| MOAR COWBELL. |
[May. 12th, 2008|04:12 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  amused | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | "What's the buzz?" JCSS | ] |
I think it needs to be a goal in my life to learn how to play bass like the bass player on the original Jesus Christ Superstar double-album.
One bass player "drove the bus" on funk, half-time and straight-ahead rock, dixieland, 5/4 ballads, orchestra fusion, shuffle, recitatives, and a few other sprinkles of styles here and there. All on a fretless and often with a lot of extra ornamentation and improvisation.
If there was a black-belt in bass, that player has it. |
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| TEA! |
[May. 12th, 2008|01:39 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | amused | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | When I say Earl Grey, you say "Yes, Please." | ] |
No... it is NOT ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) adequatemagic and the_gneech's unholy man child.
It's a video that all the tea-drinkers I know should see.
SFW and fun.
One of the secondary characters is a dead ringer for dustykat |
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| Advice to geeks. |
[May. 9th, 2008|05:04 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  geeky | ] |
There's a growing list of "bits of advice" I find myself writing down to what I wish I could have handed to my former self. Most of them seem to resolve around employment and work and how it meshes with the geek/creative psyche.
Today's bit of advice:
Always drink with the CEO.
AKA: Always go to the Christmas party.
And I mean it. I see so many geeks bag on company social events it's stupid. I realize that to the geek mindset a forced social event with co-workers is about as appealing as a salad bar is to a cheetah, but for a brief moment put yourself in your bosses shoes.
Work sucks. That's why they pay you and your boss to be there. He or she doesn't enjoy the stupid and frustrating parts of their job any more than you do.
There are shitty parts to being the boss. You have to make people meet deadlines they shouldn't be forced to. You have to fire people. You have to take responsibility for things you didn't deserve. Every employee will armchair question your actions. You have to sit though day-long meetings on "process."
Company events are a chance where the boss gets a perk out of being the boss. He or she gets to hand out bonuses. He or she gets to be gregarious. He or she gets to talk to you and your SO if you brought them. He or she gets to drink and get the employees drinking on the company's dime.
Be there and do that. Drink and try to be merry. Don't be a wet blanket.
The geek may silently wish that everything was a meritocracy and that he or she could be in a world without social overtones and politics. But it takes people to get things done. That's reality. Embrace that. Be a part of giving your boss a good time and a fun moment of being in charge.
It'll pay back in ways you can't imagine. Hell, you might enjoy it. |
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| Drinking with buddies. |
[May. 9th, 2008|10:40 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | amused | ] |
So it turned out that ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/syndicated.gif) geistbear was in town. We had the evening to grab some chow together and did so.
I'd not had a chance to introduce susandeer and geistbear to each other so this was a good chance.
Geist was looking for a decent German restaurant in his continued quest for beer-knowledge. It turns out there is just such a place quietly tucked away in downtown San Jose. Not quite a bier garden, but dang close. They had some excellent food and more excellence on tap. It has been a very long time since I've drank that much beer.
We finished up the evening at the incredible "A Perfect Finish." It's a wine, spirits, and dessert bar in downtown. I absolutely love the concept of this place, and the people who run it. It's a relaxed place to finish up a good night out and enjoy a wonderfully accessible selection of wine, dessert wines, spirits and other such delights.
The visit was short, but good. I'm hoping geistbear and susandeer had as good of a time as I did. :) |
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| Monday Morning JAPH |
[May. 5th, 2008|12:16 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | amused | ] |
I'm sharpening up the old coding skills by writing a JAPH as I do other work.
It's surprising how much you learn about exact syntax doing this. I think I'm going to start writing one weekly. It's been 5 years since I did my last ones.
This one passes strict and utilizes source text from outside the actual code. Sweeeet.
use strict;
@_=map{split' '}grep/^(Complete|this|Internet)/,`perl -v`;$a=@_[-3];@_=split'',
join'',@_;print map {/,/?' ':/m/?'k':/\"/?"\n":/\$\$/?$a:/\//?'J':$_}map{/\d/?
