The new job is working out OK, I guess. But it could be better. The project is to write a file-based source control system to manage remote servers. Puppet is package-based, and doesn't give us the necessary granularity to manage items on a file level ( Read more... )

Where I currently work produces some Neat Stuff! They manufacture parts made from silicon. These parts are then used by solar cell and computer chip manufacturers in their fabrication.

And I had no idea they were doing this in my part of the country.

The first step is growing the crystals, or ingots. They use the Czochralski Process, or "CZ" ( Read more... )

So....zorya_thinks asked, in my previous post, "Have you thought about walking upstairs occasionally and engaging your team members face to face ( Read more... )

In the past couple of weeks, I've been tasked with writing unit tests for the code I developed. My project lead is big on unit testing, and wants the code to be tested thoroughly with many varied test cases ( Read more... )

For my current client, I'm developing Perl code for a Windows platform. This code is taking data from two data sources, merging them, and preparing a file for import to a third system. While I can get by with just ActiveState Perl and Notepad, I'd prefer a more elegant -- and less painful -- solution ( Read more... )

I spent part of yesterday afternoon making backup copies of my data. This morning, I had a copy of Windows XP with Service Pack 1 that I installed on my system. Service Pack 2 was on a separate disk, and when I went to Windows update, discovered that Service Pack 3 had been released. I had to find and use the drivers CD that came with my system ( Read more... )

I can't get any work done today ( Read more... )

Every day, around 3pm to 4pm, I get hungry. It's about 3-4 hours after lunch, and it's not quite dinner yet. But dammit, I wanna eat something.

Does this happen to other people? If so, what do you do to combat it? Or do you give in?

Last week, I received 2 Gb of memory to install in my Dell Optiplex 740 desktop computer at work. I'm running with 3 Gb of memory now. So why is Eclipse telling me it's running out of memory? There should be plenty of room for heap space and eden space!

At least it's only taking me 90 seconds to restart Tomcat.

As part of a last-ditch effort to fix a problem I was having at work -- it was taking the Tomcat server 30 minutes to start up on my system -- I deleted the project I was working on and re-created it from the Subversion code repository. It now takes about 3 minutes to restart, and that's normal ( Read more... )