The Swamp

Shirley wrote: ↑Mon Jul 27, 2020 3:35 pm

wlu_lax6 wrote: ↑Mon Jul 27, 2020 3:26 pm

P.D.X. wrote: ↑Mon Jul 27, 2020 1:51 pm Sitting on a coffee shop patio working today and a table near me has an older woman entrepreneur interviewing a young blonde girl for a marketing position. However, the 'interview' is entirely consisting of the older woman telling her about how awesome she is and what a fighter she is and her entire life/journey story. It's gone on for like an hour with the interviewee only nodding and agreeing. All I want to do is shout FUCKING RUN

Startup I worked at interviewed me for like 4 hours and I got asked a single question. Most of it was just pitching me on their vision and why all companies would need to become tech companies. Great company to work for.

Yeah, sometimes interviews are more like recruiting meetings. This is especially true of second/third/etc rounds. If this was an initial interview, it's certainly odd.

Has a phone screen when I was moving back from Redmond, interviewed on a Tuesday, got the offer Tuesday night. Started the next Monday.

Had a company townhall Zoom today to announce that one of our co-CEOs is retiring. But the more interesting part was seeing that we have a new VP who looks a lot like Bridgette Wilson. Distracting.

Shirley wrote: ↑Mon Aug 17, 2020 1:00 pm Had a company townhall Zoom today to announce that one of our co-CEOs is retiring. But the more interesting part was seeing that we have a new VP who looks a lot like Bridgette Wilson. Distracting.

Interesting, we have a Chief Legal Officer that looks a bit like Bridgette Wilson and has an Australian accent.

Shirley wrote: ↑Mon Aug 17, 2020 1:00 pm Had a company townhall Zoom today to announce that one of our co-CEOs is retiring. But the more interesting part was seeing that we have a new VP who looks a lot like Bridgette Wilson. Distracting.

I've been asked to back off of my development time by about 25% and to take over a role as a "ScrumMaster" for two of our Agile teams. They seem to think I have the temperament to do that. I think they are tired of me trying to learn C# as I'm writing it.

DaveInSeattle wrote: ↑Fri Aug 28, 2020 5:53 pm I've been asked to back off of my development time by about 25% and to take over a role as a "ScrumMaster" for two of our Agile teams. They seem to think I have the temperament to do that. I think they are tired of me trying to learn C# as I'm writing it.

Shirley is, too.


(I keed!)

can you take over our department? we have a total shithead as our scrum master who a) is just mean, b) she's not well-versed on anyone's true role yet butts in where she shouldn't, c) runs these meetings as full 45 minute status meetings (wrong) every morning, belittling development work that she has zero knowledge of and d) doesn't get any social clues that everyone loathes her.

but she's *awesome* at using buzzwords like "pivoting" and "leveraging"

if she starts saying she wants to "grow the game" i quit.

DaveInSeattle wrote: ↑Fri Aug 28, 2020 5:53 pm I've been asked to back off of my development time by about 25% and to take over a role as a "ScrumMaster" for two of our Agile teams. They seem to think I have the temperament to do that. I think they are tired of me trying to learn C# as I'm writing it.

A_B wrote: ↑Fri Aug 28, 2020 8:27 pm

DaveInSeattle wrote: ↑Fri Aug 28, 2020 5:53 pm I've been asked to back off of my development time by about 25% and to take over a role as a "ScrumMaster" for two of our Agile teams. They seem to think I have the temperament to do that. I think they are tired of me trying to learn C# as I'm writing it.

Shirley is, too.


(I keed!)

He's my remote tutor! (who's help I always appreciate!)

Ha. Hopefully I'm nobody's C# tutor. But I've written a lot of code in a lot of languages over the years, so it's not too hard to get proficient in new ones quickly. But my skills are very rusty. Haven't really written any code professionally in 5-6 years now.

I don't really like the idea of a dedicated scrum master. I prefer meetings to be run by the dev lead/manager or a product manager. Someone who is dedicated to the job full time is just a project manager and needs to be very careful about how they talk to devs. i.e. help with the organization stuff, but don't make any technical or prioritization decisions.

Shirley wrote: ↑Sat Aug 29, 2020 5:15 pm Ha. Hopefully I'm nobody's C# tutor. But I've written a lot of code in a lot of languages over the years, so it's not too hard to get proficient in new ones quickly. But my skills are very rusty. Haven't really written any code professionally in 5-6 years now.

