The Swamp

All of my paperwork is done and I officially start my job on 18 December.

that's awesome - congrats Johnnie

Johnnie wrote: ↑Thu Nov 16, 2023 8:45 pm All of my paperwork is done and I officially start my job on 18 December.

Johnnie wrote: ↑Thu Nov 16, 2023 8:45 pm All of my paperwork is done and I officially start my job on 18 December.

Damn, that's a long time to wait. Usually companies want you to start yesterday.

Shirley wrote: ↑Fri Nov 17, 2023 8:56 am

Johnnie wrote: ↑Thu Nov 16, 2023 8:45 pm All of my paperwork is done and I officially start my job on 18 December.

Damn, that's a long time to wait. Usually companies want you to start yesterday.

It's a GS job on base, so I think it's a pay period thing for one, but also I have a planned trip that I'm taking 29 Nov-4 Dec (Philadelphia for a board game thing), so my options were 4 December (can't) or 18 December (can).

Honestly, the fact that they cleared me so quickly once my urinalysis test came back clean was the surprising thing according to the civilian hiring authority.

Looks like I won’t be starting until next Monday bc of Thanksgiving. Not complaining too much. They also have to pay me my (piddling, relatively) trainee pay for not working next week.

Where I work they onboard and do orientation once a month. I think it's the 2nd Monday? Anyways, you could theoretically get an offer and then have to wait close to a month.

Had two other people in my class last week and one guy FaceTimed with his girlfriend about 20 times a day (and that was just in the 10 or 11 hours of the day we were together). I can’t even imagine.

My company on Friday lost yet another patent infringement case, to the tune of $31 million, which absolutely cratered our stock price.

NanoString stock unravels after losing $31M patent verdict to 10x Genomics

A federal jury has sided against NanoString in a patent infringement lawsuit lobbed by 10x Genomics concerning the company’s hardware for profiling the spatial distribution of RNA and protein expression across a tissue sample.

The Delaware district court awarded 10x Genomics about $31 million in total damages—including $25 million linked to lost profits and $6 million in royalty payments—though NanoString said it plans to appeal the decision.

10x Genomics first filed its suit in May 2021 alongside Prognosys Biosciences, the owner of seven patents at issue in the case. The companies claimed that NanoString’s GeoMx Digital Spatial Profiler infringed their exclusively licensed methods for mapping out the inner workings of tissues and cells.

And now we are having an "emergency" Town Hall meeting tomorrow morning. I was speculating over dinner tonight whether or not our CEO was going to be announcing that he'd been removed by the Board.

I keep saying that I'll stay there as long as my key card works to get me into the building, but I'm starting to wonder how much longer that might be.

I still don't know what any of that means but also still hoping for the best for you.

rass wrote: ↑Wed Nov 22, 2023 6:45 am I still don't know what any of that means but also still hoping for the best for you.

Means that our main competitor has decided that lawsuits is their best strategy (we do have a better product), and unfortunately, they appear to have a legal leg to stand on regarding patents and whatnot

Which, to me, means someone in our company did not do their job when our products were being developed. And eventually, in my mind, that's gotta come back on our CEO and senior leadership.

That's gotta cost the CEO his job. The only way around that is if he's already the new CEO and that shit happened under a different one.

DaveInSeattle wrote: ↑Wed Nov 22, 2023 10:12 am

rass wrote: ↑Wed Nov 22, 2023 6:45 am I still don't know what any of that means but also still hoping for the best for you.

Means that our main competitor has decided that lawsuits is their best strategy (we do have a better product), and unfortunately, they appear to have a legal leg to stand on regarding patents and whatnot

Which, to me, means someone in our company did not do their job when our products were being developed. And eventually, in my mind, that's gotta come back on our CEO and senior leadership.

In those cases don't you avoid the judgement, get to settlement, merge and dominate the market while raising prices?

Shirley wrote: ↑Wed Nov 22, 2023 1:24 pm That's gotta cost the CEO his job. The only way around that is if he's already the new CEO and that shit happened under a different one.

According to what the CEO said this morning...the timeline was:

- Company P applied for a patent for spatial biology in 2010
- 2015: My company files their patent application
- 2018: Our competitor buys the patents from Company P, which had gone dormant
- May, 2019: Competitor starts rewriting their patent claims to cover what we are doing
- Nov, 2019: Competitor gets seven patents
- Dec, 2019: My company gets 14 patents
- May, 2021: Competitor files lawsuit

So basically, they bought stagnant IP, modified the patent request knowing what our product was, and then sued us. Pretty shady shit, but it worked.

Not sure if its a good sign when the CEO is reassuring us that we aren't going out of business, or selling the furniture.

