The Whiteboard

user55340

12:13 AM

@ratchetfreak did you see the puns in one of the answers?

user55340

148

This might get me suspended from the site butt I cannot resist. The shape you are looking for can probably be approximated (depending how anal you want to be about the outcome) by two assymetric probability distributions. The obvious choices would be a Poasson or a log normal distribution. I wil...

user55340

12:32 AM

btw, 'ello @Joe

Joe

haha, hola @MichaelT

user55340

(chat here can be active... though for most of us, its a window open on a second monitor while at work... outside the 9-5 work day for various timezones, it can be a bit quiet here. And since today is a holiday...)

Joe

@MichaelT Hi there, I posted the subject question about whether I should take an internship with NetApp or IBM - didn't even realize there was a live chat I could ask on..I was wondering if you could tell me a bit about your experience at NetApp?

I was offered a position with a tool development team but I definitely feel I would be beneficial to any company as a software developer/engineer. IBM is offering a true software engineering intern position though. You said you know some people that work/have worked at IBM. Thoughts?

subjective^^

user55340

I was in a department that bounced around a few times from division to division... initially internal business applications. Then it was Customer Support - Internal Technology... and then it was part of Information Technology with a dotted line to CS.

user55340

So, I was on one of those teams for internal tool development.

user55340

12:35 AM

I worked on now.netapp.com (the cs portal for customers) and the internal cs web pages, and a couple big tools (if you do go to Netapp, say you talked with "Shaggy" who worked on the Panic Message Back Trace Analyzer - someone might remember me)

user55340

(and if you get lucky - you might even work on something neat (see patent google.com/patents/US7769752 ))

Joe

Haha, awesome! Alright Shaggy, did you enjoy it?

user55340

I had a great time while I was there. I also had an excellent manager and team I worked with.

Joe

I'll be working under Bruce Eitzen... ring a bell?

user55340

@Joe not off hand. I was laid off as part of the general economic slump of '09 and that resulted in much of the internal development as part of IT then being outsourced. Other departments were able to hang on to their teams.

user55340

12:40 AM

So, if this is part of engineering or customer support - dunno... didn't work as closely with them.

user55340

Glancing at connections on Linked In, a number of people I worked with are still there (they were on managerial career trajectories), others have scattered to other places. I was commenting earlier that my old team lead back then is now a CTO.

user55340

(and an intern I worked with is a director at (Adult) Friend Finder)

user55340

And it is a good place to work at. There's a reason why they've routinely showed up in Fortune's 100 best companies to work for ( netapp.com/us/company/our-story/great-place-to-work/index.aspx )

user55340

(still find it rather ironic that the #1 in 2009 was within days of that layoff... but thats more a personal story than a company story)

Joe

I saw that! I was really excited, they're also #3 on Great Places to Work's list of Best Multinational Companies to work for.. I guess the hesitation I'm feeling is about being in a tool development team - maybe my assumption that a software engineering intern position is more prestigious, is off a bit?

The

The guys I spoke with on the phone seemed a tad upset to tell me they weren't actually software guys..

user55340

12:45 AM

For interns in the modern day, I'd ping @Ampt (who was an intern up until recently)

user55340

Honestly, we're all software guys. We might not be product guys... but the people that keep the company running efficiently is important so that the product types can do their job more efficiently.

user55340

The PMBTA (that thing I mentioned if you go there ask about) - its a tool that allowed sustaining engineering team to do their jobs much faster. Automating what would take them half an hour into typing a command... and providing that for automated tools too.

user55340

So what if its not one of the product engineers thinking about the aspects of copy on write filesystems and snapshots or how to get a tighter loop for a given part of IO. Its a problem that needed to be solved and one that I was able to do.

Joe

Very nice, that definitely clears things up and makes me more excited about the offer

user55340

At the end of the day, we're solving problems with writing code. Thats our job. Just as a carpenter solves problems with wood. Its a problem that needs to be solved. Take joy in solving those problems wherever you may find yourself.

user55340

12:52 AM

And I'd urge you to stop by chat again tomorrow during the "day" or Monday during the day to get more people with other perspectives.

user55340

user55340

The info for the room shows how active the room is for different days at different times.

user55340

Normally (non-holiday) it would still be rather active here as it isn't yet 5pm on the left coast (those times are UTC).

user55340

But our weekends are rather quiet.

user55340

But afternoon here, during the week? Yep... we're up and chatting.

