My project manager told me on Friday that I had to work this weekend and she expected at least 8 hours of work a day. They do not pay me enough to work 16 hours or more on a weekend.

My 8 hours of work today consisted of watching a cycling race, sending an email, watching Dirty Jobs, sending another email, grocery shopping, and sending a third email and charging 8 hours of work when in reality I only worked for 30 minutes. We are supposably supposed to go-live next weekend which is the reason we all have to work 16 hours this weekend, but we have been asked to work every weekend for the last 5 months.

One of my insane co-workers worked 92 hours last week. I charged 62 which is basically the minimum expected, but only worked like 50. The rest of the time I spent cleaning my apartment, watching TV, or anything else that needed done. I just feel sorry for all of those IT workers who have not caught on to the game of pretending to management you actually work the hours they demand.

My project manager told the entire team we had to work 16 hours this weekend, yet she did not even log on today. Do not expect me to work if you are not going to. I can do the same crap you are doing too.

After reading the book “Anonymous Lawyer” by Jeremy Blachman I decided to write my own version of Anonymous Computer Geek here.  Well at least occasionally. If you have read my blog, you have realized I am gay, and yes I will occasionally continue to post about gay topics, but I now have another topic to write about.

You have all heard about child abuse, spousal abuse, and all other types of abuse. But have you heard about IT worker abuse?

Probably not. You are actually probably one of the culprits. You expect your helpdesk and your IT workers to be available 24/7 to fix the smallest problem you are having. Almost every IT worker is forced to carry a BlackBerry 24/7 and is expected to answer it all hours of the day or night. We would be happy to do this and help you, if you treated us as an equal rather than the lowliest of dogs.

To be honest when you are having problems, we have no idea what is wrong. Your resident IT department is clueless, but we do know how to troubleshoot. Yes, I am going to tell you to reboot even if you have already done it 6 times, because honestly I don’t trust you. I don’t even trust my fellow co-workers. 99% of the time you or my co-workers are telling me something is wrong, when there truly is nothing wrong.

Do NOT treat my like shit just because you have already rebooted. Most of the time, you have not already rebooted and you are flat out lying to me. Do not treat me like shit because you are having a problem at 2 AM. I do NOT care. I want to sleep you can wait until I wake up. Do NOT think you can run your company without IT. I will quit and leave you as the emperor with no clothes. If I tell you it is going to take 2 months do NOT tell me it has to be done in 2 weeks. I am not going to work 48/7 for the next two weeks so you can get your bonus check. Do NOT play political games. I do not care what management is telling me has to be done. I know what I can do and if you don’t like it go find yourself another IT worker to fuck.

I am not your slave. Yes, I love troubleshooting computer problems, but you are not the only one who has computer problems. I can find a job somewhere else paying me more. I do not care if your company crashes and burns if you treat me like shit. If you treat me and pay me well, I will work my ass off for you. If you treat me and pay me like trash, screw you.

It is just too bad you are going to treat me like shit. I will find another job in 2 years. If I wake up at 1 AM trying to figure out how to fix your problems, it is time for a new job.

Since the passage of proposition 8 in California last week, the LGBT community has suddenly started protesting. In mostly peaceful protests, thousands of LGBT supporters around the country have held rallies protesting the mormon church and the laws against marriage.

I am gay, opposed proposition 8, and support these protesters; however, I have one question. Where were these protests 4 years ago, where were they 2 weeks ago?

Why did the LGBT community wait until after they lost the election to get angry? Why are we as a community so apathetic? We have terrible leadership within the LGBT community. Our leaders do not listen to our community, they do not listen to our priorities, and they do not know how to get the word out.

For most of the LGBT community marriage is fourth or fifth on our priorities. Right after employment discrimination, hate crimes, HIV, and police profiling. Why are we trying to fight the hard fight before winning the small victories and gaining momentum? Why are we unable to accept civil unions for the time being while we work on the bigger issues than marriage?

