Category: observations

My job at the UW is not paid for by the department I work for or even the school unit: the position is funded by a University Initiative Fund grant[1]. Essentially, I have cost the school and the department nothing for the 9 months I’ve been there.

I just checked my online payroll and employee information pages (the UW makes all this information available through a secure webserver: very nice) and it looks like my position is about to run out of funding. So it’s seems like a good time to move on.

[1]. The UIF grant program was a brainchild of the former and yet-to-be replaced president of the university: each unit kicked back 1% of their budget to a common pool and could then write grant proposals to get some of it back. This position was created as a result of a successful grant application and has been funded by the grant proceeds for the past three years.

Microsoft and Google: Partners or Rivals?

According to company executives and others briefed on the discussions, Microsoft – desperate to capture a slice of the popular and ad-generating search business – approached Google within the last two months to discuss options, including the possibility of a takeover.

So what exactly are MSFT’s strengths? Every business line is losing money except the OS business and that due exclusively to its monopoly status.

They bought HotMail but took 2-3 years to convert it’s infrastructure to Windows — many times longer than it took to build it initially with open source tools.

And now, even give their control of the desktop and their colossal bankroll, they admit they can’t build a search engine to rival Google and would buy it instead.

I hope it doesn’t go that way: I rely on Google and would hate to see it become unreliable.

Hallowe’en today, so we bundled the younger set into their costumes, some warm layers (it’s supposed to snow Sunday morning and it’s damn cold now), and headed off to the local shopping district to score some sweets.

The University Village was our destination, and the nippers did well, lots of loot, and a pretty consistent display of manners to all the nice folks who gave out candy. A lot of kids there, mostly pre-school age which makes sense: it’s a safe environment with a lot of similarly-minded people.

My favorite costume was the “movie theater floor.” Some kid had taken a dark T-shirt and stuck bits of popcorn, candy and wrappers to it: I guessed what it was immediately, which makes me wonder how my mind works, I suppose.

Of course, we may not see any kids here at Thistle Dew tonight: we usually only get half a dozen or so . . . .

A brief meeting with the Superior and Subordinate Professors yesterday. I was told in no uncertain terms that the Superior Professor was going to “exercise her management authority.” Trouble is, if you have to remind someone of your authority that forcefully, you might not actually have any.

Add to this, the Subordinate Professor was manifesting one of her more annoying tics, where she repeats the last syllable of each word someone says, a half-beat behind. I suppose it gives her the impression she’s following along, but I turned on her yesterday and told her to stop it. For that, I was called “hostile.” Later, it was all I could do not to laugh, as I realized they had no idea what hostile was.

The issue this time is my attendance at an educational program being held in Tacoma next week: being there will require leaving my house at 7 (in the company of the Superior Professor, one of the most inattentive motorists I have had the misfortune to ride with) and getting home Who Knows When. Since I am under a rigid workplan with mandated hours from 9:45 to 6:15, I don’t see how I could take my children to school AND go on this field trip. The Superior Professor’s solution? Public Transport. Um, I never said I didn’t have any way to get there: so how is that a solution?

By my estimates, that would take an hour and a half to two hours each way. So I’d be looking at a 14 hour day or so.

Now, it’s important to understand that someone was already been “volunteered” to take my place since the beginning of this week, so this whole exercise has been about posturing and “exercising management authority.” The workplan that I’m under is not negotiable by me, but can be changed at any time by the Professors. And when I reminded the Superior Professor that she had claimed the workplan was “non-negotiable” she first asked if anyone else was on the room, and then when she learned there were no witnesses, denied having said, adding that that’s the kind of mistake someone not trained in the law would make. I always find insulting people’s intelligence undermines one’s position, but perhaps that’s another artifact of not having been trained in the law.

Ah, one more week. I’m out today per doctor’s orders: I may have a stress fracture in my foot so schlepping all over the building on fool’s errands is not on my agenda.

CNN.com – The politics of getting around campus – Oct. 29, 2003

Robert Gardner’s Ford Explorer had “no” etched into its front windshield. Gardner, a sophomore from Memphis, Tennessee, was upset because driving an SUV for him isn’t so much a personal choice as a matter of financial circumstance.

“It’s just what my parents gave me,” he said. The politics of SUV driving don’t really concern him. “As far as gas mileage, I could care less to tell you the truth. As long as I have gas, that’s my only concern.”

A mixed message, to be sure. At first, I thought perhaps he was just afraid to say “thanks, mom and dad, but I’d rather have a hybrid.” But then he showed his true colors.

A student later in the article says that market forces should decide these issues, though he would rather see less gas guzzlers. As I suggest here, it’s the size and weight that have more of an impact on the infrastructure than fuel consumption. As alternative fuels or engine technologies come into play, we’ll still be tearing up the roads that were built for 2000 pound vehicles with ones that weigh twice that.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer: David Horsey
“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” — Hermann Goering

Wildfires, as seen from space [caution: large image]

Counting down the days til I leave this job . . . . many conversations with sympathetic people, being reminded there are some good people here . . . .

As Silicon Valley Reboots, the Geeks Take Charge

The valley is populated with people of various talents, but its essence begins with the software and hardware engineers. They create technology tools that then find investors and users in the marketplace. It is, first and foremost, a high-tech tool shop.

That fundamental truth was forgotten in the boom years. The short-lived dot-coms were just marketing plans lashed to the Internet. They had no technology edge; they were run by marketers and M.B.A.’s. But most of the young companies that survived the crash – and the start-ups that have risen since – are based on innovation and are run by people with deep technical skills.

“The failure rate was highest for the start-ups that were Internet bets on a business model,” said Peter Currie, a partner in the Silicon Valley office of General Atlantic Partners, a venture capital firm. “Others, with a large technology component, have often found a way for the technology and the company to go forward.”

“The short-lived dot-coms were just marketing plans lashed to the Internet” is a great depiction of the various flashes in the pan . . . . .

I gave my two weeks notice to the Superior Professor today, to no discernible reaction.

In the course of a conversation a little later, it came to light that she thought I might not ever come back, that my one sick day might just be extended indefinitely. That illustrates our working relationship, that she assumes/suspects I would just walk without so much as logging out of my computer or saying a word to anyone. Obviously, someone with guaranteed lifetime employment, as she frequently describes her situation, doesn’t understand the basic rituals or protocols of how people leave their jobs. Given the bad faith I have seen so far, this shouldn’t surprise me.