Around the time of FreeBSD 2.11R I was recommended to a Taiwanese company with a satellite office in California. I was very together on FreeBSD and I set up a local server with DNS, SMTP, POP, WWW, and some SMB. Because their ISP was intermittent, I provided secondary DNS from my company, mirrored their FTP and WEB from my company, and backup up their mail with MX records and forwarding local servers, and on multiple occasions when the ISP went belly up, I switched things around and kept the support services together for the sake of the company and it's clients. For years I went beyond the call of duty, or my billable hours to provide the best possible uptime and reliable service. I did this to earn a reference for the future, and to reflect well on the person at O'Reilly that gave me the referral. Then one day a VP from the Taiwan office opened a new office in Silicon Valley and demanded we switch to Microsoft Exchange and NT for the US domain infortrend.com. I politely informed my client that I was not qualified to install or maintain a Microsoft solution as I was a Unix guy, but I would continue to support the existing systems until transition was completed. My client went nuts. He accused me of all sorts of paranoid things. He refused me a reference. He lied to management to cover his ass. The good faith of about four years of my labor went up in smoke in several days. No one would return my calls, I had trouble getting paid. It became a perfect example right off the poster, including praise and advancement for the non-participants.
The point of this long drawn out story is that expecting an honest reference for years of 99.9% critical service uptime all came down to the emotions of one man who happened to be the only American manager left in what was suddenly a Taiwanese satellite corporation in America. In retrospect I can see he had his problems too. I was honest and gave notice because I could not support his new infrastructure. My passwords were changed, people were told not to talk to me, management wouldn't accept or return my calls. They ripped the buttons off my uniform, so to speak. Aside from my emotional reaction, I had to start trying to answer questions from prospective employers like, "What have you been doing for the last few years?
This raises a few questions in my mind. For instance, Is providing IT services a good career move? One manager's changed opinion can invalidate the long term benefit to your resume. What I needed was my client to tell the truth. That I was able to provide a solution that worked reliably for years. I felt like a prostitute. Here I said, are my tax documents showing I was paid as a consultant for years. Was that enough? No, not by a long shot. In a tough job market I really needed was a glowing written testimonial of excellence. It's my bad... I didn't take care of my long term needs. What about cutting off my access to the equipment I was maintaining. That wasn't such a good idea either.
The focus of TFA was about handling how to handle the departure of staff who have high access to important infrastrfucutre. In this case there were several things done poorly from the aspect of the corporation. Having one employee singularly responsible for the management of the one critical consultant supporting the entire Internet infrastructure of the company, there were too many points of failure in that chain. The first failure was for the company. If my manager stepped in front of a bus and was run over, there was no one but him that understood the full scope of my duties. From my standpoint, if my manager stepped in front of a bus, there was no way for me to prove the successful completion of my work. Each month the one manager would sign my invoice which implied that I had been doing something.
When I was in the service, at least there was a service record which contained evidence of my completion of training. It contained letters of appreciation for periods of enthusiastic valuable efforts. When I had a Secret clearance, there was a piece of paper that said
It seems to me that around the time companies stopped feeling an obligation to keep their employees, the also started to become paranoid about what a mad employee could do to them. This is very similar to giving two weeks notice, and having a security guard and someone from empoyee relations show up at your desk an hour later to escort you to the door. Modern companies usually have contracts with their employees and consultants. No ethical IT person would even dare to do anything actionable before leaving because reputation and referefences are so important in the industry. An IT personal with a reputation of sabotage might never work again. I guess what seems odd about this is that we think we have an obligation to give notice so the employer can arrange for replacements, and years of trustworthy service can evaporate in a second once you say you are leaving. In the world of security, we have what you have, what you know, and who you are. When you are leaving, they want what you have, they change what you know, and they wish they could do something about who you are. Most employment contracts have specifics about what you are restricted from doing with what you know. Like business methods, contacts, etc... In all my years of experience, I have never met anyone who knows anyone who has ever damaged an employer's network. I think it is a rare happenstance.
Certainly not Microsoft. Perhaps the Regents of the University of California at Berkeely. When the DOD paid UCB to include TCP/IP in 4.2bsd Unix, that was probably the most important step towards making the Internet Protocols a standard. The fact the UCB worked for many years providing the Berkeley Unix extensions so that AT&T Unix could be more friendly speaks in their favor. If you liked SunOS 3.1 and you don't like Solaris, it's probably because you like the Berkeley enahancements and not System V. Also you could consider UUNET because they hosted the Berkeley sources for many years and for a long time, that is where many people get their first TCP/IP sources from.
