Well after 16 months, hundreds of thousands of miles of travel, thousands of dollars, many sleepless nights, planning and re-planning, dealing with a dozen government agencies (US and Foreign), and so many forms it hurts, my lovely wife is finally coming back to the States for good!
The tickets are purchased, the plan is set, the documents are received. Next Thursday I fly out to Germany meet her, her parent, and her aunt, we then drive 2.5 hours to a hotel. The next day is the sister-in-law’s wedding. Then we have a day to rest visit and relax. Then of Feb 9th we drive 2.5 hours back to the airport board 3 separate flights, and her family goes back to Russia, I fly home via ATL, and RG flies home via AMS. We land within 20 minutes of each other, though she is going through customs so I will end up waiting a while for her. Then it will all be done.
We will be a more normal married couple. Living in the same house and everything. We have been here before but this time there will be no “living abroad” scholarship requirement hanging over our heads. We can get on with it! So I am ecstatic. Though there is still a week to go it looks like all the hurdles have been cleared. I don’t think we will do much right away in the manner of throwing parties or anything, but I am sure for months we will be busy making the rounds and seeing everyone.
So there it is. We actually know when it is going to happen. We found out only yesterday.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
Staffing
My job is not normal. There is no way around this. In fact it is quite strange. When people ask who you work for that is easy. When they ask what you do that is hard. Generally I just say I help large companies install software. At the Macro level this is true. As a company we help other companies transform their entire business. This may involve or may not involve technology. When a client decides it does center on a technology solution and that solution is SAP then that is when I may get called. The specifics of my day to day activities change from week to week. First I really only got to sit around taking notes and doing simple project manager activities. Later I was allowed to document what we were doing. Then I was allowed to coordinate testing activities. Then I led testing activities. Then I designed simple data migrations. And on my last project I led one of three sites on their data migration activities. Each project needs people to do different things. So I never know what is going to come up.
This makes things very interesting. I have been on literally hundreds of people, for 5 clients, on 6 projects, in at least a dozen different roles in the last 4 years. However the way you are staffed drives me crazy. Unlike many of our competitors that just assign people to projects our company is much less informal. We have a staffing manager who proposes us to a project. Then we have to interview with the manager and possibly again with the client. Then maybe you are on the project or maybe you aren’t. The other way of getting staffed is if a manager requests you. So when you not staffed you job is to get on the phone and start calling any project manager you know and to reach out to those you don’t that have new projects starting. Now while I still get paid fully during this time it is like looking for a new job. It can be very stressful. And you never know what is going on.
So it is by far the least favorite part of my job. The current economic climate has also really exacerbated the situation as well. One of the criteria’s they use for who to keep and who to trim is staffing level. So if you are not billing you are in a bad spot. So stress just doubles, so that has been what I have been dealing with since the end of November. But I am finally staffed again, though it is currently only for 5 weeks. So I suppose the same cycle will start over again in March. But I should have enough billable hours at the end of the year to still get promoted and not trimmed as it were, but who know it is a lot time until summer.
This makes things very interesting. I have been on literally hundreds of people, for 5 clients, on 6 projects, in at least a dozen different roles in the last 4 years. However the way you are staffed drives me crazy. Unlike many of our competitors that just assign people to projects our company is much less informal. We have a staffing manager who proposes us to a project. Then we have to interview with the manager and possibly again with the client. Then maybe you are on the project or maybe you aren’t. The other way of getting staffed is if a manager requests you. So when you not staffed you job is to get on the phone and start calling any project manager you know and to reach out to those you don’t that have new projects starting. Now while I still get paid fully during this time it is like looking for a new job. It can be very stressful. And you never know what is going on.
