Friday, July 04, 2003
Training Day Sequel
Haven't posted anything for a couple of days, just didn't have any time i guess.
Anyway, here i am, in my last Training day, still waiting for the clients who are late again, which is actually good for me as i have 6 hours to talk about security in this Website Management Solution our company developed, a concept that barely exists in it, and which would actually take me a maximum of half an hour to explain, lol...
I guess i'll just have to act like one of those tech-god-wannabes who talk a lot of jargon and try to make 1+1=2 sound like a complicated nuclear reaction equation ;)
The good thing about all this is that i'm in this cool training room again, hoping my bedroom will be this cool once the AC i bought gets installed next Wednesday. In fact, it'd better be this cool, or else that salesman who got me to buy it will get one hell of an abduction by my alien friends, lol...
Anyway, here i am, in my last Training day, still waiting for the clients who are late again, which is actually good for me as i have 6 hours to talk about security in this Website Management Solution our company developed, a concept that barely exists in it, and which would actually take me a maximum of half an hour to explain, lol...
I guess i'll just have to act like one of those tech-god-wannabes who talk a lot of jargon and try to make 1+1=2 sound like a complicated nuclear reaction equation ;)
The good thing about all this is that i'm in this cool training room again, hoping my bedroom will be this cool once the AC i bought gets installed next Wednesday. In fact, it'd better be this cool, or else that salesman who got me to buy it will get one hell of an abduction by my alien friends, lol...
Tuesday, July 01, 2003
Overcrowded Madness
Have you ever been to a place so overcrowded you end up stepping on your own toes ? Well, if not, then you obviously haven't visited Carrefour in Tunisia (a Mega Mall we have here) on the first day of the month.
Everyone just got their paychecks, and they're all out there at Carrefour to spend every millime (cent) of it like crazy on stuff they mostly don't need, but are buying anyways because there's a big red and yellow sign saying "PROMOTION" on it.
Suddenly, the laws of physics don't apply anymore, and you actually can fit 15 adults in 1 square meter, not to mention their shopping carts and kids, who act as if this is the first time they actually step out their home doorstep and see what the outside world looks like, not wanting to miss one moment of it without proving to everybody how insanely active they are.
Another amazing phenomenon is what happens at the cash registers, it's incredible how everyone totally believes they were standing in that queue before you or that they deserve to pass first, multiply that by 30 cash registers, and then believe me you'll start thinking twice before using the word havoc in the future.
Oh well, i think its obvious i made the stupid mistake of going to Carrefour on this cursed shopping day, only to find that every other Tunisian beat me there, lol...
Anyway, i'm ok now, i just have this darn headache, a raging temper and god knows what else boiling inside of me !
Today was the first day in what we Tunisians call "Séance Unique", which is basically the 2 months of July & August, in which we're supposed to be working only half the time because the heat is so unbearable we'd actually die if we worked any longer.
But wait a second, i work in a privately held company, and what do privately held companies do ? They squeeze the living hell out of you. why ? because they pay you a couple of millimes more than what a government entity would. so ? I actually work 3/4 of the original time and am expected to put in extra time because of my eternal and endless love for my employer. am i mad ? NOOOO, why would i be ? what else would i have to do anyway ? it's not like i have a life or something ;)
Anyway gotta run for dinner now, then go say goodbye to the rent money i'm going to have to pay tomorrow :(
Everyone just got their paychecks, and they're all out there at Carrefour to spend every millime (cent) of it like crazy on stuff they mostly don't need, but are buying anyways because there's a big red and yellow sign saying "PROMOTION" on it.
Suddenly, the laws of physics don't apply anymore, and you actually can fit 15 adults in 1 square meter, not to mention their shopping carts and kids, who act as if this is the first time they actually step out their home doorstep and see what the outside world looks like, not wanting to miss one moment of it without proving to everybody how insanely active they are.
Another amazing phenomenon is what happens at the cash registers, it's incredible how everyone totally believes they were standing in that queue before you or that they deserve to pass first, multiply that by 30 cash registers, and then believe me you'll start thinking twice before using the word havoc in the future.
Oh well, i think its obvious i made the stupid mistake of going to Carrefour on this cursed shopping day, only to find that every other Tunisian beat me there, lol...
Anyway, i'm ok now, i just have this darn headache, a raging temper and god knows what else boiling inside of me !
Today was the first day in what we Tunisians call "Séance Unique", which is basically the 2 months of July & August, in which we're supposed to be working only half the time because the heat is so unbearable we'd actually die if we worked any longer.
