The good, the bad, and the surly


You hear a lot about "internet time", but really, it doesn't often sink in just how fast that really is. For example, a couple weeks ago I was given the task of creating a streamlined version of my company's web site for loading onto Palm Pilots. Days of vigorous programming and testing (programming involving migrating software from nice, sturdy C to cheerfully failure-prone Cold Fusion) left us with many bits of wisdom on what could go wrong (lots), what to do about customers with Windows CE devices (tell them to bloody well buy Palm Pilots) and what to do about page loading problems (blame AvantGo.com's servers).

You also, in Dilbert, hear the occasional joke about attaching yourself to something with a buzzword, like, oh, 'Palm Pilot'. It's accurate. People in the company who I've never seen or talked to come to my cubicle to chat about Palm stuff (apparently we announced that it would be available to customers soon). They don't want to hear about what I'm doing now, which is helping to make sure our real web site works. They're interested in the Palm Pilot stuff.

I must, I think, find more buzzword-laden projects and attach myself to them, remora-like, finding blissful peace in their buzzwordy goodness and the ensuing popularity thereof.

That said, Palm Pilots are neat little widgets. If I keep myself remora'd onto the Palm thingie (well, really, I'm not remora'd - it's almost entirely MY code, now, and the only other guy who was working with it has better things to do. It's mine! All mine! Ahahahaha!!!) maybe they'll let me hang onto this IIIx I managed to get my hands on for 'testing purposes'.

Life is good. Well, for now, at least. When the customers begin breaking the code and complaining, it will be less good. But that's the way things work.


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