So it is by far the least favorite part of my job. The current economic climate has also really exacerbated the situation as well. One of the criteria’s they use for who to keep and who to trim is staffing level. So if you are not billing you are in a bad spot. So stress just doubles, so that has been what I have been dealing with since the end of November. But I am finally staffed again, though it is currently only for 5 weeks. So I suppose the same cycle will start over again in March. But I should have enough billable hours at the end of the year to still get promoted and not trimmed as it were, but who know it is a lot time until summer.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Registered Trademark
One of my favorite sites to read, I even have an RSS feed link to it, is www.techdirt.com a site that deals with current technology related issues that pop up at any given time. Their most consistent topics concern Copyright and Trademark issues and the goofy going concerns of the various entertainment industries. Of course they also write about new things coming out, things being hyped, and a wide range of topics, but you will not go a day without multiple posts on the above topics. So it was quite amusing to me that last month I felt like I had a reason to write into them about a strange occurrence that happen to me.
Before I can get into though I have to briefly mention that when I write my blogs I try not to mention people’s names, the company I work for, clients of mine directly, or 3rd parties my company deals with. Basically I am just applying a simple CYA algorithm to my writing.
So I had planned on breaking my above rule in a recent post of mine. I was rather impressed with a third party I had dealt with. They made our work a ton easier. I even learned their toolset and methodologies and was quite impressed. So originally my plan was to write about them and use one of their marketing tag lines as the title of the post. While writing the post turned out not to mention them by name, I just couldn’t break the habit, and I did not even write anything specific about what kind of project I worked on or any of that. But not really thinking or caring I left the title the same.
Not two days after posting the article I got an email that someone had posted a comment. Normally comments come from my wife, siblings, or parents so I went to read it. Instead it was posted by this unnamed third party I had worked with. By the CEO of that company no less. Essentially the email was a cease and desist notice to not use their trademarked phrase. I found this rather humorous for a number of reasons. One it was the CEO, who I had met at one point, taking the time to do this. Two the phrase is just a few common words strung together and was not being used to promote any product (making it technically not a trademark violation from my limited understanding). And Finally the speed at which I was requested to no longer use the phrase. I assume they use an automated search to find its use and my blog is indexed and therefore searchable.
Now even though I don’t think I was in violation of trademark, I had not really written about the company, at least buy name. So I changed the title of the post just to avoid any further animosity. I may work with this company again and I don’t need to have them upset at me. And of course I understand them going after this aggressively, trademark law requires that you actively defend your marks or you forfeit them. So I think no Harm no Foul. But still it was funny. Now I wonder if Techdirt will even notice that I linked to them. I am pretty sure they won’t care; they seem to encourage such behavior.
And no I won't say what the trademark was and deleted the comment on the previous post.
Before I can get into though I have to briefly mention that when I write my blogs I try not to mention people’s names, the company I work for, clients of mine directly, or 3rd parties my company deals with. Basically I am just applying a simple CYA algorithm to my writing.
So I had planned on breaking my above rule in a recent post of mine. I was rather impressed with a third party I had dealt with. They made our work a ton easier. I even learned their toolset and methodologies and was quite impressed. So originally my plan was to write about them and use one of their marketing tag lines as the title of the post. While writing the post turned out not to mention them by name, I just couldn’t break the habit, and I did not even write anything specific about what kind of project I worked on or any of that. But not really thinking or caring I left the title the same.
Not two days after posting the article I got an email that someone had posted a comment. Normally comments come from my wife, siblings, or parents so I went to read it. Instead it was posted by this unnamed third party I had worked with. By the CEO of that company no less. Essentially the email was a cease and desist notice to not use their trademarked phrase. I found this rather humorous for a number of reasons. One it was the CEO, who I had met at one point, taking the time to do this. Two the phrase is just a few common words strung together and was not being used to promote any product (making it technically not a trademark violation from my limited understanding). And Finally the speed at which I was requested to no longer use the phrase. I assume they use an automated search to find its use and my blog is indexed and therefore searchable.
Now even though I don’t think I was in violation of trademark, I had not really written about the company, at least buy name. So I changed the title of the post just to avoid any further animosity. I may work with this company again and I don’t need to have them upset at me. And of course I understand them going after this aggressively, trademark law requires that you actively defend your marks or you forfeit them. So I think no Harm no Foul. But still it was funny. Now I wonder if Techdirt will even notice that I linked to them. I am pretty sure they won’t care; they seem to encourage such behavior.
