brainfried

Grr.. when will I learn that trading sleep for work will never pay off well !?!

Too many flying objects at the moment, with many a plan going to fruition. Some ripe, some less that ripe, and some very rotten. I am a victem of my own success. Need to work on that moving forward.

Had a decent career meeting with my manager today. Spent most of it look at his new toy. I'll blog about it if I ever get one, but it was fun to help.

better late than... ?

A double yesterday, doesn't really cover today, but working until 1 AM, I'll cut myself some slack. Lots of things shifting around today. Got a bunch of different tasks added to the todo list. I got a few of the paired away, and I see a direction to reduce the flow of some of the others, but I have a good deal to take care of still.

T-minus 4 days til Vegas. Lots to do and not much time! I got a few of my article ideas approved, so now I need to do some playing and some writing. Opportunity knocks all the time.

Last thought of the night

"Where does the time go?" and "Where do I want it to go?" are becoming more important to me. I think I need a way to measure -- what can I do in 30 minutes? in 15? In 5? I don't have a strong timesense. Something I need to work on. Not to overinstrument and abuse, but making sure that I'm putting the hours to what I consider important.

I need to figure out where I can put the 30 minutes to do the most good for my goals, my family and my world.

All sorts of good stuff...

Got a couple of good things running in my head as I try and get my presentations out the door

Part way thru the Pirate's Dilemma [blog] -- chock full of good references to the Punk DIY style of creation. Learning the way piracy can help change the world is interesting. The remix section alone was worth the price of entry for me -- understanding the history of the remix and a quick recipe that will help my writing one I get a grip on it.

Watched this video by way of Warren Ellis on Clay Shirkey's talk on Cognitive Surplus.



So much interesting thought here that's all running together. Starting to see a few ideas coalesce together. Just need to get things running!

Reflective surfaces

Heads in an odd spot this morning so going with it to see where it goes. I have a meeting with my manager this week to discuss my career as part of my annual planning. A week after my birthday seems like I should be doing some thinking about my plans for life as well. I'm vaguely surprised that I've turned into someone who wants to have a 5 year plan, but life is full of surprises. I am waking to a world of ambitions and dreams. Most fairly pedestrian but I'm starting to see the value of dreaming big. What does it take to feel alive? Attention and focus. Go figure. So it pays to be careful with where and what I spend my time on.

A strange phrase "Spend my time", like I consume time like I consume goods. Figuring out how I consume my money and time seem to be well linked but a direction I would like to decouple. I realize now that I can be a bit frivolous towards my money. I can do better at consuming less but enjoying life more.

But I digress. I have a great deal of thinking to do and planning to take care of, but most importantly I need a way to look at how I execute, when I execute and measure and react to what I do.

last call...

I've got seven days until I fly to Vegas for the conference. I want to finish it up in six. Got some changes in the last 24 hours to keep things interesting. Looking to see what I need to get done in the next week -- it'll be interesting. Things will get better in 2 weeks. Ubuntu 8.04 is out. This is the latest Long Term Support version (LTS). Good to know. In two weeks I'll be able to wipe my loaner laptop and install 8.04. It is looking good. Looking forward to trying out some new features including google gadget integration. Google Gadgets is looking like a larger and larger part of my future.

resetting the track

Got a bit of a change in my lab for WSTC. Need to refactor my plan for what I want to cover and how I want to cover it. Got a query for some work on a side topic which looks interesting. I may delve into it. Post more as the opportunity presents itself.

1 down...

Completed my Agile talk for WSTC -- getting some feedback from my peers, but essentially done. Still need to work on the rest of my lab. Finished up a networking tutorial. Next up is going to be doing a bit more work with Xen, then some more focus on VMWare. Some time soon I will post a note about running xen images in vmware. But that is for another day.

Twice in a week?!

Granted it was exactly a week -- but still. Got sick last night and just crashed about an hour after I got home. I'll try to post extra today to catch up.

ajax rpg

Yay for the interweb and a blow against idea rot.

I had nothing to do with this, it was done completely independently of me, I just had the same idea a few years ago. Did I do anything with it? No. Should I have? Maybe. But it is a great idea and I'm glad some one implemented it. I look forward to tracking the progress on it.

