Tag: Modern Problems

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Grrrrrr! Brain not cooperating !

I’ve been trying to write something to finish a short book.

I’ve tried looking at the blank page. That didn’t work. Took the dog for a walk head didn’t clear. Scanned some porn, uhh nope! That didn’t help.

I figured I’d turn toward the blog to see if I can write anything. Then two sentences in, the dog wants to play.

I have worked on cleaning out some of the paperwork out of office closet and found that once again the other half had stashed paperwork in another backpack. On the bright side this stuff was all from 2010 so I don’t have to worry about it. Straight to the shredder!!!

My limit is 2016, pretty much anything prior to that year with the exception of tax records (those are 2013) I’m just tossing in the shredder pile. I’m going to have to find a shred event for a lot of this crap because the shredder can’t handle it. I might be able to keep the shredder running if I could cool it with liquid nitrogen. I’m completely out of that so the shredder runs for 20 minutes then shuts down for an hour.

Then I sat back down to look at the blank page again. Nope, nothing…

The paperwork led to an archeological vein of melancholy as I found a bunch of stuff from 2009 and remembered that we’d just gotten back into this house after the fire. We were happy. We both had good jobs, new cars, new house, and everything was bright. I’d been saving like a fiend in my 401K because I wanted us to be able to retire.

My 401k was depleted 6 years later by unemployment and the other half insisting that we stay in California. I loved him, so we stayed. He lost one job, due to a minister that was far more sinister than ministerial. He kept his other jobs and replaced part of what he lost with a less invasive church position. I found another job that destroyed my career (what was left of it.)

It’s so damn funny that HR people don’t seem to understand taking a job slightly outside your career so that you have a roof over your head and food on the table. These dumb ass HR people just can’t seem to process pragmatism. They seem to believe that you should run up credit cards, then move back in with Mom & Dad while looking for the golden position. Most realistic people would take a job to feed their family. Well, realistic people of my age group, anyway.

There was a time when employers respected the hell out of initiative. There was even a time when the employer that gave you the slightly outside your career would offer to you the first open position that they had that was in your career path. After all they already know your work ethic.

That doesn’t happen anymore. Promoting from within doesn’t seem to happen very much anymore.

Regardless, I’d started rebuilding my 401K and saving as much as I could from 2016 through 2019 all the time looking for a job in my career path and trying to regain the ground lost so that we could have some decent retirement.

Then, well another layoff due to offshoring! Yea!

What I didn’t know was that the other half wasn’t thinking the same way I was. Even If I’d made half a million a year, and done the max 401K contribution, it wouldn’t have helped much. We’d have been in about the same boat I’m in right now. Unless I was putting hard cash away in some other kind of investments.

It made me sad. I tried to do better for us.

I didn’t plan for him dying before we’d retired. I figured I’d be the one on the slab first.

That’s actually kind of funny.

Like Baldrick from Black Adder, my cunning plan blew up in my face.

This is one of the hardest parts of all this. It’s the recognition of what we almost had, what we missed, what we’d hoped for, and dreamt of.

I sometimes feel like I’m sweeping up broken glass. I keep getting those thin shards in my feet because I’m barefoot and I can’t cross the glass to my shoes.

What I’d really like to do is finish the dang story so I can publish it.

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All I wanted was to listen to music…

Riiiiight!

I pulled a thread, and now none of the smart lights in the house are working. The security camera is also offline. I managed to kill the battery in my phone about 5 PM.

As Mr. Scott once said, “The more complicated the plumbing, the easier it is to clog up the works!”

This is what happens when you have a “smart house”

I have no clue exactly what the hell is going on. But I’ve done factory resets on my router, and all the smart light bulbs. I’ll be factory resetting the HomePod Minis, the Apple TVs and the Big HomePods.

I’ve been playing whack a mole. I’d get the lights working, then move on to the next thing that was broken, and boom the lights stopped working. Then I’d fix a light and something else would suddenly go offline.

It’s the darnedest thing.

For those of you wondering why I’m mistrustful of AI, here’s a perfect example why i don’t trust AI and think all AI systems should have a kill switch! That switch should be something totally mechanical that can’t be programmed around. Possibly augmented by a very large Axe.

None of the stuff at my house is particularly complex but something is running through the devices like a horseman of the apocalypse.

I’m thinking that I may have to power down then reset each and every device in the house to factory default then add them back one at a time.

