The One Week Job. Day One.



  • I drove down to the new gig on a crystal clear summer day, heading south past downtown Laguna. I parked in the back and headed up the creaky wooden stairs.

    Bruce was in office, with a view of Catalina 26 miles away. He was on the phone. He motioned for me to sit down.

    I waited. Five minutes later he hung up.

    “Great, let’s get you started.” He stood up and walked me to my desk. A boxed up PC was on the floor. “I just ran out to Fry’s and got you this. Ask one of the guys to help you set it up. Let me know when you are ready and I’ll walk you through the app.”

    Good job, dumbass, I said to myself. You took a job where you have to setup your own PC.

    Ten minutes later I had everything hooked up. The PC booted. Windows Media Center. WTF?

    I walked down to his office. He was on the phone again. I walked back to my desk. It was in a corner of the second floor with three other desks where young guys were banging away at their keyboards. I tapped one on the shoulder. “Do you know who takes care of the PCs around here?”

    He shrugged. The kid was about twenty. “Check with Paul.” He pointed to some other guy on the other side of the office. I headed that way. Everybody was on the phone, banging away at a keyboard, or vigorously hunched over somebody’s shoulder, pointing at a monitor. I think I was one of four people over thirty, not counting the Mexican lady emptying the trash cans.

    “Are you Paul?”

    He took his headphones off. “Wassup?”

    “Are you Paul?”

    "Yeah."

    “Do you have Windows XP? This new box has Media Center, and I don’t think SQL-Server 2005 runs on that. Plus, I don’t need all that media stuff.”

    “Sure, no prob.” He dug through a pile of disks and handed me a disk that had “XP” written on it by a Sharpie. “The key is in the in-fo file.”

    “In-fo?”

    “Yeah, you know, dot-EN-EF-O.” He put his headphones back on.

    “Oh, ‘.nfo’. Got it.” Freakin’ disk was from a Warez site.  WTF?

    Bye the end of the day I had my development environment setup. Visual Studio 2005, Sql-Server, etc. All loaded from bootleg disks provided by Paul.



  • <flaming troll feeder sarcasm because hey it's tunnel rat>

    lemme guess, they're Indians, maybe asians ?

    </sarcasm> 

     

     



  • Na, an H1-B would have just given me a pristine bootleg of Windows XP, with the hologram and everything.



  • Please shorten your posts or face my trigger-happy delete button finger. ;-)



  • My legal copies are all self-burned with sharpie writing; they're downloaded as ISOs from the MSDN website and burned to disk.  Still perfectly legal.

    No NFO file, mind you.

    -cw



  • Yes, the NFO pretty much seals the deal. 

    But I don't know why I should care.  Most on this board think that any intellectual property should be free, whether it be music, movies, or software.  I don't understand how they expect to make a living getting paid to write code.



  • @TunnelRat said:

    Yes, the NFO pretty much seals the deal. 

    But I don't know why I should care.  Most on this board think that any intellectual property should be free, whether it be music, movies, or software.  I don't understand how they expect to make a living getting paid to write code.

    How do you come to this conclusion? This isn't /. 



  • @TunnelRat said:

    Yes, the NFO pretty much seals the deal. 

    But I don't know why I should care.  Most on this board think that any intellectual property should be free, whether it be music, movies, or software.  I don't understand how they expect to make a living getting paid to write code.

    Most on this board think it should be free?

    So, you have tired of bashing everyone else you have interacted with and we are now your next victim?  Before making such generalizations, you should try to pull your head at least a few inches out of your ass. 



  • Ok, how's this:

    <FONT size=1>if ((1 / int.Parse(0)) > 1)

    {

         Console,Write("ha ha ha ha");

    }

    That's sure to amuse this crowd,  I have more!

    </FONT>


  • Such a thin skinned bunch here...

    BTW, I don't recall bashing anyone personally.  Sorry if you feel victimized.  Maybe you are projecting (oops, phsycho-babble alert!)



  • @TunnelRat said:

    Such a thin skinned bunch here...

    BTW, I don't recall bashing anyone personally.  Sorry if you feel victimized.  Maybe you are projecting (oops, phsycho-babble alert!)

     

    I love your posts, TunnelRat.  The Mexican lady cleaning trash cans is probably more illegal than your pirated xp copy. 



  • TR, you're a bastard. But still... If I were you, I'd turn the warez use into a scandal. Like, first page on a newspaper scandal. Just for kicks.



  • @TunnelRat said:

    Yes, the NFO pretty much seals the deal. 

    I don't understand how they expect to make a living getting paid to write code.

    Because they write code as a service, not as a product.



