Bye Bye Uniserve

MTY-2010-05-18-Canon EOS-1D Mark III-0043
Originally uploaded by trollkarlnet

After 4 days of not being able to get the internet access fixed at my flat, I finally had to say goodbye to my DSL connection. I was willing to give them a partial pass because my 10 year old business-service's paper work was lost in the 4 migrations it had gone through (WorldGate -> Compusmart -> Interbaun -> Uniserve, all Telus VPOP providers). I never was dealing with Telus directly except at WorldGate where I was a part owner and tech.

As a partial interim solution, I picked up a Telus internet stick, to use for a couple of days but not 4. Via the internet stick, I started the transfer of my DNS services from my servers hosted at my apartment, to GoDaddy. Migrated my blog from my self-hosted serendipity install to blogger. Email from my self-hosted server to google-apps.

On the 4th day, while I did have DSL connectivity, I didn't have IP connectivity. I asked the tech-support person to have Telus rebuild by PVC,  I was on the first generation DSLAM but paying for the second generation services; I hadn't yet scheduled an outage of my service to migrate from the generation one to generation two technology. When the Uniserve help desk person told me they could ping the static address of my firewall (which DOESN'T allow ICMP echo-request packets), I knew it was over.

Why Can't I Get A Bailout?!

The Canadian and American governments are tripping over themselves to bailout the auto industry.  Well, there are some strings attached, but that is for another day.  My big question is why does the business world have a hate on for IT.  We are going to save jobs of people that can be replaced by machines.  While we are cut jobs that require actual high skilled intelligent people. 

I'm not blaming industry for shipping jobs to overseas. Sending jobs overseas is just a result of needing to satisfy shareholder value.  The companies using overseas staff, have not reduced head count, they have just employed less expensive staff.  There is a large number of highly qualified  and talented people in these countries, they deserve jobs, so let them work.

My issue now is that all the other companies first reaction to cut costs and "Right Size" is to reduce there overhead. OK, but is the overhead always IT??  We have to pay the executives who's greed, ineptness, or pick your favorite adjective, more than the entire IT department for a salary, and then he deserves a bonus for bankrupting or tanking his company!  Where is the executives accountability? Oh yeah it's in his desire to maintain his bonus. 

I don't disagree that IT sometimes brings on the wrath of business folks on because IT does do stupid stuff.  I also question the brain trust that retrains high school dropouts and people that don't like to use their brains into IT people.  There is also a number of stereotypes within the IT community that doesn't help our cause.  Ultimately we pay the price.

Since the mass hysteria called Y2K, more jobs have been lost in IT than people employed by the auto industry.  Ohh, and business hasn't forgiven us for Y2K, even though it was their fault.  In IT we get stuck with decisions that people that have no idea what the implications are.  They just want to receive the pat on the back from the boss, or receive their kickback or what ever external stimulus has influenced the decision. 
I want my bailout.  I can do a bad job, I'll try really hard if give me money.....

More Later.....
G

Corporate Entitlement .... Again

A number of years back there was a great cartoon Calvin and Hobbes. Bill Watterson had this social commentary on CEOs and big business.  He is so spot on.

There was recently a 20/20 or maybe it was 60 minutes, I didn't see which one, nor did I watch it, but I was told about it by a friend of mine.

Basically in re-affirms our opinion about CEOs and their belief in their entitlement to EVERYTHING.  Lets face it, the BIG 3 automakers well the American automakers, deliberately made decisions that have them in their current predicament.  How many people are payed millions to get it wrong?  In the IT world, we get it wrong, and they bounce our asses out the door.

More Later....
G.

Nortel... Ship arriving too late to save a drowning company?

Nortel is still alive and kicking, sort of.  The former crown jewel of the Canadian Tech Sector, has never truly recovered from the .COM bust.  Today they are filing for "Bankruptcy Protection" in the various countries they are operating in.

They did have some great product, but who knows what will happen.....

More Later....
G

The Week In Review

While I'm trying to do something every day to every other day, I've been a little swamped as I'm getting ready for my vacation.  I'm going to a baptism/christening in San Luis Potosí, México. So I'm going to do a quick summary of my irks from the week and may come back to elaborate on the general themes when time permits.

Government Stupidity

The Prime Minister of Canada prorogued parliament.  Basically, because he tried to bully the opposition parties, they began to fight back by trying to form a coalition.  The coalition would have been able to over throw the government.  So the Prime Minister suspended parliament, rather than face a non-confidence vote, only 1 week into the post election session.

Recession

With the general economic conditions around the world, Canada's Central Bank finally said the "R" word, and dropped interest rates.  I will have to wait until later to cuss on this topic.

Weather

We went from 10°C above seasonal to 10°C below seasonal in 24 hours.  I don't mind -25°C weather but only after I've had a couple days at -10°C and a couple at -15°C.  Also, on the night of the moon perigee, we had overcast blowing crap as the weather fronts moved through. So I didn't get a chance to try the obligatory full moon pix and now have to wait for another ~16 years. I forgot about the perigee until I started scanning articles on New Scientist  web site.

