Although I don’t intend to admit it to anyone, I bought a Christmas gift for my lady friend at a yard sale, way back in July. I paid the seller the princely sum of $5 for the gift. I then paid to get it gift wrapped, as Christmas approached. (When I have to deal with physical things, they call me ten thumbs, even to my face. Sadly, it’s true)
Although I lack a certain facility with gift wrapping, things like that, I’m a software engineer and a damn good one. I have been working very hard and all alone, to get my latest task done. The task is for a military client and is very important to at least the commanding officer at a nearby military base.
The Commanding Officer told my management, “If Jason can get the current program delivered and it meets spec, Jason will handle my computer programming, as long as I’m here.”
My management then told me that the task that I was working on was really important and that I should give it my best effort.
(I always give my work my best effort, and my management knows that. However, they didn’t see fit to tell me why the work in my latest task was so important. The vice president’s secretary told me of the CO’s dictum, in private.)
The task that I’m working on is basically an impossible one. A bankrupt company has delivered (more like abandoned) a computer and a suite of peripheral equipment. The computer is supposedly a very high-powered unit and will solve a lot of problems, if it can be usefully programmed. However, there’s no documentation for the machines and the government has decreed, “Generate a useful demo and we will manufacture the machines ourselves. Else we throw the system away.”
