What's it all about, Alfie?

This morning I noticed that Apple has released iTunes 10.2.1 and updated Java on Mac OS X to 1.6.0_24. The update on iTunes is to allow syncing with iOS 4.3 devices - the new iPad 2 and all the iPads and iPhones that will be upgraded to 4.3 this month when it's released.

The update for Java is just to bring 1.6.0 up to par with the other platforms. It's got the security fixes, the stability improvements, etc. Nice to see, given that Apple has abandoned Java past OS X 10.7 (Lion). Who knows? Maybe Oracle will botch it so badly that Steve will relent and keep delivering Java.

OK, I really like House, M.D. and have really enjoyed the last two seasons where he's kicked the vicodin and started being a little softer, almost like a Secret Santa of sorts. And I'll admit I get sucked into the suspension of disbelief for this series - I mistake these actors and writers as people and not fiction... when he saves people, it's great. When it's funny, it's a scream. But when, like last night, it's sad for House, it's really sad. And it lingers.

I know I am just the kind of audience producers love. But they will loose me if the show "jumps the sharks" and causes House to relapse into his old, self-destructive, ways. I know it's all about the "drama", but this show isn't about the drama for House, but the drama that swirls around him. He's clearly tortured when he can't solve the patient's puzzle, no matter how much he says he doesn't care. To heap more on him seems, to me, to be too much.

I hope they resolve this very soon.

So I'm sitting here this morning thinking about all the emails I had to respond to this morning and wondering When can I pull out a can of Whoop-Ass? or just as effectively, When will someone pull out a can of Whoop-Ass? I mean really. Please. Now.

I'm still a bit of the "new guy" here, and I realize that there are a lot of things in every corporate culture that are really evolutionary in their entrenchment, and can't realistically be changed without major moves at the top. But I'm not think about that. I'm thinking about all the people that are fighting me - really fighting me, on the new ticker plant.

Sure, there are those that see it as an untested work, and worthy of suspicion. For those, I offer tests, and testing time for them to run their tests to see if it's working. I don't mind these people at all - in fact, I welcome them because they are the converts that will become my strongest allies. They will pick up the banner and run with it because they beat the crap out of it and proved to themselves that this is a good system, and it's now something they can treat as a provided service and not have to maintain themselves.

Then there are those that see their only value to the organization is the code they wrote a few months/years ago, and I'm talking about taking all that away from them. Maybe it's the team they have built up to help maintain the code. Mine would strip all that away from them as their team would no longer be needed to maintain this code. All these threats breed fear, and fear breeds anger. I see it, but I don't even pretend to understand it.

There are also the completely clueless, often fed information by the threatened, and that's a dangerous combo. I've had several conversations and untold emails from folks like this. They say things like "our needs are different", and "if you consider the efficiency, you'll see this is needed" - as if I've never even tried to understand their needs (have - for months), and that I'm completely unaware of the engineering issues involved (am - for years). It's best when it's all sugary-sweet in the tone you'd hear a parent of a young child use. Yeah... that's right, I'm your 4 year old writing this code and need a little help from Mommy and Daddy.

It's about professionalism, folks. Let's just all treat each other professionally. We don't have to agree on everything - we don't even have to agree on a lot of things. But we do have to agree on facts and numbers. If you show me test results, and I disagree with them, it's up to me to provide proof, typically in the form of better tests, that refute the data. Otherwise, I have to accept them. That's professionalism.

Likewise, if management (whoever that is) decides that we need to go in a certain direction, then that's what we all have to do. It's not a question of whether or not we like it... it's the job. Period. Done.

But it seems that things aren't quite this way. I'm sure the founders expect their instructions to be followed without delay, grief, crud, or delay. And they should. And I'm not totally sure where things start to break down, but by the time they are at my level, it's clear that something very bad has happened to the chain of command and the idea of professionalism. I'm not hypersensitive to it, but I do think I shouldn't have to spend months dealing with people fighting me on topics that I've been asked to do my partners in this firm.

I'm not saying it's my ideas. It's their ideas, I'm just the instrument of change. Still... these people are doing all they can to stop this implementation. Now we've moved and I'm sitting right in the middle of the snake pit. I understand why the managers did this - they want me to effect the maximum change I can, but they aren't thinking that I'm getting sick and tired of this.

