Keeping out of step and out of line
May 2, 2007
My last post doesn’t make much sense unless you’ve been following what’s been going on at Digg, or rather, unless you’re a big ol’ geek.
The short story of it is, someone cracked the HD-DVD encryption code, and the string of numbers can be used to create (with some work) an HD-DVD ripper so you can make digital copies of an HD-DVD. A lot of people who’ve posted the code have gotten DMCA takedown notices from the organization that holds the rights to HD-DVD, because they essentially equate ripping DVDs with piracy. It’s been the better part of 15 years sine DVDs hit the open market, and it’s still illegal–yes, illegal–to make a copy of a DVD you own to put on a digital device or some sort of media center.
In other words, it doesn’t look like there will be any sort of “iPod for movies” anytime soon, unless you consider the ones Apple sells through iTunes. You can rip your own music, put it on an MP3 player, burn it to a CD, but you can’t do it to a movie you own.
So, I post the code as my own form of protest over the issue.
This has been somewhat of a mixed week at work. It’s been a combination of “Oh my God, I have way the hell too much breaking to stay sane” and “Why isn’t the damn phone ringing?” There was a great article on Fark I saw posted about how a government study claimed that IT workers do far less actual work than people in other fields, but the comments about the article were priceless. One person equated their IT job as like a fireman: we get paid to sit around even when there’s no fire to be put out. Except firemen also don’t build and fireproof houses like I’m essentially supposed to do. Someone else also said that in my line of work, if we’re doing our job it doesn’t look like we’re doing anything at all. My work should be seamless and invisible.
Of course, that’s not always the case. Printers break, servers die, viruses get in, and jacks stop working, but that’s why I’m there. It’s my job to make sure other people can do their job. If I sit on my ass for part of the day and read the latest headlines on Fark or write a personal email or two, I think that I deserve it.
Although, I should add that I had a quarterly performance review last Friday, and several complaints against me were raised by my manager. Apparently, I’ve been short, rude, and less than helpful in recent weeks. My manager said “complaints,” but I knew he meant “complaint.” I knew who it came from, I knew why they complained, and I knew that I was on the right side. I hadn’t been rude, I’d said “no” to something. Actually, I’d said “Not right now.” It’s not my job to tell people they can’t do their job, but it’s my job to make sure that the firm stays in compliance with our software licenses. Last year I got into a bit of trouble when in the course of enforcing licensing for a piece of software I said “no” to an attorney, but in that case I was just the messenger. In this case I told someone “We don’t have any more licenses of this software, we are unable to purchase any more, and we have an alternative that does 95% of what the software you’re looking for does.”
Naturally, said person was not happy about this. I can’t change the fact that we can’t buy the software anymore, and the workround my manager later proposed will enforce the licensing in the spirit of the agreement only, not the letter.
What got me to the point in which I was apparently rude (and I say apparently because while I was extremely frustrated with this person, I don’t remember being rude) to the person was that they went over my head and CC’d the managing partner on a further email to me. I could have copied and pasted my original email to them, but instead I responded and reiterated my original point: we can’t buy the software anymore, we have an alternative, quit your griping and take what I can give you. OK, so I didn’t actually add that last par, but that I was even thinking it might be what got me in “trouble.”
In the end, one complaint about my conduct doesn’t bother me. The person who did complain bothers me, because they went about it entirely unreasonably, even if I was an obstacle for them.
Speaking of work, today was the monthly Partners meeting, and since Symantec released a new version of their antivirus/firewall software, I decided to take the opportunity to update all the partners’ laptops. Updating laptops is tough, because it requires a restart to update the software, and sine they suually take them home I can’t exactly update them on the weekend early in the morning when no one is working. So instead, I took the first opportunity when everyone would be away from their laptops and I remotely installed the software and rebooted them.
Except one. I updated 18 machines, I think it was. One installation failed and I had to do it manually, one installation completed but the machine didn’t restart. What made the situation so fortunate was that it belonged to a partner who I happen to be very good friends with, but who is fairly high-strung. Moreso, she hadn’t gotten my original email stating what I was going to be doing so she didn’t know to close all her documents, and since she had locked her workstation before the meeting I couldn’t manually close and save anything she had open. I took a chance that she didn’t have anything pen she needed saved. I was wrong about that, but since her machine didn’t restart…does that count as winning or losing?
In the end, it was sheer luck that her laptop didn’t restart and close all the things she had open and unsaved. Lucky me. Someone out there is looking out for me, and after the week I’ve had I needed the break.
It hasn’t been a bad week, but I’ve been taking a mini vacation to relax: I’ve been wearing jeans all week. I’m such a rebel.
Hanne and I are well into “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” and she seems to be enjoying it more and more. And why not? I’m always right. She seemed incredulous about seven seasons of “Buffy” at first, maybe now she’ll want to watch ‘em all. Just wait until I break the news about the spinoff to her. Another five seasons right there.
Last weekend I washed my car at my Dad’s house. No big deal, right? Wrong. First time I’ve handwashed my car. Ever. I’ve had it for close to three years, and that was the first time. Actually, it’s only the third time my car has ever been washed–and only the second time by me. I know, I know, I don’t take great care of my car, but I don’t drive it very often and I don’t are if it hs a little bit of dirt on it. But lichen? I had lichen growing on my car under the dirt. Ew. I had to really scrub it off, and if my Dad hadn’t been helping me I would probably still be out there scrubbing my car. I can probably pull air in through the intake vents in the front now, too! I so rule.
Of course, parked in my driveway, under the tree things are right back to normal a mere three days after washing. Nothing’s caked on quite yet, but it’s getting bad again. Maybe today’s THUNDERHAIL storm washed some of it off.
OK, I’m tapped for material.
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