Level Two

A little over two years ago, I left my long-time job at a software development firm and transferred to the IT department of a multinational company. Although I started still as a programmer, all application development of my new company was eventually outsourced to a third-party and I ended up becoming part of functional production support.

I had the intention of professionally branching out of coding, but did not expect that the chance would come as soon as it did. I had my hesitations at first, but decided that it would be a good thing to learn more about business processes and the applications that support them at a higher level. So I transitioned to the new position. I scooched over to the functional support and am now sandwiched between the clients and the technical group.

Now, just a background of my previous programming job. For a long time, it had been my comfort zone because the setup was fitting to my personality.  In actual work, I only had to deal with three people: my systems analyst for the specs, my test engineer for the bugs, and my team lead mainly for the schedule. All I had to do was to make sure I followed the design, I fixed all the bugs before deployment, and I met the schedule.

I went from having to interact with those three technical people to having to interact with multiple marketing managers across the world who use the application I support.

My first few months in production support were rough, at best. The workload was not a concern as I was used to having a six day workweek with 10-12 hours a day in my old job. But needless to say, I did have to adjust to a number of other things: the increased number of people I had to interact with and also the multicultural differences. However, the most significant adjustment for me was that I now had to deal with non-IT people.

The difficulty in transition did not lie so much in the difference of technology skills, but the communication. Business people and IT people talk different languages -- that much is a given. And I now found myself in the position of being the interpreter for both sides.

When the tech tells me that the database listener of the web server is down, I cannot relay that to the client word for word. Because all they know is that nothing is working and that it should just get fixed. This is an instance wherein detail is not appreciated. So I choose my words and to consciously rid it of jargon.

And there would be times when I get the heat from clients when the application does not behave the way they expected. It takes patience to explain that it is not a bug when the expectation does not match the design.  Especially when the design have been communicated, reviewed, and approved by them.

There have also been funny, priceless facepalm moments. I once attached a form in an email and have asked it to be returned to me filled out. I was very suprised to find out that the client printed out the form, filled it out in ink (you know, by hand and with a pen), scanned the document and sent me the image file. I should have tried to be more explicit in the instructions.

Another time, a client was adamant that her access rights were revoked because she cannot view a record. She was about to raise a ticket when I asked her to just please try scrolling down. And her priceless response to me was: "It was hiding!" (exclamation point and totally serious demeanor are hers, not mine.)

It got me thinking whether I should have accepted that job offer by old friends from the university who went into start-ups and new cool technologies. I visited them a year ago and was asked the same famous line from Steve Jobs to John Sculley "Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?" I knew he didn't mean it, but it was a witty and coincidentally appropriate joke.

Regrets hover on me for just a bit, but do not really settle, because in truth, I do have an interesting job. I get the chance to step back from the nitty gritty details of semicolons and pixel widths and millisecond response times. And now, just think about how all those are used in the real world and how they affect real people. Also, one nice thing about this transition, my clients are very expressive of their appreciation whenever I help them resolve an issue. I've been called a very nice, kind person and an angel numerous times complete with the halo-bearing smiley emoticon. I mean, I never heard that from any of my systems analysts or test engineers.

I guess there are far worse things than dealing with, eww, people.

Adi Adventures (S02, E01)

My brother called me today and told me about the the latest incident my nephew had this morning: little Adi locked himself inside the room and could not get out. 

Their apartment has these old-fashioned doorknobs that require key turns for it to be locked. So they usually just leave the keys hanging from the knobs.

Apparently, while inside the bedroom by himself, Adi was able to somehow lock the door, but was then unable to turn the key and unlock it the other way. The opposite keyturn gets slightly jammed and has to be twisted more forcefully. My nephew is two years old, by the way. He could barely reach the knob in the first place and is not yet strong enough to unjam it.

When Adi realized the predicament he was in, he started to cry and scream out loud. His mom tried to calm him from the other side of the door, but the crying went on. She initially asked him to try and turn the key but could tell that he was having a hard time with it. She finally had the idea of slipping in a paper underneath the door. There was a slight gap between the door and the floor wherein the key can be slid out. So my sister-in-law carefully talked Adi into following the instructions of pulling out the key and placing it on top of the paper that she slipped under the door.

And in between sobs, screams, and probably panic, he did as he was told.

The moment the door opened, Adi, still crying, rushed out and hugged his mother very tightly. My sister-in-law later found inside the bedroom that Adi tried to improvised way to reach the doorknob. He tried to drag the chair and other things near the door.

For now, we view his fifteen-minute self-inflicted involuntary exile to the bedroom as a testament that no matter how far his playfulness gets him into trouble, he is at least smart enough to help himself out of it. 

