Corporate America HELL and Returning Dell Products

Hi Clark,

I've been a Dell customer for many years, since the days of Pentium 3 500mhz. I don't know when that was, but that is when I bought my first Dell system.

At one time, I had a Toshiba Satellite laptop. That is when they cost $2,700 for a 10" screen at 800 x 600 resolution, and a 4G hard drive was considered huge. I remember watching as everyone oohed an ahhed as the screen size went up to 11", and then a whopping 12".

At the time I had the Toshiba, with the little pointy device, I saw a Dell laptop and thought wow,the screen is awesome! That's one of the things that drew me to Dells. Also, I really liked the "build quality" and that they were all black (the Toshibas at that time were an ugly gray).

So, I watched as things like actual CD drives (can you imagine that?) got added to laptops ... wow :-)

Then I took the plunge and bought an Inspiron 4000 laptop, because of the modular bays. While most people were still getting a few hours out of their laptop, with dual batteries in the 4000 I was getting up to 6 hours, or more if I carried a spare battery. At that time able to scroll and coast.

I bought and sold laptops at opportune times, upgraded to a 4100, then a D505, 600m, 700m, and 8600. I got good prices for friends or from ebay.

Right now I have mixed feelings about the new laptops. For the most part I like them, but I miss the modular bay. It's less important on the 630m that I ended up with, because with the upgraded battery the battery life is more than enough for my use during a day. However, for a 6000, E1505, or 6400, due to the larger screen (and who knows about the Core Duo power requirments) a modular battery would be very useful. There hasn't been a review yet of the E1505 on CNET which would include some battery life tests.

So, my needs are a little different than others. I want need portability, good performance, and battery life, and I just happened to clumsily stumble on the right computer for my needs.

I used to be a mainframe computer programmer for 15 years (and I absolutely hate "corporate America" now). At the beginning, people were people. Then came Tom Peters (the jerk) and terms like reengineering, downsizing, right-sizing blah blah f*ing blah. Now people are "units of production", and if you are the best employee in the organization but happen to be attached to an area being downsized, you get cut. I mean what the f*, what are we focused on now, where are the values? Oh... I see, yes ... we need to exceed Wall Street expectations bye $.02, make 36 cents per share rather than 34 center per share, so let's cut this division and these 10,000 employess. Oh, and who cares if it's a good long-term vs. short-term decision because my $14 million compensation as CEO and options are dependent on this quarter's results. What do I care if Japanese or Korean or Indian company's make inroads with market share? Heck by that time I'll be long gone and enjoying my one-thousand-lifetimes worth of compensation.

Like Chrysler, no longer an "American" company -- their Dodge Neon entry level car has remained the same while Honda, Toyota, and Korean companies have upgraded their model several times.

Oops, I guess I got triggered a little there. After corporate america I took time off and have been learning web programming. I've learned Java, HTML JavaScript, .NET, etc. I used to be a database analyst so the database stuff was second nature. Then I interned at a company this summer.

F***... everything is so damn complicated now. I was thrown into the most complicated XML XSLT transformation against goverment crime data, with a mentor who would answer a question with "just go press the green button". I'd say "OK, what does the green button do?". She'd say "Just to press it, you don't need to know". So, I "made waves" there by actually saying "No, I am a computer professional and I just don't press buttons (but I'd sure like to press a lot of yours lol) when I don't know what they do".

Anyway, I came away with the feeling that no, I don't want to be a computer professional anymore. I don't want to have my head in books learning the esoteric differences between Java 1.4.2 and 1.5.2 and the new object model utilizing Composition over Inheritance, and how this will only work on PC's that are updated to this level of Java, and oh by the way, we need it to work on Internet Explorer, Mozilla, and AOL web browers, which have different nuances of JavaScript -- oh yes, and this works with Netscape 3.1 but nothing before that, and Microsoft did it this way so now that it has most of the browser market (the illegal judicially recognized but not penalized monopoly) then we have to go that way because of course Microsoft wants to control all standards and they can, because they have the monopoly and the leverage, and yes, this all has to be done with 5 fewer resources or "personnel units" because we've added Major Project 1 and Major Project 2, and HERE IS THIS BRAND NEW BEEPER THAT YOU GET TO WEAR NON-STOP FOR THE NEXT 14 MONTHS, taking an average of 8 calls in a weekend, and developing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder because instead of a plant going off in Vietnam, the BEEP BEEP BEEP sound of the pager makes your heart beat twice as fast, and who cares that you have to drive 3.5 hours each way several times a week and that you got up at 4:30am to arrive for an 8:00 am meeting in the Chicago office but they cancelled it but forgot to inform you and now you are there having to do production support but you don't have a computer at that location because the budget won't allow it but you're still supposed to magically do all your responsibilities and be creative about it (i.e. walk around until you find a cubicle with noone in it only to be accosted later by someone wondering what-the-hell-are-you-doing-at-my-desk), and yes you now get to support SQL Server 6 which requires Windows 95 or greater, but that hasn't been approved by our standards department so your Windows 3.1 PC will have to do never mind that it's IMPOSSIBLE so you need to purchase your own laptop in order to 1) have a computer that you can use at remote locations and 2) support this new Database, and hey, we expect you to be a team player so make sure you show up for the 6pm Christmas Happy (wrong word) Hour, NEVER MIND THAT YOUR ROUND TRIP CAR RIDE TAKES 7 HOURS, but hey, I'll buy you a beer, it's on me, for all your effort, hey, you can even have an imported one, how is that? ..............................................................................................................................

No way, no corporate America for me. I got one hell of a good severance package because I documented every single little thing, and they didn't want to be sued. I haven't worked since Sept 2001 and if I have anything to say about it I probably won't have to work another day in my life but I am having a lot of fun volunteering. I set up the computer lab at the local YWCA for example, helped Polish immigrants learn computer skills, and facilitate some support groups.

Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it :-)

Journey