Annual Memorial Day Post: 2024

I recently finished the audiobook for Jay Stout's Hell's Angels: The True Story of the 303rd Bomb Group in World War II. 

Amazon.com: Hell's Angels: The True Story of the 303rd Bomb Group in World War II: 9780425274101: Stout, Jay A.: Books

I've written before about when after getting a press ride in a B-17 Flying Fortress I was awed by the vulnerability of bomber crews in those big slow planes. The sheet metal on those beasts was weak protection against the cannon shells of the Luftwaffe's fighters. 

Stout's book is magnificent, dumping a load of additional context over my previous experience. It brings to life the breadth of the bomber crew experience. Much has been written before about this subject in unit histories, personal memoirs, and other histories about specific aircraft. Stout explains in the book he differentiates his work by trying to expose a large diversity of experiences. And he does a very good job, putting into one place so many of the parts of that subject. 

Previous books discuss in detail the combat operations and history of strategic bombing, but Stout goes far beyond that, while still including key examples of harrowing battles. He shares information about the administrators, the officers responsible for creating the 303 Bomb Group and the logistical challenges and high-level politics they faced. He shares selected stories of the crews and pilots, from training through their final missions. There's also insight into German anti-aircraft crews and the civilians' understandable anger toward the American bomber crewmen that parachuted into Germany from a stricken aircraft. There's a little discussion about the effectiveness of "strategic bombing" and how it did have an effect, even as academics proclaim such campaigns to be failures. Stout includes stories of downed airmen that survived and returned, and those that didn't, and the ones that endured serious injury and lengthy recoveries. There are stories about how the Americans, flying from bases in England, interfaced with the British. There are stories about the planes and arms and even an experimental bomb that failed in the field and whose lasting legacy was its formidable shipping crate that crews repurposed as a bar.

And of course, the combat. Gruesome and heartbreaking stories about combat brutal to both sides. Strikes from enemy fighters or anti-aircraft guns would tear parts of the airplane off or even completely sever it in half. Crew could lose limbs or take severe wounds. 

Even on a mission sans enemy contact, the men suffered greatly against the elements of high altitude. The bombers had onboard oxygen supplies that each crewman could hook a mask into, but when this failed they had to use individual oxygen bottles. If a crewmember went too long without oxygen they would develop hypoxia and become disoriented or pass out. The oxygen-poor environment was further complicated by extreme cold. Imagine trying to handle instruments or guns with cold hands. The one benefit of the cold is that it would slow or halt bleeding when the men were injured, however, they would then have to deal with the onset of the bleeding as the bombers returned to a lower altitude and warmer air. 

It was nearly suicide to go up in the bombers during a daylight raid, and then keep doing it for a tour of twenty-five to thirty-five missions, and yet that's what our greatest generation did, again and again. I always remember the thing they say when I have the fortune to speak with these crews: "We had a job to do."

Hell's Angels is my second Stout book, the first being his first, Hornet over Kuwait. His writing continues to improve, and it's accompanied by tremendous research. He's become quite prolific, now having penned many historical books and I'm going to have to get them all.

Thanks to all veterans. Today it'll be a classic burger and a beer for you.

Review: Safer Home SH506 Indoor Fly Trap

We have regular battles with flying insects in my home. Some are fruit flies that come from fruit we buy at the market, and some are big horseflies that come in when our dogs like us to leave a door open for them so they can go in and out of the house. And we have mosquitos, who have no business being indoors but somehow always find their way to the corner of a door sill and get inside when the door opens.

Hand-to-hand combat is tough with these critters. Mosquitos are often slow enough that I can smash them between my hands, but the big flies are too fast and the fruit flies are hard to see. I don't want to resort to chemical warfare because I don't like the smell of most commercial pest toxins and the general idea of having my airspace filled with what is essentially nerve gas bothers me even though product labels say the levels of toxin in spray insecticides is not enough to harm humans.

A couple years ago we bought a large bug zapper. It does work but it's big, ungainly, and requires power. While it is effective, we find that unless conditions are right (room is mostly dark except for the bug zapper) it doesn't really get the big flies. 

I looked to tech and science to find something smaller and maybe better. 

