NAT
Interesting discovery: my problems getting
various online games working properly through my Linux router/firewall/proxy
appear to not have been due to any fault of my own. Rather,
it was because my 56kbps connection simply sucked rocks; at
1.5Mbps, things are running exactly as they should, without
any modification from what I was trying before. It's rather
reassuring to find out that you really did know what you
were doing, and the problem was simply something out of your
hands.
Rumors
The layoff rumors are abounding again, and I'm
hearing that a fellow IS staffer is being considered for the
cut. The word is that the axe will fall on the 16th, giving
plenty of time to finish up the product release and get all
the necessary knowledge transfer done before letting people
know they're no longer needed. Which also coincides with the
middle of my vacation, which means I won't have the ability
to walk out in protest along with said fellow staffer,
should it happen (thus partially losing my ability to help
leverage my threat of leaving against cutting him; we can't
function effectively without him, and they can't afford to
release me because of my intimate knowledge of how
everything works around here). *sigh* Round two; you'd think
I'd be used to this after the first
time this happened, but I still think the lack of ethics
when playing with people's livelihoods is unconscionable;
"Thanks for busting your ass for the last six months to get
this product release out the door; here's your pink
slip!".