Date: 2008-07-15 10:47 Subject: Perl n00b question Security: Public Current Mood: n00b

I'm a long-time shell programmer, but I'm not that hot with Perl.

Most shells have a source command, analogous to C's #include. I have a bunch of Perl scripts that have hard-coded data that needs to be abstracted out, e.g.,

$my_site = "New Jersey";

There will also be a couple small functions in the "if not cached, do the expensive thing then cache it, else use the cached value" vein.

Should I try to use whatever Perl's equivalent of source is, or is this involved enough to cobble together a library or module?

Date: 2008-07-10 12:44 Subject: Telecommuting Security: Public

My first full-time job was 100% telecommuting. Between high school and college, I had a summer job with the local vocational-technical school to write an app that did estimations of students' program completion based on about half a dozen factors. They sent me home with a carload of Apple II stuff, and told me to let them know how I was doing every week or two, then bring in the finished product at the end of the summer. For that, I got paid about $14/hour in today's money.

My parents were nice enough to let me take over the dining room that whole summer. I'd get up about 7:30 every morning, work until 3:30 or 4:00 in the afternoon, then go do summery stuff the rest of the day. Sure beat working evenings at the local Red Lobster, which I had done the summer before. And it taught me how to get the job done without the boss looking over my shoulder.

To this day, my best work days are those where I speak to pretty much nobody. The interrupt-driven stuff comes in through my trouble-ticketing system, and the rest of the time I decide what's highest priority. My users know that their requests are resolved fastest this way, and that interrupting me for status is the quickest way to get their request deprioritized down to somewhere below feeding the cat. (N.B. Because of reillye's allergies, we will never have a cat.)

Being a lab manager, there are days when I just have to be there. I can't move servers or run cables, or install software from CD from home. But on days like today, where all my work is at the keyboard, there is no reason for me to drive to the office. So instead, I enjoy:

1: Two free hours not spent in the car.
2: Windows that open (it's a nice day here in NJ today).
3: Natural or incandescent light.
4: No distractions == high productivity.
5: Five steps to the bathroom, no security PITA to get back to my desk.
6: Money!

That last works out like this:
Gas: 80 miles r/t, 27mpg, $4.20/gal = ~$12.50, more if I go out to lunch or get stuck in traffic
Lunch: Usually about $6.50
Tolls: $1.20
Plus devaluation and wear and tear on the car, harder to quantify.

So that's around $20 a day I spend for the privilege of going to work. And the only downside is that I fall behind on my podcasts. I think I can work with that.

Date: 2007-12-20 17:45 Subject: Layoffs Security: Public Current Mood: curious

So there's this perception that layoffs are a relatively new phenomenon in the American workplace, possibly starting with the major manufacturing job losses in the 1980s. Before that, the conventional wisdom goes, there was still the idea of "cradle to grave" employment. Even the word had a different meaning, sort of what we call "furloughing" these days, i.e., you were sent home temporarily until they needed you back, which you could presume they would eventually.[1] It's only been in the last 25 years that layoffs implied permanent dismissal.

But is that really true? Are there any business historians out there who can shed some light on this? Maybe our Ward Cleaver/Norman Rockwell vision of postwar prosperity is a little optimistic. Did they have big corporate mergers that resulted in huge workforce reductions back in the early 1900s?

Inquiring minds want to know.

[Oh, and don't take this the wrong way--I'm not in danger of being let go.]

[1] OTOH, it was easier to fire you for cause or for discriminatory reasons (or maybe not hire you in the first place), without fear of retribution.

Date: 2007-10-26 12:26 Subject: Pride@me Security: Public Current Mood: accomplished

I work for a Big Evil Defense Contractor, subbing to an Even Bigger Evil Defense Contractor. (Yes, boss, "evil" is tongue-in-cheek--I'm a liberal; it's mandatory.)

A few years ago, I whined here about how they were doing something really dumb to prevent a problem of lightning-strike severity, that also had lightning-strike likelihood, except that a few slight mods to the way we do things could reduce that tiny risk the rest of the way to zero. What was dumb about it was that it created lots and lots of error-prone scut work for a lot of people, including me.

I kept whining and whining and whining at work for over three years about it. A couple months ago, they finally made the modifications to the process, and the scut work is all but gone, along with all the problems those errors caused.

And the Even Bigger Evil Defense Contractor just gave me a "Pride@[them]" award for the effort/cost savings, with a certificate to hang on my "I love me" wall, and $25 credit at their company store. Bragging though this may be, I'm still going to luxuriate in the glow of official recognition that every now and then I inexplicably do something right.

