Mama visit and service organizations

My mom came and visited us last weekend, it was great to see her again (I saw her a couple of weeks ago for a few hours, but before that it had been quite a while). She and Larry stayed over the weekend and we went and did lots of stuff, mostly walking around and checking out various institutions. Clau tried to get us to go to a gospel service on Sunday morning, but unfortunately I was a big buzzkill and didn't want to leave the apartment so early.
We ended up checking out the Tribeca film festival - we watched a documentary short collection called "Family Legacy" (you can find it here), which was really good. That night we watched Planet B-Boy at the "Tribeca Drive-in", which was also very, very cool. I probably would have rated both of them 4 stars out of 5 on Netflix. We also tried to get into the comedy panel, but since that was about the hottest ticket in the festival, we didn't really stand a chance. But, we tried.
Mama and I talked about part of her work, which is improving service processes. Of course, one thing I'm constantly lamenting about (although not in this particular venue) is how the standard of customer service in the U.S. has gone completely downhill in the name of efficiency and the bottom line. My mother is trying to educate companies on ways that they can improve this and still make money - theoretically, they could actually increase their bottom line, although I'm sure it's a tough sell. Let me just outline a few anecdotes about customer service.

1) Whenever you have a forum or other thread regarding the customer service hell for Dell / HP / whatever, you invariably have an Apple fanboy pop up about how great Apple's service is. I haven't tested this myself (since I haven't had any problems with my Macbook, which is perhaps the best testimony of all), but apparently you can call for support with either a hardware or OS X problem, and the phone is actually answered within 5 minutes by a native English speaker. If you don't live near an Apple store (by virtue of living in Manhattan I happen to live near a 24-hour Apple store, with another on the way in my own neighborhood), they will send you a postage-paid box to send them the item for repair. What's a little sad is that this makes Apple absolutely head-and-shoulders above the rest; IMHO, this ought to be the norm (or at least not quite so far ahead of the norm).

2) About 8 years or so ago, I had a problem with a bill that I had paid online. If memory serves, the receiving party had inadvertently moved the decimal point, so that a $20 payment was registered as a $2 payment. IIRC the payee was AT&T, but don't quote me on that. I checked my bank records and the payee had indeed received $20 from my bank account. So, the first thing I did was call AT&T to see if they had discovered the mistake and corrected it. I must have spent 45 minutes in voicemail, on hold, talking to the AT&T CSR, on hold some more, finally talking to a supervisor, with the end result being that they would look into it after receiving by certified mail a copy of the canceled check. I explained that it was an electronic payment and there likely was no physical check, and they basically told me I was SOL. Worst of all, they made it very clear that they had no intention of investigating the matter further until I came up with some proof. I hung up in disgust, took some deep breaths, and prepared to go through the same thing with Wells Fargo. I talked to the rep, explained what had happened, and gave him the confirmation number for the electronic payment. He immediately responded with "Well, it looks like you paid them $20, so AT&T probably made a mistake." My heart sank for a moment, and then he said "we'll take care of it". He gave me a case number and told me to call back if it wasn't resolved in 5 days. The whole thing took less than 5 minutes. The best part? They actually took care of it - I never had to call them again about the case. And, I'll tell you, even though I don't live anywhere near a Wells Fargo bank anymore, that's still my primary bank account, all because of that one incident. Of course, usually when I tell this story to people, I add the footnote "You know, it's sad that the Wells Fargo story is so exceptional - this sort of experience ought to be the norm."

3) My wife works for a large food company who has outsourced their IT department, and she is constantly lamenting the poor service. The contractor company routinely pulls really, really nasty tricks, most notably closing tickets without actually solving the problem, then opening a fresh ticket when the customer complains. For those of you who can't understand why they do this, the reason is twofold:

• Companies typically have SLA (Service Level Agreements) with the customer, such as "we will fix 90% of your issues within 3 business days and 95% within 10 business days". Since most calls are of the "I forgot my password" variety, this is actually a pretty easy metric to meet. However, if you realize you've screwed up, you can always cheat by closing the ticket prematurely, then opening a new ticket, thus reseting the clock.
• Service companies are paid based on the number of incidents you're logging. It's usually on a "we expect X incidents per month - if that number goes up or down, then we'll adjust the accounting next month", but it could even be on a "you will pay $x per incident" basis. Obviously, having two tickets is better than only having one.

There are many ways to avoid these problems, the most obvious of which is a "pending customer approval" feature in closing the ticket: after the tech closes the ticket, the clock stops pending an approval / rejection from the customer. If the customer rejects the ticket closure, the clock starts up again. This is far from revolutionary; most modern ticketing systems have this feature. At the very least, you should have a customer feedback option for a ticket - this allows the customer to both praise and complain. This is at least an opportunity for the customer to say "you shouldn't have closed this ticket, since you didn't actually do the thing you were supposed to do." It's also an opportunity for excellent CSRs and techies to get their due praise. When I worked for QAD, they had a pretty simple system where three positive comments (or perhaps just one particularly gushing comment) would earn you a "blue dot", complete with a cheesy certificate. Three "blue dot" certificates could be cashed in for a day off, anytime, no questions asked. Most of us actually ended up saving our blue dots and decorating our walls with them, or stacking them somewhere. I think that, deep down, everyone was really proud of their blue dot collection, even if we all acted like they were stupid.
Anyway, to get back to my wife's outsourced IT contractor, they don't even have a way for the customer to enter feedback. So, they basically have license to create their own metrics. And the best part is that whoever signed these jokers up is probably being praised for trimming the cost of IT so efficiently. In the meantime, my wife's issues (most of which are of the "I need this piece of software installed on person X's workstation" or "I need person X added to domain group Y" variety) are usually completed after more than a week, and far too often involve multiple tickets.

Just like everyone else, I can probably rattle at least 3 or 4 hellish customer service experiences that I've had in the last few years. Since I'm pretty handy with most tech things, I'm guessing that I'm on the low end of the spectrum. I can only imagine what life is like for folks who don't know computers / software / whatever very well - it would probably turn me off of ever learning how to use a computer in the first place. Unless, of course, I bought an Apple.

How geeks think

So, the elevator in the building where I work sucks - when you get in on the ground floor and hit the button for your floor, it takes about 30 seconds before the elevator doors shut. I know that's not a long time, but it feels like an eternity when you're standing there waiting for the doors to close.
So, I noticed that when one elevator car is in this process, and another elevator car brings people to the ground floor, the second elevator car will close its doors almost immediately after the folks get out. So, I figured, the programming for the elevator designates the first car as "waiting for folks to get on", and the other cars as "free to roam". This situation actually comes up quite often.
So, after noticing that, the next time the opportunity pops up I jump into the second elevator car right after everyone gets out. Someone else jumps in with me. We both hit our buttons as the doors are closing, and the elevator immediately resets - the doors open, all the lit buttons become un-lit, and then 30 seconds later we're off. Definitely not an improvement.
So, the next time it comes up and I'm alone, I jump in at the last second, wait until the doors close and the elevator starts to move, then hit my button. Success!

I know it sounds stupid to be going through all this trouble just to figure out how to save 30 seconds once in a while, but it's more the challenge of it and the idea of "is there a way to make this experience better / faster / more efficient?". That's how I think all the time, about everything. My wife, thankfully, finds it quirky and charming, but give her a few more years with me and she may change her mind about that.
For you non-geeky people, this is how geeks think about everything - I don't know if it's on account of my work or if this trait makes me suited for tech work, but it seems to be a trait common to most techies. If you can't stand someone like that, don't get involved with a techie...

Tech things everyone should know

OK, so the other day I'm talking with someone at work about a problem w/ some systems. Basically we have a couple of PCs with very large Dell monitors, which for some reason aren't hooked up. I talked more multiple people and the response I kept getting was that the computers didn't have enough power for the monitors, to which my response was always "huh?"
After finally taking a look at the systems themselves, I realized that they only had VGA ports, and the monitors only had DVI inputs. You would not believe how long it took to explain to people about what a video card is, and how we just needed another type of video card to connect to the monitors. The simple concept of a video card seemed to be too much for most of the people I talked to.
In my extensive time working in tech, I've discovered that there's a lot of things that people don't seem to know, and that I have to keep reminding myself is not common knowledge. So, here's a quick list of things that you ought to know if you work with computers in any capacity (not "If you fix computers for a living" - just "if you work with a computer in the course of your regular job, particularly if you work for a tech company").

1) What is an IP address. I'm shocked at how often I'm trying to explain something to somebody and the whole concept is so foreign. An IP address is a unique number that identifies your computer on a network, like a phone number identifies your phone. Is that so hard to memorize or understand?
Extra credit 1: The concept of private vs. public IP addresses, even more credit for knowing the private subnets (at least the popular two).
Extra credit 2: How to determine your IP address on your computer

2) The concept of network storage. Again, if I had a nickel for every time someone told me they put something on their "M drive" with no idea whatsoever of what that means...well, I'd have a lot of nickels. I could understand it back in the mid-90's, but c'mon! The concept has not changed at all since it was introduced a loooong time ago.

3) Viruses and spyware are bad, even if they're not messing up your life too badly. Again, in the "if I had a nickel" department, folks who's computers are just completely infested with crap, so badly that I'm scared to plug my laptop into their network. When I ask them "how long have these porn pop-ups been appearing?" the answer is usually in terms of weeks or months. The fact that you didn't seek help until your system was unusable indicates an underestimation on your part of the seriousness of the infections. Funny how people don't do this with anything else: "Well, the car has been getting slower and slower, now it won't go more than 25mph, but since I can get anywhere I need to by city streets, I'm not really concerned about what might be wrong. Maybe I'll contact a mechanic when it starts topping out at 10mph". And most of this experience is from when I was the I.T. guy at work (i.e. it didn't even cost them anything).

