Kapo-ed this photo from morg's blog
Alcohol plays havoc on my digestive system though.. haiz..
*Note to self: Not to binge on food and alcohol on the same day*
I let several imperfections slip by me today, against my former work ethics. Once, I would never allow them to go un-corrected. Once, I would re-write the entire thing. Ex-supervisors were careful to keep a watch on me, in case I perform a major rewrite. Lilian (my ex small boss) was especially annoyed with me on this point. She argued about new bugs, the extra work in testing and users not appreciating what they could not see.
For a small increase in disposable cash, I went against my creed. I had to. Deadlines are unforgiving and users are nasty. These users are not our true clients. No, sir. These users are "fellow colleagues", hired under different banners. Together, we work on this "major government project". Dangling stuffs like service level or liberally showering us with their poisoned assessment of our progress, we would have panicky bosses and hear whips a cracking.
To prevent these situations, turnaround time has to be fast. In earlier postings, I mentioned tapes, lots of them. Ideally, just change what you need to fix and wipe your hands clean.
I'm still me, of course. If I find some additional sickness, I have to cure it. My timetable suffers and at some point, I have to say, "To hell with it!" and turn a blind eye. On Wednesday, I anguished over this path I was going to take while my new colleagues collectively told me not to care. Today (Thursday), I found another problem but it only gave me pause for a few seconds.
I transported my changes to the production server. 3~4 time bombs remained in it, well to my knowledge.
1.
Wanted to clear my half day off-in-lieu and go back ex office one. There's 3 pple who were about to leave. Oh well.
p.s. The one across the street unfriendly one..
2.
[quote="Computer Gaming Word, January 2006]
This is the portion where they post "The good, the bad and the ugly"
Blizzard is openly using spyware called The Warden to catch in-game cheaters. While most World of WarCraft mavens knew The Warden was making the rounds, one player discovered exactly what's watched, which includes e-mails, website visits and downloads. Web denizens already have a workaround: Sony's rookit DRM (aka the lame copy protection on music CDs)
[/quote]
This is not Blizzard's first attempt at invasion of privacy. Gamers should remember that they were logging IP address and PC information on their StarCraft Battlenet servers many years back. When confronted, they claimed that they were tracing stability, piracy issues and would stop immediately.
Golden boy of the PC gaming world that Blizzard may be, it seems to me that it is becoming the next Evil Empire. We in this country of 3 seasons may not value our privacy but those gamers in the west obviously do. Already, there's too much of our data being sold around, probably at a price that less than a piece of paper. It may be nice to change my mobile's number and screw up all their little databases..
Nah..
3.
kapo-ed a link from Kelvin's blog on Microsoft's bo-chap attitude in this article.
So what now? Am I taking turns to dream of friends? This time its Morgan, Bryan, daughter of Jing Tian Yi Yi promoting him, Adeline, Edmen - starting from an old recurring building in my dreams, along orchard road. Me and the guys were exploring the building, me joking with Adeline on what she owed me and Edmen asking when I want to start jogging?
Work has settled down into less of a mad run through the office and into a "sit at my desk and crack my head". I have been stuck at a problem for 7 days, which I could have solved faster if my boss allowed me to use a particular method. In the end, after all that frustration and running into dead ends, I picked my original idea and thrown in some safeguards. Lesson learnt? Don't share your thoughts with your boss, just get the job done? Cos in the end, no one asked me how I miraculously solved it in a single day, after getting stuck for so long and consulting a dozen people.
But now as a result of this delay, I'm in deadline trouble. The consultant and I discovered that the program cannot send out SAP mails correctly as the user account I'm using could not receive them and I was oblivious to it. Will boss be understanding that on Monday, 1 day past my deadline and I tell her there still problems? Wanna place your bets?
As dreams goes, this is utterly nonsense. Reading this will hardly gain you any insight to the creature who goes under the guise of Joran, Midgard, James and Mitra. Determine for yourself if your time can be better spent elsewhere.
20060101, sun, 0805 hrs
[Dream]
We were brought through a manhole into an academy where we would have "passed out of mortals' eyes". Later, we understood we were captured by aliens and placed here. New arrivals like us would arrive and the earliest batch would graduate, with no more than ten batches at one time. "To keep our experience low!", I declared angrily after realising it. I got to know 3 friends in this place: a girl and 2 guys. The girl was of average height, pleasant personality and looks. The first guy was short and slightly fleshier than me. I got the feeling we're good friends. The last guy was tall and lanky. He was the quiet type and keeps to himself. All four of us were in the same gang, united by this oppression we felt among us. The others formed their own groups. The academy was ran by humans, we saw no aliens at all. At one time, we found the office of Lim Tong Hai, brother of Lim Tong Hai, ex national soccer player [this sounds silly now]. We walked out of the entrance of the academy and saw a triangular based "pillar" listing the names of the management, with Lim Tong Hai on it. [The academy is "underground". It’s not dark and receives the same sunlight. It’s like a huge world upon itself].
