Month: January 2006

Scars

So today was Day #4 at the internship. I’ve spent most of my time so far working solo, putting together a strategy document for marketing one aspect of the newest version of the product. I submitted the completed memo to my supervisor, and had a few hours of down time while I waited for him to read & respond to it.

Since I’m still new at the job, I didn’t really know what the protocol was — should I ask for more work, start working on a project I’d mentioned in the first paper, or wait for feedback on my first work product? My supervisor was in and out of meetings and I didn’t want to bother him. Unsure, I fell back on self-reliance. I did some research, read over some internal documents, and started jotting notes and ideas for other possible projects.

This worked for a couple of hours. But after lunch, I started to feel worried. The other intern, who started the day after I did, was working busily away on two different projects, talking to people, asking questions. I was sitting there, working by myself, and feeling a bit isolated. Dark thoughts descended. I started wondering whether maybe, despite what I’d been told when I was hired, they didn’t really plan on keeping both of us? Perhaps this first week was some sort of weeding out process to see which of us was the better hire and the other one would be quietly let go? Was my lack of new tasks some sort of signal? Had I blown it already? For two more hours, I alternated between paranoia and telling myself I was being an idiot.

These last 4 years have been pretty rough in a lot of ways, but I didn’t realize how deep the scars had gone until today. Once upon a time, I trusted what managers told me and would have welcomed a few hours of slack time. Now, I’m both more cynical and more insecure.

Finally, just as I was starting to think that maybe I ought to wash out my coffee mug (the one personal item I’ve brought to the office) and make sure it was clean, dry, and ready to go in case today really was my last day, an email from my supervisor popped into my mailbox, telling me what a great job I had done and would I present my ideas to the rest of the marketing staff in 30 minutes.

I had to read the e-mail twice before the relief set in.

Hopefully I won’t let my insecurities get the better of me next time.

New Online Code: Don’t Be Annoying

I can understand abuse, harass, threaten, and so forth, but annoy? If it’s really illegal to annoy people on the Internet now, the avalanche of lawsuits is going to be frightening. I can’t wait for the test cases on this one:

A new federal law states that when you annoy someone on the Internet, you must disclose your identity. Here’s the relevant language.

“Whoever…utilizes any device or software that can be used to originate telecommunications or other types of communications that are transmitted, in whole or in part, by the Internet… without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass any person…who receives the communications…shall be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.”

At least it’s criminal law, not civil. Individuals can’t go around suing everyone who leaves a snarky comment on their weblog, they’ll have to convince a DA to file charges. However, as News.com points out, “trusting prosecutorial discretion is hardly reassuring”. Especially these days.

OMFG

Amazing. Anybody, any phone number, any time.

Dozens of online services are selling lists of cell phone calls

John of AMERICABlog tests one service out, and finds that their web advertisement is correct:

The company boasts on its own Web site:

Give us the cell phone number and we will send you the calls made from the cell phone number.

So I went to their site, plopped down $110, and within a day I had a list of every single phone number that called my cell, or that I called from my cell, for the month of November. I even had the dates the calls were made, and for a premium I could find out how long the calls were.

I called Cingular and they were shocked by what I told them – yeah right.

No I am not linking to the site in question. I’m not giving them the free publicity. But I’m pissed off. Why this isn’t illegal I don’t know. If it is, someone ought to be going to jail pronto. And if it’s not, it ought to be.