2008.07.31 (11:38): Blah...
Yesterday's placid-zen like calm has been replaced with 'bleh' today. Maybe it's the lack of sleep.. hmmm.. there are probably a few contributing factors that should not be discussed at the moment.
I am certain that if 'meeting?'-the-merc comes and pesters me one more time about his crappy reporting services reports he might get dropped kick. The guy's reports are scarey bad. I was slated to do them, being the reporting service guru for the team/group, but I was busy doing other massive components for the project. Fine. His reports are butt ugly, disturbingly large (I am talking 19 inches wide? WTF is that!?), and so freaking slow. He also has been trying to build a parameter control (I and another team member built this report viewer extension that allows us to use our own custom picklists and what not on a control that comes up with the report in a windows form app) and it looks spooky.
His testing methods was to drop a control in the reporting service solution (different project in the solution) and try and run it. Wow.. epic fail, right? Hosting and few hundred other things are out the window. I told him a few times, "just check out the main form. Drop a button on the toolbar that goes to a function where you call the report viewer with your controls. When done just undo the changes." He keeps coming back with issues and errors from his form in the reporting service solution. Ug.
I am certain that if 'meeting?'-the-merc comes and pesters me one more time about his crappy reporting services reports he might get dropped kick. The guy's reports are scarey bad. I was slated to do them, being the reporting service guru for the team/group, but I was busy doing other massive components for the project. Fine. His reports are butt ugly, disturbingly large (I am talking 19 inches wide? WTF is that!?), and so freaking slow. He also has been trying to build a parameter control (I and another team member built this report viewer extension that allows us to use our own custom picklists and what not on a control that comes up with the report in a windows form app) and it looks spooky.
His testing methods was to drop a control in the reporting service solution (different project in the solution) and try and run it. Wow.. epic fail, right? Hosting and few hundred other things are out the window. I told him a few times, "just check out the main form. Drop a button on the toolbar that goes to a function where you call the report viewer with your controls. When done just undo the changes." He keeps coming back with issues and errors from his form in the reporting service solution. Ug.
2008.07.30 (16:21): Battle fought, won, but the war continues..
Well my associate Falloutboy had an extended meeting with The Boss. He and her discussed many things including her perceived attitude, the lack of ANY information in emails for errors, the dislike of having to play email-go-round for about ten or twelve emails to actually pry the information out of her or the testers, the snippy put down emails we were getting on a daily basis, the general over use of negative reinforcement, and so on.
After she left him and I had a pow-wow regarding the talk. It seems that she has altered her opinion of him and might take some of his commentary under advisement.
The question is for how long?
The second question is do I wait for her to swing by and talk to me, or head her off at the pass and raise it up? I learned my lesson back in Febuary/March (after multiple headbutts over the fourish months before that) that any perceived criticism (with solutions - I ALWAYS provide solutions) no matter how it is present is always a "bad thing". After a while I just stopped caring. Apathy was a decent blanket to hide under when the rounds for "is there anything going on or wrong I should know about" was presented.
Oh office politics make me "lullz" as the kids say.
After she left him and I had a pow-wow regarding the talk. It seems that she has altered her opinion of him and might take some of his commentary under advisement.
The question is for how long?
The second question is do I wait for her to swing by and talk to me, or head her off at the pass and raise it up? I learned my lesson back in Febuary/March (after multiple headbutts over the fourish months before that) that any perceived criticism (with solutions - I ALWAYS provide solutions) no matter how it is present is always a "bad thing". After a while I just stopped caring. Apathy was a decent blanket to hide under when the rounds for "is there anything going on or wrong I should know about" was presented.
Oh office politics make me "lullz" as the kids say.
2008.07.29 (11:52): Slow but pleased.
After another weekend of work and some long hours all my work items, new code requirements, and general email shenanigans have been cleared up. I am officially 'coasting' at this point of the project. It's a nice relaxing feeling knowing the testing, shoring up the reports, and other miscellaneous tasks are not mission critical to the success of this beached whale of a project.
