I agree. The one that amused me was when I was accused by a new project manager (whom I didn't report to and just wanted to throw their weight around) of ignoring my duties and slacking off by doing nothing but surf the web.
I was keeping up with the security advisories, seeing that I was the network admin/analyst. =]
It was really funny when the person went to one of the directors that I report to and was told to mind their own buisness.
I wouldn't have really considered my curriculum to be "blow-off crap".
Yes, I had Intro to algorithms and data structures, along with C/C++, some assembly, and scheme. I also had OS, Internetworking (as taught by a protege of Comer), AI, Databases (which I wasn't overly impressed with as it wasn't that difficult), Languages and syntax (as in the creation of), and various other topics (including some in EE) that I can't think of off the top of my head.
Add to that enough math classes to be one short of a minor and you have the technical portion of my college education (most of my non-tech I did in history, philosophy, and languages/linguistics because they interested me).
I have gotten carded for paint, movies (they require you be 17+ for some of their stuff. I've been over 17 for quite some time now) and various other things.
The one that really amused me, though, was when I got a cold, hard, disgusted stare from the cashier (a little old woman) when she started scanning the stuff I was taking out of the cart and got to a box of condoms. I thought I was going to have to speak to her manager because she looked as though she was seriously considering refusing me service. lol
What? Would she rather I not use them and get something unplesant?
I read this and thought of a Febuary day several years ago when I was working as an admin.
I walk into the building after my first class of the day and, as I head toward the office, I catch the words "fire" and "lab".
Taking the stairs (the elevator was notoriously slow) and walking into the lab, I find that it's freezing cold and smells terrible. It seems as though one of the machines did indeed literally catch fire and was largely engulfed in flames by the time maintinance realized there was a problem (it occured before anyone got to work in the lab).
That was the day that all of the windows and doors were open in order to evac the smoke and actually allow people to get their things (nobody could work in there until the afternoon due to the smoke) as snow fell from the sky and blew into the room.
It had burned long enough that the motherboard was black and blistered from the heat. Not to be outdone, a few days later, the monitor connected to the PC which our graphic person was using exploded and let off it's cache of magic smoke.
He came downstairs giggling hysterically and started off with "I know this week's been weird already..."
That was a truly fun and interesting week (for unusual values of fun and interesting). I got to spend lots of time with our supplier ordering new equipment that week. =]
I remember, once upon a time, seeing a laptop with a built in mouse like you're talking about. It didn't work extremely well and was very prone to breaking.
I can't remember what laptop it was on, however. It belonged to a friend of mine several years ago.
The lake is where I like to train. Just me, my blade, and an open, sandy beach.
The fishtake referenced in my sig is a program that I worked on in college. It's a distributed simulation of a fishtank with a variety of fish. There's a more detailed explaination of it on my homepage under the Programs section.
I get a lot of email about it, from people asking questions.
I can completely understand not wanting to burn bridges. I figure that it's been long enough that the only ones who remember me are the ones I still talk to, so it's not a big risk.
Yes, they do require umpteen certs while you're there. I thought that was rather silly as well. I could understand the need for some of them for certain of their employees (they're largely a C# shop)
That reminds me of something else. I was given their test in C++. At least they said it was going to be C++. It was really all in C. The truly amusing thing is that they'd just remade that exam. It was doubly ironic because they were in the process of phasing out their C++ development.
I'd love to be able to speak to you in a less public medium. Feel free to email me. the address is james at jameshollingshead dot com (or you can just go to my website and click the contact me link if you're lazy)
As a general rule, I don't respond to that sort of a question unless the answer is in the negative since I don't like to potentially burn bridges. In this case, however, I'll make an exception.
Yes, it was. Like I said, the work actually seemed really interesting, but the practiced work philosophy left a whole lot to be desired (even though I did meet a few cool people there).
I'm impressed that you got it without my even mentioning the industry they're in. My guess is that you either have experience with them or that you have a heck of a lot of mad google skills.
Now, it's my turn to ask: How did you guess so quickly and why do you ask?
I have to agree on pretty much all of what you wrote. I've seen it far too many times.