4) You don't have to double-click everything. Yeah, maybe it's obvious to you, but you would be amazed at how often I see people still double-clicking everything, be it a folder, a link in a web browser, or whatever. Lots of times this can really screw things up (for example double-clicking the Submit button in a web form will make it run twice).

5) Know what to look for in a new computer. This one comes up a lot - someone calls me up, since I supposedly know a lot about "computers" and tells me they're thinking about buying a new one - there's an ad in the paper for a computer for $499, and it has a 100GB hard drive - that's a good deal, right? Of course, there are a lot of nuances regarding pricing, but the main things you should be concerned with are CPU type/speed and RAM. Of course, the rankings of "adequate / better / more than you need" are constantly changing, but everyone's got someone they can call and ask about that. And, the most important thing to know is that HARD DRIVES ARE CHEAP! A computer with a 200GB HD is not worth twice as much as one with a 100GB HD. Seems obvious to you? Believe me, it's not to most people. Oh yeah, and one other thing people don't seem to get: in terms of bang for your buck, laptops are a hell of a lot more expensive to buy, prone to break, and expensive to fix, so don't get one unless you really need the mobility.

6) Applications cannot be transfered by copying files. This one doesn't necessarily qualify, since you need to have some basic understanding of files etc. to make this mistake, but a lot of people mistakenly believe that when they buy a new computer, they should be able to just copy their applications from the old computer onto the new one. Unfortunately this almost never works - I don't expect people to understand the registry (least of all because then they'll probably also discover the regedit command and that's game over), but people really ought to know that you can't just copy an application from one machine to another. I do have a lot of forgiveness for this one, though, since the assumption seems pretty logical on the surface, and I don't expect the layman to know about the registry.

I have, of course, left out a lot of other stuff that seems basic to me but I understand is foreign to people who don't work with this stuff on a regular basis. I mean, I get that most people don't want to know any more about their computer than they need to in order to get the job done, but seriously - these are just really basic things that everyone ought to know.

Netflix reviews

You know, I really rather like Netflix - they had a really great and revolutionary (for the time) idea, they pulled together the (very large) amount of money required to get it off the ground, and the whole thing really took off. Most companies would have rested on their laurels, raked in the money while putting forth minimal effort, and ultimately suffered the demise of all the dial-up ISPs. Netflix, however, has been trying to continually improve the experience, and so far I have to say I like all of their features - the way you can interact with friends or search for other folks who have the same tastes as you, the recommendation system (admittedly not great, but they did put up that famous $1M bounty for anyone who can come up with a better one - and turn it over to Netflix). They've created an "online viewing" credit system where you can watch movies streaming over your broadband connection (Windows-only, DRM up the wazoo, but hey at least they're trying).
My only issue, I suppose, is that there doesn't seem to be any way to request a movie. I've got three movies in my "Saved" list (i.e. movies that Netflix doesn't have but you would like to rent): My Dinner with Andre, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, and Thesis. I don't think that any of these are too esoteric (except maybe Thesis) to warrant having at least one copy around somewhere, right?

Finally, I was surfing Netflix and looking for films I can rent while Clau is out. I saw a preview for The Protector and I figured I would check it out while Clau's out. The review by Stephen Richards sold me on it:

"If you see this film, a lot of your problems will be solved, this I promise you. You will know, after viewing this feature: 1. What your favorite action film is. 2. How to break a person's leg in three places using only the area behind your knee and 3. How to dispatch of four or five wrestlers on steriods using only the bones of an elephant. This film saved my life. Will it do the same for you? The short answer is 'yes'. The long answer is ALSO 'yes'."

Yeah, that guy really liked it.

TV Shows that should have survived

I wrote a post a while ago about TV shows that should have survived longer - I just read a post about the same thing, looks like we were all on the same wavelength (except for Kingpin, but I stand by that one).

My gym injuries finally healed (around Saturday) - Clau has left for Venezuela, I'm trying to not stress about her safety. She'll be gone until next Wednesday so I'm trying to diet and exercise in the meantime!

Work is...work. Some interesting stuff coming down the line but at the moment it's generally drudgery. Just gotta hang on until the exciting stuff happens.

Diet + gym = misery

OK, so the wife and I have been on a joint-venture diet for a couple of months now, and we're actually doing pretty well, although I feel like we've been slipping a bit over the last week or so. Last week was especially rough for me since I ended up going to a lot of after-hours work functions at which I was offered free beer - and let's face it, I can't turn down free beer. A friend of our was leaving NY and had a party at the Spotted Pig (they have a fantastic burger smothered in Roquefort), Clau had two midterm exams last week and needed some beers to chill out, Sam cooked and invited us over to eat the food (Sam's a really good cook so you can't turn that down), etc etc. You know how it goes - when it rains, it pours.
So, to make myself feel somewhat less guilty, I've gone to the gym slightly more than usual lately (well, going at all is really slightly more than usual for me). Normally I just chug on the elliptical treadmill for 30 minutes or so, since every other type of cardio is a bit hard on my knees (they really started to give me trouble in my mid-20's - all that basketball in my youth probably messed them up good). I decided yesterday that I should try the 30-minute abdominals group class, figuring I'd maybe speed up the shrinking of my beer gut, and I could get about 20 minutes of cardio afterward.
Oh man, was that ever a bad judgement call. After the ab class I basically stumbled home, with only the thought of not passing out or puking on the sidewalk, and I just wanted to make it into (and out of) the shower before every muscle in my midsection and back locked up and prevented me from moving again. I actually felt better after the shower and was able to function, but today I have aches in places where I wasn't even aware I had muscles. I don't know how I'll convince myself to ever do that again.
The funny thing about exercise, diet, etc is that it's all so damn hard in the beginning. I'm sure that if I stick with the ab classes (although just the thought makes everything hurt even more), I'll end up getting through it and even enjoying it, and I'll wonder what I thought was so hard about it in the first place. Dieting is the same way; you feel so damn hungry all the time, but after a couple of weeks it just feels normal, and eating something you used to have no problem with (like a big-ass burger and fries) makes you feel sort of queasy. So, I think I'm going to try to tough it out, maybe I can have a nice flat stomach for swimsuit season (truthfully, I'd be content to just not be embarrassed on the beach). Today, however, I'll be proud of myself if I can just get back on that elliptical machine for 20 minutes and not spend the evening playing video games instead.
Overall, the diet's been a really positive experience. Both Clau and I have lost somewhere between 5 and 10 percent of our original body weight, and we're both feeling a lot better in general. She's going to be on a business trip for the next couple of weeks, hopefully she'll be able to stick to it (although I certainly won't blame her if she can't), and I'm going to try to work out every day, since I won't be sacrificing any time spent with her. Hopefully she can come home to a man who's in considerably better shape than I am now. But more likely is that I'll just end up hanging around and watching TV. Hey, at least I know myself.

Updates

Well, apparently I succeeded in turning my family onto this, because I got a few emails / calls from family and friends saying "Hey, no updates? How's the new job?" Well, I've been avoiding writing about it for a few reasons, mostly because I know that first impressions often end up being incorrect, and I don't want to give an incorrect assessment just to look back on it later on in embarrassment. But, so far, here's the gist: I don't have a heck of a lot to do, and I'm constantly double- and triple-checking my email to make sure that there isn't some looming action item that I've managed to forget about. So far I seem to have everything in hand. This is, of course, a big change from having work casually tossed onto my plate all the time, so much that there's really no time to organize everything. So, that's big adjustment #1. My wife tells me that this is normal for a job and that the workload will increase soon. I hope so, because at the moment I'm feeling significantly underutilized.
The other big, big difference between Company_A and Company_B is the acknowledgment factor. At Company_A, I worked my fanny off all the time and it was just sort of expected. The people who I did things for were generally grateful, but on the other hand it was my job, and many times I managed to think way outside of the box and make something work that really should have been inviable. Not that I expected praise for this; it was, after all, my job, and I was good at it. At Company_B, it's the exact opposite - I get asked to make something work in a relatively standard fashion, and most times I just end up delegating it to someone else. For the rare time where I have to do something even slightly non-standard (i.e. write some kind of Perl filter or a hook for one application to another), I crank it out and receive endless praise for it. Keep in mind that these are not particularly convoluted things, and the best part is that I can say "no, we're not going to do that because that will create problems in the future", and WE DON"T DO IT! If I'm asked to do something really wacky, I can just say "no". If a developer writes himself into a corner and there's no way I can help him without introducing more problems down the line (i.e. a band-aid that I know will haunt us forever), I can simply tell him that he's got to go back and start over again. How sweet is that?!?
On a personal note, last Saturday we spent the day with our friend Aki. Aki is a Japanese Carioca who lived in NYC for about 10 years, and she loves food. She's introduced us to countless wonderful, reasonably-priced restaurants, and she absolutely outdid herself on Saturday - we went to a Japanese restaurant on Saturday night and had just about the best fish I've ever had. Grilled yellowtail with almost no seasoning or oil, just absolutely delicious fish. Fish stewed in sweet miso that was almost like a desert. Grilled toro, cooked just right, with the consistency of a rib eye steak. Sashimi that was like butter - I'm not a big sashimi fan but I gotta admit it was really, really good. For three people the bill came out to $100 - pretty damn good. Can't remember the name of the place but we'll for sure be taking our friends there when we get a chance.
Anyway, got to get back to work - going to quadruple-check and make sure I'm caught up...

