Yesterday afternoon I ordered some books (including Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell on Clarke’s recommendation - better be good!) and they were in my letterbox before I left for work today. I ordered them through Bookware who I’ve used a few times now. Each time the experience gets better - highly recommended for all you Aussie nerds out there.
I found out tonight (via an unnamed little birdy) that a manager at a company I used to work at was sacked. When I heard this I am embarrased to admit that I felt not an insignificant amount of schadenfreude. This person is basically good but has personality flaws that make her horrible to work with and verging on incompetent in the roles she had (people responsible for HR matters should, as a general rule, be likeable, approachable and be able to form a realistic picture of the capabilities of staff).
The reason for my schadenfreude is that I resigned from a job I loved (partly) to avoid having to work with her anymore and, more importantly, because some years later she basically decided who at this company should be made redundant (after she and the rest of the management team there f**d up the place). “Surely it’s okay for a HR-style manager to make such decisions?” you ask. Well, yes, except that competent people were sacked in favour of significantly less competent people she just happened to be friends with or liked. It was pretty blatant.
So, in the end I don’t feel too bad about the schadenfreude. I can always pretend that I’m glad that the universe is in balance - karma has proven it exists once again.
Important caveat for people still working at this company - not everyone who wasn’t sacked at the company was a waste of space. C’mon guys you know I don’t think you’re incompetent. Except for Nick B. 
If a bunch of programmers are left to their own devices they probably won’t produce very useful software. This is true even for a bunch of really smart programmers.