  • @TunnelRat said:

    Ok, how's this:

    <font size="1">if ((1 / int.Parse(0)) > 1)</font>

    <font size="1">{ </font>

    <font size="1">     Console,Write("ha ha ha ha");</font>

    <font size="1">}</font>

    <font size="1">That's sure to amuse this crowd,  I have more!</font>

     

    No, YOUR MOM.



  • [quote user="Renan "C#" Sousa"]

    TR, you're a bastard. But still... If I were you, I'd turn the warez use into a scandal. Like, first page on a newspaper scandal. Just for kicks.

    [/quote]
    That and the reward you'd get for turning them in.



  • @TunnelRat said:

    <FONT size=1>

    That's sure to amuse this crowd,  I have more!

    </FONT>

     

    Take that, liberal pussies!

    -cw



  • Semi-official poll:

    ( ) lock this thread to avoid more flames

    ( ) delete this thead because it contains neither funny nor useful information

    ( ) cowboy neal

     



  • As always, I have to go with c) Cowboy Neal.  I just have to.   Even if he is from /. and thinks that all IP should be free.

    -cw



  • I looked up cowboy neal.

    =================================

    ( ) lock this thread to avoid more flames

    ( ) delete this thead because it contains neither funny nor useful information

    (●) cowboy neal.

     

     




  • C, of course.



  • I vote for locking the thread.  At least you'll get your ads read and make some money. 

    And I always thought the deleting of threads that were merely controversial (or even non-controversial put posted by someone who was controversial) was akin to speech codes and book burnings ;-)

    Basically, what the banners want to do is blacklist me, regardless of the content. 



  • Hmm, I can't make up my mind, so I'll try sticking the dot between two good answers....

    =================================

    ( ) lock this thread to avoid more flames

    ( ) delete this thead because it contains neither funny nor useful information

     ●

    ( ) cowboy neal.

     



  • @TunnelRat said:

    Basically, what the banners want to do is blacklist me, regardless of the content. 

    Who mentioned banning?  

    -cw



  • @ammoQ said:

    Semi-official poll:

    ( ) lock this thread to avoid more flames

    ( ) delete this thead because it contains neither funny nor useful information

    ( ) cowboy neal

    (x) before doing any of the above, post his IP address so we can hunt him down and fedex over a box of decomposing fish, as a token of gratitude



  • @TunnelRat said:

    And I always thought the deleting of threads that were merely controversial (or even non-controversial put posted by someone who was controversial) was akin to speech codes and book burnings ;-)

    This isn't controversial, it's just incredibly lame. And we so rarely get to impart justice upon those who deeply deserve it.



  • @ammoQ said:

    Semi-official poll:

    ( ) lock this thread to avoid more flames

    ( ) delete this thead because it contains neither funny nor useful information

    ( ) cowboy neal

    I'd have to go with locking.   



  • I vote (a) because I have no idea who cowboy neal is (and can't be arsed to look him up while at work), and hate on concept deleting information simply because we don't like what it says. On the other hand, the op tends to like pissing people off, and does a lovely job of it, which I don't think we need to be playing into. Lock (and load...?)



  • @TunnelRat said:

    Ok, how's this:

    <FONT size=1>if ((1 / int.Parse(0)) > 1)

    {

         Console,Write("ha ha ha ha");

    }

    That's sure to amuse this crowd,  I have more!

    </FONT>

     

    That isn't amusing.. it could never reach production.  It won't even compile.


  • Considered Harmful

    (  ) lock this thread to avoid more flames

    (  ) delete this thead because it contains neither funny nor useful information

    (●) cowboy neal.



  • @TunnelRat said:

    “Do you have Windows XP? This new box has Media Center, and I don’t think SQL-Server 2005 runs on that. Plus, I don’t need all that media stuff.”

    Isn't MCE just a branch of XP with some other bells and whistles added (so you can watch TV while you work)?  I wasn't aware that they had intentionally reduced any functionality.  Did you actually try running SQL server on it?

    Good job, dumbass, I said to myself. You took a job where you have to setup your own PC.

    That's better than having to wait 3 weeks to get somebody to install putty for you.  Don't be such a snob.



  • @joe.edwards@imaginuity.com said:

    (  ) lock this thread to avoid more flames

    (  ) delete this thead because it contains neither funny nor useful information

    ( ) cowboy neal.

    (●) Imagine beowolf cluster of tunnelrats... mmm.. wait, no!

    ... also in soviet russia threads lock you!

    Also - I got my PC at work in original boxes. Company's not big enough to have it's own service and assembly guys - so what? Developers usually can put their box together themselves.


  • @viraptor said:

    @joe.edwards@imaginuity.com said:

    (  ) lock this thread to avoid more flames

    (  ) delete this thead because it contains neither funny nor useful information

    ( ) cowboy neal.

