Professional

Work is working out...

Jason Ketteman — Sat, 09 Jul 2005 20:04:00 GMT

During my vacation my 1 month anniversary at the new job will have passed. Interestingly, that's noteworthy for more that it's longer than my predecessor lasted (3 days). It's also noteworthy for more than it's already a quarter of the tenure that my predecessor's predecessor lasted (4 months). It's noteworthy because not only does it NOT bother me that 2 other people lasted only a short time, but that I'm actually liking it. Sure, "4-Month-Man" may have run into something I haven't. They speak highly of him (as opposed to how they speak of "3-Day-Man"), so maybe there's something around the bend. But we'll see.

Thus far, things are progressing pretty well. There's A LOT to get up to speed on. There are A LOT of ropes to learn. I'm doing OK on the process side of things. The architecture, the how-MasterCard-is-built, technically speaking, is REALLY difficult. It'll be months before I have a firm understanding of the seemingly hundreds of groups that are responsible for their own little area. Security is paramount, so even something simple is examined, locked down, and controlled tightly. Very interesting place.

It seems that the security initiative begins with obfuscating even the groups' names with which I work. Like most places, everything is an acronym. Plus, like most industries, there's an entire vocabulary of terms related to the workings. However, it seems that there is an intention to use acronyms, left undefined until you cry for the interpretation, only to discover that the definition does little to describe what that group actually does. But, even so, folks around here are pretty cool. They seem to understand/remember that it takes a while to grow accustomed to life here, so they're patient. Or, at least they were. There's a rumor that after a month, you start getting pretty short of "Free Passes".

Oh well. If nothing else, I hope to last longer than my previous two predecessors. Hopefully that will count for something.

Later.

While in Orlando...

Jason Ketteman — Thu, 25 Mar 2004 13:15:00 GMT

...I had the pleasure of teaching at what is very possibly the nicest facility I've ever trained at.

I led 18 students through the Microsoft CRM Customization course at the Knowledge Development Centers offices in Orlando, FL. It was remarkable. Granted, they're in the room rental business, but this was what you expect (and don't usually get) from hospitality oriented companies - like hotels.

You walk in and you're greeted by their COO, Mary. She's the bomb. Technical, but very friendly. Everyone feels important there. She directs you through the hallway that spokes off into the different “suites”. I thought to myself, “yeah right...suites”. But, in fact, as I hit the outer room of my suite, I began to understand. I full, no-$50-hotel-continental-breakfast, FULL breakfast was spread out in the outer room. And there was a dedicated one for EACH room. Each was as stocked as the next. Very cool. Grapefruit and orange juices. Cereals, granola, yogurt, fruit, 3 selections of milk, coffee and hot water for hot chocolate, instant oatmeal, grits, tea, etc. The only thing they DIDN'T have was a short-order cook, which would have probably been too much anyway... :)

After breakfast, I charged myself with finding a supply of water to moisten my soon to be parched vocal cords. Sure enough, the outer room had a full selection of beverages including the aforementioned coffee and teas. They had a jam-packed fridge of sodas and waters. Snacks consisted of candy fare, cheesecake, and miscellaneous mini-cakes and fruit salads.

Other than the bottle my water was in, I saw NO plastic. No plastic forks, spoons, knives, bowls, cups, plates, nothing. Everything was “real” kitchenware.

Great, but how was it for your primary purpose, you ask? It was great as well. I had probably 20 feet of white board, a nice overhead projector, great networking and connectivity, a built in speaker system that was integrated to a full video, dvd, stereo system (and the computer, of course). They spaced the students out nicely and the machines were top-of-the-line, but minature sized beasts that ran our 2 VirtualPC images without breaking a sweat.

This place was the bomb. I get to go back this weekend to do a co-teach on a BizTalk class (MSCRM Integration with Great Plains).

I think I have a new work mantra...

Jason Ketteman — Thu, 29 Jan 2004 16:22:00 GMT

As some of you may know, I have used the quote "Combating ignorance one moron at a time" for quite a while now.

While still very appropriate, I have found a new quote that may come in handy... It's slightly more politically correct (which I'm sure you also know I'm always concerned with), but portrays the same feeling as the aforementioned quip...

So, without further ado: "There are no stupid questions, but there are A LOT of inquisitive idiots."

...says it all, no? :)

New app...

Jason Ketteman — Wed, 15 Oct 2003 03:33:00 GMT

Wow. I've been working with the IBuySpy (IBS) clone DotNetNuke (DNN). Man, it is awesome. I can hardly believe how easy it was to setup (the only problems were ID10T errors) compared to how stinkin' much the silly thing does.

Now, I've just started using it, but I'm floored by this application's array of offerings. A user can build a VERY complete system completely with the application-native tools. All you do is supply the layout, content, and pretty graphics. There are also independant individuals that have written components to add in.

I'm very close to deciding to build and release a new site. I can't really go into much detail now, but believe it or not, there's a flavor of technical site that I've not seen to date. Well, that's about to change, if I can get the energy to manage ONE MORE SITE. :) I'm sure you'll hear about it here first when it's announced and released. For those of us interested, this'll be huge.

Well, back to the Cubs game. It's looking pretty good for the small bears. Mark Prior is a big, fat, stinkin' STUD!

Later.

Microsoft Patches Interpreted...

Jason Ketteman — Thu, 02 Oct 2003 18:48:00 GMT

Well, someone's done it! They've blown the cover on Microsoft's insistence that all information coming out of them has to be as complicated and un-user friendly as possible.

Robert McLaws, President and Chief Software Architect of Interscape Technologies, Inc has launched a new website/tool called PatchDayReview.com. He skillfully takes the patches Microsoft releases (every Wednesday), summarizes them, makes the download link easily accessible, and publishes the information to his own .Text application (the same tool this blog site uses).

This is easily one of the best services that the home user and IT Pro alike can use - and it's FREE!

They also have a RSS feed so you can get updated as the site changes so you don't miss any of this easy to digest info...

This is good stuff, kids. Visit, Use, DO!