I took a gamble on the well-reviewed Safer Home SH506 plug-in unit. This is a low energy LED device that plugs into the wall like a night light and generates a cool blue light. The device has a small panel you attach to it that is smooth one one side and sticky on the other. The light draws insects to it and they get stuck on the adhesive side. 

It's a modern version of fly paper, which can be effective but is unsightly and exposed enough that you could accidentally stick yourself to it. It also depended on flies happening to connect with it, and the more effective it was the more unsightly it became as it turned into a fly graveyard. The SH506 keeps the carcasses of the insects on the wall-facing side of the panel, so you don't see the nastiness until you go to check it.

Did the SH506 work for me? Yes and no. I like that it's fairly unobtrusive and probably requires only low power. I like that it doesn't require chemicals. During the first week of use it did a nice job of drawing the fruit flies but didn't do a good job of catching the big flies. However, one bonus is that it did draw in one mosquito. 

One other con: The plug design could stand to be a bit more compact. It needs one socket but it just large enough that it can interfere with use of the adjacent one in the classic two-socket configuration. 

The SH506 runs about $15 for the unit with two sticky panels. Panel refills are about $2.25 each in refill packs. Both are available at Amazon. 

Would I buy it again? Yes, I'd rate it 4 out of 5 stars. I'm disappointed in the bulky plug and that it didn't lure in the big flies that are the most annoying, but it's much less an eyesore than the bug zapper and probably runs on less power. Replacing the panel with a refill is super easy and will take all of 5 seconds. I will consider getting a second one.

Slaves to Pedantry

Fuck lawyers, fuck computers, fuck eBay, and fuck stupid fuckers that run our lives. 

I've had an item listed on eBay for months now, a Playstation game called Streak Hoverboard Racing. That's the actual title of the game. I said "GAME", not an actual "self-balancing scooter" device. But as I tried to modify the listing, I was unable to save because of this beauty:

It may be hard to read if it's too small in the graphic, but the key points are that "the term HOVERBOARD is a registered trademark, please ensure that you are authorized to use the term..." 

What it really is is total bullshit. I'm not trying to list a "self-balancing scooter" as any idiot looking at the listing category or the picture or the listing itself would be able to tell. 

People, this is the future. It's the intersection of stupid AI, stupid businesspeople, soulless lawyers, idiot programmers, and pedantic adherence to rules. It's the same dogshit I deal with at work where we can't even drop a file from an automated report into a network directory by request of the owner of the directory because there are three layers of security surrounding it and none of the actual people involved in the process have any control over the implementation pieces. 

It's another example of how American productivity is brought to its knees by risk aversion driven by all the wrong incentives. I've seen this in many companies I've worked for where it really feels that IT has forgotten its role is to serve its customers and instead management pushes policies that make it feel like we're really here to serve auditors and lawyers who bring $0 into the organization. 

And today on eBay I find that I cannot even save a text description of a silly listing for a little video game. So instead I have to reduce the accuracy of the listing by calling it "Streak racing" because calling it "Streak self-balancing scooter racing" would be both stupid and incorrect. Clearly since the title was accepted a few months ago when I first added the listing, this is something new. But I'm sure it's only a matter of time before eBay would have had an audit drone look over a report, ignore context, identify the listing, and just cancel it without giving me a chance to explain. 

Ok, rant over, this slave will now go back to work. Have a nice day. 

Squadron Signal Collector's Notes

My god what am I doing with my life? I've been a book collector long enough to know what a horrible hobby it is. Books are big, ungainly, and easily susceptible to damage from water, sunlight, fire, and smoke. They're also losing popularity and are becoming more of a niche thing with each passing day. So why, later in life, have I decided to pick up yet another collecting pursuit, and of a book set no less?

Squadron Signal Publications is a long-lived publication arm of Squadron, a company that specialized in printing military books and selling scale models since the 1970's. It started in 1968 in Detroit, MI, but spent most of its years in Carrollton, Texas. Squadron Signal produced a steady stream of books about planes, ships, infantry, and tanks through the early 2000s, when it went through a series of ownership changes before finally landing in the hands of Brandon Lowe in Georgia, who's primarily a scale model enthusiast (you can read the story of how he acquired the Squadron brands here [squadron.com]). The company produced hundreds of books, although the frequency of releases became more sporadic in the late 2010s. What the label's publishing future holds is uncertain. 

