RHEC

[max]

Ric Moore wrote:
> On Sat, 2008-04-19 at 20:41 +0930, Tim wrote:
>> On Fri, 2008-04-18 at 23:22 -0400, Ric Moore wrote:
>>> I spent a great deal of free-time on the Caldera List and a lot of
>>> people knew me. That was back in the Bob Young days, with tie dye tee
>>> shirts, purple hair, roller skates, several pinball machines and Quake
>>> Fests, as soon as the suits left around 6PM. Even in my native
>>> industry, Chemicals and Marketing, it's usually who you know. So, make
>>> yourself known. 
>> I am now imagining you with purple hair, wearing hippy clothes and
>> skates and trying to sell recreational chemicals...   ;-)
> 
> Ha! Bob stopped by my cube one day after my 60 day period was over, and
> asked me if I knew why he hired me. He had that merry eye-twinkle thing
> going on. I said Sure! I knew it wasn't for my code and hacking
> abilities. I told him that I was his "goat among the thoroughbreds".
> Let's face it, young 20 somethings that had, until recently, wedgie
> pulling and stuffed-into-lockers sessions by the high school jocks,
> found themselves as gods now, but lacked some finer social skills. He
> walked away, still eye-twinkling and grinning broadly. So, I was the
> almost 50something goat. I guess he didn't know that I liked to play
> network Quake as much as the rest of them!!! <grins> 
> 
> I went through about 4 peer interviews, all by 20 somethings. One, who's
> name I forget, got up close and said "I'm a communist!! What do you
> think about that??"!! I said, "Well, according to Marxist Doctrine,
> Thesis meets Antithesis and that results in Synthesis ...new ideas.
> That's always a good thing and keeps society from becoming stagnant." 
> I think he got the point that an almost 50 something could be an
> anarchist as well. That was a Kodak Moment, to see his face light up and
> we high-fived. I got hired. 
> 
> They paid me more than I was worth, to tell the truth. The day I quit,
> with a bunch of personal legal things going on around me, was a very sad
> day. I thought they were the best bunch of people I've ever met,
> anywhere. It was like family that you got to chose, and the Church Of
> Linux, all rolled into one. I hope it still is tie-dyed, purple haired
> and full of commie anarchists wearing Che` t-shirts there. If you don't
> think out of the box, you stay in the #$%^& box.  
> 
> So, it goes to show, be yourself and you'll fit somewhere! And, if you
> don't, then make your own personal niche. That's what I'm doing. Many
> others on this list do the very same thing and are as successful as much
> as they wish to be. The bitch is to balance that with having a real
> life, as well. "Always forward, but never straight." is a famous quote
> from the 70's. It applies today, hence my handle. <huge grin> Ric
>  
Sounds like heaven. Lately i feel like I'm surrounded by incompetents, 
it doesn't matter if you don't know it all as long as you can recognize 
your wrong, better if its without anyone having to tell you but 
definitely when someone takes the trouble to spell it out. Recently I 
got asked to sit in on a call to the support company thats supposed to 
take care of the database program(never mind the sheer stupidity of 
outsourcing the most critical part of your infrastructure). The first 
thing I get told is  "Look Max we can't give these guys an inkling that 
it may not be their software, its not a game but it is you know?" I'd 
been trying to figure out why this thing is causing problems, they look 
at me like I should have all the answers but I didn't set the thing up 
so I start asking questions about how its setup, how it authenticates 
with directory services etc...nobody can tell me anything! I tell this 
guy, "Look if all these guys are interested in is passing the buck then 
fire them and find some decent help." Of course i get the look like i 
don't understand anything but come to find out, they haven't setup the 
database according to specs, they have too many services running on the 
box and so on. So I say " Well if it aint up to spec then maybe you 
should bring it up to spec before you bother the support company, 
because me and them are just spinning our wheels if your not going to be 
straight with us, its a waste of time. Besides which you only have a 
handful of users with a problem right now and if it ain't up to minimum 
spec your lucky it works at all" I get the rolled eyes. Honest mistakes 
are one thing but intentionally misleading people is something else all 
together. The worst part is they think that if they bother the support 
company long enough and supply them with enough bad info then its 
somehow magically going to get fixed. A couple more exams to take and 
I'm jumping ship fast as I can, probably without a life jacket, sink or 
swim!!The only upside is I don't have a dress code. Everyone gets a kick 
out of my collection of tshirts, they are the coolest and not one of 
them cost me more than 10 or 11 bucks.

Max