Jim's Ramblings - Technology

Monty leaves Sun

nospam@example.com (Jim Jagielski) — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 09:16:54 -0400

Valleywag reports that Monty has decided to leave Sun (and MySQL)...

Wow... and yet, not totally unexpected, imo.

Telecommuting

nospam@example.com (Jim Jagielski) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 08:36:31 -0400

It's no real surprise that the US economy is spiraling down the crapper. Prices for everything has gone up and wages have dropped and/or stagnated. The biggest increase (and impact both to the economy as well as to each individual person) has been in the cost of energy. With gasoline prices above $4 a gallon, I don't know of anyone who isn't significantly changing their driving habits.

But for the most part, there is one "habit" that is very very hard to change, even when you really want to. It's the drive back and forth to work. Mass transit in the vast majority of the areas around the US is a joke and although people would love to use it, it's not a viable alternative. You would think that companies and businesses would be smart, realize the pain and seriously look at such obvious alternatives as compressed work weeks or telecommuting (for the benefit of the employees, the economy and the global climate).

But no.

Except for some rare exceptions, the management of most companies agree that it will result in significant savings and benefits, but still refuse to offer the option. After all, we all know how devious and untrustworthy employees are. You need the watchful and ethical eyes of management on them at all times, to ensure that they do their jobs. I hope readers appreciate the sarcasm.

What really got me going about this topic was an articles in today's Baltimore Sun about this very issue. It appears that one county government actually has a flexible workweek option available for employees (including compressed), but they *actively discourage people from using it*! A spokesman states, "We're comfortable where we are." Yeah, I bet you are, but what about the employees? What a joke.

Make no mistake, of course. There are some positions where telecommuting (my favorite alternative) does not make sense. But if you are in front of a computer terminal for most of the day, either as programmer, developer, designer, administrator, accountant, etc... then there is really no valid reason why you cannot do a lot of your work from home. Heck, people bring work home all the time, to "catch up."

When will the powers that be get smart enough to realize that the days of 9-5, Monday-Friday, in the office are on their way out. We, as a society, can no longer afford such old-fashioned concepts.

Disclosure: I have been lucky enough to be able to have telecommuted for several years now... My past and present employer see the obvious value and benefits of the arrangement. Of course, one never knows what the future will bring...

Quick Links

nospam@example.com (Jim Jagielski) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 07:36:28 -0400

Some interesting news/links:

TLD Explosion

nospam@example.com (Jim Jagielski) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 08:55:05 -0400

Oh joy. ICANN has decided to accept an explosion in the number of TLDs.

The reason, of course, should be obvious: money. Now even more people, companies and organizations will be obtaining these new TLDs to protect their marks or, more than likely, grab them so to be able to sell them to others.

I realize I'm old. I recall a time when obtaining a domain name actually required some justification. For example, you couldn't just "grab" a .org; you had to actually show you were a non-profit. If you were an ISP, you were allowed a .net, unless you could prove that your business was more "commercial" and thus be allowed a .com.

This maintained some sense of sanity and consistency in domain names. Now it's all catch as catch can. And all in the name of cashing in, even more, with this whole Internet thingie.

Undependable Power Supply

nospam@example.com (Jim Jagielski) — Tue, 13 May 2008 15:41:21 -0400

Through the years, I've used lots and lots of UPSs. Lots.

I have never had such troubles as I have had with the Cyber Power units. They are basically worthless. They have a lifetime of maybe 1 year (with basically NO usage at all... Maybe a total of 3 cycles, down to only say 75% capacity) and fail without warning. Power hiccup and they simply die. You plug 'em back in, run the diagnostic tests and "Lordy Lordy All is in perfect operating condition!"... unless, of course, you unplug the unit from the wall at which point it will go belly up and die with nary a whimper.

I can see UPSs failing... it happens, sure. But with every other UPS type I've ever used I've gotten advance notice when the unit is starting to go south. Not with these. You have absolutely no idea if it's good or bad. It will fail at the drop of a hat and with no warning at all.

Avoid 'em.

Hundredfold

nospam@example.com (Jim Jagielski) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 09:07:05 -0400

As a true geek fanboy, with the Iron Man movie coming out so soon, this story about a "super transistor" has quite a synchronicity factor, doncha think?

Busyness

nospam@example.com (Jim Jagielski) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 10:32:40 -0400

Been quite busy lately. $Dayjob is getting even more ramped up, somewhat due to the buzz created from the merger/acquisition but also simply because open source in IT is expanding like a fiend in and of itself and Covalent/SpringSource is a known leader in that area. There was, of course, ApacheCon EU 2008 which was a total success IMO, but also a whirlwind event for me. Within the ASF there is a lot going on as well, both regarding the various projects but also administratively as well. On the personal side, there also seems a rush in people contacting me to do some keynotes, some outreach as well as join some advisory teams. Factor in just the busyness with also having a social life and a family (and their social life - as the boys get more involved, Mom and Dad get quite busy *grin*) and I'm likely busier now than ever.

And I'm loving it.

SIP softphone

nospam@example.com (Jim Jagielski) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 10:26:17 -0400

When I updated to Leopard 10.5.2, X-Lite no longer worked, so I needed to purchase eyeBeam.

Anyway, the latest version of eyeBeam is out: http://tinyurl.com/2ehbqp. So is another build of X-Lite, which may, or may not, work with 10.5.2.

Blu-Ray

nospam@example.com (Jim Jagielski) — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 10:41:34 -0500

So it's official: Blu-Ray has beaten HD DVD. Like so many others, I've held off buying either format, since I would almost certainly pick the wrong one. And, like so many others as well, we looked at purchasing a PS3 not so much for the gaming aspect, which would have been a nice "extra" (which is ironic as all get out for a gaming system), but as a subsidized Blu-Ray player.

At least both technologies were pretty well matched; I've heard valid technical arguments for both formats being "better" for HD video requirements, and so whichever way the market went, for those of us who still like watching DVDs (and not downloaded content), we'd be pretty happy. The bad part was the waiting, which is now over.

Of course, the real question is whether it's too late, and whether those people like myself, who prefer using bandwidth for other things than downloading huge media content, have our days numbered...

10.5.2

nospam@example.com (Jim Jagielski) — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 10:10:57 -0500

The latest Leopard upgrade (10.5.2) is out... and I am happy. So far, it seems to have addressed all the weird and troublesome problems I've been having.

No Leopard for me... at least not yet.

nospam@example.com (Jim Jagielski) — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 09:49:27 -0400

I'm holding off on upgrading to Leopard, at least for the foreseeable future. Yeah, the real and potential incompatibilities do worry me, but the real reason is simpler.

Chances are very good that I will be upgrading to a MacPro from my Quad G5. That will, no doubt, cause at least some upgrade issues.

Why handle these twice when I can lump them both together and do basically 2 upgrades but suffer the ills of a single one.