Date: 2007-10-11 15:45 Subject: Salesman -> Sales rep -> Account executive-> Security: Public Current Mood: giggly

And today I got an email from a new rep at one of my vendors , who introduced himself as:

"the account executive at [vendor] allowed the privilege of meeting potential requirements at your organization."

You forgot the part about "whose collective ass I am unfit to wipe," you obsequious lickspittle.

Date: 2007-09-13 00:15 Subject: So what's safer... Security: Public Current Mood: sleepy

...trying to complete this difficult task from home tonight while dead tired, or at work tomorrow when I'm constantly being interrupted?

ETA: I almost immediately hit a roadblock that's stopped me for the night.

Date: 2007-08-17 09:29 Subject: Oooh, sign me up! Security: Public Current Mood: incredulous Current Music: untz untz untz untz

Quoted verbatim:

Need to have 5-7 years exprience with execlent communication skills.

Hey, it got this guy the job, right?

Date: 2007-07-27 16:23 Subject: Think about this the next time you call tech support (or the doctor) Security: Public Current Mood: exasperated

Do people really believe that if they say, "I'm having trouble doing such-and-such" and nothing else, that I'll magically know exactly what their problem is and how to fix it?

Come ON folks! You have to tell the doctor WHERE it hurts, not just THAT it hurts.

Date: 2007-07-24 14:02 Subject: The following is an actual On-Star conversation Security: Public Current Mood: astounded

I manage a moderate sized development lab here, and smaller facilities elsewhere. Until recently, we had another "me" who did what I do in three additional sites. Since he left, I've taken over a good deal of his work. And Friday was the last day for another coworker, who spent half her time assisting me with all sorts of local work, like renewing maintenance contracts and doing administrative scut work. Her work is also now mine.

Today, my boss told me that there is no plan to backfill her position for at least another two months. The same two months that's crunch time for our product. The boss made the comment, probably intended to indicate his confidence in me, that "my only real problem with that is when you're on vacation."

I couldn't help it. I burst out laughing and said, "My only problem with this is when I'm NOT on vacation!"

Date: 2007-07-09 10:19 Subject: Not what I want to hear on a Monday morning Security: Public Current Mood: sad and infurited, yet proud

One of the things that keeps me sane in this job is the person who works for me half-time. She takes care of the bureaucratic paperwork and sitting on hold queues with vendors and all that.

She just gave notice after 23 years because she can no longer stand the way her managers for the other half of her job have been treating her. This is by no means the first time they've "managed" someone valuable right out of the company.

And this while coming into the development cycle's annual major crunch time.

Date: 2007-05-24 02:35 Subject: Steely Dan, 5/21/07 and before and after Security: Public Location: Across from SeaTac Current Mood: sleepy Current Music: Planes taking off

Insanely busy.

Last Friday, Himself and I went on a camping trip to the same place as the fall campout. Much fun, and much adventure. The highlight was the 25-foot climbing wall (pics to follow, when I can upload them). Last time, Himself had no desire to try it, and even if he did, there were 20 kids in line the whole time it was open. This time, our circle (sort of the Adventure Guides equivalent of a Cub Scout den), four boys and their dads, had it to ourselves for an hour. Himself climbed it twice, and was halfway up the third time when his muscles had had enough. Everyone climbed, many twice. I had an easy enough time of it the first time that I did my second climb blindfolded.

We got back Sunday afternoon, whereupon I did only the most necessary lawn work, then stumbled around the rest of the day, with just enough energy to play games with the usual suspects that evening. And make an extra trip to the chiropractor the next morning.

Monday night was Steely Dan at the Beacon Theater. Compared to the August show, it was a little less polished, but more of a crowd pleaser. This time, they played:

Time out of Mind
Godwhacker
Bad Sneakers
Two Against Nature
Hey Nineteen
Haitian Divorce
Peg [No Michael McDonald this time :(]
Babylon Sisters
I Got the News
Dirty Work
Josie
Aja
Pretzel Logic
Kid Charlemagne
[encore]
Black Cow
Bodhisattva

I ended up selling my extra tickets to scalpers for obscenely low prices, but I cut my losses somewhat.

Got to bed about 1:00am after that then was back up at 5:00 to catch my plane to Seattle. While things have gone better than expected and we haven't been working 18-hour days, there's still a lot of work and not a lot of free time, so there's no practical way I could have met up with and of my LJ friends from out here. (However, there's a small chance I could be free tomorrow [Thursday] afternoon; I'll post if that happens.)

