The Sysadmin's Wiki and the Advertising Executive's Rolodex

I've been pondering this a little, but I'm not sure where it belongs.  It's in my blog backlog, though, so here it lives.  I worked in advertising for a short while and noticed some fun quirks of the industry.  ("Worked" in the industry?  Hah!  Actually, I was answering phones.)

You see, executives had a rolodex on their desk, that they protected like a vital organ.  And it *was* a vital organ -- the contacts in there were "theirs," and made the executive uniquely valuable.  When an executive quit, or was fired, the first thing they did was grab their rolodex.  Only then would they make sure they had trivialities such as car keys or their wallet.

Sysadmins have an analogue ... our wiki pages.  But they're typically hosted on an internal company server, readable by the rest of the team.  And then, some sysadmins refuse to post information to the wiki, guarding it like their "rolodex."  They don't say as much, but you know which ones are trying to stay valuable by not spreading tribal knowledge.

How similar are these?  Sysadmins and ad-people have mostly opposite attitudes towards the information that makes them valuable, but the analogy itself might hold water.  Has there been a change in the advertising field, as companies have moved to shared, server-based customer relationship systems that the corporation owns?  I wouldn't dream of hoarding my information, and I think *that* makes me uniquely valuable ... so am I "right" or just used to having the corporation "own" my information?  I wonder.

Would You Do Your Job for Free?

This is one of those standard questions that life-career-touchy-feely people like to ask you to consider.  "Would you do your job for free?"  So I considered it.  Yes, I actually would do it for free.  It's got fun systems puzzles, new stuff to learn, customers that I can please.  When it's going well, it's really totally what I'm about.  They *do* pay me, which reflects my time and talents .. and I provide them a measurable value in return.  If time and value balance each other equally, it actually is sorta "free."

Then I considered the broader picture.  If I *was* doing this job for free, I'd be much more honest about how much I can get done in a day.  I'd integrate my personal life a little more into the job, too, spending a little time seeing what value my hobbies can add to the workplace.  And I'd stop living under the illusion that "I'm lucky to even have a job."  I like these people, I add real value, it's rewarding to me, we need each other.

Gotta ponder this some more..  In the midst of chaos and scarcity, it's nice to remember how much I enjoy what I do.  It's nice to think about what I give freely, rather than what "the man" is taking.

Introducing HTML 5

I just finished off my second computer book in as many weeks, Introducing HTML 5, this time.  Interesting stuff, like the Python book before it, but didn't really get me itching to dive in and create anything, like the Python book before it.  Meh.  Maybe next one -- I'll just have to keep reading.

What next?  Maybe a quick trip into the land of big data.  Or perhaps something more crafty ... dunno what.  I wonder if I should find something about establishing non-profits and get a hackerspace started.  Something's gotta hook me ... can't wait to see what.

Learning Python (Fourth Edition)

Well, I'm only two chapters in to Learning Python, but I'm finding it very interesting. (Happily, Mac OS X has version 2.6, these days.) I picked python partially because Google uses it so extensively -- but it also seems to be handy in general.  I just keep seeing it everywhere.

When I started learning perl, ages ago, it really opened up a lot of new intellectual opportunities for me.  With perl, if I had a text stream, I could parse and extract from it -- and everything was text then!  I'm hoping Python will be an "enabling" kind of thing like that too, but up to date for the now.  Here goes....

My Diagram 17

It has come to my attention that my diagram of career and washed-up dreamerness wasn't entirely legible. So, I took the photo and traced it in OmniGraffle on my iPad. Here's one that's totally readable, at least if you click to zoom in.

Some things I notice:  "user evangelist" and "tech evangelist" are adjacent, and point at each other.  Also, I've specifically made "new tech discoverer" its own bubble -- it's one of my favorite things to do, along with sharing my discoveries.  The "architect" and "data miner" bubbles don't really tickle me the way they did when I first drew this; dunno why.  "Teacher" is at an interesting intersection.

Reading my own mind-maps is kinda like throwing tarot cards.  I just talk bullshit until the customer starts nodding their head.

The blocks in the lower left are prerequisites, of a sort.  My dream job/life/whatnot involves either a "volcano lair," or some sort of intellectual "salon."  Actually, this is probably why hackerspaces appeal to me.  (See also: 'fricken lasers.')

Finally, I'm not sure of the purpose of the "monkey line" in the bottom right, other than to delineate between things that are helpful and unhelpful.  And of course, they're likely to turn out to be just a "pot" that calls the "kettle" black.

Please be careful; the monkeys bite.

Diagram of Career and Washed-Up-Dreamer-ness

I was talking with my friend justkristin, the other day, and we were chatting about dream jobs, dream fame, and nightmares. Since there's nothing like a whiteboard to make your junk look official, we drew some stuff. Here's what we came up with.  I think it's important to note that "volcano lair" isn't just in the "want" column -- it's a "must have."

