Mostly Harmless

Mostly about my amusement

Author: Jan Dembowski (page 6 of 96)

July 3, 2015

That time, and that time and the other time

Hey, remember that time when

  • Reviewing a male IT candidate to hire, in the closed room meeting where someone said “Don’t hire him, he’s about the right age for having a baby”?
  • Or that time in another closed room meeting someone else said “I’m going to remove points from that candidate because he’s a man“?
  • Or that time someone else said “I don’t like his attitude, he’s bossy”?
  • Or that time the women crowded around the one man in the room and talked over him? His idea was eventually the one that solve the problem but a week was wasted because he was a man. You remember that time, right?
  • Or the time a women got in a man’s face at work and started screaming at him because in her native culture men don’t talk to women with authority?
  • Or that time at work when women questioned a man’s sexual preferences behind his back because he was effective and managed his project well?
  • Or that time when an extremely well qualified man with certifications, training and experience came to present his company’s product and all the women did was fawn over his looks? That meeting where the women could not even remember the product name or function?
  • Or my favorite, where a man and all of his work was dismissed with a one syllable word that’s not ever used in polite company? You have to remember that time.

None of that ever happened, you have to replace all the above male references with female.

Once you’ve done that, then you have to realize that it happens all the time. I’ve seen it and I’ve almost always replied with “Stop and take that back. I’m not kidding, you will be reported to HR.” The one time I didn’t was when another two coworkers beat me to the punch.

The amount of bullshit professional women deal with is exhausting to look at. To. Look. At. I can’t imagine what it must be like to live with that nonsense day in and day out.

No actually, I can imagine it. I married the smartest woman I know. I do that weird thing where I like to listen to women and I talk to her all the time.

I’ve heard what it was like for her to be a professional with a) an MBA in International Business, b) a second MBA degree in Advanced Accounting, c) being a CPA and d) many years of experience in corporate america managing a department of 40 people. It wasn’t easy for her ever and the misogynistic nonsense was a constant drag. It was a real and tangible component of every work day.

How different would the world be if the playing field removed that nonsense? What else could women accomplish if they didn’t have to deal with the weight of this crap and microaggression?

*Re reads Lily’s education and experience*

Wow. Did I marry up.

I’m a man in an industry that caters to, coddle and promotes men. I get the benefit of that just by showing up. I’m not diminishing my accomplishments. But I have to acknowledge that another group has to work harder than I do to get to the same place. By default. That’s just stupid and stamping that out has to continue.

This whole post is because I read the comments. I do not think that a few vocal trolls replying in large volume indicates how a community is in reality. But it is the trolls that will cost any group of people members from joining or staying just to avoid that bullshit. That would be the worst and I do not ever want to see that in any community I associate with.

June 17, 2015

I should write this down

I did write this down, but I buried it in another blog post.

Sometimes you don’t want to display the featured image but you don’t want to remove the option from your theme.

This snippet in a plugin or child theme’s functions.php file will accomplish that.

add_filter( 'post_thumbnail_html', 'mh_post_image_html', 10, 3 );

function mh_post_image_html( $html, $post_id, $post_image_id ) {
if( is_single() ) {
     $html = '<!-- The featured image would be here if I chose to display it. ;) -->';
     }
return $html;
}

It doesn’t disable support for post thumbnails but replaces the code with an HTML comment if the post is_single() using the post_thumbnail_html filter. You can use other conditionals as well and even edit the HTML before returning it.

May 12, 2015

Ex-CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling jailed for leaking – BBC News

“There has to be a clear message sent to other people at the agency,” she said, explaining that intelligence officers should understand that they, too, will be punished if they disclose classified information. “There’s going to be a price that will be paid.”

Source: Ex-CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling jailed for leaking – BBC News

Unless you are David Petraeus. Then you don’t have to worry about punishment.

April 2, 2015

“Don’t freak out when you come home”

That’s what Lily said to me on the phone the other day. I thought that was odd because I knew what was going on at home.

