Shawshank's 岁月点滴

本周是公司2010年 National Field Championship 周，这类似于国内的工人技术比武。我们是气体服务公司，服务链始于销售，而终于送气的司机。这些人就是平时你们在路上看得到的开18轮的司机。

既去年第一次，本年我又不幸被抓壮丁为 NFC 摄影，我也不含糊，拉了同组的两个同事陪葬，三人行一起去拍。作为在公司混了快5年的老油条，已经熟悉美国人公司活动都是以吃为中心，所以本周和厨房停战，虚胃以待。周二准（饭）点杀至城西北角的赛马场，胡吃海喝一通。真是过分，我这个按照世界标准超重的胖子，在公司里从五湖四海飞过来的同事中竟然显得跟非洲难民一样，看着他们个个长得跟蚕宝宝一般，连走100米的路都要搭乘golf cart，心中不禁感叹自己付的医疗保险就是这样付之东流的。
闲话少絮。简单地讲，技能比武就是比开着十八轮在一个小空间里辗转腾挪，但难度却很高。
很高。
举例来说，有一项测试，就是用栏杆围三边成一个小巷，它长4米，几乎是半个拖车的长度，而要命的是宽度。它只有比我们正常停车的车位宽不到半米。而我们的卡车司机们，要能从90度相交的位置，把拖车倒进这个小巷里，什么都不能碰。最很的是，如果最后拖车的尾部离栏杆超过18英寸就算零分—白忙活了。这里有人会说，没关系，多来回倒腾几次早晚都能停进去，呵呵，不行，规则规定，只能倒腾一次，超过了每一次都要扣分，倒腾5次汾酒扣光了。呵呵
可就这样，大多数司机都能安然过关，于是，比赛就成了谁能停的最近的较量。最后，冠军做到了车尾离栏杆只有一公分！要知道他开的车有10米多长！

开车到这个份上，已经不是技术了，而是天分。

#####THE FOLLOWING IS BASED ON A REAL STORY#####
Joshua: Good afternoon, how are you …
…
Joshua: How can I help you sir?
Me: My iPhone4 is having sporadic connection problem with my car’s blue tooth system.
Joshua: I am sorry to hear that, let me see if I can help you to pin-point the problem. May I ask what kind of car you drive?
Me: It’s a 2010 Volkswagen Jetta.
Joshua: Oh! That explains it! See, yours is a 2010, and blue tooth of that car might be even older, maybe 2009. You see, your iPhone is a lot newer than your car. Because your blue tooth is old, it’s not surprising it doesn’t support the newer iPhone!
Me: Then, what can I do to solve the problem?
Joshua: You can go to your Volkswagen dealer and ask them to update your blue tooth system.
Me: Wait a minute, it doesn’t make sense. I have used many cellphones to connect to my car’s blue tooth system, they include: Sony Ericcsson, Samsung, BlackBerry, even iPhone 3 and iPhone 3Gs, and they are all good, why does the problem only happen to iPhone4?
Joshua: Well, may I ask are any of these cellphones latest model?
Me: No.
Joshua, Then, since they are all older models, it’s not surprising older models talk to older models w/o any problems.
Me: (after a long, fainting pause) So, what you are saying is, we’ll have to convert the whole, *old* world to work with new iPhone4?
Joshua: yes sir.
Me: (faint again) Okay…. Well, I have to tell you, I’ve done a lot of research on internet, mine is not a isolated case, there are millions of complaints on iPhone4’s spotty blue tooth connection problem. May I ask, does Apple have any plan to fix this issue in its next firmware release?
Joshua: Sorry sir. I am afraid they will have to either update their software or upgrade their hardware. Since it’s not an Apple problem, there is nothing for us to fix.
!~#@!$#$!#!~$#~$#@!$!~#!~
——GAME OVER——