Are you laser-focused on being wildly successful? April 16, 2007
Posted by Phillip in : geek , 3 commentsOk. So I’m not really going to write a motivational blog posting. My intention is to whine and complain about how much I hear these business buzzwords. They are prevalent on conference calls, in slide decks and lately even in common conversation. Why is that? I remember some years ago when “ecosystem” and “synergy” were big. Why is it that execs and management-type folks grab on to these words and throw them around like they mean something.
Is it that they actually believe that “holistic ecosystem of heuristic technology” means something to the people that are designing & deploying solutions? My guess is no. I think that it’s easier to say something when you say nothing at all. I have even caught myself doing it.. I was speaking with a friend last week and I was talking about how XYZ software would drive environmental enablement for technology ABC. I literally had to stop myself and back the truck up. Was I really saying this? What has 8 years in the IT industry done to me?
It started long before I came to work at Novell. Even while I was at Rackspace I realized it — no matter what position you are in, to some extent, you have to be a sales guy. At Rackspace, I was a Linux Engineer in IT, but when I went into meetings to convince managers and other techs that the solution I designed was the end-all-be-all, I had to sell to them. So what does it mean? Am I getting more salesie then techie? I don’t think so — I may have “extended” my vocabulary a bit, but I can still troubleshoot like mad-man and design a killer infrastructure. ;-)
What’s new? March 15, 2007
Posted by Phillip in : geek , add a commentOnce again, it’s been a while since I have made any posts on my blog that are worth reading. I have been head-down with work lately and it’s consuming all of my time. As for “what’s new?”, well… not a whole lot. I’ve officially been with my new employer for 7 months now and I’m still digging it. We are still trying to fill an open spot for a linux support engineer. Until we fill that, I am helping out in that capacity.
I’ve learned a fairly significant amount about AutoYaST in the last 7 months, one particular customer I work with uses it heavily in a very customized environment. I recently had the pleasure of converting the AY profiles to be compliant with the SLES 10 dtd. It’s worth noting that if you learn a lot about AY, you learn a lot about XML also. I have done some XML work in my previous life, but all related to Identity Management. I haven’t done as much identity management work recently, and I have to admit I miss it terribly. Somehow or another, I ended up being really “into” the whole directory services / IdM thing. This will probably sound odd to some people, but for me, directory services is fun! I’m not going to fret too much though, my Linux skills are paying the bills and I still love what I do, so there is no love lost. I’m also planning on taking a class on our soon-to-be-released Identity Manager 3.5 product, that will be a blast!
In addition to my pure Linux work, I have been working pretty heavily with our resource management product, ZENworks Linux Management. This is YANPTUXML (yet another novell product that uses XML).In additon to XML, there is a directory services (eDirectory) component and a database (Postgres or Oracle) component. Toss in tomcat and a file repository and you have a linux platform management architecture. My first exposure to ZLM was at Rackspace. I must say that I really enjoy working with this product. As is the case with any software, you have to learn the ins and outs, but once you do, it can be a life-saver. My main focus lately has been working with the next iteration of the product, which is currently in beta. I (along with a score of other people) have been tuning the different components (postgres, eDirectory) in order to maximize scalability in enterprise deployments. I am sure this will all end up in a white paper eventually.
What else? Well, I am headed off to BrainShare next week. For those of you who don’t know, BrainShare is a week-long technical conference that is sponsored by Novell. It features technical training on all of our products. This is my first time going so I am pretty excited! If I remember, I will post some pictures with my presently non-existent Flickr account.
misc February 12, 2007
Posted by Phillip in : geek , add a commentDear asshole that keeps spamming my blog,
fu
kthx,
phillip
catch-up post
Posted by Phillip in : geek , add a commentIt’s Monday morning and I am back at home. I was in Los Angeles over the weekend working at SCaLE (Southern California Linux Expo) as part of my role at Novell. I had a pretty good time, I was basically a booth babe. While at the show I saw my buddy Tarus from the OpenNMS project. Oddly enough, OpenNMS was really the only exhibitor (other than Google) to have booth babes.
I also got to hang out with my buddy David. That was a blast. I won’t give too many details, but let’s just say it involved some drunken vegans and a megaphone. I need to get some work done now… more later.
blog heat January 8, 2007
Posted by Phillip in : geek , add a commentSo I recently took a lot of heat from a few (ok 1) of my avid readers that I blog about things that no one cares about. Fair enough. I understand there is a book out there that gives some blogging tips — if someone will send me the link to this, I will gladly give it a look-see. On the topic of what the hell have I done recently, let me think.
1. Went to Utah and almost killed Pouya with a snowmobile
2. Hung out in San Antonio with family & friends over Christmas
3. Work, work, work.
I guess out of all of those, the most interesting is how I almost ended someone. So picture this… A line of four people snowmobiling down a fairly narrow trail. Unnamed Utah-based associate in front, Texas Pouya (aka Roll), Texas Phil (aka Crash) and Wisconsin Tim. All was going well until we hit that last curve before the meadow. Not sure what happened with Paul, but his snowmobile rolled leaving it perpendicular to the trail. Since breaks really aren’t an option in that situation, I got the choice — Hit Paul or hit his sled. I chose the sled. Ouch! I flew off and somehow landed a foot from some trees. Paul was unharmed but the sleds had a little (OK, a lot) of damage. Tim posted the pictures HERE.
All and all, it was a fun day. No one was hurt and that’s what is important.
I like American better anway! December 4, 2006
Posted by Phillip in : travel , add a commentSo as I expected, my flight to SLC was canceled. I had a feeling when the pilot told us he was going to “reboot the plane” that I was in for Bad Things(TM). About 20 minutes after my previous post, they herded everyone off the plane and told us the flight was canceled. No problem right? Just go reschedule with Delta. So I walk my happy rear-end back to the ticketing desk and an agent tells me that my flight has been rescheduled for 9:00 AM with the same flight number. AWESOME! I walk back through security and end up back at the same gate where the agent tells me that the flight was not rescheduled and that the Delta folks are WRONG! This is a problem. The next flight leaves at 4:20 PM and my class starts at 1:00 PM (MST). Luckily, I have the benefit of having a whole department of travel agents at my disposal. With little-to-no effort, I get my tickets for Delta refunded and confirmed on an American Airlines flight to SLC. After running, yes running, through the Austin airport I arrive at the gate and slip through. After a very tight connection in DFW, I am on my way to sunny (cold, but sunny) Salt Lake. After that, all things just fell into place. Somehow, my luggage made it. My car is ready and it even has the navigation system. I pulled into the parking garage, walked down to the Novell office and sat in my chair just in time for class.
I love it when a plan comes together. Let’s just hope my flight hope is better.