One of the differences in my case would not be a suicide prevention hotline, but a homocide prevention hotline =]
I am generally a calm and amicable individual. Heck, I even end up being a mentor and older brother to the team I'm on (which is amusing when you are younger than some of them), but once I hit my bullshit threshold (largely from certain managers I've worked with), I need to go to the lake in order to work off some frustration before I have to hide bodies.
Re:Article not really about stock options
on
Managing for Creativity
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I could point you to a certain company in Ohio that I interviewed at if you want. The work seemed interesting, they had daycare (and were getting certified to have kindergarten onsite), free cafeteria, free drinks, and some other things (dry cleaning, barber, massage).
However, the interview process left me completely unimpressed with the *people* and the way that they acted.
They contacted me for an interview (I'd never heard of them before that) and gave me a day to come up. I got there a few minutes early, but was then kept waiting for half an hour. I was then given the tour with some other people (who it turns out were all there for co-op positions, and that I was the only one they called up for a real position. This, according to one of the people I ran into randomly in the hallway was normal for there).
After that, they took us into a room in order to take a few programming tests and have lunch. While taking the tests, they had random developers come in and talk about the company while we were trying to work. In the midst of all of this, they came in and took you out to each of 3 other segments (HR interview, computer skills test -don't ask me why, and an interview with one of the development managers). When they came to take you, you were expected to immediately stop what you were doing and go with them. Add to this the fact that one of them "got sidetracked" with some things so I was left waiting for an hour in order to finish the interviews and was well past the time that they said the process would last.
To top it all off, they were in the middle of construction in order to expand the building, so there were jackhammers and all sorts of other things being used.
The coolest people that I met there were the HR person who contacted me initially (she was a fellow alum, rather supportive, and extremely nice. We even chatted via email after everything was over) and the one person who brought in the lunch, though she was nice for moderately selfish reasons *smirk*
The thing that really got me was that their VP that spoke harped on how his people "stayed until the job was done" and could sometimes be seen in the same clothes that they wore the day before if they were alerted to a bug. This translated to me that "we encourage our employees to work insane, unhealthy hours in order to keep up our bottom line" instead of the "we have dedicated people" that he wanted to make it sound like.
This suspicion was basically confirmed by a few of the people I talked to outside of the ones that were sent to see us. They all mentioned how busy they were, the hours they worked, and that they were always looking for "qualified developers".
Aparently they didn't think I was a qualified developer. May have been because I mentioned that I have a healthy work-life balance preference and that the consistant 70-80 hour weeks weren't accptable when I had to do them in college either (lots of work and a very full class load) but I did them out of necessity. All of this out of a company that claims to advocate such a balance. Go figure.
If nothing else, I did meet a couple of cool people that day. Shame I'm three hours away, though. The one who was interested for reasons other than being a fellow alum was rather cute. =]
Not really. It gives you the weekend to deactivate their access cards, alert the police to possible violence, and time to hire extra security in order to make absolutely certain that the only people comming into the building are cleared to do so. It also gives you time to get paperwork together and/or think up "legitimate" reasons should you expect wrongful termination suits
I never bought the theory that it gave the fired person the weekend to calm down. What I see are the opportunities listed above.
I remember that problem. There is code to fix that, but seeing random programs crash as a pointer wandered happily through system memory, re-writing random stuff.
It was amusing in retrospect, but I thought I was going to have a heart attack trying to figure out what was wrong with my code (because it worked perfectly in Solaris) since there was nothing wrong with my code lol
Slashdot Mirror
In other words, you *did* have a happy sysadmin's day.
ow
*brain explodes*
Things I have tried to block from my memory lol
I agree. The one that amused me was when I was accused by a new project manager (whom I didn't report to and just wanted to throw their weight around) of ignoring my duties and slacking off by doing nothing but surf the web.
I was keeping up with the security advisories, seeing that I was the network admin/analyst. =]
It was really funny when the person went to one of the directors that I report to and was told to mind their own buisness.
It's that big blue room that occasionally has leaky pipes.
The logic construct was mine. The constraints did not need to be addressed in it as they had been addressed by me in my previous post.
Everyone seems to ignore the parts of posts that they don't like.
