On sezam, I wrote a piece of old wisdom, which I learned 20 years ago, about rounding up the tax amounts:
What maths, bro, this is accounting. I was the happiest when I was able to say "well then this won't balance by two dinars because of the roundup, but any decent accountant knows where to post them" - and mister accountant swallows a dumpling and fakes his own importance. Of course he knows where to shove them, he'd just like me to do it for him.
So there, either you dump the difference on the last one on the list, or you never even calculate the percentage from the total; instead, the total tax is equal to the sum of taxes on addenda. I know this has nothing to do with maths, I also bewilderedly gazed at the accountants (ahem, when was that, it's 20 years already) when they were teaching me this, it doesn't matter at all whether it is correct, it matters that it balances.
Now it doesn't matter that "that it balances" came to be as a method to control the manual calculation, with the intention to make that calculation correct :). Not important - nobody even remembers why it's done this way anymore, it's important that they all know this has to be done this way. Had they asked why, they wouldn't have become accountants ;).
(... 17 words...)
From email to my parents:
We don't understand why would they ask about your status, when those for whom you worked before didn't. We understand the problem. Is it that your work permit you had at Zero, or that you aren't a protocoled company.
Well both - i.e. if I was a company, it would go somehow, or if I had a valid visa it also would. It didn't occur to them that someone with such a biography could be illegal :). And I, of course, didn't want to spit it out before time, because I wouldn't even get included in the list, let alone get a chance to talk with the customer. I counted on the headhunter to invest some imagination and think of a way - or else there goes his fee (and could have got some 20$ for each work hour on me, times several months). But then it seems they had another candidate and that seems to have tipped the scales, bird in hand and no headache.
You'll probably have some use of that acquaintance from Canada, so we're interested to see how things develop there.
Well they did develop - which is why I reply so early. I start work on 1st of march, the coordinator called yesterday, we talked and arranged, so I installed skype (something like Trillian but can do microphone and that little camera, so co-speakers can hear and see each other) and found this colleague, James from Canada. Then talked with him, text first, then switched to microphone and headphones, and he gave me a tour of the application. The program is more or less what I did in Hungary, just not for a polyclinic but rather for fertility clinics, for test tube babies. And of course, it's about five times bigger and more colorful.
Now there's a lot of reading waiting for me, I need to learn a whole dictionary. Luckily, I have someone to address questions to :).
And it's winter over here - but the precipitation remained way north, where in places they got that third meter of snow. Here it's stubbornly clear and cold, dry (electrostatics hit again, I strictly hold the doorframe when leaving the car) and it blows at times. Alladdin manages, only in the kitchen we additionally heat up with a tiny heater and my fingers get cold. To knock on wood, nobody had a flu.
Now Go should call, she usually calls at this time, on saturday while lunch is cooked. She'll be glad that I still can come and teach them to drive, because I can work from there as well. I'll buy a laptop, pack all the work on it, and ride. I can work from anywhere, just need a web connection at least few hours a day.
(of Lena and school:)
She learned japanese for herself last year, and now had that one semester plus additional classes. French she had two years in Kemps, this is fifth semester now, she speaks it like old now.
She just came by so I asked, says both languages go up to a four-year course, so whenever she feels like. And she may have a higher, college level - she'll see when she gets there. They make up the program for each student individually, it's quite customized, so you make progress as far as you want. Which is why she can pass some subjects in advance, move to advanced courses as she goes, so some subjects she attends with the third grade (i.e. eleventh).
...to Sean I delivered whatever he asked for and I'm still waiting for money (for december!). Also still waiting for money for december from NY. Yesterday David called about some minor problem, and I told him to wait till it gets approved by my boss (aka wife), and then he's immediately queued up to be done within 2-3 weeks. I sincerely promised to match their speed, and told him to pass my promise upstairs.
Nina will now have to drive more to work, as her offices are moved to Norfolk.
Skype logged a chat with James at after 2:30 in the morning, which is a weird time, even for me when out of job, but not impossible (or, seeing how I wrote first draft of this on 2012-02-22, was actually 20:30 the previous evening)... where he basically spilled some beans about my potential gig with Firriver, but told me not to mention this chat. My inclusion on the shortlist of new hires was pretty much based on that he told me to contact Jan back in may 2006, and now the list was consulted. Anyway, here goes... (the times are set as six hours ahead, so perhaps this was yesterday evening)
02:39:26 James: Well that's interesting and GOOD news. It was mentioned this morning in our weekly meeting that there was (to be, I thought) contact "with someone on
who James seems to know pretty well" The last bit based on my prior suggestion I guess.02:40:04 me: well it was back in May when you told me to talk with Jan
02:40:16 me: he put me on a list, and the list was consulted
02:40:52 me: I'm supposed to start 1st March.