Jeepney commuters, beware.

A warning to fellow commuters out there. Be wary of groups of men who board the jeepney together. Their modus operandi is to seat themselves around a potential victim and to crowd around him. They will devise a way to distract the person by either nudging/pushing/elbowing or by making an excuse to talk to him/her. During this time, the other accomplices will be going through the victim's things or pockets to take out valuables.

My friend's sister was a victim of this setup a few months ago. The group crowded around her and created a commotion among themselves in her immediate space; Someone even pulled her hair. Disoriented, she got off the jeepney and was not surprised that her Blackberry was already missing from her bag when she checked.

I personally had a close call this morning, on my way to work. Three men boarded together from somewhere near Don Bosco Makati. Two of them seated on my right, while the other sat across from them. On my left was a lady who got off a few blocks ahead. I was about to move to her vacated space but the third guy across took it instead. Instant warning bells. I also felt like being crowded by the one on my right since his backpack was almost overlapping mine. And he also had shifty eyes. Finally, the last straw: the one who was not seated beside me tapped me on the shoulder and mouthed something. I had my earphones on, but I could tell he did not speak out loudly. I ignored him and looked away. He tapped me again and repeated what sounded like "May dumi ka", and pointed somewhere in my hair or ear.

Right then, in a moving vehicle I stood up, yelled "para", and got off the jeep. Thankfully, I was near a gas station and quickly walked to its convenience store, hoping there would be a security guard nearby in case any of the men followed me. There was no guard, but as luck would have it, two uniformed policemen were having breakfast. I stayed in the area for a few minutes to catch my breath, to make sure I was clear, and to let the fear and/or adrenaline settle.

I recounted the incident  to an officemate and just as I mentioned the part about the man saying that I had dirt on me, she agitatedly interrupted to tell me that it was a well-known tactic by robbers and snatchers. They would tell victims that there was something on their hair or shirt, even if there was none. Or sometimes, an accomplice would intentionally rub dirt on them so the other one can point it out. My officemate personally knew of one incident when one guy spat on the victim, and the other pretended to help, but only to have the victim's bag emptied.

Friends, please be safe. Be aware of your surrounding and your fellow passengers. Don't let your guard down when the situation seems suspicious. I do not recommend anyone to be as paranoid as I am, but sometimes, it does pay off.

Google+: my two cents

For someone with limited real-life socialization, I sure have made the rounds of most social networks. Currently, I maintain active accounts in Facebook and Twitter. In the past, I also had profiles in Friendster, MySpace, and Multiply. So it should not come as a surprise that in true geek fashion, I got a Google+ invitation only a day or so after its beta release.

Over a month and 20M+ new users later, there have been hundreds of opinions on Google's latest attempt in the social networking scene.  Early on, some have readily dismissed it as another Orkut or Wave which were both unsuccessful in widely catching on.  But most reviews have been positive, overwhelmingly so. However, most descriptions concentrated on it being a killer of some sort: Facebook killer, Twitter killer, Microsoft killer. That sounds all very exciting, but I'd rather much prefer to not attribute any bludgeoning violence to Google+.

Just to get it out of the way, I think Google+ is awesome. I feel like it has taken the list of everything I find essential in a social network and implemented it. I actually require very few things: a venue where I can share links, photos, blog entries, and thoughts; where I can also see what my family and friends shared. Also a place to find interesting sites and people to follow their news and opinions. 

But then you ask: If that's all there is to it, then what's the point in "migrating" when Facebook and Twitter already cover those features?

The clincher is that Google+ chose to emphasize on privacy. Privacy is the proverbial card up Google's sleeve. Sharing revolves around "Circles". It is a feature wherein users are able to categorize their contacts into groups and with that, the ability to share specific things only to specific groups. 

And before anyone else can yell, "But Facebook already has Lists and Groups!", let me just stop you right there. Believe me, I know this because I've used it. I actually took the time to categorized all my contacts into specific lists. And the process was far from pretty. It works but it was tedious. 

Any heavy object can hit a nail, but a hammer is designed to fit in your hand and to hit efficiently and with much better precision. Google+ was designed with Circles in mind. You can effortlessly group your contacts to however you see fit: family, friends, co-workers, or "crap! They found me!". The process is intuitive. And it doesn't hurt that the interface is sleek.

Also, truth be told, I'm like most people who had the misfortune of being guilted into approving everyone's friend requests in Facebook. And I had to pay for it by wading through a newsfeed with entries that are irrelevant to me. I don't need to know if one of my friends commented on the post of a person I have never met. I don't need to know if someone reached a new level in a game I have no intention of playing. I am not very interested in where people are "checked in" and am most certainly not keen on sharing my whereabouts. Burglars don't need my extra help to know if I'm out of the house.