Also, why are we protesting the church. We are not going to change the opinion of the church, it is not worth our time, and it may even hurt our cause. Instead, let us focus on the lawmakers and civic centers whose mind we might actually change and allow us to win some of these small victories. We need to change the target of our anger and we need to change our focus. And we need to protest when we are trying to win, not after we have already lost.

Join the protests at your city hall this Saturday at 1:30 Eastern this Saturday 11/15. www.jointheimpact.com.

Much has been made about electronic voting machines and their reliability. Election officials and the makers of these machines claim they are completely reliable, yet security and computer experts insist that problems exist.

The security and computer experts are right. Think about Windows and how Microsoft releases several patches and security fixes every month. This means Windows which has been out and in development for years still has security problems. Why would anyone believe that a voting machine which has been in development for a lot less time does not have security problems?

I work in the computer industry and I can guarantee that security holes or bugs exist in Windows, in the computer that runs your car, in this website, in your DVR, at your credit card company, and in voting machines. With complex software there are always bugs and security issues.

So if e-voting machines have problems how should we count our votes? Well, there is no 100% accurate way to count votes. People will make mistakes hand counting, scanning machines may misread or have a bug, mechanical counters may break, and e-voting machines may have bugs. The most accurate of these four is the mechanical machine; however, this is hard for the voter to use because once they press a lever they cannot change the vote. Hand counting would be the next best, but is very slow and requires a lot of people. Scanning machines and e-voting both have the same security and bug issues.

The right solution in my opinion is to use the e-voting machines with a paper trail that is also audited. This does not mean every paper ballot should be hand counted, but 10% of the votes cast on the machine should be hand counted and a statistical analysis done to ensure that the voting machine most likely reported correctly. If this shows potential issues, then a full hand count for the voting machine should occur.

The problem is most states do not require a paper trail, so if the voting machine reports incorrectly, too bad the results are still treated as gold because there is no proof or possible indication of a problem. Encourage your legislators to require a paper trail for all voting so the machines can be audited and the general public have confidence in the results.

I hate being in IT. Everyone expects their friend the computer geek to fix all of their problems, yet no one repays their local computer geek for spending your nights at their house troubleshooting their problem. The problem they have because they forward every chain letter, click on every phishing email, do not have anti-virus software, and think they know it all. They expect you to spend 4 hours of your Saturday at their house, troubleshooting their computer. You then get to ruin their day, by telling them you have to reformat because they never listen despite how often and how loudly you tell them.

You do all of this with a smile on your face because that is what they expect. Yet inside you are wishing how you could be out on your bike. You are on call 24/7 and if you do not answer your phone the calls keep coming. You are always in front of a computer, no matter how much you want to get away. It is always work, work for your friends, work on your own pet projects, eat, sleep, and repeat.

You give $30,000 worth of free IT support and advice to your friends and relatives a year, but do not expect anything in return. You could fix your tax accountant friend’s computer, but he will not do your taxes for free. You could fix your mechanic friend’s computer, but he will not fix your car for free. You could fix your bosses computer, but do not expect any favors.

Why is it that the entire world takes IT for granted?

The economy is a mess, I am ready to quit my job, politics are dirty, any my county wants to increase the sales tax. Our school systems suck, no one will take any blame, the US are the world police, we are terrible at the job, Bush is an idiot, and McCain=Bush. Obama is just words, gas prices are too high, I want a promotion, and I have nothing to eat. We have no privacy, CEOs are too greedy, nobody respects IT, and we are in a depression.

Insurance is too expensive, the government is no help, and we are killing our environment. Recycling should be mandatory, gays should marry, the TV season sucks, and I work too much. Airlines have no customer service, traffic is a mess, the days are too short, and the government takes too much money.

But Ski Season is here!

Over the years we have seen many attempts at banning people or a way of life similar to the anti-gays and anti-gay marriage racist’s attempts today. We had prohibition trying to ban alcohol created by a few zealots, yet the public at large forced the ban to be repealed. We had a severe limit on women’s rights caused by the culture that eventually went away. We segregated African Americans but over time this was abandoned too. EVERY time America has tried to limit a basic facet of life these limits have been overthrown.

