Little things I learned about working in IT in the government

A blog/forum I frequent listed 10 dirty little secrets you should know about working in IT. I experienced some of the things in the list. Here's my own:
The salary grade in IT is better compared to many other positions. The pay for IT professionals is better than the ridiculously low salary grade they give to other positions. In the Philippine government, Information Technology Officers are 1-2 salary grades higher than other officers, although they are still paid lower than those in the private sector.
It will be your fault when users make silly errors. This will happen often. It is human nature (or public sector nature) to blame others for their own "kapalpakan".  This happens often when you introduce a new  hardware or software system that is beyond their comfort zone.
You will go from goat to hero and back again multiple times within any given day. When you are able to fix the silly error they make (see previous) - you are instantly a hero, that is until their next silly mistake.
Your co-workers will use you as personal tech support for their home PCs. Your co-workers will treat you as their personal technical support personnel for their home PCs. They will ask you about how to deal with the virus on their personal PC; ask you how to upload photos and videos, etc. A sufficiently higher officer on the pecking order can even ask you to install wi-fi in his home.
Managers and consultants are quick to take all the credit when things work well and will blame you when things go wrong. Like in the blog/forum, consultants here will try to put the blame on you by arguing that their solution works great elsewhere so it must be a problem with the local IT infrastructure. Managers, on the other hand, curiously, are often on the consultants' side and will try to adjust local processes to accomodate the consultants. Managers always try to save face and their hide before the really big bosses.
You’ll spend far more time babysitting old technologies than implementing new ones. This is related to the next one. The Philippines, despite the onset of technological advances, still maintain a lot of legacy systems. IT personnel spend a lot of time maintaining established technologies than implementing new ones. One reason is the budget, there is simply no new money to acquire the newer technologies. Another reason is some older people do not want to wander away from their comfort zones.
Veteran IT professionals are often the biggest roadblock to implementing new technologies. Sometimes, upgrading or replacing software or infrastructure is more cost effective. However, one of the largest roadblocks to migrating to new technologies is not the budget; it’s the veteran techies in the IT department. Once they have something up and running, they are reluctant to change it. You can't teach old dogs new tricks. Specially when they are downright and comfortable where they are.
Some IT professionals deploy technologies that do more to consolidate their own power than to help the business. When they don't want to wander off their comfort zone, they secure it further. Some IT managers implement technologies based on how well those technologies make the agency dependent on them.
IT pros use jargon to confuse nontechnical managers and hide the fact that they screwed up. All IT pros screw things up once in a while. However, not all IT pros, as the blog suggest are good at admitting when they make a mistake. Much more the Filipino. Given that many top managers are not techie enough, IT pros use jargon to confuse them (and cover up the truth) when explaining a problem. The irony is the jargon is equally confusing to the older (veteran) IT pros who use them. A perfect case of the blind leading the blind.

Go Fed!

In the lull before the NBA finals, I turn to the French Open for the sports thrills. I like Roger Federer's odd to win this one, he showed tough grit in recent wins and he's not facing Nadal this time. I watch men's tennis because of the high level of play mixes well with the intense drama.

On the other hand, I like the women's side because of the great looking players. I did not like women's tennis back then during the time of Evert, Jean-King, Navratilova and even Graf. Even if Bobby Riggs (a male) lost to Billie Jean King (a female?). But Ana Kournikova changed all that. The first tennis goddess made me watch women's tennis seriously, albeit for another reason.

So now I eagerly await for matches involving the likes of Ana Ivanovic, Maria Sharapova, Maria Kirilenko, Hantuchova, Elena Dementieva, Nicole Vaidisova, Anna Chakvetadze, and Iveta Benesova among others. I wish somebody with the face of Ivanovic, legs of Sharapova, the gravity-defying 34DDs of Simona Halep (see photos below), rolls into the sensuality of Kournikova. That would be the ultimate delight.But I wouldn't watch Sarah Gronert, even is he/she has been cleared to play tennis as a woman.

 

 

Google yourself

Do you google yourself? I do. This practice may seem narcissistic, though I just want to know what pops up when others google me. Sometime ago, when I google my name, some events/seminars that I have been part of show up. But two years ago my name wrongly appeared in a news item about raps filed against some NGO. And ever since I realized some elementary school classmates search for me in their attempts to reconnect with former batchmates, I wanted 'better' Google results for me.

A Google study says that people search for themselves because of their curiousity about what other people see when they search for their name.  But the problem is we don't have any control over the search results.
To give people a bit more control over search results, Google introduced a feature it calls a "Google profile," which users can create. Once users create a Google profile, their name, job and location (photo is optional) appears in a box on the first page of the search results for their name. Next to the thumbnail info, there's a link to a full Google profile page that resembles a Facebook page.

Google maybe jealous of the inroads made by Facebook. It fears it will suffer the same decline experience by e-Bay because of Facebook. By giving users a some control over the results that appear on a search for their name, Google hopes to take on Facebook and MySpace.

