January 2008

Just a quick note or two and this is odd… I don’t remember the last blogpost I wrote on a weekday morning; but I found myself waiting for a backup to finish with a new program I’m trying out.  Backing up date is very important everyone.  But most of all knowing what to back up and what is chaff is the most.  Why build a fully bootable backup if you don’t need a fully bootable backup?  I read Dave’s recent post about backing up with some interest.  Let us just be sure we get “it” though.  List the important files to you.  If you are on a delicate operating system (Vista, XP, perhaps others), you need to worry about the entire state of the system and perhaps therein lies the need for a bootable backup.  If you treat the systems are expendable but the data as significant; you arrive at a point where you can replace it all easily.  What’s significant on a linux system?  I can rebuild a debian or Ubuntu system in hours and I can build one with no big Gnome or KDE sooner by simply placing a few files in the backup that live in /etc and perhaps in /home.  But most of all, these things are all disposable.  Its the data doods and doodettes.  Unless you have a registry and hives and hidden nooks and crannies.  So be intelligent and articulate and don’t do a fully bootable backup unless you run a legacy OS or one that you are concerned with not working.  Instead analyze how and where you place data files.  My most important ones are:

• mp3s - oh yeah.  I have to have these and I have a growing repository.  These require delicate handling.  The default Ipod does not possess enough intelligence to be a backup media I can carry.  Enter Rockbox.  It does.  I can use my Iaudio and Ipod Video as portable mp3 backups since they are just USB storage drives.
• documents - need ‘em.  These are not work documents however.  These are created at home by kids that backup using Windows backup software to my linux box, wife created journal files, recipes, photos.  I subsume all those things as documents.
• web and mysql - what to do with these?  well, you need the setups and DBs.

So the challenge is to find the solution that fits the need.  An all in one solution that runs on Linux as a cron job is the best.  You don’t need some fancy interface.  Enter backup-manager which is a debian package and which does mySQL and other stuff and it does it intelligently by creating master and incremental backups where I want.

Lunch Plans and Places

Finally, after my twisting and turning I reach the point.  I’m having lunch today with some old friends from the Linuxcare and other days.  We’ll discuss the foibles and fun and frolic of open source startups I’m sure.  And we will discuss the shortfalls and debatable natures of a few spindowns I’m just as sure.  All in all, I like talking with people about Linux and startups and VC money and the entre-pan-uers.  I’m just as glad to NOT BE associated with them for awhile though. 

Heed the words on backups and remember to analyze carefully your needs.  If you don’t need exquisitely complex multi gaggle byte bootable backups why da hell do it?  Do what works.  Work smart.  You can get by with a few hundred gigabyte USB or e-SATA enclosure if you do it right.  Massive collections of things may require massive storage though.  I don’t do photo’s so look at what you have.  There is data and there is effort.  One should not overcome the other.

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Big occasion!! I was able to retire my final desktop P4 system and now have AMD64 upper end systems on my desktops. I’m running either Ubuntu 7.10 or Debian Lenny and things are pretty good. I tried to get Mepis to install but for the amount of effort, it simply was not worth it. Debian went on like a breeze. Here is footprint of one of the systems:

1. AMD64 4200+
2. 4g DDR2 800 memory
3. 512mb PCI-x nvidia card (8500 I think)
4. asus sata cd/dvd rw drive

These systems really haul buns for the most part and my fastest one is a 6000+ Windsor running Ubuntu. It also has VMware workstation with a few different guests on it. My needs are actually pretty simple for desktops but the new breed of processor really makes a quality difference at doing even common tasks and they’re cheap! Check out Newegg or others.

Forget the Intel offerings with the cheapo system boards and processors you can get these days which tap the advantages of 64bit-ness. I would compute that they are half the price in some cases. Throw in a 3ware SATA controller and a few drives and you got a class offering. My primary server is a smaller AMD64 with that setup plus a Maxtor OneTouch USB drive that does backup duty.

On Other Fronts

This week brings me going back to the office after 2 days of working at home. I’m hoping to see an old friend that has opted out of a downward spiral for lunch. I’m also going to be departing for my annual exodus to Los Angeles to go to SCALE 6X which promises to be even better and brigther than before if possible. Thanks to all the organizers for producing a quality show that outshines the IDG offering in so many ways and ensuring that the community level is still there even with the IBMs and Dells and others that show up. It goes to show you can do a mix and keep the quality in place. I’ve got my dance card marked up with the things I want to do there and I’m hoping that Ed shows up. Not sure about that one though. Have to wait and see. Other friends will be there.

Quality of Life versus Life of Quality

There can be a mix of the two. I’ve found that my current work fuels both for me these days and the challenge and commitment level is pretty high but bring it on! I’m simply loving Visa these days with the new things I get to do. Has to be the first job I can remember to ever bring together so many positive forces for me.

