Anti Social Media
I'll just say it: I don't like the so-called "social media" aspects of the current Internet. Maybe it's because I've been engaged in online communities for more than twenty years; maybe it's because I'm a misanthrope. I don't use -- nor do I have any interest in -- Digg, Facebook, LinkedIn, LiveJournal, MySpace, Reddit, or whatever other "social networking" sites are currently in vogue. I'm not particularly interested in meeting new people through these venues, and I'm extremely wary of the so-called "value" they provide. I have my blog, and I'm satisfied with it.
There is a very rigid limit to my capacity for continuous partial attention, so I am extremely conscious about adding new things to follow. I intentionally limit the number of email lists to which I subscribe. I'm very selective about the feeds I add to my news reader. I'm even more selective about who I follow on Twitter; and I refuse to participate in more than one microblogging solution; so Jaiku and Pownce and Tumblr and whatever else is out there are right out.
I recently attended the first Columbus TweetUp, at which Columbus Twitter users had an opportunity to meet one another face-to-face. I felt a bit like an odd-man-out at this gathering in part because many of the attendees seemed to know one another already; but mostly because I wasn't following any of them on Twitter, nor was I likely to do so. I'm simply not interested in reading the goings-on of a dozen or more people just because they happen to live in the same city as me. The (very) occasional gem of insight I might glean from following one or more of them would be almost instantly drowned out in the noise of constant updates and replies to one another.
Don't get me wrong: I'm glad that these folks find Twitter (and similar services) so useful. I'm glad that they've found a way to extend their network of contacts. It's just that for me, it's too overwhelming. Maybe it's the pessimist in me, but I often approach signing up to receive quantities of new information from the "coming back from vacation" point of view. When I come back from vacation, is this stuff going to overwhelm me? Am I going to simply delete huge swaths of this stuff if I get too far behind on it? If so, why am I paying attention to it to begin with? Or maybe I'm simply too mercenary about the matter, looking for what benefit their Twittering and blogging will provide to me. Or maybe I really am just anti-social and not particularly interested in what folks have to say if I don't have an existing meaningful connection to them in some capacity (which begs the question: how do I establish said meaningful relationships with new folks?).
At the TweetUp I did have a very nice conversation with Denise. This was in part due to the seating arrangements -- she was the only person near me who wasn't already engaged in conversation with someone else -- but it was also due to a variety of similarities we share. It was nice to make an acquaintance, and I even started following her on Twitter when I got back to my computer. Thankfully, she updates as infrequently as I do, so I'm not drowning in updates I'm uninterested in reading.
It's ironic that I'm so ambivalent about local technology users communicating with one another, but so enthusiastic about global communications and the wonderful experiences it creates.
Bosses
The current goings-on at a friend's place of employment, and the bad luck this friend seems to have with employers, has caused me to reflect upon my own employment history. When I think back, I realize I've had good bosses, and mostly good working environments.
My first real professional job after college was probably my worst. I was on my own in a small town in northern Ohio, working for a small company where everyone knew almost everyone else. I took the job because it was the first one offered to me, and I felt at the time that it was a good stepping stone to something better. In many ways it was: I learned a lot professionally and personally, but the job itself was remarkably unsatisfying. My boss was an interesting person, and I find myself having mixed opinions about that person now. I learned a lot, but I think the largest take-away from that experience was "what not to do". I do lament the fact that I didn't keep in touch with my peers after I left: they were a neat group of people, and I would like to be able to talk with them again some time.
After that, I moved back to Columbus and worked for the local branch of a national computer consulting company. A friend got me into the company, and we were put on the same assignment together for awhile. There was a lot of travel involved, which at the time I liked -- especially when I was put on an international project that took me throughout Europe! I earned my Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer certificate while working here, and I was excited about the doors that I thought that piece of paper would open. I was eager to start working on servers and advanced client networks, but my immediate supervisors were content to keep assigning me to simple desktop support contracts. I rarely interacted with my immediate supervisors, instead reporting to the assignment's project manager or client. It was from these gentlemen that I learned a lot about how to execute a successful project; the importance of a strong finish; and the value of teamwork.
