Category: Uncategorized

So, I mentioned earlier that I have packet loss on the uplink from my Web server where GrabPERF and this blog are hosted. How do I know it’s packet loss and not some other issue?

CLICK THE IMAGE

Notice the banding of measurements around 3 and 9 seconds? These values are the set TCP re-transmission timeouts for new connections for almost every operating system. When you see this pattern, check your packet loss stats from your routers/switches/network equipment.
Now…I wonder what my connectivity provider has mucked up?

Apparently, the CBC wants all of the negative blog posts by the Canadian Media Guild members locked out for the last 50 days removed from their personal blogs.
CBC: Please consult the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Most notably, Section 2:

2. Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:
a) freedom of conscience and religion;
b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication;
c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and
d) freedom of association.

Oh, and if the CBC isn’t going to hire Shelagh Rogers or Rick Mercer or ANY of the CBC Unplugged Bloggers back because of their blog posts, I will tear up my Canadian Passport and become a US citizen.
I am ashamed of my country, and especially of the CBC.
Via: Mutually Inclusive PR

I’m not sure where they are in the path, but there is a serious connectivity issue with the Newest Industry.

Going to re-boot the Web server and see if that helps.

When I look at my logs, I am always astounded by the items visitors come to read.
The one posting that I am most proud of is this one, where I do not sing the praises of Gutter Helmet.

b2evolution only maintains local hit logs for 30 days. In that time, there is a serious pattern appearing.

URL					NUM
----					------
Home Page				116
Why I Will Not Recommend Gutter Helmet	105
This is your host on South Park		30

I have been watching this for a while, so on Monday, I wrote a letter to some of the executives at Gibraltar Industries [here], the holding company that now owns Gutter Helmet.

Dear Gibraltar Industries:
I saw that your company has just purchased Gutter Helmet. Congratulations.
I thought you and your team would like to know that my blog post detailing my experience with a Gutter Helmet installation is near the top of Google Search for the phrase “gutter helmet”.

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22gutter+helmet%22 –> it’s the link from the IceRocket blogsearch engine

I get between 5 and 10 visits a day where people are reading what my experience with the Gutter Helmet installation team was like.

Gutter Helmet is a great product. The team that installed it failed miserably in making us happy.

Good luck, and remember: the conversation you don’t hear will be the one that hurts you the most.

stephen

On Monday, there was a huge flurry of hits from Gutter Helmet IPs and others, including what looked like Gibraltar’s very high-priced law firm.

And you know what?

They didn’t bother to respond.

So, I will continue to de-evangalize Gutter Helmet, as they are stuck in a negative customer experience death-spiral. If they can’t get over the big company, “One complaining customer is nothing” attitude, they will continue experience the force of a customer scorned. And when new prospects research the Gutter Helmet product, they will continue to encounter my negative experience high on the search engines’ lists.

Gibraltar Industries: I am now defining the conversation around the Gutter Helmet product, and you have no control over that. If you don’t believe this has an impact, follow the thread and conversation around Jeff Jarvis’ experience with Dell [here].

CCUCEO has a great take on the arrival of the Imagination Age.[here]
The Minimum Wage Class is the result. In some cases, people fall into this group as a place to start when they arrive.
In other places, like here in Massachusetts, it is almost carried like a badge of honour to just scrape by.
And then there are those that have moved beyond Industrial, beyond Information.
I just wish the people who paid the bills joined us out here.

GrabPERF is FOR SALE.
I have reached the limits of my coding, database administration and time available to keep GrabPERF growing and evolving.
What is for sale?

• The GrabPERF Domain — grabperf.org
• Measurement scripts
• Database design and current contents of the database
• Automated processing scripts and batch jobs
• Web GUI code
• Consulting time from me to install, and configure the GrabPERF system at your location, with your team

There is a lot of potential in the code. I have a lot of ideas to make it better.
There are 24 hours in a day.
Now, when I mean for sale, I mean FOR SALE. There is a lot of work in this code and infratstructure; I am not going to simply give it away. I am also going to be very careful when selecting the buyer.
Drop me a line if you or your organization would like to present a proposal to me for the purchase and transition of GrabPERF.
Thank you all for your support.

Lifehacker has a great list of the airlines that offer WiFi. [here]
They also offer this quote:

BoeingÂ’s Connexion, the wifi service for airplanes, adds 600 to 800 pounds to a plane. With rising fuel costs and U.S. airlines struggling to stay afloat, the system hasnÂ’t yet been adopted on this side of the pond.

This is a catch-22 for the airlines.

1. Lack of innovation and stupidly high fares
2. Low-cost alternatives
3. Attempt to copycat low-cost alternatives
4. Go bankrupt and claim poverty
5. See #1

The first airline in the US to implement onboard WiFi (most likely JetBlue, given their record and the fact that they have a lot of the hardware already installed to handle the DirectTV thing), will win.
Forever.

Go sign the position asking eBay to make their Web site open standards compliant, instead of Microsoft-compliant. [here]
Via: Mozillazine

Now, there is 296MB for of data in the GrabPERF database.
Not a big database, by any stretch of the imagination. Nor is it a complex one. But I was impressed to see this this morning when I did routine maintenance.
And you know what? Most of you only have access to less than 10% of the available data.
I am not hiding it. It’s there. It’s just in the subscription section.
And this database is growing by the minute.
What are you waiting for?

Maybe Going to Work Should be the Exception
Damn straight.
I get more done in my corner desk, in my attic, away from the dysfunctional environment know as the open-plan office.
And a 50 mile-a-day roundtrip commute — oh yeah! We all live for that!
In my case, the motto is simple: It’s the INTERNET, stupid!