--Nate

Oops

Well, apparantly the word of my blog somehow made its way to Company_A - even though I'm pretty sure I haven't said anything that would get my into legal trouble, it's an indication that this is far from a private blog, so I'd better watch myself. Therefore, I've removed my last post that had stuff about my new employer and a few bits of my personal dirty laundry at Company_A, and I'll be sure to not mention my new place by name. I think from now on I'll refer to it as Company_B.
One last day at - I've got a project that I've been working on for the last couple of days, and unfortunately I think there's been some miscommunication between the developer and me - I think I assumed that he was briefed better on the requirements. Thankfully, he's a speedy coder so he's been able to get my fixes done quickly, and I hope he'll have everything fixed by tomorrow morning. After that, I can leave with a clean conscience.
Brass Monkey tomorrow, then getting on a plane Sat morning - I can almost taste the freedom!

--Nate

Incidentally

The MacBook rocks. It's been a really neat experience to play with it - I can't remember the last time I felt like such a newbie with a computer. But, of course, I can still do my Unix commands if I need to. And, with a working JRE, C compiler, and dev libraries, I can compile most of my apps if I need to. But, I so rarely need to - so far I've found an app to do everything I've wanted to do. It is awesome.

Thinking of Sam and Matt

Sam and Matt had to race to London for a family medical emergency, so we haven't talked to them in a little bit, although we're certainly thinking about them. In the meantime, stuff with Matt is popping up everywhere.
We went out to dinner w/ them last weekend and Matt told us about this insane dream that he had - he wrote out the story on his blog and I gotta say it's freaky. Sam said that she woke up at the same time as him, he told her about the dream, and then she couldn't get back to sleep because it freaked her out so much. So, check it out - it's bizarre.
Also, Matt turned me on to the best of bootie last year - I was never into mash-ups but I thought it was really cool. And now the Best of Bootie 2006 is available. I'm listening to it and I'm totally digging it.
This weekend will be all about errands - we bought a storage space in our apartment so we'll be moving all of our crap out of Chelsea Mini-Storage and putting it in our new unit, plus some other errands. If there's time I really want to go to the Robert Mueck exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum, hopefully we can go to that and maybe even see the Botanical Gardens while we're there...

I gots me a Mac

About a week ago, we went with Anderson and Andrea to help them get a new laptop - Andrea settled on a MacBook, and I could only sit there and drool over the shiny computer. Clau made me a deal: if I got rid of all the computer gear lying around the house, she would get one for me.
As luck would have it, there was a massive electronics recycling drive yesterday at Union Square. We enlisted Anderson and Andrea to help out and ended up taking two desktops, five laptops, and two suitcases full of various parts to the recycling drive. And, as a reward, I got my own MacBook. It's soooo pretty. I can't wait to get home and play with it some more - I'll post more about it as I learn more.

Happy 2007!

Well, as a reward for getting the Professional side of search out on time, our reward is to scramble to get the Consumer side out this week. This is actually much more of a burden on other folks than it is on me, since I worked pretty hard on getting it out last week, and as far as I can tell it's just finishing touches. Of course, as everyone in tech knows, the last 5% of the work can often take a disproportionately large amount of time - part of being an experienced pro is recognizing that the "polishing up" can sometimes take nearly as long as the core of the application.
The NYE party was a big success - Sam and Matt brought Matt and Lily over, Ted and Katie came over as well and a good time was had by all. The Brooklyn crowd brought lots of beer, Prosecco, wine, and muchies; Ted and Katie brought hard liquor and killer bean dip. Clau and I provided the camarao com catupiri and the midnight champagne (Veuve Cliquot and Tattinger). When Clau and I cleaned up the next morning, all the wine and champagne had been drunk, as well as the majority of the liquor, so I think everyone enjoyed themselves. The only drag is that Matt lost his awesome phone and now he has to go through insurance to get another one.

End of the Year

Had Neil over here for the week before Xmas, it was so good to see him but I barely got to spend any time with him due to work overload. Due to my improper time management he almost missed his plane home (I'm guessing his bag took a different flight), but at least I managed to get him on the plane. Ted took him around for a day, so Clau and I are taking him and Katie out for dinner tonight. Incidentally, we still owe Sam and Matt a dinner for Sam's referral money.
Apparantly we're hosting a NYE party on Sunday - I actually like that, although anyone who wants to get back from our place is going to have a rough time getting a cab.
Recruiter stuff has died down, which works out well for me since I've been so busy lately and wouldn't have had any time for interviewing.
Worked some really insane hours for the last few weeks in an effort to get a new search platform out the door in 2006. I'm actually pretty surprised that we pulled it off.
Lately I'm so tired, all I want to do is sleep for about 16 hours. So, most likely there will not be any cool insights from me coming up until 2007.

Happy New Year, everyone!

For love or money

I've noticed that I'm not very good at being a "company man". I have my own life and generally I expect a good work/life balance from my job. When a crunch comes, I expect that I'll be working some long days (or weeks), and I'm OK with that. When I have a situation in my personal life, I expect it the company to be able to bend the other way and allow me the extra time I need to get it dealt with. When the two come at the same time, I expect the company to respect that - I suppose that the compromise would be to work normal hours with maybe a tiny bit extra thrown in where possible.
So, I'm in a situation where I have stuff going on at home - I had my family's annual Xmas party last weekend, and my little brother is visiting me for a week here; he's really stepped up and improved his grades, and when asked what he might like for a reward, the only thing he wanted was to come visit me in NYC. On the work side, I've been handed some very high-profile projects that were already ridiculously late with the task of saving them and getting them out the door by the end of the year. As a result, I've been working until midnight most nights, and needless to say I haven't gotten a lot of time with my brother. I also got a big ration of shit for taking off at 3pm on Friday to make the plane, and for not being around on the weekend. And the thing that amazes me about this is that nobody seems to care.
Which got me thinking - I'm not getting anything out of all this overtime. I'm not going to get a big bonus, I'm not going to get a raise, I'm not up for a promotion - so why am I doing it? Which made me wonder, why is everyone else doing it? I can only guess that my managers have some sort of monetary incentive if everything goes out on time, whereas I'm just told to work longer and harder. Many of my coworkers are working crazy hours and don't seem to be complaining, but I think they're "company men", whereas I'm really not. I fancy myself as more of a mercenary: I do it for the plunder, and I do it well. If you want to really piss me off, make me work a lot more for no extra benefit. For bonus angry points, wait until around the holidays when I (just like everyone else) have a bunch of shit going on; family, shopping, vacation, etc. There's nothing like that combo to make an employee start calling headhunters.
I guess it comes down to (for me, at least) a simple reciprocal relationship: as my employer, if you treat me with respect, then I'll do the same. If you treat me like a "resource" (a word that, when used as a euphemism for "person", never fails to grate on my nerves), then that's how I'll act. At the very least my boss could offer me something, but I know he won't, because there's nothing in it for him.
Personally, I think that treating your employees that way is bad in the long run, because it eliminates all sense of loyalty. A lot of people stick around in their jobs because they worry that the company will suffer without them (even though they're usually mistaken about that), or out of some sense of loyalty. When the company makes it clear that they don't care about the employees, the employees usually go somewhere else.
This wasn't written very well, mostly because I wanted to post something and I wanted to write about this in particular, but for the reasons mentioned above I don't have much time to do it. But, hopefully, I got my message out.

Company_A Happenings

I guess that in some other posts I've been saying "there's lots happening at Company_A and I'll write about it soon", but I haven't really updated. So, let's get into it:
1) Company_A has been working on a very large project. I don't want to get into what it is (not sure if I can legally get into it), but suffice it to say that it involves some very expensive products, a large team of consultants, and just about everybody in the tech area of the organization from both sides of the house (consumer-oriented and professional-oriented). The consumer side of the house has taken a serious beating for the last six months or so, with a few people having absolutely lost any hope they might have had of a life outside of work. Fortunately, this doesn't include me at the moment, but my day in the barrel is coming.
2) Two people from my group have left - this is out of a group that's only made up of seven people. I can guarantee that at least one more will be leaving within a month.
3) Most of the senior developers have left.

Right now I wouldn't call it a sinking ship - I'd more call it a revolving door. There's people coming and going at a high rate, and for every person that leaves, there's another one coming in before the first fellow's seat has gone cold.

As a result of the people in my group leaving, I now have many more projects than before. Naturally, I have to play catch-up with all of them, since I'm going into mostly unfamiliar territory with most of them. I will probably be very unhappy with the workload in a few weeks, but to be honest it feels good to just be doing something in the Linux world; I've spent the last few months focusing on a video project that's all Windows-based, and mostly it's been pretty dull with a lot of drudgery. I had one good opportunity to learn some Windows scripting, but it came at a bad time (I didn't really have any time to commit to it), so I cheated and installed Cygwin, then wrote a bash script to deal with it.

I could write a long list of gripes about Company_A (you know I could do that, since I'm such a big fan of gripe lists), but suffice it to say that I'm not happy and I don't see that changing in the future. Actually, it's more like the relationship I had before I met Clau - I liked her, there was nothing wrong with her per se, and I could see myself being with her for another five years, but I knew she wasn't right for me. It broke my heart to break up with her, but I knew it was the right thing to do. I'm not unhappy with Company_A, but it's not (and never was) the right place for me, and it's time to do the right thing. Two days ago I bit the bullet and called my recruiter. I spent yesterday fixing up my resume - from what I wrote about it, you would think I've been having a blast at Company_A; my list of completed projects looks varied and impressive. For the next gig, I'm going to either go with "big fish in a little pond" or "little fish in a big pond". There are benefits to both - big fish allows me to move my skills in some different directions, whereas little fish allows me to hone my craft and eventually work towards "big fish in a big pond".