They're just going to burn me out if things don't chance soon. Face it - how long are you interested in fighting the fight assigned you with no real support from those that assigned it to you? I'll do it for a while, and then I'll just say "Do whatever. Don't care." and I'm all done.

Guess I'm closer to that than I thought.

Seems there's another quick-fix for Google Chrome dev to bring it to 11.0.686.3 - this time about the autofill related crash. Fair enough - it's nice they are being this responsive, but if it's just a day, they could have waited the original release and not messed with these two updates. But maybe they had to release for political reasons.

I've said it before to my kids, and people I've worked with time and again: What makes you think you get to make rules here? It's a classic attitude - someone does something that gets considerable praise, they enjoy that, and the attention it brings, they start to exercise a little more power over their world, and it succeeds. This continues for a while, unchecked, and in the end, the person has to be smacked down. This leads to hard feelings, etc. but in the end, if they can accept that they were at fault, then things can move forward.

I suppose I really can't blame the people, they see what they want, they grab it, don't see any consequences, and grab again. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. They start to think of themselves as untouchable and begin to act that way. I suppose the only thing that keeps a person in check in these situations is some internal regulator that says Hey, they may think you're great, but I know the difference - don't get too cocky! But many people don't have that. Maybe even most don't.

But I do. I guess that's age. Maybe it's a belief in something larger than myself that's looking over us all and just laughing at us when we think we're "all that". I don't know, but I do know that it's hard to work with these people.

As I write this I've realized that in additional to not making the rules here, I also don't enforce the rules. I'm sure someone is sitting up there laughing at my frustration at trying to get through to these folks. He's probably laughing harder at me than them.

I need to just see people as he sees them - funny. Liza made a cross-stitch of a fantastic fortune cookie I received:

Life is a tradegdy for those that feel.
And a comedy for those that think.

Think more, Bob. It's all pretty funny if you can get a little distance on it.

Seems the Google Chrome dev 11.0.686.1 is out with a fix for an HTML5 issue about playing videos on Vimeo.com. I guess they had to plug it into their Flash player or something. It's sad they dropped the embedded video tag, but they did, and I'm guessing this is collateral damage. So they quickly pushed out an update that fixes this issue. No surprise there.

This morning I noticed that Google Chrome dev 11.0.686.0 was out and with it a few really nice features: the V8 engine is now 3.1.6.1, and the accelerated compositing is on by default. They also fixed some bugs in the Mac code related to the new infobar. In all, a nice upgrade and I'm hoping to see a little bit of that faster rendering, but we'll have to wait and see.

I got a tweet that Twitterrific 4.0.1 was released to the Mac App Store as well as to us direct customers, and it included several really nice features and fixes. There are a few more settings and the ability to make the dock icon go away. Not bad. I have to say, it's the twitter client I'm using, and it's significantly nicer than the official Twitter client as there's something about the official client that's broken on the Growl notifications. Maybe it's the lack of a persistent visual notification of tweets.

I'm glad they are making updates - the old version wasn't nearly so responsive to changes.

This morning I noticed that a significant new upgrade had been made to WordPress to bring it up to version 3.1 - so I had to go to HostMonster and upgrade my installs. Since my last upgrade, SimpleScripts has adopted the "update all at once" idea for multiple installs of the same piece of software. I haven't had any problems with SimpleScripts to date, but I didn't want to start this morning. Still... I knew they made backups, so I went ahead and upgraded them all at once.

Worked out just fine.

The new WordPress has a menu bar at the top of the page when you're logged into the site. It's not bad, but it's not the same style as the blog, and I'm sure it's only a matter of time before the artists get things going and make that, too, in-sync with the theme of the site.

I spent a few minutes looking over the new features - some are nice, others have a few bugs in them, but I'm sure will get worked out with the release. In all, it's a nice improvement, and while I really just use this for my journal, it's nice to know it's got the room and capabilities to be much more.

This morning I noticed that Google Chrome dev 11.0.672.2 was out and with it quite a few changes. While the major version number doesn't mean a great deal, in my experience, the additions of the new V8 engine as well as a few nice Mac specific features makes this nice to have. I'm sure there's more to it than just this, but this is enough.