From my origional post:
We have to be careful while using them, but we do indeed own them.
Simple logic.
We own something.
I am a subset of we.
I also own the something.
Just because you own it in a collective manner doesn't mean you don't own it.
Not to mention that, by paying taxes, we *do* own the streets amd traffic lights.
We have to be careful while using them, but we do indeed own them.
I agree. I was just pointing out something to a 17-year-old who only does it when he wants to on the weekend.
I enjoy what I do, but doing something 3 days a week and full time are completely different games.
I wouldn't have really considered my curriculum to be "blow-off crap".
Yes, I had Intro to algorithms and data structures, along with C/C++, some assembly, and scheme. I also had OS, Internetworking (as taught by a protege of Comer), AI, Databases (which I wasn't overly impressed with as it wasn't that difficult), Languages and syntax (as in the creation of), and various other topics (including some in EE) that I can't think of off the top of my head.
Add to that enough math classes to be one short of a minor and you have the technical portion of my college education (most of my non-tech I did in history, philosophy, and languages/linguistics because they interested me).
Not exactly what I'd call blow-off.
It's nice until you have to work conistant 70-80 hour weeks and/or suffer extreme burnout.
Then it's not so fun anymore.
I have gotten carded for paint, movies (they require you be 17+ for some of their stuff. I've been over 17 for quite some time now) and various other things.
The one that really amused me, though, was when I got a cold, hard, disgusted stare from the cashier (a little old woman) when she started scanning the stuff I was taking out of the cart and got to a box of condoms. I thought I was going to have to speak to her manager because she looked as though she was seriously considering refusing me service. lol
What? Would she rather I not use them and get something unplesant?
I believe IBM is the one that's advertising those along with the extra advertising that they're giving to their blade servers.
I read this and thought of a Febuary day several years ago when I was working as an admin.
I walk into the building after my first class of the day and, as I head toward the office, I catch the words "fire" and "lab".
Taking the stairs (the elevator was notoriously slow) and walking into the lab, I find that it's freezing cold and smells terrible. It seems as though one of the machines did indeed literally catch fire and was largely engulfed in flames by the time maintinance realized there was a problem (it occured before anyone got to work in the lab).
That was the day that all of the windows and doors were open in order to evac the smoke and actually allow people to get their things (nobody could work in there until the afternoon due to the smoke) as snow fell from the sky and blew into the room.
It had burned long enough that the motherboard was black and blistered from the heat. Not to be outdone, a few days later, the monitor connected to the PC which our graphic person was using exploded and let off it's cache of magic smoke.
He came downstairs giggling hysterically and started off with "I know this week's been weird already..."
That was a truly fun and interesting week (for unusual values of fun and interesting). I got to spend lots of time with our supplier ordering new equipment that week. =]
That would be the one. Like I said, it was several years ago.
It was kind of neat, though.
I remember, once upon a time, seeing a laptop with a built in mouse like you're talking about. It didn't work extremely well and was very prone to breaking.
I can't remember what laptop it was on, however. It belonged to a friend of mine several years ago.
lol no, my fishtank isn't at the lake.
The lake is where I like to train. Just me, my blade, and an open, sandy beach.
The fishtake referenced in my sig is a program that I worked on in college. It's a distributed simulation of a fishtank with a variety of fish. There's a more detailed explaination of it on my homepage under the Programs section.
I get a lot of email about it, from people asking questions.
I can completely understand not wanting to burn bridges. I figure that it's been long enough that the only ones who remember me are the ones I still talk to, so it's not a big risk.
Yes, they do require umpteen certs while you're there. I thought that was rather silly as well. I could understand the need for some of them for certain of their employees (they're largely a C# shop)
That reminds me of something else. I was given their test in C++. At least they said it was going to be C++. It was really all in C. The truly amusing thing is that they'd just remade that exam. It was doubly ironic because they were in the process of phasing out their C++ development.
I'd love to be able to speak to you in a less public medium. Feel free to email me. the address is james at jameshollingshead dot com (or you can just go to my website and click the contact me link if you're lazy)
As a general rule, I don't respond to that sort of a question unless the answer is in the negative since I don't like to potentially burn bridges. In this case, however, I'll make an exception.
