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Hi All,
Just had a conversation via Teams. The end result was 'End of Lock Down Paranoia' the worst thing is back to commuting, Train full. I mean this week I had only to go in twice, not a the crack O dawn (she was very grateful!) as the widget I was working on had to go for a load of EMC tests. I think it may be awkward to go back to working from the office full time (possibly because they closed the Bristol office and shifted there staff here!)... Does anyone else see this happening... 
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No direct observations, but who wants to commute if working remotely is usually as effective? It could seriously affect the commercial real estate market. But as the saying goes, the cure for low prices is low prices. If rents fall enough, some firms will acquire office space because it's cheap and management likes having their worker bees on site. Previously, it was usually expected that you'd commute, but now there will be options. It will be interesting to see how it plays out, because similar firms with different approaches will provide something of a controlled experiment for working at home versus in the office.
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maybe, not for me, I'm not paranoid, just annoyed at having to put on a mask.
I'm confident when I will need to start commuting by metro again.
I don't expect the metro to be as full as before as a lot of people will continue to work from home.
At least for the next few months
CI/CD = Continuous Impediment/Continuous Despair
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Just remember to put trousers on!
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We're supposed to go back to the office starting on the 15th. It'll be interesting to see what really happens, as there are a variety of factors in play (keep in mind our office is about 20 employees):
1. The growing Delta variant, which the WHO says, everyone, vax'd or not, should be wearing masks indoors.
2. All the tech staff wants to continue working from home. Most of us have already "negotiated" at most coming in 2 days a week.
3. If there is a mask mandate by then, I suspect this will shift to 0 days a week in the office.
4. There remains a high level of fear among some vax'd people (particularly with comorbidities) that they will be at risk from, well, anyone. I'm not questioning their logic, just acknowledging their fear.
5. To make things more complicated, we are owned by a company out of state that has mandated 100% office return, but our CEO is a lot more flexible. This creates a certain degree of tension and communication with our CEO tends to be verbal so even agreements like "you only need to come in 2 days a week" is not documented. More tension. Also, whether masks will be required or not has not yet been communicated, only discussed, again verbally.
So there's a lot of unknowns and the situation is dynamic and potentially can change any time because we, as a world, are definitely not out of the woods yet. The lack of clear direct communication and the obvious conflict with the parent company mandate adds stress and confusion.
Now, granted, the parent company said "we'll be returning to the office on July 15th", but left it very unclear as to whether that meant full time. There was no statement to indicate that full time was required, yet neither was there a statement that "remote work is at the discretion of your manager." Given the parent company is little more than a holding company for several other companies, including us, it would have been helpful if the parent company's communication was clearer. However, this was an email blasted to us employees from the parent company, and as such, the "beat the cog of the wheel" mentality was evident, and in itself had considerable backlash and panic on the part of my coworkers.
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Yes, I foresee significant changes in working patterns.
Some people have discovered that they are much more productive when working at home and some employers have realised the truth of that.
Some people have discovered that they hate working from home and are longing to get back to the office.
Enlightened employers will find ways to provide flexible working systems so that relevant employees can choose to work always at home, always in the office or some combination of the two. (Forklift truck drivers and bricklayers will still probably have to attend their places of work.)
Unenlightened employers will lose out and eventually fail.
In other words, I think there will be some positive outcomes of this dreadful time. If we (society) don't learn the lessons we don't deserve them.
Phil
The opinions expressed in this post are not necessarily those of the author, especially if you find them impolite, inaccurate or inflammatory.
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Forecasting Prophesying what will happen is fun.
- Face-to-face meetings are sometimes necessary, so there will still be meeting rooms and offices.
- For commuters, their manager's request for a face-to-face meeting will often portend very good or very bad news!
- If a sufficient percentage of employees don't commute, there won't be fixed seating. You'll just take an empty desk when you arrive (this is common enough already).
- Many people would prefer not to commute, so employers will have to provide incentives for employees to commute if competitors don't require it. This will be an extra hit above the cost of office space.
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Don't think we will go back. Maybe a "day in the office" once or twice a month to keep "some" interaction. But overall we learned to work efficiently, and - what I had not considered before - pair programming is WAY more efficient this way, as you can both sit in front of the screen and you can talk without disturbing others. Also works great when onboarding new people.
