Category: Musings

The 70’s Miniseries

I just finished watching the miniseries The Seventies produced by Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman.  They also did The Sixties.   It reminded me of what I grew up in and what went on around me.  I highly recommend these.

The presentations provoked thoughts that had remained dormant for these many years and renewed how my present life was formed.  I played in a band, I protested, I played sports in school, I went to concerts, I enjoyed all the youthful experiments in drugs, marijuana, sex, music, cars, motorcycles, and cohabitation.  Our ideals were dismissed roundly in the early years.  Many things have made it into the mainstream.  The real loss has been our youthful optimisim. 

While I remain optimistic about our lives in this world, I am convinced that there are large capable forces at work erasing and diminishing the hopes of the 60’s and 70’s.

Please comment on this subject.

 

BLL 2019-09-26

Core Competency…REALLY?

I was engaged recently in a project to identify the traffic on a global network to solve slowdowns in the work being performed by engineers on high performance workstations.

The most difficult part of the work was the total lack of tools. The second most difficult thing was the failure of the management to be concerned about that.

The mission was to gather requirements to be submitted to enterprise network plan, build, and run teams so that the slowdown problems could be remediated.

As I began the requests went in for basic information like a global network map, monitoring tools, and access to machines in order to place probes.

Network maps, either physical or logical, were non- existent.

The monitoring tool was a well known more than adequate management and performance monitoring system that I had used for many years. It was not set up properly, it could not retain much information for analysis, and custom reporting access was refused. It was installed in three regions without any joining together of the database backends.

Requests to get access to the machines to place probes was refused.

While this is going on I learn that the purchase of undersized, out of specification, equipment for a remediation of a site that was a decade overdue was being done so that a schedule was met and the money spent before the end of a fiscal cycle. The kind of work to be done on the site had no bearing on the decision.

One other interesting thing was that all datacenters were to be consolidated by collapsing them into fewer and fewer sites all colocated off-site from existing corporate sites.

Everyone in every technical discipline was concerned that the plan was inadequate and that given past practices the future was not going to be good.

The corporation was grown by acquisition. It was not grown by innovation. Decades old talent that had worked at the acquired organizations left in droves. Those that remained were waiting for their retirement.

When asked about why the organization would place their data centers into another organizations hands the reply was “It is not our core competency”.

Given the experience one wonders what is their core competency? I know! Pass the buck.

What My Cover Letter & Resume Should Say

The resume is too long. Yes the resume is long because I have worked for decades and all of it is relevant.

When using the Internet for collecting job offers one places resumes and cover letters on myriad sites. The fond hope is that carefully crafted work fits the requirements of the individual looking for talented people.
Unfortunately in this day and age the process is layered with several people or web forms prior to getting to the actual individuals that can judge one’s abilities.
This brings to mind thoughts of what I would rather have said when wordsmithing the erudite cover letter and resume.
What follows is a mixture of venting and fun at the expense of the reviewer of my submitted products. It is in the form of their response followed by my response.

1.  The resume is too long. Yes the resume is long because I have worked for decades and all of it is relevant.

2.  An inventory of skills is just a list of “buzzwords”? No you idiot they are the actual hands-on devices, applications, and systems used in my experience.

3.  The form of the resume is not in the correct “person”.  May I point out that the form is not in the correct person’s hand?

4.  There are too many jobs in a short time frame.  Yes consulting work runs a few months to a year or so; seldom longer unless hired into the organization.

5.  There needs to be more narrative.  Wait a minute. You just complained it was too long.

6.  The content is too technical.  Duh! Who is reading this?

7.  I do not see any relevant experience.  Could you if I gave it to you in any other form? A documentary maybe?

8.  There are only successes shown in the resume.  What?

9.  You should have a professional write you a resume.  Would you recommend your secretary?

10.  You should have a professional write you a resume.  You were right…….and the massage was fantastic!

How Can I Help?

This evening an acquaintance ask me to come over and help with the installation of some artificial grass. I had on many occasions provided a fix for some predicament they got into.

It did not go well.

I arrived late after working late and spending a brief time at home getting a meal. I was confronted with a demand to lay the artificial material on the dirt after leveling everything using some sand piled in bags in the corner of the area.

