Thinking out loud about cars, computers and security
It’s been an interesting week. Quick replay of the last eight days:
Off-road driving on a frozen field. Spent over an hour getting there because the directions I was given were out of date by about three years. Got to practice winter driving at unsafe speeds in borrowed RWD and FWD cars and my own AWD. Lot of fun, until something tore my left rear brake line. Got to ride home in tow truck. Continue reading “Weather &c”
K and I subscribe to Morgenbladet, a Norwegian weekly newspaper. The following is my translation of an excerpt from an article in the November 7 issue about political correctness and whether (and how) it hinders open debate. Continue reading “A rose by any other name”
I had my last day at Linpro last Tuesday (October 1st), and my first day at Systek last Wednesday.
Leaving Linpro was not an easy decision. On the one hand, I had some pretty good times at Linpro over the (almost) four years I worked there. On the other hand, almost all the people I joined Linpro to work with in the first place are long gone.
When you work on-site like I do, you don’t get to meet your coworkers (or should I say co-employees) very often. You show up at a social function and find out that half the people there are complete strangers—and half the people who were there the last time have left—well… it gives you pause. Suddenly, switching employers doesn’t seem like such a big change after all: you’re surrounded by strangers either way.
So you go for the option that gives you more freedom and more responsibility (the inseparable twins). You go for the option where you won’t have to suffer through the growing pains of a company that has doubled or tripled in size (you’ve lost track) since you started. You go for the option that puts you near the bottom, with a lot to learn, rather than near the top, with a lot to teach.
And you get ready to work your shiny metal ass off to climb back up that ladder.
You can try to cover your ass all you want, you incompetent little fuck, but I have audit trails, server logs and backups which prove that you fucked up, then tried to cover it up, then lied about it, while I was working 80-hour weeks trying to clean up your mess and save your sorry ass. Sorry you didn’t like my report—nothing hurts like the truth, eh?
First, elevators. You’ve probably heard that in many elevators, the “close doors” button doesn’t actually do anything. People who have never experienced this think it’s an urban legend, but believe me, it’s true. As pointed out in the Straight Dope article referenced above, in some elevators the “close doors” button has no effect unless the elevator is in “service mode” or “fireman mode”.
Where I currently work, the “close doors” button definitely does work. Everybody uses it, simply because if you don’t, the doors take forever to close. But the funny thing is that if you press the “close doors” button just as the doors are actually closing of their own volition (elevator doors want to be antropomorphised!) they will actually pause for a second or two before closing completely… Continue reading “On elevators and public transportation”