I’m also thinking that I’ll need to delete the house from all the HomeKit enabled stuff.

By the time I’m done with this, chasing this problem around and around the house will have cost me 2 days. I started farting around with this Bullshit at 8am yesterday morning. I was listening to music, then suddenly there was no stereo. I asked the question, “Why?”

Before I knew it, I’d been consumed, as had my day. I actually had other things that I’d planned on doing yesterday none of which I got done except the laundry…

It’s also a good thing that I didn’t have any video I need to preserve. Because the security camera has been removed and re added to the home controls twice and will require the procedure again. Each time, any recorded video stored in the cloud is erased.

Totally brilliant bit of software engineering there. Another interesting feature is this, If the camera is offline in the Apple Home application then you can’t even look at video that’s recorded in your iCloud. So once the camera goes away and requires that you delete it and re-pair you’ve lost anything and everything stored for the last 30 days anyway.

I’ll be looking at a different paradigm for cameras in the future.

What’s the point of having the data recorded but completely inaccessible due to some silliness caused by a software update. Isn’t that the point of storing videos in the cloud???

Apparently, I’ve missed a memo somewhere.

Here’s the update. Flushing everything seems to have worked. I now have music throughout the house again and the smart lights are working. This was definitely the brute force method of solving the problem. I’m sure that it will reoccur at some point in the future.

That cynicism comes from experience with technology. Even if you’re not the one fiddling around with the devices, there’s always someone in development who’s tweaking a line of code here or there. Then someone else decides that a software update is necessary, or some scumbag hacker takes advantage of a security flaw and causes an update. One way or another, something is going to change and your nice stable system will be completely hosed.

I’d really like to be able to bill for the time lost to SPAM Email and all the software update related issues. The folks I’d like to bill are the little scumbag hackers, or their parents, or their countries of origin.

Well on with the rest of the day.

Have a great weekend

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I got to thinking about the whole Video Interview Thing…

Something about the “One-Way” interview has been bugging me. I tried to sort it out in the blog post here. I failed to clearly analyze what it was that concerned me.

I was denying my suspicious nature. A couple of good night’s sleep later and my concern clarified when I started down this path.

Have I become too suspicious? It that suspicion justified? Have there been simply too many bullshit recruiters and promises?

As I was thinking about it, I found myself asking this question.

“Why the one way video interview?”

The hiring manager still has to make time to review the video. Then they have to arrange to call the candidate back for another interview. This whole one way video interview paradigm saves no-one any time.

Why not just Zoom meeting or FaceTime, or whatever in the first place? Why add a layer of complexity?

Then it hit me.

The one way interview does allow for isolation, racism, and sexism.

The candidates are speaking blind to a dispassionate recording system. But the managers can review the video and easily allow racial, gender, or age bias to guide their candidate selection for second interviews. Since the hiring manager reviewing the videos doesn’t have to actually connect with the candidate, they can forget them without guilt.

It’s all done in the privacy of their office with no oversight or questioning of their choices or motives. It’s unlikely that anyone will take the time to review the reject pile.

If the manager said candidate X, Y, or Z isn’t appropriate, who’s going to go look at a video? Who will have the time to notice that the hiring manager is only interviewing candidates of a particular color or gender…

I’ll grant you, this can happen in any interview situation. But since most interviews are done with a minimum of an HR representative and the Hiring Manager present there is some oversight.

The old, “sort through resumes,” pick out those that have the skills you need and call those people for an interview tended to prevent racial stuff because you couldn’t justify hiring a less qualified candidate over someone more qualified, if you were hiring only on the merits of experience.

Looking at a resume you only had the name of the individual. I’ll grant that in more recent years, it became possible for racist bias to rear its ugly head because of the names some parents gave their children. “John or Julie Green” was pretty generic. (I’ve worked with two John Greens. One was white, the other black. Both were great guys and excellent programmers.)

With “Jose or Julia Verde” you could infer that they were of Spanish/Latin origin, but from where was the question. Spain, Mexico, Costa Rica, El Salvador? You might be able to narrow things down if they’d attended college or trade school in another country. If all their education was in country, you’d be fairly certain that they were at least first generation, so communication wouldn’t be an issue.

When you get to “DeKanye and Shaquanda Green” well, the parents of these children set their kids up to be victims of racism. It’s not right, but it is sadly true.

