February 2007 - Posts
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
a comic pointed out by a friend
dentist this morning. meetings this afternoon. it's no contest as to which is more painful.
actually got a lot done the last two days. that stops today.
on my way skiing tomorrow. gone until next tuesday. taking bets on events in my absence.
Saturday, February 24, 2007
this started out as an email i was going to send a co-worker, but i think this should have wider exposure (and stay off the company systems). also, it's a
rant; i could very well be wrong about some or all of this. then again, i could very well be right.
anyway, i sanitized it just a bit, yet those who know will be able to put two and two together. doesn't make sense to do a corporate character assassination in public. that serves no one's interests.
direct liability ? none. pissing off people with the truth ?
priceless.
these are instructive...
that should improve (what's zero times anything ? ;-)) a bit eventually with the main blog feed renaming. still need to think about all the individual blog names, though.
note that _domain_names_ are not the driver here.
why aren't people beating a path to their door ? _because_they_have_no_reason_to_, that's why. it would be a damn shame, not to mention a waste of money, to put marketing effort into selling a content-vacuum to the masses. come to think of it, it's already a damn shame about the money already spent. it doesn't make sense to polish up the showcase, or start an advertising or online presence blitz, when the showcase holds little more than dust.
ok, it's a bit better than dust, but only marginally. hell, XXX-department doesn't even do their own magazine clippings - the use a company to do that for them ! and then there's the one stilted article per week that XXX-person posts. yep - dry as dust, and about as "relevant", their latest marketing buzzword. wasn't it "joyful" just an eyeblink ago ? how is anyone supposed to get any sense of brand, or identity ? but i digress.
i think the bottom line is that XXX, and XXX-department in particular, are not what or who they think they are. this is yet one more non-profit susceptibility, since being divorced from direct feedback means there is less reality check, affecting this important aspect of business reality. (note that those blogs are not non-profit, nor are they infrequently posted to.)
good luck to any design or marketing - or even _development_ - firm that they bring in, because they have little to work with. and hey, that's business; they're not going to tell their customer that their product / service is fantasy, they'll just take the offered money, put a bow on the website, and move on to the next sucker in line.
yeah, affects dev too. we haven't really explicitly recognized how this affects us so far, but here it is: how can we make real what isn't there ? we get no specs _because_there_aren't_any_ ! if we were allowed to ask the questions, the lid would come off the box, everyone would peer inside, and well, it's the emperor's new clothes.
so really what they are saying is that they want to have someone else create, market and run a business, create the product (content), provide someone else's services (coaches, speakers), and then they want the money for this, either skimming profits or taking them in their entirety. ! .
well, shoot. yeah, i'd like that too ;-)
but here's the way the world works. if one adds little or no value, then all they are doing is being a source for _other_ companies' revenues, making money off of other people's delusions. or not; they don't really care as long as they are getting _their_ money.
so what value does XXX-department really add ? ok, they can organize a local conference. what value can they add to, for example, their detroit or LA initiatives ? not a lot. those other people are going to have a poker faced discussion with XXX-department, and as soon as the call / meeting is over, they're going to laugh at them behind their backs. or so would be the best case. worst case is that the scam continues to propagate.
so anyway, let's give a bum a mansion and a ceo's compensation. he'll grow into it, right ?
wrong.
normally one is allowed resources etc. when they prove they can responsibly handle them. want a website ? want to pretty up your show case ? well, then, _show_me_the_money_. or the content. the value. as in, "hey, we've got good stuff, if only it was presented better". but hell, those have been the hardest teeth to pull. they want a site, _but_they_are_reluctant_to_put_anything_on_it_ ! so what's the site for, then ?
so to date, they've been claiming that the problem is not with the stuffing, but the casing (like how i keep shifting metaphors ? easy to follow, right ? wrong. and that's what XXX-department (and XXX) has been doing, shape-shifting and losing trust and continuity. like all these parenthesized comments.). and not just the casing, but the sausage makers. us. so they want someone else. the last thing they want to admit is that maybe they haven't got anything.