The area had been worked by someone to level the hard ground. It was, for the most part, very smooth and level. I explained that putting sand down would not provide a stable underlayment.

The demand was for more flatness and no holes. That had been already realized by the previous work. I began to take the material out to size up the issues with how the seams would line up and what would be needed to join the sections to make a one-piece artificial grass area.

At that point criticism was made that they could have done that already and why had I not put any sand down. The rant went on for some time. I sat down on a chair and thought of what I would have to do.

There was not lighting in this area so I was working in the dark. I was pondering what I would have to do to further level the span and how would I firm up the ground with loose sand; and not nearly enough of it.

To help, the acquaintance turned on the cell phone flashlight to attempt to illuminate the area. It was shined directly into my face as a litany of the shortcomings about my efforts spewed forth. I had enough!

At that point I yelled to turn the F%$#)!* light off. I yelled at them about how I cannot understand what is being said without seeing their face and watching them speak; my hearing is damaged and that had been explained many times.

At this point I was told I needed to take a rest….I must be tired. They were right. I was tired of trying to explain the correct way to do this and that being ignored. I was tired of being called at the last minute because others had been run off of the project by the same condescension and abuse.

I could not see a quick fix for this. The suggestions as to how much and how long it would take were being dismissed.

The hot seaming required of the segments was unknown and the raising of the issue generated even more abuse.

I picked up my tools and announced that I was done. I came home angry. I had been called at the last minute. My understanding of what needed to be done was disregarded. My respect for the individual has ebbed.

How can I help such an individual?

What Our National Security Did Not Do

I just finished watching this documentary called “A Good American”, a film by Friedrich Moser.  The story is about Bill Binney who once worked as an analyst for the NSA.  Oliver Stone is the Executive Producer.  What it offers in pretty clear language and evidence is how badly misappropriation of public monies, corrupt Washington insider activity, political appointments, and gross incompetence lead up to the losses of 9/11 and subsequent years.

Bill and others employed at the NSA developed a program called thinthread which, when placed in the communications streams being monitored by the NSA, traced communications packets from source to destination and saved the data about the data (called metadata) into a large database.  Then, using techniques Bill developed in previous decades, reports could be made showing the interconnections between hundreds of millions of telephone and internet users worlwide.

It was so successful that it could find threats developing well before anything would happen and allow for a substantial advanced warning on threats about to happen.  Bill’s earliest use of the analytical techniques told of the impending Tet Offensive in Hue in Vietnam.  He perfected the automation of the techniques with the introduction of the personal computer.

At the NSA he was given charge of a small team of individuals to automate analysis of the data being collected.  The team quietly did that and demonstrated it’s efficacy at several “research” operations the NSA ran around the world.  It was discovering things that no other individuals or systems were able to discover.

As the world threat levels loomed and Osama Bin Laden began financing the terrorism, Bill’s thinthread was detecting those activities in advance.  The problem was that the appointed head of the agency, the director in charge of analysis automation, the assistant director in charge of analysis automation, and the newly hired systems vendor had a vested interest in making sure Bill’s thinthread did not get to play throughout the agency.  They made millions burying it and touting their nonworking, expensive, protected system offered by the vendor SAIC.

As a good American Bill then pursued notifying the Defense Department of the missteps by the bosses.  What he did not anticipate was the fallout.  The NSA had pulled the plug on thinthread and buried all information about it at the direction of the bosses who were enriching themselves pushing the nonworking system SAIC had produced.  They even went after him, his team members, his Congressional liason, et al as enemies of the state.  Later the FBI’s case was dismissed due to falsified charges.

There was another feature Bill and team worked into the code that prevented anyone in the United States from being spied upon without the proper court authority.  Those same bosses stripped it off.  The NSA is not to spy on U.S. citizens by law.  The bosses were also law breakers.

In subsequent years Bill and team tried selling this technology to other government agencies and were stymied by the NSA at every turn.  Well into the post 9/11 era the NSA still did not have or use the thinthread or any equivalent of it but instead continued to push the SAIC vendor solution.

Bill and the team members are retired now.  They had to “retire”.  Our country is at greater risk without them.  Our government agencies are accelling at their incompetency and trouncing our civil rights to privacy all at the same time.

