The long awaited work rant!
Jun. 7th, 2006 10:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
naruki_oniI'll keep this brief, since posting after all these many months could shock people.
I have certain issues with my newest employer. Primarily being they are totally assheaded about security. Okay, so the "internet" computer is on a different physical lan than the local network computer. Fine.
I have to enter a different password every time I access the computer, email, another computer, the intranet calendar/work scheduler, and probably even the printer. Not fine, but forgiveable.
They host CVS on UNIX and require Windows users to FTP the changed files over before using the CVS command line to commit changes, primarily because the direct connection from Eclipse's plugin has to use a generic user.
What. The. Fuck.
And there are other things that I learned tonight about that. We are working on a merged version of our project from two divergant branches, so we - get this - copied only the changed files into their own CVS repository. This is because they want some way to tell which files have changed.
What. The. Fuck.
They haven't got the faintest fucking idea of what they should be doing with version control.
Okay, I'm going to go have a stroke now. Nitey nite.
I have certain issues with my newest employer. Primarily being they are totally assheaded about security. Okay, so the "internet" computer is on a different physical lan than the local network computer. Fine.
I have to enter a different password every time I access the computer, email, another computer, the intranet calendar/work scheduler, and probably even the printer. Not fine, but forgiveable.
They host CVS on UNIX and require Windows users to FTP the changed files over before using the CVS command line to commit changes, primarily because the direct connection from Eclipse's plugin has to use a generic user.
What. The. Fuck.
And there are other things that I learned tonight about that. We are working on a merged version of our project from two divergant branches, so we - get this - copied only the changed files into their own CVS repository. This is because they want some way to tell which files have changed.
What. The. Fuck.
They haven't got the faintest fucking idea of what they should be doing with version control.
Okay, I'm going to go have a stroke now. Nitey nite.
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no subject
Date: 2006-06-07 02:33 pm (UTC)Well, some of them are.
Date: 2006-06-09 01:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-07 05:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-07 05:50 pm (UTC)Now why would I do that?
Date: 2006-06-09 01:46 pm (UTC)Flames?
Date: 2006-06-10 01:57 am (UTC)He he he.
Date: 2006-06-10 04:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-07 06:05 pm (UTC)even I understand what's wrong with all that stuff they're doing. And I wouldn't say I understand version control systems (more than just the very basics)
The first two things are understandable, but annoying.
Poor dear...
Date: 2006-06-07 06:54 pm (UTC)Why don't you try to gain a fucking fortune with your own doubtlessly very impressive idea of what one *should* be doing with (fucking) version control...:-D?
I think my ears just melted.
Date: 2006-06-08 11:34 am (UTC)Re: I think my ears just melted.
Date: 2006-06-08 12:54 pm (UTC)Oh my
Date: 2006-06-07 07:54 pm (UTC)I hope your coworkers are open to your "meddling".
Our paranoid IT deparment has placed a mandatory password protected screen saver with a 15 minute timer on it that is also non-changeable. But at least, I have one password for everything (that must be changed every 6 weeks).
They do not.
Date: 2006-06-09 01:48 pm (UTC)Now I hope karma kicks them really fruiting hard in the nethers.
At least they have some security
Date: 2006-06-07 10:24 pm (UTC)Right now, I am the IT guru, and I have inherited a mess.
There is a database currently sat on a normal webserver somewhere, that contains almost all the personal details of a fairly large number of people.
It has almost no security.
This utterly terrifies me, yet it's apparently exactly what the client asked for.
To top it off, the database was designed by a monkey.
Everything is in one table, and I mean everything.
The client wanted a DPA violation?
Date: 2006-06-08 01:00 am (UTC)Re: The client wanted a DPA violation?
Date: 2006-06-08 07:27 am (UTC)The main issue is that the client doesn't understand strong passwords, so hers is as weak as a one month old infant.
(Nobody can change their passwords due to the architecture - I have to do it for them!)
Oh, what I wouldn't give for a mess.
Date: 2006-06-09 01:49 pm (UTC)What?
Date: 2006-06-08 12:57 am (UTC)I wince enough every time one of the guys I'm working with here at university copies files between his Eclipse workspace and his SVN workspace---at least he has the excuse that Eclipse's SVN support is (allegedly) hella-shonky, and he doesn't try to second-guess it regarding which files are going in which way.
I didn't like Subclipse.
Date: 2006-06-08 11:37 am (UTC)TortoiseSVN rocks.
Date: 2006-06-08 11:46 am (UTC)It even rolls.
Date: 2006-06-08 12:05 pm (UTC)Sadly for me, the people who made those stupid decisions are making my life hell as well.
At least tonight I got the pleasure of seeing them discover the problems with testing for "code breakers" when they never integrate the two code paths properly.
They'll get used to that, too.
Condolences
Date: 2006-06-08 08:05 am (UTC)Not that I would know how to do that on a Windows machine, mind you. Any chance of your switching to Linux? :P
No chance.
Date: 2006-06-08 11:44 am (UTC)The problems are numerous. Starting off, the CVS administrator - whoever that may be - doesn't know what the heck he is doing.
