Uhh...hey, Mr. Arrogance, it *was* transmitted to the appropriate people that we were setting ourselves up for disappointment. As my parent poster implied, though, there was a "we can do anything" attitude meshed with a general cluelessness that ultimately proved fatal.
Plus, I was just a cog in the system. Why did I go along with the assignments? Mostly because the people around me had to do them, I successfully avoided entrapment in all but one or two of the fiascos, complaining I was too busy implementing our HP/Openview ITO solution.
Public library internet access terminals are already occupied by the homeless downloading web porn. Their stink will drive away even the fattest, unshowered hardcore gamer.
I'm making a joke, right? Been to a big downtown library lately?
Oh, yeah...instead of your project managers making you implement the latest buzzwords, turn the tables on them and make them mouth *your* favorite buzzwords instead!
Ha! The company I was recently laid off from (they just had a round of layoffs, does that tell anyone how well they're doing) had the clueless project managers spoken of above. We ran a custom mail server on big Solaris boxes, and these project managers didn't know so much as "ls -l". Time and time again, we were tasked with impossible projects, which could absolutely not be implemented in the time allowed. As a result, we cut corners on testing, reliability, and system updates, with predictable results. We would get a machine into the field, and it would crash when some user would try to do something "unexpected", like our agents crashing due to buffer overflow when the "Subject:" line of an email exceeded 256 characters (The PM solution to this? Fix the overflow? Nah, they just had the programmers raise the limit to 2000!). Critical operating system patches were never implemented, due to "we'll have to test it, and we don't have time". The result? Hacked and vandalized boxes, and massive time wasted doing pricey reinstalls and customer apologies. Implement a real mail delivery system? Nah, just hack something together whereby sendmail invokes a brand-new shell process which runs an SQL script to inject the email into the database. Two expensive processes for every single incoming email! This particular problem was not fixed until some months after a spammer sent us 14,000 emails in a single hour and the system load rocketed to over 100 (on a beefy Sun Enterprise 4500, no less), and basically DOS'd the system. Expensive crash, humiliating customer apologies, the responsible PM being fired, etc.
It wasn't that the techies were doing poor work, or slacking off on the job. Far from it - we worked our asses off. But a lack of knowledge about what was and wasn't possible resulted *directly* in impossible task assignment, with the entirely predictable consequent frequent outages and customer dissatisfaction.
Oh, and remember how I said we had layoffs? All the project managers were laid off save one. The surviving PM was universally held as being technically competent and a gem among mud.
Can you build your own linux distribution, from scratch, starting with a kernel tarball and stub compiler? This project is FAR easier to complete successfully than being your own general contractor. One of my relatives builds houses on the side, and he's *always* on the phone to someone. But, as he's a workaholic, he doesn't mind. On the plus side he's picked up a nice Spanish-speaking ability with a mean Mexican accent and peppered with a wide vocabulary of vulgarities (according to my friend from Spain).
Well, there's being demanding, and there's being an asshole. You would not believe what twits people can turn into, especially little two-bit Napoleons who insist on endless changes after the work has started, and then think that they don't have to pay. Especially the ones who are not trying to build a nice house, but the ones who want to brag about how cheap they got the house for.
Don't let it bother you - there are people out there who could care less how much things cost. These people are very different from you and I. They would rather lick the snot off a man's hairy ass than perform such a vulgar act as eating Kraft Macaroni and Cheese from a box. If they ever eat mac-n-cheese, you better bet they can tell you which provinces in Italy and France the pasta and cheese hailed from.
Now that Apple gave up and is using Unix now, I seriously considered getting one for a few months. But, the price/performance still isn't there, and there's Apple's damnably stubborn insistence on making its products look as cartoony as possible. I'm sure to those elites to whom price is no object find Apples appealing and "cute", but for serious work, where you have to justify spending cash? I'll check again in a few years.
Wow, a neopagan wiccan japanophile womyn. I suppose you're a LUG as well? Do me a favor and hurry up implementing your humanity-genocide virus...I have a big loan payment due soon.
ISS X-force regards themselves as Big. Really Big. They are as prickly and egotistical as a U.N. Commissioner, or a British aristocrat. And, like any elites, ISS is in such a position of power as to require toadiness from those who want to traffic with the X-force. Those who don't dance to ISS' tune can expect a frosty reception and official snubs.
Re:So let me get this straight.
on
Wolframania
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· Score: 1
Nice troll! Very well done! Science trolls are usually the easiest, though...
I really can't be bothered to create an account and sign up for spam from every single website I ever browse. Other news sites, such as the LA Times are beginning to follow suit. I saw an interesting article in a UK news site the other day, only to be prompted with a box telling me to register, then pick a userid that hasn't already been taken, then choose a password they consider to be secure enough, then wait who knows how many minutes for an email to arrive, then click on the URL encoded in the mail, then verify my account, then log in, then go to the story I was interested in. Needless to say, I didn't look at the story.
The NY Times Random Login Generator is a good start, but if every news site (or content sites in general) start requiring cumbersome registration, all the sudden the internet becomes far less useful.
Followup: Check here for an old-fashioned email virus hoax. Even more here. The attitudes of the posters are telling...they bluntly dismiss the idea that an email could ever spread a virus in the same way that one would dismiss any well-known urban legend.
Well, let's be fair. Once upon a time, there was no such thing as an email virus, and a great way to have some fun was to email someone with a message saying, "If you're reading this, you've been infected with a virus!" or some such. Then, Microsoft discovered the internet and wrote an email client, and now the old-fashioned method of spreading viruses by infecting a file and uploading it for public consumption is completely defunct. All viruses that make the news are spread by email attachments.
