On Fri, 1 Jun 2001, Adrian Graham wrote: Most definitely! :-) Many employers don't like people to think, it seems; they just want 'droids. (BTW, best of luck with finding a new job!) Since I lost my full-time job a couple of months ago, I've been able to spend a lot more time thinking and actually getting things done -- like lots of research and writing; installing a new, tall, set of bookshelves and filling them up; finding some classic computer documentation that I couldn't find; adding more disks to one of my Suns; learning more about JavaScript; collecting enough cables with DB-25 connectors to last me a few years; figuring out a fun way to change my web site into something that I like better that may provide me with some income; taking more photos on horseback; figuring out how to make room for my VAX 4000-200, if the seller _ever_ sends it (I should have paid more attention to the e-bay feedback, but I wanted that VAX... has anyone else here dealt with a company in Texax called Techs-R-Us? It's been over a month now since I sent them the check, and still no VAX.); etc. ...of course, the paychecks are useful. :-) Now, a few hopefully helpful hints for people who are, or aren't, employed, from some valuable lessons that I learned this time around: Do NOT accept a position where nepotism exists (e.g., the boss' brother and nephew are your only other cow-orkers, and watch out when the nephew loses his private office and you have one, and he wants yours) and where you know what changes need to be made in order to make things work right (Just keep yout mouth shut and don't try to to make helpful suggestions, and don't grab the bull by the horns like I did and go ahead and start to implement some of them...). For example, suggesting the ditching of SCO OpenServer and installing a real database (e.g. Oracle or PostgreSQL) to replace, or interface with, BASIC code written by hand every time a new report needs to be created, and creating a user-interface that will interface with the system's data, and a real database to provide custom reports on demand over a closed network (needed for confidentiality). Be very, very, cautious, when they do not understand, and don't want to learn about, or be taught about, technology that you're familar with that could be helpful. As the old saying from Lost in Space goes, *** WARNING, WARNING, DANGER WILL ROBINSON! WARNING, WARNING... *** Be especially wary when a supervisor, or her/his hired relatives, say "What's wrong with SCO?," "Oracle is too slow," "What's MySQL or PostgreSQL?," "BSD is the same as Linux and originated at the same time as Linux," "What's FreeBSD or OpenBSD?," "BSD isn't useful for anything serious," "What's wrong with the fact that we re-wrote all of the company's software (a complex system), that was written in proprietary BASIC, in BASIC (which also requires a dongle to be on the system for it to work)," "The programming interface---a set of C library files, is useless; what do we need those, or the use of sockets, for?," "Our software is fine the way it is, and the physicians who work here don't need custom reports on demand even though you understand they want them---we can just copy data files to a Windoze PC from the main server and someone can use database software on that to generate special reports once a month if needed," or, "We don't need our own e-mail server, we're just going to buy large blocks of Hotmail addresses to use with our domain name for the doctors and other employees to use." Oh, yeah, if you think the end is approaching, don't hand over, to your boss, or other cow-orkers, that thoroughly cross-referenced 300-plus page document that you created which explains what all of the programs on their system do, which were never documented until you had the idea to document them along with all of the library calls, etc. Get rid of it; destroy it; delete the files, burn/shred the paper copies, unless you want to keep a copy of the documentation for yourself. Life's a great learning experience, what? :-) RDD -- Copyright (C) 2001 R. D. Davis The difference between humans & other animals: All Rights Reserved an unnatural belief that we're above Nature & rdd(a)perqlogic.com 410-744-4900 her other creatures, using dogma to justify such http://www.perqlogic.com/rdd beliefs and to justify much human cruelty.