I write this from the Northbound Acela, returning home to Boston at the end of – I think – my third trip in as many weeks. Perhaps it’s the fourth. I’ve learned that it’s better to not spend too much time counting the little wounds,…
I see a lot of things in the world that could be better than they are. I’m not talking about the part where we will all get sick and weak and die eventually. That’s unavoidable. I’m talking about the crappy systems that we build for…
For the past six years or so, I’ve made a living as a consultant. Whenever I can, I work for scientists who use high performance computing. Sometimes I work for IT people who work with the scientists who use the abovementioned tech. Occasionally, I work…
I’m in Miami on work, helping these folks bring up a new compute server. They’re one of those truly interesting groups – a hundred years of plant research – 300 subspecies of mature mango tree on the campus – that sort of thing. I’ve been…
Conference call. 9 participants. Meeting starts. Then this gem: Tonya, you’re not on the call, right. Tonya? Conclusion – no – she was not on the call. I want my four minutes back.
Some of my customers are much, much cooler than others. Working for one of the cooler ones this week – in the data center. Data centers, for those of you who have not had the pleasure, tend to be cold and windy places with ambient…
I fill something of a leadership role in my company – and I find myself re-inventing a lot of wheels. My stock line is that in another few years I’ll have re-discovered everything that they tell you on the first day of MBA school. I’m…
Vignette 1 I spend the morning stomping the stupid out of several prospective plans. Stomp stomp stomp. At one point I was heard to say, “look, don’t imagine that you can hurt my feelings here. We’re talking about technology and I’m pretty sure I’m right.…
If anyone was wondering why I’ve been missing from LJ (hello? LJ?) it’s because I’m down in VA again – absolutely flat out for one one my favorite customers. Thats “flat out,” like the awesome hillbilly racing game that technolope showed me. We’re standing up…
So I’m on the road again – but to a familiar place (Atlanta). I am, however, doing an unfamiliar dance. I appear to have lost lock and allowed five (ten? fifteen?) years to pass. Perhaps it was more. This is not my beautiful house –…