Atalasoft Office Blog

I’m not only the Hair club president, i’m also a client.

2010-03-11T18:47:17Z

(Remember that commercial? It always makes me laugh. It’s related. I promise.)

Lately I’ve been having some computer drama. When I say “drama” I mean “expenses,” and when I say “expenses” I mean $1,400 poorer.

You know what a new computer means—the transfer of your ENTIRE LIFE to another machine. It’s scary and painful, and I don’t know why anyone buys a new computer ever.

Because this isn’t my personal blog, I won’t go into the reasons why I had to do that twice. Twice! It’s like 2 root canals in 3 weeks. Ugh.

Part of that includes updating wireless logins and other various important things.

Now—my memory for passwords is amazing. I am a whiz with 6-7 character phrases. For whatever reason, I can never remember the wireless password at work.

Here at Atalasoft, we use a product called SharePoint. Heard of it? (Ha.) Stored in a document in SharePoint is our wireless internet password. I remember the first time I found the document—I had to 1. Find it through various folders and sub-folders, 2. Click to open it, and 3. Launch MS Word to view it. It was annoying and I groaned at the thought of going through that again.

BUT. BUT! We have a little something called Vizit SP. So, I 1. Searched for the document using SharePoint’s search feature and 2. Clicked a little “Vizit Preview” button next to the document. How about this? A PREVIEW OF THE DOCUMENT APPEARED. I did not have to launch Word. I did not have to remember the hierarchy of folders. The password was in front of me.

It was one of those moments where I was so tickled that the company I work for makes COOL STUFF THAT WORKS.

To sum this up: I’m not only the Vizit SP Marketing Manager, I’m also a User.

I’m looking for the Lord high Executioner. Is he/she available?

2010-03-02T21:52:32Z

I recently put out the call that we’d be ordering new business cards, and that interested people should forward me their preferred name/email/title.

Here are some of the specific title requests received:

THE MAN

Sales God

The Sellinator

The Dude

Steve noted that Gilbert & Sullivan had a knack for coming up with titles, such as The Lord High Executioner, Wicked Baronet, etc.

Coming up with titles is always tricky, especially when your employees are quite versatile. What especially awesome titles have you held in the past?

12 Pink Highlighters

2009-12-30T21:48:00Z

(Alternate Title: An Obvious Lesson in Customer Service.)

We use W.B. Mason for our office supply company. My predecessor used them here and there, and I started using them more regularly when price shopping at B.J.’s and CostCo became a pain.

They matched prices, and give us great deals on K-Cups for coffee (an engineer’s life blood). Plus they have great prices on recycled products (like biodegradable plastic cups! Corn Cups—the official beverage container of Atalasoft.)

Amidst the coffee shipment today, I ordered an Air Wick air freshener system and 2 refills. I received 1 refill and a box of 12 pink highlighters.

This hasn’t really happened before, but I can understand how—the boxes are hand packaged. Human error. No big deal.

And for some reason, I found a box of 12 pink highlighters to be hilarious. What’s wrong with green and yellow? A variety pack can really spice up your document annotation, you know? (I like to think I know a little something about document annotation, too.)

So, as I do when certain things strike me as funny, I tweeted about it.

And, shortly after, I mean, WITHIN MINUTES, I received a voice message from my W.B. Mason rep. I called him back, he apologized for the error, and shipped out the missing Air Wick refill. Even though I had an inkling, I asked him how he knew. “Oh,” he replied, “My marketing department forwarded me your Twitter message.”

Man. Twitter is powerful stuff.

I assured him that we are happy with their business and thanked him for the speedy response.

The bonus of all of this? He’s letting us keep the 12 pink highlighters.

Now, faithful readers—my challenge to you—what would you do with 12 pink highlighters?

Leave a comment here or drop us a line on twitter (we’re @Atalasoft. Use the tag #12PH).

Bacon + Water

2009-12-21T16:44:06Z

Since the infamous Bacon Day of October 2009, we’ve had 2 delicious pounds of bacon sitting in our office. Simply sitting there, collecting whatever it is that bacon collects when it’s resting. (Delicious bacteria?)

We’ve been debating what to do with it since then—give a pound to John (our Director of Business Development), who never seems to be in the office when the Bacon magic commences? Save it for the next breakfast?

Steve and Jacob decided to host a bacon lunch—and what goes better with bacon than burgers?

(Mmm. Macro Bacon. I could show you the picture of John actually attending a Bacon event, or pictures of Steve flipping burgers, but I know why you really read this blog.)

After a delicious lunch, we returned to our business—meetings, coding, supporting, selling, developing—only to be interrupted by the sound of the fire alarm.

