Category: Opinion
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Review: Animal Crossing: New Horizons
As I mentioned a few weeks ago in my favorite things post, the Nintendo Switch is one of those favorite things. One of the first games I got for it was Animal Crossing: New Horizons (ACNH), a game that has received near-universal acclaim from gamers and reviewers alike. The game is relatively relaxing and chill,…
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Scoring scales for reviews
As I mentioned in my favorite things post a few weeks ago, I’ve been a gamer for years and years. Going forward, I will from time to time post reviews of games that I play. I think it might be useful to be explicit about the scale I use. The scale runs from 1-10, as…
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2020 roundup
Another year is (almost) ready for the history books, and as has become my tradition, I’m writing my annual end-of-the-year retrospective. There’s no doubt that this has been a very challenging year. March saw me sent to the home office, and though I returned to the office in May, working from home has become far…
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Favorite things in 2020
For the fifth year running, I’m sharing my favorite things of the year. There’s no denying 2020 has been a hard year on so many of us. Here are some things that have made the year a little better for me: Nintendo Switch I’ve been a gamer for as long as I can remember. My…
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Use slow periods to your advantage
Many techs will agree with me in preferring higher-intensity periods to lower-intensity ones – as long as the workload doesn’t exceed capacity. There is a simple reason for this; when there is a lot going on, you simply can’t afford to procrastinate, and so you’re forced to do your work as efficiently as possible. On…
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Net Neutrality (again)
This article was originally published in 2008, but remains sadly relevant to this day. Net Neutrality has become a heated topic over the last few years. The debate is whether an Internet Service Provider (ISP) should be allowed to decide what their customers are allowed to use the service for. Examples are many, and range…
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A tale of two union representatives
(Or: Why I am a union representative) For the past three years, I’ve been a union representative for NITO, the Norwegian Society of Engineers and Technologists. The story of my journey to becoming a union representative started back when I was an apprentice. Early on in my apprenticeship, I joined a union, as I felt…
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Creating a safe working environment through information sharing
In my job, I use a number of collaboration tools. From email and instant messaging to browser-based collaboration platforms, they help me get information, generate information, and share information. My ambition is that the vast majority of questions any of my colleagues may have about the peculiarities of our customer-facing systems. Our documentation systems are…
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Further adventures in recruiter-land
I’ve previously written about my experience with three different recruiters, as well as the problems I’ve had with inept recruiters. Today, I’d like to look at another few examples, both to show how not to do it, as well as to showcase what I consider to be red flags. 1: The non-descriptive overture This arrives…
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Do you 10Q?
Two years ago, an acquaintance posted about 10Q. Simply put, once you’ve registered, the site sends you a question per day over the course of ten days. At the end of the period, your answers are locked in the vault, and inaccessible for a whole year. A year later, your vault is unlocked, and you…
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Job search: Red flags
Having been part of the work force for a long time now, I have also interviewed with a number of companies. Sometimes I have completely ignored what were, in hindsight, relatively obvious red flags, while at oher times identifying such red flags has helped me avoid jobs that wouldn’t have been a good fit for…