The one strong memory I have of my direct supervisor at the time (I went through several, as the company cycled through management teams) was during a performance review. He used a scale of 1 through 4, much like an academic point system. He told me that he never ever gave anyone a four, because a four was perfection and no one was perfect. There's always room for improvement. I thought at the time -- and still think -- that it was pretty stupid to spend so much time explaining to me why I'd never get the best possible score. A better use of time would have been to talk to me about ways I could improve, and to celebrate what I had been doing well all along.
After the consulting company, I took a position at a small non-profit agency focusing on mental health for children. My job was to build a computer network for them, from top to bottom. It was, in many ways, a dream job. I got to select and implement the solutions I felt were most appropriate for the organization. Looking back, I see that many of my decisions were affected by hubris, and what I built, while functional, was not as good as it could have been. Nonetheless, I was very proud of the work I did there, and it was an exciting time for me. It was also very motivating to know that the work I did directly helped the mental health professionals provide long-term care to kids in crisis.
My boss at this organization was probably the most influential in terms of my professional development. Very early on in my time there, my boss explained to me that he wanted me to fail. I was shocked at first, but as the conversation unfolded, I learned what he meant. He wanted me to experiment, and try wacky things, and generally take risks in order to develop the best possible solution. Each failure I experienced was a lesson learned, and would result in that much better of a product at the end. If I got it all right the first time, I was either playing it too safe, or just getting lucky: neither of which would prepare me to deal with unexpected problems down the road. (I was reminded of this sage advice as I read J.K. Rowling's commencement address to Harvard.) My boss's job was to promote an environment in which it was safe for me to take risks and to fail.
My boss never once took credit for anything I did. He encouraged me to go home early after a couple of long days of work. He encouraged me to take long lunches (usually with him!) to brainstorm new ideas and look for ways to tackle long-standing problems. He supported me 100%. He was exactly the kind of boss I needed at that point in my life, and I'm eternally grateful that we got to work together for as long as we did.
After (almost) everything was put in place, it was agreed that we needed another person to help with the day-to-day support issues. We hired from within, and transitioned one of the clinical staff to an IT support role. I was made this person's supervisor. This was my first real experience with being a boss. Frankly, I was terrible at it. Even with a terrific role model to follow like my own boss, I was an ineffectual supervisor, a poor motivator, and worst of all not very patient. I'm not sure why the guy stuck around as long as he did, but he seemed to take it all in stride.
I was, unfortunately, let go from that organization. My boss and I had a great working relationship, but my relationship with the CEO of the organization was not as robust. (In fact, no one had a particularly positive working relationship with the CEO.) The CEO quickly hired a friend of his wife's to replace me. I stayed in contact with my former boss, meeting him for lunch on a monthly basis, and got updates about the goings-on since my departure. All the work I had done to build their network was ripped out and re-implemented from scratch by the new guy. That's pretty common in IT: it's easier to build it up your way than learn how your predecessor did things. Unfortunately for the organization, the transition was both expensive and complicated, and there was a major interruption in business continuity.
After several months on unemployment, I finally found another job. My first day was on September 12, 2001. As you might expect, things were more than a little hectic around the office, and it wasn't a particularly fun time to start a new job. I wasn't particularly thrilled about the specific job, but I was thrilled to be working again: unemployment sucked for me. This was probably the hardest job I had, because it was in an industry about which I knew nothing. I had to do an awful lot of on-the-job training while trying to keep operations up and running.
My boss was a programmer, who worked from his home several states away. He would fly into Columbus once every couple of months to meet with the users and management, and sometimes clients. He was an extremely challenging boss to work for, for me, because he was, without a doubt, one of the smartest people I've ever met. He would almost instantly see short-comings in solutions I proposed, and he constantly pushed me to provide better service than what I had done to date. It was also hard because the casual communication over lunch I had grown so used to at my last job was absent. Instead, we communicated most through email, and the occasional telephone call. I had to be very precise when describing my work to him, because he wasn't there day-to-day to see me doing it.
