Sunday, 30 December 2007
Firefox extensions
I've just written a new 'page' (as I will update it as and when required) discussing which Firefox extensions I use. There are some I can't live without on there, may be worth checking out: http://www.lewiz.org/firefox_extensions/
Friday, 7 December 2007
Giftmas
Seems to have come awfully quickly this year. I can't say I'm looking forward to 2008 either, especially as 2007 only seems to have just gotten going. The joys of being 'old'.
I managed to book one of my days of holiday off on the 24th, which will give me a nice long Giftmas break. My last day is Friday 21st and I'm back at work on Thursday 27th. Just today I was asked to do two late (1.30PM until 9PM) shifts, 27th and 28th of December. This is good as it means I get a little more time to drive down south after Christmas (it also comes with a little more cash in my pocket).
I've barely begun to buy the necessary items for friends... I have a few covered, but I'm stumped for ideas. When I think about what I really want, I'm pretty low on ideas... I don't really have any needs and as I've been earning more cash for the last few months I've been able to afford a few bits and pieces for myself (e.g. a fancy push-bike).
I've scraped some ideas together and updated my Wish List... the item I could really do with is a decent pair of stands for my Quad 11Ls... I'm going to start some reading now in the hopes of updating it with a specific stand that suits my needs.
What surprises me the most is that what I really want isn't something that I or anybody else can buy... I need money to do it, but that's more of a means to an end.
Ah, well, maybe when I win the lottery...
I managed to book one of my days of holiday off on the 24th, which will give me a nice long Giftmas break. My last day is Friday 21st and I'm back at work on Thursday 27th. Just today I was asked to do two late (1.30PM until 9PM) shifts, 27th and 28th of December. This is good as it means I get a little more time to drive down south after Christmas (it also comes with a little more cash in my pocket).
I've barely begun to buy the necessary items for friends... I have a few covered, but I'm stumped for ideas. When I think about what I really want, I'm pretty low on ideas... I don't really have any needs and as I've been earning more cash for the last few months I've been able to afford a few bits and pieces for myself (e.g. a fancy push-bike).
I've scraped some ideas together and updated my Wish List... the item I could really do with is a decent pair of stands for my Quad 11Ls... I'm going to start some reading now in the hopes of updating it with a specific stand that suits my needs.
What surprises me the most is that what I really want isn't something that I or anybody else can buy... I need money to do it, but that's more of a means to an end.
Ah, well, maybe when I win the lottery...
Changes at work
The first update in what must be well over a month... the biggest change in my life has been at work (I'm sorry to say).
As part of Sun's drive to maintain profitability they have begun outsourcing some of the more basic work to partner engineers in Poland. This has both pros and cons:
The plus side is that I no longer have to deal with some of the more mundane problems like disk swaps, memory DIMM replacements and so on. It also means that, as Sun made a profit, I got a bonus. It wasn't much to write home about though... my quarterly bonus was calculated as 128% of 0.8% of my base salary (don't ask), except in my case, they worked it out pro-rata for the number of months I'd been working. In the end I took home a whopping £67 (pre-tax) this month(!)
The downsides are that Poland get their hands on some calls before we do... in the longrun this can cause more work for us. As well as this, Sun had to let go a number of employees. Fortunately the large majority of those let go put themselves forward for voluntary redundancy, so I like to think it worked out well for most involved.
Guillemont Park, the main campus for Europe and the Middle East (EMEA), now has a desk:engineer ratio that is looking a little underwhelming. During the last two weeks most of us have moved desks; instead of being spread out over two sides of the building, we're now all on one side, and I believe there may be plans underway to move engineers from another building to the now vacated side. This is all rumour though, so who knows what will happen.
I'm happy with my desk relocation; it's obviously not great to leave behind people who I've been working closely with, but the benefit to me is that I'm now sat in an OS/kernel/software community. Over the coming months I'm trying to move into a more software role, although I will still be expected to handle other types of calls as they come in.
Furthermore, I am no longer in a team that deals exclusively with a large telecommunications company based in the UK... I now support this company, as well as a number of other important Sun customers, including investment banks, telcos and so on. I am a member of the so-called 'elite' team. (it refers to the customers, not the engineers!)
With some team members leaving, there was cast-off kit going round and somehow I've managed to upgrade myself from a single 19" CRT with Sun Ray to a dual-headed 19" flat panel Sun Ray config. In terms of desktop real-estate, this mirrors my home setup, which is handy.
Hope everybody is having a good December... don't forget to fire up xsnow!
As part of Sun's drive to maintain profitability they have begun outsourcing some of the more basic work to partner engineers in Poland. This has both pros and cons:
The plus side is that I no longer have to deal with some of the more mundane problems like disk swaps, memory DIMM replacements and so on. It also means that, as Sun made a profit, I got a bonus. It wasn't much to write home about though... my quarterly bonus was calculated as 128% of 0.8% of my base salary (don't ask), except in my case, they worked it out pro-rata for the number of months I'd been working. In the end I took home a whopping £67 (pre-tax) this month(!)
The downsides are that Poland get their hands on some calls before we do... in the longrun this can cause more work for us. As well as this, Sun had to let go a number of employees. Fortunately the large majority of those let go put themselves forward for voluntary redundancy, so I like to think it worked out well for most involved.
Guillemont Park, the main campus for Europe and the Middle East (EMEA), now has a desk:engineer ratio that is looking a little underwhelming. During the last two weeks most of us have moved desks; instead of being spread out over two sides of the building, we're now all on one side, and I believe there may be plans underway to move engineers from another building to the now vacated side. This is all rumour though, so who knows what will happen.
I'm happy with my desk relocation; it's obviously not great to leave behind people who I've been working closely with, but the benefit to me is that I'm now sat in an OS/kernel/software community. Over the coming months I'm trying to move into a more software role, although I will still be expected to handle other types of calls as they come in.
Furthermore, I am no longer in a team that deals exclusively with a large telecommunications company based in the UK... I now support this company, as well as a number of other important Sun customers, including investment banks, telcos and so on. I am a member of the so-called 'elite' team. (it refers to the customers, not the engineers!)
With some team members leaving, there was cast-off kit going round and somehow I've managed to upgrade myself from a single 19" CRT with Sun Ray to a dual-headed 19" flat panel Sun Ray config. In terms of desktop real-estate, this mirrors my home setup, which is handy.
Hope everybody is having a good December... don't forget to fire up xsnow!
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