    (●) Imagine beowolf cluster of tunnelrats... mmm.. wait, no!

    ... also in soviet russia threads lock you!

    Also - I got my PC at work in original boxes. Company's not big enough to have it's own service and assembly guys - so what? Developers usually can put their box together themselves.

    Maybe we can, but do we want to?



  • @BradleyS said:

    I have no idea who cowboy neal is (and can't be arsed to look him up while at work)


    Slashdot cofounder, or something like that. http://slashdot.org/~cowboyneal.  Since you missed that one, I'm pretty sure we have to revoke your geek card now. 



  • If I recall, like XP Home, it wouldn't run IIS. 

    As for setting up my own PC, most companies realize that they can pay a guy about $60K to run network cables and setup PCs, as opposed to having a $100k/yr programmer doing it. 

    I guess they could expect me to clean the toilets and empty the trash also, and I would be a snob by thinking that I wasn't hired to do such work. 



  • @TunnelRat said:

    If I recall, like XP Home, it wouldn't run IIS. 

    As for setting up my own PC, most companies realize that they can pay a guy about $60K to run network cables and setup PCs, as opposed to having a $100k/yr programmer doing it. 

    I guess they could expect me to clean the toilets and empty the trash also, and I would be a snob by thinking that I wasn't hired to do such work. 

    Nope.  Media Center is built on top of XP Pro, so it will run IIS.  Similar to Vista Home Premium. 



  • @TunnelRat said:

    If I recall, like XP Home, it wouldn't run IIS. 

    As for setting up my own PC, most companies realize that they can pay a guy about $60K to run network cables and setup PCs, as opposed to having a $100k/yr programmer doing it. 

    I guess they could expect me to clean the toilets and empty the trash also, and I would be a snob by thinking that I wasn't hired to do such work. 

     Shit, 60k for running cables.  That's a pretty sweet deal (depending on where you live...).  The problem is that if you're paying that union guy 60k to run the cables, you're also paying the developer 100k to sit idle for 3 weeks while he waits for the teamster to do it.  Letting the programmer install his own software really lets you save money.
     



  • I think a lightened version of SQL server actually comes with MCE.  And thanks for actually posting on topic.



  • @vt_mruhlin said:

    @TunnelRat said:

    “Do you have Windows XP? This new box has Media Center, and I don’t think SQL-Server 2005 runs on that. Plus, I don’t need all that media stuff.”

    Isn't MCE just a branch of XP with some other bells and whistles added (so you can watch TV while you work)?  I wasn't aware that they had intentionally reduced any functionality.  Did you actually try running SQL server on it?

    They have semi-intentionally reduced functionality in recent versions - it's not exactly an objective, it's been accomplished more through a lack of planning and sheer stupidity. For example, unless you take a hatchet to one of the system files and disable the offending misfeature, an MCE system cannot join a domain.

    I have no idea whether they also managed to break SQL server.



  • Like a friend said once about a boring task we had to complete - I am doing my job but it's not worth the salary I am getting :)

    Setting up the PC - I would prefer doing it myself actually.



  • @ammoQ said:

    Semi-official poll:

    ( ) lock this thread to avoid more flames

    ( ) delete this thead because it contains neither funny nor useful information

    ( ) cowboy neal

    (x) We're coming to get you

     

     




  • In the spirit of others - and a little rearrangeing - i just couldn't decide

    Semi-official poll:

    ( ) lock this thread to avoid more flames

    x

    ( ) cowboy neal

    ( ) delete this thead because it contains neither funny nor useful information


    As for installing your own machine, i'd prefer to do it myself. You can choose your development toolkit.


    Okay maybe not as much as you'd like, but you can still run vc++ or dev-c++ or <insert pref here>. You can setup some decent utilities from your toolbox probably cover communications, compression, versioning, diffing and merging, personal library of source code, basic library docs (and if you haven't been collecting a small toolbox of such useful things, ask someone to hit you with a lart). Depending upon the computer architecture (and the programs goals) you can also setup some test environments locally too.

    Compare that to using odd, flawed, broken, or worked around software, waiting weeks for testing to report back, sys admins to install (yes someone already mentioned it) putty, or being unable to continue because the only reference to this obscure part of your language you need is on the intenret and someone pushed a backhoe through the internet connection for your city.



  • @Rat Poison said:

    (x) We're coming to get you

     

    wow, now the whole TunnelRats episode on this forum is getting reaaally weird. 



  • ( ) lock this thread to avoid more flames

    ( ) delete this thead because it contains neither funny nor useful information

    ( ) cowboy neal

    (●) I find posts like this one quite amusing



  • @dhromed said:

    I looked up cowboy neal.

       Eeeewwwwwwww!

       Didn't he mind? 



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