Our office is housed in Eastworks—an awesome, 4 story renovated factory building. The basement and 3rd floor are home to businesses; 2nd floor houses artists; and the 1st floor features restaurants and retail. It’s an older building, so we routinely have fire alarm checks, but this was no drill. We spilled out of the entrance, only to find that we were the only tenant that actually evacuated the building. (We’re good kids! We follow TEH RULZ.)

As is his habit, Dan (Senior Architect, Vizit SP) brought cookies.

The building management team let us into the 1st floor where we were greeted with this:

Can you look closely? That is water.

As it turns out, the sprinkler line was accidentally snipped on the 2nd floor, and water cascaded down to the 1st floor. There was no fire, but safety was still a concern.

Elaine & Jay (our Sys Admin) ventured downstairs to the basement floor, curious because the water on the 1st floor wasn’t pooling. She discovered one of the basement tenants in a panic because the THOUSANDS of valuable periodicals (ie, LIFE magazine from 1897) were being DRENCHED with water.

Elaine ran upstairs and grabbed a handful of people to help move boxes from wet areas to dry areas. At one point, I ran downstairs to check on them (totally Mother-Henning and freaking out, please do not call me in an emergency situation), only to see some very soaked-to-the-bone colleagues running around (Jacob and Dan, and eventually Rick, Jay and Steve), shouting, lifting and helping.

I tried to send them home to dry off, but no one left. In fact, Elaine hopped on a support call. I thought they were nuts, but to be perfectly honest, I’ve never been more proud to work at Atalasoft.

Spoon Assassins 2009: The Winner

2009-11-25T16:26:33Z

It’s Jacob. Here’s Rick G, the winner from 2008, passing the commemorative plaque.*

*Yes, that’s a titanium spork on the plaque.

*Yes, that’s me singing “Oh Canada.”

A Trove of Foodies + CAKE OF THE WEEK

2009-11-25T15:34:22Z

In case you missed our twitter feed or our press release or our blogs, we released Vizit SP 2.0 last week. We’re pretty excited, and as the newly minted Marketing Communications Manager for Vizit SP, I take full credit. (Just kidding Rutherford, Dan, Dave T., Jacob, Adam, etc.)

ANYWAY. To celebrate a release, Dan usually brings in what he calls “release cookies.” We had those last week, and they were delicious, but Rutherford wanted to do more.

This morning, he came pretty darn close to topping BACON DAY as a one-man show: bagels, cream cheese, lox, meats, capers, fruit salad, home-made whipped cream, and fresh juice… and then I died. No, I’m still alive, but let me assure you: nothing beats a delicious breakfast that someone else took care of.

Eric took a picture of his epic sandwich this morning:

Mmm!

And now… (drumroll please)… presenting

CAKE OF THE WEEK

As I explained to my colleagues, I accidentally read the Twilight series this summer. As a result of this, I may or may not have a raging crush on Robert Pattinson.

I might have also allegedly (and regrettably) told Elaine this tidbit of information.

Let’s just cut to the chase, shall we?

For the record, I think I’ve been a very good sport.

The Mad Rulings of a Spoon Assassins Referee

2009-11-17T15:36:52Z

Last year, we played an inter-office game of Spoon Assassins. It was originally Jacob’s idea—something he remembered from his dorm days as being a fun way to get people to interact. Rick G, our Sales Manager, was the last man standing. He received a titanium spork mounted on a plaque and a fishbowl filled with the spoons of the fallen players.

The rules were simple. Your spoon is your weapon and your defense. And don’t be stupid. Out of the kindness of my heart:

The Original Atalasoft Spoon Assasins Rules

NOW. This year, we decided to make some changes. We wanted the game to go a bit faster (it can take WEEKS).

So we changed some rules around—made the stakes higher. Spoon stealing was allowed. We implemented a 5 second rule that made everyone (myself included) jumpy and paranoid.

The most interesting change we made? We realized that if we were to make this work, we needed an impartial judge. Someone to solve the pithy little fights that come up. So we asked Lou to be that person.

In the beginning, Lou was doing pretty well. In fact, I think he was enjoying the small amount of judge-and-jury involved. We use Yammer as an inter-office communication tool. If he decided something, or solved an argument, he would make official decisions on Yammer.

Eric was out of the game (I believe he dropped his spoon in the parking lot, thus leaving him unprotected), Lou confirmed it with an official decision:

Official decision: Eric's yam and shame is sufficient notification that he sucks at spoon assassins.

