Two

Pretty clear now that I’m being laid off come tomorrow.  A younger, healthier me would have been excited by this sort of liberation.  Old, wobbly, blind, responsible me, not as much.  Trying to capture lessons learned from this seems somewhat pointless.  The people most responsible wouldn’t actually learn anything from the mistakes many of us made along the way.

The larger lesson?  Stove-piping everything just doesn’t work anymore.  Maybe it did ten years ago.  Maybe you could just try to make incremental improvements to the existing stuff.  But what does the existing stuff do?  Why are people using it?  Those questions remain unanswered.  The graying set don’t bother to even ask those questions.

Why would they when they believe what exists is nearly perfect as it is?  That’s doubly true when there’s financial incentive for both them, and their customers in creating new, expensive, Rube Goldberg replacements?  There’s markup, relationship-building, etc. on every frill that ends up in the design.

Going back to what I wrote about  last year, there’s a few unwritten assumptions with the oft-used tree graphic.

1.  The customer knows what he wants and needs.   Unfortunately, that’s not the case.  And, what’s worse in IT, the vendors hit up the customers, so the customers aren’t looking for a black rubber tire swing, they’re looking for the pretty colored seat, and the “cotton-nylon rope.”  (Excuse the reference…..no, I haven’t read it.)  If the customer actually does need something that’s not going to mess up a pretty white dress, there’s ways to express that in terms of requirements that’d end up excluding a filthy used tire.  That’s not to say you spec-out a certain vendor’s product by name, either.

2.  The Engineers design based on the spec.  Unfortunately, that’s not true, especiallly when it comes to IT systems.  Designers have their own personal preferences, sure.  But they also know which vendors pick up the bar tab, hand out neat swag, etc..  Instead of guarding against the sorts of vendor sway that frequently come from “sales engineers,” managers actually encourage these sorts of interactions.

But thinking about my current ending gig, so much effort’s been expended on enhancing something that already exists, without understanding what it’s supposed to do.  To depart from the tire swing, for a moment, I learned to ride a bike on a bike equipped with a vinyl padded bike seat.  Did that mean I couldn’t ride one with a hard plastic seat, or a big banana seat?

To many IT people, yes, yes it does.  Users expect to click Start, then navigate to programs, etc..  Go to a site on the web?  Well, Start, Programs, Netscape, Netscape Navigator, enter the URL in the address bar, and so on.  Maybe there’s now just an icon on the splash screen that gets the user to that site?  Maybe it’s now a fully-integrated web app running directly on the device?

Well, that’s bad news for people who’ve “fostered relationships,” with vendors.  It’s worse for government customers who want their solutions to get more expensive so that their funding stays up.  It’s bad news for the design engineers who spent countless hours, paid tens of thousands of dollars for vendor certifications.

I’m going to stop and STFU, now.  I have job searching to do.  *sigh*

Day 30

And this is it….the end. Since basically nobody’s been reading, I could have delayed this, but why? Tempted, again, to blow all this stuff away, too. I guess I could probably transition it somewhere else. We’ll see….

I’m finishing up, here, just because I do have something to do tonight, nad I need to get ready. Finishing up seems to be a unifying theme in many things at this point, which isn’t necessarily good news.

But it’s important to understand when something’s over, and to accept it. Regardless of what happens, I know there’s a few things I can count on, a few people I can rely on, and the others fall where they fall.

Am I disappointed by this effort? Honestly, a bit. But I’ve done it every day. One of the debates I have in my head pretty frequently is whether volume is more important than quality. I think the answer is, “yes.” Cop-out? Maybe. Do I care? Notsomuch. I was halfway tempted not to go through with this, considering everything that was going on around the start time.

I did it.

1. Share your day, in words and/or in pictures.

Or to put it another way, there’s nothing terribly interesting to see today. My spare bedroom as a home office. My computer. *yawn* There could be things to take photos of tonight, but, then again, the chances of it being too dark to take any are pretty good, too.

A bigger question is whether I keep the facial hair I’ve grown this month…..

