(no subject)

Okay, I have to admit, as much of a pain in the ass as this new security is, the building has done one brilliant thing: tied in the new turnstiles to the elevators. When you wave your access card in front of the turnstile that's in front of your elevator bank, the turnstile sends a message to the elevators and one of the elevators magically opens.

I am in awe, truly. We have seen the future, and it is now.

Today is still quite busy and stressful, so I don't have time to assemble the thoughtful, informative post that I wanted to assemble about Delicious. There's a good breakdown of Del alternatives here and a lot of links in my last post.

Things to remember:

1. Delicious is probably not going away TODAY. Do not panic. Try not to slam the other sites like Delicious with traffic. Back up your bookmarks using the export function and then take a deep breath and wait a few days.

2. If you are importing between Delicious and another site, be aware that there are flaws in the system. For example, Diigo does not import privacy settings. Any bookmark you import from Del to Diigo will become public. Other metainformation may be truncated: tags, long notes, etc. Check your bookmarks after you import, no matter which site!

3. People who are offering you information, like bookmarking-site links and news story links, are not offering free IT support along with it. Before you ask a question, stop and think if you can google the answer, check the FAQ, ask the website's tech support, or figure it out for yourself. They are giving you resources, not setting up an infobooth.

3a. If you're in the mood for some intelligent outrage along with your links, Warren Ellis has a pretty great post. (I find Warren Ellis entirely terrifying, but he does speak good common sense).

(no subject)

I am home. I am exhausted.

Originally all the security I've been talking about was slated to kicked in around mid-November, so BossBoss figured he was safe to schedule his two and a half week vacation for mid-December. What with the delays, everything went down two days after he left. So in his absence I've been working with one of my colleagues to hold down his job, as well as doing my own and covering all the new security protocols which are stop-gap at best until a) the building gets its shit together and b) the website we were promised two months ago finally goes live (no ETA on this).

As an aside, I love how we all talk about The Building around my office, as if it's an entity of its own. Because I work with them, I know that The Building is an organism made up of six engineers, about ten rotating security guards, and two administrative managers, but most of the staff think it's some kind of mystic cabal. If something goes wrong, The Building caused it to happen. We must tell Sam, our emissary to this strange cult! He speaks their language!

I think the worst is over, though. They now have the weekend to fix the buggy computers that have been breaking down all week, and I've wrestled down the access cards for our contractors and temps. But man, I am wrung out.

On the other hand, I was not stranded on an ice chunk in Lake Michigan today. Then again I'm also not a coyote.

I love how Chicago coyotes never fail to look like they're just about to tell you to go fuck yourself. There she is, covered in ice, huddled in the back of a rescue truck, all "Seriously, I just came off an ice floe, you want to make an issue out of it? Don't think I can't mess your shit up."

Omg they named her Holly. Holly Coyote!