September 20, 2000
Dear Everyone:
10 years ago, I was thrilled to get a
386 computer at
work. Top of the line (or
nearly). The
Internet was
something known about by only a few “specialists” at certain colleges
and the military.
Alvin Toffler,
in his book
Powershift, predicted that “those who do not have computers will
be forced to get them by those who do”, but even he didn’t see the
explosion coming that would turn into the
World Wide Web.
Or, as one guy in the library calls it, “the World Wide Attic”,
because it holds everything for everybody.
Just think, a few clicks of the mouse and you’re
looking at the floor plan for a house in another state that you might be
considering buying. (The
house, not the state; unless, of course, you’re Bill Gates.)
Or you can fool a mover into transporting an antique
phone booth
650 miles for only $525.
Today, that 386 wouldn’t qualify as a boat anchor.
Meanwhile, at work, I have a list of approximately
2842 “People ID’s” to check on.
About a week ago, I happened to notice the name of a woman that I
knew had left the company when they offered the Special Involuntary
Termination Enhancement (extra severance pay if you “volunteered” to be
involuntarily terminated).
In fact, she promptly turned around and went to work for
NASA in
Houston.
That started me thinking about how many other
people had “grabbed the SITE package and run”.
I printed the list in alphabetical order by last, then first
names. When I checked the
first 100 names on the list, 42 of them were no longer working for the
company. (I have a way of
doing this because of some of the computer authority that I have that
let’s me check the ID’s of all people working at the company, something
I can’t turn over to a lowly contractor.)
That means 42% of the people authorized to have
boxes checked out in their names are gone.
Something needs to be done to make sure that someone else doesn’t
use their ID’s to request boxes and violate our security (such as it
is). That part is simple.
We created a Department Group that contains zero departments.
By linking the ID to this Group, it effectively stops anyone from
requesting records for, or checking records out to, this ID.
But first, I have to identify all of these “gone”
people. That’s a lot of ID’s
to look up. (On the other
hand, it could turn out that we just had a high incidence of people with
last names in the “A’s” and “B’s” that grabbed SITE and ran.)
What surprises me more than the names I recognize as having gone
are the ones that I recognize as being still around.
“Hey, I remember this guy.
I worked with him over 20 years ago.
He’s still around?”
(He’d probably think the same thing about me.)
I’m hoping to have the list completed by the end of
this week. Then, maybe I can
draft someone to help me link all these ID’s to the “dead
letter” Department Group.
OK, movies…
I probably would not have chosen
Almost
Famous, but it was “Jeannie”’s turn to pick the movie, and I
didn’t see any others that I would really rather fight for, so we went.
The title refers not to the protagonist, a kid named William
Miller, but to a rock band that he intends to interview for
Rolling Stone
magazine. Seems the kid
wrote some pieces for his school paper which were picked up by another
magazine. When the editor at
Stone offers William the chance to do an in-depth piece on the
group, the kid sort of forgets to mention that he’s only 15 and still in
high school.
When he manages to hook up with the rock band, they
see a cute, wide-eyed kid, temporarily forget that he’s a journalist
(i.e., “the enemy”), and kind of adopt him as a
mascot.
What follows is the odyssey of a year with a travelling rock
band, with all the sex, drugs and rock and roll that his mother fears.
Frances
McDormand steals every scene she gets near as the overprotective
mother who hounds hotel managers around the country with messages:
“Call your mother!
Don’t take drugs!!!”
In fact, for the most part, the band and their
groupies really think
that they’re looking out for their little mascot.
At one point, the cocky lead guitarist grabs the pay phone from
William to give the mother a piece of his mind, only to find himself
standing at attention and repeating, “Yes, ma’am!”
“Jeannie” tells me that it is a fairly good
depiction of a “mid-level” group in 1973.
I don’t recall paying any attention to rock groups in 1973.
But the costumes and sets are dead on.
And the music was completely forgettable as this small group
takes their meteoric rise to mediocrity.
As for young William, can you imagine having a
cover story in Rolling Stone
magazine at the age of 16? I
can’t.
Love, as always,
Pete
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