That Boss of our's thinks that he has cured my boredom, but he should think again.
Recall that the Boss hood-winked me into twelve hour shifts to support the EOS Aqua thermal vacuum test. The exciting and prosperous 6 am until 6 pm shift. I dreaded the start of the test, I dreaded the middle of the test, and I dreaded the end of the test.
We have finished 28 days of the test. It has been characterized by moments of panic where the thermal people have crashed a client and want their data NOW in between moments of pure boredom. We have managed to satisfy the thermal people, more or less, by getting them the data that they needed. And we have managed to surprise the thermal people by providing them data that they needed before they realized that they needed it. And we have managed to stay out of trouble when we are bored. More or less.
I manage to automate the tasks that I have through Visual Basic macros. This leads to more idle time - more time to be bored.
While bored, I have have learned enough HTML and Perl to be dangerous. I have helped some friends with a website and have put my diary on the net. (http://www.raymanning.com/css)
And I have written my second virus...um...let's call it an agent. Yes, it is an agent. The second agent that I wrote goes out to the Internet, looks up GPS coordinates for an address, and returns those coordinates to a database. And repeats for a number of addresses within a database. Boring! But I had to do it for the friends whose website I was developing. My third virus...oops... I mean agent...goes out to the Internet, retrieves information of critical importance, and returns it to a database. It is still a dumb agent, but it goes out and retrieves information in a timely manner. I already have the construct for my fourth virus...oops...agent, but I need to work on it.
I have a HUGE scare sometime last week as I'm working on my second virus...oops...agent. The TRW website says, just as I am testing my agent, that TRW is shutting down web access because they have detected a potential virus attack. I come to work on Wednesday or Thursday or Friday - I don't know what day it is, I'm confused from the twelve hour days - expecting to be taken away by TRW computer security. But it turns out that the virus threat is not mine. Because I have written an agent, dummy! And I still have a job.
My life these days is governed by the following simple rules:Yes, you can all agree now. I have become a hacker.
I drink heavily on Saturday night. A man (or a woman for that matter - you decide which applies) has the right to drink after 28 consecutive twelve hour days. Twelve hour days or not, I drink. Brandon calls and we have a good discussion about how much money I've lost in the stock market. (Brandon works as a teller in a bank.) And we agree to go shopping when the twelve hour days are done. Later, after programming the VCR to capture the motorcycle races in Valencia, I collapse into bed. And wake up refreshed at 4:54am for another day of solving fascinating problems at TRW.