Diary of a Network Geek

I finished reading Industrial Magic this week.
It wasn’t my usual fare, but it wasn’t bad. Probably not good enough to hunt down more of the series, but not bad. Honestly, the title is what got me. If I’d actually read the back cover, I probably wouldn’t have bought the book at all. I categorize this type of book as, basically, “chick lit fantasy romance”. But, again, that being said, it still wasn’t as bad as some of the stuff out there. For instance, I liked it better than Obsidian Butterfly, which I couldn’t even read past the first two chapters. When I read trashy fiction, I don’t want to read endless conversations with the main character’s old boyfriends, or potential boyfriends, or whatever. I want action. Plain and simple. I want something to be happening. I want plot based on events going on, not semi-romantic thoughts and feelings. In that regard, Industrial Magic delivered.
The basic plot is that a killer is stalking the heads of semi-secret magical Cabals, who are the sorcerous rivals of the more feminine, and witch-run, Covens and must be stopped. (So, yes, this really could have been a simple murder mystery without the magic, but, well, I guess that wouldn’t be as fun or sell as well.) The main character is a witch, Paige Winterbourne, who used to run a big Coven, but, in an earlier book, lost that position. Her love interest is Lucas Cortez, heir to the Cortez Cabal, but who is a crusading lawyer that fights the Cabals. It’s that connection that gets them drawn into the plot. They’re trying to find, and stop, the killer. And, to avoid spoilers, I’ll stop describing the plot there.
There’s magic all over the book, but, mainly, as a prop. Light spells being used instead of a handy pocket flashlight. Binding spells instead of a stun gun. Necromantic conversations instead of a CSI-type crime lab. Everything they used magic for could have been replaced with modern technology fairly easily without impacting the story. Except for one point when they “cross over” to the realms of death. Other than that, everything else could have been avoided by simply planning ahead. In other words, it was a wasted metaphor.
The other thing that bothered me was the Cabals. Sure, they were obviously some kind of metaphor for corporate America and/or organized crime, but at no time was the source of the Cortez Cabal’s fabulous wealth ever explained. They just were really organized and had a lot of money. Period. Ignore the writer behind the curtain. Frankly, I thought that was a shame. It could have been a really neat sub-plot. And, with the title, it was what I was hoping to see more about! Ah, well, at least I can still write my own take on that without worrying about repeating something that’s already been done.
All in all, Industrial Magic was a decent book, but not great. If you can find it at a discount book store, it’s worth getting.
(And, yes, again, this review first appeared on my other blog!)

No, this is not about to become a looney manifesto.
According to this article on Fastcompany.com, a disturbingly high number of top executives qualify as being sociopathic or psychopathic. According to the article, “Psychopaths have a profound lack of empathy. They use other people callously and remorselessly for their own ends.” And, I’m sure if you’ve spent any time in corporate America, you’ve known at least one manager/supervisor/CEO that met at least those two criteria. There are actually more that *should* clear most of the normal, albeit, agressive and rather heartless managers I’ve known. Most. If you’d like to know if your boss is a sociopath, take their “Is your boss a psychopath” quiz! Yea! Pop psychology!
And, no, I will not comment on anyone I work with in this regard, past or present. What’s more, if you’ll take a little advice from your Uncle Jim, I would keep the results of your quiz to yourself. From what I understand, sociopaths don’t like it much when they’re found out.

Advice from your Uncle Jim:
"That old law 'an eye for an eye' leaves everybody blind."
   --Martin Luther King

They say bad news always comes in “threes”.
First, James Doohan, the one and only “Scotty” from the original Star Trek series died today. Then, as if that weren’t enough, Gerry Thomas, “inventor” of the TV dinner died today, too! Talk about a pop-culture one-two-punch! Man, I really admired both these guys.
James Doohan was a great actor, his overdone Scottish accent not withstanding. According to rumor, he never liked Bill Shatner, but his character, Montgomery Scott, admired Captain Kirk terribly. To pull that off took a lot of really good acting.
And, as a Marketing student, the man who marketed the TV dinner, going against all traditional, home-cooking values and wisdom at the time, was a true inspiration to me. He sold America, and most of the Western world, on the idea that they needed quick, easy-to-prepare food that they could eat while watching that new television thingee. And, according to the linked article, he apparently got a lot of hatemail for it, too. But, now, you can get a dizzying array of “TV dinners”. That’s a guy who really understood his job and did it well. I can only hope to measure up to that standard one day.

So, if trouble comes in threes, I shudder to think who’s next.

