2017-12-31

A happy new year again

At the end of this year I created a mail dispatch system that made me really aware we’re living on a spinning globe where some already are in 2018, I’m still counting down the last hours of 2017. A happy new year to all of you, my best wishes to all of you for the new year.

2017-12-22

When I'm sixty five

In Sweden the age of retirement is 65 years. You can retire between 63 and 67, but 65 is the norm,
you are more or less expected to retire at that age. Next month I am sixty five,
Still I’m not sure what I will do, I have said I will work until I’m 70, but it’s not only up to me or rather
my will. If I want a paycheck someone must be willing to pay and to work I also have to be fit
for work healthy body and an alert mind.
Mens sana in corpore sano.
Juvenalis


That is something to pray for Juvenalis wrote. You never know, I hope for the best though.
There is so much more I want to do in my professional life. I said to all and everyone after I’m 65
I will only do fun things. Last week I said “I will only do funny work”, but that was just my funny english,
I meant I will only do work I like, and that is still IT development work, After +40 years I still like invent
new ways of using computers, design and develop systems and programs. I find it extremely
rewarding to meet people in their work and help them convert boring tasks into computer programs.
To be on the shopfloor learning the production process and create better planning schemes it is
really really something I find amusing. When I was young a senior IT manager told me
When you automate a process you should know the process as good as the guys working with it.
'Process phantoms' can ruin any working process. Go out in the real world a practice first.
That advice I always have tried to follow. About 10 years ago I was asked to develop a support system
for some service engineers, I had some clever ideas how to use at the time novel notepads.But first
I followed two service guys on some service calls. The first customer we visited was an Ericson plant
assembling mobile phone base stations. We were told to switch off our mobile devices plus the plant
was radio signal  shielded  preventing outside signals interfere with the base station production and
testing. Next we started service the customer's tools. Take the tool apart, then grease everything
then reassemble the tool, after a days work my body was aching and my arms was covered in
grease up to the elbows. From that I learned paper and pen sometimes are perfect tools for taking
notes. After a thorough cleanup we committed our notes to regular laptops ordered spare parts,
upgraded tool software etc. Notepads of that time was not a clever idea, for different reasons I
never had the opportunity to create a better system for the service guys. A few years later I found
a new SAP module  which I thought could be the base for a service system. I talked about this
module (which I can’t remember the name of while writing) with colleagues. After a while the
company decided to use this SAP module as the base for a new sales system. When that project
started I was silently kicked out. I never knew why, but now knowing what the company created I’m
happy not being part or associated with that project. Today no one knows I was the original proponent
of the SAP module in the company,

I started writing this post with an idea to write about what I want to in the next coming years,
not what I’m likely to do, but what I want to do. The post became something else.
I will do another attempt before next year.