浪子: Visions of Up: 10/8/06

13 October, 2006

The Z

Today is the third time somebody has offered to buy my Z from me, after seeing it sitting in the garage. It's presently something of a wreck. It's driver's-side rear tire is low on air, it's covered in a thick layer of dust, its paint needs some help, and so on. I guess I can understand why people want to buy the car from me. If I had more time, I would probably want to buy that car (provided I didn't *have* one, of course) and do whatever these people want to do to it. My guess is they want to clean it up and make a fun weekend car out of it.

Part of me wants to just give in, and sell the car. I'm afraid to ask how much they want for it. But I really want the car to be driven. It's just so sad to see it sitting in the garage like that. I'd really spend more time on it and in it if I had the time and money to get it back on the road again. I don't foresee never getting it back on the road, and that's what makes me hang on to it. It doesn't cost me too much (well, I have been paying $75/mo for five years to park it) to just keep it, whereas if I were to let go of it, and regret it later, nothing in the world could bring it back to me. And, it's not just any, it's my Z. I built the sucker, and i know every inch of it. Letting go of it would be such a shame.

I should probably call this newest guy and ask him what his plans for the car are. I'd be happy to let him fix it up and drive it if he wanted to, but I don't see any equation where I cannot retain some use of the car.

Sigh

12 October, 2006

Recruiters again

On september 13, I got this email:

Job Title: Sr. Unix Administrator Length of Contact: 6 months contract to hire Job Description: Client is looking for a Sr. Unix Administrator for a contract to perm position in Cincinnati, OH. Description: Responsible for the installation, maintenance, and tuning of a UNIX/AIX hardware and software systems. Performs system-debugging tasks. Has sound understanding of shell scripts. Has experience scripting in Perl, C and C++ languages. Has overall knowledge of the hardware and software components UNIX/AIX operating system. Supports all users of UNIX servers. Solid understanding of HACMP software. Familiar with AIX in an lpar environment. Summary of Job Functions Prepares installs, and implement UNIX/AIX operating software and associated components. Develops test plans for implementing new software or new releases of software. Thoroughly tests hardware and software upgrades and if necessary works off shift hours to accomplish the testing. Debugs and corrects installed UNIX/AIX operating system software as required. Applies maintenance to system software as required. Debugs and applies corrective maintenance to system software as required. Documents and notifies Developers and Business Analysts of software and hardware upgrades. Tunes system software for peak performance and availability. Assists Developers with high level problem program debugging and correction. Provides end user and Developers support via Customer Support. Provides off shift on call support for production system support. Makes system hardware and software recommendations as required. Assist in evaluating and installing new applications software. Provides technical training for Information Technology personnel as needed. Requirements Utilize System monitoring Tools - 10% Monitor and maintain system health and performance - 10% Install, configure, and maintain AIX server hardware and software - 20% Troubleshoot and correct AIX related problems - 25% Manage internal projects and provide project-related services – 10% Manage other administrative tasks as needed – 25% Required Skills Logical reasoning & problem solving Working knowledge of Change Management Very strong organizational skills Ability to lead a project and drive it to completion Desire to mentor and share skills with other team members Willing to travel for ongoing education Working knowledge of backup software. (Veritas Netbackup, sysback, mysysb, tar etc) Ability to adapt quickly, welcomes change Composition and Documentation (English) handle multiple, concurrent tasks Withstand moderate to high stress Must be able to work with little to no supervision Working knowledge of TCPIP Knowledge of AIX Operating Systems Sound Knowledge of Shell Scripts Working Knowledge in the use of C and C++ Knowledge of EMC Enterprise Storage system connected to file servers via a Fibre Channel SAN General PC and Workstation Skills Ability to maintain UNIX Disaster Recovery Plan Sound technical communication skills. Sound customer service skills and communication skills Working knowledge of AIX 5.1 and above utilizing Dynamic LPAR. Preferred Skills Any experience with the following products would be a benefit IBM’s WebSpere MQ Series IBM’s Websphere App Server BMC’s Patrol for UNIX, Perform Predict Linux on Intel, pSeries, zSeries Thanks, Priya

I was not interested, and replied:

Hello, Priya. I think I have the qualifications you are looking for in this position, but my availability is not until two weeks from today, when I am released from the federal penitentiary at ADX Florence, in Colorado. After that time, though, I should be able to fill the position. Would you like to schedule a follow-up phone call? Thanks

Imagine my surprise when I received this email today:

Would be interested in a new contract now? Priya, Account Manager (972) 999 0928 Broadfusion Inc. www.Broadfusion.com

Sigh. I wonder if our friend Priya knows what the word "penitentiary" actually means.