And no I won't say what the trademark was and deleted the comment on the previous post.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Vista isn’t that bad
Vista isn’t that bad… Those were the words from my company’s CTO over a year ago pleading with people to bring their laptops in to be “upgraded”. I found that really amusing. I was also one of the hold outs. Lucky for me my client did not allow Vista on their network so I was put on an exception list not to be up graded. Good. No annoying emails to ignore for a year. But then the project ended, and worse yet my computer needed servicing. Well that next thing you know I have to go in. And that means I get the “Upgrade” to Vista. Whohooo. This is something I had actually been dreading.
Funny as I work with technology I am certainly not what you call an early adopter of things. More like I have to be brow beaten into believing there is a reason to use a piece of new technology. I normally want to know what it is, what it does, and how affective it is. Then I avoid it for a year or two. Why, I don’t know this is just my way. I figure I am getting along fine the way things are why mess with them. Basically if it ain’t broke don’t fix it…. That is unless you are adding more power, then by all means fix the crap out of it. But new un-tried, un-needed before today things, nah forget it, when I absolutely need it or I have to replace something and only the upgraded version is available then I will get into it.
Some examples are as follows: I did not buy a GPS because google maps and mapquest worked fine for me. Or I could just get out the huge atlas I keep in my truck. But then I was going to England to work and I didn’t want to be distracted figuring out where to go and how to drive so I broke down and purchased a GPS. Now I love it. Hardly use it, but if I go somewhere new it comes along. Windows 98, I skipped both Windows ME (except on a laptop that came with it) and Windows 2000, and did not upgrade until XP. This turned out pretty good for me. I had a stable set up I reused on a dozen of machines and it worked great. Until wireless and some new apps why did I need to change? So I didn’t. I wouldn’t use Vista right now if I had the choice either.
Now last fall I did end up dealing with Vista long before I had planned. I bought the wife a laptop of x-mas and her birthday. I didn’t want to go through the trouble of rebuilding the thing and it came with Vista. Fine I didn’t have to use it, she did! Of course she really likes it because it is pretty but that was never my concern, in fact even on XP I would always run in classic mode. But now I have to upgrade. I have no choice. It is work’s laptop and they want it to run Vista. So I have been “side-graded” as I don’t really consider Vista to be an upgrade. It is prettier and I like the integrated search the rest of it I am not impressed. It is slower, crashes just as often, and now I have to search for things that I used to know where they existed. But it is not that bad, there was just no compelling reason to switch.
Funny as I work with technology I am certainly not what you call an early adopter of things. More like I have to be brow beaten into believing there is a reason to use a piece of new technology. I normally want to know what it is, what it does, and how affective it is. Then I avoid it for a year or two. Why, I don’t know this is just my way. I figure I am getting along fine the way things are why mess with them. Basically if it ain’t broke don’t fix it…. That is unless you are adding more power, then by all means fix the crap out of it. But new un-tried, un-needed before today things, nah forget it, when I absolutely need it or I have to replace something and only the upgraded version is available then I will get into it.
Some examples are as follows: I did not buy a GPS because google maps and mapquest worked fine for me. Or I could just get out the huge atlas I keep in my truck. But then I was going to England to work and I didn’t want to be distracted figuring out where to go and how to drive so I broke down and purchased a GPS. Now I love it. Hardly use it, but if I go somewhere new it comes along. Windows 98, I skipped both Windows ME (except on a laptop that came with it) and Windows 2000, and did not upgrade until XP. This turned out pretty good for me. I had a stable set up I reused on a dozen of machines and it worked great. Until wireless and some new apps why did I need to change? So I didn’t. I wouldn’t use Vista right now if I had the choice either.