Similarly you have been trying to limit the ability of homosexuals to exist, to love, and to marry, and to a certain degree you have been succeeding. However, these limits, these constitutional amendments in 26 states, will all be repealed in the next 20 years. As Americans realize that homosexual exists, that your son, your neighbor, your best friend is gay, you the anti-gay racist will either change your mind or lose the support of the public. As Americans realize that their marriage is not going to fall apart solely because two gays married each other you will lose your support.

Eventually when Americans start realizing the reality that a human being is a human being and every human being should be able to enjoy the same basic pleasures of life all of the hard work you have put into limiting what other human beings can enjoy will tumble. No it is not going to happen in the next 2 years and you will be able to claim victory and feel proud of yourself, but all of your effort is for not. American history has proven this, and American history will prove it again.

So start thinking about your next fight as we all know there will be one, where you claim that life as we know it will end if another human being is able to enjoy the same enjoyments as you. Start researching polygamy, start researching people who have sex, start researching people who do not own cars, because who knows what the next group will be that says “Hey maybe I should be able to enjoy life too”.

Sincerely,
Chris

If you read my Why I cannot support the US Government post, you probably noticed that I have stopped supporting Obama. I used to support Obama because I believed he might actually cause some change in the government. However, over the last several weeks I have realized that under Obama nothing will change.

I supported Obama when I did not know much about him. I just knew every other option at the time would not cause change.

I have learned a lot about Obama since the general election started. For example he supported the FISA bill, he talks about voting for the lesser of two evils, and has started reforming his policy to less of a change stance to more of a “Continue the Course”. Because of this I can no longer support Obama, and since I have yet to see a candidate who is not the “Lesser of two Evils” I will not vote for a President unless a GOOD candidate miraculously appears. I will not support someone I can only support 20% who is the lesser of the bad.

Outside of the $10b cost per month of the Iraq war, I really don’t care about it. I know it is going on, I know soldiers are dying, but other than that I really don’t care.

I don’t care because No Ears Bush doesn’t listen to anybody about how the American public disagrees with the war. He continues the “Continue the Course” mantra as if no one has ever said anything disagreeable to the war. So if my yelling and screaming against the war isn’t going to do any good, I am going to ignore it.

The only thing we can do is not volunteer for the army. If there are not enough members of the armed forces that will force the president to request a draft. Requesting a draft for the Iraq war will be political suicide and the country would riot. So if we can’t raise an army the government will be forced to start pulling out of the policeman roll and then maybe we will actually be able to start paying off our debt.

So my political protest of the war is don’t join the army, don’t care that soldiers are dying, and in general ignore every aspect of the war except the $10b a month price tag. Because if our soldiers did not support the war, they would not join the army.

When I look at the political priorities Americans hold I see two distinct sets. You have the internet savvy young generation priorities and then you have everyone else. In my view here are the sets of priorities for each group:

Net Savvy

1. Privacy
2. National Debt
3. Bush’s War Crimes

Everyone Else

1. Economy
2. Gas Prices
3. Iraq

Interestingly you will even see some people list the “Net Savvy” priorities when they are chatting online, but if you talk to them in person they will list the “Everyone Else” priorities. Why is there this difference in priorities and why do people say different things depending on their surroundings?

Part of the reason people use 2 faces when talking about priorities is peer pressure. But I think another part of it is that in an indirect way all of the “Net Savvy” priorities support the “Everyone Else” priorities.

Decreasing the National Debt should increase the value of the dollar which should also improve the economy. Bush’s war crimes and the Iraq war is partially being blamed for high gas prices. Is this the true reason? Not entirely, but the National Debt and the Iraq war have certainly contributed. The privacy priority pertains to Iraq/Terrorism where the government is trying to strip all of our privacy under the name of terrorism. I believe the younger generation has seen through this facade and realized that reducing all risk of a terrorist attack is not worth giving up our privacy.

This is causing an interesting challenge for the presidential candidates having to try to appeal to both sides of the argument. However, in doing this they will eventually end up alienating one group of voters. As much as I wish differently, I believe that one group will be the “net savvy” block of Americans.