@_[$_]:$_}qw/154 11 -42 6 46 79 14 1 62 48 70 98 28 $$ 46 63 -4 31 2 -2 26 77/; |
It's so fun to be engaged and enjoying the code. Tech really is a fun puzzle problem. Sometimes I forget that. |
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| Go go gadget ibuprofin bottle. |
[May. 5th, 2008|10:06 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  accomplished | ] |
So Saturday and Sunday we closed out the final pile of belongings at the doghouse. Thankfully it was only a single U-haul load, and most of it was boxes. Still, that last load is always the worse.
At this point, the last of the roommates has now officially and completely moved in. The door was closed and the stuff and the people are all inside.
This is a good thing!
We've been trying to unpack as-we-go on the other stuff. I'd say the Kitchen is mostly unpacked and the first-pass of organization has happened. The living spaces are generally unpacked and laid out. We need bookshelves for the library, though.
We've hosted a few friends over here and there, mostly begging their forgiveness for the mess. Once we get the bulk of stuff sorted out we'll probably have a housewarming party.
Yay! |
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| Life is getting better. |
[May. 2nd, 2008|11:54 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  bouncy | ] |
I've gotten nearly a week of full 8-hour-sleep nights.
The circles are disappearing from under my eyes.
I /feel/ better.
I weigh less than I've weighed in 5 years.
I payed off taxes and the car loan.
And I just posted the first post to my "Book writing" project friends list.
*purrrr* |
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| BASIC |
[May. 1st, 2008|01:39 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | amused | ] |
On this day in 1964, at about 4 AM EST, at Dartmouth College, two math professors, Thomas Kurtz and John Kemeny, ran a few programs on their newly created programming language. Their goal was to create a language that could use the powerful computers of the day but was simple enough that new users could learn it quickly.
They called it: Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code. (BASIC)
Depending on who was asked, the first program was either this:PRINT 2 + 2 Or an implementation of the Sieve of Eratosthenes.
While this day might be celebrated for it's success at an accessible language, it's also the first major release of a programming language with the GOTO statement. (GOTO is one of a long line of proof that for every tool made, there's someone out there to mis-use it to death.)
Excluding arguments about LOGO as a programming language, the first program I ever authored was in BASIC. Looking at the lessons provided to us, I decided to write and try:10 BEEP
20 GOTO 10 My test was a success. And as a bonus, I learned shortly thereafter the appropriate key combination to break out of a running basic program. I did get some dirty looks from the professor, though. |
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| Mel Blanc, Jack Benny and the Tiajuana Brass |
[Apr. 28th, 2008|11:01 am] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Spanish Flea - Tijana Brass | ] |
Mel Blanc got one of his better breaks on radio by being Carmihael, Jack Benny's polar bear. Eventually he ended up doing piles of voices and moving into cartoons and the things we all know him for.
I didn't realize just how well he could ham-it-up and act. Here he is, in character, getting the best of Jack Benny on TV. They're reprising an old skit from the radio show that they've updated to line up with the then-popular Tiajuana Brass.
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| Upgrade music... |
[Apr. 24th, 2008|01:34 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | amused | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Herb Alpert - Whipped Cream | ] |
So we had a hired gun onsite when we migrated the data down to TX. His expertise was this kind of data move and he had done the legwork down in TX to prepare things.
The move started at 9pm and was scheduled to go through 3 am. It was just a few tech guys hanging late for it. So I took off the headphones and had music playing through the speakers quietly on the desk. I figured something calm, but active enough to keep us awake would be best for the stress of the moment. I had turned on the Sinatra play list for the work.
The consultant guy thought this was the coolest thing. He had been through dozens and hundreds of these events and guys would always be playing rap or techno. Occasionally they might do some hard rock. He had me turn the music up.
It ended up with him asking what else I listened to. There was a touch of early jazz for examples and I found out that bluegrass and golden-age country was his shameful music passion. Sinatra was then punctuated with some Dry Branch Fire Squad.
