Production support anyone?

In managing a team for production support of a large finance organization, I come across the same dilemma repeatedly. Only a few people are interested in working in this job profile. As a result many who join remain perennially unhappy.

And why? Because it is rumored that the skills gained are not of use in the career, and that the work isn't challenging.
But i have personally seen, that Prod support actually gives an opportunity to learn what bad code is, and know how to design stable software.
I do agree that being 'on call' is not fun. But even other project types have crunch times, such as when one has to meet a tight deadline.
These comparisons aside, the interesting thing I've observed, is that even when people move to other roles, they remain unhappy. I wonder if this dissatisfaction has become the very nature of the IT Industry, and 'unpopular' project types only bring out more protests, while people remain unhappy across the board.

Sculpting meets Nature

Long lives, Body monitoring

Having a truckload of medical history, I know how important constant monitoring of body functions can be for some of us.

Tech Jargon

Techies love jargon words.
Being a techie, I find myself using many such words, and then encountering blank stares.
So I thought, why not elucidate? Here's a small list of Jargon words from my IT world. Go ahead and add to this list with your own jargon words!

- Timebox (e.g. 'Lets timebox this discussion to 5 minutes'):
senseq: Lets cut this crap we're talking after 5 minutes.
dictionary: Limit the discussion to 5 minutes.

- Sleeping Giant (e.g. 'A sleeping giant caused the server blowout'):
senseq: I didn't cause this, it was always there
dictionary: An issue which was always there, but came up only now because of the special condition.

- Same Page (e.g. 'Are we on the same page'):
senseq: You are making no sense. Either you're really stupid or we're talking about different things.
dictionary: Lets make sure we're talking about the same thing.

- Keep me in the loop (e.g. 'Please loop me in on this issue'):
senseq: Don't you go talking behind my back. I want to know what you have to say about this.
dictionary: Please involve me in any conversation around this topic

- Email warfare/Flaming (e.g. 'I'd rather avoid email warfare'):
senseq: Lets avoid kicking each other's butts on emails.
dictionary: I'd rather avoid angry email exchanges

Gay Animals

Though Southpark came up with an episode of a gay dog called Sparky, I didn't think there were gay animals in the animal kingdom - and that it is a purely human phenomenon.

Well, it turns out there are 1500 species that have been observed to engage in homosexual activity! This includes penguines, chimpanzees , and even a curious case of blue ducks.

gay animals, south park, penguines, chimpanzees, blue ducks, sparky

In search of a song...

I always seem to fall short of music to listen to. This is even though I have a Rhapsody account, which gives me access to millions of tracks.
The deal is, that going out and finding music is always tough for me.
I also have given some music sites a chance (such as fiql and imeem), I haven't been finding the music I love easily.
Is there any other service out there you'd recommend?

Snowed in!

On Sunday, last night, I was driving back from NYC to Richmond, VA. I was somewhat bemused that I heard there will be major snow storms, but the weekend was pretty uneventful (weather wise).

On the way back though, it started snowing. And snowing. And snowing.

Then we realized we were getting in the midst of a huge snowstorm. 2-5 inches in VA and about 125,000 power outages.

We made it home safe, but it's super snowed in today. Our office is shut, and the VPN (connection from home through internet) is jammed - probably with too many people on it.

Here's a view from my home.

richmond snow, richmond snowstorm, virginia weather