To be clear, the closest I ever came to this was a few sketches on a piece of paper. No code, no implementation, just a series of thoughts. Coming up with a good idea is fairly easy. Turning it into a reality is a good bit tougher. I need to work on focusing myself and executing better. Thinking of an idea is a good start, but execution is the only thing that counts. Innovation is best served by a execution over planning.

focus on forward

So spent a good chunk of the weekend relaxing. Running a little late this year on my annual review. I'm running at full throttle on too many topics at the moment. I suspect that is what I need to figure out for the next year, how to recognize and prioritize what is important to me, and how to get rid of the tasks that don't fit in that category. The key is going to be better leadership skills. Both learning to delegate and say 'no'. I need to think about where I want to grow and focus on those areas, but at the same time find a way to stay organic in my growth.

My current position doesn't leave me a great deal of room to grow in new directions. I need to stop running to get my bearings and figure out if I'm getting closer to my goals or running in the wrong directions! I think I need to do this at multiple levels, on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. I don't want to burn out on the things that interest me. I don't want to waste the time that I have, because that's all the time I have.

yasp

Yet another short Post!

I received a copy of Randy Pausch's Last Lecture and read thru it today. Very interesting read. Good advice on living. I need to examine it again and pull out more interesting bits to discuss.

half day

Took a half day today. Enjoyed the afternoon hanging about with Z. Much more relaxing and useful than what I normally do with a Friday Afternoon. I think I need a way to turn this into a common practice rather than the rare event.

posting

just for postings sake.

I had expected to be writing a bit more these days in terms of self reflection, but work has me concentrating too much on .. well work! I need to take some time to consider what I want to do for the next year. Think about my longer term goals and the steps I want to take to get there. For now I think I just want to call it a night.

Doh

Missed it again. Started a post last night then got distracted. But two misses in 2 months doesn't seem so bad. In high gear trying to get all my presentations together. Need to get a few more things done in the next two weeks.

Was hoping to attend a web 2.0 session tommorow, but that seems to be dropping out the window. We'll see what the time brings.

Inbox Zero

So in the Getting Things Done paradigm, there is a goal of keeping your inbox empty. Strict email management should be used to make sure that your inbox is kept empty, and all new items are immediately addressed.

I am failing at this. I came close in January, but I am quickly falling behind. I can manage the SPAM just fine. Trying to get rid of the 'bacon' in my inbox, is getting better. But I still have a ton of mail to deal with. I need to be a bit more critical of my inbox and either deal with it faster or wipe it out. It just amounts to another version of clutter. I suppose I could nuke the whole inbox but I suspect the fallout would not be worth the price.

On piracy and free support

While no one probably cares, I have on occasion used pirated software. On more than a few occasions I have built a machine using a copy of Windows that I have not purchased, but was purchased by someone else. I have reformed! Learned my lesson, I will no longer pirate Windows. Between the new anti-pirating features and the availability of free software, I no longer use Windows. I've been using Linux at home for a number of years and I think I just hit two years of Linux exclusively at work. I admit there are a few programs I miss. And the gaming has been horrible, but for the most part I don't miss it too much. OK, on occasion I'll admit the VMWare image does come out for use on replicating customer issues, or some Visio Presentations.

But Microsoft no longer has to worry about me pirating a copy of Windows. Which is great for them, isn't it? I used to think it would be but I'm less sure now. My brother-in-law is looking for a new computer, in years past I wouldn't hesitate to recommend a good Windows machine and that would be that. Now, I'm not so sure. I'll probably need to help tech-support this machine in the future. I'm not using Vista, how can I support it well? His family doesn't need much beyond support for Email and Web Games. So why not a Mac? They are a bit more expensive. No doubt. I can get a cheaper Dell, or Lenovo or HP, but what is the overhead for using Windows? If we were talking Laptops, I'd be closer to going with Windows. I could support them on a Linux box, but I'm not sure if they want to go that far. Firefox works just as well with either system and thunderbird or Gmail would take care of their email needs. The kids don't game all that much, and might be happier using the PS2 for games rather than the Computer. Something to discuss with them I suppose.

Good Company

Sweet deal! My Inove flashlight died while I was in RTP. This is one of my favorite EDC, so I was a bit bummed about it. I sent an email to Inova to try and see if it would be covered by a warrenty. I got a GREAT response from them very quickly:

I’m sorry to hear that you are experiencing problems with your INOVA T1 flashlight.

All of our INOVA flashlights carry a limited lifetime warranty. We will be more than happy to replace your flashlight for you. Simply return your flashlight in a box including a brief description of the problem you are experiencing.
We have just recently released our brand new, upgraded 2008 T1. The new T1-MP light has been increased to 100 lumens. We will replace your current T1-WB with the new improved upgraded
T1-MP. I think you will be very pleased with your new flashlight.

