Barnson.org

I had the opportunity earlier this week to interview for a job with a local company which has had explosive growth over the past few years. They dominate their market, boast a who’s-who of the Fortune 500 as customers, and have some nifty eye-candy computers in their Operations department. We negotiated salary, and they indicated a willingness to bump it up to my requirements if I was the right person for the job. The offer was attractive, the facility was beautiful, the amenities were appealing, and the commute was reasonable (though longer than I’d like). I really like Norman, and enjoyed talking to his two subordinates in the interview.

Why, then, did I want to turn the offer down?

Norman,

Thank you for the interview yesterday. It was nice to see you again, and I was pleased to meet Art and Russ. The company looks like a fun place to work, and seems poised for some exciting growth and changes over the coming year.

Unfortunately, as rewarding as the position could be I do not think that I am the best fit for the job right now. We discussed some concerns in the interview, and on further reflection I think that your company would be best served, at present, with someone else filling the role of Sr. Linux Administrator. I am happy that you considered me, however, and enjoyed the interview.

Should circumstances change in the future, our interests might be closer aligned, and I’d like to keep that door open.

Regards, Matthew P. Barnson

Even while leaving the interview, I realized it wasn’t a good fit. I regard Norman as a friendly acquaintance, and have known him for several years. I didn’t want to offend anyone. I simply didn’t want this job.

While climbing into my car, I was reminded of an experience I had while working at a little company called emWare several years ago. They hired me at the end of my six-month contract. I worked there just a little more than two weeks after that, then submitted my resignation. Shortly thereafter, I began working for my current employer.

Although I’d been aware of some problems with emWare, my first week was enlightening, and I desperately wanted to bolt. Shortly after I turned in my resignation, the CEO of the company — whom I’d only briefly met a few times — stopped by my cube and said, “Come with me”.

After a few pleasantries in a small private area outside the office, he asked pointedly, “Tell me why you are leaving. We just hired you, and you leaving after such a short time looks bad for both of us. You are really productive and knowledgeable, and your manager tells me that we should do all we can to keep you. Explain your reasoning to me. I want to know.”

“Well,” I began, and drew a breath. “First off, I learned this week that I was offered the job so that you could lay off two other people whom I respect. While I appreciate the implied compliment that I can do the work of three people, I like these individuals too much to continue working here knowing that you’re going to get rid of them if I remain. I couldn’t live with myself.

“Second, I learned that the company is living from deal-to-deal without having anything other than a marginal revenue stream from a single customer for a product which is not the company’s main focus. The company is circling the drain, and I didn’t get a full sense of this while contracting.

“Third, you changed the product’s back-end operating system from Sun Solaris to Microsoft Windows due to incompetent programming on the company’s part, and against my recommendations. I’m a UNIX administrator. Becoming a Microsoft Windows admin doesn’t fit into my career plans. The justification for this change is bogus, and works around a lack of knowledge on the part of your lead programmer, not a fault of the operating system. I now have an offer from another company which aligns better with my needs and plan to take it to get away from those sort of bone-headed technical decisions that everyone goes along with because they are afraid of offending the Prima-Donna lead programmer.

“Lastly, I realized that nobody is buying the product because it doesn’t do the job right, you’ve broken what little compatibility you had with the first revision with the new revision, and there is only a tiny market for this kind of product… and, frankly, the product sucks.”

The CEO peered over his glasses at me in consternation. “You know I can’t tell people that. In fact, while you are still here, I’d ask you not to tell anyone that.” He paused a moment, then said, “Knowing that I don’t accept your premise…” There was a pregnant pause. He then raised an eyebrow in a clear indication of what he was asking for, “…why are you leaving?”

“Uhh… because I have a better offer with another company?”

He nodded, indicating for me to continue.

“…And the move to a back-end Microsoft Windows platform doesn’t align with my career goals?” I responded hopefully.

“Good man,” he said, patting my arm affectionately. “We’ll miss having you here, and I’m sure we would have had a wonderful relationship. You have to look out for what’s best for your family, of course. And Matt,” he said in a cautionary tone, “feel free to share that reason for leaving if anyone asks.”

(Mental blur with wavy lines on the TV screen, back to the present…)

Memories, memories. A little over a year later, the company shrunk to 1/10 of its former size, and was bought by one of its customers. The reason it was purchased was based solely on that one tiny product which had brought them a meager revenue stream from the customer who bought them… and didn’t suck.

Anyway, I kind of felt like that walking out of this interview. I had all kinds of reasons floating through my head that, if I’m to be inoffensive, I can’t fully disclose to my prospective employer.

