My journey to use the computer productively…
Lately I've realized how I waste alot of time at the computer doing very pointless activities: checking email 3234 times per day, checking the deal sites 234223 times per day, checking work email 1 per day during my off-time, checking out the newest trends in hacking about a few times per week. I spend by far the most amount of time researching things, reading, and looking for better employment opportunities. A few weeks ago, I vowed to myself that I'd start using my computer for more productive things. After all, I am a computer scientist and I have a super computer. 
Anyway:
- I started looking into other coding opportunities that would allow me to work from home. I found one, did some research and started working with a company. This equates to a few hours per month in work... not bad for sitting on the computer in my free time and it's much better than just reading.
- I installed Ubuntu (a flavor of Linux) and have been working with it exclusively. However, I still use Windows for work and misc tasks that I can't complete quickly and easily in Linux. Using Ubuntu has kept me very busy... trying to find alternative softwares to Windows based ones. One upside: it's great not to have to bootleg software any longer.
- I've been researching for the past month or so contributing to free software initiatives. Since Linux is free and I've been using it, I've also been using a plethora of free software for my daily software needs. Today, I've grabbed some code to a popular torrent downloading software called Deluge. I'm starting to integrate a plugin from a prior version to the latest, officially unreleased version. I haven't made much progress as of yet, but I'm adhering to the goal of using the computer for productive purposes.
- I've been researching the Presidential candidates... this will likely prove to be a waste of time since there's no real answer to the question "Who's best for our country?"
Resume posted
I've posted my resume on my site. I've wanted to do this for a while, but didn't think I had enough valid content. However, I dove in there and posted it anyway. I think its pretty solid. If you care to take a look, here's the link.
Existing functionality
I've been faced with this dilemma daily for the past 7 months. As everyone who knows me already knows, I'm an entry level software programmer. I know that I may not be as experienced as everyone I work with, but I make my effort to "hang with the big dogs" who do have a lot of experience. I work really hard to be able to talk in technical terms about the software that I help develop and fix. When I'm presented with a problem, most times it's pretty technical, complex, and not entirely trivial. I do my best to troubleshoot it, think of a fix, and then devise a mockup solution so that when I need to go to my superiors I can do so without being empty handed. When I do go to my superiors, which is usually, with questions or for guidance, the common response is "we don't want to change existing functionality". I've heard this for just about every problem I've encountered here at this job. I think it’s understandable that we don't want to revamp anything to the point that it breaks, but come on, if there's a bug, and things need fixed, and that happens to change the way it’s currently functioning, then by god, make the changes. I feel, day in and day out, that people fight me on this just for tradition. I know the saying 'if it's not broke, don't fix it' but I have never heard 'if it’s broke, don't fix it'. If things need to be changed so that a bug in the application gets repaired, then that's what needs to happen. Programmers shouldn't have to try to hack a fix into an area if they know a way to recode it in a better, faster, less time consuming way especially if the hack takes longer to figure out then just redoing it. I don't understand the need to stick to tradition. In most cases, innovation leads to nothing but progress... even if it fails. In my opinion, if you learned something from the situation then failure doesn’t mean you actually failed.
Lousy day at work
Wow, work really sucks. I've had a sort of "rude awakening" since graduating college. I thought working at a software development company would be much different that it actually has been.
For example, I was assigned this high priority case yesterday afternoon and have so far spent about 5 hours on it. Today, my "lead" sent me an email asking me where I was on it (as if I hadn't been focusing on it). I'm thinking "this is ridiculous". There's no reason to pressure someone into getting a fix done. If anything that would make people less productive. Anyway, that's what motivated me to start asking people questions about a potential fix. Since I wasn't the original designer of this particular part of the system, I figured it would be good to get another person's input. I guess I was wrong.
I went to my mentor since I thought he'd be more understanding despite the fact that I had a gut feeling to go right to the original programmer. I outlined the problem and about four of my options on how I would fix it. I basically wanted his opinion on the feasibility of each fix and which one was better. He got hung up on one of the fixes saying that he'd never approve such a fix, yada yada yada. He paid very little attention to the main fix that I thought was the best approach.
Shortly after that, I received an email from my mentor explaining how he wasn't the person I should ask for "specific" problems. He'd be more able to help me out with more general programming questions. Well, originally, my email to him was general so there goes his theory. I replied that my strategy to problems is talking them out. Apparently no one else is concerned with doing this. If it takes time away from one of their fixes, they don't seem to care. I emailed him back saying that I guess I'll just have to get more assimilated to the environment here while thinking that it's totally ridiculous to do so. Working in an unproductive way makes no sense and I hate wasting my time on such things.
Anyway, after spending about 4 more hours on it, I got a fix. I emailed the original programmer and another developer (whose position I filled). I used their advice and had to really hack the system to get it working better. I ended up making a fix after about 9 hours of work. It was a small problem that needed a major fix but I did it albeit I had to pull teeth to make progress. I really hope my whole career isn't like this. If so, I guess I'll just have to start my own business
First week with my mentor
This past week has gone well. I got through the training process last week and even got to visit a customer site to see our software product in use. That was interesting… anyway…
This past week I spent with a mentor tackling real life problems and developing software fixes for them. Obviously I couldn't just be placed on my own to begin with, so they set me up with a mentor. This person happens to be one of the nicest people I've ever met…. And he doesn't mind all my questions… Everyone that knows me knows that this is a good thing because I ask a ton of questions. I got in to work every day at 7 am. I never take a lunch break and end up leaving at least 8 hours and 15 minutes later… and, might I add, salaried jobs suck! I tried to leave at 3pm one day and got a long lecture about how I should be staying later and not be concerned about leaving right when my time's up… well, I figure, as long as I put in my 8 hours, no matter when it is (within certain limitations) I should get to go home. This week I put in 42 hours total while only getting paid for 40 hours. I can see that this is going to get on my nerves. I didn't realize that when I accepted my salary, I'd be working longer than 40 hours per week. Had I known this, I wouldn't have accepted the salary. Looking back, I defiantly should have negotiated further… well, I guess I can't regret it now. Since shifting my hours, I've been able to enjoy my nights a little more with about 5 hours of personal time. I usually watch about 3 episodes of House every night. Yeah, it's my new favorite show.