For those of you wondering, Jimbo can show you the way:

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADX_Florence

11 October, 2006

Make mine a Google, please

I am becoming concerned at how much I now rely on Google's continuing generosity. Like Apple did with dotMac, Google is now in a position to exact $LARGESUM from its customers -- who presently pay about nothing. In this case, I'm now using Blogger (which is useful, and I switched to, even though Advogato was free), gmail (which is more or less superb, and I switched to, even though my home MX was free, because now somebody else manages it), google Calendar (which I use now that I no longer have an Exchange server), and the newest piece, Google Analytics. It's really just a toy, I think. I don't ever expect to generate enough traffic for it to be meaningful. However, it does give me a chance to play with the software that they sell to the public. This means the probability that I'll recommend it for a customer down the line is much higher. Perhaps that's the hook. At any rate, I am concerned that all my stuff is tied up in Google. Like, now I really want a way to get a tarball out of google with all my Stuff or something. Of course, they'll never do it, because that means it's easier to "leave" them. They are essentially asking me to trust them, but every time anyone has ever trusted a corporation they've been burned. Right?

Oh. And I "republished" everything today after tagging. Just so those of you who want to data mine my meanderings and blackmail me when I'm president will have an easier job of it.

edit: shit, that didn't work very well. i managed to fuck up my tags. i'll have to even write a perl script to fix it, i fucked them up so badly. yay.

Self-aggrandizement

Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2006 10:12:09 -0400
From: NOAA Central Library 
Subject: Library Brown Bag Seminar

MEMORANDUM FOR: NOAA Employees in the Washington Metropolitan Area

FROM: NOAA Central Library

SUBJECT: NOAA Library Brown Bag Seminar

Thursday, October 12, 2006 - As a special
Columbus Day presentation, Dr. John Hesslerof the Library of Congress
will discuss: "Warping Waldseemuller: Mathematical Methods in
Historical Cartography." The Library of Congress paid $10,000,000
for the Waldseemuller map in 2003, the first map to display the
name AMERICA. The seminar will be held at 12 noon, Thursday, October
12 in the NOAA Central Library, SSMC #3, 2nd Floor.

Abstract:

Acquired by the Library of Congress in 2003, "Waldseemuller's map
supported Amerigo Vespucci's revolutionary concept of the New World
as a separate continent, which, until then, was unknown to the
Europeans.  It was the first map, printed or manuscript, to depict
the lands of a separate Western Hemisphere and with the Pacific as
a separate ocean.  The map reflected a huge leap forward in knowledge,
recognizing the newly found American land mass and forever changing
mankind's understanding and perception of the world itself." As the
Waldseemuller Map was first published in 1507, there are many
mysteries associated with how the geographic knowledge depicted in
the map was obtained as both the explorations of Balboa and Magellan
were a number of years in the future.  Dr. Hessler has  explored
the nature of many of these mysteries using various mathematical
techniques and cartographic projections to analyze the map. 2007
will mark the 500th Anniversary of the production of this map.

Upcoming Seminars:

Wednesday, October 25, 2006 -
"Whatever happened to Terrestrial Magnetism?" presented by Dr. Greg
Good, historian of geophysics and geomagnetism at West Virginia
University; Associate Editor, Geology and Geophysics Journal. This
will be the second in a series of NOAA Heritage presentations.

Thursday, November 2, 2006 -
The seminar will highlight Sea Grant cooperative efforts post
hurricanes Katrina and Rita. One highlight to be discussed is the
joint efforts between Alaska Sea Grant, Washington Sea Grant, and
Louisiana Sea Grant to transport a ship travel lift from Alaska to
the Gulf region.

--
Reference Desk
NOAA Central Library
SSMC 3, 2nd Floor E/OC4
1315 East West Highway
Silver Spring, MD 20910 USA
Library.reference@noaa.gov
301-713-2600x124
301-713-4599 (fax)
http://www.lib.noaa.gov/

How strange that they would be chomping at the bit to declare a map they paid $10M for "a huge leap forward in knowledge" and "changing mankind's ... perception of the world itself". This wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that this map is of America, and that it was purchased by Americans, would it? And, please, Balboa and Magellan? They make it sound like

there was nobody here to begin with
that nobody had ever come from the Eurasia side of the Atlantic to our cozy little island.

It's almost like Americans are trying desperately to prove they are related to the world. It's kind of neurotic. On the one hand, they're saying, "see! we are related to you guys!" and on the other, they're giving the world the finger, saying "we're the most important discovery you ever made!" No wonder we need so much collective therapy.

And, wow. I wondered what had happened to terrestrial magnetism. Here I was thinking I had left it on the coffee table.

Five billion SEX per second

Wow, the new POWER 6 is dead sexy. We have some of the 5's here for production stuff. That is so much machine. I can't imagine what single task would need that sort of machine. It's almost like IBM is bringing the minicomputer up to mainframe processing capability (in terms of partitioning), only with a whole hell of a lot more mips (we have a machine here that takes up one floor of a building and is only rated at less than 300 mips). Wow. I betcha that thing can compile 1024 kernels in less than a minute (well, maybe it would have IO problems...).

Creativity, or maybe not.

It's rather amazing how much Apple's Cupertino campus resembles Microsoft's Redmond campus. I suppose the latter, phonecam, picture is not as clear as the Apple one. Trust me on this, they are strikingly similar.

10 October, 2006

Crisis du jour

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浪子: Visions of Up