Yes, it was. Like I said, the work actually seemed really interesting, but the practiced work philosophy left a whole lot to be desired (even though I did meet a few cool people there).
I'm impressed that you got it without my even mentioning the industry they're in. My guess is that you either have experience with them or that you have a heck of a lot of mad google skills.
Now, it's my turn to ask: How did you guess so quickly and why do you ask?
I have to agree on pretty much all of what you wrote. I've seen it far too many times.
One of the differences in my case would not be a suicide prevention hotline, but a homocide prevention hotline =]
I am generally a calm and amicable individual. Heck, I even end up being a mentor and older brother to the team I'm on (which is amusing when you are younger than some of them), but once I hit my bullshit threshold (largely from certain managers I've worked with), I need to go to the lake in order to work off some frustration before I have to hide bodies.
I could point you to a certain company in Ohio that I interviewed at if you want. The work seemed interesting, they had daycare (and were getting certified to have kindergarten onsite), free cafeteria, free drinks, and some other things (dry cleaning, barber, massage).
However, the interview process left me completely unimpressed with the *people* and the way that they acted.
They contacted me for an interview (I'd never heard of them before that) and gave me a day to come up. I got there a few minutes early, but was then kept waiting for half an hour. I was then given the tour with some other people (who it turns out were all there for co-op positions, and that I was the only one they called up for a real position. This, according to one of the people I ran into randomly in the hallway was normal for there).
After that, they took us into a room in order to take a few programming tests and have lunch. While taking the tests, they had random developers come in and talk about the company while we were trying to work. In the midst of all of this, they came in and took you out to each of 3 other segments (HR interview, computer skills test -don't ask me why, and an interview with one of the development managers). When they came to take you, you were expected to immediately stop what you were doing and go with them. Add to this the fact that one of them "got sidetracked" with some things so I was left waiting for an hour in order to finish the interviews and was well past the time that they said the process would last.
To top it all off, they were in the middle of construction in order to expand the building, so there were jackhammers and all sorts of other things being used.
The coolest people that I met there were the HR person who contacted me initially (she was a fellow alum, rather supportive, and extremely nice. We even chatted via email after everything was over) and the one person who brought in the lunch, though she was nice for moderately selfish reasons *smirk*
The thing that really got me was that their VP that spoke harped on how his people "stayed until the job was done" and could sometimes be seen in the same clothes that they wore the day before if they were alerted to a bug. This translated to me that "we encourage our employees to work insane, unhealthy hours in order to keep up our bottom line" instead of the "we have dedicated people" that he wanted to make it sound like.
This suspicion was basically confirmed by a few of the people I talked to outside of the ones that were sent to see us. They all mentioned how busy they were, the hours they worked, and that they were always looking for "qualified developers".
Aparently they didn't think I was a qualified developer. May have been because I mentioned that I have a healthy work-life balance preference and that the consistant 70-80 hour weeks weren't accptable when I had to do them in college either (lots of work and a very full class load) but I did them out of necessity. All of this out of a company that claims to advocate such a balance. Go figure.
If nothing else, I did meet a couple of cool people that day. Shame I'm three hours away, though. The one who was interested for reasons other than being a fellow alum was rather cute. =]
Not really. It gives you the weekend to deactivate their access cards, alert the police to possible violence, and time to hire extra security in order to make absolutely certain that the only people comming into the building are cleared to do so. It also gives you time to get paperwork together and/or think up "legitimate" reasons should you expect wrongful termination suits
I never bought the theory that it gave the fired person the weekend to calm down. What I see are the opportunities listed above.
You can usually buy them at Office Max by the baggy for a few bucks. I used to use them all of the time.
Soviet Russia? That seems to describe most HR people I've ever met.
Oh, no, you're right. You'd have to remove the advanced part =]
I remember that problem. There is code to fix that, but seeing random programs crash as a pointer wandered happily through system memory, re-writing random stuff.
It was amusing in retrospect, but I thought I was going to have a heart attack trying to figure out what was wrong with my code (because it worked perfectly in Solaris) since there was nothing wrong with my code lol