It's weird working in a whole building secured for classified work. It's a big white windowless cube that's shielded so that no radio signals can get in or out. The network is also locked down so that I can't use it with my laptop. So when I'm in that building I'm completely off the grid except for conventional telephones. But it's got a couple of really cool flight simulators we were allowed to play with.

Man I'm tired.

Date: 2007-03-24 16:59 Subject: Update: All this and HCl too Security: Public Current Mood: relieved

So I get in, do a cursory look around, then fire up the UPS, which has been on bypass all night. The alarm log tells me that we had backup power for about an hour. Good data point.

I reset the battery breaker (which trips when the batteries run too low, in order to cleanly cut power), then go through the four-step startup process. This is a very satisfying exercise. No pushing some little beepy membrane key on a control panel. For this, you turn a rotary handle that's half the length of my forearm to successive positions, each one producing a reverberating, movie-like THUNK. Then it starts charging. Hard. Its input is rated at 67A on each leg of a 480V three-phase supply, and it's pulling 50A on each. Many tens of thousands of watts.

Now, I figured it might get a bit warm, and weird things might happen during the charge cycle, but what I didn't expect was for two of the 30 batteries to rupture and start outgassing clouds of hydrochloric acid. How fast can you switch a UPS back to bypass? Luckily, the super-high-power HVAC I have in my server room cleared the air in abut 15 minutes.

In any case, nobody was hurt, and Liebert just got done locating and pulling the bad batteries, which will be replaced Monday. Now, back to the real work of actually getting the servers running.

Date: 2007-03-24 11:06 Subject: So what's worse than having the power go out in your lab? Security: Public Current Mood: worried

Having the power go out at 10:00pm on a Friday night, when nobody is there to shut anything down, having the UPS run out of juice, having the power come back up once you make the 45 minute drive into the building, only to find that one leg of the three-phase is still out, making the UPS go tits-up, then having the power go completely out, and then having the power guys say, "We're not sure, but we're going to have to cut some trees down."

I stuck around until 3:00am, then came home so that I could get a few hours sleep before Herself's swim lesson. I got email that the power came back on around 6:00am, so as soon as Himself gets back from his art class, I'm going to go in and assess any damage. Wish me luck. With 100+ machines, something's bound to not come back up cleanly.

It could have been worse. It could have happened next week.

Date: 2007-02-13 13:27 Subject: Heard on a telecon Security: Public Current Mood: amused Current Music: Boring telecon

"But if we do it on our own servers, we won't have to jump though 500 bells and whistles."

Date: 2006-10-25 12:24 Subject: Private window office! Security: Public Current Mood: comfortable Current Music: Boring Wednesday telecon

In 1993, I became a contractor at USL, the company spun out of AT&T to productize Unix. USL got bought by Novell, and hired me full-time. Novell was very cash rich at the time, and one of their perks was private offices for anyone who wanted them. They leased what is now the AT&T Research building on the Exxon campus in Florham Park[1], which not only had private offices, but the majority of them, including mine, were window offices as well.

Then Novell split our organization in two, sending half to SCO and half, including me, to Hewlett-Packard. HP was a great company to work for, but they are famous for their cubicle culture. So when it came time to move in 1997, we found ourselves in cube farms. In 2001 I hot laid off from there, went to work at a startup called Leapstone (more cubes), and then at the end of 2003 came here to the Big Evil Defense Contractor, where we've mostly been in multi-person offices (no cubes, at least).

They've just finished a large renovation, only a year late, and for the first time in nine years, I'm now sitting in my very own private window office.

I'm still a peon and always will be, but now I'm a peon with natural light!

[1] It was the largest real estate transaction in New Jersey that year, a ten-year lease for FORTY-SEVEN MEEELLEEON DOLLARS!

Date: 2006-08-05 01:34 Subject: And what am I doing up at this hour? Security: Public Current Mood: productive Current Music: Sitcom reruns and dating-line ads

Today, as most Fridays, I went to the gym early, before going to work. My workout was pretty routine, but about 40 minutes into it I was nauseated, drenched in sweat, and couldn't do anything. It was even hard to stand up. I figured I had pushed too hard or something, and that I'd be fine once I got to work, after 45 minutes of relaxing (physically, at least) in the car. But when I was about a quarter of the way there, I was feeling even worse, and was wondering if it was even safe to drive, at which point, I turned around, and went home. reillye said I didn't look pale, I looked grey. It's sure how I felt.

I fell into bed and slept for three hours. Then I worked from home until Himself got home from day camp and we celebrated his birthday, getting his PS2 (and the wireless controllers) working. Then, esxhausted from all the effort, I slept for another two hours while reillye braved the Friday night mall crowd to get Himself the fast food of his choice, followed by a Build-A-Bear.