02:41:50 me: So it was basically you who got me into this :). Thanks!
02:42:33 James: Cool. No, I doubt it was me (alone, anyways). I'm sure Jan must have had excellent impressions too.
02:43:21 me: he did say something to the effect "when and if we need someone in the US" and mentioned months.
02:44:57 James: So there you go. As I said, I'm delighted! The following is cryptic (by design)... do NOT associate anything else you may hear in the next week or two with this event AT ALL.
02:45:38 me: on UA?
02:45:56 James: No. In "the team".
02:46:48 me: um... the less I know the happier I'll be?
02:47:59 James: The less you know the better off you are. I just do not want a (totally) wrong idea being dreamed up *IF* there is some "news" in the next week or two.
02:48:44 me: OK, I'll drop the guesswork and let myself be surprised.
02:49:08 James: Best approach :D
02:50:25 me: ingorance is bliss :). Frankly, I just want to do what I know best and generally be busy. I don't need to know much about internals.
02:51:59 James: That's good, because there isn't much "internals". We're all (almost) jacks-of-all-trades. Though there is some attempt under way to give each more "focus". Which is a good thing.
02:52:53 me: David said there's one lady specialized in Crystal Reports, and I figure pretty much anyone else does Fox. Right?
02:54:36 James: That's about it. One guy in Holland (Max) is a sales/support/training guy. But others do fox (except David... oh and a fairly new Project Manager too). It could be said we are an "eclectic group".
02:55:36 me: today after talking with David I realized this is a team with - surprise - no Americans. Which will be a nice change :).
02:56:12 James: Geez, never even thought of that. But we deal with plenty of Americans
02:56:53 me: Not that I had bad experience with them as co-workers, it's just a few minor traits of theirs that I never came around to understand.
02:57:37 me: But then, telecommuting has kept me away anyway.
02:58:34 James: I must say I find telecommuniting to be THE way to do things.
02:59:22 me: Five years and counting. The commute is a killer - from the bed to the keyboard :).
02:59:55 James: Yes, I know. But it does make for a basically endless day too
03:00:38 me: That's in the mind. Last job I worked 9 to 5, in all seriousness.
03:00:57 me: The previous, 9 to 7 or so - they were two zones west.
03:01:15 me: OK, not exactly every day :)
03:01:22 James: That's the smart way to do it. I find myself getting wrapped up in things...
03:02:11 me: I started keeping a stopwatch on my desk. Partly for billing purposes, partly to just show to myself that I'm spending too much time on UA, Wikipedia and elsewhere.
03:03:03 James: Another idea I should try. This week I basically only had time for UA early AM and evenings.
03:04:20 me: well, I think UA will have to learn to live without my secular rants :)
03:04:42 me: say, is any framework in use?
03:05:19 James: yes. Homebrew. Documented in-head.
03:05:48 me: lightweight, no wizards, bells whistles builders?
03:07:16 James: No wizards, bells, etc. But a fondness for thing in scripts and mysterious codes in field descriptions and assorted other wot-not.
03:08:34 me: sounds like interesting read. not personally fond of "mysterious codes in field descriptions"... but if they're too deep in the code, sounds simpler to just live with them.
03:09:23 James: That's been my approach. It only means (field descriptions) that I leave all table changes to the master.
03:12:39 me: anyway, my way of learning a new homebrew framework is to document it for my own reference. so I may share the document, if there's not too much programmer ego involved.
03:13:20 me: I was getting into nearly religious fights with David over his framework. But that's only because he didn't want to change anything.
03:13:45 James: That'll be good. I started out doing exactly that, and shared what I had with our Indian fellow. But I don't know how useful it was to him because I wrote it speciifically for me.
03:14:25 me: Das? Whatever you wrote would be a good start.
03:15:59 James: Well, early on I had a go with Jan. A bug was reported and it was in code I had done, so I got the bug. When I got into the code it was no longer mine - 'optimized' to his way. So I simply sent it back and said that if he was going to be changing my code then there was little point in my doing code. He stopped after that.
03:17:09 me: any source control in use?
03:17:51 James: Nope. There's talk of doing so, but no knowledge that anything work reasonably with VFP. Know any?
03:18:43 me: With Berix/Jerbie/George and in Orion we were using SourceSafe on server and SourceOffSite as a client, and it was perfect. However, I don't know the cost.