For what it's worth, it's generally recognized that the design that won was better technically. Which design is actually better is usually a secondary concern when it comes to choosing defense contracts...
The compass and protractor are as obsolete as the sextant. If a kid graduates from school and doesn't know how to work a PDA, he's going to quickly learn how to work a deep fryer.
Oh, yeah, forgot. Anyone who swears an oath to a foreign organization and takes up arms against the Constitution automatically loses their U.S. citizenship. It's a law that hasn't been enforced in some time (French Foreign Legion veterans don't have any problem, for example) but just wait.
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Plus, I was just a cog in the system. Why did I go along with the assignments? Mostly because the people around me had to do them, I successfully avoided entrapment in all but one or two of the fiascos, complaining I was too busy implementing our HP/Openview ITO solution.
I'm making a joke, right? Been to a big downtown library lately?
Oh, yeah...instead of your project managers making you implement the latest buzzwords, turn the tables on them and make them mouth *your* favorite buzzwords instead!
It wasn't that the techies were doing poor work, or slacking off on the job. Far from it - we worked our asses off. But a lack of knowledge about what was and wasn't possible resulted *directly* in impossible task assignment, with the entirely predictable consequent frequent outages and customer dissatisfaction.
Oh, and remember how I said we had layoffs? All the project managers were laid off save one. The surviving PM was universally held as being technically competent and a gem among mud.
Can you build your own linux distribution, from scratch, starting with a kernel tarball and stub compiler? This project is FAR easier to complete successfully than being your own general contractor. One of my relatives builds houses on the side, and he's *always* on the phone to someone. But, as he's a workaholic, he doesn't mind. On the plus side he's picked up a nice Spanish-speaking ability with a mean Mexican accent and peppered with a wide vocabulary of vulgarities (according to my friend from Spain).
Well, there's being demanding, and there's being an asshole. You would not believe what twits people can turn into, especially little two-bit Napoleons who insist on endless changes after the work has started, and then think that they don't have to pay. Especially the ones who are not trying to build a nice house, but the ones who want to brag about how cheap they got the house for.
"Even paranoids have real enemies." --Delmore Schwartz, quote often misattributed to Richard Nixon.
The famous "Borking" of Bork's Supreme Court nomination was payback from the Left for his volunteering to be Nixon's hatchet man.
At least in America, where environmental laws apply.
Don't let it bother you - there are people out there who could care less how much things cost. These people are very different from you and I. They would rather lick the snot off a man's hairy ass than perform such a vulgar act as eating Kraft Macaroni and Cheese from a box. If they ever eat mac-n-cheese, you better bet they can tell you which provinces in Italy and France the pasta and cheese hailed from.
Now that Apple gave up and is using Unix now, I seriously considered getting one for a few months. But, the price/performance still isn't there, and there's Apple's damnably stubborn insistence on making its products look as cartoony as possible. I'm sure to those elites to whom price is no object find Apples appealing and "cute", but for serious work, where you have to justify spending cash? I'll check again in a few years.
Wow, a neopagan wiccan japanophile womyn. I suppose you're a LUG as well? Do me a favor and hurry up implementing your humanity-genocide virus...I have a big loan payment due soon.
timothy did post the article, after all...
Sure! Would you like 5 minutes of battery power, or will 30 seconds be sufficient?
ISS X-force regards themselves as Big. Really Big. They are as prickly and egotistical as a U.N. Commissioner, or a British aristocrat. And, like any elites, ISS is in such a position of power as to require toadiness from those who want to traffic with the X-force. Those who don't dance to ISS' tune can expect a frosty reception and official snubs.
Nice troll! Very well done! Science trolls are usually the easiest, though...
I really can't be bothered to create an account and sign up for spam from every single website I ever browse. Other news sites, such as the LA Times are beginning to follow suit. I saw an interesting article in a UK news site the other day, only to be prompted with a box telling me to register, then pick a userid that hasn't already been taken, then choose a password they consider to be secure enough, then wait who knows how many minutes for an email to arrive, then click on the URL encoded in the mail, then verify my account, then log in, then go to the story I was interested in. Needless to say, I didn't look at the story.
The NY Times Random Login Generator is a good start, but if every news site (or content sites in general) start requiring cumbersome registration, all the sudden the internet becomes far less useful.
Followup: Check here for an old-fashioned email virus hoax. Even more here. The attitudes of the posters are telling...they bluntly dismiss the idea that an email could ever spread a virus in the same way that one would dismiss any well-known urban legend.
Well, let's be fair. Once upon a time, there was no such thing as an email virus, and a great way to have some fun was to email someone with a message saying, "If you're reading this, you've been infected with a virus!" or some such. Then, Microsoft discovered the internet and wrote an email client, and now the old-fashioned method of spreading viruses by infecting a file and uploading it for public consumption is completely defunct. All viruses that make the news are spread by email attachments.
Keep your laser handy!
For what it's worth, it's generally recognized that the design that won was better technically. Which design is actually better is usually a secondary concern when it comes to choosing defense contracts...
Tip chart? My latest cell phone will calculate tips!
The compass and protractor are as obsolete as the sextant. If a kid graduates from school and doesn't know how to work a PDA, he's going to quickly learn how to work a deep fryer.
But oppressing your users with clever uses of poledit is the hallmark of the "power" Windows user! I mean administrator.
Oh, yeah, forgot. Anyone who swears an oath to a foreign organization and takes up arms against the Constitution automatically loses their U.S. citizenship. It's a law that hasn't been enforced in some time (French Foreign Legion veterans don't have any problem, for example) but just wait.