When you’re working with a bunch of smart people, the scheming can get intense. To quell some of the crazier plans, Lou made this decision:

Official decision: please talk to me before you put your nefarious scheme into action. If I say yes then, you are officially ok. I have pre-ok'd and pre-quashed some plans already.

When the Yankees won the world series:

Official decision: yanks rule.

When my spoon was wickedly retrieved from my office (I won’t go into it other than to say: BREAKING AND ENTERING), Lou convened an impartial tribunal to determine the outcome of these actions.

At some point, recently, I think Lou started to crack under the pressure. Come to think of it, he just got tired of the constant cries of “Louuuuuuuuu! I don’t think that tag counted!” and “Louuuuuu! You need to make an official decision on this!” With that, Lou made his final official decision last night:

Official decision: I resign. I don't care what happens in this game.

So here is my suggestion to those of you interested in playing Spoon Assassins in the office: forgo the official. Fight it out amongst yourselves. While it’s helpful as a player, there is no reason to bring an outsider into your world of crazy and paranoia. (And watch your back!)

Bacon Update- A How To Link

2009-10-28T14:39:00Z

Steve just blogged his successful Bacon Day execution document.

Thanks Steve!

Swine Flu? HA! We've got bacon fever.

2009-10-27T20:44:00Z

In April of this year, Steve, Elaine and myself found ourselves as the most senior management team members at Atalasoft. This was during AIIM, when our fearless leader Bill and a good chunk of our crew was working the show in Philadelphia.

The 3 of us sat around my desk and thought, "What is something FUN we can do for the handful of staff members in the office? Something that will make the rest of those guys, enjoying the night life in Philadelphia, CRINGE with JEALOUSY?"

Steve's answer to everything is "bacon." And in this case, he was 100% spot on.

We held a small breakfast consisting of specially ordered bacon, eggs and biscuits.

We determined, after careful consideration and tasty bacon consumption, that we would most definitely be repeating this event.

Well folks, the time quickly came around again. This time, it was during the Microsoft SharePoint conference. We made some improvements to the menu, such as adding more bacon, home fries, pastries, scones and home-made raspberry jam. Our guilt over omitting the hard workers at the show was quickly negated by the fact that they were in LAS VEGAS, and frankly, it's hard to feel bad for anyone in Vegas.

Bacon Day has become something of legend in our building. Behold, one of our neighbors:

Guess what? WE WERE NOT SORRY ABOUT THIS. Kindly, Jason understood.

We take this event quite seriously. Steve and I even had a debriefing, after which he drew up a document outlining ways to improve the next Bacon Day. On the list? Designate a clean-up crew, empty grease traps more frequently, etc. The document was posted on our internal SharePoint site for future reference.

Here's a picture of Kevin (Developer Support Engineer) and Steve working the griddles:

They almost look ethereal, no? Practically holy.

In between uncontrollable drooling as I waited for the bacon to be ready, I asked a couple of folks what their favorite part about Bacon Day is. Here's what they said:

That was Eric, our eager Marketing Specialist.

That was our extremely satisfied Sales Manager, Rick.

It's not just the bacon either-- Joann's home fries were epic. Lou had never tasted real jam until he tried Steve's home made raspberry spread. My scones were a hit. With a couple of griddles, 2 dozen eggs and 7 pounds of bacon, WE CREATED HISTORY.

And based on the wild success of this year's breakfast, I can guarantee that there won't be very many volunteers for AIIM 2010.

Continual Improvement

2009-10-09T18:55:44Z

Last week was Eric’s turn to produce the staff meeting. Eric, ever the Marketing Specialist, posted flyers around the office to “create buzz” about the meeting. He was fortunate enough that his meeting included a free lunch, but that’s besides the point.

While I couldn’t make this meeting, I was informed that there would potentially be a piñata, and luckily Joann captured the big moment for us.

Why is Rick G. bashing the sun? Well, Rick volunteered to produce the next staff meeting. See, that’s how it works—we select the next week’s producer at the beginning of the meeting, and the new producer is responsible for taking and distributing notes.

You’ll be hearing more about our staff meetings on this blog, because I think they’re pretty unique.

Cake of the Week: September 18th

2009-09-25T15:04:44Z

I’m a bit behind on Atala-Office Blogging, so hopefully this cake of the week video will suffice.

It was a quiet afternoon in the office (there were only 7 of us!), so instead of having cake in the kitchen, we went downstairs to the Apollo Grill. They kindly hooked us up with plates, utensils and a singing candle.

Bonus: you can hear us discussing iPhones. Something we happen to do frequently.

(Happy Birthday Joann!)

Introducing… Cake of the Week!

