Rants and Revelations

If you care about your “reputation points” (which I keep thinking of as “XP”), don’t go dissing Windows.

A person asked what to do about their parent’s virus infected computers. There were some “real” answers, so I jokingly suggested that they do like I do, and threaten to install Linux on them – that way, they either take you up on the offer and they never have viruses again, or they stop calling you and call somebody else, and it’s a win for you either way.

So far in the last two hours, that question has been voted down 4 times, losing me 8 XP.

I’m in the beta for StackOverflow.com, a site for programmers to ask and answer questions, with cool features like “reputation scores” and voting and badges. Now maybe it’s because it’s the beta and so it’s self-selected for people who are motivated to do things, but so far it’s already totally supplanted comp.lang.java.* as the place I want to ask or answer questions.

I’m hoping it will continue to be my favourite question and answer place when it’s overrun by spammers and “first post” losers.

While I continue to debate with myself whether I want to leave a job I’ve mostly enjoyed for the last 6+ years, I get an email. As explanation, I seem to be the only person here who regularly uses Macs at home, and I have a bit of a reputation as being able to solve various problems that have cropped up here, as well as recommending hardware upgrades and the like.

Hi Paul,

We’ve got a couple of “APPLES” here in our lab that we primarily use for Final Cut Pro editing. We just recently upgraded to LEOPARD, and things just aren’t “right”…..Xxxx (lab manager) has authorized me to provide you with a charge number for you to come and see if you can help. Please let me know if you have some availability in the next week or two to check them out….thanks very much!

Yyyyyy M. Yyyyyyyy | Video & Digital Content Specialist | EI DIGITAL INTERMEDIATE LAB |
Eastman Kodak Company | 2400 Mt. Read Boulevard | Rochester, NY 14650-3089 |

I told her that she’d have to talk to my boss, Nancy about it. So she sent her and email and CCed me:

Hi Nancy,

We’ve got a couple of G5 “APPLES” here in our lab that are heavily utilized for Final Cut Pro editing. We recently upgraded to the newest operating system (LEOPARD), and things just aren’t “right”….word on the street has it that Paul Tomblin has a vast knowledge of APPLE hardware, and we would like to request that Paul come and take a look at them, to determine what is going on. We do have an APPLE support agreement, but it only covers software support.

Xxxx Xxxxx our lab manager, has authorized me to provide Paul with a charge number for him to come and see if he can help. I would estimate it would only take him about 2-4 hours.

Let me know if you have any other questions or concerns.
Yyyyyy M. Yyyyyyyy | Video & Digital Content Specialist | EI DIGITAL INTERMEDIATE LAB |

I can just see what Nancy is going to say when she gets that after my resignation letter.