Work related stuff
So I have been kind of quiet about work related stuff lately, and there are a few reasons for that. One reason is my boss has created this really weird work environment for me lately by sending me extremely rude emails. It is almost as if he is trying to make me quit. It is kind of insane. I am telling myself that it is a result of personal issues he is having and it is coming out in the wrong way. I have decided to not let them ruin my attitude though. I read them, and attempt to take whatever is in them that I can put to positive use and move on. Under all the anger that he appears to have in the emails, there is usually something that I can use and work on. It is just unfortunate that it is delivered in such a way. The most recent one did have a couple points that he clearly wants addressed, so I am doing my best to meet those requests, since that is how being an employee works.
One is being at work by 9am, which is fine. I started there as a consultant, so I had an off hour schedule. Eventually I became full time, and the start time was not an issue then, provided I worked 40 hours, which I always have, as I am not out to take advantage of anyone. But evidently the 9am thing is a larger issue now, so I have been coming in at 9am. It is kind of annoying, since that eliminates any time when I can do simple things like reboot the servers unless I stay late. We have a few people that come in really early (pre 8am) so I can't really beat them into the office. But it isn't the end of the world.
I am also trying to keep my work area organized better. While it wasn't in the boss's email, it is a good thing to do I guess. While personally, I can handle clutter and it is rare that I truly LOOSE something, it does at times make finding things I only need to use 1/year or something easier to find. It also makes my coworkers happy, so that is a plus.
At the same time, I have decided to not do work outside of work. I used to read the work email when I wasn't at work, go through the work SPAM filters to look for false-positives, check on the servers, etc. I have decided that runs dangerously close to ruining my time off (and at times, has). Thus I turn off those email accounts when I am not at work. Nothing is that important, and if something goes down, it will likely be email and thus, it won't be effective communication anyway.
So that is roughly what is up with work. It isn't nearly as awesome a job as it once was, but that could be the ebb and flow of work. Or it could be that I have changed, or the job has changed, or most likely a combination of the two. But is a good job, I like the people, and I don't mind the work. Is it as perfect as it once was? No, but that is ok. Work is work, and the most perfect job still has its work.
windows vista.
so my boss got a new laptop and surprise to me, it had vista business on it. Sure, we are not prepared to deal with vista machines, but whatever. Anyway. So I am setting it up for him, and I am not impressed by any means. It is a Core 2 Duo with 2gb RAM and it is still slow. SLOW. Using a SLOWER cpu on my macbook, I was expecting more. And it appears to be a lame update in that it seems to be all fluff. All pretty and less speed. XP feels faster.
And evidently it is a huge moneymaker to install every app in the world on the machine, because it seems there are 40+ installed demos and trials and whatnot. Awesome. And needless to say, no install CD/DVD where I could REINSTALL it without all that crap. Great.
Perhaps I am spoiled in my OSX world. Such it is.
Feature wise, it is close to my macbook. intel core duo, 2gb RAM, 160gb HDs, both have cameras, etc. I will say when you are used to a slot load, the flimsy trays are not impressive.
Oh well. Whatchagonnado.
Apple's iPhone…
so I watched as it was unveiled earlier today and I was so excited. It is amazing. I have rocked the nokia 3650 for years, and recently I have been rocking the moto v878, which is lame, but small and works fine, enough, for a phone. I have been in the market for a new phone for a while, but I was waiting to see the apple offering. The Nokia N series was the ones I had been eyeing, but I really want wifi on the next phone I get.
I knew that the apple phone was going to be cool, but I didn't imagine it would be this cool. I was sitting there ready to order it up on the spot until they got to the 'cingular' part. I REALLY don't want to dump tmobile. seriously. weak. Why does it need to be exclusive? I hate that. The only thing they need it for is the visual voicemail, which is fine, but as far as I can imagine, it is a pretty layer over IMAP email. I mean, it is cool, but I am not THAT impressed with it. But as a friend pointed out, if you had to screen LOTS of voicemail, it would be nice. I don't get that much voicemail. or rather, I just don't ever listen to it.
But yeah, I keep coming back to the iPhone. I keep checking plans on cingular's site. I keep looking at the Nokia N Series. And I keep coming back to one thing:
All the other phones suddenly suck.
Seriously. I mean the iPhone's interface is SO nice, that even the best Symbian stuff is lame. Let alone the motorola clunky menu system. Palm OS is still stuck in 1996. And I won't run a Win based phone, not that I think it is a great interface either. The transitions are amazing. It is like a fancy flash website that is done CORRECTLY. The touch screen interface should pan well, since Apple cares enough about that to not mess around. The screen quality in terms of pixels per inch is supposedly insane.
And what can I do? Seriously, switching to cingular is my current option. OR... they are saying release in the US in june, so lets say that is q3. Europe, q4. I doubt that there will be a europe exclusive carrier, since europe doesn't really work that way. So I would wager there will be a carrier agnostic version by next xmas/early 2008. I guess I could wait for that. And in all honesty, we are taking about an extra 3-4 month wait, I can do that.
But man. The other phone builders need to get their rear in gear. Even the best nokia hardware is going to suck unless there is a major software update.
I must have watched the iPhone minisite videos 5 times already. I am impressed. I want one sooooo bad.
Sometimes I rule.
That is really it. I am not going to go into the details. But sometimes, I rule. Right now, I am ruling.