I like this. Underdog wins again.
Author: spierzchala
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GrabPERF 2.50 Enhancements and Improvements
I am starting to lay out the new items that I will be rolling into GrabPERF 2.50, set for release in April. Already some friends of GrabPERF have weighed in with their desires, and some of them are easy to do, others require a whole new learning curve for me to get ramped into.
What I need from all the folks who use the system right now are the things that make you nuts. What don’t you like about:
- Graphing
- Data Presentation
- Workflow
- Available Statistics
This is your time to speak up because you use GrabPERF far more than I do. And without feedback, I just write in the stuff that is interesting to me.
Looking forward to the give-and-take.
Technorati Tags: GrabPERF, GrabPERF 2.50, feature requests, enhancements
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Two Fisher Space Pens — GONE!
Last spring I bought two Fisher Space pens: one matte black; and one shiny purple.
Yesterday, I lost the last one, the black one.
Back to the Pilot G2s. Don’t feel so bad losing those.
Technorati Tags: Fisher Space Pen, Pilot G2, stationery porn
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GrabPERF Quarterly Pledge Drive
Time for me to launch the GrabPERF Quarterly Pledge Drive.
This is the part I hate. As I have noted in the past, I can’t charge for GrabPERF in any sort of traditional business sense. But I am also not doing this for a pat on the back.
As always, any donation, no matter how small, is appreciated.
I am also looking to add to my corporate spnsors list, so if you or your company is interested in achieving this much sought after position, drop me a note.
Technorati Tags: GrabPERF, donations, Pledge Drive
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TailRank: Happy Monday the 13th
Kevin Burton of TailRank dropped me a great note last night and asked me to add his site to GrabPERF.
Ouch.
He did have a lot of great ideas about extending GrabPERF capabilities, and I will be putting those up in a post later today.
UPDATE: TailRank came back at around 14:00 GMT (09:00 EST).
Technorati Tags: TailRank, GrabPERF, Web performance
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Canadian Olympic Committee — Go back to Roots
In the past, I have lined up to buy Canadian Olympic team goods from Roots. Good quality, and just generally cool and useful stuff.
This year, HBC (the Hudson’s Bay Company) is doing Canadian Olympic apparel.
This is like grandma dressing a teenager.
I am so disappointed. What was the COC thinking?
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What do you use as your resume?
Yes, I know. For the fourth time in a week, this is a post with a link to my resume.
But last night, while I was writing an e-mail to someone about the long-term future of GrabPERF, I wrote something that I had to read twice when it came out.
GrabPERF is my resume.
How can a simple Web application be a resume?
In my case, it highlights all of the things that I am interested in:
- Web performance
- Statistical analysis
- Clear presentation of data and information
- Web development skills
- Database administration skills
- System administration skills
- Distributed systems
GrabPERF showcases everything that I have taught myself over the last seven years. And I am proud of it.
So, what do you use for your resume?
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The basement is spooky.
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. -
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.