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=0=| So I was able to get Adam's picture before he went off to work for Xerox at their Wilsonville, OR facility. I was in luck as his wife and baby were visiting along with his daughter (shown below). All so cute. | |
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| And while I had my camera out, I took a picture of David, the head of the Technology Group which includes the Data Specialists, DBA's, Web Developers, and System Admin people. | |
| In September, Jim's wife, Lisa brought in their daughter Kathryn to visit. | |
| This is kathryn with Brandy's dog. Kathryn came in especially that day to visit with Brandy's dog who was visiting at work that day. | |
| This is Brandy. She and Leslie are the most senior AE's that we have at the Portland YesMail.com office. She has the corner cubicle furtherest into the AE area and opposite Ann's cubicle. She must not have been in the afternoon when I was taking pictures of the AE's before. She and Darrel are married. |
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| September 9 was the last day for the manager of the web developers, Ann, before she started her new career as an X-Ray technician. In response to that void, we were reorganized to be closer with our counter parts in yesmail.com in San Carlos, CA. On September 8, 2005, Tal came up from San Carlos and was introduced as our new manager. This is a candid picture from the Room with a View. I didn't really have much chance to explain the pictures, so feel a little bad about that. What to do? Anyway, we had been part of the Technology Group with @Once.com, but now we are part of Client Services of yesmail.com (but the Technology part of Client Services). Confused? Me too. | |
| Tal's manager, Jim, also came up to meet us. They both seem like good managers so it is probably for the best as the integration is going to have to happen sooner or later. It does mean that Tal and Jim will be travelling a lot (especially Tal). | |
| This is Mike (another candid shot, who'se pants leg would that be blocking the view). He was the president of @once.com and is now president of yesmail.com. I am pleased by that as he has good business sense (and created a very good environment at @once.com) so there is good hope for yesmail.com. Here Mike is explaining the advantages of shifting our group to client services (though I personally don't think it really makes much difference as the key point is that we in Data Services and Web Development need to work closely and easily with the AE's of Client Services no matter where we are in the organization and we are still separate groups from them). This week they also replaced the web page for @once.com so that it takes you to yesmail.com. There is a better picture of Mike on that web page under the Company tab at the top. | |
| As further indications that we are no longer the old @once.com but now YesMail.com, this is the entrance you see as you get off the elevator. What are those holes in that blank section of wall. |
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| Well, they took down the old entrance sign and the letters were arranged on Anyes's reception desk. So the challenge seems to be how many different words you can spell with the letters. One really creative person spelled Bounce (hint, there is a missing piece here, the arc which was under the @ which was almost a J). The most original was Bonus (but you have to really think outside the box and accept impressionistic spelling). The candy dish is another sign of the times for us. When we were with the high flying and free spending @once.com, the company provided candy which was not only Jolly Ranchers and Werther's, but also Tootsie Rolls and other candies. However, at YesMail.com, those expenses were no longer approved. However, I really liked them and so now I keep the candy bowl full, but with a much narrower selection of Wal-mart hard candy (cinnamon, butterscotch, and spearmint). What to do? |
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| They finally replaced our old sign with a nice shiny new YesMail.com sign shown here. Speaking of thinking outside the box, an old automation by Al was failing regularly now and I was asked to look into it. It turned out the file that Al had been looking at could have multiple parts with a line of HDR between them and his code was getting confused bacause we were getting regular records which started with HDR (the first column was email and some people had emails like HDR... like Hellen D R...). Now an obvious fix was to look for a line where the entire record was HDR (not just the start), but rather than that I wanted to suggest that the customer (USBank) insist that their customers change their names so that no customer had the initials HDR. That was a fun thought. With Webroot, I was asked why my automation didn't send out any six month offers on August 29, 30 and 31. Six month offers, let's see, that would be Feb 29, 30, and 31. Oh yeah. Not really a problem, but the reverse in February could be messy. The normal solution would be to simply send the offer at 183 days, but my suggestion was that the customer alter the orbit of the Earth so that there were exactly 360 days in a year. If they didn't want to do that, they could instead alter the spin of the Earth so that a day was exactly 1/360th of a year. Quite reasonable alternatives, I thought, but when I told my son those alternatives, he suggested that instead they could just redefine the calendar so that each day was 1/360 of a year. I complained that that would cause the calendar to shift a few days each year, but he explained that I was not being open minded. Just don't insist that a day start according to the light/dark cycle. Oh yeah, think outisde the box. |
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| One week in September, Eugene was on vacation and Andrew was visiting (consulting). Andrew sat at Eugene's desk which is just opposite to mine (my desk would be to the right of the picture). Jim's desk is visible beyond Eugene's desk. When I first joined @once.com, Andrew was my third line manager. He left shortly after we were bought out and I didn't get his picture before he left, but perhaps he will work with us more in the future. |
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This page was last updated on April 8, 2007.
