blog bloggity

Where has the time gone?

Fri, 7 Aug 2009 10:41:20 -0700

Like many of my friends who blog, I have been very bad in my attempt to keep a blog. :P

Well, um. I have been keeping in touch with Facebook. But that’s not quite the same as having an active soapbox.

For those of you who only follow me this way, I’m sorry.

This year has flown by. I’m much more comfortable in my job and it’s still fun and working well. I’m more impressed by KACE as a company and by our products with each new release. The company is doing well and since I’ve been there seems to have just about doubled in size of employees. Not bad in these tumultuous times. We’re even hiring now, so if you, or some you know wants to sell, support or do IT for us, let me know.

The home front has been pretty good, but I have several projects that I haven’t been able to afford the time or money to do.

MacWorld 2009

Mon, 5 Jan 2009 08:19:48 -0800

So, I won’t be at MacWorld this week. I don’t have time for it after taking the holidays off. I have many, many very fond memories of roaming around Moscone and its environs over the last, um, many, years. How many? Well, I was enough of a regular that my son’s birth, who’s 16th birthday is tomorrow, did not prevent me from going that year. I’ve missed a few over the last 20, but attended more than I’ve missed by a long shot.

Will I miss it? Yes, but mostly because I’ll miss the social aspects of it. Seeing old friends and co-workers, attending the Netter’s Dinner, Your Mac Life’s bash and other late night events. The technical aspects that I’ll miss are trolling the vendor booths for gems. Every year I find at least one small vendor who has a great idea.

What won’t I miss? The sore feet and the ton of crap that I pick up and then (mostly) recycle.

On a related note, based on this press release, I wonder if Steve is going to start eating animal protein...

Hopefully I’ll figure out a way to attend WWDC.

Oh dear, those poor queers!

Fri, 7 Nov 2008 20:15:35 -0800

Like many of my fellow bloggers (Karl, Bob, etc.) I am astounded and ashamed by the election results.

I am elated that Barack Obama has been elected.

I am dismayed that Prop. 8 was passed.

making mocha

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 14:01:10 -0700

I made a whole page dedicated to this rather than posting it here. If that’s the wrong way to go, I’ll gladly move it here. clicky cliky below.

Making Mocha

FIRE!

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:11:42 -0700

We’re ok, and safe. Our cats, dogs and chickens (4 out of 5) made it and we’re staying with friends on the West Side in Santa Cruz.

OK, so serendipity saved my animals.On Tuesday afternoon, Shawn left the headlights on her van on and her battery didn’t like it. So on Wednesday morning we called AAA and, after some confusion, they sent out a very nice guy to jump the car (my Prius isn’t very good at jumpstarting...) Shawn had a very busy day planned with Devin having final exams and rehearsal for his play (which opens Friday) and Rory had Aikido. But since the rehearsal and Aikido were later in the day and the high school let out just after noon, they went off in the Prius and were going to go see the new Indiana Jones movie.

So, I stayed home to work from home. Which I did. Spending a bunch of time on the phone....

So, around 3:30, our friend Christa calls and says, “There is a fire on Martin Road, is it near your house?” I get up and look outside, and sure enough, there is a column of smoke rising from about a quarter mile up the road! I quickly send an IM to my boss that said “o shit, there is a fire near my house! ttyl”

Then I called Shawn’s cell and Devin’s cell and left them messages (they were at the movies!)

I started running around the house grabbing the stuff that you always think about grabbing when your house is in danger.

Note: If you don’t have a list, stop reading this and at least start one...

Why did we have one? Well, we had received an email from Shawn’s grandmother who had asked us if we were ready for fire season... she had sent it Tuesday night! Did I use the list? No, but I had it pretty fresh in my mind.