I checked my Leopard Server and/var/named/named.ca still had the old number in there, So I guess all the Apple servers out there except for those run by very hip people have been subject to some trouble. Someone should look at the common dists and see how common this is...
It sounds to me like Microsoft just didn't go back and remove the broadcast flag support from their software after the court case because it wasn't worth the engineering time and QA trouble to mess with it. IT was going to be years before it came up again. The probably forgot all about it.
There are few external reasons left for an individual to choose a career in engineering or the sciences
I look back on my forty years of software engineering and remember many many years of a feeling of accomplisment when difficult technical problems were solved and mountains of hardware could begin shipping from the factory.
I also look back on decades of loneliness. Long distance romances while on site in foreign countries, weekends where I kept working while my friends went to the beach and partied. I thought I was doing it to create a business. Or for my family, or for the money. But when the bottom fell out from software, the business failed, the wife committed suicide because she so hated the software business and didn't know how else to make a living.
I did it all because I desperately wanted to earn the respect of people that couldn't relate to my nerdness. Now that all the affectations of success are gone, I am just bitter about the time and effort I spent so you all could have nice computers. Today I am another burned out old engineer who would have achieved independence on time if I had not insisted on doing the technical work. As a manager, I could have been successful, earned my pile of money, and enoyed life a lot more.
At this point I cannot say I recommend that young people shoot for engineering professions. It is a hard road that is mostly unappreciated.
Of course I klung to the old idea that you should do what you liked, and I thought I liked writing assembler code and drivers. I was very good at it, and many other people weren 't.
I for one am just happy to see consumers in other countries picking up the crusade against the Evil monopolistic software company that manages to get their uninspired software pre-loaded on the majority of hardware systems despite a growing number of factors.
I welcome our anti-XP French overlords (with lasers on their soviet foreheads), especially those that aren't surrendering to Microsoft. Instead of MS looking at the world as just so many more countries that they can ship their garbage off to, they should be made to see that the ability to localize their product and sell it in other countries is not a right.
I am not sure which will come first, the day of Microsoft's karma, or the second coming of Christ. Either will probably do the job. "Gee Bill, What have you done for humanity to make up for that lousy software we cannot get working even here in Heaven?"
I got REALLY tired of paying too much for not enough channels. I put some of the money into a faster Internet connection (16mb). Now I get a huge amount of podcasts, including all the news I can watch. I guess that means I am over exposed to the news. But that can happen no matter what media you watch.
I read that you have to use a cell phone to unlock the toilet on the streets of France. They had so much vandalism they had to go to a system where a unique number was involved, no charge just a record.
Ever since I bought that LG CU320 I have noticed this phenominon. It is a pain in the ass. I have to take my cell out of my pocket when I sit down near te computer of the speakers make a bunch of noise. Thanks a log Cingular...
Once you attach some storage to the storage pool, it's there forever, Oh oops, that's ZFS. Maybe there are some things you shouldn;t put in the storage pool Hans.
I read an article where the FBI remote enabled a drug dealer's phone and recorded lots of very incriminating discussions. The mod seems to leave the screen and leds turned off even though the phone is still listening/and or transmitting. Are you ever surprised your cell phone needs a recharge already? Even though you just charged it last night? Do you have any drugs for sale? Just kidding, we shouldn't discuss that on email, ha ha ha.
I guess its time for me to spout off. I am an assembler guru since 8080. A while back I bought a Dell SC1425 Dual Core Xeon machine with the intention of writing some high performance assembler software for it. When I get a new machine, I usually find out exactly what CPU is in it, and get the Intel docs for that part. Then I know what I can do. This time Intel and Dell screwed me completely.
First I ran the CPUID utility which provided some CPU numbers and stepping information. Then I went to the Intel site and ran their web based CPU identification utility. I tried to plug in the number previously determined, and there wasn't a CPU that matched up. I called Intel and provided the numbers and they wouldn't help me. Five phone calls and eight email messages later they told me that they could not disclose the exact part that was shipped in my system as it was confidential and Dell would have to tell me.
I called Dell four times and emailed seven times and they refused to give me the sSpec number from the chip they used in my machine. They passed me around from department to department, then changed my customer status so I couldn't use regular tech support any more and I would be connected to the chump line. Eventually they told me I must physically remove my CPU chip and read the sSpec number off it. I asked would that void my warrantee and they said YES it would. Eventually I was desperate enough to do just that and after removing the chip and wiping off the thermal transfer jizz, I found that someone had removed the sSpec number with solvent before it was installed.
I will never buy anything else from Dell, or depend on Intel for software engineering support. If I had been from Microsoft, I am sure I would have been given what I needed the first day. After all this, I went Apple Mac and didn't look back. Sure it has an Intel CPU, but I cannot help that Things have obviously changed in the last few years. Engineers used to get a little help from the vendors, but no more. The part number of the chip is a secret, my my.