So, those are the big developments in my working life. Personal life is basically the same as it was - the big news is that Clau and I are going to the Bay Area for our annual visit and my grandmother's famous Xmas party - Clau's brother is also in the Bay Area, so now we have even more folks that we have to divide our attentions among. I'm very much looking forward to finally meeting my little sister, and I'm also going to get to see Adrian that weekend (who I haven't seen since last Thanksgiving in Missouri). After that, we're taking the redeye on Sunday night back to NY, and Neil is coming with us and staying for the week - we really have to look up some stuff for him to do (and make sure he brings appropriate clothing - it's getting really cold).

Hopefully I'll have another update before the holidays...

Techie career planning

I'm going to state a fact that (almost) every techie like me has to come to grips with: you can't have a career as a techie.
Sure, you can spend 10-20 years doing what I'm doing and enjoying it, but eventually it'll be time to meet your techie maker. This is a young man's game; it demands fast thinking in a high-pressure environment, knowledge and familiarity with emerging technologies, and an above-average dedication to the job. Eventually you simply get too old to do it.
So, how do most people work around this? Some go into the managerial track, which actually has a career path and some semblance of stability once you pass the age of 35 or so. Some go for higher and higher levels of specialization and salary, in hopes that they'll have enough to retire on when they become dinosaurs. I've been leaning towards the second option, since management has never held much appeal for me, but to be honest I've been trying not to think about it. Fortunately, I have a backup plan in my wife, who loves corporate life and will become a great success by the time I need to be put out to pasture.
I was talking with Matt last weekend, and he presented a third, interesting option: take the entrepreneurial track. Work on independent projects in your spare time and see where they go. Some may end up being just another untouched open-source project, but some may turn into the kind of thing that lots of people would want to work on and try out. You may even hit the jackpot and discover that you've created a product or service that lots of companies want and are willing to pay for (or, alternately, that a similar company views as competition and wants to purchase).
So, Matt and I got into a long conversation about it. He recently noticed that Prosper has opened up a lot of their data and will be creating an API (basically a bunch of pre-configured ways to talk to prosper.com and do things without using the website). Matt wants to write some apps to help us decide on the best loans to bid on, and maybe release it to the general public if it works well for us. Also Matt considered writing a sniping tool, which would be cool. This one probably wouldn't ever become a profitable item, but it would a nice trial run.

Fish on Thanksgiving

Clau and I went to Aruba for the Thanksgiving week - it was a good way to get some time to ourselves with a limited number of vacation days. I don't think we'll be going back there - it has the advantage of being (relatively) nearby and environmentally unspoiled, but other than that the whole damn island feels like one big tourist trap. I'm guessing that the population when we were there was probably equal parts tourists and locals (and probably swings to the tourist side during the winter months). Overall I did get what I wanted: beach, tropical drinks, a little time to get reacquainted with my wife, etc. However, there were many things that I didn't like and why I wouldn't recommend Aruba to my friends. In my usual fashion, I've compiled a list of gripes:

• Every hotel and some of the restaurants automatically add a "service charge" to the bill. In hotels, this charge gets tacked onto _everything_, from the restaurant to the spa to the coffee cart in the lobby. Unprovoked, they will go to great lengths to explain to you that it's not a gratuity. It really started to piss us off after awhile. After that experience, I understand how Clau feels about taxes in restaurants in the U.S. (in Brazil, taxes are included in the menu price, so end up spending what you think you'll be spending). Of course, the "service charge" is even worse - you could make an argument either way on including the tax in the price, but it's something that the restaurant has to pay to the government no matter what - it's just a matter of factoring it into the listed price or not; what these hotels are doing is setting a price, then asking for 15% more on top of that price for no apparent reason, then expecting a tip on top of it. I should also mention that the prices are roughly equivalent to NYC (although the quality is generally sub-NY).
• Everything is geared towards Americans. Perhaps this seems like an odd gripe, but when I go to another country, I like to feel like I'm actually in another country. The fact that every transaction takes place in English with prices in dollars takes away from some of that charm - especially when the prices are just as expensive as home.
• It's way too difficult to find good fish. This place is an island with lots of local fish, yet nobody seems interested in serving it. Of course, that's partly due to the last point; Americans don't generally like fresh fish (you can argue with me on that one, but most common ingredient on every menu was beef, and it probably wasn't because it's easier or cheaper to get in Aruba than fish). We tried to eat fish the whole time, and 50% of the time it was a disappointment.
• Although there seems to be very low unemployment in Aruba, almost everyone is employed by something for tourists (i.e. in a hotel or restaurant). In other words, their entire economy seems to involve other people coming to the island and spending money, as opposed to generating their own money and goods. There are very few (if any) aspiring entrepreneurs or small business owners there. As a result, nobody seemed to have any money of their own. One of the many consequences of no local businesses is that we didn't find any "local" restaurants (and we looked!). I was hoping to find a hole in the wall with the smell of seafood and the sound of families speaking Papiamento coming out - as far as I can tell that place doesn't exist, or else it's extremely well hidden from the gringos.
• The Radisson (where we stayed) was extremely structured; you had to sign up for everything, and the times were pretty limited. Breakfast is from 7-10:30, lunch is from 12-2, etc. Not that the food in the restaurant was terribly good anyway. Clau started referring to it as "camp". Oddly enough the best breakfast we had was on our last day - we ordered room service, got a ton of food, it was better than the food we had in the restaurant (although it was probably the same kitchen, so maybe we just got lucky) and cheaper as well. Go figure.
• The Radisson also screwed up our bill. We knew we had booked some kind of special or discount, but we didn't bring the reservation paper with us (hey, we were on vacation!). When we got the bill slipped under the door the night before checkout, there were some charges on it that we knew we hadn't made, and there was no discount of any kind. We went and asked the front desk about it that night (it was admittedly 11pm or so) and they said that they would have to leave a note for the accounting department. The nice man at the front desk wrote down our request on the bill and put the bill in the accounting department's inbox. We decided to follow up early the next morning before breakfast, and - surprise! - the note had magically disappeared overnight and nobody professed to know anything about it. The woman working at the front desk said that it would take about an hour for the accounting department to put together our receipts. I wanted to go back to the room and have some breakfast, but Clau pointed out that the front area would soon be packed with people checking out, and if we didn't stand over them and watch then the "accounting" simply wouldn't get done until it was too late (and really, shouldn't all the receipts for a given room already be together, if for no other reason than to assuage guests who fear they may have been wrongfully charged?). I sighed and admitted that she was probably right. So, we waited for an hour an a half, until finally we were presented with the reciepts. Sure enough, two of them were obviously not ours (names and signatures didn't match, although the room number did). The "accountant" (actually the same woman who was working the front desk) removed the fraudulent charges from our bill, and upon request discovered that we had in fact booked a $100 discount (which, as my father says, had been "conveniently forgotten"), and took that off. All in all, the bill went down about $200, and all it cost was our last three hours of vacation.

Of course, there are some good points:

• Very safe - I've spent a lot of my time in Brazil looking over my shoulder. Aruba is an extremely safe place. Hell, there was one mysterious disappearance and it made headlines for weeks.
• Unspoiled beaches. Turquise water and white sand everywhere. Absolutely gorgeous. Even better if you put blinders on and ignore all the fat, loud, pasty people around you (I don't fall into this demographic because I'm not loud).
• Beautiful weather - damn hot, but it's always windy so it doesn't feel crazy hot. Bring sunscreen if you're a paleface like me.
  
• Fresh fish - if you can find it.
• Really good drinking water. All of it comes from a desalination plant, which means that it's basically seawater that's turned into steam, re condensed, then filtered. Very, very clean.
  
• Balashi beer - local beer from Aruba, made with the same water. Surprisingly good (and I'm a beer snob).
• Casinos - if that's your thing. Of course, it's nothing like Vegas, but the blackjack's pretty good - $5 minimums and nobody seemed to give a shit about me counting cards (of course, that could also be because I lost anyway).
• Friendly locals, most of whom speak English. The few who didn't speak English spoke Spanish (and my guess is that they're generally immigrants from Venezuela or Ecuador), so we were never unable to communicate. Everyone who you need to interact with (cab drivers, waiters, etc) speaks English.
• Although the Radisson definitely wasn't worth it, the Spa is very, very good. Clau and I got massages and it really felt like a first-class kind of Spa (or course, it also wasn't cheap - more than $200 for a "couple's massage", but it's the only thing in the Radisson that's really worth the money).
  

So, overall, it was just what we wanted but there's a myriad of reasons why we won't go back.
Lots going on at Company_A, I'll write all about that soon.

Almost forgot I had this

Of course, I really wasn't writing anything since nobody was reading it. But, I may as well keep updating this with big developments.
OK, here's the big things:

• I applied to Google and almost made it.

• I got handed a video project, very cool stuff. Unfortunately some consultants ended up taking way too long and effectively screwing me, since now I have to work double-hard to catch up after waiting for them for so long.

• A Trader Joe's opened in Manhattan, around Union Square. For those not in the know, TJ's is about the best food store ever - good stuff, really cheap, nice people working there. It is a bit of a madhouse, though, seeing as apparently I'm not the only transplant to NYC who remembers just how awesome TJs is.