This month is my seventh “carpet-bagging” anniversary.
Seven years ago this month, I moved down here from the North Suburbs of Chicago. Love was in the air and so were the crop-dusters. And, to make things worse, my car’s air-conditioning was broken. What a hellish ride that was! I shipped most of my stuff, but I loaded my precious computer into the back of my Tracker, piled clothes on it, and got my future ex-wife settled in next to me, then headed off at break-neck speed.
Until we hit traffic going through Chicago, that is. It was dark by the time we stopped somewhere outside of Nashville. We stayed at a little “NoTell Motel” that the AAA guide had given three stars. All I can say was, I was glad I brought my own toilet-paper, just in case. (A little advice from your Uncle Jim, kids, always bring an emergency roll of toilet paper for long trips. Always!) We got an early start the next day, but both of us were having trouble with the heat and the cropdusters by then. I did most of the driving, because I felt, at the time, that I was in marginally better shape to drive. Of course, that was sorely tested when I almost rear-ended a car that faded into the background when I got mesmerized by the road.
That was all before I got my precious Hilda, thankfully, because I cannot imagine making that drive with animals. It was pretty horrific. Hmm, maybe that was a warning of things to come… Ah, well, hindsight is 20/20, they say. Back in those days, I used to describe myself as a “damn Yankee carpet-bagger, come to steal your money and your women”. At the time, it was accurate! But, somewhere in there, I changed. I became a Texan. I became a Houstonian. Now, I can never leave. Where else could I live this well for this little money? Well, and still live in America.
Obviously, things have changed in those seven years. A lot of things have changed. Some for the better, like finding my dog, and some for the worse… But, no matter the changes, I just keep on going. I wonder what will change in the next seven years? I’m not sure, but I look forward to finding out!

Advice from your Uncle Jim:
"We have nothing to fear but fear itself."
   --Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Hey, I almost missed this!
It was on this day in 1910 that the Boy Scouts of America was incorporated as a youth organization in the United States. The idea for the Boy Scouts came from a British Army Officer named Robert Baden-Powell who returned from a war in South Africa to find that the young people in his country had grown soft and undisciplined in his absence. He created the Boy Scouts as an organization and wrote a book called Scouting for Boys that became the Boy Scout manual.
I was a Boyscout. In fact, I was an Eagle Scout. (That’s the top rank a boy can earn, in case you were wondering.) Oh, my, that was years and years ago, it seems. But, you know, I still use things I learned in Scouts every day. Things like the motto: Be prepared. That has led me to have an umbrella in every car I’ve owned and to always travel long distances with at least one roll of toilet paper in the glove box. Also, that motto has motivated me to carry a pocket knife most of my life, not to mention a lighter. And you should see the things I have in my carry-on bag when I fly!
I was a “boy leader” when I was in Scouts, too. Not only a Patrol Leader, but the Senior Patrol Leader, in fact. That experience, along with the skills I learned while managing my Eagle Service Project, has served me well in business. (Alas, none of it helped my spelling!) I’m told that Eagle Scouts get an automatic chevron when they enlist in the Army. Now, if it only gave me an edge meeting attractive, interesting, young women…. Ah, well, maybe that’s a little too much to ask!
Anyway, Happy Birthday Boyscouts! Many happy returns!

My wife sent me this on Sunday.

It took several days to read it and not be overcome with emotion. The blog is called The Mesopotamian and it’s written by an Iraqi. Of course, I suppose it could be faked, but it just has so much intimate knowlege of what’s happening there that I don’t think it is. It’s a very, very personal blog that has so many concrete, personal details of daily life that I don’t see how it could be faked.
The post that moved me, and, I think, my wife, was called “Listen America”. It talks about how gratefull so many Iraqis really are that America saved them from Saddam. Much of what we’re told by the media doesn’t seem to be quite true, but the story that all Iraqis want us gone, right now, is the worst. Sure, they want to govern their own country, but they seem immensely grateful that we’ve helped them. Weapons of mass destruction don’t seem to be a big issue for them. Certainly, not as big an issue as it is for us. Something to think about.
I’m glad that we were able to do some good there, no matter what our other motives might have been. Go, read The Mesopotamian. I think it might really make a difference in how you see politics today.

I may have another candidate after all….

Okay, this Libertarian guy, Michael Badnarik, just might be on to something. I don’t talk politics much in my blog, mainly because I think too many people already do, but this strikes me as important.
America has forgotten that we’re NOT a two-party system. We have more choices than just voting Democrat or Repbulican. Among others, there are also the Communists, the Socialists, the Family Values Party, the Reform Party, the Green Party (actually, two of them), the Labor Party, and even, yes, even the American Nazi Party. But, for some time now, the most reasonable “Third Party” has seemed like the Libertarians. (You can see all the parties here at Politics1.)
I’ve known about them for quite some time, and I’ve alwasy felt like they were closer to my personal ideal of government, but, it was this article at Slashdot that really got me thinking. I mean, this guy is really answering the questions like he’s thought about them himself and isn’t trying to give the “right” answer. When was the last time a politian did that!?

