A New Gig For the Byrdy

March 29, 2008 at 12:07 am (Uncategorized)
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So, something new’s a-brewing in the Nest.

One of the sites I visit, 411Mania, is an independent media site focusing on movies, music, wrestling, sports, MMA, gaming, and politics. Earlier this week, there were postings across the site advertising for open writer’s position. On a lark, I submitted my review I did for Into the Wild right here on the Nest. And what do you know…they liked it.

So, pursuant to that, you’re looking at the newest Film Reviewer for the Movies Section of 411Mania. Or, at least, you’re looking at his typing.

So yeah, I’m jazzed. Should be a fun gig, and writing reviews typically takes me all of a half-hour or so…and obviously, it’s not like it’s something I don’t do occasionally already. Just means more people get to see it.

If you’ve got a hankering to see what I think about movies, come check me out. My first review, for the MTV Films drama Stop-Loss, will be posted up on Monday, and I’ve got first appearances coming up in some of the regular columns like the April Movies Roundtable and Fact or Fiction. Hope to see you there!

–Jer

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Minor Work Amusement

December 14, 2007 at 3:48 pm (Uncategorized)
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So, as part of supporting our online protection software for my company’s broadband partners, we often get logfiles that include various bits of information about the user’s computer. One of the key elements is the system.nfo file, which shows several crucial pieces of system information. (If you’re curious what I’m talking about, you can see your own system.nfo file by going Start –>Accessories–>System Tools–>System Information) One of these things is the user’s directories.

So, I’m looking through the directories of a particular user to see if they have anything that might interfere with our installation, such as other anti-virus software, firewalls, or a host of other problems–A/V and Firewalls are notoriously picky about this–and I find their iTunes folders.

Brooke Hogan
Paris Hilton
NOW 26
Hannah Montana 2
High School Musical
Kanye West

Among others.

So, I suppose it would be wrong to include this in the troubleshooting steps…right?

“Also, please advise the user that per the logfiles they sent, their music tastes are defective. Advise the user of the following artists….”

I’m just doing a public service, really!

–Jer


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Jerry?

November 7, 2007 at 1:30 pm (Uncategorized)
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Okay, I’m honestly more amused with this then anything else, but it is still a rant, so…

I show up to work today, log in, check my email. Amongst the usual cadre of system down notifications, bugs that need updating, and Viagra spam (yes, I get Viagra spam at my work. Welcome to Yahoo!), I get an email from my supervisor, sent out to our entire team (of ten people). This email is about the Christmas Week schedule this year…I haven’t requested any time off for it, not really feeling a need to. Anyway.

So I look at the schedule, expecting to see my name across my usual shift Monday through Friday, noon to nine…and instead, I see “Jerry” scheduled. My name, for those that don’t know, is Jeremy.

I can get where this could be a mistake for someone I’m not in contact with, or even only communicate through email/IM with. I sign most of my emails (as I do here) as “Jer,” and so it’s understandable. My supervisor, I have face-to-face communication with daily. We talk in person, over IM’s…you name it. We’re not unfamiliar with each other.

Jerry? Yeah, thanks, Ed…err, Ted.

These are the people I work with. Don’t you wish you were me?

–JerEMY


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Ruminations On Idiocy While At Work

September 14, 2007 at 12:21 pm (Uncategorized)
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Okay…so I create this post (the first real post I’ve made in a while) due to a bit of a rant. It’s a work-related rant, so it’s internet and technology ranting (and user idiocy), so you’ll have to excuse me a bit.

Seriously. Why do some people believe they can just leave all their messages in their web-based email’s inbox? I’m not talking about when you have a personal email account, you have 300 messages from over the last year or two, and you leave them there. That’s…you know. SANE. What I’m talking about here is people who, like this customer of ours, don’t understand the purpose of a little thing I like to call “E-Mail Maintenance.”

Just for those of you who don’t know (if there’s any such out there who read my blog who don’t)…E-Mail accounts don’t just exist in the ether. There isn’t some mythical God of Email, sort of a Cyber-Hermes (wow, I know someone’s going to mistype a web search and find this post instead of either Transgender Sex Role-Play or STD-Related Sex Role-Play) who delivers your email from the time you hit “Send” straight to the person on the other end. E-Mail is stored at your ISP (Internet Service Provider)’s home servers until such time as you delete it out of your account. A server is a computer, much like a home computer, only much bigger. They look like this:

Server Clusters

Don’t look quite like what you’ve got at home, does it? If it does, I’m jealous.

Anyway, these servers have a finite (huge, but finite) amount of disk space to them. Because of that, limits have to be imposed. Most people would realize that an email box has a limit to it, right?

Well, here’s a hint, idiot customer of the day….IT’S NOT 70,000 FUCKING EMAILS!

Or, more specifically, it’s not 65,535 emails, for a total of 42 megabytes of email. In ~ONE~ folder. Shockingly, the server is coming up with an error. And this person has the temerity to refuse to move their e-mails from their Inbox.

My question is this…why, in the name of Hades’s Enlarged Sensitive Third Nipple, would you WANT to keep that many emails (dating from September of ‘06 to now…yes, almost 70,000 emails in one year) in one folder? Doesn’t anyone have any idea of organization? What, do they say “Oh, I need to find that one e-mail from February 23rd of this year” and then don’t MIND going through page after page after page (Yahoo! limits the number of mail showing on one page to a maximum of 100 for page-loading purposes) after page after page after page after page after…well, you get the idea…to find it? What’s wrong with moving stuff to another fucking folder?

Oh, that’s right. You’re LAZY. Thaaat makes sense now. You’re lazy and stupid. Bad, bad user. No Twinkie for you. You only get Ding-Dongs. Because Ding-Dongs suck. And keep your grubby little hands the HELL off of my Zingers. Bad users don’t get Zingers. Mmmm, Zingers…

Sorry, had a moment.

Oh, and of course…guess what all those e-mails were? You guessed it right…porn. Lots…and LOTS…of porn. At least I didn’t have to test-read them to make sure they worked.

New Rule, Folks: Your I.Q. must be this tall to ride the internet. No excuses.

Fucking people.

–Jer


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Driving Through Work…

April 23, 2007 at 4:15 pm (Uncategorized)
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So! I’m hanging out at work…slow day, which usually just makes the day crawl. I’m a Tier III Tech for Yahoo!’s Connected Life team, and if I have nothing to do…well, time can go by at a snail’s pace. Which sucks.

Luckily, I have unrestricted internet access at work, and can do things like have conversations with the lovely, brilliant, talented Fox and other friends. Meanwhile, I can crawl all over the internet (yes, I’m using crawl a lot, I know). Which allows me to do things like…find a new favorite Television show.

Drive, created by Tim Minnear and Ben Queen, is an absolute gem. It should appeal to fans of Minnear’s past work (he wrote for Angel and Firefly), and not just because it stars Mal Reynolds himself, Nathan Fillion, who leads a great ensemble cast. It’s also got a definite Lost sort of feel. The plot centers around an illegal, cross-country street race and those competing in it. The prize is $32 million dollars…but not everyone is in it for the prize. Fillion’s character, Alex Tully, is in it to get his wife back, who’s been kidnapped by the mysterious people who run this game. Another character’s baby’s been kidnapped. The race has sinister overtones, as contestants are set against each other in major, major ways.

I managed to see two episodes at work, and I’m very impressed. It airs Sunday nights on Fox, and I suggest you check it out.

–Jer

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