Another Delphi Contract

I should mention something about my last adventure in programming. (Oh why do these things always have to be an adventure?) I moved to Edmonton and the job only lasted three month for some strange reason!
The end client of the contract was 5D Solutions... at least that is what they still call it on their web site even though they officially changed their name when they were bought out by a big American company.

In the interest of one day getting another software job I won't go deep into what was wrong at the company. But I must say that they really knew how to spend money. It helps when you have the US government as one of your big customers!

I am still surprised at how companies end relationships. I know that they are afraid of getting sued but when they break things off with no explanation it really leaves a bad taste. I do note that they are always looking for software developers and managers. They seem to have some trouble keeping people for some reason.

One of the strange things at that contract was all the money that they wasted on my training. There was weeks and weeks of testing and online courses and then I was terminated without explanation. Hardly seems a smart way to spend money. The 5D software is used to control and document blood collection and blood product testing. (I found that especially interesting with my own medical history). Because of the nature of their software the US FDA was involved. The software package was considered a "medical device". Someone somewhere neglected to document the software the first time around so 5D was spending millions on getting it certified after the fact. The only small problem was the incredibly bad software decisions that had been made early in the project. So know, because so much time and effort had been spent trying to get the darn thing FDA certified everyone was afraid to throw the darn crap out and start over even though that would have created much better software on a much shorter schedule. GIGO to the max was okay as long as everything was well documented.

Of course I was only hired as a lowly software developer even though they called all their employees "analysts". Sort of like when a big hotel makes all their front desk employees "Assistant Managers" after their first week on the job. I know that I was not actually an Analyst because in three months there was little opportunity to actually analyse anything and provide input for improvement.

Anyways I am not bitter. I got out of the Vancouver rat race for a while and I am enjoying my rental apartment in Edmonton. It has a great view to the south and is the largest space that I have ever had all to myself. (It is 20% larger than my mobile home that I recently sold in Surrey, BC). Since I have money in the bank -- another story that I have not yet written about -- I took the occasion to become a student for a while. Since April I have been a full-time Athabasca University student. It is all by "distance learning", either online or by the mail. I was trying for a Bachelor of Arts but I keep ratcheting back my expectations and will happy to get what they call a University Diploma in the Arts. It all depends on how many credits they give me for previous education. Athabasca University is taking their time getting back to me on that one.