Brews you can use

So, I’ve been banging my head up against cantankerous computers far more often at work. It’s been refreshing. Computer problems are so much nicer than the political wrangling, because if a computer’s being uncooperative, you have the option of kicking it in the head. Better still, the technical snags often have solutions, even if only theoretical. I’ve long since given up on the feasibility of large organizations.

(Not that the technical stuff is pleasant in absolute terms; I just found myself thinking “of course 1.3.6.1.4.1.1466.115.121.1.7 means ‘true or false’, I should have known that by now, makes perfect sense.” Stupid over-engineered protocols. And I once thought IMAP was bad…)

I roughly categorize the “engineers” at work by their output; some write code, others configs, there’s word and powerpoint (I lump those together, since they seem to come in pairs), and finally excel. I like to stay as close to the code/config boundary as possible, but have been on the word-ppt/excel boundary for many frustrating months.

Part of me enjoyed getting back to the technical problems enough to give me a bit of a scare. Once I latched on to a stubborn technical puzzle, I couldn’t let go. I was obsessed with getting it solved. It was personal; the problem wasn’t just “not being solved”, it was taunting me, and IT MUST PAY!

At about the time when the urge to put on warpaint and crawl into the #*!ng computer after the #!@*!ng insolent problem, I’d take a bathroom break, go get some water, and calm down a little bit.

The breaks didn’t cutting it for more than an hour or two, so to prevent any awkwardness or HR incidents, I started writing a powerpoint presentation. With an animated slide, natch. That did the trick. I feel much, much calmer now…

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 28th, 2007 at 12:16 am and is filed under Computers & Internet.