The Google profile lets you set up a personalized page on which you can include links to your blog, photos, videos, and personal website. You can include a brief bio, list your current interests, places you've lived and schools you've attended. There's also a space where you can list your "superpower", a curious attempt to be cute.

Unlike Facebook there is no feature that lets you "friend" another user. There is a "Send a message" where others with a Gmail account can send you e-mail without knowing your e-mail address. It's tight integration with Google maps enables your profile to locate you on a map, approximately.

Google says the more information you add to your profile, the higher your page is likely to be ranked on a Google search for your name and associated keywords, such as the name of your hometown, your job title or where you work or go to school. So I think my elementary school mates can find me easier on Google now and the I hope the results about the syndicated estafa raps filed against a client will be deep down in the results pages.

There may be a downside to this, however. The more richly detailed your Google profile is, the more Google knows about you. Already, Google has my photos, email, videos, blog, etc. What happens when Google suddenly goes down? It is possible, could be a problem when that happens. But I'll ponder about that later. So go and create your own profile. Meanwhile my Google profile is here.

Sex video scandal: who has the means, motive, opportunity?

As fans of TV crime dramas like CSI and Cold Case, some people have their own conclusions on who the guilty parties are in the current sex video scandal that grips the nation. The victims here are the women who were filmed without their consent. Efforts to portray the one who setup the hidden camera also as a victim just wouldn't fly. It all started with him. Remember that the crime here is not him being seduced by the women, nor them offering him drugs. The crimes are the videotaping and the subsequent release to the Internet.

The crime of unauthorized videotaping is solved with the admission by the culprit. The crime of uploading to the Internet can be solved by following the methods of our TV crime drama detectives, my armchair detective friends say. First who has the means? With today's Internet tools, anybody can easily upload anything to the Internet. Who then had access to the videos? The one who made them, of course. But he had them for a while. Some videos were two years old. Why didn't he upload them then? He always has the opportunity, I suppose, but he doesn't have a motive, so far.

Who else then have access to the videos? Pamela Anderson's and the other notorious sex scandals were stolen. The videos (and computers) in question now were not reported stolen. They were retrieved by the doctor-lover of the lover-doctor. Ahh, so she had the videos. Means? Didn't I tell you it's easy to upload anything to the Internet, much more so if you have techie-friends. Opportunity? May I remind you that between the retrieval last December up to the release, was 5 months of planning and opportunity.

Motive? Imagine this dialog:

Witch Doctor: You two (four?) timing snake, how could you betray me? After the Php300k allowance and car and European trips?
Hidden Komeraman: They drugged me. But forget that, I will make you happy. Besides, I have a video of us too.
Witch Doctor: Ohh, please don't leak it. I don't want to be a model for prunes. Besides, you're the only one who can make me happy. I forgive you. I'll deal with them in my own way!
Hidden Komeraman: I know you can't resist me.

So what happens next? The lady doctor changed her lawyer. From a pock-marked brilliant trial lawyer to a TV-friendly-faced brilliant academician lawyer. Preparing for the media in the long haul? If there was also a video with the lady doctor, why wasn't it leaked like the others? If there was also a video with a comedienne, why wasn't it leaked, too? Because they can control what leaks, and the comedienne supposedly enjoys the protection of really big people. Then they contrive a story of retrieving the computer and asking others to delete the videos. Introducing other people in the scenario affords the couple reasonable doubt. Then divert the story by alleging drug use to the victim. This wouldn't fly either because that would imply drug use in the other videos including the one with the lady doctor. So they try to make the doctor look hapless and pitiable by dousing him with water. Meanwhile the lady doctor flees. Even if others regard flight as guilt.

With all the obfuscation and media machinations, the public will get tired of this whole show. But the victims remain victims. People can imagine the lady doctor having the last laugh - 'I told you when a guy already has a girlfriend, don't go in there and try to have sex with him.'. Then the doctor makes love to a prune. Hahahaha.

Hopeless PAG-ASA III

Another blog pointed out PAG-ASA's kapalpakan last year. He made a sensible suggestion for the PAG-ASA to compare its weather forecast first with U.S. Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) and other countries’ weather forecast such as Japan, Taiwan or Hong Kong before announcing it in public. Or better yet, just tune in to the other weather bureaus. Our weather agency has the knack of declaring public storm signals and the lack of storms to justify the warnings.

Related to the hot Monday and Tuesday last week, PAG-ASA forecasted the hot weather that has plagued Metro Manila and nearby areas to go on for one to two more weeks before the rains come in. It said this is due to the ridge of a high-pressure area across Luzon. "So far, our forecasting shows this hot weather may persist for one to two weeks more," a spokesman said on radio.

But the weather was not listening. Metro Manila experienced a very heavy downpour this afternoon. Flash floods and heavy traffic await the payday crowd, just because the rains was not tuned in to PAG-ASA.