Then there is the totally screwed up project in the repository. The base code is a clean folder that checks out and compiles. Then there is another folder in the same project space with, get this, just the files changed for the other branch.
We have to check this out from the single repository space into two separate projects (Eclipse CVS just LOOOOOOOOVES that) and then play some stupid head games with the build path to get the changed code project to compile.
Then, whenever we need edit some of those classes in the pure base code, we first have to copy them to their respective folder structure in the other project.
This thing is a frelling nightmare.
Oh. My. Goddess.
Date: 2006-06-08 11:48 am (UTC)*gulp*
Date: 2006-06-08 12:52 pm (UTC)Well, is the copying back and forth between the two directory structures well-defined? i.e. can be done with a script?
Because then you could maybe define a new CVS module, where the files are organized the way they should be, and then have a cron job running somewhere, periodically checking out that directory, running the separation script into the two brain-dead directories, and checking them in?
He he he.
Date: 2006-06-09 01:28 pm (UTC)I also cannot do any research while at work (no internet), and copying data between my PC and a memory stick is strictly verbotten, so no good at that end, either.
I do have the ability to synch up my workspaces manually. Why CVS won't auto-detect the changes on the server is beyond me, as it does it for other repositories (although that could be because they are not screwed up repositories).
Anyway, given the difficulty they had of teaching me how to check files in (and it wasn't all my fault for not knowing UNIX, either), they found some way to allow me to check stuff in via Eclipse. I think it's because my account belongs to the correct group for some reason, but their accounts don't. I really don't know, and I can live with that.
I'm irked that I spent all day yesterday trying to tease out their reasons for doing things so fucked-uppedly while explaining what was wrong with it and eventually getting shut down anyway.
The only things I can make out are that they want a quick way to see only the changes that belong to the one branch, and they don't know how to use CVS. Unfortunately, I never bothered to memorize CVS functionality because I was always able to look up what I needed on the Internet. So now I'm completely unable to show them how to do the things they want (I can't even pick up a book and read, here), and I'm not even sure if CVS is actually capable of doing them.
I used PVCS in another job, and I got to know it pretty well. I could get all sorts of historical reports and whatnot out of that one. Fucking shame that I can't get decent tools here.
Mega WTF?
Date: 2006-06-08 10:04 pm (UTC)Anyway, back to you. I don't understand "primarily because the direct connection from Eclipse's plugin has to use a generic user". If you usually access CVS from unix/linux you should be able to set up an ext or extssh connection to that and run cvs remotely through Eclipse.
I can send you instruction on how to set up PuTTY + Pageant/your own public key + Eclipse to access CVS securely without any passwords beyond the one-time-per-rebooting-windows passphrase for your key. Am I missing an evil, badly administered part of the picture? Are you even allowed to use encryption in Japan? ;P
This company is security-phobic.
Date: 2006-06-09 01:42 pm (UTC)Not only can I not download or "install" programs like PuTTY (no Internet), but I cannot even find out who the system/CVS administrator(s) are. And if someone accidentally did let a name slip, I would not be allowed to talk to them. This pecking order shit is retarded as all hell (but I faced a good bit of that in a large American corporation, so I can't blame that on the Japanese).
I don't usually access unix at all. I'm a Windows person, and I love me some GUI. That's part of why I stonewalled them on the committing of changes: I wasn't about to spend hours of my life trying to copy files through a command line interface and hope I got things right.
They did figure out how to turn off the Japanese when I log in to unix, but there are a lot of problems that crop up as a result (they've heavily invested in making it Japanese-friendly).
The reason for unix commits seems to be related to the groups our accounts are in. For reasons known only to the unknown administrator, my account is in some global privileged group for CVS, so I can use Eclipse. The others would apparently cause some permission issues if they checked in files.
Honestly, I think I would have trouble understanding that explanation even if it were given to me in English.
So I can use Eclipse with a badly configured repository and do updates/commits manually (the auto-change notification is broken because the team leader refuses to create sensible repositories). The biggest problem for me right now is the need to have a broken project where I do all my edits, copying the files I have to change from the other project whenever they don't exist.
I really want them to feel the pain of this setup as I do, but I suspect that anyone who does this to himself (like the team leader did) is a masochist. Bastard.
BTW, I took this job only so I'd have some horror story to tell months later in order to get you to post. Where the heck have you been?
Nasty
Date: 2006-06-09 02:25 pm (UTC)Hah! I came out from the dark days ago with a post to my journal and secret fuzzy big comments in BB2 and Nea's days-older posts.
I've mostly been dealing with the ramifications of being married, moved, and spousal career change. Not that you would know anything about big life changes affecting your posting or anything. :P
I'm pretty much still in the same place (Michigan) and I pretty much still always program and post in whatever clothes I woke up wearing.
Sounds familiar
Date: 2006-06-09 07:34 am (UTC)You have my deepest sympathy.
Interesting.
Date: 2006-06-09 01:44 pm (UTC)I return the sympathy in full. :-)