Its dawned on me that I am writing more “combo blog posts” where i want to catch up a lot of stuff instead of just single ones focusing on each thing. I think that’s okay though since I save up on the Linux and other experiments. I’m also reading a few excellent books these days which perhaps I’ll offer up in a followup post for consideration. I don’t use the blog search engines at all these days because I have some reservations about what they deliver and what the offering actually is. I have some doubts about blogging too. It seems its shine has faded and now people are back to doing it because they want to and not because people want to be in a hundred or so top bloggers. What will happen to those struggling services I wonder which will not find a thing of value when the mores shift? Other institutions fade and go the way of the dodo bird. Social institution extinction. There is a precedent in anthropological thought for this.

We shall see.

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After posting about my recent goal achievement on weight loss, it came to me that the things I learned can be applied to other challenges. In a nutshell, what I learned was to:

• Set a reasonable goal and define it whether its time, depth, financial
• Take measured steps toward the goal but sometimes the steps are lateral and not forward
• Keep track of progress in some fashion
• Learn patience
• Tackle adversity
• Assume control of the variables
• There may be success…

It seems to me that we all want to achieve a thing or things. it may not be to lose 85 pounds or so. It may be around work or education or changes. Hell, it may be to become something completely different. I’ve had the thought more than a few times of what ties me to a certain path or thing. Many of the things I’ve let go had value in and of themselves but there were out of control spirals. See the second to last variable? You have to have control or the goal is not really yours. The out of control spirals tend to leave you vulnerable and you can feel the wrath of the dragons that lurk. I’ve watched others with the same thing. Otherwise they would be powerful doers but instead they are simpering almost doers. Its difficult to tackle adversity also but it always comes and when it does it may be like opportunity. Difference being that opportunity may only knock once and it may be disguised as adversity. Adversity may knock a lot more and make demands.

I’ve watched the techno-scene here in the Bay area for some years and watched the people come and go. I watched myself leave anthropology behind for a few reasons but out of control spirals rank high up there in its trajectory. I’ve watched others that perhaps don’t deserve what they get still get.

My take is that this whole blogging thing, the social and technological institutions is also an out of control downward spiral. Top hundreds and bottom comet denizens really don’t mesh. The goals around blogging may start out to be to mesh with an existing wider network; but lets face it. The real goals are selfish and include building your own history divided into days, weeks, months. Then we arrange it all in some fabricated order to make it make sense. Then we want others to link to those things and grant us authority. Then new institutions arise and make the blogging thing seem even more significant. In truth, its only important if you think it is. I wonder what the comparison is between number of new blogs and number of blogs left stagnant for over 30 days.

Anyways, we choose the goals and the values and mores and choose which match and what we do. We like to remain in charge and assertive and moving in the correct direction. Ask yourself what you do on a daily basis. Is the job the thing you want or is it just the passing requirement of life in the Bay area. Does technology consulting suit your needs or do you make due with it? I have my own take on it. At Visa, I am just far enough away from some of it to enjoy it. I get to do business, risk, consultative affairs, vendor relationship management. And then some IT. Its a good mix.

I have my goals and some face forwards and some backwards. I think as we get older, we set a goal to look backwards at the things we’ve done, see if they were valued or not, and pronounce a sentence on them. It comes with the territory of the 50’s.

Try looking at the goals you say are yours. Do you blog? Why? Is it a goal or just a path? What else is in your expressive nature?

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Well, about a year ago I started this journey. At that point, I weighed 275 pounds and I had just started working at Visa, Inc. I was serously overweight and perhaps on my way to a variety of health problems. My back hurt a lot, my blood pressure was always up there. My waist was a 46 and moving onward. In short, I was a walking, talking commercial for a failed lifestyle. That was last May. My changes before that was losing a nowhere job for a nowhere company with no future in sight. In December before that, I was mercifully severed. The same month 5 years later that the same company with a different name had severed me before. By the same CFO. A mark of distinction perhaps. The reason I dwell on all this meaningless past is that it had a bearing on my health. The job contributed to coping mechanisms I had around food and beer. I found myself not being able to plan out the future there or even be assured that the company had a vision for a future. A monumental waste of time, life, energy, resources.

Then Visa came along after about 4 months of no work and unemployment. Wow! A job, a manager, a group that I liked. It has just gotten better and better and now I’m moving to a new groove there and have been promised additional platform work around hosting solutions, support services at a global level, and more intricate assignments. In short; they like me and I like them.

But today it came around, folks. I had dieted religiously for about 8 months. I lived the diet, practised better eating habits (fruit, veggies, lower amounts of meat, potatoes). This morning the scale said…

One Nine Oh

I had reached the goal. I just stood there on the scale in some degree of disbelief. You all remember when you set a time-based goal and the time rolls around and you have done it? Its that shaky feeling that the months were worth it after all. But I also knew that I would never go back to the bad eating habits. I had made a basic change in lifestyle. Now I can move on to a new phase and I have the same great job. No more startups or spindowns. No corporate mentality which is a contradiction of terms. I work with people that care and that care about me. It made this day easier to reach. Thanks Scott and Mani for being there. You both probably don’t know about this site; but it does not lessen my appreciation for each of you being there.