• My dad and Ania had a baby girl in August, named Cora (not actually sure of the last name). I don't think we've spoken since she was born. I'm not happy about it (not speaking to him, that is) but that's sort of just how it's worked out.
  

• My brother's doing much better, I can tell just from the few brief conversations we've had in the last couple of months. Perhaps there's a lesson to be learned there for my future parent self - maybe discipline's not such a bad thing if it's couple with attention and support.

• I have a new client, she's about the nicest person you could hope to meet. She's pretty clueless about computer stuff but obviously sharp and educated about many other things. Plus, she never haggles over the bill or anything, which is good.

• We bought a new car. After having the old one break down once every couple of months, we realized it was better to just get a new one. Buying a new car is so much fun on the east coast - I though that the California car sales places were sleazy, but NY and NJ are way worse. Nonetheless we ended up with the car that she wanted at a price we could live with.

So overall life's OK. Clau and I are going out a bit less (trying to save money) and making weekly pilgrimages to TJs for dinner for the coming week. Between that and the Kraft store we're definitely spending more on Saturday night than the rest of the week combined. Dunno if that's a good thing or a bad thing. We're limiting ourselves to two nights out per week, and shooting for one (going to a friend's party and stuff like that doesn't count).
Oh, and I almost forgot another point - Sam got a job at Company_A and will probably be joining me soon. She probably won't stay all that long but it'll be nice to have her nearby for a little bit.

Web link:
"Peanuts" by Group X. I love these guys

Updates

So what's up lately:
Just when Clau and I were starting to get our finances under control, we've decided to go and splurge on all kinds of shit, this time for me. She bought me an xbox 360 for our anniversary and it's awesome. My computer has been dying lately, I think it's the RAM but I can't be sure, and so I must replace it with another. This could, however, be a good thing, since I want to replace it with a Mac Mini. I have one of the original (PPC processor) minis, and I'm using it to display my video etc. It's working fine (I put Linux on it) but it's neither pretty nor user friendly, and since Apple has the sweet Front Row application (in addition to all those others), I'd just as soon use that for everything. But, I'll probably try to replace the RAM in my box first. I just wish I knew exactly what I needed to replace it with.

Clau's going to Milwaukee tomorrow through Thursday, so I'm going to try to entertain myself during that time. I think I'll seriously try to fix the damn computer we have so that I don't have to convince her that we need another one.

Also, we've gone out with Sam and/or Matt a few times now and we're totally enamored with them - those guys are so much fun to hang around.

My little brother's become a prisoner in my dad and stepmother's house. They "caught" him smoking pot (in that they asked him and he told them) and he's been on house arrest ever since. Or at least that's what I get from talking to him. I don't know how to broach the subject with my dad. The last time I talked w/ my little brother I was fuming and Clau made me calm down before calling anyone. But, I need to call my dad before my brother's summer vacation vanishes before his eyes (or worse, he gets the thrill of spending it helping my stepmother care for the new baby). I guess my big beef is that he's such a good kid, and they're treating him like a criminal. Especially since I know that compared to me at that age he's an angel. Then again, he's only 15 - maybe they're saving him from a life of crime. I dunno. It's tough to try to figure out what the best thing is when you're so far away, both in terms of distance and perspective. I can't really understand what it's like for either party, but I can't see how what my father is doing is OK. You can see why I haven't called him yet...

Quick update

Obviously it's a bit late to be writing my blog - Clau's asleep already and I should be, too.
Attila and Reka visited last weekend and brought their boy Shoeldt (I'm sure I'm spelling it wrong, I'll look it up later), he is adorable but I can see that children are a lot of work. Clau and I have decided to wait just a bit longer, I made her promise that we won't wait beyond the point where it's safe.
I just found out that one of my high school classmates became a filmmaker - kind of a tiny world considering how few people were in my high school class. Her name is (or was) Miranda Grossinger - she's now going by "Miranda July", probably one of the reasons I didn't notice earlier. She made a movie called "You, Me, and Everyone We Know", which I read a lot about in Time Out and such, but didn't see. I will of course put the DVD in my Netflix queue now, hopefully she gets some money out of that. Not that she and I were friends or anything - I just remember her being very very spacey most of the time, and she also sparked what was probably the biggest broohaha (how do you spell that word?) during my four years of high school; as I recall, some girl had poured chinese food on top of a guy's car. The guy was extremely extroverted - actually, I can't really think of a good word to describe him...cocky? cocksure? Well, you get the idea, to the point of being frequently obnoxious - if high school were a corporate workplace, he surely would have been fired for sexual harassment. I actually liked him because, besides occasionally being an asshole, he was very smart and funny - we played together in a band for a little while and I had gotten to sort of know him.
So, to get back to the story, after this girl pours chinese food on his car, he makes an announcement at a school assembly asking people to please respect his car. He said something to the effect of "if you have a problem with me, talk to me; don't take it out on my car." Soon after that, we arrive to school to be greeted by a huge banner reading: "You say 'respect my car.' We say 'respect our bodies.' Signed, CPS Women" It sparked a huge debate throughout the school, everybody arguing both sides of it. I wish that, at that time, I could have realized just what a wonderful place that school was. I often refer to that story when I try to explain what my school was like.
Anyway, as far as my personal interaction with Miranda goes, I don't think we ever said anything to each other, but I recall her being nice (but, like I said, spacey). I think, though, that I'd like to have coffee or something with her if I got the chance - I feel like I missed out on knowing someone really interesting in high school. After I realized that she was Miranda July, I took a quick look at her blog (hey, just b/c nobody reads mine doesn't mean that I won't read anyone else's) and there's some really great writing in there - I remember when I used to be able to write like that. Somewhere in my life, between living and breathing Unix and learning Portuguese, my ability to write like that slowly faded away. Maybe I could get it back if I practiced more.
Anyway, enough self-pity - I'm going to update flickr soon, got lots of pictures of last weekend's visitors, and this weekend we're going to CA to see Sean and Tess, as well as meet Sean's new wife, so I'm sure there will be lots of pictures of that. I think, with a lot of practice, I could eventually take a decent photograph...

Voltamos a vida normal

Grr...estô um poquinho mal humorado - tenho tentado escriver português no meu laptop (de Linux) por trente minutos. Bem, não e fácil- ao fim, achei um jeitinho; posso usar Windows num "computador virtual" al dentro do computador de Linux. Não gosto, mas funciona.
Então - o que tem acontecido ultimamente - desde chegei do Brasil, tenho sido doente. Pois, não posso fazer um dia para estar doente diretamente depois das férias, então tenho trabalhado e tossido toda o dia. Finalmente estô ficando melhor, mas estô tossindo ainda. Provavelmente todos os cigarros e cerveja nos fims de semana não ajudaram.
Procurei os fotos da minha câmera (um presente da minha esposa para meu aniversário), e vou colocar alguns no web. Preciso aprender mais dos sites como flickr - não me importe se otras pessoas vêem os meus photos, mas nao entende completamente como esse tipo de site funciona. De qualque maneira, gostei do viagem - não vou me esquecer jamais a experiência do carnival no Brasil.
Acho que a Sam e o Matt tambêm gostaram do viagem - ao menos, somos ainda amigos. Agora, acho que eles sabem que foi muito mais barato viagar ao brasil com uma brasileira que viagar sozinos. Alem disso, eles tinham o oportunidade para experimentar muitas frutas estrangeiras (açai, caja, manga brasileira) e sucos diferentes (abacaxi com hortelã, cupuacu, graviola), beber cervejas e drinks diferentes (Skol, Brahma, caipirinha - não gostaram), e experimentar comidas diferentes (talvez foi um mal idéia introducar os meus amigos ao fejioada e a churrascaria no mesmo dia - vc pode ver o que aconteceu com o Matt depois). Nao se preocupe - ele viveu...

Comencando escriver em Portugues

Esto fazendo um curso de Portugues a NYU - comecei a terca passada, e o professor recommenda que fazemos um jornal. Entao, vou tentar escriver ao menos um pouquinho cada semana. Geralmente vai provavelmente escriver do que tenho feito na semana passada.
Come sempre, trabalhava durante a semana passada, mas ultimamente nao tenho tido muito para fazer. Falei com o meu gerente e ele diseu que vai haver muitos projetos, e ao momento eu deveria so esperar. Entao, tenho tentando ficar movimentado, porque nao gosto de fazer nada - parece legal ao inicio mas fica chato rapido. Na sexta eu e a Clau fomos na casa de Anderson e Andrea. Gostamos, mas a Clau estava muitoa cansada, e precisamos ir embora a duas horas de manha. Um amiga da Clau nos vitisou na sabado; ela se chama Sharon, gostei muito dela - ela estava visitando a Nova Iorque para encontrar um groupo grande de Internet. Ela ficou conosco para fin de semana, mas a gente nao via ela muito. Sem problemas pra mim e a Clau - gostamos dela, e a Sharon vai repagar a Clau essa semana quando a Clau vai a Chicago.
No sabado noite, eu e a Clau fomos de novo a casa de Anderson e Andrea, e essa vez bebemos demais. O problema com visitar o Anderson e que ele e um "host" bom demais, especialmente com a cerveja. Eu nao posso beber devagar - se eu tenho um cerveza en frente de mim, vou beber-lo. Entao, eu me controlo para esperar um poquinho entre uma cervaja e a outra. Quando voce ta na casa de Anderson, ao momento que voce esta acabando a cerveja, ele esta ali con a proxima. Adoro Anderson (e Andrea tambem), mas e tao perigoso lhe visitar que eu so posso ir a casa dele na fin de semana.
Essa semana, minha gatinha vai ir a Chicago para a empresa dela. Ele parte hoje (segunda) e vai voltar na quinta. Na proxima dia (sexta) a gente vai ir a Salvador (finalmente!). Nao gosto da ideia de falta minha esposa por quatro dias, mas ao menos vamos ter ferias juntos directamente depois a seperacao.
Bem, espero que esse e bastante. Em escrevendo esse, realizei que nao sou accostumado a escriver em portugues, e preciso praticar mais...