Although I was at times resentful, I grew professionally an awful lot under his supervision. Where my previous boss had helped me be a better person, this one helped me be a better employee, something which I absolutely needed. I regret that I let my attitude get in the way, and that my relationship with him was strained more than it needed to be. I liked him a lot as a person, and truthfully enjoyed working with him.
My current boss is very much a blend of my last two. He's demanding and driven, but balanced and supportive. We have a very positive working relationship, and we like each other personally, too. We share the same goals with respect to our jobs, and he helps me stay focused and on-task when I might otherwise wander off into less important projects. He protects me from a lot of the political goings-on, and ardently advocates for me and my counterpart at every opportunity.
I've been extremely fortunate to have such good bosses. I've learned a lot from each of them; and although I'm not yet ready to make the transition into any kind of supervisory capacity, I know I'll have a lot of excellent advice and experience on which to draw when I need it!
Swim trunks
I took the kids to the pool yesterday afternoon for some rest and relaxation. It's always remarkable to watch the transformation that occurs as the kids hit the water. All the hostility and snottiness they usually exhibit toward one another instantly evaporates, and they're suddenly the best of friends. This usually lasts two or three swim periods, so I always try to enjoy it as much as I can while it's happening.
The kids love to clamber onto my back, or hold my arms, as I move about the pool. We don't actually do anything in terms of structured play: we just splash each other, and spin and frolic. And it's absolutely delightful.
My personal favorite thing to do at the pool is to jump off the diving boards. I like to jump, dive, do cannonballs and suicides and anything that will make a big splash. The girls like to jump off the 16' platform. Last year I spent considerable energy coaching and coaxing the girls to do head-first dives off the 3' board. Tyler took to it pretty quickly, but as usual Tayler was extremely hesitant. Tyler managed a couple dozen dives by the end of the summer, but Tayler was still in single digits.
Yesterday as I waited for my turn on the board, I told Tayler "I'll do a flip if you do a dive." This was no idle jest: I was never able to flip as a kid, and probably only performed as many somersaults last year as Tayler had dives. Without any hesitation Tayler walked to the end of the board and dove in head-first. As Tayler swam to the ladder, I ran to the end of the board, bounced as high as I could into the air, and hurled my feet over my head. To my delight, I completed the flip and my feet hit the water first. Tayler and I shared a high five for our respective accomplishments.
After a few more dives off the 3' board, and some more splashing in the swim pool, I suggested that both Tayler and Tyler dive off the 10' board. This was a major challenge, as neither had done it before, but they both readily agreed. And to my extreme delight, both girls successfully executed near perfect dives! To celebrate, we all climbed the ladder to the 16' platform for a victory jump. It was at this time that I noticed a small tear in my swim trunks. It wasn't a big tear, and hardly threatening: the stitching along the side pocket had torn loose at one corner.
We made our jump from the platform, then retired to the swim pool for some floating and splashing. I joked with the kids that the rip in my suit was dangerously close to causing me much embarrassment, and they laughed heartily. Tayler revealed to me that Carina hated my swim trunks, claiming they were old and something -- I couldn't make out what she said, but it sounded an awful lot to me like "dorky".
Tyler said emphatically "Daddy, you should get new trunks with flowers!" I looked at her quizzically for a moment before saying "Tyler, I'm a boy". Tyler said quickly "I meant fire!"
I put the small tear in my trunks out of my mind, and continued to play with the kids and dive off the boards. I did a few more flips off the 3' board, and generally had a great time. After what turned out to be my last flip I checked my trunks again, and saw that the small rip on the pocket had not grown any. Then as I glanced at the other side of my shorts I was mortified: the entire seam from hip down was ripped open! I hastily told the girls it was time to pack up for the day, and they both gasped as they saw the reason, and then fell down laughing at my plight.
