Category: Rant

Good Work Ethics

  • August 2, 2022
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I read an article a few days ago where the op talked about the flexibility of working from home and due to the relaxed nature of things they were able to get 8 hours of work done in 30 minutes. The comments to this included people saying that this was fine because they were getting the job done that they were paid for. This kind of rationale seems completely wrong to me. Most jobs, even salaried, are paid by the hour. In fact, I would argue that any job that could be “done in 30 minutes” is most definitely an hourly job. Since you are being paid for, typically, 8 hours a day, you should be working for the benefit of the company for a full 8 hours a day. I realize that may not seem possible if the company does not provide you with enough work, but then I would argue that you are not being managed properly or you are not informing your manager of your availability, so they can provide you with more work. Some may argue that this just means you’ll be doing someone else’s work or you’ll be doing more than one job, but again, if you don’t work over your scheduled time for the day, how can this argument be true? And if that other person runs out of work, they should then be doing the same thing. A good manager will load up their people appropriately and a good employee will continue to find more work to improve the company (or their ability to do the job). After all, you work there. Wouldn’t you want the company to do well? Don’t confuse this logic with loyalty. Wanting the company you work for to do well has everything to do with keeping yourself employed and providing your employer with the means to pay you well. The worker who takes the mentality of “just doing the job” and “my work is complete, so now I can do nothing and still get paid” is asking to get laid off or replaced. The only place where the mentality of “just completing the job” actually applies is contract jobs that are not structured on a per hour basis. And the only people who can take advantage of this are those that run a business. So, if you are working for a company, don’t steal from them. If they are paying for 8 hours of work per day, do your best to produce at this level. Document your time. Know your self worth to the company. Be able to produce documentation demonstrating it. In the end, these things will pay off both for the company and more important than that, for yourself.

A Test Run of Ubuntu Gnome

  • June 2, 2018
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When Ubuntu made the decision to go off on their own and develop their own desktop environment it didn’t bother me too much.  To be honest, once Windows 7 let you simply press the super key and start to type the name of the application you want to launch I pretty much stopped using the start menu all together.  (I still thinks it’s funny watching people struggle to find the application they want to start by navigating the huge monstrosity that is the start menu.)  I fell into using Unity and was very happy with the 14.04 and then the very usable and stable 16.04 LTS versions.  I instantly fell in love with the HUD, since I can never remember where the page landscape menu option is in LibreDraw or the emboss transform in Gimp.  To me, it was like the Unity developers had mind melded with my keyboard centric work flow. Well, now I have to begin switching to Gnome and so I spun up an 18.04 VM and began fiddling with it.  I went into the settings dialogue and checked out the keyboard shortcuts.  I tried simply changing the workspace navigation keyboard shortcut and the settings window locked up.  I clicked on the close button for the window and it wouldn’t close.  I waited several seconds for the window to popup allowing me to force quit the application, but it never appeared.  Finally I decided to reboot and install the latest updates.  After doing that I began again customizing some simple things.  I decided to change my wallpaper.  I opened the settings to change the wallpaper and saw a nice interface that even previewed the wallpaper and let me change the lock screen wallpaper as well.  Then I discovered that it won’t let you pick a picture from any folder, you’ve got to put the picture into the Pictures folder.  Fine, I tried to do this from files (Nautilus) and then once again, the files app locked up and nothing worked on the desktop.  Just my mouse.  This time I had to reboot the system to even get out of the locked desktop.  Even though I have had the infrequent app fail in Ubuntu, it NEVER took out the whole system. I don’t know.  I looked online to see if anyone else is having stability issues with the transition and everyone seems fine or comments on how much better Gnome is.  I must be doing something wrong because this Gnome desktop does not seem as polished or stable as Unity was.  Maybe I won’t move from 16.04 just yet. 🙁

Are you Really Worried About What Others Get?

  • August 7, 2015
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I read a recent article where a progressive entrepreneur raised the minimum wage of all of his employees so even the lowest paid employee at the company would be making $70,000.  Sounds like a great idea, right.  I mean, who would be upset about this?  It turns out that a lot of people who made more than the new 70K minimum at the company were so upset that others were getting this bump, they quit.  This is something with which I have never been able to identify.  Maybe it comes from a certain level of narcissism, but I always figured it was a great thing when somebody else got a raise in pay or a reward of some kind and what difference does it make what I get in comparison.  Honestly, if I am unhappy with what I am getting in compensation or reward I would either tell those who can change it (the boss) or I would leave for a better offer.  (And make no mistake, I have done this.)  It also helps that I love what I do for a living.   Maybe there is some psychological trigger in humans that says we have to have more than others and if we can’t have more then they need to have less.  Next time you do a comparison of this kind, stop and ask yourself, are you genuinely happy with your compensation?  If you are, why would you begrudge someone else’s good fortune.  Even if you know that the guy getting the raise does nothing all day compared to you.  Don’t let your sense of self worth be driven by comparisons with others.

Laptops – The Abandoned Platform

  • May 24, 2015
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Is it just me or have all the complaints regarding the lack of HiRes laptop resolutions that have been thrown at the laptop manufacturers simply fallen on deaf ears?  Since 2012 there have been news items where Linus Torvalds and even Flav-a-Flav complained about the 1366 x 768 resolution joke.  I am sick of finding laptops with seemingly great price points only to be disappointed by the lackluster resolution.  MY $250 MOTO X PHONE has a higher resolution.  WTH!!! I found this offering from Dell…..  A 14″ laptop with a Core i5.  This is (or should be) a nice laptop….. At $889 there is NO excuse for the low resolution. Please, Please, Please, laptop manufacturers…..  Don’t forget that platform that lets you produce as well as consume.  I love my laptop, I need my laptop and I want my laptop.  Don’t get me wrong, tablets are great for reading or watching some video or playing a quick game, but just try to sit and write a blog or do your budget on one.  Not gonna happen.  (At least not for me.)  And I am cool with the whole convergence thing….  I know the Windows Surface is supposed to bridge the gap between laptop and tablet, but in my opinion, continuing to produce these laptops that are a complete joke, is simply distracting.  Just stop it already. That is all.