Amoung the things a Mac can do, is run Windows in a window. But in this case, The Mac had enough hardware and software support to aid in its recovery. We know there are lojack programs out there we can buy for money and install. In this case, the built in support was goof enough. I suppose the thief is a VICTIM because he didn't authorize his picture to be taken? I am sorry they didn't post the thief's picture on the Internet. I LOL about the thought of the the thief realizing his picture was about to be taken. HA HA HA.
Slashdot Mirror
The point of this long drawn out story is that expecting an honest reference for years of 99.9% critical service uptime all came down to the emotions of one man who happened to be the only American manager left in what was suddenly a Taiwanese satellite corporation in America. In retrospect I can see he had his problems too. I was honest and gave notice because I could not support his new infrastructure. My passwords were changed, people were told not to talk to me, management wouldn't accept or return my calls. They ripped the buttons off my uniform, so to speak. Aside from my emotional reaction, I had to start trying to answer questions from prospective employers like, "What have you been doing for the last few years?
This raises a few questions in my mind. For instance, Is providing IT services a good career move? One manager's changed opinion can invalidate the long term benefit to your resume. What I needed was my client to tell the truth. That I was able to provide a solution that worked reliably for years. I felt like a prostitute. Here I said, are my tax documents showing I was paid as a consultant for years. Was that enough? No, not by a long shot. In a tough job market I really needed was a glowing written testimonial of excellence. It's my bad... I didn't take care of my long term needs. What about cutting off my access to the equipment I was maintaining. That wasn't such a good idea either.
The focus of TFA was about handling how to handle the departure of staff who have high access to important infrastrfucutre. In this case there were several things done poorly from the aspect of the corporation. Having one employee singularly responsible for the management of the one critical consultant supporting the entire Internet infrastructure of the company, there were too many points of failure in that chain. The first failure was for the company. If my manager stepped in front of a bus and was run over, there was no one but him that understood the full scope of my duties. From my standpoint, if my manager stepped in front of a bus, there was no way for me to prove the successful completion of my work. Each month the one manager would sign my invoice which implied that I had been doing something.
When I was in the service, at least there was a service record which contained evidence of my completion of training. It contained letters of appreciation for periods of enthusiastic valuable efforts. When I had a Secret clearance, there was a piece of paper that said
It seems to me that around the time companies stopped feeling an obligation to keep their employees, the also started to become paranoid about what a mad employee could do to them. This is very similar to giving two weeks notice, and having a security guard and someone from empoyee relations show up at your desk an hour later to escort you to the door. Modern companies usually have contracts with their employees and consultants. No ethical IT person would even dare to do anything actionable before leaving because reputation and referefences are so important in the industry. An IT personal with a reputation of sabotage might never work again. I guess what seems odd about this is that we think we have an obligation to give notice so the employer can arrange for replacements, and years of trustworthy service can evaporate in a second once you say you are leaving. In the world of security, we have what you have, what you know, and who you are. When you are leaving, they want what you have, they change what you know, and they wish they could do something about who you are. Most employment contracts have specifics about what you are restricted from doing with what you know. Like business methods, contacts, etc... In all my years of experience, I have never met anyone who knows anyone who has ever damaged an employer's network. I think it is a rare happenstance.
Certainly not Microsoft. Perhaps the Regents of the University of California at Berkeely. When the DOD paid UCB to include TCP/IP in 4.2bsd Unix, that was probably the most important step towards making the Internet Protocols a standard. The fact the UCB worked for many years providing the Berkeley Unix extensions so that AT&T Unix could be more friendly speaks in their favor. If you liked SunOS 3.1 and you don't like Solaris, it's probably because you like the Berkeley enahancements and not System V. Also you could consider UUNET because they hosted the Berkeley sources for many years and for a long time, that is where many people get their first TCP/IP sources from.
I checked my Leopard Server and /var/named/named.ca still had the old number in there, So I guess all the Apple servers out there except for those run by very hip people have been subject to some trouble. Someone should look at the common dists and see how common this is...
It sounds to me like Microsoft just didn't go back and remove the broadcast flag support from their software after the court case because it wasn't worth the engineering time and QA trouble to mess with it. IT was going to be years before it came up again. The probably forgot all about it.
I look back on my forty years of software engineering and remember many many years of a feeling of accomplisment when difficult technical problems were solved and mountains of hardware could begin shipping from the factory.