Funny that. Cutting edge tech grooving along to backwoods mountain music. |
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| The word for today is: WAAAAAAUGGH! |
[Apr. 22nd, 2008|09:47 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  shocked | ] |
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| Pushin tech to its limits... |
[Apr. 21st, 2008|03:33 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | bouncy | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody | ] |
Some folks doing voice recordings and some talk back and forth about Queen reminded me of good old "Bohemian Rhapsody." It's a big monster rock tune, but a lot of folks probably don't realize that it's one of the most complex singles ever produced. Never mind the "promotional" video that was made for it that helped set the stage for MTV-style music videos, what Queen did to push the tech to it's limits was incredible:
Brian May, Mercury and Roger Taylor sang their parts for ten to twelve hours a day, resulting in 200 separate overdubs. Since studios of the time only offered 24-track analogue tape, it was necessary for May, Mercury and Taylor to overdub themselves many times, and bounce these down to successive sub-mixes. In the end, eighth-generation tapes were used. The tapes had passed over the recording heads so many times the normally opaque tapes could be seen through, the oxide layer beginning to wear off. The various sections of tape containing the desired sub mixes would have to be cut with razor blades and spliced together in the correct sequence using adhesive tape (splicing tape).
I had heard this story in recording circles before. It's fun to see it with references up on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohemian_Rhapsody
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| Some good news... |
[Apr. 21st, 2008|12:11 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  annoyed | ] |
It's easy to get depressed at the steady erosion of rights and possibly sanity our current government is taking us through, sometimes small victories are had:
Gordon Lee's case has been dismissed.
The CBLDF only had to spend about $100k in legal fees to help defend a small-time comic book seller who was being prosecuted for multiple felonies and misdemeanors because a child got a hold of an adult comic book that had a small section that included nudity:
During Halloween week 2004, Gordon Lee’s comic shop, Legends, of Rome, GA, participated in a trick-or-treat event in downtown Rome by distributing free comics. "Alternative Comics #2," the Free Comic Book Day edition from publisher Alternative Comics for 2004, was inadvertently included in the mix of books being given away. The comic was a single copy among thousands of comics being given away that day, and was accidentally handed to a minor, whose parent filed a complaint with the police.
The comic book features a variety of stories from the company's line, including an excerpt from Nick Bertozzi's now published graphic novel The Salon, depicting the first meeting between Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso. On three pages of the eight page section, Picasso is depicted in the nude, a factually accurate detail for the period during which the story is set. There is no sexual content in the story.
More background here: http://www.cbldf.org/articles/archives/000318.shtml |
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| Kicking it old school. |
[Apr. 20th, 2008|11:49 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | amused | ] |
I ordered a newspaper to be delivered to my house on a daily basis today.
I figured I needed to get more of that filthy-commie-pinko-liberal news perspective in my life that doesn't come from the internet.
The internet version of that mostly reads like: LOL BUSH.
And I'm feeling a little intellectually starved by most news sources. Internet news is fast-food news. Quick content of the moment and no discussion, background, commentary, or research.
I realize that the newspaper won't necessarily provide significantly better reporting, but it's a step in the right direction. And I'm supporting that pesky filthy-commie-pinko-liberal media that is becoming harder to find.
It's part of a goal of having a balanced view* and understanding my own opinion and world better.
And it has nothing to do about having comics delivered in analog format.**
---
* No really. You can get a balanced view. Every news source is biased in one direction or another. So how do you find a true balanced view? You take sources that are unabashedly unbalanced in opposite directions and listen to them. The average is surprisingly middle-ground. It also forces you to listen to and understand opinions that are not yours. I learned this from a good friend in college who listened to NPR in the morning and Rush Limbaugh in the afternoon. As long as your head doesn't explode from the difference, you end up with a remarkably intelligent view point and often have to make your own decisions and think for yourself on why you do or do not believe something. Scary eh?