2. You have an extra $100,000 to give away. You can not spend it on yourself. What would you do with the money?

Not enough to pull off two chicks at the same time, huh? I’d give it to someone who understands what I’m saying when it comes to new approaches to how to do the work that I do. Doubling-down, churning out the same shit faster is exactly the wrong approach. Do somthing different. The Apple “think different,” campaign really wasn’t, because they were churning out the same products that’d failed in the marketplace already. Despite the exhortations, the products weren’t actually different until Jobs showed back up.

Day 29

Today, another exercise in frustration. But I’m finished for the day. Interesting episodes of people power-tripping. It is what it is.

Tomorrow, a big finale? We’ll see.

1. List 5 people you know, then describe each of them in 5 words.

Perhaps a bit too personal to name names, here, so I won’t. Readers can figure out who these people are…. (And if people can’t figure out who the first one is, I just don’t know what to say….)

Person A

  • Smart
  • Beautiful
  • Passionate
  • Love
  • Mine

Person B

  • Smart
  • Food
  • Wine
  • Loyal
  • Closeted?

Person C

  • Clueless
  • Scatterbrained
  • Matronly
  • Faithful
  • Isolated

Person D

  • Uninformed
  • Caring
  • Opinionated
  • Kitties
  • Tired

Person E

  • Done
  • Knowing
  • Guarding
  • Collected
  • Deciding

2. If you could have personally witnessed one event in history, what would you want to hav seen?

I’ve been kicking this one around for awhile, and am still not sure. First thing that came to mind? Oh, the huge manatee! Even in black and white, the Hindenberg was pretty spectacular.

Katrina? (Since there’s a Saints’ game tonight….) I’ve seen more storms than I’d ever like now, thank you very much. When I was nineteen, would have been a different story.

Mount St. Helens? I haven’t ever really seen a massive volcano. But, maybe in a few weeks, if the Mayans were right, that means the Yellowstone one is going to go off…..

It’s hard to pinpoint a single thing. Even moreso with my failing eyesight, and the realization that something that’s visually-spectacular often has lasting, widespread effects.

Who really saw what was going on during Watergate? Franz Ferdinand getting taken out (apologies if I sparked the earworm; only partially intentional)? Important, but only a small part of the whole story. 9/11? All over the TV when it happened, but the buildings and field were only parts to a larger story; a larger story you can’t see in a :30 clip on YouTube.

Day 28

Today was taxing, but I did get the things I wanted to accomplish accomplished. I’m home. I hurt too much to go out, as we’d planned. I threw money into the office pool for lottery. With that much in the pot, I think I could figure out a way to share, and still take care of myself and my wife for as long as she lives.

It’s only been three days back at the grind, and I’m already spent. If I still was driving 35 miles each way, there’s no way I’d still be going at it. No way.

Two more days to go on this. If the schedule wasn’t so jam-packed, I’d be looking forward to a weekend of relaxation.

1. What is the best birthday gift you ever received?

I honestly don’t know. I think the CD player my parents bought me when I turned thirteen still works…..

2. Write about your greatest fear.

See question one from Day 14. I am prideful. My maladies leave me prone to embarrassing situations. Of course, this stuff crops up just as I was getting the most comfortable with myself. Trip, fall, stagger, shit or piss my pants, pass out, miss things that should be easy to see? Yeah, I’m good for all that stuff nowadays.

Day 27

Did not make it in to the office again today. Not that that’s a big thing, but…..

Sounds like things are going on that point back to the fact that people just aren’t learning from previous mistakes. Per my nonsense yesterday, the first drawing — these folks were trying to make a choice based on seat paint colors. The blue one is so damn pretty, how can anyone disagree if we say, technically, that it’s the best because it’s blue?

One of the asides I frequently toss out is that the color of the equipment (which for IT gear often denotes the manufacturer) doesn’t speak to its quality. Buh buh buh but, “Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM!!!1” Good luck with that.

So, I’m planning to go tomorrow. We’ll see what happens. I do need to get in sometime the next couple of days at least.

1. What are you zealous about?

Other than that vodak has no place in a Martini?

I really don’t know. I’m not really a zealous person about much of anything. Are there things I’ve made my mind up about? Sure. But what works for me may not work for everybody else. Do I have preferences one way or another? On many things, certainly.

