May 21
ErinFLOSS, Work
Last night was my first night of putting interoperability of Linux to a personal test. I work for a Microsoft-centric company so every time I need to do active meeting sessions with counterparts then I have to boot into Windows to ensure that nothing goes off in the middle of the meeting. This is because meetings like those entail a lot of opening of project office documents, searching mails for references, and other stuff. The project documents are also a work of their own since I think the person creating the base templates are certified MS Office template designers (if there is such a thing).
My new project requires me to handle late Tuesday night calls since we are conferencing three very distributed time zones (Manila, Madrid, California). Conference calls are done using Skype since I don’t have IDD capability at home nor am I willing to do the call on my prepaid SIM. Since I already have Skype installed yesterday on Archer, I tested a conference call using Skype’s echo123 service. I was able to hear my recorded message so that portion is not a problem. My headset has a small static sound but I think it has something to do with the connection between the headset and the speaker audio out port. The only possible stumbling block would be the mail searching portion and the documents that needs to be referenced in the call.
An hour before I have already downloaded all reference materials off the web mail interface of the company’s Exchange server. That reminds me that I have the Exchange server because it keeps on kicking my Firefox connection whenever I open a message. The sidebar is OK but the main area gets a “Connection is lost” message. IE doesn’t have this problem when I am in Windows but I wouldn’t install ie4linux just for this now that Metrobank already supports non-IE browser. If anybody knows how to make Thunderbird connect to an Exchange server then let me know although the configuration might also be painful. I couldn’t even configure Outlook in my desktop to connect to the Exchange server *even* after using the company supplied configuration utility. I might even try using Evolution during the weekend. 🙂
Anyway, I just created a new Firefox Windows and opened all possible mails that may be referenced in the call so I wouldn’t search for it. I then tried opening all Excel, Word and PowerPoint attachments using OpenOffice.org (2.4). OOo was able to open them all which is admirable enough but I have the following nitpicks:
- For MS Word document some of the formatting especially on tables are misaligned.
- The OO.o Writer is showing too many artifacts like ruler margins and such that could be done without.
- Default rendering size for the spreadsheets were too tiny.
- The comments on the Excel spreadsheet are showing far from the cell they are attached to. I have to scroll just to see them.
- Default rendering size for the presentations are also tiny. I had to play with the zoom control for a bit until I finally hit the “Optimal” option. Why wouldn’t the Optimal option be selected as the default?
Understandably, the nitpicks above are minor and there might be some preferences that could be set to remedy them but I am not using OO.o that frequently aside from a view-only app. The resulting documents from OO.o saves require too much effort to correct to make it my mainstream application for work documentation.
Back on the topic of the call, everything went relatively smoothly although my Skype cannot connect nor message the contact from Madrid. I can see his status is online but for some reason our Skypes just couldn’t communicate. The conference call had to be initiated by the contact from California.
This whole blog post might be seen as petty since there isn’t any groundbreaking achievement but I don’t care as this is a personal achievement about Linux and Windows interoperability. While Linux cannot fully replace Windows right now, Windows’ share of the home computing time is getting smaller.
ciao!
Apr 27
ErinWork
The first thing that comes into my mind when the word “change” is mentioned are the cliches “The only things constant are taxes and change.” Too obvious? Maybe.
Tomorrow I will start something new in work. It will be the first time in more than five years that I will be transferring to a new office (just an office and not company 🙂 ). When I was pirated joined the company I stayed for two weeks in the office near Glorietta but for the rest of my stint I was in the oldest company residence in Ayala Ave. I shifted projects and cubicle areas but they we all located in the 3/F of that building. Since my work affords minimal chances of going onshore, it has also been a private joke that I am being “fermented” in the building. 🙂
Since March of this year I was working on an “ever challenging” project that is not really a part of the “solutions group” that have nurtured me since I joined the company. Eventually I had to move out to the office in Mandaluyong since the resources working on the project is there. I have previously experienced packing my stuff before I go into onshore assignments but last Friday was different since I know I may not come back again on that floor. Much as I may quip at that floor looking like the insides of a barracks or bomb shelter I already have grown accustomed to its confines. I have spent many nights there, sleeping in near impossible locations like aligned movable bins or on top of conference tables much like what I would imagine a corpse would be in an embalmer’s table.