I looked at the massive revenue growth of this company over the past few years, the inflation of its stock value, and the incredible increase in staff and processes… and it concerns me. I’ve seen this pattern before. I’ve been an employee in a company in this pattern before. The next step is a year or so of stability and improving efficiency before the stock price plummets to a more reasonable level, and then there’s a massive layoff to right-size the company when the market is finally saturated enough for customers to begin shopping around. I see it coming, like an avalanche gaining speed from the assortment of tiny cues lingering around the office.

The burnt-out-looking office worker nursing a cup of coffee past a three-day growth of beard who doesn’t even grunt a hello while walking beside you. The Xbox which isn’t getting played with in the break room. The people who don’t really seem to care about what they are doing anymore. The technical manuals on the shelf with a light coating of dust from disuse. The bustling activity of a few people surrounded by the “I need to look as if I am working” bustle of many others. It’s not one thing, but a host of small visual and auditory cues telling me “something ain’t quite right”.

Then there’s the business model. I can’t get into too many details without giving away who the company is, and I don’t want to mention names. Suffice to say, what the company does for a living gives me the heebie-jeebies. They exist in the murky world of internet marketing, and although they seem perfectly legitimate and are market darlings, they make a business of doing something I find personally repugnant. As cool as the actual job would be, knowing that my work was ultimately supporting a type of activity I strongly dislike is too much cognitive dissonance for me.

Yeah, I know, I probably am going to die poor and alone because I missed a fantastic opportunity. Maybe that’s not so bad as long as I can live with myself.

From News of the Weird:

News of the weird – online couple caught cheating with each other

Posted Sep 19th 2007 10:00AM by Dolores Parker Filed under: Fun, Internet, News

We’re not sure what the odds are of this happening – maybe the same odds of landing a hole in one in golf or getting struck by lightning, but with the internet and the guise of anonymity it offers, we will probably hear more of this.

A married couple, who separately and discreetly, were both using online chat rooms to get a little action on the side, had little idea they were initiating an adulterous affair with one another! Using the pseudonyms, Prince of Joy and Sweetie (that should have been their first clue right there) Adnan and Sonia, a couple from Bosnia were horrified to discover the identity of each other at their first and final rendezvous.

The couple filed for divorce for reasons of betrayal and unfaithfulness. Now c’mon. Wouldn’t you think that after getting over the initial shock they would discover they were perfect for each other? They could start a new enterprise devoted to helping others in their own dismal marriages re-discover one another. Imagine. The Prince of Joy and Sweetie Marriage Institute. Verging on adultery, but not really.

Yep, just like last year, it be Talk Like A Pirate Day. Ahoy, swabbies, look lively and heave to!

If’n you be the type to like them “statistics”, there be exactly 300 posts between that’n and this’n.

We’re working our way through the Office season 3, and the episode “Grief Counseling” came on, which is about the death of a coworker.

Because my life is often ironic, I went to work today at the hospital, and halfway through the night, word floated up from the ER that a coworker of mine (for whom I had picked up a shift not 24 hours prior) had suddenly and unexpectedly died tonight.

Now, our floor is in shock. We all knew this affable, friendly woman.. and she was here not 28 hours ago, laughing with us about her upcoming plans.

I am upset. I really liked her… but no, we weren’t friends. People here are crying, but not me.

I feel guilty for feeling sad. What right do I have to be upset, I ask myself. These others knew her well.. some for years, some knew her socially. I am affected.. I really liked her.. but I don’t deserve a sense of loss. My life will go on, unaltered y her passing.. except that I am sad she died.

It calls to mind, the tragic death of my high-School’s swimming sensation, Bunkey Lewis. I knew Bunkey. He was on the swim team with me for two years, drove me a couple of places, and encouraged me – like he did everyone.

I wasn’t Bunkey’s friend. I had never been to his house. I knew his girlfriend Shelley somewhat better, but I was just not in his social circle. He knew me by name, but couldn’t tellyou a thing about me except that I swam with him.. and that fact was reciprocated.

When Bunkey died, there was a profound sense of loss from people I DID know well. When we came back to school and saw the flag was still at full mast, I and two others defiantly brought it down to half.. because it was a tragedy for our Nation – the HS nation. For me, it was to support my friends.

Bunkey was my first taste of peer death – and I dreamed about him.. I still know his name.. I went to his funeral.. but I wasn’t his friend until after he died. To this day, I speak of him and his potential and the tragedy.. but at the time.. I felt guilty for feeling the loss I felt. What right had I to miss him. My life went on as before – where was the loss? Yet.. I grieved a bit.