2. If you had one wish, what would you wish for?

My eyesight back. I’d be so much better off if I could recover at least some of what I’ve lost.

Day 26

I really ought to finaly create a favico.ico for this thing. But I’m lazy, and, well, my blog sucks.

Rather dull day tying up loose ends at work. Will give it a good 4/5. Much of the work I do might seem like it amounts to mental masturbation, but it’s ultimately important. Why? Because it’s far too easy to spend copious amounts of money just to accommodate someone’s whims.

Essentially, I have to figure out what someone needs to do to finish his job, and ensure he gets tools to accomplish those tasks. What the final product is might not be what he/she imagined, but it’s what he/she needs — for the lowest cost possible.

This is a common graphic used for what I do:

But it’s not completely right, because sales and marketing get the customer to request the thing in the first frame. Isn’t it pretty?

Complicating matters is that many of the “engineers” i deal with are a bit like this guy (pops).

Onto the prompts….

1. Post your favorite recipe.

Five parts dry gin
One part dry vermouth
Ice
Three pitted, stuffed olives.

Pour vermouth over ice in a shaker. Swirl to coat. Add gin. Stir. Strain into cocktail glass, or serve in rocks glass with ice included. Skewer olives. Add to cocktail. Drink. Relax.

2. List 3 things that went right today.

1. Woke up on time.
2. Did some actual work.
3. FRescheduled conflicting doctor’s appointment for next week to a better time.

Day 25

Someone reminded me that I did kind of short-arm the second prompt last night. This is true; it sucked. Forgive me. I was tired, itchy from the cat that’s staying with my mom right now, etc. (A younger me would have responded with an enthusiastic, “fuck you!” But that was before the new, kinder, gentler me.)

So, odd possession I have, and how I got it…..

I have at least two NeXTstation workstations. But only one keyboard, mouse, and monitor. That monitor is on its last legs, too. Plus the SCSI drive in one is nearly shot. How’d I acquire them? One I bought for myself. Another, a friend sent. Really, though, they’re little more than curiosities at this point. There’s not a lot you can do with them.

But onto today’s prompts, then shower, football…..

1. Do you adapt easily to foreign or strange situations or places? Or do you struggle to feel comfortable?

I was going to answer this in the affirmative, but that’s not true anymore. I’m more uncomfortable than ever. Am I going to do something that embarrasses me? Is there going to be a situation where someone acts with shock at how little vision I have? Am I going to trip, fall, and die? Is this the day when I finally lose control, emotionally?

2. Do you have any strange fears?

Not really. Coronal Mass Ejection. I imagine one frying Earth around 0615 Eastern. Most of the US and Canada will still be asleep. Quite a few will just be having first cup of coffee. Do the local news folks have time to get that breaking news on the air in the about five minutes’ notice they’d have?

Day 24

Wallybert Proto reminded me that my blog sucks. Duh. Yeah, so was at my mom’s for belated Thanksgiving dinner. It went. Whatever. I’ll write more tomorrow.

1. What was the last thing that gave you a sense of wonder?

I honestly don’t know. With limited vision, it’s tough to get wonderment, you know?

2. Name a totally useless possession and how you came to own it.

There are many. I probably ought to pick one, no?

Day 23

Thanksgiving went pretty well. Ugh. Today’s been spent doing things around the house, and recording my intake and output in preparation for my invasive procedure in a couple of weeks. *sigh*

I tried to start on this early this morning, but didn’t get very far. Lots of reasons for that, but Imainly fighting with Loonix. ATI HDMI audio is a royal pain in the ass. I gave up, went back to the onboard analog shit…..and as soon as I plugged it in to the TV, no sound. Fuck. Whatever. Things seem to be working better than with that antiquated laptop I’d been using. I can fiddle with it

1. What are your vices?

The normal stuff; alcohol, caffeine, meth, opiates, nicotine, gambling.

Some of those aren’t true. Decide for yourself which ones.

2. “The most disappointed I’ve ever been…”

You know, I honestly don’t know nowadays. I try not to focus on failures, you know? Especially now, Going to meet with criminal investigators about someone ranks right up there….