Take Off! My Life and Times in Toronto
My life and work in Toronto, Canada.
My life and work in Toronto, Canada.
I'll start the Boston Blog later this week ... just wanted to put out a "heads up" to regular fans.
I'm at Pepper Computer, Inc. now, on a short term contract. My NDA precludes my saying anything about it, so I won't. I can say that their product is "not available in stores" so you haven't missed it if you've gone looking. But it is pretty cool and very geeky.
How to Reach Me
I'm back in the USA, so my cellphone is back in service. Call 214 207 7812 to reach me. AIM is another way to get ahold of me, but if you are not on my buddy list, I won't accept a message from you. And of course, my email address is monitored pretty much 16/7.
Bill's Place
I've moved in with Bosney, into a room he formerly used for hobbies. It's snug, and I haven't fully setup my desktop yet so it's a bit slow going on the Toshiba laptop, but we'll get there.
Finished at ATI.
Had my exit interview with Steve L. and checked out today. He told me he found my blog quite a while ago (Hi Steve!) ... but of course he didn't mention it until my exit interview. Whatever.
Did lunch with the Two Bretts at the Lone Star Texas Grill, skipping the QA group's trip to a big Chinese place on Woodbine.
Packing packing packing. Hope to be out of here by 9am tomorrow (but figure 10am).
I had a scare today ... got an email from my supervisor that implied my exit interview was today at 4pm. I misread the date -- it's tomorrow. So ... the plan is still "go":
Tonite: Visit Beth and Brian, off loading housewares, etc., pack clothes
Tomorrow: Finish at ATI, pack hardware
Saturday: Load the car in the morning, drive to Barbara's; enjoy party
Sunday: Drive to Worcester, possibly hooking up with Albany crowd for brunch
Looking forward to a change of pace and to moving in with Bill.
Reluctantly, I went to the ATI event at "The Docks" down on Cherry St. at the waterfront. I was goaded into signing the waver and I had no intention of actually participating in the events.
The Docks are on a jetty running out from the DVP and Lakeshore Drive, but inside the Toronto Islands. The view of downtown is rather striking.
I was assigned to "Team 6" which was composed of guys I don't work with very much. This didn't do much to endear me to the team.
The folks I regularly work with (from left to right): "Wilson" Wei, Nicholas Wu, and two co-op students. These guys are part of the QA group.
The first event Team 6 did was the "Gladiator" fight. I sat this one out, and we got beaten with a stick. Literally. Most of the guys just stood up there poking each other with the blunt sticks, not doing any serious fighting.
The next event was a four-man bag race. Reluctantly, I joined the race. We were beat with gusto by the other team ... and I was gasping for air at the end of the race.
The next event was a group-walk on a big plank. I joined the team on the second half of the walk (we had to swap in the team members not in the first half) and we won. It took a substantial coordination and was an indicator that our team was "gelling".
We proceeded to win the paint ball event, the trivia event, and the dreaded hoola-hoop event. In all, we won six of eight events, and I suspected that we were the first place team.
At the awards ceremony, everyone was in pretty good spirits, mostly because we knew this whole silly thing was almost over.
It turns out ... my team was in second place, losing to the top team by a single point. I was still pretty tickled by the outcome ... considering the irony (again) of "team building" when I was a "dead man walking" at ATI.
The winning team got a free pass on the crane swing. I'm not so sure winning would have been that good!
Another shot of "the Docks" area.
Looking south towards Toronto Islands.
I finally got a commit from my manager here to leave on Friday.
I'm heading downtown today for an ATI "team building" exercise ... yeah, the irony didn't escape me.
Tonite I'm going to do triage on my housewares and pick out stuff that I'm giving to Beth and Brian as I won't be taking it with me (plates, cups, bowls, detergent ... just housewares I'd rather not toss) in my limited cargo space. I'm visiting them for dinner tomorrow night.
Thursday I am supposed to do lunch with Susan Hewitt, a manager here who's been very helpful with advice on how to transition to living in Canada. She is in charge of the product I tested the most while here. Dinner, as mentioned, will be at Beth's.
Friday I'll close out my work PC, submit my last timesheet, and go to the RI and start packing the Golf. I'll check out in the morning, eat one last powdered egg and Muslix breakfast, and then drive to Barbara's.
