Thursday, March 30, 2006

Who made them boss?

Why do the people closest to the window get to decide if the shades are open or closed? Yes, I realize there is a problem with glare on computer monitors when the shades are open, but every desk I've ever seen can easily be adjusted to elimate the glare. Yet, instead of adjusting themselves... the window-people make the universal decision that nobody in the cube-row shall haveth sunlight The best part is that people fight to get the desk by the window, then they chose to close the blinds and never enjoy the view.
-- UPDATE --
I thought this anonymous comment was too good to be missed.
Get over it. Torturing the inside people is priviledge granted to the outside people.

Sunday, March 26, 2006

Scott Adams Proposes New Leader

Scott Adam's (creator of Dilbert) had a little Q&A session on his blog.

Q. Who, out of any person, would do the best job of dictator with total control of the world, and please give a real response.

A. Bill Gates. He’s rational, experienced, and has a good track record of helping the disadvantaged through his charitable trusts.

I thought about it for a while... and I think I agree with him. I don't really know that much about Mr. Gates, but what I do know leads me to agree with Mr. Adams.

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Gaming on Connexion

My gaming portal idea isn't going anywhere, but its good to see some people playing games on airplanes.
http://connexionbyboeing.com/index.cfm?p=cbb.specialpromo&l=en.US

I wonder how the latency will be over the satellite link. I don't know any technical details of the link, but I can only imagine that the ping would have to be pretty high. I mean, the packet is going: wifi to airplane, airplane to satellite, satellite to ground station, ground station to internet... then the return packet takes the same long path.

Saturday, March 18, 2006

The Competition

I'm not going to lie... I think the Airbus A380 is pretty sweet. Wikipedia has some really cool information about the A380, including the Giant Plane Comparison. Anyways... what I really want to link to is this. Its a video of the first A380 being built. Make sure to check out "more videos from this user."

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

I've got famous friends...

Boeing just made a new college recruiting video. I thought I would share it with everyone, since this is the time of the year that graduating seniors start looking for jobs.
http://www.boeing.com/employment/collegecareers/ourpeople/index.html

Now that you've watched it... I have a few comments.
a) Nikki and Kristin are 2 of my good friends. Therefore, the "associative rule of famous people" states that I am now famous too.
b) Not everyone in Boeing is as good looking as the people showcased in the video. Take me for example...
c) I totally agree... making airplanes is great feeling.

What the flip...

I guess I need to post more often. I decided to do a search on one word to see where my blog would show up. So, I searched Google for "Boeing". 45 pages of results... and my blog isn't on there ONCE!? I need to post more interesting things... so more people link to my site. But, what to post?

Monday, March 06, 2006

Managers

I just read this article about how our new CEO is suppose to "clean up Boeing."

From where I stand in Boeing, this article is a little off-base. It says that Boeing and former McDonnel-Douglas employees are at odds with each other. The only part of "the inside of Boeing" that I really see is the IT part... and I haven't ever seen this war. In my group, we have DBAs from everywhere in Boeing: Puget Sound, Arizona, California, and Pennslyvania... we all seem to get along just fine. In fact, while I'm on vacation at the end of March down in Phoenix, I'm planning on visiting the other DBAs down there... just for fun.

Now, on to another point... how much cleaning is too much? My group is having huge budget cuts apparently, and its really cramping my style. Of all the stuff I've done in Boeing so far, 3 "special projects" really stick out in my mind as awesome. But, I don't get to do any of them anymore. I've already written about one of them. So, what are the other 2?
1) Teaching the intern class. My group has to maintain a certain percentage of billable hours (yes, exactly like lawyers). Any time that we work that can't be billed directly to another group/customer (i.e. training, attending a conference, teaching the intern class) is considered overhead... and therefore is bad and makes Boeing IT look less efficient.
2) Having an intern. There is still a possibility that my group will get an intern (or 2)... but the only way we'll be able to do that is if we fund them completely out of our overhead budget (which is significantly smaller than last years).

So, yes... Jimmie Mac (a.k.a. W. James McNerney Jr.) has probably improved the bottom-line at Boeing, but at what cost? Work is getting less "cool" by the budget-cut. No CII and no interns can make a day at Boeing dull as hell.
Maybe I'm aiming my crosshairs a little too high here... I don't know. Maybe my woes are being caused by someone/thing lower down the org-chart.

--- UPDATE ---
I had a discussion with (one of) my second level manager todays. The problem is over her head... so maybe I wasn't aiming too high. She did offer up some good info on possible ways to solve the budgeting of money in our group (300+ people) though. I was impressed by her thoughts on the problems and solutions in our org. And, my first level manager figured out how I can keep working my Data Architecture job, while still being a DBA (Boeing likes to keep skills segregated... but thats probably a whole other blog post). All-in-all... a good day with managment.