which is too bad, because XXX _could_ develop worthwhile offerings for the web. but one has to start from a position of acceptance of current reality, and decide on what and what is not possible from there.
as it is, XXX-department wants to go national with stuff that they really don't seem to have a clue about in terms of the infrastructure they will need. and i'm not talking technology here, i'm talking about man-hours, personnel, expertise, and cultural relevance outside of upper middle class white female east-side XXX-city.
and meanwhile, it's the folks over in XXX-other-department who _really_ should be getting our attention and services (website exposure, etc.). they are the ones who are the real heart of what XXX is and does. XXX-department is a flim-flam sideshow, catering to delusional "haves" while pissing on the have-nots because they are afraid that their lack of "joyfullness" might scare off the deep-pocketed elitist conservative snobs _who_don't_even_need_the_help_ !
yeah, it's just a way to fleece some money from the crowd with more money than sense. a tiny effort at justification is made by saying that this money goes to help fund XXX-other-department services. but it doesn't, since these things have always _lost_ money. wtf ?!?
and it's all of _this_ that i've been trying to address, to improve the business by leveraging the technical process to shed some light on the reality of the situation, and thus re-engineer something that they _can_ be proud of, that _does_ contribute value to a broad community, and that _does_ merit revenue to further expand a worthwhile service.
for this, they need to mine their own hearts, not the world's wallets.
i realize that for much of that it would help understanding to have more context, but i won't provide it. just blowing off steam, and using the energy to make a point in the process.
* * * * * *
so, how 'bout them bears ?
;-)
Friday, February 23, 2007
looking forward to a kick-back trip. haven't done anything in a while. it will be good to get out of town for a bit. i'm thinking a six-day "weekend" is a decent goal. starting next thursday. don't come looking for me. i won't be there. anywhere.
have to point this out, silly techno-farts: i received this map via email, as a pdf attachment, which appears to be a scanned image of a printout of the mapquest webpage. oh, fer chrissakes...
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
something over at craig's blog:
... So one of the benefactors (we are entirely driven by charitable donations) is giving us $45 million to continue to expand this project and suck in all of the whistles and bells. But there is one caveat to the whole deal. Isn't there always when that kind of money is being spent? All the coding must be done using open source languages as in follow the LAMP model. ...
this is a far worse problem than he supposes. speaking of soulless ! "i see your success. let me buy it away from you. how about a little money ? isn't that much better than reality ? i mean, it's for a good illusion *cough* cause !"
(i have to comment here, craig doesn't have commenting turned on for his blog.)
and that's not a "people skills" issue, either. the reason these things happen is because of "people skills". otherwise, people would just say "you're fucking crazy" when shit like this comes up. there's a time to tell people to take their money and shove it, and this is one of them. he's out to destroy the project. or whoever it/they are.
yep, as craig says, the academic world is horribly biased about software and systems. i hate to see that, when the scientific types are supposed to be so objective. that was one of the discoveries that turned me off about grad school. and it wasn't even so much the biases themselves, but that these people are so trained to expect objectivity out of themselves, they cannot bear to recognize it when they fall short of that ideal. maybe humans only have a finite capacity for objectivity, and while they are fine in their own fields, it gets made up for by terrible glaucoma in others. (kind of reminds me of kelly bundy's brain...)
time to speak up, people.
not to mention, "open source" is an illusion anyway, and even what limited existence it has is not intrinsically better than proprietary; it's mostly the opposite case.
why no open source ? well, where do you draw the line ? is it the specific application code itself ? the whole stack of tools ? the operating system ? how about the hardware ? as usual, the hypocrites reign. the (adjective omitted) academic folk who are so wedded to their goddess apple seem to forget that that was one of the most proprietary systems to ever exist - yeah, runner-up to sun ! microsoft and all the ibm shit has been far more open in an absolute sense all along. hell, that's how microsoft got started.
as for the superior relative value of proprietary software and how that comes about, i'll leave to to another time not so late in the day.
bottom line: that's a criteria that should not even be considered. far more important: what is proven to work.
