superchick

Waste Energy

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Create the Splendid Future!

The MP3 player I bought for myself from a Hong Kong dealer on eBay, several years ago, has just died. It won't turn on. It makes a rather bulky 128MB USB drive, but that's about it.

Searching for new firmware from its manufacturer's website, www.onki.cn, I find the following "mission statement". I'm thinking of adopting it myself!

JiaHongFengHui Technology Co.,Ltd.Time which in the after PC time, the numerical code soar, receives spirit which goes all out, devotes to the numerical code industry condition unceasing
innovation: On the one hand has established the nation -like numerical code product channel network, on the other hand establishes represents the development tendency the digital product system. The Shenzhen good rainbow numerical code science and technology limited company the continuously close attention modern numerical code technology development direction and consumer's personal demand tendency, and the anticipation hand in hand will cooperate in the digital domain with your multitudinous strength merchant, altogether will create the splendid future!

Offshore cluelessness

Why is it that offshore developers don't have a clue?

I mean, they couldn't get a clue if you covered them in clue musk and locked them in a nightclub full of horny clues and made them do the clue mating dance.

RTFM!

Not getting enough

After the last post about Inemuri - "power naps" - I had opportunity yesterday to indulge...
We had a 2.5 hour "roadshow" from senior management to endure, including presentations, a patronising sketch to teach us how to project-manage, and a tepid Q&A session. I suppose it was an opportunity to find out what was going on in the company, but I used it to catch up on some zeds.

As it turned out, I needed it. A sleepless night followed, and I am now knackered. Staring through bleary eyes at MS LookOut(TM) wondering what urgent email requiring immediate attention to delete next.

inemuri - Are you getting enough?

At last! The excuse I've been looking for, and one that Joe should have heared about long ago to explain his extended naps at the keyboard!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7114661.stm

I think I'll try it out now...

...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

The Art of Feedback

One day, an IT Manager from another company saw the Help Desk Samurai at a coffee shop. Approaching the Samurai, the manager inquired of him."I have just finished giving my yearly performance reviews to my staff. Yet instead of being grateful for my feedback, they are resentful and grumble against me. They say that I do not care about their development, and they feel blindsided by some of the things I said about their performance. What should I do?"The Samurai looked at the manager, but said nothing.Wanting a response from the Samurai, the manager continued to talk. "I spent weeks putting together those performance reviews from notes I had written throughout the year. Why don't they appreciate the work I did on their behalf?The Samurai still said nothing, but pulled out his Blackberry and began to type.After a minute, he looked up at the manager and said "Come back to me in December, and we will discuss this further."The manager was crestfallen. "But I hoped for your direction today. Is there a reason I need to wait until December?""Of course there is." the Samurai replied, "and it's an excellent reason." He held out his Blackberry. "But don't worry, I am already taking notes about you. I will look over them right before we meet again."Upon hearing this, the manager was enlightened.

Welcome to the Dark Side

Well, I have just been transferred to the Dark Side and have achieved enlightenment. I now see the Light Side for what it really is - a bunch of no-hope cowboys who should be sent to India sooner than you can say "Single from Bradford to Bangalore, please." Already I have been asked to bypass the change control system and monkey around in the live system. Considering the implications of dismissal for a nonosecond, I replied, "Raise an emergency change like everyone else!"

Mrs. M. is back from ginger-procreation leave. A welcome addition of sanity to the floor.

I popped up to the top floor to see how the Wippets were doing: they are a sea of blackness, with a tall, 6' blonde german lady as an island in the middle! Yes, Frau Blücher is back! I had a chat with her this morning, which was quite enlightening... Our implementation of CRAP is the worst she's ever seen, being an international CRAP AG consultant. And now we're offshoring our IT to Bradford (!), she thinks the lack of knowledge transfer will be catastrophic for future support - especially in the "change" "space."

Oh, and after a briefing with Twat Can't-Waistcoat, it seems that we're now in the same "space" and he's "supporting" "me" "every" "step" "of" "the" "way."

That's all for now.

Enjoy MI5.

Day One

Well, it's day one after the sad and unnecessary departure of my old friend, Sian.
Not much has happened in the meantime. No change there.
Borat is back in his desk behind me, so I'm seriously considering jumping into Sian's coffin while it's still warm.
Bob Hoskins is still bumtroubling, so things are desperately quiet.

What I hope this blog should achieve.

In these blog entries, one might find random rantings, personal opinions on whatever happens to be going on, what I do as a DBA, what I would like to do, what I can't do because of bureaucracy, but most of all, any hints, tips and horrible warnings to all who would tread the path of Database Administration...

Why SpufiDoo?

In the land of IBM DB2 for z/OS, the way of getting to your data (and indeed data base) was through an option off DB2 Interactive called "SPUFI." Originally meaning SQL Processing Using File Input, it came to mean Systems Programmers Un-Friendly Interface.

Round about the time when the Scooby Doo movie came out, I was asked to write a Rexx/ISPF application to automate and audit the execution of dynamic SQL requests in batch. So I wrote the application called SPUFIDOO, which "does" "SPUFIs."

The name SpufiDoo stuck in as much as no-one on planet Earth has a blog/email address/nickname/alias called "spufidoo."

Life's too short to blog.