 Newsreel
Products & Services
Web Watch
Software Update
Resource Directory
Events Diary
Articles
The Magazine
Subscribe
Contact Us
Search DNJ Online |
Issue 15
 Project X is announced at last, and Angie gets a leadership role. Carl and Denny aren’t so happy though, and Ed is positively furious.
Monday
My head hurts, and it’s not even mid-day yet. Carl, Denny and I have been sent, at very short notice, on an ADSI workshop, but after a 6.30am train journey and nearly three hours in a stuffy room, we’re feeling anything but active. Network directory management isn’t exactly our field, either, which has got C & D wondering out loud what on earth we’re doing here. I know the answer to that one, but I’m not allowed to tell them as it’s connected with the still-secret Project X. Knowing something the dynamic duo didn’t was great fun at first, but now that we’ve really gelled as a team (‘the terrific trio’?) it feels more like a betrayal. I can’t wait for it all to go public, but in the meantime I try to concentrate on the ADSI root object’s GetInfoEx() method.
Tuesday
Carl and Denny were distinctly the worse for wear this morning (I, wisely, left the bar early), so I’ve had to put up with their groaning all day. We’re here partly because we’ll be using ADSI to tie together (we hope) the Project X Consortium’s many and varied directory services, and partly (the short notice bit) because Greg wildly overstated our ADSI experience (we haven’t actually got any) at a Consortium IT Directors meeting, landing us with responsibility for it. I can’t tell C & D this either, although in their present state it would probably kill them, so it’s best kept secret anyway. As usual, they’ve made hardly any notes, so it’ll be down to Miss Conscientious here to fill in the gaps back at the office. Still, only two hours to go, and we should catch the 17:45 home.
Wednesday
It’s great to be back at my desk - or at least it would be if it wasn’t for the Problem Known As Ed. Ed misses basics such as making sure his client has bound successfully to its data source before querying it (an example of what Carl calls ‘typical cut-and-run software house code’), yet remains convinced that he’s God’s gift to programming. At lunchtime he repeats his favourite boast about knowing COM like the back of his appendage, and I hear myself snapping back that the comparison doesn’t say much for the size of his anatomy. The room collapses in laughter, I wish I hadn’t said it, and Ed storms out with a murderous look on his face. Working relations between us have now, I guess, reached an all-time low.
Thursday
The Pan-European consortium has been announced at last, under the rather swish title of Trans Euro Logistics. Greg gives the IT department a presentation about TEL Integration (alias Project X), and I start getting the evil eye from Carl and Denny, who twig straight away that I’ve been keeping them in the dark. I’m rescued by Kevin, who confirms that Project X insiders were sworn to secrecy on pain of instant dismissal. This seems to satisfy C & D, but then Mike, with exquisite timing, calls for order and announces that Kevin is TEL Phase 1 Project Leader, and I’m Lead Systems Consultant. The boys, who’ve had a monopoly on the Lead slot since time immemorial, congratulate me, but through gritted teeth. Somehow I think team spirit among the Terrific Trio is about to be stretched to the limit.
Friday
‘Mike, Kevin and I are off to Paris on Monday for a TEL developers meeting. Kevin’s quite excited, but my memories of Paris are 7:30am arrivals at Charles De Gaulle followed by long days at the Engineers and long nights on the laptop fixing Franca’s Milan demo, so I’m a bit less starry-eyed. I’m also worried about the continuing problem of Ed, the Man Who Never Checks Status Flags. If I leave him doing Payment Method Variation he’ll make a mess of it, which I’ll have to sort out, so I put him on screen layouts instead. Ed complains loudly, and Carl and Denny, for some reason, find this very funny. I ask them what the joke is, and they remind me of a previous Senior Developer who objected bitterly when she was assigned to layouts. They’ve got a point, but I haven’t got time for banter, so I bid them au revoir and head for the TEL pre-meeting meeting.
Top of the page
Issue 15 - Contents
< Previous Angie -- Next Angie >
|
Issue 1
Issue 2
Issue 3
Issue 4
Issue 5
Issue 6
Issue 7
Issue 8
Issue 9
Issue 10
Issue 11
Issue 12
Issue 13
Issue 14
Issue 15
Issue 16
Issue 17
Issue 18
Issue 19
Issue 20
Issue 21
Issue 22
Issue 23
Issue 24
Issue 25
Issue 26
Issue 27
Issue 28
Issue 29
Issue 30
Issue 31
Issue 32
Issue 33
Issue 34
Issue 35
Issue 36
Issue 37
And the adventure continues at the HardCopy web site! More |