I've written so many different languages now that its difficult to keep straight what works in one place and what works in another.

I've gotten to a pretty solid 'mid-level' of C# knowledge, but there's a lot of subtleties that I'm not aware of. I've been working on this one thing for over a month, and thought it was solid and ready to go, but it crashed at run-time. One of the 'Architects' that I work with (who had been in on the code reviews) worked through it and said 'oh yeah...you need to inject the dependency in the startup.cs file for microservice! I forgot about that!'. Glad he found that, because I never would have caught it.

I don't really like the idea of a dedicated scrum master. I prefer meetings to be run by the dev lead/manager or a product manager. Someone who is dedicated to the job full time is just a project manager and needs to be very careful about how they talk to devs. i.e. help with the organization stuff, but don't make any technical or prioritization decisions.

We currently have a Project Manager (who is really good) acting as our scrum master, along with a PO (product owner) who tracks features/user stories/etc. I'll be taking over the Scrum Master stuff for him (he's stretched way too thin), with about a 25% time commitment. They are going to have me take a 2 day 'Scum Master Certificate' training class.

A user just called and complained about their hard drive being full. I jumped on to take a look and find there’s little I can do to free up space. User then says “I received a new laptop in April but never opened it. Maybe that one has a larger hard drive.”

WHAT THE FUCK. How the fuck can someone get a new computer and let it sit in the box for five fucking months. And naturally, the user needs the additional drive space RIGHT THIS VERY MINUTE.

Sabo wrote: ↑Tue Sep 29, 2020 3:15 pm A user just called and complained about their hard drive being full. I jumped on to take a look and find there’s little I can do to free up space. User then says “I received a new laptop in April but never opened it. Maybe that one has a larger hard drive.”

WHAT THE FUCK. How the fuck can someone get a new computer and let it sit in the box for five fucking months. And naturally, the user needs the additional drive space RIGHT THIS VERY MINUTE.

I got an iPad as a work gift at the holidays. It is still in the box.

DSafetyGuy wrote: ↑Tue Sep 29, 2020 3:43 pm

Sabo wrote: ↑Tue Sep 29, 2020 3:15 pm A user just called and complained about their hard drive being full. I jumped on to take a look and find there’s little I can do to free up space. User then says “I received a new laptop in April but never opened it. Maybe that one has a larger hard drive.”

WHAT THE FUCK. How the fuck can someone get a new computer and let it sit in the box for five fucking months. And naturally, the user needs the additional drive space RIGHT THIS VERY MINUTE.

I got an iPad as a work gift at the holidays. It is still in the box.

What the fuck, Sabo? How could you let DSafe's iPad sit in the box all this time? Hop to it, man!

This might be the greatest out-of-office message I've ever seen. Bravo.

Thanks for your message. Unfortunately, I’m offline until Wednesday, Oct. 7.
I mean it. I may even unplug my wifi router (OK, I'm definitely not doing that. The new season of The Great British Baking Show is on Netflix).

If your message is urgent or it’s news, please forward it to NAME REDACTED at E-MAIL REDACTED or NAME REDACTED at E-MAIL REDACTED.

For your trouble, here's some fun trivia for you:

The application form for Bake Off contestants is seven pages long and requires that they cannot have acquired any professional catering qualifications in the last decade. If they pass that stage, they must do a face-to-face interview (and bring two baked treats with them), followed by a technical challenge bake and then, the final stage, interview with a psychologist to make sure they can handle the pressure of filming.

Phew. I'm tired just thinking about it. Luckily, I'm on vacation and can take a nap.

Have a nice day.

Sabo wrote: ↑Wed Sep 30, 2020 2:39 pm This might be the greatest out-of-office message I've ever seen. Bravo.

Thanks for your message. Unfortunately, I’m offline until Wednesday, Oct. 7.
I mean it. I may even unplug my wifi router (OK, I'm definitely not doing that. The new season of The Great British Baking Show is on Netflix).

If your message is urgent or it’s news, please forward it to NAME REDACTED at E-MAIL REDACTED or NAME REDACTED at E-MAIL REDACTED.

