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Space CaseMarch 06 New OpportunitiesSo two weeks ago I left Lamko for greener pastures, or greyer, which is the colour of my couch. Actually I was asked to leave due to restructuring, but it's all good. Better to leave a sinking ship than to try and swim away as it sucks you down with it after the fact. So now I'm on a six week contract for an XP Migration / Rollout and it's pretty fun, or will be once we get going. HP is late delivering hardware, head office is slow with setting up our clients, so we mostly wait and do what little odd jobs we can weasel our way into.
So far so good though, and it's more money than Lamko was willing to pay me. Ah Lamko, how I don't miss thee.
L January 17 Pesky Work EthicI get really frustrated and jaded here at work because it's the same thing day in and day out. I need certain things to do my job, like a replacement hard drive, or monitor, or a new server, and every time I submit the request I hit a wall and a thousand questions. I mean, I don't mind justifying why I need it, but if you're going to sign a $100 000 cheque for one department without batting an eyelash, why is my $50 request met with sceptatism and scorn? Regardless I do the leg work, I get the requisite three quotes, I do the dance and I smile, and stay polite. I'd like to just keep my head down, ignore everything and quietly fix only that which breaks, but my damn parents had to go and raise me with some kind of work ethic so I keep running full tilt at that wall trying to get the equipment I need to make this a better place for the users.
Meh, what'cha going to do? January 02 A new list!There's a new list at the bottom of this site, that I will try to keep up to date, chronicling the inane, and the stupid that I ahve to deal with on a dialy basis. If you read this list, and recognize a conversation you were a part of, I'm laughing WITH you, honest. December 27 My brief experience with Microsoft VistaSo I got a chance to poke around Windows Vista a bit the other day, and I gotta say, I'm impressed, but not happy. Now I didn't spend much more than two hours with it, and I certainly didn't go through everything there is to go through but here's a short list of pros and cons from my point of view:
PROS:
Pretty interface
Huge Frickin' Icons (if you like that kind of thing, they can be set to a variety of sizes)
The way it handles pictures is much better than XP
The install process. Finally, an install process that isn't a chore, and isn't ugly
More secure, at lest till the bugs start being made public
limited rights for users
Did I mention the pretty interface?
Cons:
There's eight bloody versions ranging from the useless Home Basic to the does things you'll never need it to do Ultimate version
Price ranging from the expensive Home Basic, to the maybe I should just by a Mac Ultimate version
User Access Control. Why do I need to be asked if I'm sure I want to run this application, only to be asked again if I'm really, really sure?
Security. It's the most secure Windows yet! So was XP, so don't expect Vista to be any different, it's just a matter of time till the bugs are reported, exploited, then patched, and usually in that order.
Pretty interface.
Why is pretty interface both a pro and a con? Well it's nice to look at, but you can get the same interface on XP for considerably less money. The Apple style gadgets are all available for XP from various sources, not the least knows of which is Google.
User Access control was just annoying and should be shut off by anyone that has to install any number of applications.
One other interface feature was the fade and pop that windows seem to do by default. Dialog boxs fade into view then Pop into focus. Pretty cool the first time, kind of funky the second time, but when installing this one app, by the sixth dialog box, I was dizzy and my eyes hurt. That got turned off quick.
What the hell is up with the 8 different versions? Sure choice is good, but the vast majority of users can barely articulate "When I print, nothing happens". How are they supposed to know which version is right for them?
Sales Drone: "what would you like to do with your computer"
Average Joe: "just email and the web"
SD: "Well then Home Basic should be just fine for you and it's cheaper too"
AJ: "sounds great, hook me up"
Fast forward 1 month later
Average Joe "this piece of shit, why can't I have email, the web, media player, and my movie maker open at the same time??? I should have bought a mac"
Now, some of you may get the idea that I'm a Mac fan boy, well I'm not. I'm actually a Microsoft Certified IT guy and I've been doing this for a decade or more. Vista is pretty, there's no doubt, it's more secure, for now, and the list of improvements over XP is impressive. Compared to XP though, I feel that things have changed so much, and things have been moved around so much, and so much has been added that the learning curve for the average user moving from XP to Vista wont be that much greater than moving from XP to a Mac, but with a Mac you get a much nicer interface, a much nicer computer, and far fewer security headaches, at least for now. Sure Mac's are expensive, but you get everything you need in one box, and you'll most likely need to buy a new computer anyway to take advantage of Vista. May as well make your experience not suck out of the box and go buy a Mac. If you're a PC gamer though you're pretty much stuck with Windows. Sorry about your luck.
December 01 Religion, Scientology, and Feminine HygieneNormally, I'm pretty anti-religion, I mean, if you want to worship a God, or a Goddess, or a velvet Elvis painting, that's fantastic. What you shouldn't do is assume that you, or your religion is better than anyone or anything else. Here's a fun little video featuring some fine examples of Scientology (assuming it hasn't been pulled): http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1083100102009309014&q=Scientology
Sadly, they could be members of any religion because they're all full of self righteous douche bags trying to make you the bad guy. Granted the guy on the other end of the camera isn't much better, he's there for no other reason then to prove he's right, and that's just as bad.
So worship your God, your Goddess, your velvet Elvis, but shut the fuck up about it, and try not to be a hypocrite. November 03 NeverWinter Nights 2I've only just begun act one, and compared to NWN 1, it's a huge leap forward graphically. Game play wise, it's pretty much the same game with some nice new features. I'm especially looking forward to the influence system, and turning my friends into cold blooded killers. My only gripe is the Collectors Edition. It's $10 more for two rings, a cloth map, and an art book. The two rings, I really don't see what value they provide and are pretty useless (until you throw them into a fire and read the cool message on the inside). The art book, meh, it's mostly online, but the pictures are pretty. The cloth map? Ok, that thing is complete crap, more a napkin than a map. In the old days, and I mean before Ultima sucked, and then moved online, when you got a cloth map with the game, it was big, heavy fabric. The NWN2 map is pretty much a napkin, only thinner. In the UK, I was reading that you get the full NWN1 with both expansions included with the Collectors Edition of the game. Here in North America, you get crap. The game however, and keep in mind I'm only just really beginning act 1, seems pretty good. Characters are more alive, the party system is greatly improved, and your henchmen are much more usefull and controllable. I'm playing through as a Paladin, at least till I get bored. I usually play games like this at least twice, taking the good and evil routs. We'll see how it goes. September 25 Walk for LifeSo this past weekend, I participated in the 2006 Walk For Life to benefit AIDS. I really didn't do anthing to benefit anyone other than myself, as all I did was walk, no donations were collected at all.
I went with Dana who went to support her son Devin who was actually walking and did all the fund raising. She walked it to keep an eye on him, and rather than sit around for 45 minutes waiting for them to return, I walked with her to keep her company. So in the end, it was purely selfish on my part, just an effort to avoid boredom, but I did walk 5K, and I'm sure the cardio didn't hurt me to much.
Free food, good times, good conversation, it's all good.
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