Journeys are always two-sided. I am leaving behind a significant history but I am opening new pages for new experiences. I am going out of my comfort zone to see if I can pit my almost non-existent skills in a new environment. In my old environment I have gotten a reputation and familiarity that I am able to do most of what I want due to tenure in the area wherein only 3 more people beats my longevity with the project group. In my new project I am going to start afresh with a new set of managers, and a new set of people. Thankfully two peers will hopefully join me by the second quarter of this year. By that time they would be a welcome relief since I will definitely lean on their technical skills and moral support that can only achieved when you have gone through “hell” with them.
Right now I have two bags full of stuff that I have brought home and I am not sure how long it would take for me to prepare their new home for them. But I am pretty sure that the time will be sooner that I think. 🙂
ciao!
Mar 03
ErinGarbage, Work
I wasn’t able to say a face-to-face goodbye to my “adopted” protege when she had her last day in the company since my wife and I are leaving for our annual vacation to Bohol and I was working from home the previous day. I never liked good-byes anyway and it isn’t like I will not be communicating with her after her stint with the “COMPANY”. 🙂
I have already experienced leaving a company and, many times over, have experienced being the one left in the company. Each one is hard but this one is special so I decided to write a homage to Joypo. I can’t say I am devastated since I am actually happy for her. I don’t know if its eagles or condors, but some birds teach their young how to fly by dropping them off from the safety of their nest. I won’t grab the whole credit for mentoring this specific hatchling but I think it is my due to say that I have some contribution in kicking her quiet @$$ over the edge. 🙂
For those interested, her name is not really Joypo. I have this habit of encoding the names in my phonebook and that is the name I gave her number. It is actually my wife who coined the codename because when she first talked to Joy she said she is very respectful that she inserts “po” (the Filipino term for respect) multiple times in a sentence that she started referring to her as Joypo. We have a lot of friends named Joy so it gave an easy to recall distinction. 🙂
Enough of the segue. Let me just list down the reasons why this lone wolf has taken an interest in taking this hatchling under my spiny wing:
- She was my real first subordinate. My supervisor then advised that I need to learn how to manage somebody if I want to better my chances of getting promoted to a lead position. Joypo was my first victim. 😀
- Since our work as all-around tech support and interim project infrastructure admins were very technical in nature and requires some hefty lifting (computer miniaturization was not that prevalent back then), I was actually expecting to get a male subordinate. Instead I got this wiry lass. But she proved me wrong by being my yardstick of what qualities a “DevArch” apprentice should have.
- She was my gender equalizer. I still laugh about the amount of flak I received when I actually made her lift and transport whole workstations from one cube to another. I just shrugged my shoulders to my “critics” and said it is part of the initiation for the team. Every devarch should experience lifting and moving workstations. Funny thing is that it became true. 😀
- I vowed that any devarch apprentice should just have the technical capabilities and I will handle fitting them with horns needed when coordinating with external resources. Joypo, with her uber-religious background, gave me a challenge. I think I was able to grow her some sharp horns. Unfortunately she also uses them on me. /lol
- I admire her guts. She actually gave me a prayer book. ME! A PRAYER BOOK! I wasn’t an agnostic back then but what the hell? I think I still have that prayer book in my cabinet. No offense Joy, I just have this habit of not being organized when it comes to my possessions. I value the thought more than the actual physical object. 🙂
- I value her honesty and inputs even if she doesn’t think so. Once I asked her if she thinks I am a good leader. She bluntly replied “Opo, kahit nakakainis na kayo minsan (Yes, even if you are sometimes irritating)”. I couldn’t feel more validated and prouder. 🙂
I think I am obligated to talk her out of leaving but I don’t think that makes sense coming from somebody who has left a previous company for greener pastures. I would only do such thing if I don’t think the person has thought things through but I had no doubt Joypo has already weighed all the possibilities.
So see you around kiddo. This industry is too small and too connected to be a stranger.
Me and Joypo in her farewell libre 🙂
ciao!