I first remember seeing Squadron Signal books at the hobby shops I would sometimes frequent. They were always beautiful to me, usually featuring nice paintings by Lou Drendel or Don Greer on the cover. They were often 8.5 in x 11 in softcovers in landscape format, though some issues were printed in portrait, and in the 2010s they started producing hardcover editions. Each one was packed with text and photos with captions. There were different series published, each with a different specialization:

1000: Aircraft In Action

The original "in action" series focused on a particular vehicle or class of vehicle, tracing the development and variants. These are all printed in landscape orientation and the photos are black and white but the books featured a color insert in the middle to show examples of the aircraft color schemes.

1601 - 1608: Mini in action series

One notable subset within the 1000 series is the "Mini in action" set. These eight books were similar to the rest of the 1000 series books but they were half the size at 8.5 in x 5.5 in and printed in portrait mode. I don't know the strategy behind this line. Despite the cute format, they are not written for children, these are just like other Squadron books and loaded with facts and photos. Most of this line though did not have their own full size book except for the A-10 Warthog. The others feature aircraft that are a bit more obscure so perhaps they used this format to give these vehicles treatment with less content. Or, maybe the publishers were just experimenting.

28-Aug-2024 Update

Today we were blessed during the weekly Wednesday Squadron show on YouTube as Brandon Lowe hosted Lee Leibold as a guest. Leibold worked at Squadron from 1989 to 1994. Leibold also held the rights to Squadron Signal Publishing for a time after Squadron left Texas and before it reunited with the Squadron brand under Lowe's ownership. In the chat I asked Leibold about the Mini in action series, and he suggests the publisher at the time may have been looking for a way to get books to a lower price point and also thought perhaps the subjects of the books had less material to cover as I surmised above. 

2000: Armor In Action

Focused on tanks and ground vehicles

3000: Infantry In Action

An eleven issue set spanning WWII and Vietnam troops

4000: Warships In Action

Boats and submarines, mostly from WWII but also some modern

5000 series

Included several groups:

• 5001 to 5009 (Modern Military Aircraft): this series of nine issues focused on a specific aircraft and included history and personal testimonials from pilots. 
• 5501 to 5801 (Photo survey series): This series provided in-depth photo reviews of a vehicle, showing everything about the interior and exterior. The books were further categorized by subject type:
• Walk Around series: Aircraft and armor were in the "walk around" set
• On Deck: naval subjects
• At the Gate: A few civilian passenger planes are covered here
• Detail In Action: There were a few of these published that blended the features of the "in action" and "walk around" series

6000 series

This set is hard to categorize because it features a diverse array of subjects. I've seen these referred to as "specials" and they can cover various historical subjects like the air war in Vietnam, a survey of a vehicle's colors and markings in a certain era, modeling tips, a review of soldier uniforms and insignia, or a specific nationality's air force (such as the Finnish Air Force in WWII), and there's even one fantasy role-playing supplement. These are some of my favorites because they covered some obscure and little discussed parts of history and like all Squadron Signal books are filled with fascinating facts and graphics.

Notable subsets:

• 6031 Flying Colors: This appears to be a big coffee table-style book that has lots of color profiles of aircraft up to the mid-1970s. Squadron published a softcover edition in 1976. There were some updates after that from publisher Salamander, though the information on this differs between Amazon and Goodreads. Goodreads makes more sense, so I'll go with them for now: The first  Salamander release was in 1981, followed by another edition in 1999. The Salamander editions were available in both hardcover and softcover.
• 6501 - 6506, 6561 - 6565 (Fighting Colors): a set focused on paint schemes of selected aircraft

The Periscopio Publications

Periscopio is a Greek publisher that developed a series of history and modeling books. There's record of activity as late as 2021 but the company's website is currently defunct. I don't know where the relationship developed from but Squadron became a distributor of some of the books. These collectively form an interesting subset of the Squadron line. These softcover books were very nicely produced on thick, high-quality paper and are heavily illustrated, often with photos of museum-caliber artifacts. I liken them to those coffee table books from Dorling Kindersley, although I think these are more in-depth and scholarly. These books put nice bibliographies in the back and I wish other Squadron books would do the same.

