Friday, May 25, 2007

Unix deployment


Another tough meeting with the boss man yesterday. I think these session should be called the bash the project manager day. I am always in the defensive with everyone having a field day on my expense. Luckily I was able to keep my nerve. I hope I am building some point during the meetings while rolling with the blows. The rope-a-dope of boxer Muhammad Ali. I didn't think I would be using boxing strategy in my meetings. But looks like it is the only metaphor I can use to describe the strategy.

Basically, the plan is keep doing the job despite the criticism. Such as writing the specifications, organizing the meeting, writing the minutes do the nitty gritty work despite the criticisms from the arm chair managers. It's a good thing I am on leave today to relax and enjoy myself. I am still left with my other project which is not doing great. I wonder why I find myself always in this position. Strangely, I learned from my fried that I have gotten the highest percentage increases for the past 3 years. I think that is some vindication for me. In a company like these, the raise goes to the good soldier not the high flying know it all managers. The organization in fact was called the Mexican army with too many generals. In our case, there are to many managers.

On my other project, deployment to the staging environment has not turned out well. Apparently, the Java program contained hard-coded elements that works in a Microsoft system but now has problems in a Unix environment. A silly mistake which is caused by a simple syntax issues where Microsoft recognizes '\' backlash to distinguish directories while Unix recognizes '/' forward slash to distinguish directories. It's good we have another company doing code review to isolate this issues.

I attach a mind map on critical thinking I made long ago in the hope of improving the way I think.

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