I am going to retire this blog and start a new one for my time in Boston. The URL will be posted as the last entry on this blog Sunday.
I spoke with my manager this morning about finishing on Friday, and I think he's finally coming around on this plan. I'm done with my principal work here and the next test series won't begin until after I'm gone by the 27th, so why drag it out?
Meanwhile, I'm going to attend an offsite "team building" event tomorrow. Spare me the cries of "oh, the irony!" It's something to do other than read about XFree86 and wait for Friday. It's down at "The Docks" which I haven't been to (but have driven past) so it's an opportunity to see a little more of Toronto before I'm gone. Oh and they want us to wear our "minon" T-shirts.
Update: The big offsite event is cancelled -- again -- tomorrow. It's going to rain, rain and rain for the rest of the week.
I had a phone interview with HP in Richardson today. The interview went well enough, but they're going to take weeks to decide whether to offer me a contract job, and it won't start before the middle of the month, if not later.
So I'm going with the "sure thing" -- Pepper Computer in Lexington, MA. They've offered me a contract through the end of September with the potential for more work from home in McKinney.
The only annoying thing is I told my project lead today at ATI I was leaving a week early, and he disagreed. I guess he doesn't understand that I don't have to work for ATI -- indentured servitude it is not. I'm 95% done with the last cycle of testing and I can close shop next Friday with no work left undone.
At the end of the day, I had heard from the headhunter trying to place me at HP in Richardson that they were almost certainly going to offer me the contract job, and that the Pepper contract was not a problem because he was sure they'd wait for me to return to Dallas in four to five weeks (near the end of September -- I must be home in time for Anne's birthday!). This was good news, although far from a certainty, because it means I have (potentially) now got work that will last a long, long time (the HP contract is multi-year, but in this market and with HP's current problems, who really knows?).
Meanwhile, back at ATI, the same problem manager who derailed my vacation with Anne and the kids tried to tell me I had to work until the end of the month (and he meant 8-30, which is highly amusing since his manager told me I was done on the 27th). I told him I was finished with testing this coming week, and that I wanted to move on to Pepper. After thinking it over (after work), I don't really care all that much whether I stay the last week or not, but it might help with cash flow since I don't really know how long it will take to get the first check out of Pepper. Right now I have three paychecks pending from Oxford if I work at ATI until the 20th. One more week would round it out and I can delay the RI bill on Amex to boot, lessening the cash flow problem until the Pepper money comes in.
So who really knows what will happen. If I don't finish on the 20th, I'll drive down to Barbara's for the Decker party and return for one more week at ATI. Otherwise, expect me in Boston on the 22nd. Stay tuned ...
Eric Smith sent me a short email today confirming that my contract will not be extended, and my last day is 8-27. I'll leave Toronto by the 28th (or sooner), and I have only one weekend left to "finish out my dance card" and see any sights I have overlooked.
Right now, that is:
The Bata Shoe Museum
The Toronto Zoo
Ontario Place
Hamilton Warplane Museum
Frankly, none really grabs me. Two are aimed squarely at kids, and the other two are kind of esoteric museums.
I went to Scooters tonite for the last time, and said my goodbyes to the folks there I've befriended over the last several months. They played All My Ex-es Are In Texas in my honor. Somehow that just doesn't sound right!
I still haven't heard from my ATI manager about being extended another three months (it turns out he's in Ottawa at a funeral) but the office manager said she was under the impression I was being extended. That's not anything like a confirmation, and the word on the floor is that we're waiting for a big vendor to sign a big order (I presume that's sufficiently vague for the NDA).
My contract house (Oxford Associates) is looking at some other prospects for me in Marlboro, MA. This would be with another group at ATI but I'd be doing Linux device driver work, which I like working on. This sounds like a pretty solid opportunity with a different group at ATI (I presume the rate will be similar to the one in Toronto, including the bizarre per diem arrangement), and I look forward to the possibilities.
The headhunter in Dallas who was pressing me to finish up here and get home as soon as possible has left a message saying the client (HP) isn't in as big a hurry as before. I'm not surprised, but of course dissappointed.