What's my "Disruptive Skill?"

An IEEE newsletter pointed me at a great Harvard Business Review post by Whitney Johnson, that discusses the idea of a "disruptive skill."  Why and how do you beat the competition?  And why is it unique to you?  I'd like to be a cross-pollinator -- a modern day Doc Ricketts, Doc Brown, or Doctor Demento.  Sometimes your *weird* skills are the most valuable.

Borrowing Icons for Presentations

I got to present an introduction to virtualization, for the project management group at my work.  Putting it together (keynote on iPad, believe it or not) I needed some clear illustrations of computers and things.  I ended up using icons from the Gnome "tango" interface.  And I borrowed another one or two from KDE.  If you have do technical presentations to non-technical people, they're both great sources of art to borrow.





Oh, and since I'm the official "anti establishment on principle" guy on the team, I ended the presentation with Mark Goetz' awesome powerpoint public service announcement.

The Index Card Trick

Every day you have an index card (Mac OS Stickies note) with the five things you're gonna that day. My lists are things like "load OS on blahblah" or "do draft project plan for froofroo" -- real accomplishments, not just fiddly bits. But I'm really feeling like I'm getting a lot done, with just five each day. So I figured maybe my friends might want to try.

It's especially nice because five things is totally doable. Or you know exactly what got in the way. It's not a big critical path analysis on some monolithic project plan -- just five things. It's really working for me.

Oddly, some folks who have no idea that I do this, seem to understand what I mean when I say "okay, I'm putting that on my index card for tomorrow." Maybe it just sounds official.

Learning Basic HTML

Kris is getting into the innards of social networks, lately, and she wants to know some HTML. Even though I use dreamweaver for my day-to-day junk, I switch in and out of code-view. And here on blogger, I enter text in the WYSIWYG view, but I'll switch over to the HTML mode if something isn't looking how I like.

A little HTML is very useful. But damned if you can find a simple primer on the web that gives you just enough to understand code, tweak it a little bit, and know what pieces to copy and paste when you wanna borrow something from somewhere else. And she really doesn't need an O'Reilly book.

Closest I could come was this simple page from Philip Greenspun. And maybe skim over this page and its neighbor. Anyone got a better one?

Workaday

Yep. That's what a handful of Dual Shock controllers looks like.  Bet I'd lose my grip if they all rumbled, though.

Personal Branding

Magically, our netapp sales rep managed to perfectly match her outfit to her Starbucks beverage. Look closely to see her bracelet, which is the same color as the green straw in the drink. Now *that's* personal identification with a brand.

Short Slices of Focus

Every week I have a recurring meeting with a department that only shows up for the meeting when they need something. So every week I get this wonderful fifteen minute break, in a quiet conference room, where I can do whatever I like. Maybe some day I'll actually have a desk this big, in an office this size, with these minimal distractions. Focus is nice. Maybe I should try sequestering myself for ten minutes here or there as part of my official routine.

White Rabbit

I'm tired of running late, and it's been my habit lately. Gonna get a grip on this. So far this week I'm running 100% on-time, but I'd like to get myself running a little early, since it's nice to arrive and still have time to compose and orient myself.

Career Development

This is the head of a Netapp Filer, without its brain. Its partner has taken over the cluster and the customers have no idea one half is down. I'm adding a fibre card without any downtime. This is pretty kewl stuff!

Pondering

I have no idea why the appeal to me, but I seem to enjoy the fields of HPC and Media/Entertainment industries. I could try one as my next career. Maybe it's the sheer volume of data they deal with ... or that they're creating things ... dunno. Or it could be the scientists and artists involved. I wonder. Maybe it's just that both play with "what ifs" and visualize them.

New Guy!

The new guy started, today! There's been a really good O'Reilly book on my desk about Windows 2008 Server administration, and it's really interesting stuff, and a good read, but I am *oh* so glad our new Señor Windows Admin started today. It's nice to learn things because you wanna help out, rather than being on a crash course.

Tyranny of Process

I'm so meticulous about how I deploy systems and get things done, and yet I can't stand "official processes" for some reason. Odd. It's been on my mind since reading this blog post.

Travel

I have the word "travel" somewhere on my doodley-professional-development thing .. or "travel more." That's what I'm doing this week, I've been babysitting some installation techs who are putting in a bunch of disks. They aren't being as tidy or prompt as I'd like .. but you know my definition of "tidy."

There's something about business travel that seems to be beneficial to my professional development, but I don't know exactly what. Two things come to mind though. One is that when I travel I've got just one computer and just one book and some minor accoutrements ... which focuses me. The other is that travel exposes me to how *other* people do stuff in other places ... for instance the surfer vibe is absent in tech up here in LA, but so is the geek (I do this for fun) vibe.

More travel seems like a good idea, at least when it's just a couple days here or there.

Equinix El Segundo, Day Two

I have no idea why some colo employees refer to me as "mister clean."