Feb 17
ErinGarbage, Work
I like freebies may it be useful or a one-time quirky curiosity thing. I admittedly have a weird standard on what counts as curious which sometimes explain the amount of trash in my storage spaces. My wife calls them junk, I call them as my collection of “probably usefuls”. 😀
I also have this limit on what I would like to get. To the probable disbelief of those who know me, I can say no to a freebie especially if it fails to rouse my interest. One such thing is the freebie that the company hyped and gave its employees: a dog tag.
Not the actual dogtag freebie
Yes, a dog tag. And no ordinary dog tag like what is in the image above. The dog tag is engraved with a list of qualities that the company wants everybody to be governed with in their everyday life; to breathe and live so to speak. The thought is sweet but I wonder what kind of crack is being smoked by the person who conceived this “promotion.” This is for the same company who revamped the design of its electronic badges because it doesn’t want the badges to have a distinct link to the company as a form of security against lost and forged badges.
The day they sent out the invite, Mike and the others in the Bench project was asking if I was going to get my dog tag. I gave them a big “HELL NO!” for the simple reason that I don’t see any practical nor interesting use for it. I like war video games like the Medal of Honor series which revolves about war campaigns but I am not fanatical enough to consider dog tags as a cool accessory. I also don’t have any dog that I can attach the tag. 😛 I am also trying to minimize the weight of my electronic badge since its weight alone is already noticeable. I gave a tongue-in-cheek retort that maybe we can collect all the dog tags in the project team and sell them in the junkyard for twenty pesos and buy ourselves two sticks of banana-que. 😛 Nope, I am not going to go into long queues to redeem that.
Early last week a company memo was sent to the email system which made me drop my jaws with laughter. The memo was warning against selling the tags and giving them away to non-company employed persons (e.g., friends, family, etc.). Much as I find it funny that somebody had the cajones to actually sell the tags, it kills me to think that somebody actually bought the craptag. /lol
And then here is the final kicker: I was told that the tags, like the electronic badges, should not be displayed when outside the company premises as they provide a direct link to the company. They should be hidden when going outside.
Yeah right, like I would go through the hassle of queuing for the tags, weighing down my e-badge, and then remind myself to keep it hidden from plain sight. I wonder if the organizers of that promotion really believed that people would wear them in company premises willingly. I can’t figure out any reason though but there must be something out there even if they are beyond normal reasoning.
Maybe they should have given out board magnets. Or maybe paper weights. Or maybe something useful like a shirt, notebook or bookmarks.
[update] Curiously enough, another memo is sent out regarding this illustrious freebie. It seems the voice of the disgruntled is strong. The memo clarifies that the dogtag can be worn outside office premises but should be on a separate chain than the e-badge. The rationale is that the dogtag, which displays the company name, will link the e-badge back to the company if it gets lost. That makes sense, sort of. The wife makes a strong argument against that logic: but WE KNOW that badge is from your company. Apparently taking out the company name and colors from the badge will prevent outsiders from putting two and two together and arrive at the conclusion that persons wearing badges coming out of offices with big company logo is not affiliated with the company. Yeah, that makes absolute perfect sense. In the ideal world, everybody hides the badge every time they go out.
Oh, I got a deed here for the Guadalupe bridge for anybody willing to buy it. I am selling it cheap. 😀
ciao!
Feb 11
ErinGarbage, Work
Nazistic proxy love that is.
For the first time in 5 years in the company I finally experienced being ‘benched’. That is the local term for any resources who are in-between projects. After going through several mind-benders, I figured this is a welcome opportunity to get some training done.
I have two options, either go for the trainings in the company online learning repository or pursue more job-directed tutorials that proliferate the net. In my perspective the second option means a wealth of information right in my fingertips as soon as I get clearance from my superiors that I can do so. First I have to make sure that I have completed all of those mandatory trainings. Ok, fair enough. I even tried taking some of the available CBTs to (in the words of my counselors) “round-up my non-technical skills.” Being a geek by nature, I can describe those trainings in two words: boring and under-estimated. Boring does not need further explanation and yes I already sent the proper feedback. Under-estimated means that the allocated time to complete each course is severely underestimated. My impression is that whoever timed these courses have used people gifted with super-human reading and compression skills. For the rest of us, good luck in finishing the courses in the allocated time. Think about what you can remember on the course on your way home.