In truth it wasn't as bad as I had at first feared: the bottom hem held together, and there was little risk of accidentally exposing myself. Nonetheless, I tied my towel about my waist as we walked to the exit.
Now I need to go to the store to buy some new swim trunks with flowers. I mean fire!
Distributions
I've been using GNU/Linux as my primary operating system for many years. At my last job I used Microsoft Windows as my desktop operating system for about the first year, but was able to gradually convince my boss that I'd be more productive using GNU/Linux. When I started at OSU, I used Microsoft Windows for the first couple of months, because that's what I was given, before installing GNU/Linux onto my machine. On the whole, I do think I'm more productive using GNU/Linux as my desktop client: it's been super reliable for me, and largely problem free through all the upgrades I've performed.
When I first started using Linux, way back in the mid-1990s, I used Red Hat 5.2. Almost everyone I knew used Red Hat, except for a few show-offs who used Slackware. I dutifully upgraded to 6.0, and then 6.2, and then 7.0 and 8.0. Somewhere right around there, Red Hat decided to focus exclusively on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Like many disgruntled users, I decided that Red Hat was no longer the distribution for me, and I switched almost overnight to Debian. It was a rocky transition -- at the time the Debian way and the Red Hat way of doing the same tasks were very different, and I wasn't exactly an expert user. I managed to muddle through, though, and found myself liking Debian an awful lot. I stuck with Debian until I found Ubuntu.
I've been using Ubuntu on my computers exclusively ever since. I really like it. It offers all that I've grown to love from Debian with a more aggressive release cycle, so that I get more recent releases of software more often. I haven't had any real complaints about Ubuntu in all the time that I've been using it.
Until today.
At work we have a Microsoft Windows Active Directory. It is possible to join GNU/Linux clients to an Active Directory infrastructure, so that a user can use a single account to log onto both Windows and Linux client machines. This is important at work because we plan to dedicate one of our computing labs to Linux computers, but we don't want to unduly increase our administrative overhead. Using the Active Directory allows us to have a single user account for all our students, but still allow them to use the platform of their choice.
Until recently, my Linux workstation had been a standalone system to which I logged on using a local user account. After upgrading my workstation to Ubuntu 8.04, I joined it to the Active Directory so that I could log onto it using my domain account. In many ways, I think it's important that the IT support staff "walk the walk" by using the services they provide. This is an important sentiment that will surface again later in this post. Joining my machine to the domain wasn't terribly difficult, and I had quickly migrated all my data from my old standalone account to my domain account. Shortly thereafter, the trouble began.
While doing the normal things I do with my computer -- launching applications, opening files, browsing directories on my hard drive -- my system would spontaneously lose all of the theme configuration I had applied. It's somewhat of a challenge to accurately describe the problem to someone who hasn't used Linux. Basically, all the widgets and buttons on my desktop and in my applications would lose their style and revert to the ugly default. Worse, I was unable to change these settings back to the way I wanted them unless I logged out or rebooted the computer. Neither solution is acceptable. I discovered several other problems when this would happen: sometimes I would be unable to see the contents of my home directory! This would happen in the Nautilus graphical file manager, as well as in "File Open" dialog boxes. This was absolutely catastrophic: it meant I couldn't attach files to emails, or navigate to sub-directories in my home directory. (I could still access things from the command line, which was only a modest relief to the problem.)
I narrowed my problem down to the fact that the gnome-settings-daemon was failing. Searching revealed that a number of other people experienced the same problem, and a variety of solutions and work-arounds were put forward. I tried most of them, but had not lasting success: gnome-settings-daemon kept terminating, resulting in a mostly unusable desktop for me. I found, and commented upon, bug 138277, but no replies have been made. I started a thread on the Ubuntu forums, but it's seen no action yet. I readily accept that I may have done a poor job describing my problem in a way that folks can understand.
