Wiki me!

After years of doing work and then forgetting that I had done it, last year I decided to take a drastic step and start a record of previous fixes and information.  After discovering that writing things down on tiny scraps of paper was ineffective (the scraps tend to bunch together in the washing machine), I installed a personal Wiki on my workstation.

Minimal web research led me to choose MoinMoinWiki.  Now I have an easy-to-update, searchable, browser-hosted record of my day-to-day work activities.  This is far superior to just unrelated Word documents in a LAN folder.

Wiki: not just for sharing!

My Opinion on Artificial Intelligence

I think it’s a good idea.  Many people’s natural intelligence seems insufficient.

How to be a computer expert, or at least smell like one.

So now you’ve graduated from college (or maybe dropped out), and you’re working in computer support. Not phone support, which is less a job than occupational water-boarding, but having to interact with people in person. I’ve noticed a few failings in my young male colleagues that I wish to address in a series of Support Tips:

1. Wash. I was once described as “one of the more pleasant support people, as I ‘bathed regularly’.” I bathe every day, as a matter of fact. I use deodorant and everything. People don’t want to gossip about your scent…they prefer not to smell you at all.
2. Wash your clothes. See #1
3. Wash your hands. You’re walking around all day long typing on other people’s keyboards. You’re a walking, talking disease vector. Wash your hands after you use someone else’s keyboard and mouse. That way you might also skip getting their 2-year-old’s pink-eye. I’ve used keyboards so thick with finger goo I could barely keep down my lunch.
4. Answer your e-mails in a timely fashion. Please. Pretty please. And remember to set your ‘Out-Of-Office’ message when you go on vacation. You know what sending an email to some IT support people is like? Screaming into the abyss. All you hear is the wind.

…more to come.

The Turning of the Seasons

It was so dark on the way to work this morning, I kept checking the dashboard clock to make sure I hadn’t broken the alarm clock and come in an hour early.

This actually happened to me once in college, and I still haven’t fully recovered my sang-froid.

On a more up note, the Delonghi espresso machine I ordered from Amazon is being delivered today, one day after it shipped! Since Amazon now has a warehouse in Cincinnati, deliveries are super-fast.