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| - I have no memory of what happened next, but I must have quickly fallen asleep as I sat there in my car, still in the parking lot at work. It was about six hours later when a new security guard who was coming on duty noticed me and knocked on the window of my car. Still half asleep I lowered the window. The guard was shining a flashlight into my car. "Is everything alright?" I replied, "Yes, I'm fine." By the time I got to work, Fred and Judy were showing the details of the computer network and server array to the new network administrator, Brad Emphrone. I said, “Welcome back, Judy.”
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| abstract
| - I have no memory of what happened next, but I must have quickly fallen asleep as I sat there in my car, still in the parking lot at work. It was about six hours later when a new security guard who was coming on duty noticed me and knocked on the window of my car. Still half asleep I lowered the window. The guard was shining a flashlight into my car. "Is everything alright?" I replied, "Yes, I'm fine." I could tell the guard was trying to smell my breath. I started my car and put the window up. The guard kept watching me as I drove off. As I drove home I was aware that I had been trying to stay awake and figure out a problem. By the time I got home I had convinced myself that the problem I had been working on was a tricky detail of database programming for the VirileMail software. I showered and ate and headed back to work. By the time I got to work, Fred and Judy were showing the details of the computer network and server array to the new network administrator, Brad Emphrone. I said, “Welcome back, Judy.” She introduced me to Brad. He about crushed my hand in his huge and muscular cow-milker’s hand. I was to learn that Brad grew up on a dairy farm before attending Brandeis and getting a B.S. in computer science. He has worked for a dotcom startup during the late 90’s then had worked as a temporary network administrator at half a dozen companies since then. I said, “This is a first for Antler. Four network administrators all here at one time.” Fred objected to my count, “You can’t count yourself anymore, you’re part of that fancy new software development project.” I said, “The transfer papers I signed last Friday specified that I would start on the new project at noon today,” I looked at my watch, “So I’m still officially a network administrator for a few more hours.” Thinking of Dave and employment paper work reminded me to ask Fred, “Has Erin been in?” Fred was bone tired from the cumulative effect of his week of 12 hour night shifts and he was eager to head home, but he did want to talk to Erin. “I’ll go see if she’s in yet.” He went to try to find Erin. Brad asked me, “So am I being taken on so that you can switch to this new project?” I was sure that Brad was wondering how long his temporary position might last. I told him about the plans to hire both him and another new network administrator. “If there were four network administrators we could get away from the 56 hour work weeks that Judy, Fred and I have been on.” Judy objected, “Hey, I like the bonus they have been paying us for the long work week.” I told Judy that Fred had just gone to talk to Erin about pay raises. “With this new project getting started, somebody finally got a crowbar into Geisler’s wallet. I suspect Erin will agree to pay you the same for a 42 hour work week as you have been getting for 56.” I could see Judy’s eyes light up at the prospect of an extra 14 hours a week to be at home with her family. Just then Fred came back after having a quick word with Erin. He confirmed that Geisler had spoke to Erin about the idea of pay raises and that Erin had signed on to the idea of higher pay for experienced network administrators. Fred reported to us that he had seen Erin tell Dave to start pushing the paper work involved in pay raises for Fred and Judy. Fred handed Judy the biometrically activated palm computer and said, “Geisler will be here at 1:00 to set Brad up for thumb printing.” Fred wished me luck on the new project and promised Brad that he would be back at 3:00 then he started to split for home. As Fred left the room and headed down the hallway, Brad called out, “Thanks for taking on a double shift so we can get our schedules synchronized.” I knew that Fred was exhausted and I was surprised at the idea of him returning that afternoon. I asked, “Fred’s coming back at 3:00?” Judy told me that they had agreed to try 3-11, 11-7, and 7-3 shifts. When another network administrator was hired in the near future then they would probably go to daily 6 hour shifts and a 42 hour work week. Judy had heard of the new project, but did not know anything about it. She asked me, “What is this new project you are joining, anyhow?” I gave a short description of the artificial intelligence-supported email application that the Czechs had developed. “The new project is a push to get the new email software on the market in this country.” I told Judy about the huge drain on computing resources being exerted by the new software. Judy was shocked, “We’re running at 95% CPU cycle utilization?” That level of CPU use was so unbelievable that she had to immediately pull up the network resource utilization report on the palm computer. She stared at the numbers in disbelief and spoke with outrage, “We have paying customers who will scream murder if we bog down and can’t supply them with their computing resources when they need them. Company policy is that we need a minimum of 25% excess processing power at all times. Who is the lunatic who’s letting this new software take us to 95%?” Judy was really upset, but I was able to calm her down and explain the situation. Finally she accepted that the Czech software was not interfering with regular business operations and started asking about details of the new project. She was intrigued by the idea of an artificial intelligence routine that would be using so much of our computing resources. She commented, “I did my masters degree research on artificial intelligence. I’d sure like to see this program code.” There was a certain amount of compartmentalization and security around the VirileMail project. I explained, “When I signed on to the new project last Friday, I had to sign a non-disclosure agreement. Access to the VirileMail code is restricted to project team members.” Judy was not sure she had heard me correctly. “Virile male?” I explained that the name of the project was some mistranslation of the original name. I almost mentioned that the email software had been written in some unknown Eastern European language, but I kept my mouth shut about that. If it had been just Judy and Fred I would have spoken more freely, but I really did not know Brad at that point in time. The more I thought about the events of the past week the more I remembered about just how strange things had been and I started to remember my commitment to sort it all out. Judy knew me well enough to see that I was holding something back, but before she could start to pump me for more information, Brad asked to see the thumb print-activated palm computer and the awkward moment passed. I could tell that Judy was very excited about the AI software development project and disappointed that she would be stuck with training Brad while I went off to work on the new project. While she told Brad about the palm computer and what network administration functions could be performed on it, I thought about the feelings I had for the new project. I had never understood why I had been selected to join the project. It was true that I had access to the network administration tool that had been needed to link to Czech team into our server array, but most of the work I had done on the project so far seemed like a dream. I had done database programming to set up the VirileMail package on our server, but while doing that work it had been like I was a puppet. Standing there thinking about the past week, I had flashes of memories that reminded how wrong many of the recent events had been. My legs started to tremble and I felt a wave of anxiety.
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