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I’m always curious what folks use to get something done.  Consider a few basic tools that many Linux people take for granted that don’t exist on Windows unless special dispensation is done.  I’m talking about rsync and screen.  So what can you do with rsync?  Well, imagine sync’ing, backups, copying.  Managing two disparate locations of code or files.  I use rsync to sync my rockboxed Ipod and iAudio X5 to the mp3 share/mount. 

Screen is one of those “duh” things I believe.  You want to start a thing perhaps on a remote system but it captures your terminal and you have to leave the durned terminal open until its done.  Screen lets you start something and walk away after sending it off to the screen happy place.  When you get home, to Starbucks, whatever; you can fire up the Debian laptop (or whatever) and get back to the place that your action is doing.  It will have continued to run, perhaps wgett’ing a file or copying something big.  At a previous place, screen was this basic tool for survival when copying mySQL databases around.  The other thing about screen is that the power and versatility is hidden in a rather funny little set of control and other keys.  Study the man pages though.  It will reward you.

Both of these are what I would call time savers.  Rsync is a file and data and photo and music saver.  Its saved me when a system was dieing from a bad disk and I was in Oregon.  Its saved me when I wanted to move files all around in a data center I was working in. Screen creates a virtual reality for me to operate in that I can get back to later.

Its funny how such interesting, wonderful, and powerful things come in such small packages.  I’ve always considered that apt-get is the same way in a few ways.  Apt is one of those things that a debian developer told me is unfinished and only a concept program; but what it does do I like.  You can keep aptitude, synaptic, yum, strumg, urpmi, whatever.  Nothing approaches the usefulness of the apt.* family of stuff (apt-cache, apt-file, etc).

There are others that are these kinds of all purpose tools I bet; but these have always got me about the basic difference of how tools are used on Linux versus Windows.  Windows seems to present you with a fairly limited set of possible tools on a system you just finished.  You have to go download the things, run the installer, etc.  Windows is a tool itself but I think what a person uses in Windows is not the default install.  You have to add things.  On Linux, you can use the set of tools almost immediately.  Perhaps one of the most powerful is ssh.  Its the gift, the medium, the wonder. 

Thanks to all those folks that make these possible

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I was lucky last week to go have lunch with my friend Jeremy from the Levanta days.  We went over to Left Bank Bistro in San Mateo for a well-deserved lunch, talk, and a really strange meetup.   What was so strange you may ask?  Well, we had been talking about a mutual friend that we worked with at Levanta.  I was lucky enough to have Miguel as a dotted line boss and he taught me more about international sales and channels than anyone I have worked with.  He also taught me another lesson about sales folk.  They can be honest and sincere and represent customer/client needs.  Previous experience denied that sales people were actually human beings. 

As it really happened… We were talking for a moment while waiting for our table at the crowded Bistro.  Talking about Miguel and our memories of him.  We moved toward the table and I looked at who was sitting next to us.  Damn!  It was Miguel.  We all just stared for a moment and Jeremy laughed first.  Miguel rushed up and shook hands and gave us that smile that we had so badly missed for almost a year.  We talked about Art for awhile too.

Then we all sat back down to our meals and conversations; but the entire lunch had taken a turn for even better. 

Webloggishness or the lack thereof

I’ve been giving some consideration lately to blogging as a passtime.  I’m always interested in the why of things.  Perhaps being an armchair anthropologist leaves me with a whole bunch of “W” questions on things.  I remember once having a discussion with another crazed archeologist on a phenomena that we had seen in the arid systems (deserts).  Prehistoric sites in marginal ecologies.  Why, I wondered.  He looked at me with that heat crazed grin stuck on his bushy face and said Well, Why not. Well this defeats the whole purpose of asking Why to things. The other person has to agree to be the recipient of the question and not just shout it back at ya.  I mumbled something about the answer being a question and wandered off.  Chris just stood there laughing and pointing at me.  I gotta say that these archeologists are some strange but wonderful people folks.  I’ve known my share of them and the always reach out to a point in me that still is deeply buried.

But as usual I seem to go at the subject I want to touch in widening circles.  I’ve been wondering the why of weblogging and whether there is a real reason I continue writing thoughts down in wierdly wonderful chrono-order?  What does it avail me?  Well, Why?
And then I answer…

Well why not?