Now last fall I did end up dealing with Vista long before I had planned. I bought the wife a laptop of x-mas and her birthday. I didn’t want to go through the trouble of rebuilding the thing and it came with Vista. Fine I didn’t have to use it, she did! Of course she really likes it because it is pretty but that was never my concern, in fact even on XP I would always run in classic mode. But now I have to upgrade. I have no choice. It is work’s laptop and they want it to run Vista. So I have been “side-graded” as I don’t really consider Vista to be an upgrade. It is prettier and I like the integrated search the rest of it I am not impressed. It is slower, crashes just as often, and now I have to search for things that I used to know where they existed. But it is not that bad, there was just no compelling reason to switch.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Eat my Bounce Back Suckers!
One thing that drives me nutz is when a website requires you too “Register” before they will show you content. I understand if it is service that you are paying or an interactive community such a forum, but when a news website or a website that contains information they are going to give you for free anyway asks it seems pointless and annoying to me. I normally run into this when I am reading something linked from Google news or one of the RSS feeds that I check on a regular basis. And every time it drives me nutz. The biggest question I get is what do they get out of having me register? Probably just and email to spam so why would I want to do that. In most cases it is a local paper and I am only going to read the single story I was interested in, so again what does the company gain from asking me to do this pointless task?
So I do what I am going to assume 95% of people do I try to get around the registration. Many papers use a cookie to determine if you have logged in or not and if you remove the cookie the website has no clue what to do and shows you the content. This is my favorite scenario because then I add the site to my black list to not allow cookies and I can browse their content all I want. The other trick I use I think is more common I make up an email account and registration info (I did this at the grocery store too so I could get a discount card but no junk mail). I literally just type random letters into most the fields and then random letters with an @ and a dot com so it will pass the simple test they do on emails. That always makes me laugh a little because it just means every time they try to spam the people who have registered they will get a bounce back from my entry. Sometimes I do end up registering for the same site a few times over the course of months if different stories I want to read so I probably cause a lot of bounce backs. Of course a well configured server would be unaffected but I like to think it causes the company in question trouble.
There are a few sites that take it one step further and require a real email address where you have to click on a confirmation message. Again if this is content you are going to give away for free, what good does this do your firm? Your information is provided on the internet so if you are a local paper and you want to try to get subscriptions up it doesn’t help. Again I can only assume the idea is to get emails to sell to marketers or to spam the people who register themselves. So in this case I normally either don’t bother with the site at all, find a log in on line (I am not the only person who doesn’t want to register for sites so sometime you can find a generic one posted that a lot of people use), or go create a hotmail, yahoo, or google mail account for the one use. So I have been noticing less of these sites in the last couple of years and I hope the trend is to get rid of the registration just to view an article or information. But until then I guess I will just keep circumventing the process as much as possible.
So I do what I am going to assume 95% of people do I try to get around the registration. Many papers use a cookie to determine if you have logged in or not and if you remove the cookie the website has no clue what to do and shows you the content. This is my favorite scenario because then I add the site to my black list to not allow cookies and I can browse their content all I want. The other trick I use I think is more common I make up an email account and registration info (I did this at the grocery store too so I could get a discount card but no junk mail). I literally just type random letters into most the fields and then random letters with an @ and a dot com so it will pass the simple test they do on emails. That always makes me laugh a little because it just means every time they try to spam the people who have registered they will get a bounce back from my entry. Sometimes I do end up registering for the same site a few times over the course of months if different stories I want to read so I probably cause a lot of bounce backs. Of course a well configured server would be unaffected but I like to think it causes the company in question trouble.
There are a few sites that take it one step further and require a real email address where you have to click on a confirmation message. Again if this is content you are going to give away for free, what good does this do your firm? Your information is provided on the internet so if you are a local paper and you want to try to get subscriptions up it doesn’t help. Again I can only assume the idea is to get emails to sell to marketers or to spam the people who register themselves. So in this case I normally either don’t bother with the site at all, find a log in on line (I am not the only person who doesn’t want to register for sites so sometime you can find a generic one posted that a lot of people use), or go create a hotmail, yahoo, or google mail account for the one use. So I have been noticing less of these sites in the last couple of years and I hope the trend is to get rid of the registration just to view an article or information. But until then I guess I will just keep circumventing the process as much as possible.
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