2009-09-04T19:29:47Z

Cake of the Week is a new feature to the AtalaBlog! There is one unwavering code at Atalasoft: on the Friday of the week of your birthday, you get a cake. My job? Pick the cake out. It could be my favorite part of my job, too—especially since I have full creative control.

We’ve had some awesome cakes in the past, including one I wasn’t responsible for. Let’s take a little stroll down Cake Memory Lane, shall we?

Eric, our Marketing Specialist, celebrates his birthday right around Halloween. In the local bakery that week, there were TONS of Halloween cakes. I asked for this very special cake, featuring a large plastic skull. I requested that the baker make the skull cry “blood” and she added the severed finger. Eric was pretty pleased.

This was my Turkey cake, courtesy of Steve. It was delicious and completely home made. My birthday is always around Thanksgiving, and I always get offered pies. Steve whipped up this cake instead. (In addition to the 2 cakes that Bill purchased… I was feeling pretty lucky that day.)

This was Adam’s pool party cake. What better way to celebrate summer than with a grill that’s bigger than your entire body and a fake plastic pool?

This was my biggest cake-coup to date, in terms of irony and resourcefulness. The bakery had the standard sheet cake, but also featured these… cupcake monstrosities. Cup cake dolls, to be precise. Very, very creepy dolls with wiry, short hair and crazy eyes. And dresses made from icing. Two birthdays in one week (Jacob & Rutherford) = two creepy cupcake doll cake toppers. Voila!

AND NOW…

THE CAKE OF THE WEEK!

Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?

A vibrating SpongeBob SquarePants toy nestled atop a Crabby Patty cake, that’s who!

Happy Birthday, Steve!

Support Support.

2009-09-01T19:08:39Z

Elaine, our esteemed Training & Support Manager, is an avid hockey player. On Sunday, November 22nd, she’s going to be playing for the MDSC hockey team against the Boston Bruins alumni.

What is the MDSC? It’s a non-profit organization that began in 1983 with the intent to gain a better understanding of Down syndrome. Now, it’s a huge community of family and professionals with “a vision to ensure that every person with Down syndrome has the opportunity to reach their full potential.” (via www.msdc.org)

What is Down syndrome? Down syndrome is a genetic disorder in which the 21^st chromosome is tripled. It is also known as Trisomy 21. It is one of the most common genetic disorders and has no known cause. There is an equal occurrence of Down syndrome across all races and all economic levels. There are a number of medical issues that are associated with Down syndrome, including heart defects, leukemia, low muscle tone, and cognitive delays, but with proper support, medical care, and education, most people with Down syndrome will live long, productive, fulfilling lives. More information and resources can be found here.

Who is Elaine? Elaine runs our amazing support department. She’s often on the phone for record hours to ensure that our customers reach their development goals.

Now it’s your turn to support Elaine! We encourage you to help Elaine reach her $2,000 goal by donating here.

Back So Soon?

2009-08-20T16:16:11Z

At Atalasoft, we like to plot and scheme. One of our favorite topics is the office prank—particularly when someone has been on vacation.

Such notable incidents include Post-It Note Hell 2008 and Books for John Regarding Toilets.

Apparently, it was my turn—and upon returning to the office from a 3 day vacation, I was greeted with these:

Tiny little green frogs placed meticulously all over my desk.

At some point during my 3 day vacation, I had received a frantic text message from our Marketing Specialist-- “THEY’RE EVERYWHERE!!!” I quickly responded with many question marks—turns out, this was the prankster’s version of "viral marketing.”

I was told that there were 30 in all. I let them remain until they were in my way—the computer mouse frog was removed quickly, but the phone frog remained for a couple of hours. The frog on the “+” button of my adding machine made it tricky to do the bank deposit, but I managed.

After lunch, I set about finding all 30 tiny rubber frogs. I came up with 28, and an hour later found 29 under a couple of file folders. The cleaning folks found number 30 early the next morning and left it for me in a conspicuous place.

So thanks, Steve. Well played, indeed.

Fridays end with sundaes

2009-08-04T19:14:38Z

This week was a busy one at Atalasoft—on top of the usual activity, we decided to paint a couple of walls in the main entrance area of the office.

(Photo by Eric Deutchman)

See the blue and green? Those colors weren’t there before.

Of course, there were many comments from the seemingly endless Atalasoft Peanut Gallery (“You really should have patched those holes”), but we are all pretty pleased with the outcome.

The other project was an attempt at a dry-erase wall in the kitchen, which the verdict is still out on.

In the meantime, we celebrated a couple of birthdays this week. In lieu of the usual cake, Elaine determined that an ice cream social would be way more fun. The birthday dudes agreed, and we made it happen: