Jan 1, 2000, at 12:00:01, I was here at work, in Lab 6, as part of Nortel’s Y2K task force. We were all carrying pagers, waiting by the phone and basically doing nothing. For me, it was a non-event, as our software had been updated in the months before, and patches sent out to all of our customers. At the exact moment of the new millennia, I was in the cafeteria, where Nortel had brought in some light snacks and (secretly) handed out glasses of champagne to anyone working to celebrate. I did wish I was downtown though – I’m sure it would have been quite a party.

At the start of the decade, the US elections were in full swing. I told anyone who would listen that Bush would set the US back by decades. Never did I expect that his performance after becoming president without winning the election would have been worse than I anticipated. Of course, no one could have expected 9/11, except for the US agents who specifically told Bush 4 weeks before that an attack against the US was being prepared. And who would have guessed that the US would have invaded a country who had nothing to do with the 9/11 tragedy, other than Donald Rumsfeld who said on 9/12 that the US should attack Iraq because “there aren’t any good targets in Afghanistan“.

The year 2000 was also the start of the layoffs at Nortel. The earliest reference I can find is that they started in October 2000. This was my life for the next 9.5 years. I made it through the first year of layoffs before my entire team was cut 2 months after 9/11. I returned and worked for CDMA, dodging more than a dozen layoff rounds before being picked up in the Ericsson purchase a few months ago.

The time at Nortel was good in one respect. I was introduced to the love of my life at Nortel: a blind date over lunch in the Lab 6 cafeteria. Rosa and I talked for 2 hours that day, and we knew immediately that we had found who we were both looking for. Seven months later we got engaged in Paris, and on Jan 3, 2007, we married in Rome.

I’ve traveled more in the last 5 years than I had in my entire life. Rosa and I have visited Halifax, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich, Naples, Rome, Florence, Milan, Venice, Istanbul, Ankara, Athens, Warsaw, Krakow, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Jerusalem, Amman and London. In 2 days, we leave for our next trip: Berlin, Prague, Budapest and Vienna. Before Rosa and I met, I had also visited New York, Toronto, Montreal, Dallas. 2 years ago I had a business trip to Bangalore.

I seems like I have been racing for so long, but it was only in 2001 that I became a licensed marshal and 2003 before I received my race licence. I have raced in a 1971 Datsun 510 (“The Pumpkin”), 1991 Nissan NX2000, Nissan Sentra, Honda Civic, Formula-1600 and this year multiple Acura Integra Type-R’s. I also became a Secretary of the meet for 5 MCO Race Schools and 5 Ted Powell Memorial Race Weekends, including the first full race weekend at the new Calabogie Motorsports Park.

I’ve starting learning French, so I may become a bi-lingual Canadian. And I started to kayak.

I wonder what December 2019 will bring?

The first trip was around noon hour, when the Flame entered Ottawa from Gatineau over the Alexandra Bridge. As I was walking towards the bridge, I saw that there were organizers on the path up to Nepean Point, so I walked up there instead.

There were a number of other photographers there, some ameteurs like myself and some pro. I overheard one photog talking with another and the voice sounded so familiar. I turned to him and asked “Are you Steve Simon?”

“Why, yes, I am,” he said.

I had recognized his voice from the This Week In Photography (TWIP) podcast that I listen to every week. We talked briefly. He asked me what I was interested in, and I told him about my background and how I would like to start assisting local photographers.

He asked for a business card, but I don’t have one. I guess I should get a set of business card for just these sorts of occasions.

Once the flame arrived, I moved around to get some shots, but the pros had the best seats. My photos were not too bad, but I could have tried a few different things (flash) if I had more time.

In the evening, I went down to Parliament Hill for the official flame ceremonies. This was even harder to get a good shot, as I only had about 10 seconds as the running went by, and it was pitch black. I dialed up the ISO and set the highest aperture (f/2.8), but that was not enough so I also used flash. I had to use the flash, but the light hit all the high-reflectivity clothing on the police and the runner himself.

Aleah

Yesterday, some of my photos were used on the local CTV news.

Aleah Ostrowski, one of the ballet students at Les Petits Ballets, was named the CTV High School Athlete of the Week for Dec 10, 2009. Aleah’s mother had asked me to take some pictures that could be provided to CTV for the report.

The Red Dress

I saw the perfect Christmas gift for Rosa tonight at Bayshore Shopping Centre. A beautiful red dress in the display window of Suzy Sher. I saw it while on the escalator and I knew instantly that it was what I wanted to give.

Ici est mon présentation…

Jérusalem est la capitale d’Israël, et une ville ayant une longue histoire. C’est aussi une ville très importante pour les 3 religions du monde, et la clé pour la paix dans le Moyen-Orient. Elle a été détruite deux fois, assiégée 22 fois, a attaquée 52 fois, et a capturée 44 fois.

Elle est l’une des plus anciennes villes du monde.

Elle a été à peu près il y a 5 mille années, pendant Le Chalcolithique.

Au 10e siècle av. J.-C., Jérusalem a été conquise par le roi David; c’est devenu “la ville de David”. Le Roi Salomon, fils de David, a fait construire le premier Temple de Jérusalem, sur le Mont Moriah. Le Temple de Jérusalem a contenu l’Arche d’alliance, ou on y gardait les tables de la Loi.

En 597 av. J.-C., Les Babyloniens a conquis Jérusalem et ils ont détruit la ville et le premier Temple. L’Arche d’alliance était perdue pour toujours.

Pendant le règne de Cyrus le Grand (l’Empire perse), le deuxième Temple de Jérusalem a été construit, aussi sur Mont Moriah. C’est la que les religions de juives, islamiques et chrétiennes se croisent.

C’est le plus saint lieu des juifs. Les Temples étaient situé dans la Vieille Ville, sur le Mont Moriah. Ils nomment le lieu ‘le Mont du Temple’. N’oubliez pas, le premier Temple a tenu l’Ache d’alliance. Aussi, les juifs croient que Dieu a créé le premier homme, Adam, avec terre du Mont.

Pour Les Chrétiens, Jésus est né un Juif. Il irait au deuxième Temple. Et il est crucifié à l’extérieur de la Vieille ville.

Pour Les Musulmans, dans le Coran, le Prophète Mahomet a commencé le voyage nocturne à le rocher surs le Mont Moriah. Les musulmans nomment le lieu ‘(al-haram al-qudsī ash-sharīf) ‘Le sanctuaire noble’.

C’est pendant la période romaine que Jésus est né. Quand il a eu 30-33 ans, il irait à la ville pendant la fête de la Pâque. Voici la salle qui, peut-être, était la salle de La Cène / dernier repas. Jésus est arrêté au jardin de Gethsémani. Finalement, Jésus est condamné par Ponce Pilate, et il est crucifié au lieu nommé Golgotha, à côté de la Vieille ville. Deux lieux ont été proposés pour le site de Golgotha – l’Église du Saint-Sépulcre ou le jardin de la Tombe.

En 70 ÉC, des juifs ce sont révolté contre des Romains. L’empereur romain Titus a détruit la ville, y compris le Temple. Seul le Mur des Lamentations est resté.

Jérusalem est conquise par les Arabes en 638. Les Musulmans ont construit la Mosquée Al-Aqsa, et le Dôme du Rocher. Le Dôme du Rocher est sur le même site que Les Temples. Dans le Coran, le Prophète Mahomet a commencé le voyage nocturne au rocher (sous le dôme), quand il a parlé avec Allah.

Pendant Les Croisades, les Croisés et les armées de Musulmans se sont battus pour la ville durant plus de 200 années. Finalement, Salah ad Din, a regagné la ville en 1187.

À partir du 16e siècle, la ville a été reconquise sous contrôle ottoman jusqu’en 1917 quand elle est devenue sous mandat britannique. Après la Deuxième Guerre mondiale, la Grande-Bretagne a donné l’indépendance à de nombreux pays. Par exemple l’Inde.

Et, en 1948, David Ben Gourion a proclamé l’indépendance de l’État d’Israël. Mais, Jérusalem a été divisée.

Israël a eu de nombreuses guerres avec ses voisins. En 1967, à la suite de la guerre des Six Jours, Israël contrôle l’ensemble de Jérusalem.

Depuis 2003, les Israéliens ont construit un mur (ou barrière de sécurité) autour de la ville. C’est très controversé.

En résumé, l’historie de la ville de Jérusalem n’est pas terminée.

In late 1996, I was just finishing up my 2-year contract working in the Computer Center at Acadia University. But the longer I stayed at Acadia after my graduation, I knew fewer and fewer people, as my friends graduated and moved away for work, mostly to Ottawa. So I decided not to renew my contract and that I would move to Ottawa.

I moved in January 1997. I borrowed my dad’s Chevy Tahoe and loaded my life into the back. Driving through the Maritimes was ok, but once I entered Quebec, the snow started falling. Driving from Quebec City to Montreal was the hardest because the snow was so heavy and the highway had not been plowed.

Once in Ottawa, I started looking for work. I hand-delivered my resumes to Nortel, Newbridge, SGI, Cray, Apple, Corel, and a bunch of smaller companies. None of which lead to any interviews. In February, a friend from Acadia got me an interview with his group at Nortel. The interview went well and by March 1997, I was working for Nortel.

I’ve spent my entire career at Nortel in OAM software – meaning Network Management and Configuration Management.

I started with network management of the Passport-6400 (now MSS-6400). We built a software package (called OMS-P) to integrate the Passport into HP Openview and IBM Netview. There was another group that also did network management of the Passport, which used a proprietary interface that did not work with other software like Openview. Eventually the senior managers decided to only fund one of the two products, and OMS-P development was halted.

