Blackmoor Vituperative

I think I may get out of IT.

I am tired of Windows and the poor decisions it encourages. I am tired of companies that ostensibly hire you for your competence and professionalism, and then micromanage your software choices and filter your internet access. I am tired of companies that make ritual humiliation part of the interview process. I am tired of competing with people from India who are just as smart as I am and who will put up with more BS.

Most of all, I am tired of companies that see IT workers as little more than D-cell batteries of knowledge — just as disposable, and just as easily replaced.

Maybe I am just tired.

RiffTrax is going to be broadcast “live” to movie theatres across the country on August 20. Locally, it is playing in Glen Allen, VA. Grab those tickets now! I am sure it will sell out!

Well, actually, I think my sweetie and I will probably be the only two people in the theatre. But we will be there!

This one night event will be broadcast LIVE out of the Belcourt Theater in Nashville, TN into your local movie theater. Don’t miss an exciting evening of LIVE riffing, zombies, aliens, cheesy performances, wisecracks, laughable special effects and more!

I just woke up from a nightmare about getting my hair cut.

I was in someone’s room along with a friend of mine, several other friends of hers, and her roommate, and I was telling her about how I was letting my hair grow out, and she is talking about how I really should trim it to even it out, and she gets some scissors and just starts cutting!

And she cuts four inches off from a section. So now I have to let her finish. And so she keeps working on it, and takes forever.

She is laying on her bed along with one of her friends, and I am sitting on the bed and facing away from her, and her roommate is sitting facing away from me on the next bed, talking to one of her friends. Eventually the roommate gets pissed off because I keep reaching out and touching the other bed to keep my balance, and she leaves.

And I am burning up, and why the hell is this taking so long, and I am just too hot so I stand up to take off my shirt, and I wind up ripping it. And then I take off the t-shirt underneath, and then another t-shirt in a different color, and then a third, and a fourth, so no wonder I was so hot! Finally I am just wearing one t-shirt. And then for some reason I stumble and step on the hem of my slacks and I wind up tearing the crotch right out of them. So I am wearing the waistband and the zipper and the outer panels of my slacks, and everything else is just hanging down. And I stand there wondering how on earth this all got so out of control, when I didn’t even want a haircut, I was just here to say hi to a friend of a friend, and then I woke up.

“This is very significant. It shows you how bad things are for the retail industry,” said George Whalin, president and CEO of Retail Management Consultants.

Whalin said management mistakes over the past few years combined with the recession brought down Circuit City.

“This company made massive mistakes,” he said, citing a decision to get rid of sales people and other mismanagement.

(from Circuit City seeking to liquidate, CNN Money)

This is a shame. Circuit City is been one of a handful of larger companies with their headquarters here in Richmond, VA, and has been here for years. But what Whalin says is true: they have been making huge mistakes for years: mistakes that were obvious to everyone who worked there (I used to work there, as did a good friend of mine until they outsourced his job to IBM). Mistakes that were obvious to everyone, I guess, except the upper management.

Such a shame.

Why I do not have children.

Novell is doing Apple one better with their new Linux ads.

Now, I happen to like the Apple ads. I am sure that I am not the only one who empathizes with the bespectacled, slightly pudgy PC, rather than the smarmy, slacker, smugly “I’m cooler than you” Mac, but I think it was clever to have Linux represented by an attractive young woman. Everyone knows that women are smarter than men. 🙂

I am in the midst of upgrading from WordPress 1.5 to WordPress 2.1.3. Better features, better security, all around better. But I need to update the Blackmoor Vituperative theme to work with the new version of WordPress, and until then the blog may look a little wonky. Bear with me.

Update: That was easier than I thought it would be. If I’d known how simple that would be, I’d have upgraded months ago. This has been on my to-do list for the better part of a year.

This is just too cool.

I only have one question: how can someone have such a great secret base, and not use it for super-villainy? Using it for mere horticulture shows such a lack of ambition. But then, I guess that’s what they say about marijuana….

Last month Circuit City announced it was closing 70 stores and separating around 400 employees.

Today they announced that they are separating another 3,400 associates. That by itself seems pretty bad, but look at what they told the people they are letting go:

The company has completed a wage management initiative that will result in the separation of approximately 3,400 store Associates. The separations, which are occurring today, focused on Associates who were paid well above the market-based salary range for their role. New Associates will be hired for these positions and compensated at the current market range for the job.

“We can get cheaper people than you, so we’re firing you and hiring some mooks off the street.”

I can believe that there might be a few people who are overpaid. It’s a pretty big company. But 3,400 people? That’s not an attempt to hire people at the “current market wage”. That’s an unabashed attempt to lower the “current market wage”.

And how does this mesh with the company firing 130 employees in the technology infrastructure division and replacing them with IBM contractors who cost the company two or three times as much? Circuit City has a lot of legacy systems (they never throw anything away, they just bolt on new pieces to what they already have), and it will take months, maybe years for an outsider to come in and get a handle on that. I think it’s crazy.

As you may recall, e360 Insight wasn’t exactly pleased when Spamhaus labeled it a spammer last year; in fact, e360 Insight’s owner sued the UK-based company. Now, in an ironic taste-of-your-own-medicine twist, e360 Insight is being sued for (allegedly) spamming an individual in California.

(from WebProNews, e360 Pulls 180 On Spam?)

I covered the Spamhaus suit in this blog back when it happened. The short version is that notorious spammer David Lindhardt sued Spamhaus for adding Lindhardt’s company to their list of spammers, and a judge was incompetent enough to rule in the spammer’s favor even though Lindhardt was and is violating Federal and state law.

Well, now people are finally suing David Lindhardt. It’s about time. Spamming scumbag.

Don’t expect a reversal of the ruling against Spamhaus, though.

Incidentally, the article to which I am linking is misnamed. e360 has always been a source of spam. There’s no “180” involved in this. I think the author just thought it was clever to have “360” and “180” in the same title. I guess it didn’t bother him that it makes no sense.