Periscopio books made up these numbers in the Squadron line:

• PO6001 - PO6003 (Famous Aircraft of the World): a three volume set of aircraft books by Richard Caruana.  
• 7001 -7008 (Great Battles of the World): Eight books in this set set cover ancient battles and WWII topics. 
• 8001 (Military Essays): The lone entry in this series is a translation of an essay by historian Dimitris Belezos about Byzantine Armies. I don't know why the called it an essay; this is a solid book. Like the other Periscopio books, its text and graphics are beautifully put together. In addition to the bibliography there is also a glossary. 

8000: Detail and Scale

There are some unit history books and a few scale modeling books here, but most of the series was made up of the "Detail & Scale" (D&S) run that featured aircraft and boats with photos and descriptions of the physical properties of the vehicles and its variants. Most appear to have been written by Bert Kinzey. The ones I've seen reminded me of the "in action" series although these are printed in portrait orientation. I like the way they organize and format the material. These appear to have been intended mostly for modelers, but they're still interesting for general enthusiasts and historians.

As I've continued my hunt I found that I had some Bert Kinzey classics in my collection already. These were in a series called Colors & Markings (C&M) that carried the same "Detail & Scale" emblem on the cover that the Squadron editions have, but these were published in the early 1980s by TAB  Books. I've since discovered that D&S debuted as a short-lived four issue series in the 1970s that underwent several changes in publisher, moving from Aero Publishers, who were later merged into TAB, then moving to Kalmbach Publishing, and then finally to Squadron/Signal. Squadron appears to have started publishing D&S books in 1983. 

I also found on Amazon that since 2017 Kinsey and other authors have continued updating some of the D&S and C&M books in both print and digital format, though they now appear to be independently published. 

The prolific David Doyle did something similar when several of his military book publishers were struggling, and was able to retain/acquire rights to his work along with any unsold copies and now sells them on his website. Smart move, and it's nice to see some of the hard-working authors keep rights. Doyle maintains a relationship with Squadron and continues to work with the brand.

10,000 series and up

This numbering starts a next generation run of subjects previously covered. There are new entries in the "in action" and "walk around" lines. These books are printed on nicer paper than the older lines, are squarebound rather than stapled, and feature more color photos than the earlier books. 

• 10,000: New generation of aviation "in action" series. Many of the same vehicles in the 1000 series are covered, with new authors (mostly David Doyle) and new covers (some paintings and some photos).  
• 12,000: New generation of armor "in action" books
• 14,000: New generation of naval "in action" books
• 25,000: New generation of aviation "walk around" books
• 26,000: New generation of naval "on deck" books
• 27,000: New generation of armor "walk around" books
• 28,000: New generation of civil aviation "at the gate" books
• 34,000: The "Squadron at Sea" series. I've not read any of these so I can't say for certain, but this appears to be an entirely new series focused on a specific boat rather than a class of boat. For example, each one is named for an instance of a boat such as "USS Arizona" or "USS Saratoga" rather than "Nimitz class" or "US cruisers".
• 36,000: Combat Chronicles series. There are only a few of these and they're oral histories of combat action.
• 39,000: A small run of "Detail in Action" books

The numbering gets a little wonky beyond this point, but some of the 10,000+ series entries got hardcover editions and they're in this range.

• 50,000: Hardcover editions of the 10,000+ series books? The numbering would be the same for the last three digits. For example, 52050 is the hardcover version of 12050.
• 54,000: Hardcover editions of the 14,000 series books
• 65.000: Hardcover editions of the 25,000 series books
• 66,000: Hardcover editions of the 26,000 series books
• 67,000: Hardcover editions of the 27,000 series books
• 74,000: Hardcover editions of the 34,000 series books
• 76,000: Hardcover editions of the 36,000 series books
• 79,000: Hardcover editions of the 39,000 series books

And then it finally ends here:

• 80,000: "Historical Reference" series. There are only a few in this hardcover line offering highly detailed reviews of vehicles. 

Much left to do / Status

As you can see, it's a pretty extensive offering of items published over sixty years. I'm crazy to bother collecting them but I started buying them when I was a teen and have always found them interesting to read through. 

I am perhaps only partially crazy; I'm not going for a complete set. I'm primarily interested in the aviation entries, though I have picked up the infantry books, and select boats and armor issues. I will also not get the softcover of a book if I have the hardcover edition. There are also some books that had re-releases with different covers and I won't worry about being a completist here unless I can get the one I don't have for a song. It was also common for Squadron to take a book and update it a few years later with some extra pages, but the same cover; in those cases I'll just get the newer edition. 