For your trouble, here's some fun trivia for you:

The application form for Bake Off contestants is seven pages long and requires that they cannot have acquired any professional catering qualifications in the last decade. If they pass that stage, they must do a face-to-face interview (and bring two baked treats with them), followed by a technical challenge bake and then, the final stage, interview with a psychologist to make sure they can handle the pressure of filming.

Phew. I'm tired just thinking about it. Luckily, I'm on vacation and can take a nap.

Have a nice day.

Good friend of mine always comes up with witty out of office messages when he's away. I'll see if I can go link them.

Seems fucked up to have to bring two baked goods with you to an interview knowing quality will diminish with time.

mister d wrote: ↑Wed Sep 30, 2020 3:12 pm Seems fucked up to have to bring two baked goods with you to an interview knowing quality will diminish with time.

Not all baking is Krispy Kreme-related.

I had a meeting with a customer (Fed agency) today and their highest-level manager dude went by "Dr. Soandso". He even put that as his name in Zoom. And everyone in both companies referred to him as Dr. I thought it was pretty odd, because I honestly can't ever recall a work meeting with anyone with that title. Maybe someone at a healthcare company at some point? I don't think so.

Anyway, I decided to look him up after the meeting and found him on LinkedIn. As I suspected, he is not a medical doctor, but has a PhD (from 2019) in IT. And he got that PhD from fucking University of Phoenix. And he has a masters from someplace called Western International University - which doesn't even exist any more. And his BS came from fucking Strayer University.

The balls on this dude...

Some people have severe inferiority issues. And this guy totally should for the wrong reasons than he thinks.

That reminds me of The Office when Angela kept referring to her boyfriend as "The Senator".

So just had a pretty good laugh here.

One of the products we sell is a service where newspapers or media companies can post all of their pictures they take from various newsworthy events and then anyone who wants to buy them as a print or put them on a shirt or mug or whatever can do so through our website.

So our support department gets an email from a woman who is angry at US because our partner (the Tennesseean, in this case) posted a picture from some kind of charity motorcycle ride where a woman is kissing her husband. Turns out -- oops, it was this guy's side piece and this woman is pissed as hell -- again, at US. Like we're supposed to know when people lie about the dumb shit they do.

Can we see the pic?

mister d wrote: ↑Wed Nov 25, 2020 12:10 pm Can we see the pic?

As you wish.

That's like when the guy and his mistress gets caught on the Kiss Cam.

brian wrote: ↑Wed Nov 25, 2020 12:07 pm So just had a pretty good laugh here.

One of the products we sell is a service where newspapers or media companies can post all of their pictures they take from various newsworthy events and then anyone who wants to buy them as a print or put them on a shirt or mug or whatever can do so through our website.

So our support department gets an email from a woman who is angry at US because our partner (the Tennesseean, in this case) posted a picture from some kind of charity motorcycle ride where a woman is kissing her husband. Turns out -- oops, it was this guy's side piece and this woman is pissed as hell -- again, at US. Like we're supposed to know when people lie about the dumb shit they do.

So is the Tennessean responsible for correcting the record?

"Yesterday, the Tennessean mistakenly identified the woman kissing TJ Petzelt as his wife, Kelee Petzelt. We regret the error."

EnochRoot wrote: ↑Wed Nov 25, 2020 12:41 pm

brian wrote: ↑Wed Nov 25, 2020 12:07 pm So just had a pretty good laugh here.

One of the products we sell is a service where newspapers or media companies can post all of their pictures they take from various newsworthy events and then anyone who wants to buy them as a print or put them on a shirt or mug or whatever can do so through our website.

So our support department gets an email from a woman who is angry at US because our partner (the Tennesseean, in this case) posted a picture from some kind of charity motorcycle ride where a woman is kissing her husband. Turns out -- oops, it was this guy's side piece and this woman is pissed as hell -- again, at US. Like we're supposed to know when people lie about the dumb shit they do.

So is the Tennessean responsible for correcting the record?

"Yesterday, the Tennessean mistakenly identified the woman kissing TJ Petzelt as his wife, Kelee Petzelt. We regret the error."

Think she just wants us to take the photo down, which we'll probably do. The event was like five years ago, so even worse she might just be learning that her husband was stepping out on her five years ago.

brian wrote: ↑Wed Nov 25, 2020 12:56 pm

EnochRoot wrote: ↑Wed Nov 25, 2020 12:41 pm

brian wrote: ↑Wed Nov 25, 2020 12:07 pm So just had a pretty good laugh here.