Been a while

Well, there's no way to recount everything that's happened so far, so let me try to sum up a few things:
1) I don't believe anyone has _ever_ read this. I thought I would eventually give this blog url to my folks, but I get the feeling that nobody cares. Oh, well. So, maybe this will disappear.
2) Got a call from a headhunter for a contract. I took a breath to say "No, thanks", then realized that I have no reason not to accept contract work. Clau's got benefits now and a decent salary, so we'd have something to sustain us during lean times and still have coverage if we get hit by a bus. As it happens this contract wasn't something I wanted to do, but still, it's something to keep in mind if another call comes in.
3) There was a reorg at work, so now I work in the applications group, which is cool. I'm busy trying to get rid of my infrastructure projects and I realize just how much I disliked most of it. It's too bad because infrastructure is what I did for a long time at QAD, and I thought I would miss it. But, mostly, it just seems like a PITA now that I'm seperating myself from it.
4) I want to take a Portuguese class at NYU. Classes start next week so I better figure it out. I think I'll take the level 3 class and find out where I need to catch up. Conversationally I'm OK, but obviously a lack of formal education has left some pretty big gaps in my skills (which is the whole point of taking a class in the first place). Still, it seems like a lot of money to pay just to force myself to learn (there's nothing stopping me from just picking up a book except for my own lack of motivation)
5) We took a road trip to Vermont a couple of weekends ago and ended up getting into a fight with John and Nicole. It was over who was going to drive, I think that they were pretty unreasonable, and Clau made a good point; we try very hard to be flexible, and the one time she really wanted something her way, they wouldn't be flexible in return. It's too bad because it occurred as we were leaving Vermont, which made for an unpleasant ride back to NYC, and we probably won't go out with them again. Too bad, because I liked going out with them (they're the good-looking ones in the Amazing Race picture).
6) The winter here has been really bizarre - so far only about 2 weeks of cold weather. Yesterday it was in the 50's and just a beautiful day. The trees are starting to bloom (they're confused) and the bugs are coming back. Today it got cold and wet. I keep having to remind myself it's the end of January and not March or April. Of course, that wasn't so good when we went to Vermont (no snow), but we got lucky and it snowed on the last day, so I got to try snowboarding.
7) I went to the gym about 6 weeks ago and asked one of the P.T.'s what I have to do to get into semi-decent shape in time for Carnival. The basic answer is "work out a lot". So, naturally, my response has been to sit on the couch playing Xbox. I don't know why I have such motivational difficulties when I know exactly what I need to do. January's gym membership was a waste, and I gotta get in there for February, if for no other reason that in my current condition I won't last two hours in Carnival. Even if I can't look good, I need to get myself into better shape.
8) I have to swap my drivers license. Seems easy, right? Well, not exactly. Went there on Friday and found out that I need my SSN card. Seriously, what's the point of that card? I'm the type of person who loses useless stuff, and the SSN card qualifies; it's got no photo, and I can't remember the last time I was asked for it - probably waaaay back in the day as proof of employment eligibility (and I mean years ago). So, yesterday I went to the Federal building to get another one. Like a dumbass, I left my pocket knife in my jacket, the one that Geo gave me right before I went backpacking through Europe (when you could still bring a knife on board). They were kind of harsh about it; you can't bring it in, we won't hold it for you, there's no place to store it. Either give it to us (so, we'll happily take it, but we won't hold it) or come back another time. Sigh. So, I'm coming back today (I ditched the knife at home).

Sometimes, all the security we have to go through really bugs me. NYPD doing random searches in the subway is a good example of it. There are literally thousands of ways to access the subway system. The NYPD might be checking two at any given time. Plus, since just randomly searching people is a blatant violation of their civil rights, you can just say "no, I'd rather you didn't search me" and walk away. Even if they use that as a justification to deny you access to the train (which I don't see how they can really do), you can just leave and walk to the next entrance (to the same station), or walk to another station entirely (in Manhattan that's about a 5-minute walk). This is a perfect example of what all this "security" really is: a stupid show to make people feel safer. My question is, how many people (in particular, how many jaded New Yorkers) see that show and actually fall for it? It can't be that many. Maybe tourists would fall for that, but even so, does having armed police randomly searching people send a good message about our city?
Another case in point; not allowing me in the federal building with my pocket knife. What the hell am I going to do with that? The worst thing I could do is deface something; do they think I'm going to try to take hostages with it? I can see that in a plane, where unless you have an air marshall on board, a pocket knife will probably rank as one of the most powerful weapons on board, but in a government building? What would that call be like, anyway...
Dispatcher: We have a hostage situation in the federal building. We have an armed perpetrator demanding a new social security card and he refuses to submit to the standard fingerprinting and DNA swab.
SWAT Team: We're on it! What's he holding everyone hostage with?
Dispatcher: It appears to be a knife - he has threatened to -
SWAT: What kind of knife? Bowie? Machete?
Dispatcher: According to reports, it's a regular pocket knife, but witnesses say it looks like it's very sharp.
SWAT: OK boys! Here's the situation - we have a perp with a knife! Everybody arm your slingshots - this could get ugly. Stand by with an ambulance, make sure it has plenty of band-aids.

Sigh.

So...full....

Had a TG holiday with Adrian, the Hopfinger family, the new baby, Bindu, and about 20 cases of beer and three turkeys. I have never ate and drank so much in three days in my life. It was absolutely perfect - the weather was pretty decent, there was more food than we could have possibly eaten, and we were almost completely secluded from the rest of the world - I was out of pager range and my cell phone was off for most of the time.
The baby is absolutely adorable - the only time I heard him cry was when they tried to put him to bed on Thansgiving, and he just didn't want to miss the excitement. He smiles and laughs a lot and is generally adorable. Overall it was a great time. And the food - oh my Lord, the food! Two deep-fried turkeys, one roasted turkey (only used for the gravy on TG night), 20 lbs of potatoes, corn casserole, yams, stuffing, wild rice, green beans, salad (like anyone was going to eat that), and lots of other good stuff. Plus a smorgasboard of deserts. Oh my it was good. And, we got to spend most of the day drinking beer and burning leaves. It was great.
So, now back to the regular world - we have to go shopping this coming weekend for presents. That'll be fun.
Sorry for the short one, but work is heavy. Gotta run...

TV Show musings

Had weird dreams for the last couple of days, but oddly I’ve been feeling overly creative lately. Of course, there’s nothing like a good day at the office to suck that out of me and get me ready to play video games or watch TV after getting home.

Speaking of TV, I was thinking about some shows I really liked that didn’t make it very far. My favorites so far that failed:

1) Andy Richter Controls the Universe – this show was a lot like Scrubs (in fact, I believe it came out at the same time), but Scrubs always has some “serious” part toward the end, whereas Andy was just bizarre the whole way through. Really funny, don’t think it made it past Season 1. Then Andy was in that god-awful Quintuplets which, sadly, lasted longer than ARCTU. Sad.

2) Push, Nevada. I never saw Twin Peaks so I can’t compare the two. I thought Push was bizarre but still accessible, and I believe that everyone’s biggest complaint with Twin Peaks was that it was just too weird. Unfortunately Push only lasted something like seven episodes. I think there was also a hokey component of you (the viewer) somehow winning a million dollars if you could solve the mystery or some crap like that. Seriously, who has time for that kind of shit? My guess is that the subsection of the population that would go for that sort of gimmick are the same types who just wouldn’t get it.

3) Freaks and Geeks. Perhaps this is a little bit bandwagon, but I really did like this show – sort of “Wonder Years” in the 80s. Of course everyone knows all about what a gem this one was so I won’t get into it.

4) Kingpin. I confess; I’m totally bored by “The Sopranos”. I have the first two Seasons on DVD and I forced myself to watch them both, figuring that everybody and their brother can’t be wrong about how totally bad-ass the show is. Whatever. I was completely underwhelmed. I watched the first season with my old roommate, which prompted him to buy the second season, which left me slightly less impressed than the first. After that I called it quits. Anyway, I thought that “Kingpin” was much cooler, but I’m guessing that everyone else thought it was a ripoff of “The Sopranos”. Or maybe there was just too much backlash from Hispanic organizations (I suppose I could see that one both ways). Or maybe it just wasn’t popular enough to fit in the three hours of non-reality prime-time TV that NBC had slotted for the week. At any rate, it only made it about 6 episodes.

5) Firefly. Yes, another bandwagon, but I really liked that show. Admittedly it would have probably started to suck after a couple of years, just like Buffy and Angel, but I thought it was a cool idea and very well written (as I have about nearly everything Joss has done). Admittedly I haven’t seen the movie, but that’s because we live in Manhattan and seeing a movie is an expensive and necessarily rare event for us, and the wife wasn’t too keen on wasting one on Firefly (sigh).