Callou callay!
Callou callay!
2008.07.23 (10:50): Humorous story to tide KOS over while they are in Hurricane Dolly..
Story.. story.. hmm… well there was this one time where I was working for the Testing department of a previous employer. I was in our low key period (we went through a month or three of intense work then had two or three weeks of a lull where we were supposed to be brushing up on our skills, learning new areas of system testing, and so forth. I usually spent my time in “meetings” where I chatted it up with folks from other floors, “meetings” where I went to the arcade for hours on end, or playing NetHack (the graphical version) for extended periods of time. On a fairly droll afternoon I was approached by my boss to check out a system irregularity on a client’s test bed.
After some poking around I noticed a few console commands were made available to me that usually are locked. I leaned over, and saw the old codger in the cube next to me was not at his desk and his pc wasn’t locked. I jumped on his keyboard and started tapping away furiously. It turns out the client also had a low key weapons research facility under a subsidiary’s name and neglected to have the foresight of NOT putting it on the archaic terminal system in our test bed. Oddly enough this was where the initial irregularity was coming from – research data on their end was bleeding through and sucking down processing time thus throwing off the testing. I shut down what I needed, but lingered reading through their fairly unimpressive robots schematics, dumby artificial intelligence programs, and weak friend/foe identification software. I was mulling over if I wanted to add a few pointers for their R&D group when I heard the tell-tale sounds of jackboots clomping off the elevator and on the tile. I quickly rebooted my neighbor’s pc, shoved the keyboard over, and wheeled around to my neglected game. The hired goons were gesturing wildly in my direction to my boss, and both stomped over but stopped at my neighbor’s cube. Expletives flew as they saw the final reboot sequence then they turned to me. The grilling was intensely predictable:
“Did you see so and so today? Yes sir.
Was he here recently? I think so sir, but I was busy and didn’t really pay attention.
Did anyone else use his PC? No sir, I would have noticed an undesirable from the general humdrum of the office.”
Thankfully my neighbor was returning from what looked like an exhausting trip to the little boys room. The thugs swarmed him, grabbed him each by an arm, and drug him off to the elevators. I watched from my third floor window as he was unceremoniously chucked into a black van. The van idled for a minute longer, and they leisurely pulled away from the curb and merged into the afternoon traffic. I knew it wouldn’t take them long to figure out that fossil lacked any forward thinking to do what I did, so I started packing my backpack in preparations of a quick escape.
Three more attempts at my game was all it took for the black van to make a reappearance. I calmly snagged my jump drive, mp3 player, and hat. I am certain they were not sure who might have infiltrated their first grade defenses, but I know they would want to “ask me a few questions” which for some reason always ends up with me in the hospital. I would rather like to avoid that line of “questioning”, so I make for the elevator. All four were moving up, and I am not sure which one held my soon-to-be close friends. The bell rang, and I peered over my backpack shielding my face. Oh! Luck has favored me and this was the elevator I called. I punched the lobby counting on the goons to not be lingering. As the door was closing I saw them getting off! Huzzah!
I hit the lobby and skitter across the wet marble giving the old janitor the bird. Why wash the floors in the middle of the afternoon? Pure ludicrous! I burst out into the afternoon sun to see four guards smoking next to their van. They raised an eyebrow, but ignored me. I weaved through the parking lot until I came to the back lot where I stash my bike. I gunned the engine and made for the streets. Safety, security, just another freak in a city of irrelevant little lives. I was twenty feet from the street when the first of the bullets wizzed pasted and embedded themselves in the company’s sign. A stream of swear words flowed out of my mouth like a rainspout, but were lost in the engine whine.
A epic chase developed leaving at least four cars in flames, twenty or so people scattered across the trauma charts, and thousands of dollars in property damage. Two of the four goons learned that you are never too old to learn how to fly off the side of a bridge, one learned what a karambit was ten seconds too late, and the other probably will not see the light of day outside an asylum. I weave through the outlying fields of corn in the fading sun lackadaisically making my home for some well earned rest.
