Last night, when I came in from work, I turned off the last of the powerful (ok, back in 1999 they were) servers that have been running in my basement for the last 2 years.
When I go down there now, it is eerily quiet. Spooky actually.
It’s weird to know that something you control is 3,000 miles away, and not under your direct control anymore.
I guess this is what it will be like when my kids leave the house.
Author: spierzchala
A personal look at constructive criticism
Tonight, I received a very lengthy email from a friend of GrabPERF who had some comments and concerns.
The hardest thing I have had to learn to do in my professional life is to listen to criticism, and not take it personally. It is something that does not come naturally to me, as my first reaction is to lash out and say something that will do more harm than good in the long run. With my personality type, it is even harder to stop yourself from writing that gut-reaction email when you are tired, frustrated by things in your professional life, and coming off a week of illness.
My first reaction to the email was…well, not polite. But years of experience have taught me to stop and think about my response before I send it. In the past, those emails and words have haunted me, and have destroyed some opportunities that I may have had.
I respect the judgement and opinions of the person who sent this email, and he is held in high-regard by someone I hold in high-regard. So an off-the-cuff answer was definitely not the right way to go.
I stopped. I took a breath. I walked away from the email for an hour.
When I came back to it, I was able to see that not only were his comments constructive, but they actually meshed well with my professional philosophy towards Web performance data and were ones that I should be acting on to improve GrabPERF.
In IT, sometimes we forget that walking away from the problem is the best way to solve it. With so many of us in this space saddled with various degrees of ADD and introverted personalities, sometimes we do have to step back and ask ourselves, “what would the smartest manager/director/VP/executive I know do when presented with this email?”
Opportunities and ideas come from everywhere. Some of the best are those that come from other people.
The final move has occurred
So, the move to the new datacenter is complete. We finished off the final changes last night | early this morning, and the Web server and database are now running on a big fat pipe at 365 Main in downtown San Francisco.
How did I spring for new hardware and hot hosting? Well, I had a little help from some Friends of GrabPERF — Technorati.
About 3 months ago, Dave Sifry contacted me when we went through our last financial crisis and offered to host the whole kit and kaboodle. He put me in contact with Adam Hertz, who turned me over to Camille Riddle.
After driving Camille and her team nuts for two months, we switched everything over starting at about 23:30 EST (04:30 GMT) last night. There were a few hic and burps, and the DNS propagation may take a while to reach some of the most distant folks, but this morning, I issued the final “poweroff” command to my home-based Web server.
I want to thank the Technorati team for all if their help, and I look forward to continuing to deliver quality data to the blog community.
Niall Kennedy talks about the Technorati side here, along with a funky pic of the old GrabPERF datacenter.
Screw the Ritalin! Give Me Chaos!
What more can I say?
Adult ADD Strengths » Top 10 Advantages of ADD in a High Tech Career
I am the person they describe in this article.
And my boredom level is running high…resume link!
Technorati Tags: ADD, ADHD, IT, internet
Newest Industry Banner
If you are wondering about the picture at the top of this page (sorry for you folks in RSS readers, gotta head to the blog to see it), I can tell you one thing.
It is real.
[PS: Photo provided by Chris Magnusson.]
I grew up in the shadow if this mountain called, oddly enough, Mount Seven. The Seven is a natural event that only appears in the spring as the snow recedes from the summit.
The other claim to fame for this peak is among paragliders and hang-gliders. If you ask anyone who partakes in these sports if they have ever heard of Mount Seven, their eyes will likely glaze over and drool will run from their mouths,
Why?
Well, the banner doesn’t do the mountain justice from the perspective of a non-powered flight aficianado. This perspective for Google Earth give you a better idea.
When you depart Mount Seven, it is a free and clear 5,000 foot drop into the valley below. And it’s not just any valley; it’s the Rocky Mountain Trench. At a minimum of 5 miles wide, the flying is free and clear. One glider took off from the mountain and ended up in Montana.
Mount Seven is a glorious landmark, and one of the few fond rememberances I have of the town I grew up in.
Technorati Tags: Mount seven, mount 7, golden bc, paragliding, hang gliding
What happens when…?
What happens when you are a highly trained consultant in a company that is being managed into a commodity status?
Remember, that resume link is here.
Technorati Tags: Web performance, management, resume
Migrating from b2evolution to WordPress 2.0
So today, I re-instated blogging on my own hardware and also migrated my b2evolution articles to WordPress 2.0.
It was painless.
Five-minute WordPress install.
Run the b2evolution -> WordPress import script. [here]
Ummm…that’s it.
I will be tweaking the theme over the next few days until I feel it is more me.
Guess I’m just like Ben Metcalfe.
President Bush secures the country for his protection
It should come as no surprise that I am a fan of “graphic novels”, known as “comic books” when I was coming of age. One of my favourites is the Dark Knight | Dark Knight Returns series.
In the Dark Knight Returns, the US is run by a cabal with a holographic presidential avatar as their figurehead. In this world, the “Freedom FROM Information Act … makes anything worth knowing secret”.
That quote has stuck with me for most of the last week. The American population is supposed to hang its head and march quietly in line with everyone else, never looking to the side because they might accidentally see their freedoms dying in the ditches.
The United States is Rome, and the babarians (no, not the elephant king, barbarians you fool!) are on the far banks of the Rubicon, with their feet in the water.
Technorati Tags: USA, Bush, Rubicon, autocracy
We’re back!
Ok, this domain will live again!
Thanks to Matt and the WordPress.com crew for putting up with my abuse over the last few months while we determined what was going to happen with the Newest Industry.
Welcome back?