Glenn Vanderburg's contact is working on connecting me with a firm in Dallas and his (that is, Glenn's friend) own company is considering opening a satellite office in San Antonio, which is where they'd want me to work if I came on board. That's a 300+ mile drive home on the weekends ... yikes. Nothing much happened today on that front.
I applied for several jobs listed in the D/FW area over night, and one placement firm called back today. They do Palm and Pocket PC development, and it could be quite interesting. I'll hear more from them as the week goes by.
The company that Bosney put me in touch with (in Lexington, MA) has all but made me a formal contract proposal. They want me to work on contract at their office in Sept., and then I can return to Dallas and (hopefully) continue to work for them remotely (with some travel). They make a handheld PC using embedded Linux, and I'm really excited about this offer.
Mike Weisberg told me today to expect a call from his Albany, NY consulting firm. He's submitted my resume for consideration and hopefully we can arrange an interview (possibly in person, since I can get out there in an afternoon's drive). If I were to join his firm, I'd have to plan on moving the family up to the Capital District -- probably after Alanna finishes 8th grade next Spring.
Things are looking way, way up and I am much relieved to have all these options spreading out in front of me. Many thanks to all my friends who have supplied their good name and blessings towards potential employers in MA, NY and TX.
My contract runs out at the end of the month, and I'm working on finding the next job and/or staying for another three month stint if offered. My supervisor has indicated that he wants to continue the contract, and that he's working on the budget. He suggested that he would know sometime next week, so I'm figuring next Friday before a definite answer is available.
My group is losing it's best developer, Tong Qiu, to another group in ATI. I've been enhancing his test application and am trying to position myself as the next "expert" on it. I've also made a good rep by delivering substantially better documentation for test suites (I can rite Eanglish an' stuff lahk that) so my perceived value is improving. The big unknown is the new middle manager, Steve Levine, who doesn't seem to care much for me.
If my contract ends on the 30th, I'll pack up and drive to Schenectady that day or if the packing takes too long, stay one more night at the RI and then drive directly to Boston for the WorldCon. I'd drive home starting on Tuesday, September 7th.
If my contract is continued, then I'll try to drive out to Boston on the 2nd of September (Thursday) and return on the 6th (Monday), really really late.
If you know about job opportunities opening up in Boston, Dallas, Los Angeles, Kansas City, Austin or Houston that entail strong Linux/Unix, C/C++, or device/kernel development, let me know! My resume is here.
This cartoon was brought to my attention by Zed in his blog MemeMachineGo!.
Disclaimer: I have made my living thanks to broadcast TV since the 21st Century started. Woe is me. My life is a misery. And I'm at the start of a very big downer ...
Got a scare yesterday. A manager said something that implied my contract was running out at the end of May, and not later as I had been assuming. It took about half a day to get it all sorted out, but I'm good until at least 6-30-2004, and probably much longer. I didn't need to be thinking about how to pull out of here and yet still have Anne and the kids up for vacation in the middle of June!
My employer sent an email out last night warning employees not to come into work until 1pm today. Apparently, there was a bomb threat! Several employees expressed concern that this was a cover for a massive layoff -- so far no one's gone.
There's an article in the New York Times today about rivals Nvidia and ATI Technologies. Interesting read.
Some of you might wonder what my employer is paying me the big bucks to do up here. Well, now I can reveal the truth (thanks to my digital camera).
I watch Elmo's World. I call it "Hell-mo's World" but it's essentially the same show, just repeated until one goes starkers.
It starts with Elmo singing his theme song, which is probably only slightly less annoying than Barney's giggle, while the camera pans onto his "building".
Everything in Elmo's World is a crayon drawing brought to life (except, unfortunately, that evil hand puppet that is Elmo). Consequently, Elmo's World is, first and foremost, a learning annex for kids who want to draw on walls with crayons.
In the clip that I have to watch (over and over again), Elmo says hello to his fish, which (astonishingly) does not reply. This causes Elmo to open wide and belch like a cannon. (I wish ... this is just Elmo deep into a vowel sound):
Finally, Elmo's door dialates the same way you'd expect it to if you're into your 2nd gram of LSD, and lo and behold, behind it are a gaggle of kids. Elmo's favorite snack. Dig in, Elmo! Mmmm ... them's good eats!
