Tero Pikala

Coding Horror: The Programmer’s Bill of Rights

Those who have worked with me know that I’m rather sensitive to noise when it comes to programming something that requires me to focus on that task. I’ve read several posts about programmer productivity and it still amazes me how companies continue to ignore these basic things.

When I was at Nokia there was open plan office with some 200 seats. No wonder things evolved to working 3-4 days a week from home and then spending rest of the week at the office drinking coffee and attending some meetings where teleconferencing wasn’t an option. During that time we were so productive that everything was always ready 1-2 weeks ahead of schedule.
Strangest thing about my current office is that someone has decided to put all servers (more than a few) right next to developers. Still after six months I don’t really understand reasoning behind that decision.  Unfortunately my home is next to DLR and it’s not that quiet either so I can’t go back to that partial remote working mode now.

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Naturally I eventually cancelled my Finnish Amex after moving to London. My final invoice from Finland had 1 euro of interest and 170 euro fee for next year.

I called them being sure they would remove it from my invoice - but it was even better: They had already done that without me asking for it and they offered to remove that 1 euro interest as well so I wouldn’t have to pay anything. I told them I’m happy to pay that

Now compare that to my ordeal with Bulldog Communications who couldn’t install broadband for in 2 months and still after almost 2 months after cancelling order haven’t refunded my 100 pounds installation fee.

Tags: General by tero
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