Capt. Mondo's World o' Mondo-ness

Got the Job!
After a summer of book/article writing and some contract Web development stuff, I am happy to have just get word that I have landed a full time job. I'll be working at ATI as an Information Architect/Senior Tech Writer in their Documentation division. Woo-hoo!

It's funny, but it's a case of when it rains, it pours (or more likely, there is hiring budget that must be spent) because the evening before I got a call from the President of an adventure travel firm I had just had a second interview with a couple of days ago, saying that he was going to try to pull an offer together for me. This put me in the enviable position of being able to pick which job I wanted. In the end I went with ATI more because I think it will prove to be the better fit. The Web development for the travel firm would have been in a funky environment right downtown, but after meeting with their tech guys I got the distinct impression that work there would be a real grind, and in an environment where IT is a means to an end rather than anything else. If I didn't have the choice and the offer had come the week before, I would have leapt at it. (Oddly enough the job with them would have been for slightly more, but they made it a four-month contract instead of full-time, which was another factor which made me decide against it).

The job means I'll be doing a lot of work with XML, deciphering and creating filters for raw FrameMaker output, database work, coming up with localization standards, and documenting procedures. Right up my alley really. ;-)

It does mean another long commute – it's located in Markham, which is a good hour plus away via TTC. I've been there twice so far, and have yet to figure out the best route to get there and back, though the new Don Mills station on the "purple subway line" seems to be the nexus.

Can't help but think that a graphics card manufacturer like ATI fits in well for me career-wise. While I won't be doing Web development and to many it may seem a step backwards, my talents have always seemed to lie in writing, and I think I've pretty much had it working for small companies that promise much and usually deliver little. Right off the bat during my first interview it was suggested that some training in an area of programming I haven't dealt with before might be a good idea. The fact that they even suggested sending me for training was a big plus – usually the topic of training is akin to that of pulling your manager's teeth in terms of painfulness – both for me, who pretty much always had to pay for things myself, and for the manager who wanted to say yes, but couldn't. Again, the benefits of being with a larger company. I also get full health and dental on day one – no waiting period! – as well as a nice chunk of shares in the company.

The actual job starts the day after the Thanksgiving long weekend, so I've got a couple of weeks to finish off my contract stuff, do some concentrated work on my articles/book stuff, spend some time with the girls and do some fun things around the city without being encumbered by the nagging worry about where the next dollar is coming from.

Internet Connection Back-Up, Sort Of
For the better part of this past week I've been virtually without Internet access, getting only dribs and drabs of data packets going through my cable modem, and often not even that. While all of thye hub-bub was going on regarding the job offers I also had a Roger's modem technician come in to look at my set up. It seemed as the problem may have been with the line itself, as switching the modem for a new one didn't make any noticeable difference, and the technician was going to escalate the problem when a collegue of his suggested on the phone that he try a completely different modem. He did, and everything was returned back to the way it was, if not better! The main difference is that the new modem uses a different frequency range to transmit and broadcast data – a completely different band than the old one. The best guess is that there was some interference that affected the frequency range of the old modem, but not the new one. Interesting – will have to keep that little solution in mind for future difficulties.

I may have inadvertently fried my Internet switch, as I accidentally connected it to the power supply used by the WiFi hub and vice versa. So far I can network between the various computers connected to the switch, but they can't connect to the Internet. My base machine works when I connect it to the Internet directly, but not through the switch. Oh well, something else to work on, in addition to continually repairing that same machine from the infamous "blue screen of death" that occurred during start up that popped up last weekend, prompting a re-install of Windows XP. I think that this is the third such install of the OS for that machine so far – ugh. Thank you again Mr. Gates... Going Linux full-time is looking better and better to me...