6) How I Met Your Mother. Actually this one’s still on, but Clau and I are convinced it won’t last more than one full season, if that. I think it’s really cute and I dig the show a lot. Not great, but worth a giggle and unexpectedly endearing. I still haven’t yet watched one and thought “well, that’s 30 minutes I’ll never get back”.

Since I’m on a TV list roll, here’s another one. Shows that should plan (or should have planned) to be 2-3 Seasons and then be done (i.e. shows that really, really jumped the shark)

1) Alias. Goddam that first season was cool. Rimbaldi, Sydney’s mother might be alive, etc etc. The fact that Jennifer Garner was so cute as to be hot didn’t hurt either. After a long wait (or, in my case, a few days for the next season to arrive on Netflix), the second season kicked in rocking. The Rimbaldi thing still had some good mileage left in it, lots of stuff going on with Syd, her parents, Will / Vaughn, etc. Then it ends with that whole coma thing? WTF? Then things just started to suck. Now all the good people are gone from the show and they’re trying to write JG’s pregnancy into the show. Wouldn’t it have been great if she could have retired at the end of season 2? Or if we just could have had an awesome finish with the Rimbaldi thing as the focus of Season 3, and finished the show? But hey, everybody’s making money, and we the audience keep watching it, hoping to recapture that sense of wonder and awe that we felt during that first season. And could we please have a little less gratuitous use of the slow-mo? It gets old after a few years.

2) Lost. Coincidentally by the same fellow. Again, breathtaking first season. Awesome characters, multiple twists-and-turns, the final opening of the hatch. Wow, wow, and wow. Of course my new theory (yes, this is my idea, but I’m sure there’s about a million other people who had the same idea) is that it’s all just some ginormous experiment, run by the government, or some thinktank, or even financed by Hurley (OK, that might be a stretch). The Darma logo on the shark was a great touch – my guess is that they put that on there to see if anyone would notice, then started spreading the word. But, you can already see the show approaching the point where you wish it would just end. Wouldn’t this be a great, great show if they had a pre-set time limit? Say, three seasons? Instead, they’re going to be stuck on that island for another 5 years and it’s gonna turn out to be a Martian colony or some bullshit like that.

3) Smallville. The first season (and maybe second, it’s all a little fuzzy now) was awesome. The development of this teenage boy, who we all know is going to grow up to be Superman, and everything that leads him to his destiny. Just like the comics, except with Starbucks and cell phones. What a great idea. Especially all the early interaction with Clark and Lex. I believe the moment of the shark-jump may have been when they introduced Lois Lane to the show. Now, as my wife likes to point out, it’s “Dawson’s Creek with superpowers”. Sadly I’m inclined to agree – I keep telling her “I just want to watch until he can fly”, which is probably what everyone else is thinking and therefore Clark won’t realize he can fly until the very last episode. I gotta give them props for actually have Clark and Lana do it, though, and also doing it in such a tasteful way. Other than that the show sucks now.

I’m sure there’s a lot more but that’s the ones currently on that I’m into.

OK, I’ve been writing this on and off for the last few hours. Time to finally publish.

Ho-hum

Training was cool, got lots to do now.
Last weekend we went out drinking. Clau and I went a bit over our entertainment budget for the weekend but we enjoyed ourselves. Besides, what's the point of making money if you don't spend it once in a while?
More updates later - too busy now.

--Nate

Late update

Well, it's Monday night - I'm doing a little work for Company_A after my first day of Project Management boot camp. Lots of fun, it's not a tremendously fun class, there's only 7 people in it and 5 of them are techies like me who are trying to round out their skills. One is a PM for a bank (he hasn't said much) and one is this Australian guy (Paul) who is actually making it interesting (not that the instructor's bad). Paul's the director of PM for some big financial company and he's taking the course to get the credits for recertification. That guy is seriously sharp - some people are just able to make so much sense, and when they explain things it seems to obvious - my dad said a long time ago that people who are really masters of a difficult art make you say "that doesn't look so hard, I bet I could do that", until you try it.
Anyway, so obviously no Company_A stuff going on, except that the stock price looks to be healthy. We announce earnings etc tomorrow. I hope we did well (believe me, I'm in no position to even guess as to how well or poorly we did - such is life in the trrenches).
Went to CA last weekend, to Santa Barbara for a wedding between Terry and Harry, two men who have been together almost as long as I've been alive. It was really, really nice. I'd never been to a gay wedding before and I didn't know what to expect, but I guess I didn't expect it to seem so...normal. Nothing flashy or extravagant, just two people who I haven't seen look that happy together since my own wedding. It was also a Lutheran mass, which I'd never seen before and it was almost exactly like the Catholic wedding mass. They had a really nice reception and Harry made a particularly touching speech, and Terry invited us to the after party. I think Clau was really happy to see Terry and Nancy (her old bosses from the museum) again. I like Harry and Terry a lot, and I was really glad we got to go.
My only complaint about the weekend was that I felt rushed the whole time. We flew to CA in the morning on Friday and got there at about noon. We hauled ass to Ventura to have lunch with Joyce and John, and I got sucked into a phone meeting just as we got to the restaurant. I finished my meeting, then ate lunch with them, then dropped Clau and Joyce off for a movie, then went to go see Jimmy and the new QAD campus. Very nice place. I ended up seeing quite a few people there who I never got to say good-bye to, so it turned out to be really good. Then raced back to Ventura, picked up Clau, went to Sean's house, went out to dinner (Mexican - good Mexican! so good!) with Sean and Tess, then went back home and hung out and did stuff. Then on Saturday we had breakfast w/ Sean and Tess, then went to the wedding, then raced back to Ventura to have dinner with Sean and Tess again. Sean's quite the cook, although he's definitely not pepper-shy, so we were scorched but happy after the meal. We had breakfast with Al and Neva the next day. Really, the only person I didn't get to see was Ernest, because his phone no longer works (again!). And, in reading this, it looks like it was pretty relaxed, but we were running around the whole time. It was really good seeing Sean and Tess. We could tell Tess was having a hard time of it, but she put on a brave face.
I miss California. I was telling Sean "I know we made the right decision in moving to New York, but I really miss this place." I miss seeing stars at night. I miss sleeping in silence. I miss having a backyard. I miss cheap, delicious Mexican food. I miss the few good friends we left behind.
Anyway, we flew back last night, and we're still kind of recovering. I just finished my work for Company_A so I'm gonna go drink a beer and see if we've got anything to eat.

Funny stuff

A couple of things that were pointed out to me recently:
http://www.angryalien.com - 30-second Flash summaries of movies by bunnies. Pretty damn funny, and of course they don't take very long to watch. The Pulp Fiction one is awesome.
http://maddox.xmission.com - This guy is very funny.

Gotta run!
--Nate

Quick BitTorrent / Azureus / etc explanation

OK, this stuff has all been written about to death by people who actually enjoy writing about this sort of thing, so I'm going to give the executive summary for people who don't know what this stuff is. For anyone who wants to learn more, there's a LOT more info out there.

Some definitions: BitTorrent is a method of transferring files, much like FTP. I'll try to give a quick explanation of what makes it so great by comparing it to other transfer methods:

FTP / HTTP - works great for what it is. However, in this case you have many clients downloading data from a single source. Both are reliant on getting the whole file in one shot, otherwise you have to start over again. Not very practical if you want to share your latest home video with the world.

Kazaa / eDonkey / etc - Break files into many small pieces, and work on downloading one piece at a time. This means that, first off, if your download gets botched, you've only lost one small piece of the file, which can be easily recovered. It also means that you can download many different pieces of the same file at the same time. As far as I can remember, Kazaa was the first program to do this (I don't think Napster did it, but now I can't remember - it was a long time ago). These programs also need some centralized servers to keep track of who has what. I won't get into how that works, but it's very clever. I know that Napster was the first program to do _that_, which is what made it so clever. Of course, by the time Napster got the axe, Kazaa was already around to take its place. Kazaa (as far as I know - I don't use it anymore) keeps its own servers, whereas eDonkey / Gnutella rely on people to set up their own servers, which then start keeping track of who has what. That means, if you're looking for something really obscure on one of those networks and can't find it by searching, you can try disconnecting and reconnecting to the network, and you'll reconnect to (hopefully) at least a few different servers.

Finally, BitTorrent - BitTorrent is the next evolution from eDonkey, Kazaa, etc. BitTorrent has all the same ideas as the above, but adds in a couple of key parts. For one thing, there are no centralized servers. Each file you want will have a "tracker", meaning a server that keeps track of who has what pieces of the file (remember, the file is broken into a lot of small pieces). The tracker (and you can have multiple trackers per file) tries to keep track of who is connected and what pieces they have, and instruct everyone accordingly. So, let's say, to make things easy, that a file is only broken into 5 pieces, and there's a lot of people trying to get it. Pieces 1-4 are all over the place, with hundreds of clients having each piece, but piece 5 is only on three or four clients. The tracker will immediately tell a bunch more clients to go get piece 5 (actually, I think the tracker just presents the information and the clients make that decision on their own, but you get the idea), so that it immediately becomes more common and can be downloaded by more clients. This gets rid of a common problem with other clients, where the file is 98-99% done, but you just can't get that last piece; man, I hate that.

BitTorrent also has an egalitarian quality, in that the more you upload, the more you can download. Truthfully you don't have to upload a lot to get a good download rate, but you do have to be able to upload something, otherwise your performance is going to suck. However, this means that whenever you use BitTorrent for anything illegal (i.e. movies, music, etc), you're not just receiving it, you're distributing it, in direct violation of that little warning screen they put at the beginning of the DVD and you can't get fast-forward through.

