Archive for Work
April 21, 2008 at 10:36 am · Filed under Travel, Work
I’m back from California, and it looks like I missed the last snowfall of the year. I enjoyed sun and warmth in Anaheim and came back to a warm night in Montreal.
While in Anaheim I walked a lot, went on five rollercoasters at Knotts Berry Farm, walked some more, ate at IHOP twice and at the Rainforest Cafe once, perused lots of Disney merchandise, went to Target, oh and did a bit of work.
The presentation went well. We had about four hundred people in the audience. I got a couple of laughs and some good questions at the end, including people wanting to steal my code (if it were up to me I’d GPL it, but it’s not up to me).
April 11, 2008 at 11:54 am · Filed under Travel, Work
Tomorrow afternoon I’m catching a flight to Orange County, California for 5 days of sun and relaxation work. I’m attending the Sungard Higher Education Summit in Anaheim, where I will be taking part in a presentation in front of up to 1,000 people. Worried? Me? Nah, as the refreshment lady says, it’ll be a piece of cake (only parents with two year old Thomas fans will get that reference). Apart from that nerve-wracking hour, the rest of the time will be spent listening to other people talk about all things university computer system related.
Although I’ve been within spitting distance of the border, I’ve never actually entered California before (I don’t count sitting in LA airport for six hours) so that’s another state to cross of my list even though I doubt I’ll get to see much of it.
April 8, 2008 at 2:16 pm · Filed under Work
I have a new job!
No, I’m not leaving McGill… Today I accepted a new position at McGill as a web developer in the Web Services Group, the team who look after the content of mcgill.ca and are involved in other web initiatives around campus.
It’s a step in a new direction for me. The WSG use mostly open source tools, which I’ve been playing with personally since I first installed linux on an old computer several years ago but I haven’t been able to use in a work setting. I’m stepping away from Oracle, the proprietary RDBMS that I’ve been working with for 20 years, to embrace open source technologies like PHP, Python and PostgreSQL. It looks like there might even be a bit of WordPress thrown into the mix.
I’ve had six good years here on the Finance IT team but I’m really looking forward to something new.
August 23, 2006 at 12:36 pm · Filed under Travel, Work
For most schools around here, this is the last week of summer. For the past few weeks I’ve had peaceful journeys to work, sitting reading my book in a quiet carriage, sometimes with empty seats around me. All that is about to change.
It started today with the Dawson students who thankfully are old enough to be reasonably restrained, but on Monday it will be bedlam. The train will be full of screaming 12 year olds with their cell phones and ipods and all the souvenirs of a summer spent having way too much fun. They will be in a frenzy of excitement at least for the first few days until school has drilled all the fun out of them, then they’ll just be mildly hysterical. They’ll be running up and down the aisle, throwing stuff at each other, flirting, fighting, gossiping, screeching and generally being teenagers.
Oh well, maybe I’ll be more awake when I get to work now.
May 24, 2005 at 9:21 am · Filed under Travel, Work
I’m in Malvern, PA, population 3000. It is not very exciting.
October 19, 2004 at 10:29 am · Filed under Work
During that terrifying thing known as smalltalk usually one of the first questions that gets asked is “So, what do you do?”.
My first complaint is that the question usually really means ‘What is your job?’ and by making the job part implicit, the question is giving way too much importance to the work we do. I do lots of things, and one of them happens to be something I earn money for doing.
So I assume they are talking about what I get paid to do, and I say something like “I’m a computer programmer”. This brings me to the second problem. Unless I’m in a room full of geeks, and talking to a fellow geek, this usually results in a glazed “oh no, it’s one of those” expression, a polite “Oh, that’s interesting” and a complete end to that thread of conversation. I realise that to a non-computer person what I do is probably akin to black magic, but I’m sure if my answer was “Oh, I’m a warlock” it would at least generate a bit more conversation. Why is it so hard to find things to say about computer programming?
I work as a computer programmer. It’s quite interesting. Really. I develop and maintain modules for a centralized accounting and finance database. I use Oracle and Unix tools to do my job. I’ve been writing computer programs since I was about 10, and earning money for it since I was 19. Sometimes I do it for fun too. I do not own a pocket protector or a slide rule, and my glasses are perfectly intact.
October 6, 2004 at 8:48 am · Filed under General, Work
My laptop, the phone, some writing pads, two spoons and a knife, a single serving pack of sugar, some paper towel, some dark chocolate, a silver Gateway 19″ monitor, black keyboard, black mouse, Dell mouse pad (not being used), a Ron Jon Surf Shop mug with tea in it, my business cards, other peoples’ business cards, a slinky, some reports, a picture that says “My desk isn’t a mess… it’s uniquely organized”, a picture of me and Jen in Nelson BC, and some Post-It Notes.
September 30, 2004 at 10:55 am · Filed under Rants, Work
There are two types of people, those who understand computers and those who don’t.
There are professional computer programmers who fall into the second category, and taxi drivers who fall into the first.
Given a new piece of software, or an upgrade to an old piece of software, or a new website, someone who can understand computers will be able to figure out how to use it quickly and independantly. Someone who doesn’t understand computers will either need to be shown how it works, or spend a long time figuring it out.
Presented with a new problem or task, someone who understands computers will be able to choose the best software for the job and the most efficient way to solve the problem. Someone who doesn’t understand computers will try to use what they know best even if it’s like hammering a square peg into a round hole.
A programmer who understands computers can pick up a new computer language and start using it, at least experimentally, almost immediately. A programmer who does not understand computers will need training or a big book.
So what is it that puts someone into the understanding computers category?
Is it experience? Well yes, experience is a big factor. The more time we spend around computers, the more familiar we become. Familiarity gives us confidence and reduces fear. I’ve been using computers since I was nine, and that experience has definitely been important.
Is it genetic? I think there is a genetic factor which can make us more able to understand logic and be more intuitive about certain things. I have no idea what, if any, scientific evidence there is for this. As mentioned above I got my first computer at nine. I was writing usable programs within six months, so I think I had some kind of predisposition to that kind of learning.
Is it knowledge? We need a certain amount of knowledge to get going, but I don’t think it’s very much. I don’t “know” half the stuff I do. I don’t remember everything about every language or software I’ve ever used. What’s important is that I know where to look and what to look for when I need to know something. The capacity to learn quickly, efficiently and independantly is more important than the knowledge itself.
I understand computers. I only wish I could be that intuitive when it comes to things like cooking, gardening, art and relationships!
July 30, 2004 at 10:44 pm · Filed under Home, Work
My wonderful employer has the incredibly sensible and civilized policy of giving us Fridays off in the summer. Nine weeks of 4 day weeks (actually a couple of 3 day weeks thanks to the statutory holidays), what could be better? Well ok, permanent 4 day weeks would be better but hey I’m happy with what I’m given.
Today I pottered around the house, tidied up my ‘workshop’, built a PC which then failed to function, waited for James to get up (which finally happened at about 2:30), got the gas canister filled up and then cooked on the bbq in torrential rain, watched Silent Witness and finally blogged. What a fun day.
July 22, 2004 at 9:36 am · Filed under F1, Work
I love summer Fridays, there is something so incredibly civilized about a four day work week.
I learned about fine grain access control and policy functions today. Cool eh? Well I thought so anyway. Sometimes it feels like I’m slipping backwards in the race to stay on the cutting edge of technologies, then something happens at the university that makes me realise we’re still racing, even if we’re not quite up at the front. Right now I’d say McGill is the McClaren team in the keeping-up-with-technology Grand Prix.
Talking of Grand Prix, it’s a race weekend, the German race. Probably another home win for Michael, but here’s hoping for an interesting race.