Later, our group would sit outside this manager/director's office as it was out of the way and part of a small sheltered building with railings covering the front face, leaving an opening for the doorway. We would sit and discuss the oppression and the fate that will await us. It felt that if we graduate, we would really "pass out of mortals' eyes" - dead. I have grown to wear a black robe over my clothes, with a hood that I can pull snugly over to hide my face, leaving a generous space around the eyes and the nose. We understood that we were monitored around this place and when my gal companion pointed out this building had camera too. I stood up, saw camera lens behind a panel of glass display cases and waved "hi" to it, without my hood, which I had taken off during conversation. I wasn't afraid of exposing myself but later felt stupid for my action as it could expose my companions.
Soon, we were graduating and we were buying stationeries. We were in one shop and I overheard the lady boss insisting that she would not lower prices, no matter what. I looked up and saw what they were talking about. A few series of CCNA books, 2 of them had books 1-6. The 3rd series had books 1-18. The price tag was in pounds, which I assumed that lady boss bought it high at a time and couldn't dispose of them now. I also thought she could be convinced to sell off an entire set for a discount. I thought my brother might like them.
We went into another shop [a parallel of the photo-shop across my street, in Ajunied] where now we're helping a guy shop for his farewell cards. I went to the back shelves where I found the snoopy cards I bought for $5+, selling for $1 here. Alan [real ex-colleague] and 2 friends were with me shopping.
Of my gang, the two guys had suddenly taken sick and were in the sick bay. The tall lanky guy looked like almost gone. When I went to my other friend's ward, our lady friend was there already, crying. I touched his neck with the back of my hands and felt it to be hot. They are not recovering and I felt the powers wanted it that way. I got angry. I entered a room where the others among my batch were muttering angrily. They planned to vote for the medical officer to be dead instead of one of us [A kind of tribal council thing, where the outcast would have a dubious fate - possibly death. We can vote on this at the end of each term].
I went back to the mess hall where the others were feasting. My lady friend admitted she's a bit sick too, which she was sure the sickness was passed on by a guy in a shop, before we were brought here [insert flashback of store coughing]. I replied that I don't often fall sick, but suffer the effects heavily if I do. I took some chicken wings and joined the others at the long table. Later, I sat at the other corner, where Weishei [real ex-colleague] was there. An older colleague tempted me to see something. "Now?", I asked, for I was reluctant to leave my chicken wings.
I followed him and went to a shop and found "toys" [code wheels that have 2 rings. The outside ring is fixed with numbers 0-9 spaced out along the rim. The inside wheel has matching numbers and a small cut out square window that reveals a different number. It’s for true random number generation. Gee. I didn't know I loved maths so much]. I was rather impressed. Then he wanted to bring me to his shop [it was possibly at this point, I became "chosen" as the graduate and "exiled" into the surface where I "pass out of mortals' eyes"]. We passed an open public space [much like Toa Payoh's before they added fountains] where he asked me to wait. I did a little tap dance. The guy returned and I was brought to see a prop that was made to resemble a mini stage. It started playing images upon its centre and kids gather to watch. It showed how a better true number generation can work, with a clown cartoon figure highlighting the number with a magnifying class as the process goes on. It was a video projected onto the screen from below and I was amazed that it can be viewed at any angle. It’s made possible by a concave metallic surface [All these true number generation and all viewable angle discoveries are crap, to my now 0930hr woken state - it’s not possible].
I was left along after that and I made my way to a 'station' where I know I can take an elevator "down". There was a guy and girl attendant and I was made to understand that I could not return. However, the guy talked to me and enlightened me enough that I took off my robe, followed by the grey flannel jacket inside. Immediately, something felt right and I understood the invisibility spell towards mortal that have been laid onto me by the jacket was broken. I put back on my personal black one, then the robe. I asked to take the elevator "down" but the girl said, "It can only go up, not down". "Then what's the down button for?", I pointed out. Just that, a tall pretty lady walked past us and step into it casually. I looked back at the station girl. "Oh ok, you can go down". I joined the lady in the elevator and said "Thank you, thank you!" to the station guy and girl.
-end, 1000 hrs