This name thing also works the other way. My surname screams white, and possibly NAZI to boot. So in this period of time I’m as susceptible to racial bias as poor Shaquanda. The only way we truly escape bias is if everyone changed our names to numbers. Perhaps our phone number or our social security number would eliminate all name based bias.

But we’d still have the physicality bias to contend with. The only way to eliminate that is to have everyone work from home and no video conferencing at all.

Which brings me back to the things that had been bugging me about the whole “One-Way” interview process.

1 It doesn’t save anyone time.

2 The candidate has little or no control over how the interview is used.

3 The “One-Way” interview can promote racism or sexism with no oversight.

4 This interview format imposes technological barriers such as compatibility and internet speed.

5 Technological barriers may indicate the economic level of the candidate, and be used in an exclusionary way or result in lower offered wages for the same work.

Now that I’ve worked through it I can tell my brain to work on something else. I hate it when my brain is chewing on something but can’t figure out what caught my attention.

If you’re looking for a job, consider the “One-Way” interview carefully. It may not be as much of an advantage as it’s purported to be.

I’d welcome an interactive video conference interview. That would in fact save everyone a lot of time and prevent un-necessary driving around.

Now I’m off to figure out why something Apple related isn’t working after their latest software update. I think it’s a bug but need to check out my settings before contacting Apple.

Talk about a company that needs good old fashioned manual testing and human eyes looking at their products…

Oh well, that’s never going to happen!

Have a good day.

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I hate these sort of things.

I’ve started applying for jobs again. I feel like I’m banging my heard against the wall but like the lottery, you’ll never win unless you play.

So I’m looking for jobs and applying only for positions that I’m qualified. I strongly suspect if everyone did that and the hiring / recruiting / HR departments actually read the resume and application materials then the whole process would be easier.

I too have considered writing a bit of automation that simply applied for every job on every job board that was remotely similar to my actual career.

After all that’s what the people at Indotronics do when they solicit my application. Hey Indotronics people, I’m a software tester, not a welder!

Not that it matters to them. I’m absolutely convinced many so called recruiter organizations are just scam operations. I’ve been convinced of that for literally two decades.

Anyhow, I sent an application to a company on Thursday. They responded asking me to do a one way video interview. Basically they want me to log onto some service, then do a monologue for their amusement about why I should be permitted to work for them.

I’m sure I’m being too cynical, but this feels like the whole “Who’s the most popular?” “Who’s going to be class president or Prom King?”

We all know the people who typically received the nominations for these positions weren’t actually the best and brightest, typically they weren’t even the kindest.

They were the prettiest, the only other requirement was that they have the capacity to fog a mirror. In the case of the Prom Queen it was often about being pretty and easy Although I think easy was the top requirement, pretty was secondary.

Then again the Prom King who was usually the top school jock, and often top bully, would make do with doggy style if the Prom Queen wasn’t to his taste.

“Uh, Carl… Just so you know I was there a month before you were, and also about a 1/2 hour before you on prom night. Yeah dude, she wasn’t wet because you were exciting. She said you were dumb as a post, a terrible lay, and had a little dick. (I know that last bit is true, I saw you in the gym showers.) Oh, BTW You’re welcome! I always did shoot big! ”

Probably TMI… I digress.

This company says they want to get to know me… Then why not call me or set up a video link with the hiring manager? The company says, the hiring manager will see my monologue, well if the hiring manager is making time to watch videos, then why not just cut to the chase?

They’ve also asked repeatedly about the salary level being acceptable. Uh I wouldn’t have applied it the salary wasn’t acceptable. In fact, the salary would be great especially if I don’t have to drive anywhere.

I find myself wondering if this is some new scam. Or if this is yet another immature harebrained substitute for actual physical contact.

On the other hand, the position is a remote position and that presumes that there might be some video conferencing, perhaps they’re wanting to get an idea of my set up and if video conferencing would be viable.

I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to do this. I have decided that if I do, I’ll be using a VPN.

I’m trying to weigh the pros and cons of this whole video thing while not exposing myself to another bullshit circle jerk where there’s no money shot.

I guess I’ll do some more digging around about the company and also about this video interview hosting site.

It really does feel a lot like some video dating site, and somehow slimy to boot. I just can’t put my finger on why it feels that way.

 I decided to give it a whirl then discovered I had used this service once previously in 2019, for a single interview. 

At the time I found that the service was incompatible with the Safari browser running on a Mac. This incompatibility is still extant today, four full Mac OS iterations further down the road.