The next morning the financial reports indicated a “breach of trust” with the client company leading to a complete pull out of federal money, their board in jail for fraud, and dissolution of their interests. Good, I’m in the clear. I skip past the Jones’s sprinklers and saddle up on my bike. I punch my mp3 player for random and get the familiar guitar rift from Radiohead’s “The Bends”. Ah… it’s going to be a good day today. “Where do we go from here? ; The words are coming out all weird…”.
After some poking around I noticed a few console commands were made available to me that usually are locked. I leaned over, and saw the old codger in the cube next to me was not at his desk and his pc wasn’t locked. I jumped on his keyboard and started tapping away furiously. It turns out the client also had a low key weapons research facility under a subsidiary’s name and neglected to have the foresight of NOT putting it on the archaic terminal system in our test bed. Oddly enough this was where the initial irregularity was coming from – research data on their end was bleeding through and sucking down processing time thus throwing off the testing. I shut down what I needed, but lingered reading through their fairly unimpressive robots schematics, dumby artificial intelligence programs, and weak friend/foe identification software. I was mulling over if I wanted to add a few pointers for their R&D group when I heard the tell-tale sounds of jackboots clomping off the elevator and on the tile. I quickly rebooted my neighbor’s pc, shoved the keyboard over, and wheeled around to my neglected game. The hired goons were gesturing wildly in my direction to my boss, and both stomped over but stopped at my neighbor’s cube. Expletives flew as they saw the final reboot sequence then they turned to me. The grilling was intensely predictable:
“Did you see so and so today? Yes sir.
Was he here recently? I think so sir, but I was busy and didn’t really pay attention.
Did anyone else use his PC? No sir, I would have noticed an undesirable from the general humdrum of the office.”
Thankfully my neighbor was returning from what looked like an exhausting trip to the little boys room. The thugs swarmed him, grabbed him each by an arm, and drug him off to the elevators. I watched from my third floor window as he was unceremoniously chucked into a black van. The van idled for a minute longer, and they leisurely pulled away from the curb and merged into the afternoon traffic. I knew it wouldn’t take them long to figure out that fossil lacked any forward thinking to do what I did, so I started packing my backpack in preparations of a quick escape.
Three more attempts at my game was all it took for the black van to make a reappearance. I calmly snagged my jump drive, mp3 player, and hat. I am certain they were not sure who might have infiltrated their first grade defenses, but I know they would want to “ask me a few questions” which for some reason always ends up with me in the hospital. I would rather like to avoid that line of “questioning”, so I make for the elevator. All four were moving up, and I am not sure which one held my soon-to-be close friends. The bell rang, and I peered over my backpack shielding my face. Oh! Luck has favored me and this was the elevator I called. I punched the lobby counting on the goons to not be lingering. As the door was closing I saw them getting off! Huzzah!
I hit the lobby and skitter across the wet marble giving the old janitor the bird. Why wash the floors in the middle of the afternoon? Pure ludicrous! I burst out into the afternoon sun to see four guards smoking next to their van. They raised an eyebrow, but ignored me. I weaved through the parking lot until I came to the back lot where I stash my bike. I gunned the engine and made for the streets. Safety, security, just another freak in a city of irrelevant little lives. I was twenty feet from the street when the first of the bullets wizzed pasted and embedded themselves in the company’s sign. A stream of swear words flowed out of my mouth like a rainspout, but were lost in the engine whine.
A epic chase developed leaving at least four cars in flames, twenty or so people scattered across the trauma charts, and thousands of dollars in property damage. Two of the four goons learned that you are never too old to learn how to fly off the side of a bridge, one learned what a karambit was ten seconds too late, and the other probably will not see the light of day outside an asylum. I weave through the outlying fields of corn in the fading sun lackadaisically making my home for some well earned rest.
