It’s been a busy couple of weeks
I haven't written or created anything of worth (for the blog) in ages. I've been busting out code at work like it's nobodies business but my own, some great some not so much. I think I've finally gotten the first major importer I wrote into shape (it displays things correctly and isn't susceptible to bad client behavior).
However, my latest test code has proven to be very difficult to deal with, an automated PGP decrypter with file management and file history. Without going into detail... oh why descend into deep nerd land here? Essentially the problem I'm having is that the script puts up text on the screen and I don't want it to. This annoys me. That's about it.
It's been so busy around here that even playing games on the new spiffy computer hasn't really been on the cards (even though I've dropped about 100 bucks on cut price games from steam and direct2drive to fill it with couldnt-run-this-with-all-the bells-on before goodies. The only game I've played through on it was Saint's Row 2 (bueno) so I could see how it all came down.
I've watched a few movies here and there, but I'm so busy... you know what it's like. I get to the PC at night and I'm sick of the screen and can't be arsed.
I'm re-reading Transmetropolitan again, I can't get enough of Spider Jerusalem I guess.
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Old Posts and Stolen Art
I'm not big on the DMCA and copyright claims in general; but I don't like people making money off of me or my work without saying "Thanks to Kevin, here it is" unless of course I sign something that says they don't have to attibute me for the work. Students for Bhopal and the rest of you, you didn't ask for permission to use "Dead Peasant Insurance" and I want credit for my work!
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Busy Days, Sleepy Evenings
Sleepy Cats - By NiteMayr
I started a new Job last week and am finding the transition to a work day that is mostly full to be exciting especially after the past few weeks of fairly empty days. As a result my evenings feel kind of unfulfilled as I don't get anything done (save cooking dinner or watching a movie). Additionally; the blog has been getting some work done, but no actual writing.
We'll see how things come out after I start working late nights in a few weeks.
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The Sun Shines on the End of the Work Day
The Sun Shines on the End of the Work Day, originally uploaded by NiteMayr.
Last night it was HOT in London. Hot and sweaty, the weather forecast stats that it will be even hotter tonight. It got hotter in Eugene, but I don't think it was ever so humid, even in the 90s.
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Some Advice for IT Types
"IT is at the heart of business these days and there are real opportunities now to have a career in IT which will ultimately lead to a position on the board."
If this is the case, why are so many IT jobs filled with people who have no idea what they are doing? I spoke to my share of IT reps from firms all over the Fortune 1000 and Fortune 50 that had no clue what they were doing, nor did they have any idea where they were going with their mandates. Often they had no plan or action plan.
One example really sticks out for me; a hardware changeover plan that had no "buffer" the IT rep wanted to replace an important firewall with another one. He felt assured that he could just replace the current device with a new and wholly different one if the new devide was configured correctly.
This was a bad plan for two reasons:
1) There was no fallback beyond dropping the old hardware in place.
2) The router was the MAIN ingress to their websites and mail systems. There were no external fallbacks or alternate sites for users to visit during the downtime. If the transition went BAD (new hardware fails and old device breaks during transition) there was no fallback.
I know, you're thinking: Kevin, what would you have done?
I would have published a new set of DNS records with a TTL of about 15 minutes. I would publish them a week before I made the transition and made sure my DNS server was not inside the new router. Once in place you would have 15 minutes of downtime while you performed the transiton to a new host for your website if something went wrong during the switch. That's fairly easy to deal with.
I like the idea of planning for downtime like that; you could even change the TTL on the DNS records back to 24 hours when you are done.
Here are some tips for outage planning
- Have a fallback plan for total failure:
If it is an internet enabled service that users need access to, publish DNS records that point to a "Server is down" page on the net (for web services) when the primary record(s) is/are down.
Keep offsite hard copies (by hard copies I mean stored on Hard disk or Tape)
Keep enough cash in the IT budget to buy server time on multiple hosts should short-term downtime become extended overtime.
Any server that is important enough to serve all your needs should have a clone on hand with all the same data, backed up every 6 to 12 hours (or less) so that if your primary server(s) go down a clone can go online in seconds.
- Announce the outage in as many ways possible. Email is never enough for big outages. Warn users in cloud writing if you think they will read it.
- When the outage is going to take a machine out of service forever, contact any old admins and/or users and determine if they have stored anything important on the box. You never know.
- Treat every outage as a potential crisis and be ready for complaints regardless of success or shortness of time.
- Confirm that all parts and plans are in order before the outage in underway, if at all possible create a schedule and checklist for the outage that creates a series of milestones and ETAs that can be delivered to end users and managers.
After all, you are the heart of the business when you are in IT, right?
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Non-IT Grads don't want IT Jobs
Just read this passage and wonder at it:
Non-IT graduates think a job in IT would be "boring," despite its good career prospects, according to the Career Development Organisation (CDO).
http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2008/06/24/231173/it-is-boring-say-graduates.htm
Read it again, I'll wait.
Okay, got it? It opens with "Non-IT Graduates" as if to say someone who went through school to get their MBA or Masters in Psychology would be interested or even qualified to fill an IT position. I think the article is grasping for the why not IT in the first place kind of feeling, but instead comes to a screeching halt right up front with that first line. I read it as "people who were never interested in IT think that IT jobs are boring" and you know what, they should not get into IT if they feel that way.
I'm fairly certain that there are a number of people in IT these days who got into it for the money; and through sheer personality have excelled. Good for them. It's kept down a few really smart people in the ranks because they don't have the social skills to impress the uppers, but maybe those types will be weeded out and the more focused geeks will rise to prominence.
Time will tell I guess.
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The Stacks of Beer
The Stacks of Beer, originally uploaded by NiteMayr.
Yeah, this is what I see on my way into work every day, the stacks, not the clouds. It's nice and sunny outside right now, also very green.
I was worried that I would be giving up all the green when I came down here to the City; I'm no nature lover, but I do like the trees and grass the come with nature. London has proven to be very green, excessively so. But like Kubla Khan, I find wisdom in excess and think that the tree lined streets are awesome and I go out of my way to drive down the back streets to stay among said streets.
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Visiting Manitoulin Island
From Wednesday through Friday Jen and I visited Manitoulin Island; in order to visit with the Guys at Manitoulin Transport.
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Smokers and Jokers
Whirlpool suspends 39 workers, says they lied about smoking - Yahoo! News
A Whirlpool Corp. factory in Evansville, Ind., has suspended 39 workers who signed insurance paperwork claiming they don't use tobacco and then were seen smoking or chewing tobacco on company property. Now, some could be fired for lying, company spokeswoman Debby Castrale said.
Whenever something like this happens I wonder where it'll all end. I actually applaud the company for their intestinal fortitude, I'd bet that the magic number for regulations on matters like this is 40 though. As in, if 40 people are let go there needs to be prior notice. Interesting, no?
Now I could go on an on about how heavy smokers make for a poor work environment (mostly due to the smell) but alot of people have bad BO or use heavy perfumes. This looks like (on it's face) a sneaky way to dismiss employees who could well be a drain on the company health plan. That being said, I'm seriously obese and could be looked upon in the same way.
The important question here is where these people given some form of warning or is this a surprise enforcement move?
Lewis Maltby, president of the National Workrights Institute, which
advocates for employee privacy, sees no problem with employers trying
to curb smoking. But he worries that the trend of cracking down on
employees' unhealthy behavior is extending beyond tobacco use."We shouldn't have to give employers complete control over our
private life so they can save a few dollars on medical care," he said.
This I agree upon, I have been compelled to sign agreements that affected my private life in the past and have declined to do so, as I could not be effective in my job at the time if I was forced to comply with the spirit and letter of these agreements. So I commiserate with the persons affected, up until they lie on their health insurance forms. In the States, you pay for health care, someone lying on those forms and hurting the premiums of their coworkers is not the way things should be.
This is one of those wedge issues where Universal Health Care removes the impetus on the company to enforce health mandates. Don't you think?
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Twitter Feed
- Check this video out -- Cee Lo Green - FUCK YOU (Official Video) http://t.co/HSWsV1g via @youtube 7 hrs ago
- Check this video out -- Cee Lo Green - Fuck You (Best Acoustic Cover!) by Danny Calise http://t.co/TmPobQx via @youtube 7 hrs ago
- I just unheard a song that was stuck in my head #unhearit http://t.co/BEOn8fZ 2 days ago
- Photo: Gwen Stacey checks out Spider-butt “are there spinnerets there or what” http://tumblr.com/xgah9ixa8 2 days ago
- Photo: Gwen Stacey has a nice Golf clap for ya http://tumblr.com/xgah9iuoh 2 days ago
- More updates...
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What the hell is going on here?
When all else Fails, play Blondie
What else can this guy do?
I make it a point not to whine here on the blog about work; it slips out on the twitter feed here and there; but it's taking a real heavy load of intestinal fortitude to keep from going all LiveJournal over some static at work.
When I was at my last employer it seemed every day that I was under the gun of probable unemployment; that feeling may have been engendered by my first manager telling his entire team in no uncertain terms that our jobs were about as solid as tech stocks in 2000. This was 1997, we had just fired 23 people from my team (23 of the 25 that where hired along with me oddly enough)
I saw people get dismissed over and over, whole sections of the firm vanishing in the name of keeping the business trim. I suppose at the upper levels; this was the way to do it. After what six major layoffs (rifs) and so on I never shook the "I'm next" feeling. It pervades my work even now.
Why don't others feel this way? Shouldn't we feel this way? This, THIS is what I fear, losing the chance to get back in there and doing stuff that I can do. Not unemployment, losing the ability to make it all work. Today I was spending some of my Sunday working out how to deploy Puppet to improve system configuration management; this is after working out some rescue functions, which leads down a rabbit hole that I don't want to follow...
[Image credit to Jamie Mckelvie, from Phonogram Singles Club]
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