Sometimes I wonder if I'm getting paid enough, but then I think of the fellows at DG Systems who have to watch every single TV commercial in North America, and I realize that perhaps my pay's not too bad afterall -- but Elmo Must Die.
Melanie just e-mailed me saying that her husband, Lyndon, is taking a contract in a distant city. This time, it's Atlanta. I gotta say, I sympathize, and for once, I really do appreciate the pain of separation. Best wishes to Lyn and Mel -- at least he'll be making the same kind of bucks I am in exchange for leaving his family behind (in his case, a boatload of cats and Mel).
Everyone in Dallas who knows Melanie ... call her and visit more often (Mike, you especially!) while Lyn's away.
The Bush Economy -- splitting families across America.
One more fellow to introduce from work: Andre.
Andre develops QA code and scripts, and is the more reserved guy in the group. He's thoughtful and witty, and chooses his words carefully. Not as playful or zany as Albin but still a funny guy.
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Left to right: Albin and Wilson
Albin, the kid on the left, is the goofy yet indespensible member of the QA Team. He's the "go to" guy for a lot of the testing. He's young, hyper and good natured. He was "demonstrating" a signal technique when I caught him in an awkward pose. Everyone wants a copy of the unretouched image.
Wilson is from Ottawa, via China (Shanghi). He's also a contractor, who drives in from Ottawa to work here in Toronto during the week. He's been getting an earful from me about American politics (we get to watch CNN during our testing) and I'm learning about Canada and China from him. He was stunned at the quantity of gadgets in my car when I drove him to the National Health registry office in Toronto on Thursday ... he really wants a GPS now.
Posted by Steven at 10:52 AM
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I finally took some photos of the guys I work with at ATI Technologies. On Fridays, the testing group goes to lunch somewhere as a group. I took my camera along to photograph some of the guys, because I don't know what ATI's policy is on cameras in the office (but I suspect it's pretty harsh). The lunch testing group consists of the lead testing engineer (Tong Qiu), three guys who work for him (Andre, Albin and "Wilson") and a chap from the testing lab named Steve Levine. The fellow in the following photo is Tong.
I don't know for a fact that Tong is Chinese, but I am fairly confident he is. His accent is pronounced, and I occasionally have a hard time following him when speaking. He's friendly and good natured, and I enjoy working with him. And no, he doesn't know about this weblog so the previous sentence is not sucking up :-).
If the original post showing my commute wasn't clear enough, then this photo ought to make it "crystal". I took this shot from the front door of the ATI building I work in:
Crossing Commerce Valley Road is the most hazardous part of the journey. It goes without saying that Andrew Dillingham is going to B-slap me even more for rubbing this in with Epson salts, but after driving to work at D/FW airport for 25 months, this really is a nice break. When I return to Dallas, I hope I find a job north of the Plano Dixon Line (aka SH 190).
The real reason I had to come to Toronto:
Building the line from Dallas to Toronto was expensive! Empire Builder fans will get this immediately. The rest of you will have to puzzle it out for yourselves.
Today in the New York Times one finds an article titled Lingering Job Insecurity of Silicon Valley [free registration required]. This article dissects the theories as to why high tech employment is so depressed, and I agree with most of the analysis. But the bottom line remains: people (such as myself) are having to look far and wide to find jobs in the software industry, often far, far away from where we live and where we were nearly fully employed in 2000.
Three things are contributing to the malaise: offshoring, overtime and automation.
Offshoring is very, very political right now. It's becoming the third-rail of my industry -- politicians touch it only reluctantly. Economists argue (probably correctly) that offshoring is inevitable and even good for our economy. It contributes to the reduction in price of goods and services that software firms (and really any service firm of a certain size and up) offer.
But that's "macro economics" talk. On the street in dense software developer markets like Silicon Valley, Rt. 128 in Boston, and the Telecom Corridor in Richardson, TX, the beneficial effects are washed over by the large drop in jobs, and the softening (hell, the melting) of wages for software engineers. I took a 35% cut in pay from 2001 to 2003. This contract job is the first time in four years I'm earning a six figure income again (but look at the price I'm paying).