After the non-technical traiing torture has ended, I set my sights on these cool Java frameworks and technologies that I kept promising myself that I would get an overview. I am talking hibernate, spring, struts, aspect oriented programming, design patters, eclipse framework, and what have you. The mere thought makes me salivate. 😀
First in line is the spring framework as this is being touted as the emerging de facto standard for J2EE development. The spring home site has a nifty tutorial that is easy to follow. Since the tutorial uses Apache Tomcat for deployment and testing and I am using Eclipse as my IDE, it makes logical sense to install an Eclipse plug-in to manage the Tomcat start/stop process. That is the goal of IDEs in the first place: so you have a one-stop shop for all your development needs.
Ok, now to put the good idea in practice: Fire up google, search for “best eclipse tomcat plugin”. What do you know, the first few hits lists the eclipse plug-in central site. The cherry is that you can sort based on rating and the best one is the sysdeo plugin which I remember using eons ago. This is where the love entered the scene: clicking the plug-in homepage returns a proxy blocked page because it is classified under “Freeware and Software Download”. Very nice. /roll-eyes
And now in order to use this “should-have-been-a-great-idea” I need to secure a manager’s approval, hunt down whoever is managing the elusive Websense white-list, make the actual appeal, probably need to secure a local security exception for something that common sense should dictate as something useful, which in turn would probably result to securing a global exception, and then doing the whole red-tape-esque dance of e-paper processing. Assuming my request gets approved I guess my grandchildren who would be in the company by then be able to use an Eclipse Tomcat plug-in if I am careful enough to word it that the request is not version-constrained. 🙁
Or I can circumvent the process by downloading the plugin from outside the external network and then send it in.
Or revert to using one command terminal to start tomcat, and then my IDE for development.
Guess which one won? Yay for progress and efficieny. CLI rules. 🙁
ciao!
Dec 12
ErinTop of my head, Work
The good thing about being part of a large company is that you usually get more than one Christmas party. There usually is a company-level party, sometimes there is another for the department level, then there is the project level party that is mandatory to hold. Sometimes members of the various teams conduct an unofficial celebration.
On December 12, the onsite TopD team had a project celebration as it’s monthly social event (aka team building). The party was held at a Thai restaurant named Kinkin. The celebration coincides with the Client’s own Christmas celebration so we were able to go home early (if you can say that 6PM is still early).
After arriving in the place, the seating arrangement was already decided by the social committee. They distributed the pinoys to 2-3 per table, I guess in line with the maximize the networking possibility. They know that Filipinos have a tendency to clump together. 🙂
I was seated in the farthermost table with Harold and Penpen. Harold had to leave for a while due to a prior church engagement but he was able to come back after 30 minutes. We barely finished the first course when arrived so he didn’t miss much. He started the ball rolling in heckling Nana though, which lasted through the night. 😀
The food was very, uhhmm, presentable. Fine dining is intended for human interaction with food and wine as highlights. Unfortunately I have a very healthy appetite so I was skeptical on how my tummy will fare during the dinner. I think Girlie and Francis will skin me alive if I didn’t come so that also contributes a lot in the decision to go. One thing that is not lacking in the menu was the wine. Each course have its own accompanying wine but I can’t remember which ones were which since I know next to nothing when it comes to wines. All I know is that some of are really fancy sounding, and one even came in an artistic vessel:
The menu we had was composed of the following (as I remember them):
For appetizers (aside from the assorted finger foods we found in the table that we had fun in christening weird names to Nana’s discomfort) we had fish balls, pork strips in skewers (barbecue?) and spring rolls dipped in spicy sauce.
Then came the soup which is clear soup stock with basil and other herbs that I didn’t catch. The servers gave us some chili oil to spice things up. Maybe it is because the stock, while aromatic, basically tastes like weakly flavoured water?
Next came the first course which was served in a classic Danish-designed plate. The course was composed of chicken and seafood in green curry with fried beets on the side. The course was served with some scallops lightly seasoned with herbs, and some fried orchids.
