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Diary of a B+ Grade Polymath ([personal profile] tcpip) wrote2006-06-15 04:09 pm

A Busy Weekend, More on IT Work and Land Tax

Was on-air last Saturday morning for 3CR's annual radiothon and helped raise a modest sum (c$1200) as part of the Unitarian Half Hour. Later than day was [livejournal.com profile] severina_242's birthday gathering of blini, vodka and borsch and many el-jay people. Following day gave my presentation on Prospects for Liberal and Rationalist Prospects in Islam which was well received. After that went to Retrocon and played The Keep on the Borderlands, a d20 Modern Harry Potter scenario as well as running a RuneQuest scenario. Dinner afterwards was great fun especially in the company of [livejournal.com profile] mareth_redorb. May even make it to Dwarfcon as well.

Last Wednesday eve was dinner with [livejournal.com profile] arjen_lentz and other MySQL staff and afficiandos. On topic, now only working 1 day per week on database documentation with Naturelinks which is relieving in a sense. The more I delve into MS-Access, VBA and MS-SQL server the more I feel like poking myself in the eye just for something interesting to do. In comparison, PHP/MySQL work is fun and interesting. Other work related tasks includes writing policy for Borderlands, setting up their new integrated network with the Augustine Centre and completing yet another website for Flinders Island as a tourist destination.

For Prosper I have the joyous task of compiling an 'information kit' for Victorian state parliamentarians (we start with the assumption they are ignorant not malicious). On 28th June I'll be speaking at the Global Learning Centre (1093 Pascoe Vale Rd) at 6.30pm along with others with the title "Please Explain Mr. Brumby?" on why the last State budget contained massive land tax cuts for the wealthiest landowners, yet needy schools are threatened with six year waiting lists for maintenance and 10,000 manufacturing jobs were lost last year (and we still have a 5% payroll tax!).

Two on-topic links: No, it's not a good industry. 97% of IT workers "traumatized" by their daily work. From [livejournal.com profile] greylock. Islam less than one percent reactionary. From [livejournal.com profile] erudito. Off-topic link; v3nu5 is now famous nude! (from [livejournal.com profile] v3nu5 of course).

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2006-06-15 11:23 pm (UTC)(link)
We didn't discuss MySQL a great deal at the dinner; I guess even Arjen needs a break from it. But we did talk about how "free software", in order to be marketable, needs to have a high consultancy fee. Oh, and the benefits of having multi-disciplinary research teams. And how some of the high-ranking members of the OSS community could really deal with learning some basic social skills; like saying 'hello' and being interested in what other senior developers are saying.

It was the second time I've spent more than insigificant time with Arjen and I must say the more I talk to him the more I like him. A thoroughly reasonable chap.