OK, that all took a lot longer than expected. So, I'll have to cut this short. Later I'll try to explain RSS and how it ties in. Actually, if you fo a google search for "bittorrent rss" then you ought to get a lot of other people's writings about it. I think these things are the wave of the future - they could be used so well to keep people informed and entertained if done properly. Anyway, more about that later.

Weekly update (maybe)

Well, here's an idea: let's try doing one update per week, maybe Monday mornings after I get my email / etc. settled. Now is such a time.

OK, what's going on:
Work (that I can talk about): I played around with a Sun Ray last week, got the server hoisted, it's such a great idea, too bad it didn't fly (although for all I know there are entire large companies running on these things). The hot-desking part is awesome, it's especially neat if you have to go the lab or something: just pop out your card, pop it in at the lab and it's like you never left. Totally kick-ass. I was thinking about taking one home so I could hot-desk into work from home, but then I remembered that we don't actually have a monitor at home, so that put an end to that. So, I think I'll put one in each of the labs and see how that works out. Also working on some other fun stuff that I don't want to write about here.

Home: Clau was sick last Saturday so we stayed inside the entire day, watching TV and eating soup. It was awesome. I played my video games until the wee hours and slept in a little on Sunday. On Sunday, we went to carve pumpkins with John and Nicole (the other couple from the Amazing Race picture). Clau hadn't done it since she was a little kid (honestly I couldn't remember the last time I did it), but we had a lot of fun, ate a lot of toasted pumpkin seeds, and the jack-o-lanterns actually came out pretty good (considering my absolute lack of artistic talent). Then we went home and Clau started working on setting up her PDA, which went late into the night. I just wanted to be grumpy and watch TV but she kept asking me to rescue her from some tech corner she'd painted herself into. Still, she got pretty handy with the Palm pretty fast; good to see there's a geek in there somewhere.

Also, I called my grandmother, and through a little phone-tag I found that she's doing the family Xmas party on Dec 10. That works out for us, but I think it may conflict with this year's Santacon: we didn't go last year (because we didn't know about it) but we're determined to go this year, unless something else conflicts with it (like my family's Xmas party).

I guess that about covers it: temps are definitely getting cold, and it's still pretty dim when I leave for work now. In a month I'll probably be forced to wear a hat. Oh yeah, speaking of which, Clau bought a bunch of pants on Sunday, too, so she's happy.

Speaking of HDTV

I use azureus, a popular BitTorrent client, for my BT transfers and getting my HDTV broadcast stuff. It has an RSSFeed plugin that just rocks. I've got pretty much all my favorite shows: Lost, Alias, Desperate Housewives (for the, um, wife), Veronica Mars (don't knock it till you watch it!), CSI (original), all the Law and Orders, etc. The only tough part is CSI and LAO, since there's so many spinoffs. I don't like the CSI spinoffs, and I like to keep my TV organized, so have all the different Law and Order shows going into their own subdirectories.
This came about because I was talking with Matt (Sam's boyfriend - Sam's an English girl who volunteers with me at God's Love We Deliver, Matt's her boyfriend, both very cool people and they're going to Carnival next year with us). Matt said he wanted the "set it and forget it" kind of deal. Well, this isn't perfect but it's pretty close. Now I just need a frontend that can use the remote control and tell me what I haven't watched yet, and I'm set - it's like a Tivo without needing cable.

On another note, since I put up those posts, Apple (or is it ABC) started offerring $1.99 versions of their two most popular TV shows - for the video iPod. Not exactly what I had in mind but it's a start. Now all we need is high-quality HDTV rips for $1.99 and we're in business. In fact, you know what? A decent interim solution would be to just make a "legal" version of the show with only nationwide (or global) advertisements (i.e. McDonalds, Coke, H&R Block, etc), and throw it into the BT universe. I think that a lot of people, if given the choice between a "legal" and "illegal" download (I use quotes because there's no precedent, but let's face it - it's probably illegal to download - or at least to upload, which (with BitTorrent) is a part of the downloading process), would probably choose the legal option. I know I would.
But, of course, that's not going to happen. Or, if it does, it'll be some really crappy, half-assed version; a medium-quality version with lots of ads thrown in, that you have to download from some ad-ridden site and pay $5 per episode. Something that nobody will go for, and then the TV company can say "well, we tried that, but the consumers just don't want to work with us - they just want to pirate our material and get it for free".
OK, I sense my own bitterness approaching. Signing off now.

--Nate

--Nate

My slashdot post

Here's a copy-and-paste of a post I did on slashdot. I'm never very popular with the slashdot community (I'm guessing it's because I'm usually a few days late to the party), but I had been wanting to write this stuff down for a while.
For context, the topic was "Universal going to offer movies online". Basically saying that Universal was looking into making their movies available online, but they were extremely worried and paranoid about anyone pirating / copying the movies. More than a few people said "just make me a decent product and let me buy it!". One fellow also talked about being able to buy TV shows rather than have to watch them w/ ads. He cited lots of various reasons you might want to download a show as opposed to Tivo / wait for a rerun / etc. Here was my reply:

--------

I feel the exact same way, although my situation is a bit different; I have a HDTV set from my days of living in a house (I live in a small 1br in Manhattan now) and there's no reasonable way for me to get OTA HDTV [note: OTA = over the air] broadcasts without upsetting the board or the wife [I should have specified in the post - in order to get a decent signal, you need a reasonably powerful antenna either mounted on the rooftop or - I think theoretically this would work - in the window]. Every show I like is OTA. So, my options are:

1) Bend over a chair for HDTV cable (very pricey in Manhattan), just so I can see the shows I like (which are all OTA)
2) Watch OTA analog broadcasts (I can get a signal by plugging in the cable, doesn't work for HDTV as a lot of you probably already know), reception's not too good but at least I'm _seeing_ it.
3) Download HDTV rips the next day.

Guess which one I go with?
I would be OK with paying a couple of bucks per show, or (even better), "subscribing" to the show for like $25 / season, with HDTV versions available online at the time of broadcast. But, here's another idea, and I think it's a good one: highly targeted ads. Have subscriptions to the show be free, but before you can sign up, you need to fill out a 15-minute survey with all the standard marketing data (age, gender, income, hobbies, neighborhood, do you have kids / do they watch the show with you, etc). After you fill out the survey, you get a login which can then be used to download any show that the network offers subscriptions to. Using your login, you can download a version of the show(s) you want with specifically targeted ads (ads for the Mexican restaurant two blocks from your place, ads for the local plumber, ads for stores / boutiques / games / etc all based on your survey). You're still watching ads, but they're ads that are really specifically targeted for you! A lot of people might not mind seeing that kind of ad, and even if you do, you can still FF or skip over it (it's a high-quality avi). Can you still share that? Sure, but if you can get it from the source just by filling out the survey (and hey, you might actually see an ad for something you _want_), why bother going the BitTorrent route?
Yes, I know there are all kinds of technical hurdles here; bandwidth for the servers with tons of people dl'ing high-bitrate video files, how to inject the ads properly in the first place, how to store all that stuff (since theoretically you've got a seperate file for each dl'er), and of course the algorithm to choose which ads go to which customers. Tech hurdles, to be sure, but how much harder is it than the rat race of copy protection?

Which brings me to the second point (probably echoing a lot of other people here) - why go through all this trouble to install copy protection on your downloadable / Internet-deliverable content? I mean, if I want a pirated copy of something, I can get it _now_ from someone who ripped a DVD. What exactly would Universal be trying to prevent? The worst-case scenario (people are taking the content and sharing it illegally) is already happening! Why not focus on giving people a good experience for a reasonable price? I think a good percentage of people who download something illegally would happily pay a reasonable fee for it, and the lower the price, the higher the percentage of people who would do it. Make a less-than-DVD-quality version available (particularly of movies that don't rely on special effects or other visuals) that's quick to download, charge $1 and see how many people purchase it. What's the risk? That people will illegally share and download the medium-quality version (as opposed to the high-quality versions that are already floating around the BT universe)?

Seriously, I often wonder if I'm missing something here. All this fuss about making content available online to prevent piracy. News flash: piracy is already here - you should know, you're the one putting those god-awful commercials at the beginning of movies. So what exactly are you trying to prevent?

---

And for the record, I have NetFlix - in the amount of time it takes to DL a rip, I can have the DVD itself in my hands, so I don't download movies.

--Nate

Getting a bit cold

It really feels like autumn now. We're waffling between nicely cool and "wow, it's getting cold" cold.

Events of note lately:
1) We had a big birthday party for Clau at the apartment. Got it done to the point where it looked good enough for the party. Oddly, though, everyone showed up within about a five minute window (like from 10:20-10:30pm), got hammered fast, and everyone was gone by 2am. I don't know if that's a successful party or not - it only lasted a few hours, but at least everyone had a good time for those few hours. Bindu was completely MIA at that time.
2) Bindu showed up about a week later, turned out that he had run off to Europe for his birthday. He had a belated brunch a few weeks after that which turned out to be a hoot. Since it was at Intermezzo (just a few blocks from our apartment), we invited everyone over for beer (left over from Clau's birthday) and chili (which we had decided to make that day in the crock pot). A spicy time was had by all.
3) Last weekend we participated in an NYC version of "The Amazing Race". We had a lot of fun and ran all around Manhattan. And, the best part is, we won! That's a picture of the victorious team looking all sweaty. Lots of fun.

I'll post more later about various stuff (yeah, yeah, I always say that, but hey, blogs take time and I like to spend my free time on video games, TV, stuff that matters)..
--Nate