Vocalist.org archive


From:  Margaret Harrison <peggyh@i...>
Date:  Sat Aug 19, 2000  2:36 pm
Subject:  Re: [vocalist-temporary] Greetings from Marko


Marko, it's SO great to have you back and hear from you! Congratulations on
your new
career path. Oracle is a company we hear about here in the USA, also.

Please put me down as a person available to help you with any list
administration or
management tasks you need to get the Vocalist up and running and to help
maintain it as
well!

Peggy

Marko Hotti wrote:
>
> Dear Vocalisters,
>
> It's been quite a while since my last post to the
> community. Many things have happened both in my life
> and to the vocalist domain - but despite the
> concern many of you have shown in the past six months
> I'm doing fine and now living in Helsinki working for
> Oracle.
>
> As many of you remember I was both studying medicine,
> participating several projects in the area of telemedicine
> and myself teaching at the polytechnic. Starting the Vocalist
> mailing list and building the website was a hobby of mine
> and I really enjoyed doing it. This all meant a lot of work
> and less spare time that I actually needed. By the end of
> January 2000 I was already feeling sick of all that. Also,
> professionally speaking I had reached a sort of crossroads
> as to making the decision about which the direction I want
> to take and which the career to work and concentrate on.
>
> I don't remember having told you this but I had been thinking
> about moving down to Helsinki for over five years. The only
> thing really keeping me in Oulu was my medical studies that
> needed to be completed. But then again, I hadn't shown much of
> an interest to a purely medical career for several years. Instead,
> I was doing information technology related projects, lecturing
> about unix operating systems and network protocols, consulting
> at Nokia Mobile Phones and designing/developing information
> systems more and more. I had already a long working career doing
> IT so why not making it a career of a lifetime?
>
> I took vacation from my work and at the same time Vocalist site
> got hacked. The timing was really bad because I had just got
> some sort of distance from my work giving time for myself to think
> about what I really want to do in and with my life. In the same server
> resided also couple of polytech intranets so I re-installed,
> patched and fixed what I could and what was absolutely necessary and
> then I was already busy arranging personal things - such as finding a flat
> in Helsinki to suit my requirements (a task which can be a nightmare
> and take weeks) and what's most important - finding a new job here.
> Well, finding the job was never a problem. I got 15 job offerings,
> four of them were absolutely mad about getting me but Oracle was
> the most interesting. The recruiting process had four stages including
> a psychological test + an interview made by a psychologist that altogether
> took six hours!! But since there's wasn't actually anything wrong in my head
> (*grin*) and my objectives and arguments about moving and making really
> big decisions that directly affected hundreds of people made sense -
> I got the job I wanted. It was maybe the combination of the really
> good benefits at the world's second largest software company, the
> vast selection of modern internet technology they provide and
> the feeling of having the best opportunities to go even further
> in pursuing my career.
>
> About my work: My job title is Sales Consultant doing Oracle core
> technology pre-sales work in the Sales Solutions team. A lot of my work
> occurs at our office in Espoo or with our potential or current
> customers helping to find them the best solution based on Oracle
> Technology.
>
> So you see, this all has had to do with me and my personal goals -
> basically being really unhappy with my work load vs salary, wanting
> to make an end to the eleven-year period of residing in Oulu and
> finally doing some serious prioritizing. Moving on and having
> a totally new fresh start has had an excellent effect on me - that's
> what my friends keep telling me - and I feel really good and energetic.
> The only thing I feel really sad and guilty for is having left the vocalist
> community totally on its own - especially in a situation where
> the actual service is not working at all!
>
> Now that I have sort of settled down and returned from my four-week
> vacation (which I was sure I had to forget as newly employed) - it's
> time to find the leisure time activities again. I already started my regular
> work-outs in May and now I've been thinking about joining a vocal group -
> most probably a chamber choir to keep singing.
>
> Vocalist mailing list and the web site has been constantly in my mind
> for the last six months. The domain registration fee has apparantely
> been taken care of, I'll have to check that with Internic on Monday.
> What I have been thinking about is finding a new ISP. The server
> in itself can easily be fixed once I just decide to do it. I also have
> been thinking about applying the Oracle technology to the web site to
> make it more intelligent and easier to manage.
>
> So what shall we do next? Give me next week and I'll find out about the ISP
> thing as well as the resources needed. I'd love to get vocalist going on
> again so it's not really the lack of motivation that prevents me from doing
> it.
> The two biggest questions are going to be: 1) Where to get an ISP that
> allows
> potential commercial activity at the minimum price and 2) how to delegate
> and share responsibility in developing and managing the community - yet
> ensure
> security, availability and scalability as well maintaining the original
> Vocalist kind-of-family feeling. The answer to the first question is easy:
> There are hundreds of internet service providers - I'll just have to find
> the
> suitable one. One problem I want to avoid in the future is the restrictions
> on commercial content in university/high school/polytechnic servers because
> of the public funding they get (like Oulu University gets its funding from
> the state).
>
> In the Vocalist-Temporary my contact information is incorrect. Could
> somebody
> please fix it. My current home address is:
>
> Marko Hotti
> Mechelininkatu 49 A 15
> FIN-00250 HELSINKI
> FINLAND
>
> And my home email address is: marko.hotti@f... Also, if you want to
> have
> a chat with me, my telephone number is +358-40-5274665 (cellular).
> You can also reach me at oracle.com but I'd prefer receiving any mail not
> directly related to my work to fimnet.fi.
>
> I try to get my hands on the vocalist subscriber database next week to share
> information about Vocalist-Temporary which is great thing to have right now.
> Please wait for my update next week in this very forum.
>
> Finally I'd like to thank Hanna, Karen and all the people who have been or
> who have tried to get in touch with me showing their concern, empathy and
> support
> in the Vocalist Crisis 2K case. I *know* you have *really* been worried.
>
> With love and regards, Marko
>
>
>

--
Margaret Harrison, Alexandria, Virginia, USA
"Music for a While Shall All Your Cares Beguile"
mailto:peggyh@i...

emusic.com