Still in Finland, still hacking code, babying imagers and doing my best to avoid the "special" users. Good days, bad days, and all too many of the bad days are caused by holes in my own software development processes - really need to get a grip on some of those. Not all my fault, though:
One of my 20-percenters came to me today. Bangs on the door, pulls me out of the "zone" that I've only just got back into after the last interruption and all my code thoughts disappear in an instant. "My plate's images don't show up in your software." In that whiny even-if-it's-not-your-fault-it's-your-problem plzbro voice.
OK, let's take a look.
Are they showing up in the imager's own control software? (First question I always ask, so I can get some idea where the problem is.) Um... well...
OK, what's the (4-character) barcode? Second question I always ask. Uhhhh... hmmm...
Finally get a barcode out of him. Full imaging history, including a set from 2 hours ago.
Oh, that's NOT the barcode? What IS the barcode?
Oh look, images. 0, 12, 24 hours then every 24 hours out to 7 days. Last set was taken six days ago and it'll be imaged again tomorrow, as you well know. What's the actual problem here, since everything is working as intended?
So there's no problem. But you would like to trigger an imaging now and it's really, really hard - right-click, Image Plate. Plzbro... We walk downstairs to the imager and I point to the rack. Where is it, so I don't have to trawl through a list? (The barcodes are at the back so the robot can see them, which means I can't.)
And the muppet reaches up onto a nearby shelf and hands me the plate.
So explain to me how the hell it was my fault that my software failed to show recent images of a plate that wasn't scheduled to be imaged recently and isn't even in the damned imager? I still don't think he gets it.
This is the same one whose ass I saved because his laptop shat the bed with the only copy of his nearly complete doctoral thesis and the only copy of his supporting data. A beer for the two days I spent on that would have been nice.
And now there isn't enough time to get my thoughts together and start programming usefully again before some meeting or other. Just one part of a fairly typical day. The two days I worked from home last week were more productive than the previous two weeks. Better coffee, too.
On the other hand, some of the people I work with are absolute gold. Helping them out, and seeing the delight on their faces when something I've done turns an hour's manual slog into two or three clicks, makes the idiocy worthwhile.
And he has to get his PhD and go away some time, right?
My friend and I applied for airline jobs in Australia, but they didn't Qantas.