I just translated a patent application in which they described, as if it were totally normal, an office printer sending a notification of a virus infection to an admin by fax.
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I only did 3.5 days of work last week!
That’s because I caught a cold last weekend, and ended up taking 2.5 days of sick leave during the week (half of Monday, and all of Thursday and Friday). I could have worked on Friday (I was feeling better than I had done on Thursday), but I’m very happy that I chose not to (especially as I’ve been feeling pretty rubbish again so far on Saturday).
Enough was enough. Hopefully next week is low-stress.
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Working from home today:
- Try to work for a bit, get too hot.
- Wander around room for a bit before ending up next to the window.
- Stare across the room at my computer monitor.
- Begrudgingly go and sit down again.
- Go to 1.
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I needed to print something from my work computer today. Except, I realized, I have them attached to a wifi dohicky that gives my computers direct access to the office network. My printer, of course, being mine, isn’t allowed to be on that network. So I had to disconnect from work wifi to connect to my wifi. Of course, I’ve had this set up for 8 or 9 months, and this is the only time I’ve wanted to print something.
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Do you live somewhere where aircon is not often required? Like, the heatwave in the UK recently was probably hellish, because no-one has aircon. But equivalent heatwaves here are mostly fine, as long as you don’t have to go outside…
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When you are fitting SFF-8087 connectors
they can in at least some cases appear to be connected but not have gone in that last crucial 2mm.
But that having been done, the main storage server at home has now gone from 85% full to 49%. (43.6Ti to 76.4.)
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I just want to say: I am starting to have a thorough dislike for ElasticSearch. I had an entire changeset of only database changes today just to be able to introduce a new field into the stupid searchdocument via 5 levels of indirection.
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We have a tool. It lets us do stuff to stuff. One of workflows is called foo_power_down. it has an inverse flow called foo_power_on. Twitch. Twitch.
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Has Chrome (on Windows) just added the tab previews when you leave your cursor over a tab, or am I only just somehow noticing them now?
I have definitely seen it before, but I wouldn’t be able to say how long ago. Definitely before July, as I had noticed that on my previous job.
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I am just musing about how to best send a document to someone that my dad had on his computer but printed out for me… he’s generally good with tech for his age. But he still prints everything. Now I get to scan it. Then make it small enough for the upload form… when it was originally a slim pdf probably.
I got a pdf of a form I needed to print, fill out and mail (physically) in. I am pretty sure it’s a scan of printout of a photo a computer screen displaying the form. This from a financial services company that is online only. (The version on the website is a straight digital form, including the ability fill it before printing it. I couldn’t find it, because it’s named weirdly, and had to talk to a human who sent me an email with the super low res Betsy. )
(I have no idea how version became Betsy, not what resolution Betsy is.)
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An interesting survey on ethical concerns in software development.
Found in a Stack Overflow blog article about the possibilities and problems of preventing open source being used for unethical purposes.
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Ironically hosted at Google.
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Do no evil.
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Many companies have as their motto the thing they know is their biggest problem. See also Ars Gratia Artis. (We shall not speak of Quality Inns.)
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But if you know it is a problem why fire the very people who should help you with it?
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Solid gold yachts aren’t cheap. (They keep sinking, for a start.)
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I am so very happy that at this moment I get to work for something I can believe in. I can contribute to something that–in a roundabout way and YMMV about the if and how much–makes the world a little better.
I have previously had jobs in which I either wrote software for a company I actively disliked for how it treated both its customers and employees or wrote software that related to something that I would rather get rid of. Sure all that software helped some of the people that needed it–software usually does–but it was certainly not doing anything “meaningful”. No major ethical concerns along the way, just the small discomfiting feeling I should be doing something “better”.
PS: I didn’t think much about any of this when I was younger… if I had, my career might have been very a bit different.
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