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Worst Working Conditions You Had To Write Code In?
sausaw writes "I recently had to write code in a hot dusty room for 20 days with temperatures near 107F (~41C); having nothing to sit on; a 64 Kbps inconsistent internet connection; warm water for drinking and a lot of distractions and interruptions. I am sure many people have been in similar situations and would like to know your experiences."
Disclaimer: I work for IBM.
I am one of the employees who recently faced a tough choice - be laid off, or move to India and be paid a lower wage. I chose the latter because I have my youth and no obligations such as family or property.
What a mistake that turned out to be!
I was hit with an olfactory assault the second I stepped off of the plane. The air was hot and thick with stink. When I left the airport I saw that the dusty roads were soaked through with urine. Emaciated dogs with their teets hanging down to the ground begged for food and then urinated on my leg. The lower-caste Indians did the same. I got a chuckle from watching buzzards land on a nearby shitwagon with no regard to the stench, only to drop dead after the occasional Indian walked by.
The workplace was worse. It was a large, stamped metal shack with no air conditioning, with cable spools for tables and footstools for seats. The usual stench was there, so I made concessions with my boss to import a gas mask from Europe. It didn't last long, Indian stink renders charcoal filters useless in a matter of hours and they were expensive - each filter cost two hours' pay! Numerous communication problems drove me insane. Indians talk like, "boogabudabootabata" and of course the hotel I was staying at didn't have a shower (Indian culture does not mandate bathing, and so the concept is alien to them).
But the last straw was when I drank from a public water fountain only to see everybody laughing at me. Turns out I was drinking from the communal bidet. I got on the phone with my boss in the US and begged to come back. I now work at IBM HQ as a janitor. My new job is, literally, to deal with shit all day and I still find it preferable to living in India. But your mileage may vary.
I also didn't say WHEN.
You made four incorrect assumptions:
1. You assumed I served in the US Army.
2. You assumed I served RECENTLY (e.g. 2004 on)
3. You assumed that people don't have to write code in safe locations - in many other armies MOCs or MOS are not as separate as here - an 041 Field Engineer frequently writes code for laptops and has cross-training in other specialties.
4. You assumed that I never wrote code in the rain and the mud, or the snow and the cold. I just don't recall being shot at during those conditions, hence it wasn't worth mentioning. Although writing code in the rain and the mud while bugs crawl over your keypad is slightly bizarre (note that milspec computers for field ops are fairly rugged).
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
I had to work near a nigger! God those soulless pigs smell!
If the money really was going to war effort, it was merely to help them defend against a genocidal war.
I call bullshit on this blatant anti semetic rant.
please remove.
And yet you still don't state what country you served in and what WAR you were in where you were being shot at. Because to my knowledge, no other wars were being fought except by the Soviets and Israelis that involved any high tech equipment. And since your name is not Russian nor Israeli, we can safely leave those out. So again, through deductive reasoning, I call bullshit.
This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is mine.
The US has not technically been involved in any wars since World War II, civilian. They've all been peace actions and such like. Contrary to popular belief, NATO is not solely comprised of military personnel from the United States, nor are operational actions restricted solely to Iraq (which while called a War, is not technically so), and military units have been involved in portions of Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.
Thank you for playing. Please go enlist if you too wish to write code in hostile working environments and get underpaid for it.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Already enlisted, civilian. Unlike you who likes to spread bullshit about enlisted for foreign armies while being an elected democratic representative for the seattle 43rd democratic district. Care to change your story yet? I'm intrigued how someone who can enlist in a foreign Army (or so he claims) can hold a public office. :)
Or in case you are unware, those are grounds for losing your citizenship, punk. So please, go ahead and show me how I am wrong. You see unlike you, I actually DID serve. My brothers both served. And I know bullshit when I see it. So go ahead. Tell us all how you served for a foreign Army. I'm all ears. :)
This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is mine.
And he once was convinced he found a security breach in my code because he composed a GET request, making a pistol gesture and a "pow" sound.
Was he wearing a cowboy hat at the time?
This is why I tell people, "any idiot can get an 80k programming job." (If they're well connected.)
Hell, any mouthbreather can be prez-o-dent if they have the right daddy.
"We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
"News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters." How does the original post come even remotely close to meeting either of those criteria. It's not news, and it doesn't matter...
Actually, if you believe in what's said in the Old Testament, God did promise that part of the Middle East to the Hebrews. About all the Arabs can claim is credit for turning a land of milk and honey into an arid wasteland.
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