* * * * * * *
side note: oh, and hey, craig ? don't be such a weather wimp ;-)
... with another root canal, and crown-to-come. friggin' temproary filling came out almost immediately, not worth replacing, i go in next week for the initial crown work. just meant i had sucky medicine taste / breath all afternoon.
got two scrips, for antibiotic and vicodin, both apparently optional. i don't understand the vicodin, the pain killer wore off, and - nothing. huh. i can live with that. as for the antibiotic, i was going to skp that too (i got nothing at all the last time - maybe it was an oversight?), but with just a hole there, maybe it's best i have something in my system to fight it. i kinda hate putting things in me if i don't need them.
well, except for the obvious exception, that is.
hey hey ! a new cheap camera ! like my new avatar ? this one was only $10. the camera, not the avatar. smartass. the last one i got (i'd have to search this blog for that entry - nah, you do it ;-) (ok, i did it)) was about $25.
i guess you get what you pay for ;-)
it's not really that bad, only close. but it's about a third the size, takes only one aaa, has about the same capacity - and has a key-chain clip ! wow.
well, ok, some of that is not completely sartcastic. i was kinda regretting not having anyway to capture the ice last week. now at least i'll have something, however inadequate to the task (btw, that's the same approach i took to dating ;-)).
that other camera did do a better job; it's top resolution was about twice this one (4x memory). i'll see how this goes. so far this sucks in the webcam department. maybe it's just the low light in here. you can see that effect above, combined with the image compression effect, which is an option. the old camera handled low-light better, without going to b&w, but y'know, this has its charms too.
the other annoying part is that it has a usb cable, and i'm running mouse / kbd on usb already - and i only have two ports. no, forget the hub. maybe it's just time to bring this laptop back to proper life. or give it a decent burial. whatever. or i could give it a spectacular but ignoble death by attempting to upgrade to vista.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
i think the flying spaghetti monster will be all right with this.
[via craig]
2007.02.21, update: the site is down ? oh no ! /.ed ? did somebody drink beer church dry ? well, at least there seem to be many alternative places to worship. then again, there always have been.
Friday, February 16, 2007
... have to mention the ice effects on the trees around here since tuesday. never seen quite anything like this. so cold, that the ice coating has lasted for days. but there has been intense sun almost every day since the storm, so the sparkliness is constant. and looking closely, it's even more than the average ice-storm coating - the sun is just enough to slightly melt the ice in the branches, resulting in tiny icicles draping from everything ! tinsel to the nth degree. i so wish i had a good camera. especially for the small trees just planted last season in the park. they are maybe eight to ten feet tall, and they look like intricate gems now. truly amazing sight.
i can tell that sublimation and the slow effects of the cold sun will have this ended in the next couple of days. temps are supposed to approach freezing again, and that will be the end of it. oh well. it is for reasons like this that i like winter so much, and that i just shake my head at those who can do nothing but curse the cold.
oh, hell no. the greatest art is nature. some day, perhaps, nature's expression through man may reach and exceed these scales. but until then ...
yo, god - dude ... whooaa !!
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
- turned off all my symantec stuff when i was using dial-up ealrier. damn thing wanted to do its "live update" over a phone line - ! it's slow as shit even on broadband. left it off. everything works several times as fast now. pos software.