I was so hungry that I finished the plate first in our table. The orchid was alright although the small serving is not enough to allow me to really give a good judgment of how it tastes like. It helps in keeping my grumbling stomach at bay and that is enough for me. I think I am so hungry that I am seeing red when the meal comes with green curry. Checking the pictures restored some sanity as the curry is indeed red in color. Note to self, if I get hungry again I only need to pick some grass and put some herbs and vinaigrette on it. 😛
After that course came something more substantial: braised pork on top of some swirls of fresh pumpkin brulee. It was accompanied with what is described as “pad thai that is missing the main ingredient which is the noodles.” Hmmn, this itself warrants a comment that I learned was the same across all tables. If a dish is missing its main ingredient, does it still have enough credibility to be called as the original dish?
Nice dish but this is also a runner-up for the Nicolas Cage movie: Gone in 60 seconds. 🙂
Next came the piece d’ resistance of the whole dinner: duck on duck. The main dish is a lightly prepared duck in red curry served with fresh broccoli and jasmine rice. The dish is complimented by a spring-roll composed of a filling of duck leg marinated and spiced then left to ferment for four days, then enclosed in a freshly made rice wrapper. Yummy although the serving size still leaves something to be desired. Nana didn’t even touch her plate but I was beaten to the punch in asking to finish her plate. 😐
The dessert actually came in waves. The first wave was a mango sorbet accented with a peach/passion jelly. This came with a “dessert wine” which I find very sour but the rest of the gang said that the wine was too sweet. I think I may have picked up the wrong glass. 😀
After finishing the mango sorbet we were given some mint breath freshener which I thought ended the dinner but then they served us some baked coconut meat with salted ice cream. The last time I tasted salted ice cream was when the salt in the ice surrounding the sorbetes (or dirty ice cream in street parlance) gets accidentally sprinkled inside the container. The taste was uhm, interesting unfortunately I didn’t get the chance to take a snapshot.
During meal intervals the party committee had some intermission numbers consisting mainly of each table doing an interpretative rendition of some Christmas songs. Our table did the Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer song and we expected to land at the last place since we had a terrible presentation. It came out that having one of the judges hatching the idea (and probably going in last which means the judges have the most alcohol during our presentation) is enough to make us win the contest. I think another factor was that we have Harold in the team, and Harold effortlessly brings cheers and happy thoughts just by being Harold. Amazing!
The best surprise of all was when we opened the give-away. Harold was quipping that it is an iPod and we were surprised when it was indeed an iPod shuffle meant for everybody. Coolness factor x 10. 😀
The party ended at around 12am and we were at the apartment at around 1am. I was already bone-tired but I was hungry so I ended up munching some crackers while being half-asleep. Social dinners are fine but I don’t think I will really enjoy one unless the multi-course menu have super sized portions. 😀
Pictures of the event can be viewed here, hosted by Picasa Google Photos of course. 🙂
ciao!
Dec 10
ErinTop of my head, Work
All of the onshore assignees were invited to the Corporate Christmas party which was held in a museum. The theme of the party was “Classic Christmas” with instructions that the theme is open for interpretation. We asked around and the consensus is that the acceptable outfit for “Classic Christmas” is anything except jeans. The pinoy contingent decided that suit and tie is the safe bet for men. Only Brian and Alvin will come without a suit because Alvin was not able to bring one, and buying one here in Denmark is not practical. Brian had no plans of attending since he will be going on a long vacation to Italy but he was “encouraged” by Girlie to attend.
For Filipinos not belong to the ‘elite’ class and upper management, suits are seen as not natural. Why would it be when our climate is very humid? Suits are made for environments that would be naturally cooler. Try wearing it in the Philippines when you have to walk in the street. That is almost like a death wish by heat stroke. That is the reason why the Barong is the formal wear of choice for Filipinos. 🙂
Finding caucasians in suits seem normal, but seeing your Filipino co-team members in suits? Classic! (pun intended)
Ok, so I don’t look good in a suit. Or in anything at all. But fortunately we have model-hopefuls
I think we were the only ones snapping pictures in the place but the Europeans around us have already tolerated these “snapper-happy” asians. Some even joined the fun by crashing the clicker sessions:
This post is becoming a photoblog so I will just redirect those still interested into the Picasa album where the rest of the picture selection resides.