One troubleshooting step would be to perform a complete re-installation of Ubuntu 8.04. I had originally installed 6.10, and then upgraded to 7.04 and then 7.10 before finally upgrading to the latest 8.04. I'm not entirely keen on this, but it would help identify whether the problem is a glitch introduced during my upgrade, or whether it's a substantive problem with Ubuntu 8.04.
As I said previously, though, I think it's important for IT folks to walk the walk. In our computer labs, we won't be running Ubuntu. We'll be running Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop. Many of the scientific and engineering applications our students use are only available for Red Hat or SuSE. I suppose I could try CentOS, but our college has brokered a deal with Red Hat. We have plenty of available licenses for their offering, so that's what we'll use. I am strongly considering taking this opportunity to configure my workstation in an identical fashion as all the lab computers. This would be good practice, and would help me to provide better support to the labs because I'd be clued in to the particular nuances of the distribution. This has its own set of problems, as you might expect.
I admit that I've been spoiled by Ubuntu with fresh new versions of most software. Red Hat Enterprise Linux does not offer the same new versions of all software. For example, Red Hat still ships Firefox 1.5, whereas Ubuntu is now shipping Firefox 3 beta 5! This might be a non-issue, though: many of the servers and devices we have in our network (fiber channel switches, Ethernet switches, security cameras, IP KVM, etc) use Java applets served through a web page. Java applets do not run on 64-bit GNU/Linux systems. My system is a 64-bit system. I found it extremely annoying using Ubuntu to have to make a Remote Desktop connection to a Windows computer just to launch Microsoft Internet Explorer in order to execute a Java applet. So, if I install Red Hat, I could install the 32-bit version of a newer Firefox and enjoy native Java applets (and native Flash to boot! YouTube, I've missed you!).
The purpose of this post has been, primarily, to get myself to think about the pros and cons of using Ubuntu and Red Hat. Each has definite strengths and weaknesses, and neither is demonstrably superior for this situation. Switching back to Red Hat will invoke a bit of a learning curve, but I think it's probably the best choice for my work computer. Besides, if I take the time to re-install Ubuntu and the problems with gnome-settings-daemon persist I'll be installing Red Hat anyway!
NOLA
For our five year anniversary, Carina and I took a long weekend in New Orleans, Louisiana. We stayed at the Ursuline Guest House, nestled in the heart of the French Quarter. This was a wonderful place to stay, as it wasn't too close to all the raucousness of Bourbon Street, but it wasn't so far away that everything was a labor to reach. Bill, the owner, was a wonderful host, and we thoroughly enjoyed chatting with him over the complimentary wine he offered every night. I shared with Bill that were it not our anniversary trip I would have liked to have rented a car to just drive around to see some of the reality of post-Katrina life. Bill informed us that there is a bus tour offering precisely that experience in a safe, controlled way and encouraged us to take it. "We need your tax dollars," he said, "so you should see for yourself just how bad we need 'em!"
Thursday night, after two bottles of wine with Bill, we spent a lot of time and money enjoying all that Bourbon Street had to offer, and I paid for it all day Friday. We ventured out to see Jackson Square and St. Louis Cathedral, Cafe du Monde, and a few other major sites, but I spent the bulk of the day in the hotel room convalescing. Not exactly how I wanted to spend our romantic weekend.
Saturday morning we rode the street car out to the Garden District to look at the fancy houses. We stopped first at the cemetery and marveled at the age and number of occupants of some of the tombs.
We walked for a bit around the Garden District, but quickly tired in the heat and humidity. When we returned to the French Quarter we visited the aquarium for an easy-to-do air-conditioned activity. The albino alligator was absolutely stunning. Carina and I were convinced that it was a replica on display until the thing closed its mouth and moved its tail.
