Linux nerd and consultant. Sci-fi, comedy, and podcast author. Former Katsucon president, former roller derby bouncer. http://punkwalrus.net

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Cake day: June 22nd, 2023

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  • You got me. I think it was because our group was under one contract set of hires (I was an employee, but some of these people were still part of a contract), which is why we weren’t let go immediately. But sometimes you get some manager who doesn’t want the OLD people, but a FRESH NEW set of people. For example, when the entire QA department was let go an outsourcer, all the documentation we made was thrown out the window because “that was the old way!” And the next major software release was a disaster. And we were going from a 16 bit client (Windows 3.1x based) version to the new 32 bit (Windows 95/98-native) version, and the QA/testing was not really part of the process. “Who are these product testers, and why are they so negative about the product? LOSE 'EM! They only see mistakes, there’s no room for that kind of attitude, and it slows the whole release cycle down.”

    Corporate stupidity.


  • This is comedy gold. MANY years ago, late 1990s, my department was getting laid off, but due to some contract line items, they gave us 90 days to find a new job within the company and then blacklisted us, which was another bullshit thing. Then someone found in a job hiring seminar in a nearby convention center where our company had a booth. The seminar was free, so a bunch of us went.

    At the booth, we found out that they were interviewing for our jobs (QA testing engineers). Not a surprise, but they got excited when the first few of us were uniquely qualified (duh). But after the third person, that guy didn’t hide we still worked for our company. Someone from the HR team panicked when they realized the group of us were CURRENT employees. What made it even funnier was that not only was it the same QA testing jobs they needed to hire for, but the pay was about 20% greater than we were making.

    HR called corporate asking “what do we do???” Corporate said “SHUT THE BOOTH DOWN!!” A very weird reaction. Then we applied to other jobs at the fair, and when we left, the booth was still closed. The next day, those that interviewed got taken into a meeting room and cursed out by management for “that stupid stunt!” We asked, “so why are we being blacklisted?” “You’re not being blacklisted!” “Uh… nobody internally will return our calls, and we have found out that they were told not to return our calls due to a leaked email.”

    Oof. Oddly enough, i got a new job a few weeks later in the same company. So it kind of worked.




  • I would imagine that they see your country as small, unable to fight back, and “full of savages.” I am SO embarrassed at this administration, they live in some weird childish fantasy land like 1950s cartoons. These are people with huge paintings of cowboys in their offices, like “Custer’s Last Fight” by Cassilly Adams, showing Custer somehow fighting off Indians dressed as Zulus (a lot of 19th-century artists sometimes portrayed Plains Indians in “Custer’s Last Stand”-style paintings with elements borrowed from Zulu warriors due to ignorance, theatrical flair, or lack of good references). Deporting these people to your country, which is probably seen as “generically Africa” in some undefined manner, “put the savages back with their kind.”

    These politicians are a stain on anything good and decent about Americans. Again, on behalf of America, I am deeply sorry this administration is so immature and reckless. Reminds me of this joke from Johnny Dangerously







  • It’s the “not handling” part that gets us as kids. We knew better. Adults didn’t. In my case, I was in high school, but it was on a “Teacher workday, student holiday” we had each semester. I watched it live on NASA TV, which we had on channel UHF 55 in the DC area. Even the voice of mission control delayed about a minute or two. I remember thinking, “THAT didn’t look good…” but then they said nothing but normal speed and temp readings, so I thought it was just the angle of the chase plane. Only when the famous “forked cloud” appeared that the announcer said, “we have an apparent major malfunction,” or something.








  • Punkie@lemmy.worldtomemes@lemmy.worldStupid meetings
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    21 days ago

    One of the things I have learned is that a lot of middle management don’t have tangible roles, so they make up for this by recognition, which is usually “presence.” So they have meetings to be seen, stay relevant, and look important. Like, how do you measure management as a product? It’s a social game, primarily. I’m not saying all or any large percentage of management is like this, but there are a LOT.

    “What do you say you DO here, exactly…?” And they start to sweat.

    Edit: Clarifying I know there ARE effective ways for an organization to do this, but that doesn’t mean they do or even know how :/


  • When I was in theater camp as a pre-teen, one of our actors was a very enthusiastic foot guy. I had heard of foot fetishes, but never understood them. But this guy was like an overexcited fan boy of feet. My curiosity triggered this guy into a huge brain dump, and one of the things he went on about about how feet were the “true expression of a person’s feelings.” Feet turned towards you? They like you. One foot pointed away? They don’t. He then showed me how girls’ feet would match their mood, so no matter what parts they were rehearsing, he could tell their underlying mood: anxiety, sadness, anger, happiness, etc… I have no idea if he was right, but that was my first exposure to another person’s fetish. I could only understand it abstractly, but I found it fascinating.


  • It’s pretty scary: I am seeing it in the IT sector as well. It’s not just knowledge; anyone can look up things, even Einstein did it. “I never memorize anything that I can look up,” he said once, about the why he never memorized cosine tables and such. But it’s basic logical flow of thought and problem solving. Like the skills behind the knowledge, that I see less and less of.