The rest of the time in the house went like this:
Portable phone in pocket (cell phones don’t work at home) I start scrambling.
Animals! Cats into the dog crate, grab the cat food, go down to van and make sure it starts, look up at smoke cloud... take back seat out of van and drop by the side of the driveway... dogs are ok in the yard... grab the laptop computers, put cargo box on top of van
--phone rings-my mom, the first of many phone calls--
grab duffle bag and shove recent laundry load into it
--phone rings-our friends Lisa & Lori, they’re headed up--
Sewing machines, photo albums,
--phone rings-my sister, who lives in town--
grab hand-made heirlooms,
--phone rings-my neighbor; they’re at the beach but headed home, I promise to break into their house and rescue their mini-dogs if needed--
--phone rings-Shawn! They’re out of the movie and headed home--
Shawn’s book that she’s writing, changes of clothes, shoes, start thinking about how to rescue chickens.
--phone rings-Sarah, one of Devin’s friends. He’s calling folks...
Dog food bin, Lisa & Lori arrive! (that was fast!) They’ve spoken with Shawn and have their orders. I direct them toward photo albums and the sewing room.
I grab our camera ad snap a few pictures, some of the smoke and some of the inside of the house.

Grab a plastic storage box, dump out the contents into the garage and go get the chickens. I put hay in the box and dump a bunch of feed on to the hay. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 chickens. Decide that there isn’t room for their water (smaller bowls would get dumped). Shove them into the van.
A few minutes later Devin jogs up tot he house. The road was closed and he had to run in.

Then Natalie jogs up. Lisa, Natalie’s mom, is watering the backside of the house and the roof.

I start worrying about how to get Devin & Natalie into the car.

We notice that the wind has shifted and ash is beginning to fall around the house and cars. uh oh... Clear out the house & let’s go.

Just as we’re pulling out and seeing that the neighbors did make it and they;re doggies are ok, Devin yells out “There’s Rory!” he’s running after the van! Ye gods!

Shawn had gotten a lift from someone and had driven around the back way somehow to get to the house. Back up the van. Shawn goes into the house and we somehow get more stuff into the van. Then we got out of there down to the west side of town, where we remain.

I’ll try to up date as I can. Thanks for all the good thoughts!

We’ve been checking various sites online. http://www.kron4.com seems to have the best stream of information. Looking at the CalFire site, it looks like our house is ok, but the fire line is so close we can’t tell. They have a map too, but it’s from 11-Jun. Here is a Google Map of the area with some fire data on it.

Jeff Shawn Devin & Rory (and the animals too)

Acceptable Use?

Mon, 5 May 2008 13:41:12 -0700

I don’t know if you’ve seen AT&T’s “Terms of Service & Acceptable Use Policy”, but it’s a doozy. I was in a strip mall and used my iPhone to check something and saw that AT&T had a wi-fi spot nearby. I joined it and then went to Safari to browse around and this monster came up... It was the link above, only it had a Blue and orange background with blue, centered text. On that little iPhone screen it went on forever (took a few minutes to load too). It goes on and on...

I don’t qualify for the “Free” service because I’m not already paying them for my internet connection at home. (How is that free?) Link to Offerings comparison

Whew. All that reading and then I can’t even use the service.

Maker Faire

Mon, 5 May 2008 12:42:19 -0700

Did you go? I saw a few friends there, but I know I missed a few too.

Where else can you find dozens of Utili-kilts and corsets in action, Bike powered music, a see-through pinball machine, Adam Savage’s movie prop reproductions, battle bots, flaming sculpture, giant lightning generators, steampunk bands (and fans), glue, Diet Coke & Mentos demonstrations, power-tool racing, 144th scale battleships in battle, art cars, Wall•E, Exploratorium booths, lego, and so much more? Not even Burning Man has all this.

A great set of Pictures from Laughing Squid

We have a bunch of pictures (I think I have one of everything I mentioned) and I’m waiting for Shawn to post first.

Working conditions

Thu, 1 May 2008 13:27:49 -0700

OK, so I’ve been at KACE for a week and a half (already got my first paycheck too!). It is very interesting for several reasons. First it’s a small company. Not only are there less than 100 people, most of the engineering staff is remote, so on the crowded days there are only about 30 people at HQ. On Fridays, it seems like half of those are telecommuting. The support team is in an office by itself and at full capacity there are eleven of us (last Friday there were three of us.)

The second reason that it’s interesting is that I had never used the product prior to being hired. Now I’ve got to learn the product and learn how to deliver training sessions on it. The current “Body of Knowledge” resides in my boss’s cerebral cortex and it’s my job to pull it out. I’m documenting the heck out of it in the process, which I hope will be useful as the group grows.

