What a Project Manager!

So the project manager for my project has been somewhat distant. Sort of asking for things (demanding) when he feels like and simply not realizing that he's a project manager and not the manager. He is responsible for keeping the project schedule not dictating the resource's (individuals) schedule.

Today I included him in the loop about an issue where he woud like to know the progress and this task has been in the works for a little over couple of weeks and I thought he'd like to be involved. Also he might be able to use that PMP certification to some use. Instead of trying to be project manager and trying to get the things that the team needs, he chose to be confrontantional. Insinuating the I'm not doing enough to get this resolved. He starting sending emails CC'ing others asking if this was done or that was done. Whether a certain thing was tried. Little does he know that people in the lower ranks, where work gets done, actually know what they're doing. Otherwise, they would've have been promoted to middle management years ago. In the end the task was done, but a lesson was learnt: never include the project manager unless wasting the time is one's intention.

Fun work day

What a Monday! Another day full of not much done. Great day to be doing work.

Other than that it was great.

Cold Weather

The weather has been so cold lately that getting out has not been fun. Normally, one could go out to a restaurant over the weekend or go watching a movie, but this cold has made it hard to want to leave the warm indoors.

This has also taken a toll on other fun activities. On the plus side, it has allowed me to stay home and play some guitar and get some recording done. I was actually able to record some stuff during the day with the amp mic'd instead of being DI'd.

Fun stuff, really. I wonder how cold is it in the bahamas right now. Or the other tropical places. I wonder if many people go this time of year. Maybe holidays but beginning of the year sounds a little hard since most work place would be eager to get to start working. To make money.

Another day in paradise.

It's a beautiful day. It's a shame it has to be spent working on some random project. Beautiful day regardless.

Some of us are working form home. Others have to work from the office. With each passing day the number of fellow employees grows smaller. The smiles on the faces turn more political and the words more charged.

Fun Times. Really!

What a day!

No, there is no need to start singing What a Feeling!

The day is just moving slowly. The oracle issues just don't stop. Somebody should tell oracle to move into the current century with the products.

On the other hand, the good news is that it's not raining. It's cold but not raining. Cold is still but rain is not as enjoyable. Mostly, because running to and from the car to buildings gets you a little wet. If working from home, the rain is actually quite enjoyable.

To quote a whole country: Ciao!

SQL Server vs. Oracle

So we wrote some pretty involved code for a project. It was using SQL Server 2000. There was all kinds of .NET controls that use the SQLDataSource component. All of a sudden at the last minute the requirement was changed to use Oracle 9.2. Now you would think simply changing the connection string would good to set all things pointing to Oracle.

Well! You'd be wrong!

The SQLDataSource component need to be specifically told the client type is Sql.OracleClient and it won't just read the correct configuration from the config file.

So all the code needs to re-examined. All test cases need to re-run.

Not to mention all schemas need to be regenerated in Oracle. And of course, Oracle doesn't do anything the easy or nice way. So that'll be who knows how long spent trying to fix this.

SQL Server 2000/5 have it so much better. Any thougths?