The party was pretty average in terms of European corporate events. This kind of parties are really venues for networking more than anything else since it allows people from different operating groups to mingle and talk shop as well as anything and everything under the sun. I went with the “early” group with Francis, Harold and Jordan. Even with the early group, we ended up being part of the last batch to arrive. Arrival is announced with blaring trumpeters, something like what would you expect medieval paging systems would work when somebody arrives in a castle gathering. Cute.
We saw a Danish colleague so we followed him to the second floor where all attendees were mingling around and networking. We saw a few more colleagues and we were informed that we should have picked an ornament at the door since that will determine where we would sit. Random seating. Networking. It figures.
I was seated in the same table as our Host Senior Executive, Bent Dalager. Alvin, Tina, Brian and Girlie joined us later since the table with the Pinoy assignees are what we called the “late” table. I was seated in front of Nina, a previous assignee to our project. As the hosts were speaking in Danish, Bent was trying to translate to us whenever possible. I was told that we would be served a classical Danish course complete with burned hay (if I understood Bent correctly). The food service was not that good and I was disappointed when the burnt hay did not make an appearance.
Most of the program was in Danish. There was a standup comedian but we were left clueless on what he was saying. Bent just said that the comedian had a slow start but the end was fairly funny. He also translated a joke about a man coming in with a pig. An old joke but we had to laugh because apparently it is not as old for the Danes. 🙂
Then there was a corporate game wherein each table has to guess a certain high executive based on clues. Again this was in Danish so to break the ice, I made Tina and Alvin play the finger number game (the one followed by two then by three and so on). I ended up extending the game with Nina and Bent. I was really tempted to skip pointing to them the answer even if I was already giving it to them in spades. That is the trick of the game, hiding the answer in plain sight. 😀 While Bent’s attention was captivated by the finger number pattern game, Girlie and the others were hatching a “Black Magic” mind reading trick that went off perfectly, twice. 🙂
After the program proper, the party shifted to disco and open bar mode. A partly drunk Dane joined us in our table initially to share our beer and then went on a discussion with me regarding outsourcing work and religion. The first one is a little bit cumbersome since he is particularly against outsourcing and I am part of the team at the receiving end of outsourcing deals. The second one was more tolerable since he is also partial to non-standard beliefs. This was the point wherein I noticed Girlie left me to fend off this crazy Dane. 🙂
After a few more drinks, I decided to lay low since dancing is really not my cup of tea as most of outdoor social events. I settled to doing what I do best in these situations: I observe and guard. The last one is unnecessary but you will never know when you need to bail a friend out of a potentially sticky situation. At around 1AM, I decided that the party was already tapering off and all of our team was in the dance floor so it is safe to rest. Since I still have a webcall at around 8AM, I took the keys from Francis and decided to sleep in the car. An hour later the group decided to go home. Francis and Harold functioned as a door-to-door service and that concluded the corporate christmas party. 🙂
ciao!
Oct 14
ErinRubbish, Work
On one of the leadership seminars (just humor me. they want to make me a leader) I attended one of the speakers addressed the participants in this way “you are now in the cross roads of your careers. you are now in place to be the mediator of the management and the rank and file. you are no longer wholly part of the rank and file since you have to begin looking at the business side of the equation.”
Ok, so that is already a paraphrase of what the speaker said. Regardless, my understanding of the whole thing makes me feel giddy inside. Why should there even be a distinction? Is the rift between management and staff really that wide that they can never meet? This might be stereotypical but the staff generally views management as people who doesn’t care about the life of the ordinary employee while the common perception of management is that the staff is incapable of understanding the big picture thus incapable of making the correct decisions.
Why can’t a person be both? Why do we have to choose? Does getting promoted really means swimming with the sharks? Does achieving the next level really require a shift in ones belief and norm? Does one have to compromise one’s principle to cross the perceived rift?
Instead of a cross-road I am finding myself walking in a tightrope. I still want to view myself as one of the staff since technically I am still a staff member. I just happen to be in a place where I ideally viewed it as a place wherein I can effect more changes. These are the same changes that I have always been clamoring when I was still below a lead position.