Spending energy going to the office just to work less efficient does not sound like the right approach... and I used to think being in the office was a good idea.
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How this plays out with my employer should be interesting.
Their current main office space, hundreds of people, was subleased and getting their own lease is going to cost a shyte-load more. On the other hand, they own another build (where I used to dwell).
They were clearly looking to save on rent - hence my being told to work-from-home as they gave away my office occurred just before COVID expanded that to universal, employees only now coming in. Many still work remotely. The less space they need, they realized even then, the less it will cost.
My hunch? Their aversion to people working totally remotely has been mitigated. Staffing has seen some serious cuts, especially last year, and the aversion has been replaced with accepting that some of us down need to be stared out so we look busy. Since all regular employees have virtual desktops, when you need to come in you can just sit somewhere and work.
so, it's a matter of managers at all levels finding some comfort level vs. costs. Some of us serve no useful purpose in the build that we cannot serve outside of it.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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...that sent me a confirmation mail with my credentials, with the password in plain text. 
I deleted my account.
(And yes, they might have put the mail together before hashing and storing the password, but ... meeeh, I do not trust them. This is 1995 state-of-the-art anyway. ).
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Sites like that will force you to change password the first time you log on.
(not saying it's a good idea, but I've seen it many times).
CI/CD = Continuous Impediment/Continuous Despair
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How can you be sure that is was your password? Perhaps it belongs to another user with the same password... even more concerning 
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That’s a little far fetched don’t you think? In this day and age where a password has to have upper and lower case, numbers and special characters what are the odds of somebody else using ‘Password1*’ as their password too?!?!?
If you can't laugh at yourself - ask me and I will do it for you.
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Also good, but I liked the double comeback of the first one.
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Pantera - 5 Minutes Alone[^]
This week I shared daily 90's metal classic with some friends.
And when you say "90's metal" you have to say "Pantera" too.
I've always liked Pantera's raw energy so needless to say I shared them (it was really a matter of who'd share them first!  ).
While I shared the album Vulgar Display of Power, my favorite Pantera song is probably 5 Minutes Alone from Far Beyond Driven.
Although Walk, ![Elephant | [mastadon]](https://codeproject.global.ssl.fastly.net/script/Forums/Images/elephant.gif) ing Hostile, Mouth for War, Becoming and Cowboys from Hell are also ing awesome!
Any of those songs would've done for the SOTW today, really
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I prefer CSNY, Neil Young, Jackson Browne, and the Eagles.
Otis Redding and Jimi Hendrix, too.
Glory Days
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A couple of days back, I attended a presentation where a high-school mathematics teacher was explaining the features of a software which allocates teachers from a pool to each student who registers for their online learning platform. She frequently said "The AI does this", "The AI does that", "The AI has this feature", and so on. Whereas I felt that there seemed to be no AI element in it. It was just a standard algorithm which was implemented. Maybe she felt that all software is AI.
Have you come across situations where people use the term "AI" to signify routine software?
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Amarnath S wrote: Have you come across situations where people use the term "AI" to signify routine software?
95% of the time.
To be honest, what's now referred as AI once upon a time was referred as "Expert System", which was software anyway. AI, today, is a buzz word in the real world and a plot device in fiction. A self-"learning" system is still software, it just expands on its ruleset based on the previous version of said ruleset.
GCS d--(d-) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
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'Expert System' haven't heard that since I was doing A Level Computing... Many moons ago...
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In answer to "Has AI replaced software?": Nope. AI is software.
Amarnath S wrote: Have you come across situations where people use the term "AI" to signify routine software?
Yes, everyone seems to be claiming it's "AI" these days. Very annoying!
But, maybe, not quite as annoying as Dyson claiming his vacuum cleaners have "Digital Motors" and not once, (EVER!) saying what this is and why it might be better!!!
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5teveH wrote: what this is
The motor PWM is controlled directly by the microcontroller instead of an analog power controller piloted via a DAC.
5teveH wrote: why it might be better
Pros:
+ One less component that can break
+ Better chance of power control in case of overcurrents (shouldn't catch fire or burn out when encountering obstructions)
Cons:
- Harder to repair (when the MCU breaks it's game over).
- Pray the firmware is well written: if it hangs, expect anything.
GCS d--(d-) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
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