Well, somebody’s not happy…

What’s even more amazing are the comments in the article. It even includes conspiracy theorists, birthers and even Star Wars-based spam.

Go see the Galactic Empire Times

The only problem is Apple trademarked “there’s an app for that.” Would they look past this as a parody or be heartless and litigate while kicking puppies?

But sometimes, they do things because it’s just cool for the adults:

This video is to explain the preposition “on.” Of course, they could do the easy way but they went out of their way to parody the Old Spice commercial. Neato.

And here’s the Old Spice Man’s response.

Twas the night before code freeze, when all through the development house
No engineers were stirring, save some clicks of a mouse
The coats were hung by the coat rack without any care
In hopes that soon they will be out of there

Like children hunched in chairs wishing they were in their beds
While visions of being at home danced in their heads
And one was debugging, a buggy OS trap,
And one had just dozed off, to take a power nap

When out on the lawn, shuttles had long did scatter
They sprang from the window, knowing it doesn’t really matter
Away to their cubes, they flew like a flash
Tore open more terminals and fired up /bin/bash

The moon on the crest, end up as an unwatched show
Because those overworked engineers were too busy below
When, what to one’s wondering eyes should appear
One of them almost snaps, his peers filled with fear

With very little hold on his mind, so fleeting and quick
They knew in a moment one of them got sick–and tired
Rapidly they moved, the cursors selected names
And they whistled, and shouted because of the frame

Now flasher! Three times, on and off, the LED blinken
Because the bootstrap, forward and the OS now loadin’
To the top of the stack, and the drivers and all
Now load away! Software structures won’t fall

As a call leaves and the addresses they spy
Encountering an error and fixing it on the fly
So up to the logs, all that data–they flew
With the terminal full of tools, and some cool widgets too

And then in a twinkling, even the one who’s aloof
The instruction pointer’s shootin’ up the roof
As one scratched his head and could not turn around
Down go their hopes, going home’s shot down

The trace came up in a blur, because trouble’s afoot
And they had to fix this or else all will be moot
So all their debugging tools loaded up the stack
And they faced each other, discussed their plan of attack

Their eyes–how they twinkled! The plan made them merry!
Looks like they can fix this overflow, and catch up in a hurry
They coded the exception–there will be something to throw
And give this showstopping bug, the finishing blow

And lo, the wailing and the gnashing of teeth
All soon will stop and the engineers can breathe
They ran the regression test and monitored with the telly
The results danced around, like the jiggling of jelly

With that done, the lead produced the binary .elf
And he laughed when they saw him, proud of himself
A wink in his eye and a twist of his head
Soon gave them all to know they had nothing to dread

He spoke not a word with all about to finish their work
So they could go home for the holidays as their perk
And shutting the workstations down they pose
The last of them goes out, just by the tip of the nose

Out the door they go, the team let out a whistle
And away they all flew, going out like a missile
Then you’ll hear the last one exclaim before he’s out of sight
“Code freeze’ll be done for all and to y’all a good night!”

I don’t normally use Wikipedia as a resource or for quoting but I think I’ll make an exception this time. Now, no doubt that certain industry standards can definitely promote quality but blind application (or not truly understanding them) can be disadvantageous. Since this is a humor site, let’s focus on the negative:

According to Seddon, ISO 9001 promotes specification, control, and procedures rather than understanding and improvement. Wade argues that ISO 9000 is effective as a guideline, but that promoting it as a standard “helps to mislead companies into thinking that certification means better quality, … [undermining] the need for an organization to set its own quality standards.” Paraphrased, Wade’s argument is that total, blind reliance on the specifications of ISO 9001 does not guarantee a successful quality system.

The standard is seen as especially prone to failure when a company is interested in certification before quality. Certifications are in fact often based on customer contractual requirements rather than a desire to actually improve quality. “If you just want the certificate on the wall, chances are, you will create a paper system that doesn’t have much to do with the way you actually run your business,” said ISO’s Roger Frost. Certification by an independent auditor is often seen as the problem area, and according to Barnes, “has become a vehicle to increase consulting services.” In fact, ISO itself advises that ISO 9001 can be implemented without certification, simply for the quality benefits that can be achieved.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_9000

Just something to think about.

Sparked by an idea when a co-worker thought he should start charging people.

A friend told me once something like this happened to him. No kidding.

This really happened to us. Sure it was implemented abruptly and without warning but it is a welcome development.

However,  we are skeptical about how they will determine if overtime is necessary or not and if this no overtime policy will work in the long run. Remember, this is the same management that likes to give laborious tasks on top of demanding project tasks.

We guess time will tell. In the meantime, we will all be busy living our lives outside of work we so richly deserve.

There is a very fine line between confidence and arrogance. Some people have already crossed it but don’t know it yet. Some are well aware that they crossed it but they insist they haven’t. Hubris, denial and plain ‘ole stubbornness…