Midway, Work, Work & Robots

I find it difficult to believe, but I’m already halfway through my term of lectures. Week six is now behind me, which leaves six more ahead of me. A handful of deadlines are out of the way, but there’ll be a handful more over the next week or so. Time certainly flies.

Homeward Bound

Into my last week here in Irdeto. We had a sprint planning meeting and all I did in it was take up space. I asked to leave as it didn't involve me at all, but they had me stick around. Not that I had any work to be doing regardless. Listening to what the guys are going to be doing, it sounds like they'll have a nice easy couple of weeks to start them hard, before they launch into some nice frustrating test cases. Part of me is glad to be going.

Lazier Days

After a night out in the XO in Haarlem on Friday night, with two of the most hipsterish DJs I've ever seen spinning out lots of Techno, I've spent half the weekend in bed. I can't recall the last time I was this tired. Tired to the point where even getting up to go to the shops is a massive effort. I don't know what it is but I hope I shake it soon, back to work tomorrow.

Hop to it

Tomorrow I'll have to start on my INTRA report. It's due in a few weeks time but I'll have to crank out a good 2,000 words on Irdeto. I'm not sure what I'll write but I need to get it done before I leave so my boss can review it for things I can and cannot say. Shouldn't take too long to do. 2,000 words isn't exactly a lot.

Potentially Useful

The new interns have been here almost two weeks. In that time they've been in constant training. I can count the amount of minutes training I've received since starting on one hand without using my fingers. Some of the stuff they're learning seems to be quite useful and would have helped me a lot when I was still fumbling around the system back in July. Guess there's not much point investing time in training me now as I'll be out the door before the month is gone.

A Tall Cold One

A friend of mine started working with me today. He was in training all day, I only saw him briefly at lunch time. He should be finished training in a few days. I wonder is there enough work to keep us all busy. I'm sure they'll find something.

Home Decoration and Video

Today was a good day of work for me. Flashed digibox, programmed the remote and got to work scripting it which kept me busy until just after lunch. Shortly after three, some guy came and took the power adapter from my digibox away. Turns out the adapter was his or something. And that was that, there wasn't another adapter to be found so I was stuck. At this point, my coworker turned and said to me "Well, I guess you're finished work for today." At that point I may as well have gone home, because I didn't get much else accomplished.

Ring-Ring

I think I was a big generous when allocating my hours for this sprint. I sat down to do what I thought was a 16 hour job this morning and had it finished by lunchtime. I managed to do this while reading the tech news on Google reader, though it was a slow news day. As a result I was left with essentially nothing to do for the rest of the day, as the rest of the jobs on my list involve working with a digibox that hadn't even been unwrapped and flashed yet. Hopefully tomorrows jobs will take a bit longer.

Scripted

I forgot to set my alarm last night, and as a result ended up sleeping in, which wouldn't have been too bad except I had to wait twenty minutes for a bus. I finally get in and nobody seems to care that it's nearly 10. Suddenly I gain a greater appreciation for the relaxed atmosphere in the office.

Stacks of Boxes

Set-top boxes, to be precise. Unpacking them, arranging them, stacking them 10 high. Irdeto has a lot of set top boxes. Every version of every box from every operator around the world who uses Irdeto or Cryptoworks. The total amount laid out on the floor was a ridiculous number. I snapped a photo, but I seem to have lost the data cable for my phone. I think I may have left it in the hotel back in June. So the photos may be staying on the phone for a while.

Dash

A new sprint in work from today, for the next month. The planning sessions are filled with all sorts of fun like realising that you have more jobs that need doing, than available man hours to fill. Of course, last months sprint falling apart halfway through and  most of our tasks carrying over to this month doesn't help much. Nor does half the team vanishing for holidays for half the month.

Waffles

Today I had a demo/presentation in work about what I've been doing up until now. I was to explain about the virtual machines, show how they worked, the advantages and disadvantages of them. So we all gathered around a very long table in the board room and reclined in big executive chairs. It was a little intimidating, sitting between a long table of scrutinous engineers and a giant TV, but they seemed to like it. In the end, they know more about how to fix the shortcomings with the machines than I did.

Smartie-Pants

Work has been a bit less boring the past few days. As I've said before, I'm scripting actions for a set top box. This is two fold, half of it is scripting user interactions with the box and checking the screen for movement and error codes. The other half is scripting the server to add and remove entitlements to the box's smartcard, and make sure that the TV scrambles and descrambles with it should.

Just Nod if You Can Hear Me

Today I finally got to debug the code I wrote last week, by running it and troubleshooting the outcome. That sounds like a small thing, but when I'm writing code, unless I can compile it or run it every few modifications to get some kind of tangible feedback, I just feel disconnected from what I'm doing.

Rack 'Em Up

Spent much of the day today fitting shelves into server racks. Which I can assure you was hours of fun. Camped up on the otherwise completely empty first floor, fitting nuts to the racks so the shelves can be attached. I lost track of time. I finished up about 5:30 but didn't realise until I went back downstairs to get a drink. Still a fun day, it kept me occupied. Next task is putting a digital box into each of the 96 spaces that we've made on the racks. Though I don't know if I'll be doing that tomorrow.

Quiet Drink

Now, in the Irdeto headquarters, there is a bar. A general recreational area with a pool table, table football and pinball. Along with beers and soft drinks. This was installed to cater for a coworker get together which was to happen every two weeks. There's a dutch word for it, but I couldn't pronounce or spell it. When I started work, the bar wasn't open yet. It was a new building, and they were still preparing it. Even now, its not finished, one of the pinball machines doesn't work and the dart board hasn't been put up.

Tracking and Tracing

Recently, I've started keeping track of the traffic coming to the site. Not for any reason in particular, mostly just because Blogger have started offering the feature. It's been interesting to see. I've been most surprised by just how many hits my blog has gotten since they started monitoring it in early July, though I also noticed that close to a quarter of them were coming from a Chrome user in the Netherlands. Yours truly. So clearly while the figures seem high, they're really not.

Scrum

This has nothing to do with rugby. I had a crash course in project management today. Specifically the style of project management used here in the office. Scrum, which is not an acronym, is a project management system designed for agile programming and development.

One Third

I didn't realise yesterday, but I've now been living and working here in Holland for a month. Wow. Only two thirds left to go. That certainly flew by. At this rate I'll be home before I've finished settling in. Though, I think it would be a little difficult to get any more settled into this little room than I already am. I'm not looking forward to the box room in Pleasantville after this palace. Let me tell you, until you've had a shower in your bedroom you have not lived.

Slow Ride

I have to say, I'm kind of enjoying my job. I'm getting used to the hands off atmosphere. For a while I honestly thought I'd been forgotten about until I realised I was just being left to my own devices. It's a comfortable and relaxing atmosphere, and I'm getting work done. The food is also great, which is a big plus.