I think my problem is that I am cursed with this desire to be neutral but at the same time have this streak of idealism burdened with a lot of pragmatism. I want to have my cake and eat it too. Why can’t I have it both ways with my decisions? Why should every decision be viewed and weighed if it was tainted by management or staff concerns rather than being weighed on its own merits?
It might just be a transition phase (or in staff parlance, my heart is still beating) but I am getting tired of being cut off for every non-trivial decision I make. This is where I abhor being a leader, rather being happy with being an adviser. The latter have the luxury of letting others with the ambition run the show but at the same time have enough inputs to steer the greater master plan.
Paraphrasing something I have heard from a friend;
Don’t walk in front of me for I may not follow.
Don’t walk behind me for I may not lead.
Walk beside me so that we may learn from each other.
Why can’t the life of (middle) management be like that?
ciao!
Sep 12
ErinGarbage, Work
Welcome to the new home of the boredom of ramfree17. Who would have thought that this incarnation of this blog will reach 100 pages and would survive the transfer to another host. I have spent a week trying to get this site up and running. I switched provider to Web.com because my previous provider killed of the starter package (1000 pesos per year which includes 100mb hosting and domain registration) and Web.com is only 100 pesos more expensive than my original one.
I also switched the domain name because the old domain registration is already blocked by the irritating big W implementation in the home office. Too bad I cant repoint the old domain to this one but those are the sacrifices I have to make.
This is also my first month on this offshore assignment. Well technically I have already been 34 days here in Denmark but it still feels like yesterday since I still do not have a hang of the things. I have already been to the Tivoli amusement park wherein we have conquered most of the adrenaline pumping rides. The only reason we were not able to conquer the dragon was because it broke down while we were on it. I have also been in the Little Mermaid park but I still don’t get it what is exactly great on this tourist hot spot.
Hopefully more posts about my assignment here in the land of the Danes. 🙂
ciao!
Apr 16
ErinRubbish, Work office politics, rant, Work
I have just came out from a long OTy[1] weekend, and when I said long I meant a 19-hour rally with 3 hours of sleep. All because the project I am with has once again been selected for a security audit and an internal audit will be conducted today.
The unplanned rally is caused by the short notice given to the project and the not-so-good state of our security documentation. Before somebody starts that it is our fault for not updating the security docs as we go along then please give us a charge number for that kind of work before you start pointing fingers. In typical corporate wheedling and cajoling, they (meaning the powers that be, or the power trippers as i call them) say that these should be part of the “continuous improvement” (CI) budget of the project. REALITY CHECK: WHAT CI BUDGET? We are on a fixed time arrangement with the client and just trying telling the client that “we would allocate a portion of the time you bought to spend on security work that is not part of the contract you signed, and thank you for understanding.”. Couple this with the fact that we are running overbudget for the things that the client actually paid for! It doesn’t take a super sleuth to figure out that we are between a hard rock and a PHB.
To make matters worse, I am not satisfied with the output because we are tasked to churn out security documentations “aligned” with the corporate “version”. No thank you because
- I don’t believe the return of investment on those documentations is significant.
- The template documents provided are either not enough or an overkill.
- The person who created those template documents should stop using PCP. Reformatting them to look professional entails too much work.I reserve the right to save my co-team members from the atrocities of using too much colors in a document, and loud ones at that.
- If I am going to churn out security measures, then I will at least have the decency of believing those are practical and not just for show.
Why did I go through it? Because of pressure to pass the audit since the whole office accreditation can go up in smoke for failing the external auditors, and I don’t have the heart to add more stress on my manager. She already has enough problems on her plate regarding the project going over-budget and CMMi (yes, that effectively makes it a four-letter word) demands for full compliance.
19 hours and we aren’t even halfway the 100% completion mark. I know I told my manager that what we are targeting now is just damage control but it is really disheartening whenever I see the completion ratio for the project. And after that I also need to consider going back to reality that I am also over-budget on the client deliverable that they want me to submit by end of this month. 🙁
End of rant for now. I need to check what else I can finish before the internal audit today.
[1] OTy, n., Short for O-Thank you, the free version of overtime.
ciao!
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