[geeks] Another $previousOrkPlace Story

[geeks at sunhelp.org]

We all do what we gotta do. I spent three years at a company in Harrisburg
PA that thieved and swindled. Their rep was good when I started, but the
same week I started the owner's son became president. In order to make the
numbers and impress daddy he sold used equipment as new, ripped off Cisco by
giving away unlicensed software and sold totally inappropriate network and
security solutions to beat the compititions price (and convinced the
customer it was just what he needed).

After three years their rep sucked so much wind that I couldn't get a job
with their name on my resume. 10% of my soul is now missing (sold). I regret
that I didn't leave earlier. In my defense I will say that I tried to buck
the trend, but it made me the bastard employee and they were glad to see me
go.

James Fogg, Network Engineer
Vicinity Corporation - New Hampshire
(603) 442-1751

~ -----Original Message-----
~ From: Jonathan C. Patschke [mailto:jp at celestrion.net]
~ Sent: Wednesday, April 03, 2002 11:35 PM
~ To: Geeks
~ Subject: [geeks] Another $previousOrkPlace Story
~ 
~ 
~   (or "how rescue at sunhelp.org can make you insanely wealthy if you're
~    a thieving scumbag like my ex-$PHB")
~ 
~ You'll really shake your heads at this one.  I'm still sorta stunned.
~ 
~ Back before I quit my job, I built "smart switches" for $company
~ customers.  These "smart switches" were PCs with multiple 3Com network
~ cards and Linux, configured to do routing and NAT and web-caching and
~ whatever else the customer needed.  Typically these were sold 
~ for about
~ $900.
~ 
~ The Bastrop County courthouse ordered such a device with 
~ -lots- of bells
~ and whistles from $company through a consultant in La Grange (an
~ ex-employee who left on good terms).  They needed to connect the law
~ enforcement, courthouse, jail, and justice of the peace 
~ together and then
~ connect that to the Internet, all behind a firewall, and all 
~ using NAT.  
~ The consultant paid us $1300 to build this special router for 
~ the county.
~ 
~ A week later (Feb 20), I walked out of $company.  The Bastrop 
~ County order
~ hadn't been placed on my desk yet.  If it had, it probably 
~ wouldn't have
~ changed my decision, but I don't like leaving things 
~ incomplete.  I even
~ finished a 8-station NT installation for internal use the day I left.
~ 
~ So, I'm talking with the other network guy (who was at 
~ $company until last
~ Friday) a few days later, and $PHB is supposedly building these "smart
~ switches" with a single floppy, and is proud that he's doing in a few
~ minutes what took me hours.  I nod and smile.  Sure, he found 
~ the Linux
~ router-on-a-floppy project.  This ought to be funny.
~ 
~ Apparently, he found out that there's a -lot- more to what 
~ these customers
~ are demanding than can be found on any 1.44MB floppy, as he's 
~ not building
~ them anymore.  How did I find out?  Well...
~ 
~ Just before I left, I bought a Kalpana 2015 switch from Bill. 
~  He also had
~ a big -old- (early 90s?) 8-port (or was it 16) Kalpana switch 
~ that he made
~ me take because it was taking up too much room and wasn't 
~ doing him any
~ good.  Anyway, I accidentally left it at the office when I 
~ walked out.  It
~ wasn't so much accidental that I left it there, as I was 
~ completely out of
~ room in my car[1], but it was an accident that I didn't pick 
~ it up when I
~ picked up my RS/6000.
~ 
~ Anyway, I'd forgotten about it.  Until today, that is.
~ 
~ That consultant (the ex-employee) is one of my new business 
~ partners.  I
~ walked into his office today (he needed a few Macintoshes 
~ LARTed), and he
~ metioned something about being pissed off at $PHB.  $PHB still hadn't
~ delivered the "smart switch", and tried to give him something even
~ -better- than a PC-router for an even -higher- price than the $1300--a
~ -fully- -managed- switch!  The consultant wanted my opinion 
~ on it before
~ having to ask the county for a budget increase on the project.
~ 
~ On a hunch, I asked the consultant if it was about 4U, white, and said
~ "Kalpana" on the front.
~ 
~ Of course it was.  I didn't have to ask.  I was just humoring 
~ $PHB since
~ he might've accidentally woke up a day in his life and -not- 
~ asked himself
~ "Hmm... who should I shaft today?"
~ 
~ You know, flogging is too good for some people.  Selling a 
~ device that's
~ approximately a decade out of circulation that doesn't meet -any- of a
~ -government- client's requirements (which would cause someone 
~ -else- to
~ either get sued or receive a bad reputation) under the 
~ pretense that it's
~ new equipment is one thing.  Selling something that belongs to someone
~ -else- and trying to make a -fsck- of a profit is entirely another.
~ 
~ It's only gentlemanly decency (and that I don't want to get Bill in
~ trouble) that I don't announce right here who I used to work 
~ for.  But,
~ everyone who's "a player" in Austin area already knows that $PHB is a
~ crook, so I guess Karmic reaction isn't far off as-is.  Plus, 
~ it's on my
~ personal web page, as I haven't edited the front page in two years. :)
~ 
~ If there remains any doubt as to why I left $company, I 
~ really don't know
~ what I can say.  I'm kicking my own ass for having worked 
~ there for over
~ four years.
~ 
~ --Jonathan
~ [1] A PC, two monitors, three bookshelves' worth of books, a 
~ Sun U10, an
~     Indigo2, an Octane, a VT420, a mini-tower of hard discs, a Sun
~     RSM-219 disc shelf, and a spool of CDs[2].  In a Firebird.  That's
~     somewhere near the dictionary definition of `cramped'.
~ [2] I furnished my own equipment and training while I was at $company.
~ _______________________________________________
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~