I'd estimate I'm currently about 65% of the way to my collection goal. I have most of the first generation of In Action" books and half of the first generation Walk Around titles. I've got a ways to go to get all the 6000 series items, which are a bit harder to find. The Detail & Scale books show up periodically but tend to be expensive even though most of the copies appear to have been beaten up pretty badly. I only have a few of the 10,000 series and up.

Also, I get most of these in bundles on eBay where your per book cost is more affordable. The books are not really worth much although some sellers tend to price them high. I've tried selling my doubles on eBay and the fish bite very slowly unless you really drop the price. I'd hope that also working in my favor is the fact that fewer people are into books but aggravatingly enough, there are just enough individual and institutional collectors that when there's a good deal, it gets snapped up or bid up. 

As much as I like the books, the company made some questionable moves especially later in the 2010s. As I already noted, some of the books are almost identical re-releases of an earlier edition except for a new cover and higher price tag. Some of the books feel like smaller versions of coffee table books where ninety percent of the book is photos with little other substance (although the photos themselves are often treasures). There's also a great deal of duplication in the content and in a few cases I noticed they took the same text from an earlier book and just changed wording some. But I have to be fair here too; even in cases where they did that, it seemed to me that a lot of the photos were different than the ones in the earlier book. 

This is likely the last major collecting effort I'll undergo. I really shouldn't be adding more physical burdens to my life. I successfully overcame my comics, sports cards, and computer games addictions, and when those itches relapse they can be satisfied with digital copies that are inexpensive and require no physical space. I've been selling off those physical collections and donating the proceeds to charity. Perhaps I'll eventually do the same with the Squadron Signal stuff, though it will take time to finish collecting and reading them all. In the meantime, I'll post a few notes and reviews here and there and who knows, maybe it'll help other collectors.

Update 2024-07-28

Ok then. Been busy picking up what I can find on eBay and in used bookstores. 

• Aircraft in Action: Down to 16 books left in the 1000 series. Have also discovered that for some unknown reason select issues are difficult to find and the eBay listings have absolutely ridiculous prices. This includes:
• 1016 Junkers Ju 88: This one is very old, from the early 1970s, but you can find 1001 Luftwaffe part 1 quite regularly, not sure why this guy is so uncommon.
• 1028 B-47 Stratojet: Holy crap, I have no idea what is so special about this plane that I don't think even saw much action. It does pop up occasionally in listings, but there are a few that want $100 or more, which is just criminal. I have seen a few appear in bundles for a fair price-per-book rate, so that's how I will nab one. Whoever said "the market is not rational" is right about this one.
• 1086 Lockheed U-2: There were two editions of this book. The earlier edition, U-2 Spyplane, is common. The updated edition with extra pages is titled Lockheed U-2 and is very rare. It's not like the B-47 item above, where some listings exist and bitches are just charging silly prices, this U-2 is elusive and hard to see (that was both a joke and a non-joke) and there just aren't any available.
• 1089 T-28 Trojan: Ok, this one is goofy. I'd not have expected this book to be particularly popular as it's a trainer and not a plane of renowned combat history, but perhaps Squadron only printed this in limited amounts; it's like the B-47 and there are a few individual expensive listings. There are other trainers in the Aircraft in Action line (T-6, F-5/T-38, and T-34) that are common, so it's an oddity among the rare items.
• 1054 OV-10 Bronco: This is a really cool airplane that I like so it's disappointing it's one of the rare ones. But it is. Only a few listings are out there and sellers want $50+.
• Walk Around: Halfway there, about 34 of the 67 books in the 5500 series.
• Specials (6000 series): I'm short about 17 of the 120 books that are aviation-related. That's actually pretty good as these can be tricky to find. They do show up in listings periodically and while some opportunists like to charge in the $30+ range you can usually find these below $20, which is why I was able to get as far as I have. 
• Periscopio books: Complete except for the P-47 book in the Famous Aircraft set. Made easier by the fact there are only twelve in this group. Started the one on Battle of Britain, there's some good reading and nice art in there. I said earlier I likened these to books published by DK, but Osprey would be a better comparison.
• Next Generation series: Acquired 36 of the 90 books I'm interested in. Much left to do here as they are both rare and expensive. Managed to pull in several of the hardcovers. Not rushing on this part though as these are newer in the series and more are likely to appear in the second-hand market as collectors and modelers finish with them.
• New stuff: Squadron is back in action and publishing new books. I'll probably start picking up brand new ones as they get published.  

