Stray Hawkeye

From talking to people lately, it seems like nearly everyone feels trapped in their job because of the economy. And it seems like most jobs are involving more and more stress, and cut backs, and expectations, and general unpleasantness, which all get further magnified by feeling like there’s no good way out.  Thought this video might help.  Not that I’m suggesting anything like this, just saying it seems like more and more people can relate:

Not sure how much of that is authentic and how much is staged, but entertaining none the less.

I also wonder when the economy starts to show signs of improvement, how many people will be job hopping, what percentage of workforce turnover most places will see, and how much happier (and most likely, more productive) everyone will be.

Also, did I mention my computer at work today decided to melt down and stop working for me?  Yeah.

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Update: I looked around a little bit, and apparently the video is staged – it was for an office supply company of some sort.  Kind of figured with the various camera angles and such, but still rather entertaining.

Do you want to know how to become a computer expert?  How to wow all of your co-workers with you technology skills?  Well, the great secrets of computerdom have at long last been revealed for lay people.  Here it is.

Please print that.

Then memorize it.

And tattoo it on your arm.

I might also add the slight addendum of after the box “You’re done!”, one that says “Remember what you did for next time.”

I’d like to meet someone who can type in such a way that the tapping noises the keys make are timed so that they convey the same message that the person is typing, but at about a third of the speed and in Morse Code.

- …. .- -   .– — ..- .-.. -..   -… .   -.-. — — .-.. .-.-.-

Via I can has cheezburger

Via I can has cheezburger

Via I can has cheezburger

I especially love that last one.

A while ago at work I was working on a rather dull programming issue.  I had been working on it for several weeks.  I won’t bore you with all the details, but and it largely consisted of going through a tremendous number of computer generated files produced in an incredibly archaic and unreadable format, and trying to make sense of them, with no documentation.  Things like establishing that if a line started with “ARFTJ|PRU|742|X” it meant that it was the start of a customer’s address, and the zip code would be somewhere in the next line.  Or that if it had “890-439,UIC,<something>,qw94″, the <something> would be a single letter indicating if the address was new, old, being updated, or being deleted.  In filtering through all this gibberish, I was also polishing off my command line skills (as you’ll see if you’re a complete dork and critique such things, they’re still quite rusty in the below.  Also, blurred in a few spots for security’s sake).  In particular I was trying to find out what all the <somethings> in the above were.  At least narrow down all the possibilities to work through.  I knew “D” and “N” where quite common, and I had seen one or two others here and there.  So, I cut all the relevant lines out of the originals files, and then made an alphabetically sorted list of the possibilities I was dealing with.  I have now bored you with the details.  At this point your mind should be roughly as numbed as mine was when this popped up on the screen as my result:

That’s right.  DINOZ.  I think it’s trying to tell me something.

XKCD again.  This made me laugh really, really hard.

I can’t believe I haven’t posted this yet.  Like back in the days of Nrrrd Grrrl.  Though better late than never I suppose.

I love this song, by Jonathan Coulton, who is not only awesome for writing great, funny music, but also for licensing his work under a Creative Commons licence, and having a realistic take on how the music industry should actually work.  When I talk about how much I hate record labels that make it hard to share their content, and are ultra-unfriendly to the internet, this is what I want them to be like.  Dear Jonathan Coulton, please take over a major record label and make them not dumb.  In fact, please take over all major record labels and make them all not dumb.  Thank you.

I also like the wonderfully dorky class project style video take on the song.

If you’ve ever worked in IT, especially support, this is for you.

Via Ovablastic

Profanity laden awesomeness (NSFW).

Sony Releases New Stupid Piece Of Shit That Doesn’t Fucking Work

“Mother-fucking time vampire.”  Amen.

Via Boing Boing

You know that “I agree to the terms and conditions outlined in this site’s terms of use document” check box you have to click before joining any major site on the internet?  And that EULA you have to agree to before installing closed source software?  This video pretty much sums it up.

The GPL, learn it, love it.  (Version 2 is also fine.)

Facebook, not so long ago, briefly tried to update their terms of use, so that they own anything and everything you’ve ever put on it, and will continue to do so even if you choose to leave the site.  They could do this because their previous terms of use (which you had to read to join the site) said that you agree to any and all updates they make to their terms of use in the future, even if you don’t read it, acknowledge it, or know the terms changed.  After a bit of outcry they reverted their terms.  If Facebook’s history of “upgrade it whether the users like it or not” is any indication, this will creep back in slowly soon enough.

Also, back to the video, I absolutely love Sara’s just barely highlighted blue on top of black hair.  So cool.