(Oh, and this guy has been the CEO for about 11 years now...so he's been around for all of this)

DaveInSeattle wrote: ↑Wed Nov 22, 2023 1:49 pmSo basically, they bought stagnant IP, modified the patent request knowing what our product was, and then sued us. Pretty shady shit, but it worked.

If this is what really happened, then you folks should've won (and can still win on appeal).

It sounds to me like the CEO and the lawyers fucked up.

Steve of phpBB wrote: ↑Wed Nov 22, 2023 2:23 pm

DaveInSeattle wrote: ↑Wed Nov 22, 2023 1:49 pmSo basically, they bought stagnant IP, modified the patent request knowing what our product was, and then sued us. Pretty shady shit, but it worked.

If this is what really happened, then you folks should've won (and can still win on appeal).

Its what he said...but I'm sure he's in full-on CYA mode.

It sounds to me like the CEO and the lawyers fucked up.

What it sounds like to me as well.

Should make for a bit of awkwardness at our Friendsgiving tomorrow...the son of some of our friends just started working at 10X, the company that took us to court.

Been waiting to go out on the road for my training weeks and just got a call for my recruiter that they have a trainer from SLC about two hours away and am I ready now? Gotta love the trucking industry. So off to pack.

brian wrote: ↑Mon Nov 27, 2023 11:50 am Been waiting to go out on the road for my training weeks and just got a call for my recruiter that they have a trainer from SLC about two hours away and am I ready now? Gotta love the trucking industry. So off to pack.

Good luck!

Yeah. Good luck!

Fortunately my trainer had to drop a load tomorrow morning in Vegas. But heading off at 8 am tomorrow.

And yes despite its more common crass euphemistic meaning that’s what I plan to call it.

A few weeks back I did a 3 day long Scaled Agile "ReleaseTrainEngineer" training class. My window for taking the certificate test is closing in a couple of weeks, so I've started to study for it. Last night, I did the "practice exam"...and discovered that it DOESN'T TELL YOU THE RIGHT ANSWERS after you finish.

What in the hell???? How am I supposed to learn from that?

DSafetyGuy wrote: ↑Thu Dec 08, 2022 9:55 pm My wife hung up Christmas lights in my office at the house because it faces the street.

They're on a timer.

So, it sounds like a CD-ROM loading 24 hours a day.

They're back.

That remains unfortunate.

We switched to a timer that recognizes/begins at dusk and goes for as many hours as you set. Quiet.

Any one on here done any data digging on Salesforce?

DSafetyGuy wrote: ↑Mon Dec 04, 2023 5:09 pm

DSafetyGuy wrote: ↑Thu Dec 08, 2022 9:55 pm My wife hung up Christmas lights in my office at the house because it faces the street.

They're on a timer.

So, it sounds like a CD-ROM loading 24 hours a day.

They're back.

Smart plugs are really inexpensive these days. Your sanity is worth the $5 to $18

I refuse to check if I posted this last year (Rass) but I wouldn't be able to handle that. The lights in the little TV room either have to be on or off because I sit near the switch and any level of dimmed makes a very faint buzzing noise that drives me insane.

mister d wrote: ↑Tue Dec 05, 2023 9:58 am I refuse to check if I posted this last year (Rass) but I wouldn't be able to handle that. The lights in the little TV room either have to be on or off because I sit near the switch and any level of dimmed makes a very faint buzzing noise that drives me insane.

You may want to have that inspected. When I installed dimmer switches, I noticed one of them hums. Some research indicated that can be a sign of a fire hazard. I had an electrician in for another job and had him double check and he said it was fine, but buzzing can be a sign of dangerous wiring. Weird thing in another room, nobody can hear the buzzing, but if you take a video in that room with the dimmer on, you can hear it very loudly in the video.

The Sybian wrote: ↑Tue Dec 05, 2023 10:31 am Weird thing in another room, nobody can hear the buzzing, but if you take a video in that room with the dimmer on, you can hear it very loudly in the video.

THEY'RE HEEEEEEEERE

DaveInSeattle wrote: ↑Mon Dec 04, 2023 7:46 pm Any one on here done any data digging on Salesforce?

I've done reports from time to time in Salesforce at various jobs. Even did some automation scripting once, but that was probably 10 years ago.

The Sybian wrote: ↑Tue Dec 05, 2023 10:31 am

mister d wrote: ↑Tue Dec 05, 2023 9:58 am I refuse to check if I posted this last year (Rass) but I wouldn't be able to handle that. The lights in the little TV room either have to be on or off because I sit near the switch and any level of dimmed makes a very faint buzzing noise that drives me insane.

