Will they look like this!
Tomorrow at 04:00 I’m setting off from the North of England stopping to pick up a colleague and heading for the West Midlands for a meeting with my as yet unknown colleagues from Germany. So it’s somewhat unlikely that there will be an entry for tommorow, unless the day has some major highlights. Now I’m sure that these people are consumate professionals, I’m also sure that the way that they operate will place significant constraints on the business here in the UK. One of the reasons for the meeting is the “touchy feely” bit, you know getting to know each other – that sort of thing anyway. An other reason for the meeting will be the appraisal of each others skill set, just to find out if every one knows what they are doing. Now I must point out here that there is a difference in attitude between the Northern based Sysadmins and the Southern based ones, over the benefits that these people will bring to the Unix environment in the company.

The general consensus in the South is that the “Huns” are coming, they’re going to do all the things that people from the South expect them to do. Oh! of course you know – Kill the Women and Rape the Men and other things like that. With that in mind there is now a notice outside the computer room that reads like this;

ACHTUNG! ALLES LOOKENSPEEPERS!

Das computermachine ist nicht fuer gefingerpoken und mittengrabben. Ist easy schnappen der springenwerk, blowenfusen und poppencorken mit spitzensparken. Ist nicht fuer gewerken bei das dumpkopfen. Das rubbernecken sichtseeren keepen das cotten-pickenen hans in das pockets muss; relaxen und watchen das blinkenlichten.

Now I must say that this is pretty old, I first had sight of it arond 1979 at Nixdorf in Dundee but it’s probably a lot older than that! Anyway to get back on track, the attitude from the Sysadmins up North is much less disparaging of the Germans (Actually I could think of a couple of people who’d hope that the rumours are true – not women of course!). We will be quite happy to assist them and will hope eventually to become a fully integrated team, providing a high value service to the UK retail operation on behalf of the German owners.