When the weather was above seasonal, it was messy and slushy outside, so I wasn't super amused.  I want snow, but I want it to be -10°C with 30cm of snow, not +1°C with freezing rain, and then a melting mess. I guess I'm just never satisfied.

More Later....
G

PS: as I'm writing this post, it is -30°C with the effective temperature hovering around -38°C (-36°F), it should be -15°C (~5°F).

Edmonton Drivers....

It's snowing again, and surprise surprise, people of Edmonton forgot how to drive on snow!!! People, we have snow 6 months a year, WTF!!! Get a clue!!!  Now I realize, during our boom times, people from places without snow, say Mexico came here to work, but anything East of the Rockies and West of the Atlantic Ocean and North of the 49^th parallel should know how to drive on snow. (People in Vancouver and Victoria get a pass since they are almost snow free).

More Later...
G.

Government and Media Stupidity

Over the past ~72 hours the Canadian Government has been playing politics, and it's frosting me something fierce.  Currently, Canada has a minority government, and parliament has only been in session for a whole week.  The Government tried to stick to all of the opposition parties right from the get go.  The issue that is causing the most grief for everyone, is that the government wants to quit subsidizing all the federal political parties.  While this is not an issue for the party that is the minority government, they have a great fund raising capability.  The others, not so much.

Now there is a distinct possibility of another election, far too soon for the Canadian public.  There may also be a possibility of a coalition government, but we see how well those work in say Italy or Israel.

It doesn't help that people have to via for media attention, and since we are now in the age of the sound byte, and everyone is seeking their 15 megabytes of fame.  So now the playground bully mentality wins so that people can make their point and get their media spotlight.


More Later....
G

Random Acts Of Violence

Random Acts of Violence is the name my friend and I have for, the unprovoked re-education of co-workers and subordinates in the workplace.  This continues the theme of the work place being a Sopranos episode started in Life in the business world.  The basic premise is: randomly pick someone, belittle them, berate them, or punish them in someway for no reason other than to show you are in charge.  Basically you are being the school yard bully.  If possible you should share your exercise in dominance with a peer or superior.  Also, you make your random act of violence public so everyone else has a calculated fear of you.

This is against everything I personally believe in, but seems to be an important survival skill and strategy in larger organizations. My friend has many many stories on this subject but I will leave their telling to him.

More Later....
G

Life In the Business World.

The more I take my head of out the sand the more I realize life is really more like living in a Soprano's Episode.  A friend of mine and I often have been having these conversations about the criminality and the sense of entitlement that so many CEOs of various public companies have and engage in.  AIG and their $400+k beach retreat, after receiving their bailout package.  What about the GM executive digging a hole while testifying to congress.  I will explore and rant about this further, but my gawd .... where is the honesty and integrity that we were supposed to practice.

I realize, that in Canada, we don't have as many undisclosed financial transactions as part of our daily life compared to some places.  Bribes are more common here than people think, but we have our blinders on, and think that it's only a practice of the few.  Many of my foreign friends laugh at our naivety, undisclosed commissions are an expected part of doing business and life is so many places.  I've begun to accept it, and the more I open my eyes, the worse everthing really appears.

More Later.....
G

Why Do We Malign My Beloved Wolves?

I was watching another movie, The Golden Compass I think, and here we go again, wolves were the animals of the bad guys.  WHY? At some point in our history, we loved wolves enough to domesticate them.  Wolves are social, strong, full of endurance, and take you head on.  No sneaking around and ambushing you.  Oh well.....

More later...
G

Where Is The Neighbourhood

Another trip down memory lane had me pondering the neighbourhood I grew up in.  I just don't see the groups of kids hanging and playing like I use to.  Where I grew up, public school was geography based, you lived in region x you will attend school y.  The upside is, if there were any number of kids in an area, you eventual all crossed paths and interacted.  Junior high school (grades 7, 8, and 9) even more so.

About junior high age, when we were sufficiently independent from mom and dad to dodge homework, chores, and just about everything else, there was a number of us in a 10 block radius that started to really hangout.  We would congregate near the center of the region and we would often spend hours playing kick the can (a fancy version of hide-and-seek).  Most of the neighbours were pretty cool about having a number of kids hopping fences, cutting through yards and being kids.  There was the odd yard that was off limits, for various reasons, but most of the people didn't give us too much hassel. A game would start after supper and would last until after dark (unless someone's mom called).

Canadian Election Stupidity

It's election time here in Canada, no real surprise.  I heard some of the campaign rhetoric from one of our major parties and just about died laughing.  The NDP want's to allow municipalities to be able to ban hand guns.  MY GOD!!!  Do these morons think, that the people who have the hand guns (which are pretty much illegal as is) give a rats ass about the law?!  Do these morons think that the people packin' heat to a dope deal, or for a gang retaliation give to flying @)#(*)@#( about the legality of a fire arm!!  While I applaud the concept, the reality is just too funny for words.

How do you get tougher on crime I don't have an easy or simple answers, but people that are going to blatantly skirt the law, are not going to give a damn about a tougher law.  Ultimately people with legal firearms just won't be allowed to have them, and the criminals will still be armed to the hilt.

More Later....
G