A bonus about the situation as a whole is that KACE got its latest round of funding not too long ago and the Engineering team switched almost entirely to Macs. This has two benefits to me. I’m a Mac guy (duh) and I can try out some non-apple solutions.

Going in, I knew I was going to have a Mac system (it is one of the benefits to my team that I’m a MacDude. Expertise and all that.) so when I got handed a MacBook Pro the first day I was happy. Then I was asked what keyboard and mouse I wanted with that...

At Apple it was a matter of which Apple keyboards or mice we had laying around. (White or black? Bluetooth, go buy it yourself; the store is in IL1). I had bought my own mice because the default Apple Mice (even the mighty mouse) just don’t fit my hands well. The big, hefty Logitech mice work much better.

So the IT guy here sends me a list of Bluetooth keyboards and Mice. Research starts! OK, so Logitech has killer mice, but their Mac support has waned over the last few years, and in fact, their new Logitech Cotrol Center (LCC 2.4) breaks things (specifically Growl). Mircosoft has some nice keyboard/mouse bundles, but nothing super. The new Apple keyboards are slim, but the Bluetooth model comes with out a number pad and there are some reports of it losing/skipping characters. A trip to Fry’s results in some actual feel and mock test typing (they’re not hooked up to anything). I’ve seen the Tactile keyboard and it’s nifty, but I’m not that hard core and it’s too noisy.

So the next day I inform Michal (our IT guy) that while I’d like to have Bluetooth because it would be cool, I should probably stick with a regular, wired Apple Keyboard and a Logitech MX Revolution Mouse (wireless, but RF with a USB dongle.)

He brought by an Apple aluminum keyboard and a bluetooth travel mouse (to use temporarily). Then, the next day he shows up with a Logitech diNovo Edge keyboard and a Logitech Cordless Desktop MX 5500 Revolution keyboard/mouse combo kit. OMG. Now I had found the MX 5500 and discounted it because the keyboard not only has a bunch of buttons that are not supported on the Mac, but it also has a freaking LCD screen for keeping track of what song you’re playing, incoming messages, and the calculator output. Sheesh. He said, no just take out the mouse and use the diNovo Edge with it, they’re both BlueTooth. O.o Wow, an MX Rtevolution mouse that was bluetooth! Now I’ve got the wireless solution... And they look great.

I’m getting a new chair soon, the one I have hurts my ass.

And the winner is...

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 08:41:52 -0700

I accepted an job offer from KACE Networks, Inc. (I think that they capitalize by default). I’ll be joining their team and helping their customers learn all about how to use their products (the KBOX 1000 and the KBOX 2000). That’s right, I’m going to be a trainer.

The cool thing is that their training is virtual. It happens remotely via a conference bridge and screen sharing. That is, over the web and a phone link. This means that once I get up to speed on things, I will be able to work at least some of the time from home. In the meantime, I commute again.

I find it interesting that this time, the adage, “it’s not what you know, but who you know.” worked out. I met my new boss at a board game night last fall at my son’s girlfriend’s mother’s house. We played Ticket To Ride, Carcassonne Hunters & Gatherers, and Fluxx, among others. During the course of the evening, we talked about many things. He lives in Half Moon Bay and during the normal commute conversations and commiserations, he told me he worked from home about three days a week. Nice!

Then, the next time I saw him, again at the same place for another game day, it was New Years Day. We had more time together and I learned that I can’t Boggle very well. During the day I learned that KACE’s training group was being taxed and would need to hire at least one person.

So, what does KACE do? Can I buy stock (I have a pretty good track record)?

KACE makes an “appliance” that is a self contained Systems Management System. That is not as redundant as it sounds. Basically, the KBOX 1000 is a server box that keeps track of the other computers on a network (or several networks). The KBOX 2000 is for deploying systems and managing images of those systems.

My start date is next Monday, April 21. (I was hoping to start on the first, so I could send out an April Fool’s joke.

Yums!

Mon, 7 Apr 2008 15:58:06 -0700

It starts with our cast aluminum griddle. Add Sourdough bread, pastrami, butter and some mustard. In a few minutes you get warm, filling food for lunch.