Interesting Links for 22-06-2015

• POLL: What Is Your Favourite US Mass Shooting So Far This Year?
  • (tags: usa guns satire polls )
• The lesbians of WWII
  • (tags: LGBT wwii )
• Taylor Swift is holding back her latest album from Apple Music
  • (tags: Apple music )
• E Pluribus Hugo (the proposal to prevent Hugo slates dominating the process)
  • (tags: hugo voting scifi fandom )
• From Cover Bands to Vegas Residencies - how much do musicians make?
  • (tags: money music )
• If Westeros were Europe
  • (tags: gameofthrones Europe maps )
• It's Now Illegal to Sell Adult eBooks Before 10 PM in Germany
  • (tags: OhForFucksSake porn Germany books internet )
• A physicist explains why the universe is like a fruitcake (in two minutes)
  • (tags: physics video )
• Infants' superior perception linked to later autism symptoms
  • (tags: autism perception psychology )
• Rachel Dolezal, Caitlyn Jenner: How transgender is different from transracial.
  • (tags: race gender LGBT )
• What Poverty Does to the Young Brain
  • (tags: psychology brain cortisol stress poverty )
• Inside one of the world's largest caves (discovered in 2009)
  • (tags: cave video )
• Doctoral dissertation in graphic novel form
  • (tags: phd academia comics )
• Greece’s Proposals to End the Crisis
  • (tags: Greece economics economy )
• I am entirey in favour of the "Some Asshole" initiative
  • (tags: terrorism comic )
• For believers, fear of atheists is fueled by a fear of death
  • (tags: death religion atheism fear )
• Behold: The Mega-Processor!
  • (tags: computers technology awesome size )

I didn't wear a shirt to work on a Monday, for the first time in 15 years.

About 15 years ago, I worked for a small software company*, and I persuaded the boss that suits were only necessary for sales people. And that what with the awesome dotcom boom we were living in, developers shouldn't be business-like, they should be _cyber_.

Okay, maybe not. But I did persuade him that programmers could wear t-shirts.

Sadly, a year later I ended up as an IT Manager in an NGO, and hating myself with a fiery passion, while also wearing a suit/tie.

And then I moved over to a large financial company**, and it was suits and ties for a few years, with mounting pressure until ties vanished.

Once that was done, there was a long, slow, pressure on the company. Every so often a wave would crest, and the company would say "No, not this year. Business dress is important." and the wave would slowly recede again.

Until, a couple of months ago, the wave rose again, and the company decided that the important thing was what you were doing that day. That the clothes should match your actions, and fit your responsibilities.

And so today I arrived back from India***, and wandered into the office. And the first three people I saw were all wearing suits and ties, and I had a small moment of panic that I'd misunderstood the change in policy.

And then I turned the corner and saw that there were people wearing clothes that made them comfortable. Some in suits, some in ties, some in shirts, and some in jeans.

And it was pretty damned awesome.

And then I went to my desk, got caught up on about 350 emails, and diagnosed why an email server going wrong caused our overnight builds to time out****.

*Like, eight people. Of which two were testers, one was a secretary, and two were in sales.
**Well, several thousand employees. So not _small_.
***Which I had to buy three new shirts for, after months of avoiding buying shirts because I was 90% sure this was coming.
****You don't want to know.