Bill Strahm's Weblog

Monday October 25, 2004

How to screwup a weekend with a single executable
Ok, I admit it - I use Windows on my home machine because it is supposed to be easier (and frankly I like playing some of the "Windows only" games available for it.

Well last weekend I start looking and low and behold there is a few spyware/malware apps on my box (how do I know - because my personal firewall started asking if strange applications could access the internet - You MUST use a personal firewall, it is the only way of seeing some of these things). So time to go remove them.

To make a long story short - by the time I am done no networking works outside of PING, DHCP no, DNS nope... Don't even try anything fancier than that... Crap.

Well I have an almost functioning box after a long re-install - maybe it is finally time to make my default desktop a Unix variant and leave the Windows for only playing games...

Microsoft - Please fix your operating system such that I can baseline components - did I really want to reinstall the whole darned thing, no - just networking (grumble grumble grumble)

Oh yeah - I did try all of the repair options - nothing worked until the OS wipe. I guess that is pretty good it has been almost 2 years since the "LAST" time that happened, and it was a hardware problem then (Thank you Dell technical support that wouldn't talk to me until I had wiped my OS clean)
(2004-10-25 10:55:42.0) Permalink Comments [2]

Tuesday September 21, 2004

What OS am I ? This is actually scary

Which OS are You?
(2004-09-21 09:44:30.0) Permalink Comments [2]

Friday August 27, 2004

Out with the Old - In with the New
Well today my manager at Sun is leaving. Goodbye John, you will be missed.

I will espouse on what a good manager means to me. I have suffered under a few bad managers in my time, and been blessed with a set of managers that make work a joy. I have decided that I won't suffer under a bad manager anymore - it is too easy to find a job, and my health and happiness is worth more than any money I might give up. (Don't worry Brian - I am not talking about you right now, just a couple of those managers in my past). I jokingly tell my managers that they are graded on two metrics - my blood pressure (120/80 - 1 point for each number bigger than this) and inversely with the average weekly status meeting (Works well for managers that only have a bi-weekly meeting). So there are two things that a manager can do to be a good manager in my eyes, keep my stress level down so I can be productive - and not waste my time.

Seriously though - what makes a good manager - I look for a few things from my manager
Help determine what my highest priorities are - I want to be working on important things
Help with contacts around the company with people that I have to work with (ie. networking)
Help with isolating me from "bad" politics - in otherwords, shield me from random stupidity
Teach me something
Let me teach something

I'll see how good my new manager is... I've worked with him as a peer since I have been at Sun, so at least I know he is a good person - and I fully expect him to become a good manager in my list. In management personality matters

(2004-08-27 12:58:32.0) Permalink