Well, I haven’t decided, yet, but the more I look, the more I like the Libertarian Party. No matter how you feel, though, get out and vote. Nothing you do as a United States Citizen is more important.

This is what happens when I watch the Discovery Channel.

So, yesterday, I was watching The Other Side of Outsourcing on the Discovery Times channel, which is one of their several cable outlets, and I got to thinking about globalization and outsourcing. The show was “hosted” or centered around Thomas L. Friedman, who writes for the New York Times on globalization and he showed us what Indians, in India, think about the US outsourcing jobs to their country. He also showed us some of the effects that is having on their culture. It was quite thought provoking.
For one thing, not everyone was the “wake up and smell the new global economy” type that I’ve gotten so used to in recent years. Oh, sure, there were some that had the whole attitude that if they can screw lazy Americans out of jobs that was our fault, not theirs. They feel that they should be able to make money off our greed. Of course, they don’t seem to notice the fact that the entire process is driven by their greed as much as it is ours.
Secondly, the wealth created in India by outsourcing is only benefiting a relatively small group of people. I’d never thought about that, but it makes sense. I mean, in a country of billions, most of whom are quite rural, only a very few million are truly profiting from the wealth. So, in effect, what we’re doing is making a whole new upper class. In fact, an upper class that is quite a bit distant from the next lower class. In other words, that wealth is polarizing a large population into two extremes. Can anyone say “class war”? How long before that happens? How many generations of oppression and poverty will it take to generate a revolt?
Third, all that wealth is Westernizing a very non-Western culture. It’s undermining quite a bit of the Indian family values that are their traditional life. I don’t know how anyone else feels about that, but it seems a little amoral to me to destroy a culture with “traditional” Western greed. That is, after all, what’s driving outsourcing. Our greed as Westerners. That’s a hidden export from America to the rest of the world, that we often forget. Outsourcing is making yet another consumer culture. Is that a good thing?

I don’t think outsourcing is a good idea for many, many reasons. The above are only a few. OTH, I have a quandry. See, I work for a truly multinational company now. So, of course, certain jobs are in other countries. Jobs that Americans could do, but that people in other countries can do cheaper. But, somehow, that seems better than outsourcing to me. I don’t know, maybe I’m splitting hairs, but it seems less like stealing jobs from Americans and more like generating jobs in the world. But, it still made me, well, a little itchy when I first heard it. It still seems different, though. I mean, for one thing, we’re a freaking multinational! This kind of thing is what multinational corporations are for. And, in our case, it’s 100% expansion. It’s a new project that isn’t going to lay off Americans currently working, nor will it import a bunch of H1B1 visa holders to undercut American workers. Instead, we’re creating jobs in other countries. Again, maybe I’m splitting hairs, but it just feels better to me.

Well, whatever, it’s a huge issue that’s not going to go away any time soon. And, the more I look at it, the more complicated it seems. I guess I’ll just have to keep thinking about it until I know how I feel. Until then, it is what it is and nothing I think can really change that.
Happy Monday.

Well, maybe parts of it.

At least, according to this article on Wired News, a federal judge ruled that parts of the Patriot Act were in violation of the First and Fifth Ammendments. Basically, he said that parts of the Act were to “vague” and left too much open to interpretation and that ambiguity was, in fact, unconstitutional. Go figure. The case in question, incidentally, was regarding a group that was giving advice to groups on seeking a peaceful resolution of the Kurds’ campaign for self-determination in Turkey. Apparently, acting peacefully somehow riled some government agents who used the Patriot Act as a threat to get them to stop.

You know, the intent behind the Patriot Act was a good one: to keep America safe. But, the actual document was written so poorly that it allowed far, far too many potential abuses. I think we need stronger security, but we need to improve it without infringing on our Constitutional rights! I think that what we have in place now needs to be scrapped in favor of something less invasive and with more checks and balances. There has to be a middle ground. But, to find it, we need to keep our heads and not panic, as Thoreau said, “It is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.” And, as my favorite statesman, and a fellow Freemason, said, “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ”
It’s our job as citizens to deal with this. Talk to your Senators and Representatives about this. Tell them how you feel and make an impact on the future of this nation. It’s your civic duty to be involved in government!

Okay, maybe not even ready for America at all…

If you’ve read this blog much, you know I have a degree in Marketing, not Computer Science. You also know this means that I often find silly marketing things funny. Well, today is no exception. Ad Age has a page of Ten Ads America Won’t See that’s worth a look.
Some of them are so culturally relevent that they seem strange to people outside their demographic. Some are just plain wierd! But, they’re all fun, in their own way…