The next morning the financial reports indicated a “breach of trust” with the client company leading to a complete pull out of federal money, their board in jail for fraud, and dissolution of their interests. Good, I’m in the clear. I skip past the Jones’s sprinklers and saddle up on my bike. I punch my mp3 player for random and get the familiar guitar rift from Radiohead’s “The Bends”. Ah… it’s going to be a good day today. “Where do we go from here? ; The words are coming out all weird…”.
2008.07.20 (13:20): Random thought
I liked this line.. So I shall save it for later:
"so like i said.. change your surroundings and you will change with it"
and:
the difference between extraordinary and extra-ordinary is a little hyphen...
"so like i said.. change your surroundings and you will change with it"
and:
the difference between extraordinary and extra-ordinary is a little hyphen...
2008.07.18 (16:45): Don't forget..
I found the site to be deep... these are two things i need not forget about..
http://www.tinyghosts.com/archive/tinyghosts041.html
http://www.tinyghosts.com/archive/tinyghosts056.html
http://www.tinyghosts.com/archive/tinyghosts115.html
http://www.tinyghosts.com/archive/tinyghosts041.html
http://www.tinyghosts.com/archive/tinyghosts056.html
http://www.tinyghosts.com/archive/tinyghosts115.html
2008.07.18 (11:38): If I didn't learn to laugh...
... people would be maimed by now!
Work has taken a serious degrading turn today, but all I can do is laugh at it while my associate Falloutboy seethes with rage. Take in account that when we get errors from when our boss, a reputed programmer, it is usually a screen shot with zero information. The screen shot doesn't include the exception or indication of what is broken. An example of attrocious communication: It took about five emails between the boss and myself to nail down what she was talking about. I know that not EVERYONE has twoish years of testing background in the guluags, but the common courtcey of one programmer to another you figure she would include: where she's at, what she was doing, and how it came about.
Here's some work item humor: "Missing backend stuff". Yeah, that's the title. My first was "that's what she said", the second was "I wish I was", and the third was "and how!"
Work has taken a serious degrading turn today, but all I can do is laugh at it while my associate Falloutboy seethes with rage. Take in account that when we get errors from when our boss, a reputed programmer, it is usually a screen shot with zero information. The screen shot doesn't include the exception or indication of what is broken. An example of attrocious communication: It took about five emails between the boss and myself to nail down what she was talking about. I know that not EVERYONE has twoish years of testing background in the guluags, but the common courtcey of one programmer to another you figure she would include: where she's at, what she was doing, and how it came about.
Here's some work item humor: "Missing backend stuff". Yeah, that's the title. My first was "that's what she said", the second was "I wish I was", and the third was "and how!"
2008.07.17 (10:00): woot!
Lesser known fact I decided a few months ago to pick up tai-chi. There wasn't a definate reason why, but it was a good idea at the time. Let me tell you, even though I hit up the gym two times a week this "tai chi stuff" was a nifty work out on my joints, balance, and flexability. The fairly linear movements of hip sleds, lat machines, rows, and etc did not assist in the the twisting and circular movements of tai chi. After a bit I become a bit more accustom to it, and life is grand.
To get myself ready for the long solo form practice I have been re-plying the warm up, then the warm ups plus the three basic forms, and last night I moved on to: warm ups plus three basic forms plus circling.
w00t for me.. a few more days of getting the circling habit down I will start the tai chi quan solo form.. which has something like a hundred different moves.
To get myself ready for the long solo form practice I have been re-plying the warm up, then the warm ups plus the three basic forms, and last night I moved on to: warm ups plus three basic forms plus circling.
w00t for me.. a few more days of getting the circling habit down I will start the tai chi quan solo form.. which has something like a hundred different moves.
2008.07.16 (12:59): Work place humor..
Random amusement today from the office:
I was tasked with copying an old stored procedure, reviewing it, fixing anything outdated, renaming to the new system's conventions, and dropping it in the new database. Easy cheesy, right? The only new code was one minor thing changed in four places. I reported it back to my boss's right hand man, and went on with my other work.