Back in January a gutter froze and created an ice dam that forced melting water into the wall. That leak came out of the dinning room and into the bedroom above it. The bedroom wasn’t too bad though the carpet needed to be replaced. The dinning room looked like the ceiling was going to collapse. The wall needed to be taken down and a portion of the wood floor was ruined.

You never want to hear your handyman say that you should call the insurance company. The damage extended to the basement and caused mold down there. After the weather got warmer we began the repairs. This turned into replacing all the old carpet with wood flooring on the second floor. We’ve been in this house 10 years and a little remodeling was in order.

The day Lily told me not to freak out was when my bedroom was gutted.

I’m part cat on my grandmother’s side. Cat’s do not like change and if I could have managed it I would have crawled under a couch and sulked for hours. Part of my routine was to come home, head to the bedroom, change and relax in front of the PC. (Yes, I had a desk and PC in the bedroom. Shut up.)

The whole house has been turned into a construction zone. The dinning room was emptied into the other rooms on the first floor and my desk was moved to the living room temporarily. It’s going into the office/guest room when we’re done. Lily and I took over our daughter’s room and she got to stay with her grandmother.

Today I worked from home and the contractors were doing their job well. And loudly. Ever see on those shows how flooring is laid? The put the board down, WHAM! it with a mallet and use an air driven nail gun to hold it down. TV shows don’t show how loud it gets.

But today there is progress and I’m typing this in my bedroom on my MacBook Air. The room is done and we’ve put the furniture back. We still have everything in boxes but it’s something. As a cat I’m considering coming out from underneath the couch. But no loud noises, I can run back to safety any time I feel like it.

March 30, 2015

A type of spring cleaning

This has not been a good week for me. Not “DEATH AND DESTRUCTION!!” but not a week I’d care to repeat.

Work has been a challenge for the team I’m part of. Things that should have worked didn’t. Friday night I got home after midnight; my day started at 9 AM  but I wrapped it up at 10:30 PM. I had to back out some work I was doing. Saturday I was providing support for another co-worker and was on calls till noon.

Meh, it happens. Usually it works out. At home we had a leak in 2 rooms and we have expanded that work to the whole house. The basement flooring was all removed because another leak caused the floor to be develop  mold. It’s all work needs doing and as the grownups point out “there’s no time like the present”.

We acquired a 20 cubic yard dumpster and part of that was for 10 years of accumulated stuff. I had the task of clearing the garage. 5 cubic yards later I’m only 2/3rds of the way done. My father had filled the garage with items that he used only once. And it’s 10 other identical items; I tossed out so many unused paint brushes and pans. Never used and still good but Dad’s been gone for over 2 years. We will never use those things, they take up space and only remind us that Dad like to hoard things.

Disposing of the radio equipment was the hardest. Dad would buy a pile of equipment on eBay with one tube he needed. The other equipment went into the garage or his work room in the basement. The radios were not working and he’d always intended to work on them or harvest them for parts.

Radios from the 30s to 50s are not a hobby of mine or anyone in my family. That kit would have been valuable to another enthusiast but 29 months later and there’s just no point anymore in keeping it. I started on the left and if it was on the shelf I tossed it. Every scrap of wood, pipes, fittings, etc. went into the dumpster. I tossed enough sheet rock screws to cover my whole house.

It felt like I was throwing out my Dad. I imagined him saying to me “We might need that someday” and that just made it worse. Thankfully he wasn’t like that in real life and he’d wave his hand and say “Nah, it’s fine. We could use that space. Don’t forget that box in the corner.”

1/3rd of the garage is left. His workroom in the basement too. I’m really not looking forward to that. Maybe I’ll see if my brother’s can lend me a hand. I’m like my Dad in that way and I never even thought to ask them for help.

March 25, 2015

The new Press This in WordPress 4.2 beta 2 is slick

Try this: update to WordPress 4.2 beta 2 and drag the “Press This” to your bookmark bar. Visit a URL that you like and poof.

I just did that on a Flickr photo and I was able to select the image from the options and below is the result.

Explore Alvin Bernardo’s photos on Flickr!

