The Times-PicayUnity July 5, 1998

July 5, 1998

Jean Cubed. After the first day I worked here I bought a headset, a big one where the earpieces cover up your ears. I figured I'd need it to shut out the sound of other people's conversations and the sound of the grad student who slurps his coffee in the next cubicle. After a few days, I found I didn't need it; I could track the activity in the hive and still do my work. Yup, it's a big hive, and I'm always aware of The State of the Hive, like it's a big brain with different wave patterns: the hum of ordinary productivity; the flurry of activity when some system goes down; the hot zone where two people are disagreeing. The director is thinking about rearranging the floor plan; I was asked if I wanted to be on the committee to redesign the room. So I told them about how we need a big nerf ball and flipper things attached to our cubicles and springs under the floor so we could tilt...because we're a big pin ball machine. Hmmm, it appears I'm not going to be on that committee after all.
A perk of working at the University is two free courses a year. Starting in September, I'll take a year long course in Networks. Gotta learn how all those magic wires hook together. As an independent goal, I want to learn how to use embedded SQL in C scripts as a way of using the web to talk to Oracle databases. Fortunately there are lots of expert, friendly people in the hive to help me learn stuff.

Last Week


	Jean Cubed. After the first day I worked here I bought a headset, a big one where the earpieces cover up your ears. I figured I'd need it to shut out the sound of other people's conversations and the sound of the grad student who slurps his coffee in the next cubicle. After a few days, I found I didn't need it; I could track the activity in the hive and still do my work. Yup, it's a big hive, and I'm always aware of The State of the Hive, like it's a big brain with different wave patterns: the hum of ordinary productivity; the flurry of activity when some system goes down; the hot zone where two people are disagreeing. The director is thinking about rearranging the floor plan; I was asked if I wanted to be on the committee to redesign the room. So I told them about how we need a big nerf ball and flipper things attached to our cubicles and springs under the floor so we could tilt...because we're a big pin ball machine. Hmmm, it appears I'm not going to be on that committee after all.
A perk of working at the University is two free courses a year. Starting in September, I'll take a year long course in Networks. Gotta learn how all those magic wires hook together. As an independent goal, I want to learn how to use embedded SQL in C scripts as a way of using the web to talk to Oracle databases. Fortunately there are lots of expert, friendly people in the hive to help me learn stuff.