You may want to have that inspected. When I installed dimmer switches, I noticed one of them hums. Some research indicated that can be a sign of a fire hazard. I had an electrician in for another job and had him double check and he said it was fine, but buzzing can be a sign of dangerous wiring. Weird thing in another room, nobody can hear the buzzing, but if you take a video in that room with the dimmer on, you can hear it very loudly in the video.

My insurance company just gave me a free device and subscription to "ting". https://www.tingfire.com/. It plugs in and monitors your electric for potential hazards. Plus comes with $1000 to remediate issues if ting finds it. I get neat reports and alerts when the power goes out (telling me based on others with the service how widespread the issue is).

wlu_lax6 wrote: ↑Tue Dec 05, 2023 8:21 am

DSafetyGuy wrote: ↑Mon Dec 04, 2023 5:09 pm

DSafetyGuy wrote: ↑Thu Dec 08, 2022 9:55 pm My wife hung up Christmas lights in my office at the house because it faces the street.

They're on a timer.

So, it sounds like a CD-ROM loading 24 hours a day.

They're back.

Smart plugs are really inexpensive these days. Your sanity is worth the $5 to $18

I am usually listening to a podcast or music, so it's not that big of a deal.

Shirley wrote: ↑Tue Dec 05, 2023 11:26 am

DaveInSeattle wrote: ↑Mon Dec 04, 2023 7:46 pm Any one on here done any data digging on Salesforce?

I've done reports from time to time in Salesforce at various jobs. Even did some automation scripting once, but that was probably 10 years ago.

I'm trying to do something I know should be possible, but just not seeing how to make it happen.

Putting a spoiler here to not bore people:

[+] spoiler

Every instrument my company sells get an "asset" record. On that record is a "SW Version" field that shows the CURRENT SW Version.

Every time a customer calls with a complaint, a "complaint" record is created, which has a different "SW Version" field that shows the SW Version on the box when the complaint happened.

When I'm putting together a query to get the compliant records, it pulls the CURRENT SW version, not the version when the complaint happened. No idea why.

Wish I could help. I use SalesForce everyday, but we have a dedicated operations team to support anything we might need report wise so outside of standard reports, I go to them.

DaveInSeattle wrote: ↑Tue Dec 05, 2023 2:56 pm

Shirley wrote: ↑Tue Dec 05, 2023 11:26 am

DaveInSeattle wrote: ↑Mon Dec 04, 2023 7:46 pm Any one on here done any data digging on Salesforce?

I've done reports from time to time in Salesforce at various jobs. Even did some automation scripting once, but that was probably 10 years ago.

I'm trying to do something I know should be possible, but just not seeing how to make it happen.

Putting a spoiler here to not bore people:

[+] spoiler

Every instrument my company sells get an "asset" record. On that record is a "SW Version" field that shows the CURRENT SW Version.

Every time a customer calls with a complaint, a "complaint" record is created, which has a different "SW Version" field that shows the SW Version on the box when the complaint happened.

When I'm putting together a query to get the compliant records, it pulls the CURRENT SW version, not the version when the complaint happened. No idea why.

[+] spoiler

It's been a while since I've built something like that in Salesforce, but you'll need to set up a report that joins those two tables. Salesforce isn't much more than a thin UI on a database. Once you have the two tables (they'll probably join on AccountId or something like that), you should be able to choose the fields. I'm not sure what tricks to use to deal with two fields with the same name.

Have you tried this site? https://salesforce.stackexchange.com/

Got a division wide email this afternoon that our division's VP is leaving next week "for another opportunity".

I talked with my manager afterwards and he called it a "grass is always greener" kind of thing, which made me wonder if I'm standing in a bare patch.

The "circling the drain" feeling continues...my company laid off another ~50 people yesterday...this time from Customer Support and Marketing.

Not a good feeling...

This is bad...

NanoString (NSTG) received a notice from The Nasdaq Stock Market this week after failing to satisfy a continued listing rule of standard. It has until July 2, 2024 to regain compliance with the $1.00 per share minimum bid price listing requirement.

Circling the drain...

I've now been at my new job for a few weeks and it's been decent.

Everyone's nice and I don't have to deal with any military bullshit. I can wear jeans! And have a beard! And long hair!

I just have to use time cards and have less time off when military members get family days on top of federal holidays.

But I do get to have a day off a week every other week because of the way I can set up my schedule. (Effectively, I take an 8 hour day and piece out an hour a day over 8 days to make up the time.)

Plus I have a view of the mountains from my desk. Which is so damn sweet.

But the pay..... Yeeeeeaaaaaaa, let's just say I'm glad I have a nice retirement from the military.

Sorry to hear that DiS. Hope you can find something better soon!