Thursday, June 25, 1998
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Earlier this week when I was looking for a Javascript book, I was flipping through a stack of them in the bookstore and came across a chapter about doing things to keep your code from being stolen. I realize that I haven't exactly created anything earthshattering (yet), and certainly if I was creating incredibly complicated things and hoping to sell them, I wouldn't be thrilled to know that anyone with a browser could copy them and reuse them and there would be nothing I could do. One suggestion was to create your code so that it appears in one long line instead of nicely formatted. I have seen pages like that (actually, I think I've created them once or twice accidentally), and it does make it more difficult to use. There were other things, too, although I don't remember any specifically. There was something about running a program that turned a lot of the everyday words into nonsense, so supposedly it would still run, but it wouldn't make sense to anyone reading the code.
I don't know why I started thinking about that stuff, really. I guess because I was looking at the Dreamweaver code and trying to see if it was easier to read than the VisualPage source. It does sometimes do weird things when you're working in a visual editor. When you're working in a text editor like Windows Notepad, you type in <blockquote> and some text and then </blockquote> and if you want your paragraph further indented, you do it again, and if you want it not indented, you take them out.
In VisualPage you just hit a button to indent text. I've started out with making a text block indented, then decided not to, and ended up with crazy looking code that had five or six <blockquote> commands and as many </blockquote> ones, none of which did anything at all. I guess I need to try that trick in Dreamweaver and see what happens. The typing lag really bothered me, though. I started up VisualPage (which I'm using now), and have just as many applications open, and the screen is keeping up with my typing, so it's apparently a Dreamweaver aberation.
So I actually feel like I've accomplished something today, even if I do feel a little frustrated. Software is like that. I like learning new things, and I love playing with new software, but I don't like to spend a lot of time trying to figure it out. I want to do things with it immediately. I hate to read manuals. I like to have manuals, mostly in order to look things up when I have questions, but I seldom spend much time looking at them unless I have a specific question.
It looks like a gorgeous day outside, although I've only been out to get the newspaper and that was about six hours ago. Six hours. I don't know. I feel like I've accomplished something, but I don't feel like I've accomplished six hours' worth. I got a note from a friend that he had put in a fifteen hour day yesterday working on a site for a client, and when I mentioned it to Bob, he said, "How do you put in a fifteen hour day doing that stuff?" I don't know. You just do. I sat down this morning and started looking at Bryce, and two hours were gone before I realized it. And I didn't even come up with anything worth saving. It's just so easy to lose track of time on the computer, at least it is for me. But I do love it, and that's why I'm so looking forward to my new job.
I decided to make my title "Web Designer." I briefly (at Mike's suggestion) considered "Web Goddess," but even though I was given free reign in deciding what my title should be, I decided to be a little less whimsical, at least until I get to know the people that I'm working with. I suppose I could always change it later. It's so foreign to me, to be going to work for someplace where they just hire you and then let you figure out what you are. I love it. It's completely different from the corporate structure where I've worked for most of my life. In the last job I had, you were assigned a job grade, and it was a secret. No one was supposed to know what grade they were, or what grade anyone else was. Well, sure, if you knew that, then you could figure out that someone was making more (or less) money than you were.
I started out as a Legal Secretary. A couple of years later I was promoted to Legal Assistant, the position I held until about eighteen months before I left. My department moved into the executive wing and my title changed to Executive Secretary. My job duties didn't change, except for the fact that I gained two more attorneys to support, but the fact that I was sitting at a wooden desk instead of in a cubicle meant that my title had to change. I threw a fit when I found out. Well, as much of a fit as I'm prone to do, which isn't a lot, I suppose. But I did go in to my boss and say that I felt like I was getting a demotion. I had asked for more money because my responsibilities had increased, and was turned down, so it was a real slap in the face to lose my title as well.
I said, "What does it cost to let me keep my title? To anyone outside it looks like a demotion. And to me, frankly, it feels like one. It doesn't cost anything, it will keep me happy (as happy as I can be here), so how about it?"
He talked with his boss and they decided that I could put whatever I wanted on my business cards and stationery although my real title wouldn't change. As far as the human resources department was concerned, I was an Executive Secretary. And, as I found out, I was also listed that way in the company directory. I actually had one of the more outspoken clerical people ask me if I had been demoted. I don't remember how I answered her, but yes, it did feel that way. Shortly before I left our jobs and titles were reevaluated and mine was changed to "Senior Executive Assistant." Whoopee.
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Copyright © 1998 Willa G. Cline