One of the products we sell is a service where newspapers or media companies can post all of their pictures they take from various newsworthy events and then anyone who wants to buy them as a print or put them on a shirt or mug or whatever can do so through our website.

So our support department gets an email from a woman who is angry at US because our partner (the Tennesseean, in this case) posted a picture from some kind of charity motorcycle ride where a woman is kissing her husband. Turns out -- oops, it was this guy's side piece and this woman is pissed as hell -- again, at US. Like we're supposed to know when people lie about the dumb shit they do.

So is the Tennessean responsible for correcting the record?

"Yesterday, the Tennessean mistakenly identified the woman kissing TJ Petzelt as his wife, Kelee Petzelt. We regret the error."

Think she just wants us to take the photo down, which we'll probably do. The event was like five years ago, so even worse she might just be learning that her husband was stepping out on her five years ago.

Open source intelligence on your spouse's past transgressions. That is a special kind of painful.

brian wrote: ↑Wed Nov 25, 2020 12:56 pm

EnochRoot wrote: ↑Wed Nov 25, 2020 12:41 pm

brian wrote: ↑Wed Nov 25, 2020 12:07 pm So just had a pretty good laugh here.

One of the products we sell is a service where newspapers or media companies can post all of their pictures they take from various newsworthy events and then anyone who wants to buy them as a print or put them on a shirt or mug or whatever can do so through our website.

So our support department gets an email from a woman who is angry at US because our partner (the Tennesseean, in this case) posted a picture from some kind of charity motorcycle ride where a woman is kissing her husband. Turns out -- oops, it was this guy's side piece and this woman is pissed as hell -- again, at US. Like we're supposed to know when people lie about the dumb shit they do.

So is the Tennessean responsible for correcting the record?

"Yesterday, the Tennessean mistakenly identified the woman kissing TJ Petzelt as his wife, Kelee Petzelt. We regret the error."

Think she just wants us to take the photo down, which we'll probably do. The event was like five years ago, so even worse she might just be learning that her husband was stepping out on her five years ago.

Makes me curious as to how she just saw it.

DSafetyGuy wrote: ↑Wed Nov 25, 2020 3:13 pm

brian wrote: ↑Wed Nov 25, 2020 12:56 pm

EnochRoot wrote: ↑Wed Nov 25, 2020 12:41 pm

brian wrote: ↑Wed Nov 25, 2020 12:07 pm So just had a pretty good laugh here.

One of the products we sell is a service where newspapers or media companies can post all of their pictures they take from various newsworthy events and then anyone who wants to buy them as a print or put them on a shirt or mug or whatever can do so through our website.

So our support department gets an email from a woman who is angry at US because our partner (the Tennesseean, in this case) posted a picture from some kind of charity motorcycle ride where a woman is kissing her husband. Turns out -- oops, it was this guy's side piece and this woman is pissed as hell -- again, at US. Like we're supposed to know when people lie about the dumb shit they do.

So is the Tennessean responsible for correcting the record?

"Yesterday, the Tennessean mistakenly identified the woman kissing TJ Petzelt as his wife, Kelee Petzelt. We regret the error."

Think she just wants us to take the photo down, which we'll probably do. The event was like five years ago, so even worse she might just be learning that her husband was stepping out on her five years ago.

Makes me curious as to how she just saw it.

The Googles or something like it if I had to guess.

Not really related, but just learned a co-worker might be moving down to PV for a couple of months in April/May while she's between apartments. Any of you working remotely that want to get out of dodge for a little while come down and live in paradise for a little while. We'll eat some tacos, bebir unas cervezas.

I'm still trying to figure out a way to get to Vegas in the next two weeks.

brian wrote: ↑Wed Nov 25, 2020 3:14 pm

DSafetyGuy wrote: ↑Wed Nov 25, 2020 3:13 pm

brian wrote: ↑Wed Nov 25, 2020 12:56 pm

EnochRoot wrote: ↑Wed Nov 25, 2020 12:41 pm

brian wrote: ↑Wed Nov 25, 2020 12:07 pm So just had a pretty good laugh here.