** This statement is a lie. |
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| Level up! |
[Apr. 20th, 2008|09:51 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | accomplished | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Dishwasher set to stun | ] |
Remember the glowing orb on altered beast? I hit one of them Thursday as the tech skillz auto-incremented.
New accomplishment:
Lead admin on the migration of 5 TB of data / 4.88 million live users to a geographically remote data center. Migration performed without error in 6-hour maintenance window. Actual data migration time: 1.5 minutes. Total storage migration time including validation: 1 hr.
This came on the tail of an emergency migration from failing hardware. I don't know if it is a record, but according to both the Bear data and Net App techs, a company of our size successfully provisioning, powering, and installing a 16 TB NetApp SAN in 72 hours and then migrating live production onto it in 5 days is unheard-of. That was without interruption or a maintenance window.
While this is a drop-in-the-bucket compared to the volume of data that folks like smackjackal handle, it is certainly a strong mark on my resume and is a heck of a first for me.
Especially when you consider I didn't know squat about SAN's 6 months ago. |
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| Mama Leone left a note on the door... |
[Apr. 20th, 2008|09:37 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | move | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | accomplished | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Bruce's singing bowl. | ] |
So at this point Sue and I have been moved in for 3 or 4 days. The roommates all have the majority of their stuff in. And all the heavy junk is in place.
The kitchen is massive. We've cooked two full-team dinners and a breakfast in it already. It's hard to believe but everything might have a home in the cabinets.
We have a pantry too. It seems a silly thing to enjoy, but having a well stocked pantry is nice. It's easier to cook with a backlog of various ingredients at hand.
We're looking to getting a chest freezer in place too. At 6 people, it is very very financially advantageous for us to cook at home and we're officially the right quantity to buy at Costco. The other part that rocks is that both Sue and Lisa can share in the cooking duties. It seems silly, but spreading that weight around makes it enjoyable. And the kitchen is big enough for three folks to work in at the same time.
Kitchen discussions aside, the house feels like it's the "right" size so far. I'm astonished that by combining our two households we have more space at less price. And there are so many "nice" things that are helping. As we unpack the boxes for the next few days months, I'll know more, but right now this is shaping up to be the best living arrangements I've had since Italy.
So far the internet connect is up in the air. Comcast made it to the punch first, but their service has been there about 75% of the time. A tech comes out again tomorrow. At this point I think DSL will win.
It's dry on this side of the valley. I'm going through a similar cycle that happened out at burning man. Once it kicks in it'll be nice. My sinuses were clean and dry when I lived in Italy. This is very similar in feel.
The cats are settling in well. Ginger, (the cat-in-the-helmet) has already figured out one roommate is a hopeless soul who cannot resist a begging cat. Natsha approves of us furnishing her with warm humans to sleep upon.
I look forward to having people visit again. I look forward to hosting again. I'm almost ashamed of how nice this house is. After being beat back for years it feels like I don't deserve such a thing. Here's a small hope that that fear is groundless and that this place becomes a place of rest and enjoyment for years to come.
Mostly because I'm tired of moving :) |
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| Move on down da road.... |
[Apr. 17th, 2008|01:53 pm] |
With the downtown address getting more interesting* with the warm weather, we were glad to get the opportunity to move.
At this point Sue and I and the kitties are in the new property and settling it. Compared to downtown the house is astonishingly quiet. I also knew the eastern side of the valley was dry, but not quite how dry. The humidifier will probably become a necessary tool to sleep.
It worked out to be good timing. Work had a major go-live Monday and another one tonight. I also got to squeeze in a few music rehearsals.
I will say that after a day of carrying boxes, it is very nice to have an hour to sit in a hot-tub and relax. I could really get used to this.
* Chinese-proverb interesting. Bum-fights-over-territory interesting. |
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| Good old Eric is at it again... |
[Apr. 17th, 2008|10:09 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | amused | ] |
Who know that Aperture Science made .. an Amiga?
It kinda explains a lot:
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