Joe

12:54 AM

Definitely, this has been extremely helpful.

Left coast lol

I appreciate all of your input! That PMBTA looks really interesting as well, I'll be sure to bring up that I spoke with Shaggy about it

user55340

There are some east coasters, some midwesterners (I'm one of those), a guy who can see the Rockies and a few who see the ocean not too far away.

Joe

lol

user55340

(I wonder if they ever cleaned up that email alias of shaggy@netapp.com - it would bounce (internal mail alias), but that was me)

Joe

Haha, I'll be sure to check the DB

user55340

There were some groups where I was better known as Shaggy than as Michael. I was one of the few who had a mail alias that wasn't part of the name.

user55340

12:57 AM

(when I started at Netapp, my employee ID was 600 something... it was a smaller company then)

user55340

Oh, yea, and a Canadian.

user15026

grins you only remembered me when I came in the room? :p

user55340

You could do things for pure 'fun' then without any red tape. One facilities person... her dog had a valid company badge.

user15026

@michaelT wait what?

user55340

@AshleyNunn smaller tech company. Dogs as part of Silicon valley work culture wasn't unheard of (the day the malamute was in the office was rather amusing). She was in charge of badges, and got one for her dog.

user15026

1:00 AM

Makes sense to me. :)

user55340

So... malamute in the office... they're big dogs. You get a team of huskies to pull a sled... or one malamute.

user15026

Yeah, they're pretty massive

user55340

►

user55340

So... one guy had a malamute and brought him into the office. He had to go to a meeting and so had Sean look after the dog. Sean was a heavy 200 lbs. He tied the dog to the chair.

user55340

The chair has wheels. Well, you don't train dogs in English to avoid them hearing "go" and going. But this dog thought he heard the word for "go" when someone said something in another language.

user55340

1:03 AM

And, he started going. And nothing that Sean could do would stop this dog.

user55340

Sean is yelling "whoa, halt, stop, no, cease" as he's getting pulled down the hallway.

user55340

Goes past the conference room the other guy was in the meeting and he shakes his head and goes out and says "stop" in the appropriate language.

user55340

but yea, dogs in the office were not uncommon then.

user55340

mercurynews.com/ci_20860385/…

user55340

> Zynga's got its "barking lot'' just outside the main lobby in San Francisco. Amazon offers dog biscuits at the receptionist's desk and dog-friendly water fountains around its Seattle campus. And dozens of companies in the Bay Area and beyond are listed on dog-friendly websites in case you -- and your four-legged companion -- want to check out the amenities offered by your prospective employers.

user55340

1:11 AM

Anyways... sitting back for thanksgiving with a glass of cranberry + apple wine. Its a subtle cranberry flavor (even the apple is subtle). If you didn't know, you'd think it was a traditional grape wine with notes of cranberry and apple instead of the other way around.

user55340

@enderland btw, how was that grape salad? (background)

user55340

(side bit - debating if I could/should make a run over to Minnesota for some wine my parents really liked - carloscreekwinery.com - the "Hot Dish Red" ccwbottleshop.com/collections/minnesota-nice/products/… )

user15026

@MichaelT I'd not do well with a company that allowed dogs - they make me uncomfortable. Might just be I've rarely met a well trained dog, though

user55340

@AshleyNunn My manager at SGI (and amusingly was also my manager for a little bit at Netapp) had a dog. He'd bring her in at SGI and put a child gate at his cube which was enough to keep her from wandering around. Very friendly and didn't make a noise (important in a call center). She wasn't a small dog either.

user55340

1:26 AM

Rhodesian Ridgeback

The Rhodesian Ridgeback is a dog breed developed in Southern Africa. Its European forebears can be traced to the early pioneers of the Cape Colony of southern Africa, who crossed their dogs with the semi-domesticated, ridged hunting dogs of the Khoikhoi. In the earlier parts of its history, the Rhodesian Ridgeback has also been known as Van Rooyen's Lion Dog, the African Lion Hound or African Lion Dog—Simba Inja in Ndebele, Shumba Imbwa in Shona—because of its ability to keep a lion at bay while awaiting its master to make the kill. The original breed standard was drafted by F.R. Barnes, in Bulawayo...

user15026

Yeah, I am starting to think most people I know just don't have well trained dogs, and that's why I don't like them. (I know a lot of farm people with farm dogs, who are allowed to basically run around and do whatever)

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