So I'm just now getting tired, and I've been working all evening. I don't think I'll have to take any sick time, thanks to some server corruption that has conveniently taken me many TV-in-the-background hours to repair. Hopefully I'll have my energy back for tomorrow.

Oh, and good luck to all the folks playing at the Scrabble Nationals this week. Color me jealous, although whatever this thing is that attacked me today would have been really bad combined with cross-country travel.

Date: 2006-06-16 16:27 Subject: Thankless you very much Security: Public Current Mood: amused Current Music: Dixie Chicks - Not Ready to Make Nice

There's this piece of software I maintain that I've been trying for two months to get licensed.  The users need it and were getting more and more vocal about it.  I finally got the license keys, and installed them from home late Wednesday night .

To make sure I don't forget just how thankless my job can be, the two users who needed this the most were chatting in the break room, which is across the hall from my office.  Forgetting I was in earshot, one of them said, "I see Ed finally got those licenses installed," to which the other replied, "Yeah, about time."  Then they walked past my office to wherever they were headed.

I couldn't stop myself from yelling "You're welcome!" as they walked by.  No response.

Date: 2006-05-31 12:50 Subject: So I can't really tell... Security: Public Current Mood: cynical?

...if I've been overcome by a burst of cynicism, or have stumbled on such a fundamental truth that I've overcome a last vestige of naivete and grown up a bit more.

Have we reached a point where the only thing of any value produced in America is The Deal?

I'm not talking entirely about the stuff Donald Trump's books are (ghost-)written about.  I'm talking about the goings on at lower- and mid-level management, and even at the peon individual contributor level.  Lawyers make partner based on how many billable hours they can generate.  Defense contractors and private sector consulting firms promote and grant bonuses based on the amount of new business brought in.  In traditional industry it's the sales and marketing people that get rewarded most directly for high performance.

Always. Be. Closing.

The deal is the income.  Execution on that deal (like actually producing the product or service you agreed to)  is nothing but a cost.  So, if you're not a deal maker, you're not making money for your company.  The best you can hope for as a producer is to raise your quality and efficiency in order to cost less.

Maybe all those "Negotiate To Win" books from the 80's were onto something.

Date: 2006-05-24 06:11 Subject: Another 5:00am shift Security: Public Current Mood: sleepy Current Music: whirring disks

Partly in response to resolving a trouble ticket I filed with IBM (ClearCase problem), partially because it's something I just needed to do (move the last of my critical data off local storage and onto the NAS), and partly because our IT department has been less than helpful ("I don't know" is apparently good enough reason to close a help desk ticket without actually resolving anything), I've been here for a bit over an hour, even though it's only 6:15 as I start to type this.

There's something vaguely surreal about coming in this early.  There's nobody here except the (sleeping) night guard, yet the roads weren't as empty at 4:30am as you might think, and it wasn't all trucks, either.  I'm barely awake after getting up at 3:30, yet I'm doing some tricky stuff that I better get right the first time (is this what medical interns feel like?).

On mornings like these, now is the toughest time, when I can't do anything but wait for huge amounts of data to be copied. Presuming I do get all this right, it's still going to be bad dealing with the users who will inevitably complain that their work was disrupted, like the guy who not only didn't log off last night like I asked everyone to, he left three editors running with open files.

All I can hope for is that things quiet down quickly so I can leave before my usual 5:30pm, and maybe stay awake long enough for the Idol finale tonight..

ETA 1:45pm: The data copying went more slowly than I expected, so I got about 90% of everything moved before I had to just restart everything with what was there.  Things looked cool, until one of the users came in with an error message I had never seen before.  The log files were filling up with similarly unfamiliar but dire looking portents of doom.  I had these horrific visions of either rolling everything back to where I started, or worse, repairing a corrupted database (the day you come in at 5:00am is not the day you want to pull an all-nighter).  But then, after an hour and a half on the phone with tech support, who provided my with good suggestions and a lot of patience, but no definite "Oh, right, here's your problem" solutions, the error logs went quiet and things started working properly again, so I can call this done (for now).

Date: 2006-04-28 11:57 Subject: Chewed out Security: Public Location: Unable to sit Current Mood: weird

A series of unfortunate events today led me to wonder about the origin of the phrase, "getting your ass chewed out". Figuring that the "ass" part was supererogative, I did a Wikipedia search on "chewed out".

There's no article on that specifically, but there were a bunch of hits returned for relevant articles. I was especially amused by the sixth one.