Most of the team moved to a new project to integrate the Passport-15000 (now MSS-15000) into the new Optivity Network Management System (ONMS), which came from our purchase of Bay Networks in 1998. I worked on the development for about a year before insurmountable issues caused the cancelation of that project before we could ship the product. Basically, the Passport used software-allocated MAC addresses; by default all Ethernet ports on all Passports had the same MAC address. ONMS needed unique MAC addresses for discovery, which is the correct implementation of the Ethernet standard. The ONMS team would not change their discovery for Passport, and Passport would not change their flawed Ethernet implementation. So the project was cancelled.

Next, our much smaller team moved to Optivity Network Configuration System (O-NCS), which was a configuration manager instead of a network manager. This used a plug-in architecture to manage the new Alteon Layer-7 switches that Nortel had also acquired. We made good progress and were heading towards delivery when the team that was building the O-NCS framework was laid off. Without a framework, our plug-in was useless and in November 2001, our entire team was terminated.

Most of the team went to CDMA, although I briefly left the company to try something new. I didn’t find a new job before I started getting calls from CDMA asking me to come back to Nortel.

In March 2002, I did come back. Nortel bridged my service (after I paid back the severance package).

I’ve been in CDMA since then. I was the first person hired for upgrade/installation, and I wrote the first installation tool for the CDMA network management project that was just starting up. The first delivery of that new tool (C-EMS – CDMA Element Management System) took a very difficult 24 months. The project was almost cancelled a number of times. We all worked long hours, most weekends, and many holidays. It has been a horrible experience for everyone to go through all the layoffs of the last 7-9 years.

After the first release of C-EMS, the work still demanded long, long hours, but it was less likely that the entire project would be terminated. We still lost a lot of people from the layoffs (typically 5-20% per layoff) though.

I’ve given all I could to Nortel, and in the end it didn’t really make much difference. Nortel still went down the toilet.

I’ve had nights where I worked 24-hours straight. I’ve worked over the Y2K switch over. I’ve been wined-and-dined and nickeled-and-dimed. I’ve worked through the bubble, got laid-off and worked under uncertainty for years now.

And today, it’s all over. Today is my last Nortel day.

I’ve finished writing the story of our trip to Germany.

Our trip story: http://myredbmw.net/travel/germany-july-2006/

Our gallery (protected): http://gallery.myredbmw.net/v/Travel/Germany2006/

The Google Earth file from the trip: Germany 2006.kmz.

This was our last trip using a film camera. Later trips used a D-SLR, and the photos started to improve.

Secondly, I’ve been working on my list of example photos to try. This morning, I took the mandatory 3-hour studio orientation at the RA Photo Club. During the orientation, I was able to try both the high key and low key photos. I am mostly pleased with the results, but I also know that there is room for improvement – a reason to rent the studio and come back to experiment.

First, the low key photo. An improvement I would make is to have add a little hair light on the top left, as the shot is missing definition there. The low key shot starts with a black or dark background.  On the right side of the photo, two black panels were brought in and a soft-box was arranged to shine through a 2″ (5cm) gap between the two panels. This provided a narrow slit of light. The model was positioned in various ways with respect to the light. In this photo, the model is slightly behind the slit, so that her entire face is lit. If she was next to the slit, or in front of the slit, only part of her face would be visible. Moving the model closer to the light will mean a harsher light, and if she moves away from the light, the light will be softer and will provide more coverage (remember that the light from the slit will light a triangular area, as the soft-box is immediately behind the slit – to get a straighter slit of light, move the soft-box away from the gap in the panels). This light is useful to show shapes, as the light plays across the model. But it is also unforgiving, as blemishes or other marks become emphasized by the glancing light.

Low key photo of Rachel

Second is the high key photo. An improvement I would make here is to recompose the shot in the camera so that her shoulder is not touching the side of the frame. This high key photo starts with the white background of course. There were three lights, all in soft-boxes. A main light was on the right of the photo, above the level of the model. The second soft-box, providing some fill, was on the left, also above the model. The third light was in the background and was pointed to cover the background. A hair light is not really needed here, as it would soften the boundary between the background at the hair line of the model. A high key setup is flattering, and masks blemishes and wrinkles in the skin.

High key photo of Rachel

I’ve been thinking about this a lot in the last few weeks. It started when I was not able to go racing at Mosport. The tow vehicle broke down, leaving me without a car to race. I was already at the track when I found out. I could have stayed at the track, and possibly found another ride, but it was not very likely. Instead I drove all the way back (about 4 hours). It was a waste of my vacation day and an awful lot of gas.

Rosa asked me about the decision to drive back instead of staying at the track. Her point was that if I truly wanted something, I have to actively make it happen. If I want to race, I have to keep pushing, and not give up so easily when things don’t go to plan.

Same with photography. I know what I want, but unless I do something, and take that first step even when it is scary, nothing good will happen.

This evening I went to the RA Photo Club open house. I really wanted to see the studio, but once there I was very intimidated by the models and all the equipment and the dozens of people standing around watching. It was thinking about what Rosa said that I pushed my way to the front of the line, put the flash transmitter on the camera and started my first session with a professional model. It’s the first step.

Adriana the model