Update 2024-09-14

Well, shortly after adding the previous update about rare books, a bunch of those very books appeared for sale, both in bundles and in some individual listings. In the last month I've been able to pick up these:

• 1028 B-47 Stratojet
• 1086 Lockheed U-2
• 1089 T-28 Trojan
• 1054 OV-10 Bronco  

Was really happy to get these for a decent price. Moral of the update: keep your eyes peeled and just keep waiting.

Update 2024-10-28

• Completed the Periscopio books set
• Acquired 1016 Junkers Ju-88. I paid a bit of a premium but got a decent condition copy. With that, I have almost all the 1000 series "in action" books except for a few of the newer ones.
• I have only one left of the 6000 series aviation books to get. I will pick up a few of the ground war books out of interest.
• Have almost all the aviation-related warships in action books I wanted.
• Still have several of the thirty to forty next generation books outstanding
• Have been selling the bunches of doubles I've picked up and donating the money to charity.

Resources

Official web site of Squadron. Current brand owner Brandon Lowe is keeping the faith. 

David Doyle wrote a bunch of the Squadron Signal books and his website has a great list with cover images of almost all the books Squadron published. 

The Aeroflight [aeroflight.co.uk] site is operated by aviation enthusiasts and contains coverage of anything related to aviation, including some listings of books and magazines.

There's No Place like Home

I had me another Linux adventure this last week. At work I am setting up a remote development environment. Conceptually, it's really quite interesting. You use an IDE just like you always have, but it's communicating with a session on a server somewhere else and you're actually developing on that remote machine. Interesting times we live in, for sure. 

But the remote session is on a Linux box. And you know I've written before about how I respect the whole x-nix world because it's amazing and powerful, but it's also obtuse and shrouded in hieroglyphics. Well, setting up this remote environment burned up a pile of hours that it shouldn't have because of a very tricky configuration flaw that had me tearing my hair out.

At work there are others who've treaded down this path before, so there are wikis written and setup scripts available to help us get started. But it's proving to be hell for me as I have to assemble the instructions from several wiki pages; there's no cohesive approach to this documentation.

What makes it worse is that when I run various setup scripts and try to do some of the tasks, I keep getting errors. I go back and check my rights and verify I have security access to the remote resources. I check that all the software I'm supposed to install has been set up correctly. I rebuild SSH keys and update the various hosts that need to have them. Nothing is working; it says it can't find my SSH keys and credentials or can't sign into Artifactory. It's maddening and I've spent hours on it. 

Then, finally, I stumble on yet another error that doesn't explicitly tell me what's wrong, but does give me a hint. I notice that my sessions aren't getting some of the configurations they're supposed to be, like colored prompts. I navigate manually to the .bashrc file and other setup files and they're there, but apparently not running automatically when a session starts. I check the rights on the directories and files that session startup uses, and they're all correct with necessary read and execute access. I can run the .bashrc script manually and the colored prompts show up. I log out and then back in and the issue is still there. 

So then while I'm spelunking around and trying to figure out what's going on before I go insane, I accidentally stumble on the root cause. I type the "cd ~" command to jump back to the home directory, and get a "no such file or directory" error. Ah ha! Now we're getting somewhere.

I then try "cd $HOME" and get the same error. That's it, there's a problem with the home directory definition. That has to be it, and explains why none of the scripts work, because they all depend on the $HOME system variable to be correct, and it's not. 

I check it by running "echo $HOME" and get back "home/myuser". Well, that explains it for sure! It's supposed to be "/home/myuser" with a leading slash. 

I could not find anything on the internet about this issue. The home directory is such a given in X-nix environments that only lucky idiots like me get to experience this rare situation where the home directory is broken. Of course, I can't fix it myself with the change user command because it won't work when you're logged in. I have to ask the Linux admins to fix it for me, so it's the waiting game until they get to me. 