Tonight I feel the same way. I sit in the background remembereing the few conversations Susan and I shared, mostly about work.. and Aerosmith. She gave me a tour bag from their last tour. And I remember Bunkey, although really I just kind of remember the glass case with his picture in it. I wonder if it is still there.

To the friends I did not have, who I will not miss, I regret your passing. I wish I had known you better.. enough to deserve the loss that is still a bit stinging. You will be remembered fondly.

Recently, at a public model aircraft flying exhibition, a 4-year, 10-month old child named Justin was flying with his father, Benny, at his side. He was carrying the proper insurance, was a registered pilot, and had a track record over the previous year of successful flights. His accident rate apparently seemed a little bit higher than that of more experienced flyers, but not exceptionally so.

His training was principally performed with his dad coaching on a simulator. This isn’t very different from most other radio-control aircraft pilots. There’s usually a button on the controller to allow you to reset the simulator if you crash. Spending $200 on a simulator — roughly 1/2 the cost of a modest model airplane — will often save you far more than its value in crashes as you build the correct reactions. Regardless, the kid has mad skills. I mean, seriously, he out-flies most adult helicopter pilots.

Saturday at this exhibition was very busy. Little Justin was flying a “T-Rex 600”. This is a radio-controlled electric helicopter which weighs about six to seven pounds. The helicopter’s main blades are carbon fiber, and routinely reach about 2000 RPM and are 1350mm from tip to tip. The tips of the rotor blades at that RPM are spinning slightly faster than 300MPH, and the helicopter itself is capable of flying faster than 100MPH.

The field was very busy, and Justin had been forced to land repeatedly to make way for other aircraft. This field also has the distinction of being very long and narrow, with the audience only 25-50 feet behind the flight line rather than the more-usual 100 to 200 feet. Immediately following one of his landings, Justin resumed his routine. He began a “rainbow” or “tic-tock”. In this maneuver, the helicopter describes an arc in the sky, usually backwards, ends up inverted, then negative pitch is applied and it arcs back to the starting position. This isn’t something a full-scale helicopter can do, but it is a dramatic maneuver for a model. Properly done, a rainbow looks very much as if there is an invisible string tying the tail of the helicopter to a point on the ground, and the helicopter is a pendulum swinging on that point. Thus the name.

Unfortunately, in this instance the tail of the helicopter was facing the wrong way. Instead of an arc in front of the pilot, the helicopter arced over Justin’s head and into the audience behind him. It impacted the ground less than a second after the start of the maneuver, and apparently rebounded with all or part striking a fellow named Wen Wu.

Wu is alive. He suffered a nasty 2″-3″ gash to his head which required numerous stitches to close, his vision may be permanently affected, and he has several other lacerations.

However, model helicopters and airplanes have killed people before. In small numbers, admittedly. Last year in England, a young girl walking through a park was struck in the head and died. The adult pilot was, if I recall correctly, in his fifties. In 2004, at an airshow in Hungary, a 1/4-scale airplane piloted by a very experienced pilot ripped into the crowd as a result of a radio lockout, killing an elderly couple and severely injuring several others. In 2002, a fellow training a helicopter pilot was decapitated by the heli when his adult trainee lost control.

Less-lethal incidents are fairly common, too. At two helicopter expos this summer, helicopters crashed, striking bystanders with wreckage. In those cases, however, they were either photographers or assistants near the flight line, not audience members, and understood the risks of being that close. One of my club-mates received a bad prop strike to his fingers while preparing his airplane; although the fingers are intact, he’s injured badly enough that he’s almost certainly not flying anymore this season, and perhaps the next.

On the forums, many people have been quick to blame the father of the boy for this accident, indicating that they thought a five-year-old had no business flying a potentially lethal aircraft. The exposition was so busy that many experienced pilots have strong concerns about flying there. The flight line was unusually close to the audience (which is, apparently, a big part of the draw of this event, that you can be right up next to the action). A radio lockout seems unlikely (since it’s a spread-spectrum unit and nobody else experienced interference), and it simply seems as if the boy found himself in an unexpected orientation and didn’t correct fast enough.

Questions abound online, but from my point of view, there are some clear facts. Age doesn’t seem to be the issue, as fatal and near-fatal accidents occur in this activity with some regularity. The accidents usually involve adults. What does seem clear is that at NEAT, the flight line was too close to the audience, and that’s something which can be corrected next year without imposing some sort of broad sanction or age limit on the sport as a whole.

