cool interactive music creation

Well, this is kinda cool…. 

make music with flash…   http://lab.andre-michelle.com/tonematrix

cool enough to get me to make a blog entry.  be prepared to waste lots o time.

It was a very, very, good day.

subject says it all.  congratulations - now fulfill our dreams!

the knoll down for the count

Well, it seems our property in Big Sur has gotten a proper beating from the fire.  We lost the main house that my grandpa built, plus the garage, the barn, the greenhouse, part of the orchard, and a lot of surrounding trees, brush, fences, etc.  Still have the Christmas House, and there are some patches of green here and there among the ashes.

Links for me for perusing later:

Disaster Net

Xasauan Today

Los Padres Conditions

Big Sur Fire 2008

Bummer.

it’s not you, it’s me

Management lesson for today:  When having discussions with groups of people who work for you, always remember that if all of them share the same opnion about your management and communication style, it is important to always put the blame back on them.  After all, it’s not a manager’s problem if his subservients have issues - that is THEIR problem and they just need to deal with it.  There are PLENTY of cases where a group of people will have the same issue, but it is really their fault and not yours.  Don’t let many people sway your one opinion… they are simply wrong.

 (this is sarcasm, for people who don’t know me)

please provide your input… in 2.35 seconds

“I know you are in interviews right now, and that this is the lunch hour as well, but, here’s a document that was created 3 months ago and has been sitting in SMT’s lap for some time… could you please read it and give an analysis.  You have 1.5 hours (during the interviews I know you are in right now) to complete this task.”

“Oh, btw, this is for an appliance to count widgets.  Our webmaster is unable to perform basic unix tasks to complete this process himself with the tools we already have installed - he and one other person have been trying for months now.  So, this is a business case to get an appliance to do it for him.  Far less ROI, but it makes the webmaster and person who hired said webmaster look more competent.  Oh, let’s not discuss the budget crunch we are in right now - paying for a service product we could have for free seems like a good way to ignore the budget.”

spencer weekend!

I would be remiss from all my businsess anecdotes, if I didn’t post that we went to see the Spencers this weekend.  We love those people, and we had an awesome time.  Here you can see they’re continuing the same old behavior that got Lanina her belly in the first place (don’t EVEN ask me how Jason got that pregnant, I have NO idea)

Anyhoo, we had a grand time hanging out with them, including a Nugget based lunch ($90 for 4 people, but gourmet stuff), a wonderful hike, and just generally hanging out with really nice people (and a dog).  :)  Thanks guys for a wonderful time. Plus, we got to give them a special present that Lesley has been working on forever (I paid for it, and wrote part, does that count? it was my idea, does that count? lol ) - and that was special as well.

hey, it’s a data center!

Let’s say, for example, you worked for a company that provided things like network connectivity, dial up access, accounts, websites, email, databases, etc.  You also provide application level services, DNS, NTP, etc.  You have a UPS and generator, and cooling units that cost more than your car.  You’ve got raised floors, and even had Halon installed at some point.  You’ve been doing this for a long time.

Would it surprise you (or worry you) if management suddenly decided they wanted to be a “hosting company?”  “Hey, let’s be a, what was that called Bob?  a ‘data center’!”  *shudder*

Does it end there?  Not if they start saying things like “well, we’ll need to DEFINE what a data center is, of course, first.”  Queue that calendar from the old Rudolph and Father Time TV special where the months just flutter away…  *shudder*

schizophrenic much?

So, what part of this bothers YOU:

helpdesk/analyst: lets file a ticket to clean up a vserver’s old configuration to get it updated on the new configuration - not to fix anything, just cleanup.

director, on his day off, not even involved in this process normally: Ooh, we should take advantage of this.  As long as we’re outsourcing widgets to a third party, we will want to do this for all of our hosted websites too!

manager: uh, the ticket is a minor issue, why are you involved here.  And as for your statement, I don’t understand.  It’s news to me that we’re outsourcing our hosted websites!?

director, 2 hours after his first email: No, sites like this will not be outsourced.

???

ooooh! New technology!!!

Ever seen when management goes to a conference and picks up the latest buzzwords without understanding it.  This is a scenario at (most probably) everone’s company: 

“This Web 2.0 thing is great.  We need to use it everywhere - It’s the hip new thing!  Let’s get some blogs going, and a wiki or two, we need web based applications too!”

btw, gentle management, it’s been around at least since 2004… and since the technology itself has been around since 1994-ish (ajax is nothing new, just old things put together), one can argue cases even earlier.  Way to keep up with modern technology.  And for the record, it’s a lot of hype on the same old stuff, just done differently.  What do you want to use Web 2.0 for?  Do you even know when it’s proper to deploy it, and when it’s not?

Oh, and don’t forget the words of other management - we’re not a development house.  We’re purchasing software we have no say will be web 2.0 or web 7.0 or whatever you think you want.  You could try talking to some of us who actually work on it for a living.

“Must have it!”

then, gentle management, why is it on the roadmap for 2-3 years from now!?

*sigh*  Don’t get me wrong, I think there are some hot slick ajax/web2.0 things out there - and that’s a great thing.  In fact, I use them daily.  But quit latching on the buzzwords without knowing what you are talking about.

we’re an organization of change

So, this just in… we have a brand new process flowchart (with approximately 10 items) from our SLM team concerning SLA process.  Now, I’m sure that they had other things to do, but could someone explain to me why that group first met on 8/21 and it took until now to actually come up with that?