As a denizen of the internet for a quarter of a century, I have seen more than a few memes. Some funny, some less so. Some are highly informative, some are entirely for fun, and far too many are entirely misinformation. Whatever the case, I generally find that memes are not a good way to get information, and that one should at the very least critically review a meme before accepting the claims made within it.
(more…)Category: Opinion
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The engineer’s estimate
-A formula for success
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Red flag arguments
One of many things I care about is improving the world around me. That is why I’m a union representative, it’s one of the reasons why I like my job, and it’s why I raise questions to find out if there are good reasons for things being done the way they are – and to change them if there aren’t. Every so often, I’m met with arguments that aren’t really arguments at all, and which really should prompt a re-examination of the subject matter.
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Longer answers are better support
When working tech support, it is often tempting to give short answers to a ticket, in order to get on to the next ticket. This tendency is particularly problematic when responding in the negative to a request. Though understandable, we should fight this tendency. I have three specific reasons why it’s important, but I would also like to note that this is closely linked to Continual Service Improvement in ITIL, or the Improvement kata in DevOps.
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Creating habits to separate work-time from off-time
Since March of last year I have, for the most part, been working from home. While we were able to work out the kinks in keeping connected to the rest of the team relatively quickly, I’ve found shutting off work-mode to be a bit harder. I find myself wanting to check stuff in the evenings, working longer days (and not just because the work needs to get done), and generally being mentally “at work”, even when I’m patently not at work.
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Reviewed: Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
I have had a Playstation 4 ever since we last moved. While it doesn’t see daily use by any stretch of the imagination, it gets used from time to time. I saw people gushing about Jedi: Fallen Order, and decided to pick it up. Here are my thoughts.
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Reviewed: Firewatch
As I mentioned in my favorite things post, the Nintendo Switch is one of those favorite things. One of the games I’ve enjoyed a lot is Firewatch
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Adventures in recruiterland: A counterpoint of sorts
I have, in three previous posts written about recruiters, good and bad (though, let’s face it, I’ve mostly spoken about the bad). As most of the recruiters I’ve talked about have fallen squarely in the “bad” category, here’s a counterpoint of sorts. Though not bad, it’s certanly not good either. The initial contact looked like this:
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