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After finding that there seem to be no FLOSS or free-as-in-beer Windows Movie editing suites besides Windows Movie Maker after a quick Google search, I decided to contact the help desk to ask what would be required to add it.

Helpdesk: I’m sorry, Windows Movie Maker is a non-standard application.
Me: How?
Helpdesk: The approved editing application is Windows Media Player.
Me:  That’s a player.  Windows Movie Maker is the editor.
Helpdesk:  It’s non-standard.
Me: I repeat, how?  The name is Windows Movie Maker, it comes with Windows, it is considered actual reasonable functional software, and again, has the word Windows in its name.  It’s provided by Microsoft.
Helpdesk:  The application is not designed as approved video editing software.

I eventually found a free solution but the generation time led to a curious calculus: Time to make video including set-up, data transfer, and cleaning my camera – 30 minutes.  Time to edit together two pieces – 7 hours and 30 minutes.

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Boss:  We need 30 of these made, how long will it take you?
Me: Well, each setup takes about 15 minutes so, I’d say 15 hours.
Boss: But that’s enough time to make 60.
Me: Have you ever done this process?  It’s mindless process intersperse with ones that require mental focus capable of bending spoons.  I have to take a coffee break every five or my brain will simultaneously explode from over-use and atrophy.
Boss: Yeah, I’ve done it once or twice myself.  I’ll give you three days.

That’s empathy.

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There are two time sinks I encounter: Saw sharpening and ax sharpening.  Saw sharpening occurs in cases where a little prep work could save a lot of task time.  The name comes from someone having difficulty cutting wood with a dull saw.  Someone suggests they sharpen the saw to which they reply “I don’t have any time, I’ve got all this wood to saw”.  Ax sharpening comes from a story of a guy who wants to cut some wood but first sees his ax is dull.  So before he can cut he needs to sharpen his ax, but first has to replace his whetstone, but first he needs to fix a flat tire…

My boss was out to meetings most of today and at the end asked me what I did.

Me: Depends, either one thing or eight things.
Him: What was the one thing?
Me: Installed a UPS
Him: What were the eight things?
Me: I  added InstallCleanup to fix an Office install, so I could add Java, so I could add Firefox, so I could overcome network configuration, so I could load the configuration url, so I could set the “boot on power return” to “no”, so I could use the UPS.
Him: Sounds like an efficient wasteful day.

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A coworker asked me to help him troubleshoot a Microsoft Word problem.  He was trying recreate a hand drawing of how to fold a piece of packaging and he was having difficulty.  Word doesn’t enjoy sub 1/10th inch placement of objects and often raises a fuss when creating a drawing area inside a text area inside a drawing area inside a text area.  He’d created a mediocre hack job but found somethings wanting:

  • A dashed line was created by making a bunch of little lines, spacing them, then grouping them together instead of using the right-click -> format -> line style option.
  • Transparent figures where given white sublayers by creating white borderless boxes.
  • All the text was in a single text box with each piece being located with spaces and tabs of various sizes.

I was able to replace his work with a more accurate drawing in Publisher in about 10 minutes including a narrative of what I was doing.  I ask him how long his version took, “about six hours”.  I asked him if this was average and it apparently was.  This man is probably paid 50% more than me and received healthcare.  I felt bad when it turned out the guy I replaced was 50% better than me at my then job, but I am roughly 60 times faster at this job than he is.  I think I can make a reasonably strong productivity case for replacing him, should it come up in conversation.

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I went to the council service center for a webinar, I had to drive to.  I left 75 minutes ahead for what’s normally a 30 minute ride and barely arrive on time because of all the snow for a webinar, I had to drive to.  We all squinted at the screen, which was projected, which was hard to see because the resolution of the projector was different from that of the laptop, which didn’t rescale, at the webinar I had to drive to.  The meeting started and the man began describing the amazing interface which I’m pretty sure was powered by three things:

  • ASP Nuke
  • TinyMCE
  • RSS
  • Mysql

All of which are either open-source, a web standard or flat out free.  I learned they used these technology at the webinar that I had to drive to.  I learned that the recommended way to move from a Word Document to a web document was to move the text into notepad and then copy it into the TinyMCE form making the block body text and completely unformatted, at the webinar I had to drive to.

In this vein of fearsome efficiency I look forward to having to snail-mail an email or possible drive to a conference call.