 

A Veteran’s Story

Less than a decade after the Vietnam War I met a man who was delivering my mail. In the ensuing years we became fast friends. In those years he often would deliver the mail in the blisteringly hot July afternoons while on foot. He enjoyed being outside and the heat was just a consequence of doing his work.

On one such occasion he stopped to talk. I offered him water which he gladly took in. The conversation got around to what his experience was in the Army. We had spent time together and talked some about his experience but on this day he went into great detail.

At first he confessed that he had never told anyone this story. It was too painful a memory. He had to get this load off his chest.

He began by talking about how as an infantryman in the Army in Vietnam it was quite a grueling slog. It was punishing and it drained you. His company was often called upon to traverse the jungles, find the enemy, and engage them. It was not uncommon for them to “party it up” a bit at night at the end of one of those kind of days.

It was on one of these occasions that something terrible and life-altering occurred. As he awoke in the morning he discovered that every other member of his team had been slain during the night in their sleep. Their heads were cut off and placed on their chest. As he looked down the row of his fellow soldiers he could see a severed head on every other body.

Certainly that was an emotionally and physically traumatic experience. What troubled him most was the fact that how did he get chosen to live. This is one of the most profound emotional issues with veterans. The question is why did I survive? The answers are seldom forthcoming.

As it happened on this hot July day under the shade of the big tree in front of the house, he told the story for the first time. He nearly collapsed as he told the story and came to the realization that once again he did not know why he was spared and that he had just confessed for the first time to the pain and the suffering he had been carrying around.

Through the tears and embraces we consoled each other. What was irreconcilable was why was he chosen to live. It was never resolved at that time. What would take place years later would finally give him solace.

As with many men and women they work hard to take care of their families, to do their job well, and to make life be purposeful. This veteran performed in that manner in a stellar way. He was very good with his family. They often traveled and met together at various homesteads throughout the state. On this one occasion near Casa Grande Arizona, his question would be answered.

The family gathered together and barbecued at one of the homesteads. It was a trailer on a lot in the open desert. It was nothing fancy. They lit up the grill and cooked hot dogs and hamburgers… maybe some steaks. Everyone ate well. Lots of potluck was brought along. It was a wonderful day and as evening descended upon them they retired to their beds and their cars and the grill was placed next to the trailer. There was no wind and the charcoals were nearly out.

In the night screams awoke the veteran. The winds had come up and the grass was caught afire. The flames had begun to consume the trailer. All of the children were in the trailer. Nieces, nephews, sons, and daughters were all about to be consumed by the flames. He threw the door open and ran to the back of the trailer. He broke out a small window and began to hand the children out one at a time. The flames were burning his flesh. He was in anguish but he was determined to get those children out. The other parents gathered those kids up as quickly as they could and got them away from the trailer. By then the flames had the entire rest of the trailer involved. The window was too small for him to get out. It was obvious he was not going to make it. It was at that point that he stood up and looked out the window and waved goodbye. He had saved all the children.

It was not until some time later I heard of his demise. It was then that I remembered the confession under the shade tree in the front yard. I knew that now he would be at peace.

If you believe in the soul and the spirit and the value of life it’s difficult for anyone to go into war and to come back whole. It is our responsibility to take care of those individuals. The government and the politicians cannot do it.

I would hope that on that day under the shade tree I had given some solace to a heroic veteran. I am sure that now he is in a good place.

June 9, 2017

Bernard Lambert

Hitler Is At Work

Read or watch these:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler’s_rise_to_power

https://www.quora.com/How-did-Hitler-come-to-power

http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/25points.htm

Adolf Hitler

 

After you digest this, would you not agree tht DJ is emulating Hitler? Please post your comments!

Good Viewing

Since the election of the new president elect I have been doing some viewing of documentaries in a search for some sense of how things have gone and how this will go.

It is good mental practice to think of past, present, and future.

To that end I would suggest watching these two documentaries:

Requiem for the American Dream – Noam Chomsky identifies what has happened to the American way of life as it was once known.

The Best of Enemies – Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley Jr. do intellectual debate.  This centers on debates held by ABC news in 1968 at the Republican primary in Miami and at the Democratic primary in Chicago.

This will cause you to think about how things have changed!