| At work they started the new year off with a shift of our group from two separate areas to larger digs. Ann (shown here) was the last to move from this area where the web development team had been. Their group had shrunk while ours had grown. For a while she had also been John's manager. Here she is at her old desk. She moved to where John had sat and Eugene moved to this location. Eugene sits close to the entrance to our new area just beside me. | |
| This is Jim at his new desk which is just behind mine (or to the right of this picture). | |
| Here is Candi at her new desk. Behind her is a window. Just to the right of her this picture is John's new desk. At the end of January AtOnce.com was bought out by InfoUSA who owned one of competitors, YesMail.com. InfoUSA wants to be the big guy in the email business and buys other email companies that, mostly, are losing money. Then they cut costs and make them profitable.... Doesn't bode well for the nice friendly environment at AtOnce.com. | |
| However, AtOnce.com wasn't losing money before they were bought and was in the high end (prestigious customers like Nike who are willing to pay more but expect more services for their money). As our group works with customers on analyzing their data (part of the extra services they expect), it was pretty safe for us. However, as YesMail.com's email software does not keep all the records that ours does (to offer the additional services), it also looks like the backend people (who develop our emal software) may have a job for quite a while if they hang on.... Here is Eugene at his new desk. | |
| Candi is investigating an on-line dating service, but they want pictures to post with her material. So, she let me take several pictures of her, none of which she liked. However, I liked this one. She tends to get all tense when people take pictures of her so that her natural energy does not come out. In this one she does not look quite so posed. | |
| One day Kathryn, Jim's daughter came in to visit with their puppy, Ella and I was able to take her picture..... | |
| On the first of February or so the company I work for, @once.com was bought out by InfoUSA.com, a database company. We were made of part of their email division, YesMail.com. Their paln was to save money by consolidating the back end support systems and so, while everyone was let go by @once.com on one day and rehired by YesMail.com the next day, the backend end people were given a contract providing them with a bonus if they stayed on for some period (generally six months) but were also given notice that they would be let go at the end of that period. Here is Marty. He is the DBA (one of the backend people who, presumably, was given such notice, though the contract said they couldn't talk about it, either, so who is to know). The other DBA, Sid, left early (the bonus wasn't that big) and took a job in San Francisco, CA. I didn't get his picture, but since he was leaving early he was able to tell us about his contract. Marty is sitting in front of Eugene desk which is right beside mine, so this is the view from my desk (most convenient). | |
| This is Kranti. She is the backend java developer working on the mailing system itself. Her desk is just behind where Marty was sitting above. We all usually eat at our desks, and she often brings in the most scrumptious smelling lunches. As she often eats her lunch before me (12PM versus 12:30PM), it makes it hard for me wait to eat mine.... Anyway, for the next couple of months after the take over things were pretty grim and several people left (Sid above and Larry the personell person who brought me on) without me getting any pictures of them. Drats. | |
| However, after a few months it became apparent that their were serious problems at YesMail.com and they first delayed the movement of the @once.com customers to YesMail.com systems. Then later (perhaps May 2005), the old management team of @once.com took over the top positions in YesMail.com. After that there was no more talk of us moving our customers onto their systems but rather building a new system that could support all the customers. After a while we able to hire new people to replace so of those who left. Data Services, the group I work with, had been determined to be 'customer facing' so no one was given noticed and we retained all our people. As other groups were short staffed we helped. I was able to work in java on web development half time until they got in a replacement person. Here is Richard, the new java web developer. | |
| Before I left for Indiana I did both the database and web development for a new customer, Graco, but it wasn't completely done when it was time for me to leave for Richard took over the web part. It allows people to subscribe to newsletters from Gracobaby.com. You can try it out with this link. The fun part was collecting the information about children being shopped for and merging informations from different sources and with different formats and different levels of details (product registrations give us exact birthdays while the web form only had age groups). It matches with existing records and preserves the level of detail that we have. Great fun.... This is Matt, the first of the two new AE's or Account Executives. They talk to the customers on a day to day basis and set up the mailings. The junior AE's are all in cubicles closest to the entry way. Just beyond his cubicle is John's, the head of the Data Specialists (and at the very back of our area). | |
| This is Leslie, another of the AE's. She is also one of the more senior AE's. The AE's often eat their lunch at their desk and my camera knows no limits. She is having a pretty wholesome lunch. She has stayed in one of the middle cubicles apparently not miding the extra traffic by her desk (or perhaps even enjoying it). | |
| This is Darrel. He started as an AE the same week as I did. However, with all the turn over he has been able to move out of the entry cubicles (Matt is in his old cubicle) and is in one of the middle cubicles. I get so confused when they shuffle cubicles as I get in the habit of just going to the cubicle where the AE I want sits, and then someone else is there. Darrel is married to Brandy. | |
This page was last updated on October 8, 2008.