But wait a second, i work in a privately held company, and what do privately held companies do ? They squeeze the living hell out of you. why ? because they pay you a couple of millimes more than what a government entity would. so ? I actually work 3/4 of the original time and am expected to put in extra time because of my eternal and endless love for my employer. am i mad ? NOOOO, why would i be ? what else would i have to do anyway ? it's not like i have a life or something ;)
Anyway gotta run for dinner now, then go say goodbye to the rent money i'm going to have to pay tomorrow :(
Monday, June 30, 2003
Unbearable Heat
It's incredible how wrong a person can be when he thinks: "Things can't get any worse than this !", coz they can, this heat seems to keep wanting to out-do itself day after day, making life miserable for us mortals...
Just came back from checking out a number of ACs and their prices, and well i feel like kicking myself in the head for not buying that unionaire AC in the beginning of the summer for half the price ACs are at now
I can't help but fantasize of that cool Training room i spent most of my day in today, even if it meant having to answer an endless flow of questions about web site management by two people who shouldn't be anywhere close to a website, lol...
Good thing i'll be back there for more training on Wednesday, bad thing is i'll have more questions to answer, so i'd better be ready and take my anti-stress pills (just kidding) :P
Just came back from checking out a number of ACs and their prices, and well i feel like kicking myself in the head for not buying that unionaire AC in the beginning of the summer for half the price ACs are at now
I can't help but fantasize of that cool Training room i spent most of my day in today, even if it meant having to answer an endless flow of questions about web site management by two people who shouldn't be anywhere close to a website, lol...
Good thing i'll be back there for more training on Wednesday, bad thing is i'll have more questions to answer, so i'd better be ready and take my anti-stress pills (just kidding) :P
Training Day
Oh well, here i am, at work, waiting for my pupils to come, they're actually clients and i'll be training them on how to use our home-grown Web Site Management system, a system i'm not even half happy with, not that it totally sucks or something, it's just that i personally think it's still a bit premature for production purposes.
Anyway, it's 9:30AM now, and even though we were supposed to start at 9, it seems that specific detail slipped their minds :P
So, i'll just have to enjoy chatting to my friends on msn while i wait ;)
This training machine seems to enjoy the freedom of not going through the corporate proxy, and so i can use msn on it, unlike my pc which is forbidden from talking to the outside world :P
9:50 and they're still not here, this seems to be a very good start for this training which for me will span 3 days in which i'll be talking about Security, Content Management and Design in this Web Site Management solution.
Can't wait to get over with it and start work on this major .NET project we're taking, i'll be diving into writing the Specifications very soon, and it's going to be one hell of a Specifications document, i might as well write a book about it, lol...
Anyway, that's all for now, gotta get going...
Anyway, it's 9:30AM now, and even though we were supposed to start at 9, it seems that specific detail slipped their minds :P
So, i'll just have to enjoy chatting to my friends on msn while i wait ;)
This training machine seems to enjoy the freedom of not going through the corporate proxy, and so i can use msn on it, unlike my pc which is forbidden from talking to the outside world :P
9:50 and they're still not here, this seems to be a very good start for this training which for me will span 3 days in which i'll be talking about Security, Content Management and Design in this Web Site Management solution.
Can't wait to get over with it and start work on this major .NET project we're taking, i'll be diving into writing the Specifications very soon, and it's going to be one hell of a Specifications document, i might as well write a book about it, lol...
Anyway, that's all for now, gotta get going...
Sunday, June 29, 2003
NDC 2003
Just finished resting after 3 days of attending the first North Africa Developer Conference in Tunis/Tunisia. It was quite tiresome but very interesting.
It was held at the Renaissance hotel in Gammarth, overlooking a beautiful golden beach.
Most of the talk was about Web Services and how they're the next big thing and how they're going to blow all our worries away, and that asp.net is the best platform and easiest one to create Web Services in, and well believe it or not, the Microsoft guys almost got me convinced :P
Anyway, Web Services are truly great, and i can't wait to have more free time at home to play around with them and create some cool stuff. I'm also thinking of going a bit deeper into .NET and doing some development with it, it seems to be able to provide some nice capabilities.
I'll post any stuff or ideas i work on here...
It was held at the Renaissance hotel in Gammarth, overlooking a beautiful golden beach.
Most of the talk was about Web Services and how they're the next big thing and how they're going to blow all our worries away, and that asp.net is the best platform and easiest one to create Web Services in, and well believe it or not, the Microsoft guys almost got me convinced :P
Anyway, Web Services are truly great, and i can't wait to have more free time at home to play around with them and create some cool stuff. I'm also thinking of going a bit deeper into .NET and doing some development with it, it seems to be able to provide some nice capabilities.
I'll post any stuff or ideas i work on here...