I also look back on decades of loneliness. Long distance romances while on site in foreign countries, weekends where I kept working while my friends went to the beach and partied. I thought I was doing it to create a business. Or for my family, or for the money. But when the bottom fell out from software, the business failed, the wife committed suicide because she so hated the software business and didn't know how else to make a living.
I did it all because I desperately wanted to earn the respect of people that couldn't relate to my nerdness. Now that all the affectations of success are gone, I am just bitter about the time and effort I spent so you all could have nice computers. Today I am another burned out old engineer who would have achieved independence on time if I had not insisted on doing the technical work. As a manager, I could have been successful, earned my pile of money, and enoyed life a lot more.
At this point I cannot say I recommend that young people shoot for engineering professions. It is a hard road that is mostly unappreciated.
Of course I klung to the old idea that you should do what you liked, and I thought I liked writing assembler code and drivers. I was very good at it, and many other people weren 't.
I welcome our anti-XP French overlords (with lasers on their soviet foreheads), especially those that aren't surrendering to Microsoft. Instead of MS looking at the world as just so many more countries that they can ship their garbage off to, they should be made to see that the ability to localize their product and sell it in other countries is not a right.
I am not sure which will come first, the day of Microsoft's karma, or the second coming of Christ. Either will probably do the job. "Gee Bill, What have you done for humanity to make up for that lousy software we cannot get working even here in Heaven?"
You have don e this before, haven't you? :-)
In Soviet Russia...
I got REALLY tired of paying too much for not enough channels. I put some of the money into a faster Internet connection (16mb). Now I get a huge amount of podcasts, including all the news I can watch. I guess that means I am over exposed to the news. But that can happen no matter what media you watch.
This seem o%*&^
I read that you have to use a cell phone to unlock the toilet on the streets of France. They had so much vandalism they had to go to a system where a unique number was involved, no charge just a record.
Ever since I bought that LG CU320 I have noticed this phenominon. It is a pain in the ass. I have to take my cell out of my pocket when I sit down near te computer of the speakers make a bunch of noise. Thanks a log Cingular...
After they know you bought a hotdog with everything, they can direct you to the pharmacy for a stomach pill...
0110 0110 0110 If this is your number you are in big trouble with god.
Just wrap your tinfoil hat arpound the cellphone and the aliens won't be able to track you sales patterns.
Once you attach some storage to the storage pool, it's there forever, Oh oops, that's ZFS. Maybe there are some things you shouldn;t put in the storage pool Hans.
I read an article where the FBI remote enabled a drug dealer's phone and recorded lots of very incriminating discussions. The mod seems to leave the screen and leds turned off even though the phone is still listening/and or transmitting. Are you ever surprised your cell phone needs a recharge already? Even though you just charged it last night? Do you have any drugs for sale? Just kidding, we shouldn't discuss that on email, ha ha ha.
Ha ha ha. Good try John.....
I am still waiting for the Soviet Shark variation of the joke.
I don 't recall anything called, System 2 having anything to do with CP/M.. What are you referring to?
Now Microsoft is going to follow the Standards?
First I ran the CPUID utility which provided some CPU numbers and stepping information. Then I went to the Intel site and ran their web based CPU identification utility. I tried to plug in the number previously determined, and there wasn't a CPU that matched up. I called Intel and provided the numbers and they wouldn't help me. Five phone calls and eight email messages later they told me that they could not disclose the exact part that was shipped in my system as it was confidential and Dell would have to tell me.
I called Dell four times and emailed seven times and they refused to give me the sSpec number from the chip they used in my machine. They passed me around from department to department, then changed my customer status so I couldn't use regular tech support any more and I would be connected to the chump line. Eventually they told me I must physically remove my CPU chip and read the sSpec number off it. I asked would that void my warrantee and they said YES it would. Eventually I was desperate enough to do just that and after removing the chip and wiping off the thermal transfer jizz, I found that someone had removed the sSpec number with solvent before it was installed.
I will never buy anything else from Dell, or depend on Intel for software engineering support. If I had been from Microsoft, I am sure I would have been given what I needed the first day. After all this, I went Apple Mac and didn't look back. Sure it has an Intel CPU, but I cannot help that Things have obviously changed in the last few years. Engineers used to get a little help from the vendors, but no more. The part number of the chip is a secret, my my.
Amoung the things a Mac can do, is run Windows in a window. But in this case, The Mac had enough hardware and software support to aid in its recovery. We know there are lojack programs out there we can buy for money and install. In this case, the built in support was goof enough. I suppose the thief is a VICTIM because he didn't authorize his picture to be taken? I am sorry they didn't post the thief's picture on the Internet. I LOL about the thought of the the thief realizing his picture was about to be taken. HA HA HA.
A jumper with the electrical characteristics of a led I hope...