I'm sending it back this week, but I was really impressed with their service and response.

review.

A week done, on to the weekend. Last week I started asking where I'll be in 5 weeks. Am I closer to any of my goals? I feel I've got mixed progress.

I've been slacking on the exercise. I need to get that one back in the bag. I've gotten closer to getting my lab running I have only 1 more section to work with. Of course that's the key part, but I'll handle that another day. I think I'm starting to get a stride together with work. A few more weeks of the heavy stuff and then I can relax a bit more.

I'm also starting to get a feel for where I want to be going next in different areas. Not concrete enough for goals, but on the way there. The vision is starting to coalesce. More to do, more to learn and more to execute on but I think the path is the right one.

short one.

Fried after a long day. Just keeping it short with some interesting links.

Super Mario in javascript.

Project Zero is taking on a new metamorphosis to WebSphere sMash. Expect more content on this from me when I get some more cycles. The short of it is a new platform for doing fast Web 2.0 development, writing in Java, Groovy or PHP. A just in time model closer to PHP than AppServer.

48 Posts ... more or less

This brings us to about half way through the 3 month goal. To be honest I'm surprised at how easy this turned out to be. The last time I had made a goal to do blog posting I got about a week in and fizzled out :) So keeping a good steam going this time. Guess I have more to carp about than I thought. Taking the time to post every day didn't turn out to be as bad as I thought it would be. Is this a habit I'll take on after the challenge... maybe?

Still a lot to say and do, and it is a time commitment. But I think it can be good commitment, the exploration and reflection on whatever I take the time to write about is helping me keep my head in the right space. I think I could get more ambitious about setting themes and goals in the blog. Writing on everything is easy. Writing on topic... slightly harder. But then again if it was easier, then it really wouldn't be a challenge would it?

Another possible next step is to turn the monologue into a dialog and start advertising my blog out to others. Having a way of communicating with the world really is good, but if I'm not advertising it, am I really communicating with the world?

Leadership and Management

Read a great post yesterday distinguishing between leadership and management. At the heart is the concept that for an organization to be successful they need to balance between leadership and management. Leadership bringing innovation and the ability to deal with change, and management as bringing a drive to minimize complexity.

I am starting to understand a bit more about what leadership means, both to myself and to my company. I'm kinda split between trying to tread carefully and to experiment more. Although I suppose experimenting on the job is a leadership related trait :)

Too many thoughts and projects I'd like to try, but not enough cycles to experiment with them all. I think this is the sort of thing where leadership pays off. Being able to convince and recruit people to my ideas would be helpful. As a technical leader I need to be able to express my ideas better, and as a people leader, get people behind those ideas. Building a vision of what I want the world or the work to be requires me to understand my drives and the requirements that world provides.

blog part deux?

Thinking about starting a secondary blog. One that I would post too a little less often but focused on technical concerns. This would be a place to reflect on my day-to-day experiments and experiences with coding and technology. A place to document what I've discovered, tried etc. I suppose I could pull it all into this blog, but I don't think I want to cross post too much. While I still haven't mastered a theme for this blog, I have started thinking of it as a certain personae.

On further reflection, perhaps I am skirting a theme. I'm almost leaning towards personal development here. Not as cool as the Post-Apocalyptic workout, but then what is? It is a theme that is striking a chord with me at the moment. Perhaps I need to be bolder with it, chart a direction then measure my progress. Something to ponder anyway.

I guess it all depends on what I want to communicate with the world. I'll say this, after 47 posts in a row, I'm feeling pretty good about keeping the line open. I just need to figure out what to say with it. Seth Godin makes some good points on keeping a focus on the message you want to transmit. I don't think I have a message here, yet. I think this is really just an experiment with a habit. So maybe a second technical journal is the way to go. A place where I have messages I want to send.

And here I thought I was done with the existential questions. Who am I? Why am I here? What is my purpose? A good deal of my reading of late has been focused on leadership and simplicity. Both really stem from an examination of values. If the values are bad, then nothing good can follow. If values are ignored then it seems we live in a vacuum of one form or another. We end up with Enron like situations in leadership, and tons of clutter in the search for simplicity. To extrapolate that in technical leadership if we do not stick to our values we end up with overloaded crappy software. This smacks of another theme for investigation -- what are my technical values? What do I consider important as an architect, developer and technical leader? Are these different values from what I do in the other aspects of my life?

