First Week on the New Job Recap

Since some of my lurkers or readers may have an interest, here are a few thoughts regarding the new job:

• It's interesting that some of the problems and solutions seem very similar to my previous position. For example, some work I recently did on High Availability seems relevant, as does the general approach to solving a problem by breaking it up into tasks that can be done in parallel.
• While some pieces (hopefully a growing amount) are in Java and C++, most of the existing code is in C, along special macros in a special macro language -- so it looks like I'll be doing a good deal of working with that. A first thought might be to rewrite some stuff in C++, using a good Object-Oriented design, but what is there 1) Works; 2) Works well; 3) Has worked well for a long time; 4) Is very complicated; and 5) Runs very fast. They're not likely to want to make major changes to a system to improve its maintainability if it will likely result in slower, buggier code in the short- (and even medium-) term.
• I do a lot of walking up stairs. I'm on the 3rd floor, but with the way things are laid out, it's probably the equivalent of going up 5 flights of stairs in the morning, after lunch, and whenever else I need to go downstairs. I thought I was in good shape, but running shape and staircase shape are apparently different. (And elevators are no fun!)
• The people there look a lot more like the community (or the professionals in the community) than did my previous position, which had much more of an international flair. This means that the pot-lucks won't be anywhere near as good!
• At the previous place, I'd bicycle to work in the summer, and saw another bike there once or twice in all the days I biked. At the new place, a fairly large number of people (including at least two from my group) regularly bicycle thoughout larger parts of the year, including this week. Alas, I doubt I'll be one of the bikers as the large distance will not be conducive to my biking to work.
• People seem to be fairly strict about working only 8 hours per day. (Unpaid) Overtime still occurs, I'm sure. But it seems that working 8 hours per day is the normal standard which is unusual to exceed, and not some rare exception.
• I really don't like the commute. Maybe it will grow on me, but it has taken me about 45 minutes to drive the 30 km/19 miles to work each day. Coming home is usually a little quicker. I'm sure this will seem like no big deal to some readers, but it really bugs me. I've been listening to an audio book (A Tale of Two Cities), but I feel I'm too impatient to do this daily. One distasteful alternative I may try is to hit the road at 6:30 am and see what traffic is like at that hour. Another alternative, if the job works out, might be to move closer to its location. Or, I may get used to the drive, I don't know.
• The company is a non-profit organization, but it still has to make money to pay for itself, worry about competition, and things like that. So while the company may be more stable, it still has its risks.
• It's strange to be back in an area that I was in years ago, and didn't imagine that I would regularly return to.
• I think the job will work out. It had better. It's not like I can go back to the old one if this one doesn't.