Re-energized, we took the ferry across the Mississippi River for a stroll around Historic Old Algiers. There's not much there outside of Mardi Gras World, which we decided to skip. We had a late lunch at Tout de Suite, a little cute diner that was horribly understaffed, and then rode the ferry back to the French Quarter. Upon Bill's recommendation we ate dinner at Coop's, and absolutely loved every morsel served to us.
Sunday morning I woke early and took a stroll throughout the French Quarter while Carina slept in. it was a very different experience to walk around the French Quarter at 7 AM, though I was hardly the only person up and about. As I walked up to Bourbon Street it was not entirely incongruous to see an ambulance passing one way and a street sweeper passing the other. Lots of people were hosing filth off the sidewalks of their establishments, and I passed a fair number of people jogging or walking their dogs. I only saw two or three obviously drunk people, though I did note that a number of street performers were sitting in the early morning shade with beers next to them.
I returned to the B&B in time to wake Carina for the swamp tour we had booked for the day. When looking at the available tour options, we elected for the swamp because it's the one thing we're unlikely to see anywhere else any time soon. Our guide, Captain Gerry, was an affable and articulate man who really made the trip worthwhile. He was clearly passionate about his homeland, and imparted on us his own deep sense of respect for mother nature. We learned the difference between a swamp and a marsh, an awful lot about alligators and cypress trees, and a little bit of Louisiana history.
Capt. Gerry surprised all of us when he threw marshmallows to an alligator swimming in the water. He calmly explained to us that he refused to throw meat, nor to use meat to attract alligators to the boat, and that they loved marshmallows! Even though there hadn't been a single recorded alligator attack against a human being in Louisiana for a long time, Gerry did not want to encourage the gators to associate human beings with meat or easy meals. While Gerry wasn't afraid of a lone gator, he was extremely concerned about the possibility of three or four gators investigating a tour boat that had been throwing meat to them: an alligator can launch its body more than halfway out of the water, and all it would take is one inquisitive -- never mind aggressive! -- gator to jump onto a boat to hurt a single passenger. We passed several other swamp tour boats operated by different companies, and we all shared Gerry's deep disappointment to watch the boat operators put hot dogs on sticks and splash them about in the water. Alas, it's not illegal, so there was nothing for us to do but feel glad that our guide was a bit more cautious about the matter.
We had po' boys for lunch at Johnny White's -- Carina had roast beef and I had oyster -- and then took a short nap back at the hotel. We joined Bill again for wine, and chatted comfortably for a bit. Bill helped us try to make reservations at K-Paul's (closed) and Nola's (booked), so we ended up eating at Galatoire's, a restaurant recommended to me by a co-worker before we left. The service was phenomenal. When we were seated, the host asked us if we had a server who usually took care of us, to which I responded no. "You will soon," he replied, and whisked away to seat someone else. He was right: if we ever go back to Galatoire's, I'll absolutely ask for Shawn to take care of us. The food was absolutely exquisite. Oysters Rockefeller and sauteed shrimp appetizers preceded the most delicious sirloin I can remember.
After dinner we strolled down Bourbon Street, in no particular rush and with no particular destination. It was fun to watch the city get crazy around us, but not to get swept up into that craziness. We stopped for a few drinks, and enjoyed holding one another's hand in quiet contentment as we casually made our way back to the Ursuline Guest House. Monday morning we left for home.
While we didn't do too much, I think we did just enough. We weren't hurried, and we didn't come home so exhausted that we needed a vacation from our vacation. We enjoyed one another's company, made some wonderful memories, and had plenty of opportunity to appreciate our free time. Several times both Carina and I did something of a double take as we experienced the liberation of realizing "Hey, we don't need to do anything at all. We're having fun just strolling along here. Let's enjoy doing this for a little longer."
My mom always encouraged me to view every trip as a reconnaissance mission for the next time I would go to that destination, and that advice has always served me well. This weekend Carina and I were able to do what we wanted to do, while taking notes for things to do when we visit New Orleans again. We'd love to spend a few days there with a few friends. Hopefully we can make that happen sooner, rather than later.