Email thread regarding job discussion started earlier last week:

Dear Recruiter,

Do you know how soon I will be notified regarding a follow-up interview with your company? I’m not chomping at the bit or anything, but since Tuesday I’ve been curious about the results of the technical interview.

Regards, Matthew P. Barnson

And their response:

Hi Matthew,

Thanks for the follow-up. We’re currently evaluating recent interviews and should have more information for you within the week.

Please feel free to contact me again any time.

Best regards,

Recruiter

So last week, I posted a couple of entries on my blog regarding an approach from a very desirable employer. Somehow, word must have gotten around. On Friday morning, I received six telephone calls from recruiters. Count ’em. SIX.

I often wonder what is behind the sometimes-murky facade of corporate technical recruiting. I imagine that, in that stewing pot of sharks waiting to seize onto candidates and reap big rewards, there exists some kind of “blood in the water” when it’s tough to find qualified candidates.

The fact is, if a week goes by that I don’t get a contact from a recruiter asking if I’m interested in another job, it’s unusual. At least for the past three years. And in most of those cases, I’ve referred the recruiter to friends or former co-workers, and found that those folks are also gainfully employed and pretty satisfied and comfortable in their jobs.

So now that I put a toe in the water with an unrelated company in a totally different geographic area… the sharks caught the scent of blood and circled in.

Then again, perhaps there is a more nefarious cause. I once spoke to a manager who told me that — when he was preparing to lay off or fire a worker — he would contact recruiting agencies on a prospective fire-ee’s behalf in order to drum up contacts for him or her. He considered it good business if he could convince an employee to leave due to a superior offer rather than have to go through the paperwork of laying someone off, along with the requisite hush money (read: “severance pay”) — to stave off potential lawsuits.

I’m not sure whether to be concerned for my current employment, to suspect that recruiters leak contacts to one another, or to simply chalk the event up to coincidence and a candidate’s market in technical recruiting. What do you think? Could there be some other cause?

As a result of my Dell Inspiron 9300 notebook going belly-up, I’m in the market for a mid-range laptop. Not that I’m buying right now — I need to save the money first — but I want to be very informed about my choices. I bought a Macbook for my wife last Christmas for her Master’s program, and other than a small problem with some plastic chipping off near the keyboard palm-rest, I’ve been very impressed with the quality of the computer. On the other hand, I have been a Dell devotee for years.

Determined to settle once and for all whether or not there is a real price difference between identically-configured Intel-based Macbooks and Dell laptops, I settled on the following specs:

1. Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2GHz processor. By the time I’m ready to buy, I’m sure 2.4GHz will probably be more mainstream.
2. 2GB RAM. This is a non-negotiable minimum. For either Mac OS X or Windows Vista, if you do a lot of multi-tasking and virtualization (running alternative operating systems as a user-level process) like I do, less RAM than this no longer cuts the mustard. In fact, 2GB of RAM is really not quite as much as I’d like to be running, since at work on my system with that amount of RAM, there is noticeable paging time when switching between two VMWare virtual machines.
3. 15″ screen, 1440×900 resolution, glossy. I do love the glossy. My Inspiron 9300 was a 17″ screen, and although I loved the real estate I hated the clunkiness and weight. It’s simply too big to be convenient. The cost-savings of a 15″ laptop is a secondary concern.
4. 128MB Nvidia 8400 or 8600 video card (I’d prefer 256MB, and probably will go that way when I’m ready to buy, but it was difficult to make a fair comparison right now with that amount of video RAM.)
5. 160GB 5400RPM hard drive. 7200RPM drives are, IMHO, over-rated for even the power-user, and suck down a lot more watts.
6. 3-year full coverage warranty required. Every computer I have owned has had at least one hardware failure within 3 years, and I’d rather everything be covered than deal with repairing it myself these days. For my Dimension desktop, it was the monitors going fuzzy. For my wife’s mac, it was the broken plastic near the palm-rest. For my Sony Vaio, it was the screen hinges snapping. For my Dell Latitude, it was a hard drive death. Ditto for the D620. Inspiron 9300: dead power jack and fried video card. My old G4 Mac desktop has a broken hard drive interface. On my IBM Intellistation workstation, the monitor turned into an expensive doorstop. There’s always something that breaks within 3 years, and although you pay more for the warranty than you do for the part, you’ve already spent the money and don’t have to cost-justify fixing an old computer to yourself 🙂

So I sat down with the Apple Store (http://store.apple.com/) and Dell (http://www.dell.com/) side-by-side on my desktop and configured systems which matched. I came up with the Dell Inspiron 1520 and the Macbook Pro. Trade-offs:

• Microsoft Windows Vista Home is hobbled by limited networking options, so I upgraded to Vista Business. There are no such artificial restrictions on Mac OS X.
• The Nvidia 8600 option was only available with 256MB of RAM from Dell, so I settled for the 8400 with 128MB for comparison. On the Mac I chose, it came with the 8600 with 128MB RAM.
• The Macbook Pro comes with an integrated 2.0MP camera. So does the Dell, if you choose it. I did.
• The Macbook Pro comes with a long-life Lithium, so I upgraded the Dell to match.
• The Macbook Pro comes with Bluetooth; I added that option to the Dell.
• Dell applied an automatic 10% discount to the cost of the system because I chose their 3-year warranty.

When all is said and done, and the systems are configured as close as I could come to identically, the final price was: Macbook Pro: $2,423 Dell Inspiron 1520: $2,226

Now, I realize that you can come up with all kinds of coupons for Dell gear. You can do the same for Macs. I wanted an apples-to-apples retail price. If I were to buy a Mac, I would probably pick from one of the available refurb deals. If I were to buy a Dell, I would certainly shop coupons or their refurbs as well. But the price of these two systems are within 10% of one another… and Dell’s current promotion for 10% off of the price of your computer if you buy the extended warranty is responsible for almost all of the price difference.

Myth: Apple computers are far more expensive than their Wintel counterparts. Myth busted. They are practically identical.

But including the little discount for the extended warranty, what exactly does $180 buy me if I buy a Macbook Pro rather than a Dell Inspiron 1520?

• Superior power-cord management. I have had two Dell laptops ruined due to power-cord issues and the various things which will yank on the plug. Apple’s magnetic power connection system avoids these types of problems because it easily pops off if yanked from any direction.
• A lighter laptop. The 1520 is 6.4 pounds. The Macbook is 5.4 pounds. Neither one is a lightweight, really, and I think it’s telling that neither manufacturer includes the weight in their specs in the purchasing area… you have to kind of dig for it.
• A metal case rather than plastic. Yeah, running over the laptop with your car will still munch the screen, but the Mac will bend rather than shatter.
• OS X. For a UNIX gearhead like me who normally installs Linux on everything anyway, OS X is a delightful union of UNIX sensibility with Apple interface intuition. The fact that I can create fully POSIX-compliant filenames on OS X without having to do strange, performance-robbing Cygwin mount hacks is a huge benefit versus Windows. I can also fully preserve permissions when file copies.
• Memory upgrades are a breeze on an Intel-based Mac. No screwdriver needed, and it has a very positive-lock feel when sliding the memory in, versus the fidgety and occasionally error-prone memory panel on the bottom of a Dell.
• The Mac is available in 2.4GHz, whereas the maximum speed of the 1520 is 2.2GHz as of this writing.

Now the downsides:

• The Dell is available in far more colors.
• The AppleCare protection program is not quite as comprehensive as Dell’s. I would have to send parts in, rather than get a tech on-site to fix it. Not a big deal in my eyes, but a big deal to some people.
• The Dell has more screen resolution options, if I wanted them.
• You get far more choices all around with Dell. If there are things like Bluetooth you don’t want or need, you can exclude them and save a little cash.
• Dell has an aggressive coupons program which can save you a bit more than the 10% I found. I once saved $800 on a $2400 laptop through dell. Difficult to match that with careful price-shopping and Apple Macbooks, other than eBay.

Regardless, I knew going into this comparison that, all else being equal, I’d prefer to get an Apple laptop this time around. My old Dell Dimension desktop — which I’ve owned since 2000 — has been a tank. My Dell D620 laptop for work just keeps plucking along despite a few hardware issues. My Dell Inspiron 9300 died a horrible death months ago, largely in part due to the power-cable issue mentioned above (and I only bought the 1-year warranty on it… silly me) and a graphics-card failure which would cost hundreds to replace. But my wife’s sexy little Macbook provides enough usability improvements to really put that kind of engineering over the top for me, particularly considering the modest price difference between a top-shelf Dell and a similarly-configured Macbook Pro.

Best emoticon I’ve seen in a while. I had to think about this one.

In response to “Come here and give me a hug!”

o.O

>.>

<.<

<<shakes hands instead>>

Translation: (one eye larger than the other, like a raised eyebrow) (looks left) (looks right) <<shakes hands instead>>

I am a fan of the Bohemian Rhapsody. I also think various body noises are funny.

If you are like me, this is funny!

(Safe for work, headphones recommended.)