Source: Custom Built HG 1/144 Acguy ( R2D2 Color Ver) | Flickr – Photo Sharing!

The post is complete with a source link for attribution. I added some categories and saved as a draft. The whole update to Press This really is well done. It’s more attractive and easier than ever.

March 16, 2015

DigiCert SHA-1 Sunset Tool: Find & Replace SHA-1 Certificates

With very little effort I replaced my existing SSL cert which was SHA-1 based with a SHA-256 version for free.

The SHA-1 Sunset Tool makes it easy to find all of your SHA-1 certificates. Enter your domain name to find affected certificates and upgrade to SHA-256 with a free DigiCert certificate.

via DigiCert SHA-1 Sunset Tool: Find & Replace SHA-1 Certificates.

It’s a neat offer. I could have asked my existing SSL cert provider but I wanted to see how well this works. The instructions and validation steps were very simple.

March 16, 2015

New thrift shop find

I like old film cameras and I often visit Island Thrift to see what they’ve got. Normally it’s just a few 35mm plastic film cameras from the 80s. Those aren’t very interesting, but this week they had some good selections behind the case.

  • Olympus SLR OM-1MD w/50mm f/1.8 lens in good condition.
  • Olympus SLR OM-2 w/50mm f/1.8 lens. The shutter was jammed solid.
  • Yashica Electro 35 G (1968 version, up to ASA 500) with a dented lens rim.
  • Yashica Electro 35 from 1966. The original non-G version that went to ASA 400.

Of course I got the last one. 🙂

original-electro-35-1966-3

I did a check out of all 4 and gave the manager a lesson in old film cameras. I looked at the shutter settings from bulb to 1/1000 on the OM-1MD, checked the aperture changed when moved, the film advance, looked for fungus and scratches on the lens and made sure the shutter didn’t stick.

Except for the OM-2, the cameras worked. The manager removed the OM-2 which I thought was decent of him.

Without a battery the Electro 35 will default to 1/500 exposure. I thought the aperture blades were stuck (they’re not)  but what this new camera needs is work on is the wiring. At home when I put a battery in I got the check battery light working but I also got a ZZZT! noise on the inside.

I took the battery out quickly. This camera is over 48 years old so I do expect some problems. The light seals disintegrate on touch and the whole thing can use a good cleaning.  I’ll do some research, I think I know where I can get this one serviced.

March 1, 2015

An eBay purchase that worked out

Last week my latest eBay find arrived and I was in for a little surprise: it wasn’t quite what I thought it would be. The listing said I purchased an Olympus Pen EES-2 camera, instead I got an EE-2.

You’re forgiven for not having any idea about the difference. 😉 Both models are half-frame cameras, the EES-2 is just like the Olympus Trip 35 and has a f/2.8 lens and zone focusing. The EE-2 I received has a lens that opens only as far as f/3.5 and is a fully automatic camera. You set the film ASA, frame anything past 1.5 meters and click. If the light is too dark then you’ll get a red flag in the viewfinder and no photo will be taken.

This worked out perfectly.  The camera was one I bought for my daughter to use and reskin. She wanted to use one of mine and I didn’t want to mess with those. This one is 100% point and shoot and Friday I put in a roll of Kodak BW400CN film with 36 exposures. That meant I shot 72 photos because each frame gets 2 images.

I like the results. This may be the perfect street shooter camera. You see something, frame it in the viewfinder and you get an exposure at 1/200 of a second.

Here’s  some shots from that first roll.

First roll from the Pen EE-2
pen-ee-2-8
pen-ee-2-9
pen-ee-2-10
pen-ee-2-11
pen-ee-2-1
pen-ee-2-2
pen-ee-2-3
pen-ee-2-4
pen-ee-2-5
pen-ee-2-6

I cleaned up the camera with isopropyl alcohol and may change the leatherette. I also left a 5  star review for the seller. Not everyone is into old cameras the way I am and it all worked out for me.

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Jan Dembowski

Jan Dembowski

I am a software enthusiast who is easily amused and definitely mostly harmless.

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