One of the products we sell is a service where newspapers or media companies can post all of their pictures they take from various newsworthy events and then anyone who wants to buy them as a print or put them on a shirt or mug or whatever can do so through our website.

So our support department gets an email from a woman who is angry at US because our partner (the Tennesseean, in this case) posted a picture from some kind of charity motorcycle ride where a woman is kissing her husband. Turns out -- oops, it was this guy's side piece and this woman is pissed as hell -- again, at US. Like we're supposed to know when people lie about the dumb shit they do.

So is the Tennessean responsible for correcting the record?

"Yesterday, the Tennessean mistakenly identified the woman kissing TJ Petzelt as his wife, Kelee Petzelt. We regret the error."

Think she just wants us to take the photo down, which we'll probably do. The event was like five years ago, so even worse she might just be learning that her husband was stepping out on her five years ago.

Makes me curious as to how she just saw it.

The Googles or something like it if I had to guess.

She might've simply been following the advice that says you should periodically google your own name.

For example, I just discovered I have 13 followers on Medium, even though I have yet to publish anything on that platform.

Just had a user ask me to set up a new laptop for them. Turns out the office ordered this laptop in October 2018 and never opened it.

How the fuck can you order a new laptop and not open it for 2+ years?

Sabo wrote: ↑Tue Dec 01, 2020 12:42 pm Just had a user ask me to set up a new laptop for them. Turns out the office ordered this laptop in October 2018 and never opened it.

How the fuck can you order a new laptop and not open it for 2+ years?

He was busy!

Sabo wrote: ↑Tue Dec 01, 2020 12:42 pm Just had a user ask me to set up a new laptop for them. Turns out the office ordered this laptop in October 2018 and never opened it.

How the fuck can you order a new laptop and not open it for 2+ years?

Man, I can see myself doing that, especially if it's something ordered by the office. I will keep using old computer stuff until it becomes absolutely unworkable.

It was not until Covid and the advent of Zoom calling that I realized that my laptop - which was a hand-me-down from my firm - didn't even have a camera. And I did not replace that laptop until about three weeks ago.

Steve of phpBB wrote: ↑Tue Dec 01, 2020 12:46 pm Man, I can see myself doing that, especially if it's something ordered by the office. I will keep using old computer stuff until it becomes absolutely unworkable.

That's the same scenario I'm dealing with now. As someone who works in IT, I utterly abhor this philosophy because now I have to drop everything to accommodate an emergency caused the user's own doing (or rather, lack of doing).

Giff wrote: ↑Wed Nov 25, 2020 3:30 pm I'm still trying to figure out a way to get to Vegas in the next two weeks.

If you've only got two weeks, I'd start walking now.

Sabo wrote: ↑Tue Dec 01, 2020 1:01 pm

Steve of phpBB wrote: ↑Tue Dec 01, 2020 12:46 pm Man, I can see myself doing that, especially if it's something ordered by the office. I will keep using old computer stuff until it becomes absolutely unworkable.

That's the same scenario I'm dealing with now. As someone who works in IT, I utterly abhor this philosophy because now I have to drop everything to accommodate an emergency caused the user's own doing (or rather, lack of doing).

Well, I never said it was a particularly smart thing to do.

Steve of phpBB wrote: ↑Tue Dec 01, 2020 12:46 pm

Sabo wrote: ↑Tue Dec 01, 2020 12:42 pm Just had a user ask me to set up a new laptop for them. Turns out the office ordered this laptop in October 2018 and never opened it.

How the fuck can you order a new laptop and not open it for 2+ years?

Man, I can see myself doing that, especially if it's something ordered by the office. I will keep using old computer stuff until it becomes absolutely unworkable.

It was not until Covid and the advent of Zoom calling that I realized that my laptop - which was a hand-me-down from my firm - didn't even have a camera. And I did not replace that laptop until about three weeks ago.

I kept ignoring messages from IT to submit a ticket to get a new laptop. My old one was great, didn't feel compelled to get a new one and have to transfer all my files etc... Once I got the new one, I realized how stupid I was. New one was much smaller and a third of the weight. And while it says Bang & Olufsen, I think the speakers were better on the old one. And I hate to admit it, but I do miss the built in DVD player when I'm traveling. Well, when I used to travel. Now IT is insisting on sending me two monitors, a docking station, keyboard and mouse. I prefer keeping my desk clear and working on the laptop directly.