I made unnecessary work for my lead tonight, after he did me a favour. Let me give you a piece of advice, don't make extra work for your superiors at your job.
Before going home, my lead graciously left his computer unlocked so that I could test my changes on his machine as well, giving me a better idea of how my stuff was all working.
When I went to get my code changes off the Perforce server, I promptly overwrote three of his files, stuff that he'd been working on but hadn't checked in yet. So you're probably wondering how it's possible to clobber files if everyone is under source control. Here's the "funny" part, my lead never actually checks out files for edit until he's ready to check in. When he edits files, he sets the permissions locally to overwrite, bypassing the source control until he's good and ready to contact the Perforce server.
Of course, I knew he works that way but I guess it was kinda late and I reversed two steps, thereby blowing away his current changes. I realized what I had done about a second after it happened and thought that this is why I'm not a lead, and probably won't be for a very, very long time.
I wrote him an e-mail apologizing for my error. Then I went upstairs, got a Coffee Crisp and placed it on his keyboard with a Post-It on it saying, "Sorry." I may also buy him lunch tomorrow if he wants.
Now I know I shouldn't have erased his changes but if I could mention one thing... you're really not supposed to be using source control like that. As soon as you try to save any changes on any file, it should be immediately placed under source control. I'm totally owning up to this but I'm just sayin'!
Oh, I'm pretty sure I think I set him back about 15 minutes worth of work... I think... let's hope I'm right.
I know I've told some of you that if I were ever blessed with a daughter, I'd try to convince the mother to name her Oceania. I am now also considering the name Molly Beth.
In several of my previous posts I've stated that I get e-mails on a rarely used account that are clearly not for me but some other person who has incorrectly configured their e-mail client. They are able to send messages but all replies to any messages come to me.
It may sound interesting to get another person's e-mails but this individual seems to lead a pretty normal and "by the books" type of life. No one even forwards him porn, which I'd settle for.
Last week, it got a bit awkward for the first time when he sent a message but it got bounced back because the end recipient didn't exist. I guess he got the address wrong. Anyways, since it bounced back, it didn't go back to him... it went back to me. From the looks of it, I think this is either a dating site "first contact" type of message or some other message with romantic overtones.
I'm going to publish an excerpt here, censoring details that might get picked up by a Google crawler.
Subject: To the The S****y Girl who likes working out in the Gym
Hi,
Like your ad on the Web. I am from C****a been in S******i 2 years ago and really like it. Originally from G*****y but live here in C****a for ** years.
I like the Chinese Culture and been practicing Kung Fu and Tai Chi for ** Years. Would like to learn Chinese and Visit China more often. I am ** Years old used to work in F*****e but do more a********s work now. Well you say you not ugly at all and have brains, very nice. Maybe we can start as friends I teach you G****n or English and you teach me Chinese and show me China someday, who knows where it leads.
Looking forward to hear from you
Erwin
I know I've said it before but now I'm really, really considering telling this guy he's messed up his e-mail client. Mind you, now there's a bit of awkwardness involved, I'm tempted to not tell him. I think that would be wrong. Of course, there's no way he knows the message bounced, so I can spare him that indignity.
Hindsight being a Hubble telescope, I really should have told him months ago when this first started.
There is currently some weird snow falling here in Po Mo. I've been outside to investigate and I'm here to report my findings.
The snow is unlike anything I've seen or at least can remember. It's falling in tiny, spherical pellet form. It's dry and light. It's so light that passing cars can pick up the pellets and send them airborne again. It's very dry to the touch, though it doesn't look nor feel like hail. It's not in flake form at all. I bent down, grabbed some in my hand, smelled it, and then tasted a few pellets... that didn't tell me anything.
This odd-looking snow might mean only one thing... zombie apocalypse.
It's amazing the number of things an average person can worry about in modern society. People worry about money, family, relationships, jobs, and all the other issues that fall under those categories. It's quite possible to have over a dozen concerns in your head at any one time. Living in a modern society is a complicated endeavour.
With so much going on, I wonder if we could just step back for a second and get some perspective or perhaps think of something else other than our normal concerns. When you think about present-day modern civilization, it's amazing what humans have accomplished. We are essentially animals. We are animals like every other animal on this planet. Granted, we've evolved into one of the most intelligent species this planet has ever witnessed but we're animals nonetheless.
So here's the part where I ask you to acquire a piece of perspective. Every human that has ever lived has done so on this planet. Every piece of recorded human history has transpired on Earth. This planet is of just one of eight in this solar system. As every one of us worries about what to eat for dinner, we hurtle around the sun on a rock that somehow has sustained life for millions of years.
Do you ever just wonder what lies out there in the far reaches of space? I know that our solar system resides in the Milky Way galaxy but what's beyond that though? Is it more galaxies? So, if that's true, what's beyond that? What is at the edge of the universe? Is the universe finite? If it is, what is beyond its extremes? If it isn't, how is it possible that something that exists cannot have boundaries or a definite size? What existed before the Big Bang?
Stop for a minute and think about those things. It's utterly amazing the cosmic situation that we find ourselves in.
I would be remiss in a discussion about the cosmic makeup of the universe if I did not address the issue of extraterrestial life. It has been said that there are as many stars in the universe as there are grains of sand on any typical beach. Given the vast number of stars out there, it would seem logical that intelligent life, like ourselves, would be common in the universe. Yet, for all the conspiracy theories out there, we appear to have no concrete proof that there is any other intelligent life outside of what is on Earth.
The contradiction between the high probabilities of life on other planets and the lack of evidence of such life is sometimes referred to as the Fermi paradox. It's a fascinating read on Wikipedia and I encourage you to give it some attention. People have attempted to come up with theories as to why we are observing such a paradox. I won't list all the theories but one interesting one is that intelligent life does exist but humans cannot detect it because of our own biological or technological incompatibilities.
An interesting theory that tries to explain the Fermi paradox is the Rare Earth hypothesis. It supposes that despite the vast number of stars in the universe, the chances of intelligent life existing outside of Earth is exceeding small. The theory states that so many things had to go right for life to evolve on Earth, the odds of that happening on another planet are small enough that we might not ever come in contact with another intelligent lifeform.
Thinking about the issues of cosmology won't solve your personal problems but it sure is interesting. If you want more to read, I suggest you start with Wikipedia's entry on the known universe.