03:19:32 me: With Paige now, we're using Tortoise, which is a bit hard to follow at times, has some quirks, but generally does the job. And is free.
03:19:37 James: Are they both m$? Seems SourceSafe itself is free, no?
03:20:23 me: SourceSafe is probably a part of VS, or maybe not - don't remember really. And you need it on server only, if you have a different client over the network.
03:20:49 me: IOW, SourceSafe is just the repository - SoS communicates with it.
03:20:58 James: If you've had good experience with SourceSafe you should DEFINITELY mention that. It's becoming a real problem and can only get worse with another developer in the mix.
03:21:00 me: So you only see SoS.
[a dozen back-and-forths about behavior of SS/SoS]
03:31:29 James: Anyway, I encourage you to bring it up. As I say, there's been talk recently, but uncertainty too.
03:32:19 me: OK, I will. That said, I wasn't involved in setting it up. I just installed the client and used it.
03:33:46 James: I understand. But that's probably 5000% more than current knowledge. I started using SourceSafe (in a VB project I was on the fringe of) 5 years ago but never even checked something out before my work was done :)
03:34:13 me: but it definitely saved our collective butts a few times - specially when a newbie programmer inserted code in a component which was used everywhere, and broke a dozen things. Reverting to the last version before his saved the day.
03:35:18 James: Yes, well we get some (too much) of that ourselves. Really a problem in an undocumented framework. Poor new guy has no ideas, then POOOFFFFFF!
03:36:49 me: Source control saves the day - and coupled with a compare tool, you can see what was changed since the last. Easier to pinpoint the cause of trouble.
03:37:42 me: brb
03:39:07 James: There's basically no consideration that coding is happening in a 'team', where today I might do something and tomorrow you. Code simply gets deleted if no longer executed. Changed code just gets changes (no notation). New code just gets inserted.
03:40:28 James: This has been, to me (who grew up in a 'team' environment all his life) is the worst part.
03:47:13 me: wow... that's brave.
03:47:31 me: and programmers' bravery isn't a good trait.
03:47:47 James: When you're young and infallible....
03:48:19 me: ...you have a boss who tells you you were brave. That gets you thinking.
03:49:03 me: I don't delete my code, just comment it out. After it stayed so for weeks, I may eventually delete it.
03:49:24 me: and I put a damn comment on why did I comment it out.
03:49:39 James: I do my code my way. Then the question comes... 'so when can we get rid of that stuff?'.
03:50:15 me: at least it's not boring :)
03:50:43 James: I don't care how long it stays, as long as it's long enough. I date all comments so the next guy can decide.
03:51:13 me: I have an intellisense macro that timestamps my comments.
03:51:27 James: Never boring, that's for SURE. As I grow older I find boredom (at work) a useful thing
03:52:28 James: Thwe last half of my corporate life was mainly support. Boring was good.
03:52:30 me: well, I came here in part to avoid interesting times. boredom is welcome - but maybe I had enough of that now.
03:53:54 James: I don't know if you've had a tour of the system. But I think it's very impressive, myself. Except that our next TOP PRIORITY project is to inject user-friendliness into it. That may tell you something.
03:54:41 me: no, I only talked to David twice - once on Tuesday, when I didn't really know whether I'll be available, and today when I knew I'll be.
03:55:23 James: Want a tour now?... or do you wish to retire (bed I mean)
03:55:32 me: he promised to send me a few articles on IFV to read, and sent me to read it on wikipedia first. And he told me to get Skype.
03:55:47 me: well why not - still early in the day.
03:56:32 James: Well that's best approach. When I got involved I was red-faced for a few days just hearing the basic terms of reproduction used so freely :)
03:57:11 me: well, as I said several times today on UT, there's nothing new actually, people do it for millenia.
03:57:22 James: I'll connect to Holland, then invite you to GoToMeeting.
03:58:19 James: in IE go to GoToMeeting.com, then click "Join..."
03:58:40 me: must be IE? I used it from mozilla
03:58:50 James: should be fine
03:59:44 me: meeting ID?
03:59:56 James: meeting ID is 814-160-471
...
And then we spent another ten minutes making connection work, making sound work... and he walked me around the app. Wow. Very complicated... I guess it will take me a couple of months before I'd be able to touch any piece of it.
And yes, this was all on 9th later in the evening, we finished the chat around 22:00 and then went voice and screen sharing. Then at 2:56 Jan wished me welcome over skype, but I said „hi... sorry, I went to sleep an hour before“. Which means I stayed with James until 1:50 at least.