- my online billing service is telling me that at&t is complaining and wants me to update my profile or something at their site before it will allow updates to be retrieved. so i go there, and what i see is that they want three "security" questions to be chosen, with my answers provided. i have to pick from their questions before i can do anything else. and they're stupid. even better, the questions that you get to choose from change every time you refresh the page ! some asshat design team's wet dream of security, i guess. and the questions ? give me a break. here's a sample:
<option value="71" >What was your boss's first name at your first job?</option>
<option value="116">Last Name of your kindergarten teacher?</option>
<option value="101">Who was your arch rival when you were growing up?</option>
<option value="99" >Other than where you live, what's your favorite city?</option>
<option value="92" >What is the last name of your favorite teacher?</option>
<option value="121">What is your favorite flower?</option>
<option value="98" >What is the last name of the funniest friend you know?</option>
<option value="105">What is the most unusual job you have had?</option>
<option value="59" >Who is your favorite person from history?</option>
<option value="97" >What is your favorite car?</option>
<option value="68" >What is your youngest child's nickname?</option>
<option value="95" >Who is your favorite singer?</option>
<option value="1" >What was the name of your first pet?</option>
<option value="120">Name of a college you applied to but did not attend?</option>
<option value="112">Name of favorite childhood pet?</option>
<option value="117">What is the last name of your childhood doctor?</option>
<option value="109">What is your favorite cartoon character?</option>
<option value="90" >What is the name of your favorite movie?</option>
<option value="102">Where did you go on your honeymoon?</option>
<option value="122">What was your most memorable gift as a child?</option>
<option value="96" >What is your favorite song?</option>
all i know for sure is that they have at least 122 of them.
i don't have an answer for any of these. and most of the others that i saw.
wait - oh yeah - "jeep".
my sister posts to our familly group site:
A valentine song, that was one of Mom's favorites, that I teach to my
preschoolers each year:
@>---- @>---- @>---- @>---- @>---- @>---- @>---- @>---- @>----
Tell me why the stars do shine,
Tell me why the ivy twines,
Tell me why the sky's so blue,
And I will tell you why
I love you.
Because God made the stars to shine,
Because God made the ivy twine,
Because God made the sky so blue,
Because God made you, that's why
I love you.
@>---- @>---- @>---- @>---- @>---- @>---- @>---- @>----
just thought i'd share.
... that seeing a low car insurance premium would be depressing. my price reference point is still twenty five years ago, where the actuarial realities of my youth would slap me in the face every 3 months. i think i was paying as much, or more, then for a month as i do now for six months - and that's not even putting it in terms of today's dollars !
yeah, ok, i post too much when i'm sitting at home instead of working. sometimes. but it's not like it was when i used to sit on the couch with the laptop in its nominal position, ready for every in(s)anity that my remaining neurons would conjure.
i just noticed it broke my website's sitemap css. add it to the list.
man, that was a trip. to make a short story long:
good ol' lazy me (i'm not blaming self for this) decided to let bills go for a few months. yeah, yeah - save it. anyway, i thought that as long as i had some advance notice about power and broadband shut-off, i could catch it in time to prevent being disconnected and having to boot-strap connectivity and services from scratch. getting on the grid takes work too, y'know.
so here i am, going to work this morning, got my coffee, drove into the parking lot, and it turns out the place is closed. no cars anywhere, no lights. wtf ?! the roads aren't that bad. the ice on the trees was pretty in the sun. oh well, maybe with all the schools closed & the power outages & the kids at home etc. it's a good idea anyway.
i head home. before i get too comfortable, i figure maybe i should check the website or company email to see if anyone had anything to say about it. what the-- hey! what happened to my internet connection ? it was just there. friggin' modem / router is all blinkin' greens. i try power cycling and rebooting it, but no help. i figure maybe roadrunner is down, you know, with the storm. oh well, i wasn't going to be able to work from home anyway. i don't have that kind of access (VPN), being a contractor and all. i could just try to pick up the threads of the document i was writing and merge the stuff together later, but that's just a lot of work. screw it - take the day off. maybe i'll just do bills - finally... only because i find bill-paying just slightly more palatable than the wasteland of daytime tv, and then only on special occasions.
i was curious, i never quite saw my broadband service fail that way before. the led patterns are different. this was pretty distinctive - all the lights are blinking in synch. so i look it up - says "network access denied". uh-oh. do y' think ... ? but i never got any email ! i figured for sure they would send an email to the account owner address. whaddya mean, check my mail ? who does bills on paper these days ? hell, i haven't even opened my mail, since, uh, ...