An hour or so later he strolls in, and has me pull up that stored procedure. I was thinking, "what did I gloss over?" and "did I make a mistake somewhere?". The first thing he does is inform me that I misspelled an input variable. Wheew.. two characters later and a 'find-replace all', I turn and wait for the rest. All I was greeted with was "KTHNXBYE!" and my door slamming closed. Woah.. seriously? An email would have sufficed to bring it to light, but to walk over, have me log in and access that server, and then pull it up to do a 'find replace'?
It seems time is not as a precious of a commodity as I thought or led to believe. Heh..
I was tasked with copying an old stored procedure, reviewing it, fixing anything outdated, renaming to the new system's conventions, and dropping it in the new database. Easy cheesy, right? The only new code was one minor thing changed in four places. I reported it back to my boss's right hand man, and went on with my other work.
An hour or so later he strolls in, and has me pull up that stored procedure. I was thinking, "what did I gloss over?" and "did I make a mistake somewhere?". The first thing he does is inform me that I misspelled an input variable. Wheew.. two characters later and a 'find-replace all', I turn and wait for the rest. All I was greeted with was "KTHNXBYE!" and my door slamming closed. Woah.. seriously? An email would have sufficed to bring it to light, but to walk over, have me log in and access that server, and then pull it up to do a 'find replace'?
It seems time is not as a precious of a commodity as I thought or led to believe. Heh..
2008.07.15 (13:21): Mood tentative, but optimistic.
Today has been a good day so for. I slayed an annoying bug with one line of code, finally nail specs down on one of our catalog companies, and get to shoulder a massive burden of getting a sql script to populate the column that was lacking in the aforementioned bug.
In addition I have had minimal contact with CB for the first time in the better part of a year. The project's on questionable legs at the moment, but I am tired of looking at it.
Off to go make complex joins look simple!
In addition I have had minimal contact with CB for the first time in the better part of a year. The project's on questionable legs at the moment, but I am tired of looking at it.
Off to go make complex joins look simple!
2008.07.14 (15:41): It's official! First blog spam and ban!
I noticed that I was just spammed by some non-US based casino! Hahahahaha.. silly spammer, no one reads this blog! I know I am starting to make it big when that happens!
2008.07.12 (13:36): Saturday Crunch day..
I've been working for the last three hours on this lovely overcast saturday... booooo! hisss! Damn crunch time... but I (and my associate) have been told that we are not trying hard enough, not caring deep enough, and not taking it serious. Nothing beats some good ol' negative reinforcement to recharge those burned out batteries!
2008.07.11 (10:55): Book to purchase?
I came across this on amazon:
Making Things Happen: Mastering Project Management
I saw the initial link from lifehacker.com.
With my work's project being laid low I am thinking about picking this up... then again i could use the money for a tank of gas too.. ha..
Making Things Happen: Mastering Project Management
I saw the initial link from lifehacker.com.
With my work's project being laid low I am thinking about picking this up... then again i could use the money for a tank of gas too.. ha..
2008.07.08 (16:32): KPS: the rpg
I am going to probably start back up my 2-d, top down, RPG based on my company's purchasing system. A bit final fantasy.. a bit form fill outs.. but I think it would make an excellent edition to how things are entered... why just *create a purchase order* when you must kill enough enemies to be at the right level as well as have the right ingredients to make a po... heh.. minor random achievements are a wonder!
2008.07.01 (12:53): Desperation...
Twoish weeks out from our project's deadline and our boss is working up a furry of excuses, anger, and pointing fingers… I called it and said it was because of a meeting in the last day or so of OTHER people pointing fingers so they are not the last ones without a chair when the music stops. Yup.. that was confirmed. Panic is a bad thing especially from those above you. It’s thankfully not going to affect my quality of work, I’ll just ignore it and continue plodding on with all these damn last minute, sweeping changes that are coming down the pike.
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