But once that's fixed I'm sure all the setups will go more smoothly and once again I can be friends with Linux and the power it brings. If your Linux session is acting squirelly and can't find files you know exist:

• check the file or directory security rights
• check that the script referring to it is using the right location
• check that your home directory is good (and this last one should not happen unless you're really lucky like me)

You want to know why people use Windows? This is why. The only other technology I've used that's as obtuse and cantankerous is Oracle. That's not a compliment!

Review: (Puzzle) Mediterranean Windows by Eurographics

 If you like puzzles, this is a good one. It's on the easy side for all the right reasons:

• The puzzle pieces are sturdy and well made. The material is probably paper but felt almost like a light wood. "Hey dummy, paper is made of wood." Yes, I know, but some puzzles feel like thin cardboard, and these were solid and of good construction. 
• The image quality is excellent
• I did not have issues with shape or fit ambiguity as I do with some other puzzles. The shapes are well defined.

The picture is a grid of different windows and frames. This, combined with the quality of construction and image, and the variety of color, makes it easy to assemble. I was able to finish it in a few hours. 

Contrast this to the Stranger Things puzzle, which is a great image and puzzle but very difficult because some of the shapes fit in where they shouldn't and the image features many muddled spots. That beast took me weeks. 

You can get this one at Amazon for about $22, but I got this one at Sam's for about $12. 

Why Does It Always Go Like This?

I wrote before about how I left corporate America to become an hourly contractor. All the reasons I did it were legit, and they still are. But I sort of didn't follow my own rules and stay educated and as a result I felt my skills were getting outdated and I needed to do something to shore them up while not requiring me to go without an income or not have a life outside of work. So, I did something I didn't think I'd do. I went back to a full-time job.

Yes, I know. All the reasons I left before are legit and still are. Now I'm dealing with HR bullshit again; the silly annual reviews, the obsession with titles, the unpaid overtime, the requirement to be in office at least part of the week and burn two hours a day in traffic, the doing more with less, and the unpaid overtime. 

"You said 'unpaid overtime' twice."

I did, because that was the main reason I left the grind the first time. And I'm doing it again because the place I'm at has a lot of stuff I'm not familiar with and I don't understand it all and I can't be productive without understanding all the contexts around it. And so to make up for a slow pace of progress I'm compensating by putting more time in. I can put lipstick on it by saying it's due to loyalty or dedication or professionalism, and each of those things may carry some truth too, but mostly I'm just trying to figure things out. 

When I get to a point of equilibrium between knowledge and ignorance, the overtime will ease. And I shouldn't paint an inaccurately large picture of my new company's shortcomings because this might be one of the best companies I've worked for. The vacation policy is generous, the salary was very good although in terms of raw cash a downgrade from consulting, the benefits are good, and there are many little perks in the job. 

Most importantly, the culture is very good. The things that pissed me off the most about culture in typical American companies are either not present here or not as bad. First and foremost, they don't believe in "management by screaming" or "management by intimidation" which I've witnessed in at least two other companies. They also preach continuous education and they'll pay for it, a considerable improvement over my past employers who would talk the talk but not walk the walk. The only weak benefit is really the company's middling 401k match, but even that could be termed average and not sub-par. 

So yes, the free labor component. I'm doing it because I'm still relatively new and I want to be productive and deliver results. I normally would tell younger people, "Don't work for free," but in fairness, there are times when you can elect to do it.

• If you're passionate about the work and enjoy it and it's not torture and you are doing it of your own volition, then it's ok, just don't let it get out of hand. 
• If your company and/or boss are good and perhaps made an honest mistake in misjudging a task's scope and it's one of those thing where a little extra effort can make things right, helping out can go a long way in building relationships and earning trust. This should not be a regular occurrence; if it is happening regularly, there's something else wrong that needs to be addressed.
• An emergency support scenario where a deadline is tight and users need help. On occasion, you do what you have to do and although chronic incidents are an anti-pattern, heroics are good marketing for you and your team.
• And then there's the reason I have to do it now. The knowledge gap about the systems, business, and processes is large enough that you have to put in time researching things to be able to function. This can be mitigated by good documentation and training, but I've already written before about how those things are commonly treated as low priority. 

I've learned that absolutes are usually wrong, and so it was with my thoughts on unpaid overtime. But I've also learned that you should be careful about when you do it and be able to identify whether the presence of it is an indicator of deeper problems or when it is a fair and appropriate response to a temporary situation.