then again, i don't answer my phone(s) either, and only occasionally check voicemail, mostly out of morbid curiousity, since weeks old messages aren't usually relevant anymore.
and there it is - or rather, they are - two messages from time-warner, two weeks ago. nothing specific, just "call us, it's important". not real useful. but that was it.
then at 8:30 this morning, sszzzt, nothing.
but that's not what was trippy (i said "short story long", didn't i ?). my fallback position is to fire up aol in dial-up mode. yeah, ok, that's a bit trippy, but not the one i had in mind. dang, is dial-up slow, or what ? seems all the websites these days are designed for broadband users - even the sites trying to sell broadband to dial-up users ! now there's a study in useless design ;-) i finally locate the time-warner billing page (does anyone realize how critical good website navigation is if you've got a slow connection ? hunting for pages is just not a valid option.) i log in. woo-hoo ! a light-weight page. i enter my credit card info. check-box: you can make this a direct-debit transaction and it will be processed in realtime, as with an atm. hmm, ok, that sounds like a good option in this case. *check* *click*. "please wait at least ..." *page returns*. hmm, let me look at my account summary... *click* interesting, says my high-speed cable is active... *glance at modem*...
DAMN! all the lights are firin' up like things are normal again.
that was fast! instant friggin' service! wasn't expecting that. yes, this was the trippy part. well, ok, at least something about B2C is working right these days. i was sure there'd have to be at least one phone call where the humble consumer had to bow and scrape before the paragons of virtue and financial morality over at the billing center, requesting please, restore my service, forgive me, i won't do it again (i was going to have self do that part. fair? who said anything about 'fair'?).
so i quickly drop dial-up, sure enough, i'm online, life is wonderful, and to celebrate my newly rehabilitated digital reputation, i fire off this post.
huh ? pay my what ?
small footnote to this: i noticed that my bandwidth suffered more the longer my bills were overdue. instead of 5mbps, i was getting 2mpbs or less. probably pretty smart of them. but then, if they were really smart, they wouldn't actually cut a customer's service off after two and a half months, they should just downgrade it to 100kbps, which would get the person's attention yet still allow them to easily pay *hint, hint*. as in, capture all their page requests and redirect to them to bill payment.
Saturday, February 03, 2007
ok, finally opened up my KoL clan for others. mostly maybe family. look at my KoL player profile, click on the clan, and go from there.
i also set up a clan forum here, which seemed like the responsible (?!) thing to do. need to get used to managing the cs version of this, since that's what i'll be shortly asking a customer to do. so far, some annoyances...
remember that if you register on this site, you can post comments and participate in the forums. who knows, if you want and ask nice, we can also set up a blog for you of your Very Own™
i'd really like to enable anonymous comments (never forum posts), but the spam factor, even with various counter-spam strategies, just plain sucks. be assured that registering here is only to make sure you're not a bot. or at least, not an unsophisticated one.
i mean, how do you know that i'm not a bot ?
you don't.
Friday, February 02, 2007
Tucking in the Friar
While stumbling along the dimly lit aisles of the cellar, you encounter a fat little man wearing a brown, hooded cloak. "Hey," you say, "are you lost? Do you need some help?"
The little man holds up a handful of grain. "This is grain," he says. "which any fool can eat, but for which the Lord intended a more divine means of consumption. Let us give praise to our maker and glory to his bounty by learning about... beer!" He says, swaying back and forth and almost falling over.
"I think you've learned enough about beer today," you say.
"Nonshense. I can contemplate the majesty of beer all day long! I'm a member of an ancient order, the Deep Fat Friars. I could table you under the... drink you table the... you... I..." The friar collapses on the ground and starts snoring. You cover him with a nearby blanket, grab one of his leftover beers, and continue on.
KoL
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