I believe that I also tried using a VMWare Windows installation but in that case the service wanted to use Chrome, (a security nightmare,) but easily loaded in a disposable windows partition. However Chrome wouldn’t connect to either the internal or an external camera and to the service’s, servers. Since I wasn’t being paid to investigate the defect(s) I went to plan “C”.

Back in 2019 I loaded their IOS application on my iPad, completed the interview, then found that my iPad operating system was compromised by their client.

At the time it appeared their client also caused significant data loss upon its removal. A factory reset and restore of IOS was required to restore my iPad to full functionality.

I didn’t wish to repeat the experience, especially not for one video interview every 4 years.

I am troubled that the video interview from 2019 was still stored on the service and that apparently there is no way for me as a candidate to delete my account directly.

I have deleted the video but I’d like to delete the account too. If I were a citizen of the EU there does appear to be a process in place that requires multiple email exchanges between the candidate and the service’s support team. 

Again, overly complicated.

I just cancelled the interview…

I offered the following observation;

It seems that we’re adding layers of technology that complicate communications, rather than using technology to overcome communication hurdles. 

Then thanked the recruiting coordinator for the opportunity.

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Something that made me smile…

In preparation for possibly selling the house, I’ve been cleaning closets.

The other half, God rest his soul was a heck of a packrat and had a habit of saving all kinds of paperwork in boxes, backpacks, shopping bags, and disused briefcases. Each one of which I must now open and determine from which epoc the paperwork within belongs.

That’s enough fun and I have found a lot of very strange things. I’ve also happened upon a treasure trove of CDs all of them classical music and none of them digitized. I’m at a complete loss as to why this would be. The resources to digitize and store all of his music on his computer, ipad, iphone or whatever were available. For some reason it just never got done and to the best of my knowledge I was never asked to do it or help. 

It’s one of those questions I’ll have to ask him when I see him next. I do hope that I can call him to the gates of heaven to chat for a moment or two before I’m put on the express elevator to hell. I doubt they’ll allow phonecalls between the two places and the long distance charges would be outrageous even if such calls were allowed.

Another part of cleaning out the closets has been dealing with the porn collection. There are quite a few videos we accumulated over the years. After the fire, we replaced a lot of what we originally owned on VHS tapes with DVDs or BluRays. As technology advanced and porn houses started offering their movies digitally I allocated a chunk of space on our server to store movies. I’ve also transferred many movies to the server, so that they are available on demand on virtually any device with a screen in the house.

As I was sorting movies from the shelf in the closet, I noticed a number of titles were not on the server and were not available for download from the production houses. So while going through the heartwrenching task of sorting or trashing things from boxes, bags, etc. I also began moving videos to the server. Once the DVD is on the server, I’ve been boxing them for storage and transport. 

This process has gone quite well. After moving the videos to the server, I decided to do a little quality check and so I told a player application to play the videos. I wasn’t watching them actively, I was spot checking as I walked something to the trash or checked on the dog.

The Dog will only allow me about an hour before he brings a ball in and drops it loudly next to my foot.

Anyhow, between laundry, sorting paperwork and the dog demanding that I play, I completely forgot about the videos playing on the TV in the bedroom. The volume was low and I was distracted. I’d returned to the front bedroom closet concentrating on the mountain of paperwork and odd bits & pieces of stuff collected over the past 13  years or so. 

I would ocassionally hear a voice, but couldn’t make it out, and thought that it was coming from outside the house. (The weather is nice so it’s routine for the crazy woman and her crazy man to be screaming at each other, one in the house and the other in the yard. Everytime they start up I first imagine an episode of COPS and then tune them out.)

Several hours pass as I’m digging through paperwork, playing with the dog, and tossing stuff into the recycle bin. During all this time I’ve been hearing voices and simply assumed it was the neighbors then cursed their classless nature under my breath…

Until one of the performers in a movie had a particularly loud orgasmic release.

Then I remembered the videos were playing in the other bedroom and found myself taking back all the unkind things I’d been thinking and muttering about the crazy neighbor and her mate.

So, Note to self, turn the volume up so I can hear the video playing the the other room, or turn the volume down and be happily surprised when I walk into the bedroom and see the porn is still running.

And now I’m off to throw the ball for the dog once again. I can’t deny him, but do think he’s mastered distracting me from the tasks that I need to accomplish.