The way I see it, Google+ has given us the chance of a do-over. Now that you know which of your contacts post vague and inane remarks every hour, and which ones share interesting stuff - you are now armed with the knowledge on how to proceed. You have the option of adding them in a circle or just let them follow you. It totally takes out the risk of offending anyone, because you "follow" people (as in Twitter) but you don't "friend" them (as in Facebook). It is up to you whether you are willing to share what you post publicly or only within your circles.

So if you're still up for more of my chatter, here's my take on some of the features:

Technology

Hangouts is the group video chat feature of Google+. It allows at most ten people to share the same room with the host. Others have used this feature for discussions or interviews. Some people even do yoga and meditation together. Unfortunately, the extent of my experience with this is when my housemate and I just tested the interface and video called each other while we were lounging in my room. It worked fine and it looks like it has a lot of fun potential. The cool things about Hangouts for me is that all it takes is a browser plugin. No fussy software installations, just a teensy plugin. Very nice.

Facebook has its "like", Google+ has its "+1". Now if you have a Google account, you will notice that this notation is ubiquitous. It appears in the stream, search results, articles. The rationale is that when you go to a site or a service that one of your contacts have approved (plussed one? incremented?), you will be able to see it. It's a networking review of everything online.

Google Chrome is my browser of choice. It's fast, it's uncluttered, and best of all, it has great available extensions in Chrome Web Store. There are the basic things like dictionaries, screen cap tools, and then there are also extensions that hide YouTube comments (this would do wonders for your sanity). When Google+ was made public, it literally just took hours for developers to release related extensions for it. Some can change the colors, the layout, or scrolling behavior -- basically a load of things that have not been natively supported yet.

Now, since Google+ is technically still in beta, these extensions can actually be submitted as feedback. And Google's Feedback Button is such a nifty litte tool. The whole feedback mechanism is a great app in itself. Coming from a software development background, I really appreciate how one can send comments and automatically attach a screenshot with highlighted or blocked portions.  You can just imagine this tool being reused and plugged into a totally separate app.

User Interface is streamlined.  I'm sure others find it ugly, but I personally like the minimalist, low-key design. And after the horrible, horrible chat panel/eyesore in Facebook, G+ became way prettier in comparison.

Google Integration

The infamous Google bar in the browser is the quick access of your Google existence. And I have to admit, it made me realize how reliant I am of anything Google: Gmail, Images, Translate (such a lifesaver in global support), Reader, Documents, etc. This just goes to show that the cloud is where it's at, people. It's scary and exciting at the same time. Just imagine: all these data are accessible just by logging into a Google account anywhere, with any device. I say take advantage of the tools, but it is prudent to back things up.

Google+ can be integrated into Picasa and Blogger accounts. So if you stuck with these services for your photo sharing and blogging all these years, that's an advantage.  And there's also the mobile OS Android whose users gloated for a good few weeks for having the Google+ mobile app way before the iOS iPhone users.

User Base

The concept of "following" users instead of "friending" them allows ordinary people to be privy to the updates of the celebrities they follow. This was more of a Twitter advantage because Facebook's Fan Pages just seemed a little impersonal. So millions of people follow actors, athletes, and politicians on Twitter and feed on their 140-character updates. However, microblogging limits what can be shared because of its brevity constraint.  And discussions in Twitter seems a little awkward because of the lack of continuity.

In Google+, celebrities have the option to share whatever they want publicly or privately. And they can share not just text or links, but also videos, photos, paragraphs of text. And also, it has a commenting system to interact and discuss efficiently with their followers. They can even host Hangouts. Personally, I follow dozens of public personalities in my Circles - some from the tech industry, some photographers, some Google engineers.

Unfortunately, I am having a hard time convincing anyone from my family to switch from Facebook and so my Family Circle remain empty for now. Facebook's ace remains with its huge user base. 750M people using the system is no small feat. And it will take a while for most of those users to switch to another social networking service, if they even switch at all. 

Since I had to end this very long litany at some point...

Finally, some tips on how to retrieve your data from these two social networking services (at least, whatever data they would allow you to retrieve).

For Facebook, you will have to go "Account" > "Account Settings" > below that page, click on "Download a copy of your Facebook data." > reenter your password > after a few hours, you will get an email from Facebook notifying you that your data is ready for download > go to the link and download. 

For Google+, go to google.com/takeout and click on the "Create Archive" button. Reenter password and download.

Anyway, here are wise words oft-repeated in the halls of the internet: "If you're not paying for something, you're not the customer; you're the product being sold". Well at least, they try to make it worth our while.

Happy social networking.