Offshoring has happened to many, many industries in the U.S., it just comes as a hell of a shock to people (who spend the bucks to go to four year university and earn a hard-as-hell-to-achieve degree in engineering) that their efforts won't pay handsomely for the rest of their careers. That you'll almost certainly have to migrate to a new field at least once in your career, and I don't mean from Cobol to Java. More like from software ... to biotechnology. Inevitably (and possibly good for the economy as a whole) offshoring -- right now -- is softening wages in my field dramatically, and is the most obvious source of the "jobs gone for good" malaise if only because there's a human face associated with the trend. Nevermind that the choice is made by a CEO you never see.
Overtime is another problem that isn't talked about much by the still-employeed. Companies, since 9-11, have all but ceased hiring because they have been able to squeeze more and more hours out of American workers thanks in part to the recession, and also because of the softening wages that offshoring creates. Employees know they have to work that weekend their boss wants them to, or they'll get kicked out of the club. Many of you know the sacrifices Anne and I made during my "sentence" at DG Systems where my masters did this very thing to me. Working 60 hour weeks, however, did not save my job and several people there cautioned me so. They were right. Don't play this game!
There seems to be some traction on this issue with workers, who are starting to sense this abuse by employers will be coming to an end if hiring picks up (unless outsourcing eats up the hiring surge). Overtime is the dirty secret that the "still working" know and that the out of work lament. It allows firms to hold off hiring until things get desperate (there are signs of this, but I'm skeptical).
Finally we come to automation, the real job killer in the services sector. This is the major culprit in the NY Times article, and essentially the "other" overtime multiplier (someone doing the work of more than just one employee) limiting job growth. Since the Internet boom, software companies, big and small, have built better and better automation into core services like web servers. What this means is that companies that run their own IT don't have to have "the Computer Guy" on board (or, for that matter, put up with his 'tude). They can rely on more and more automation, just like we all do when we check ourselves out of the Kroger at the U-Serve line or draw cash at the ATM.
Frankly, I'd be surprised if this wasn't a greater contributor to low employment than offshoring and overtime combined. We all know what a staggering multiplier the computer is -- imagine automating oil changes in the auto industry. It's literally at that scale ... and tens of thousands of people in IT that do little more (figuratively speaking) than the kid under your car at the Jiffy Lube (and that includes, for example, database operators) are soon going to be out of work. If you aren't literally "The Professor" from Gilligan's Island (that is, a frigging genius who can make radios out of coconuts) you're not going to be of much value to service companies.
In the end, HAL will take your job, not Punjab, or Bob (the guy with no life who works eighty-hour weeks) the bachelor.
Scary stuff.
I've been rather quiet about my job at ATI Technologies since I started. Part of the reason is simply that I have just started there, and don't know much about what's going on. Another reason is that I'm not entirely clear how "secret" the stuff I work on is. I'm developing QA Software for a group at ATI that produces the Xilleon MPEG decoder chipset. I think that's about all I should say right now, but as a tid bit, here are ATI's two main buildings:
The left building is #1, the original and the real galactic headquarters. The right building is #33, where I work on the 2nd floor in a maze of cubes and lab rooms. Every room and door has a fancy, shiny label on it.
If you need to reach me, try these numbers (all have voice mail):
1. Work - 905-882-2600 x3128 (desk) or x2715 (lab)
2. Residence Inn - 905-707-7933 Rm. 416
if those don't work, my cellphone is online but costs 30 cents/min. and I don't have CallerID:
3. 214-207-7812
so only use it on an emergency!
I still read my e-mail at steve@deltos.com, but my ATI mailbox is sstaton@ati.com. Only use it if steve@deltos.com bounces.
This is a fun entry. Many of you know the long and tortured history of my "drive to work". My first job was in Orangeburg, NY, so I (naturally) chose to live 60 miles away in Danbury, CT. A recent job (DG Systems) was a mere 45 miles to work. And so on. In Dallas, my shortest commute ever was always at least twenty miles each way.
This is my new commute. I walk past the CAA (Canadian Automobile Association) building, cross the street, and I'm at ATI. It would actually take longer to drive. This nano-commute really makes the cost of the Residence Inn seem worth it. I've seen Toronto's traffic and it's not any lighter than Dallas/Ft. Worth's.