Ignorance strikes back

I know that sometimes I can be hard to put up with. Actually, "almost always" probably pictures it better. But I really can't help it, even if I know I'm fighting a losing battle. Sometimes it feels like getting blood out of a stone.

Now, to quote Wikipedia, SCSI is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices. Wikipedia also specifies that it sounds like "scuzzy". But that's only phonetical, as you always write "SCSI". Or do you?


Forgive me for the bad quality of the picture, but this is more or less a stolen image; anyway, to protect the (not so) innocent, no references to the place where it has been taken will be given.

Let's just say that the person in charge for materials also systematically writes badget instead of budget, IP adress instead of address, and that's not all folks.

Am I being mean? Probably I am. But I must admit I can hardly put up with wannabe high horses when they don't walk the walk. Let's face it, I am obviously not omniscient and make many errors as well: actually that's the only way you can learn. But if you want to improve you have to work hard, and I do. As I read somewhere, you might not get all you work for, but you will not get what you don't work for.

If you ever see me doing something like that please correct me; I'll also be happy to be exposed to laughter if that can help me to learn something.

You'll never excel if you stick with Excell

Please, pay attention when you write something. I am sincerely tired of seeing the use of the word "Excell" (note the double "l") instead of Excel. I can accept it perfectly when a customer uses it, as most customers are not (why should they be, after all?) IT experts; on the other hand, I really can't stand it when a (should-be) IT expert falls in the same trap.

• It is Excel, not Excell.
• It is Outlook, not Outlock, Outloock, Out Look or other combinations.
• Ajax is not a programming language.
• Tomcat is not an application server. And, by the way, Apache sounds like "a-patchy"
  

I could go on forever, but I'm sure you get the point. At best you're considered sloppy because you didn't review what you wrote (which is already bad enough), but maybe you don't know what you're talking about at all. So why should I trust you? How can I think that you can possibly be able to solve my problems? Are you just a waffler? Please get your homework done.

You should be so lucky

Ahhhh se solo la maggior parte dei manager sapesse… il mondo girerebbe diversamente, ma la resa dei conti arriverà presto caro cravattato dall’ignoranza bovina… ma sto divagando

Quoted from another interesting post by Gabriele Lana (aren't they all?).

A cool piece of advice

When you go away on holidays, ALWAYS empty your fridge.

If you didn't follow the previous one and you happen to be one of the lucky ones, here's a bonus advice: a thick layer of Vicks Vaporub on the upper lip helps a lot. And keep at hand a lot of bicarbonate and vinegar.

System administrator?

System administrators have a very important role in ICT. It is their responsibility to guarantee a whole bunch of things, from security to availability, from auditing to you name what. They must be respected for their work, which is a hard one indeed.

System administrators also have another responsibility: allow users to do their work. Despite all maintenance work a network might need, when someone asks "where has that network share gone?" I think an answer is due, least it be "mind your own business bwhah hah hah hah!!!". But maybe it's too difficult a question.

Well, I saw that happen. And when finally someone found out (...) the answer was "reboot and you'll see it". Wow, logon scripts at their full power. But wait a minute, why the reboot? conldn't we simply use a network address? I don't think it's classified, even because the simplest net use would tear the veil of secrecy. Anyway... guess what happens after the reboot? Yep. Nothing. Mysteries of ICT. Or are they? Some things really throw me off balance.

Being a sysadmin is not a privilege: they're here to serve everyone else (yes, also the CLs, I'm sure that deep - maybe very deep - in his heart also the great Davide knows it). I know, because I've done it. I only hope I wasn't like the ones above. But maybe some of our politicians are too much of an inspiration.

From great power comes great responsibility.

Thanks Uncle Ben. I wish more people understood that.

Can't rain all the time...

Even if it's a quote from The Crow, at the moment I feel more like a Kaminoan...


I guess it won't take long before our necks start to lenghten... at least I will look thinner!

After all this rain has some positive side effects, e.g. my wife has not killed me yet despite the fact that I still haven't recharged the batteries of the watering system...

To work or not to work...

Today I read this sentence on a website:

E' stato affrontato il tema dell'impatto che l'arrivo di un bambino provoca sull'attività lavorativa delle donne, evidenziando un dato davvero preoccupante: il 27% delle donne abbandona il lavoro alla nascita del primo figlio.

What's wrong with that? I mean, is it so impossible that a woman might feel gratified enough with her baby? Isn't growing a baby the hardest work ever? Why should they feel deprived?

That reminds me that some years ago I saw a big poster for the incoming general election, which said "families don't grow without day nurseries". Why doesn't anybody, at least here in Italy, ever says "families don't grow without a concrete help"? The monthly fee for a day nursery is about the average salary, why should a mother work all day, without seeing her baby - who by the way is tossed around all day since he's two or three months old - just to pay for the day nursery?