Started the day early -- Z couldn't quite decide if she was up, which left her in cranky, noisy state. Fortunately she got settled back in for a nap. Unfortunately I didn't settle back in. Instead got my run going. Did the Schenley Loop in 44 minutes 32 seconds. I may be creaky tommorow but that wasn't too bad. I'm going for distance and time, figuring I'll pick up speed later. I did a good 25 minute run, followed by 5 minutes walking, then 12 minutes of run, then a run walk cycle of much shorter intervals. Still not bad for a Sunday morning. Need to try and get some good runs in this week as well.

Interesting article titled Death and Taxes from Men's Health Magazine. The summary was that the author's tax advisor passed away. In five weeks from diagnosis to death. I found it most interesting from the tag line -- where will you be in 5 weeks. In thinking ahead I tend to go for longer horizons, but there is something to be said for 5 week goals. It is an incarnation of agile, with smaller deliveries towards larger goals. I had a goal realization today when I figured out that I tend to focus on the career track because it is a track. It has well defined levels that make it easy to checklist and plan against. The rest of life doesn't have such nice milestones. Or rather it doesn't have them as well documented. It takes dreams and planning to create those milestones and perseverance to make them a reality.

The other quote of the day that strikes me is from the liner notes of Cowboy Mouth's 1996 album "Are you With Me?" by Patrick H. LeBalanc, who passed away in 1995, "To you who are still alive what are the things that are truly important? And while you are still alive, what are you doing about them?" Good food for thought.

Project Zero:1 Me: 1

Got it! Installed the cmd line tools and figured out how to rebuild the exported file into the appropriate directories. What I did:
- Exported the project from Eclipse
- Created a new project using the cli "zero create projectX"
- unziped the exported file and copied all the files into the projectX directory, overwriting the existing files
- Since the ivy.xml was overwritten, rerun the resolver "zero resolve"
- That got my PHP dependencies added into the default project.
- Start the project "zero start" in the the projectX directory.

Project Zero:1 Me: zero

Working on getting a new copy of ProjectZero running on Linux with PHP using the Version .6 Milestone. It will not let me run the server within eclipse. I've seen this before, but unfortunately the solution was to wait for the next build. It could be done by Monday, but I'd like to get further before then. Trying to run the command line interface is getting frustrating. I am a bit short on sleep so I may just chalk it up to that.

May just head to bed early and get an early start tomorrow. I want to go for a run to get back in the habit. I promised my sister-in-law that I'd try and run the Race for the Cure on Mother's Day with her. It's a good challenge, but coming up a bit soon so I need to get more training runs in, both on the weekends and during the week. On the plus side, the weather is getting better so it should be easier. Once I finalize my lab then only 1 laptop to carry around, which should help with running home.

Gonna call it an early night and get some rest.

in the office

After a week of travel and face to face meetings, I must admit it was a bit of a bummer to be in the office on calls again. Feeling the pain of not cleanly sharing my vision as a bunch of things hit the fan that shouldn't have. Apparently I was not clear enough with the team about what I wanted, so Monday will be a fun exercise in cleaning house.

Almost done with the lab, hope to finish this weekend. I need to put some hours in my presentation, which is also due soon. If I can get them both behind me I can spend more time on building the fun stuff. Looking forward to building fun apps as opposed to all the work related stuff. Talking to T on Project B, I'm not there officially but I am trying to lend a hand where I can. We'll see how that goes.

I want to get back to Market Driven Development soon. I'd like to post that on my website to measure my current projects. The MDD app and my Plugins. I haven't started working on my Firefox entry yet, but I need to start on that soon. Also want to start playing more with Project Zero. So many interesting things to tackle...

... I was going to say 'not enough time', but I'm thinking about that subject a little more these days. I make assumptions against my time and habits that consume my time, but I think I need to start revisiting all of those habits and assumptions. Just as the cleaning/decluttering of the house is giving me new insite about what I have and what my stuff means to me, I think I need to work out how to declutter my time. Something to explore and write about.

back home

too much of an email backlog. I'll deal with it tomorrow.

catching up

... in more ways than one.

Getting in touch with folks via Facebook. Old HS friends and associates. People I ponder about and old faces that I suddenly want to connect to once I find them. Of course I am totally unreliable in terms of checking fb, but it is what it is (thank you Dilbert)

Almost done with my lab. Looking forward to working with EI. They have some interesting ideas and things they want to try that I'd like to help them with.

blargh

In RTP. Dealing with a headache. Minimalistic post.