Well, many people are forced to. But I always happen to talk to people who earn two or three times as much as I do (and they don't have a mortgage they'll finish to pay when hell freezes over like I do) that complain because they "have" to go to work because money is never enough. I just think they find that being a full time mother is too much for them: my own wife has been a housewife for the last six years or so herself and we've got three beautiful kids, despite all the economic difficulties we might have faced or will have to face. By the way, we need to buy a bigger car, does anybody want to contribute?

Of course I don't think people who make this choice are bad eggs: I'm not against them, nor I judge them. I only don't understand them.

Sun/Oracle merger: collateral damages

Maybe the merger will bring some good. Up to now, I have seen Oracle turning their backs on very skilled Sun employees. I heartily hope the trend is going to stop.

How to simply avoid a bad impression

You never get a second chance to give a second first impression. That's why you want your first impression to be impressive.

Yet, many organizations fail in this. Sadly, it is because people fail.

A simple example is a presentation brochure: a company writes to a set of prospects telling them how wonderful they are and why everybody should instantly drop all their current suppliers to take advantage of the awesome partnership they are offering.

What's wrong in this? Actually nothing, as commerce is based on advertising.

But.

If you're trying to tell me how irreplaceable you are, at least try to avoid misspells! How good can a company be, if they don't even take the time to spellcheck their booklets? And booklets are what everybody else is supposed to see! Can I trust a company that does things this carelessly? If this is how they manage communications, how will they deal with all my oh-so-important-megastuff?

The same applies with everyday communications: even if you're only sending a mail as a service desk operator, try to reread it and spellcheck it. It only costs a few seconds and greatly improves your image. Well, maybe I'm too hopeful... maybe spellchecking won't help, but failing to do it could cause a certain harm. You could be labelled as careless, distract, ignorant, and so on and so forth (at least, as far as I'm concerned).

Personally, it also annoys me a little. Don't you think I deserve a little more attention than this?

Unluckily this happens almost everywhere: whenever a colleague of mine sends out such a mail, it annoys me even more, because he's in the same team in which I am, and as a result I automatically become "one of the lazybones of that crappy company". Well, I'm not a lazybone and the company I work for is not crappy, so would you please invest some of the time our company pays you for to avoid embarassing us all?

It only takes some seconds...

BTW, to walk the walk and not only talk the talk, from now on I'll have to double-check everything... or else be prepared to be fired upon ;-)

Six Nations 2010

The Italian television La7 will broadcast all the matches featuring Italy. Good news, as last year it seemed that we could only see the Six Nations on Sky (or, like my luckier friend Pancho, at the stadium).

It's a pity I won't be able to see the other matches... which, according to Murphy's Law, are the ones I'm most interested in. And I'm sure I'm not the only one. Well, another axe to grind about rugby in tv... I should be used to it, but guess what: I'm not!

Thanks again to La7 for giving us a glimpse of the show.

Protect your children

Reading this article makes me think that I'm probably the only fool that changes his car because it is too small to allow all children seats to be properly positioned...

Well I'm happy to be a fool! When people tell me that I could always have a car crash with a madman running at 160 mph - in which case my efforts would be useless - I always answer that I can't control madmen, but I do have control on what I do. If spending money can save the life of my children, I am definitely going to spend it. I don't care if everyone laughs at me, I'm grown enough to have a mind of my own. And, guess what, I agree with it ;-)

The same goes for allowing people to smoke near me or my family: even though our world is polluted - and I can't control that - if I can spare us just the tiniest bit of crap I will. End of story. Sayonara. Bye bye.

No comments, just a rant

Sometimes I'm so tired to throw pearls to the pigs... pigs who are supposed to listen because all you say is in their own interest... There will be a day when I will give some people the axe. Right in the middle of the forehead.

Snow, rain and commuting

I really don't know why slanderer have to say that some snow and rain can cause big traffic jams in Milano... today's commuting (less than 30 km) only took me 4 hours and 20 minutes...

Enough with mobiles!

I am not against technology. I think technology has really improved our life. Internet has opened a whole new universe to a lot of people. Mobile phones and PDAs let you connect with everyone you need almost wherever you are, should you need it. But... do you really need it?

Technology should be an aid, and it should not generate addiction. It looks like people can't help talking on their mobiles, no matter where they are. Even when I got married one of our guests forgot to turn his mobile off. Some years ago, when wireless earphones came out, you could easily spot many (supposed to be) crazy guys passionately talking to themselves, waving and bustling about.

There was only a place where people dared to bear the burden of silence, possibily reading a book, and that was the subway (and only because mobiles didn't work down there). Now this last rampart has fallen.

I think that there's a reason if in some African regions "progress" is translated as "dream of the white man".