So I move on to other things.  You know, I’ve done a few career changes and had a few force fed. I was pretty happy to leave a few of the places and the people there that thought they were extremely intelligent and articulate masters.  I’ve settled now at a place which is a place set apart for me. A job I like; people I respect.  Its a good time and I’ve been handed a rather large and significant project by our group Director.  So, why do I wonder if I should leave?  I have a potential offer; but the other place cannot really name the thing they want me to do.  They just want “it”.  No definition of it at all; no reason why.  No definition of success.  Seems strange to me.  I don’t think they are truly honest and I think they have never had to name the Why of things.  Well, why not?

Geez… That works well.

It works well for blogging too.  There is a reason why.  I know it you and you don’t.  So there.  See you in 4th grade tomorrow.

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Actually the best is the one that suits your needs the most; but I’ve tried a few recently since I’ve moved mostly to a AMD64 set of systems and away from costly Intel Pentiums.  I can buy two cheaper AMD AM2 motherboards, memory, and video cards for the price of one over-priced Intel model.  Thanks AMD!  But what I’ve found recently with doing Vista 64, XP 64, and a few different Linux derivatives is that by far Linux and specifically Ubuntu 7.10 is the best.  The choices I see are to have a distribution which you can load 32bit stuff into a non-chrooted mixed environment or build out a chroot for a 32bit install.  I’ve done both on Ubuntu Gutsy.  I like the non chroot environment choice but recently I installed the Debian Lenny Pure64 testing image onto a box and was able to get the tools I want installed without having to do either for the most part.  I am able to get Adobe Reader 8.1.1 working, flash plugin, realplayer 10, and java plugins working.  The trick there was to use the ia32-libs* debian packages which actually do violate the directive of using mixes.  But the result I think is a system which is very usable and supportable but with no 32bit land firefox installed.  I’m able to watch streaming videos such as movie trailers now on apple.com and yahoo’s movie pages with no win32codecs installed, no mplayer32 or mplayer installed, etc.  Yay!!

For the rare windows application I still need, I have vmware server 1.0.4 installed on my last Pentium 4 Celeron box; a little shuttle PC which works just fine.  Do I notice a difference with the AMD64?  Yes.  The installs are harder for all the OSes unfortunately.  But there is a “speedup” with them.  Applications seem to snap right open on my monster AMD64 6000+ 4gb system.  But getting Ubuntu installed on it was a bit of a patience tester. 

My idea is give them all a run and see what you think.  On the Windows side, its easier with a TechNet subscription since I can download and get Activation Keys for just about any OS that Microsoft sells.  Very easy to load things into VMware except that the 1.0.4 version of the server will not do 64bit Windows OSes.  As a side vent, I tried the 2.0 beta of server.  Blech.  I liked the vmware console monitor tool a lot.  It installs easy and doesn’t require magic to use.  Please VMware!  Reconsider using a Tomcat configurator and monitor application and go back to a simple GTK thing.  I cannot see using the 2.0.x releases of Server until they make a freely available monitor application which is not web based at all.

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Slashdot carries a story about whether Apple is sentencing doom for desktop Linux.  Look it up here and see what you think. I’ll tell you my take.  Linux on the desktop is beset by a few problems which seem to have been around for a bit of time and the idea of Linux and how people could possibly use it has been blogged ad nauseum.  Here are my new ideas:

Killer Applications – there needs to be a killer application that people would want to use and guess what?  Its only on Linux.  Is there such a thing?  What one application would you choose to leave the OS of your choice for?

Integration – not just apples and Orange Juice.  But the pieces must fit seamlessly together into the whole.  Its not just Beryl or Compiz Gee Whiz Bang, folks.  Things need to be tightly bound.  Fonts, display, how the desktop apparatus manages power, themes, skins, etc.

Portable uses – Yes people will want Linux on portable or embedded devices and they already do.  But on a laptop, challenges remain.  To me, the laptop must be fully supported and be able to do the things that make it a laptop.  Is this the case now?

Finally, Critical Mass must be defined or not.  Does it matter if there is no battle?  People will use Linux and I do also; but I also choose and pick the tools I want to use.  If I feel like using Windows XP, I’ll just use it.  I like Linux and Ubuntu and Debian just as well; but I stopped feeling warlike some time ago.  Consider what you feel are the compelling reasons to use a thing. Does it satisfy a need?  Does it make mundane tasks special or special tasks mundane?  Why do you use it?  You are in love with free (as in speech or beer) software?  I’m interested in the why of it and always have been.  I know people that confine their use because they feel that XX or YY operating system is beneath them.  They believe they have a quality of life to maintain.  Yay for them.

I’m a habilis though and I’m interested in statements like these from the article above:

It’s not hard to understand why Linux has failed to live up to the promise of being a viable desktop alternative to Windows. Linux’s problems are many. For example: Apple has Microsoft Office, Linux doesn’t; Apple has Adobe Creative Suite, Linux doesn’t; Apple has easily accessed and easy to use service and support, Linux doesn’t; Apple is driven by someone who has some understanding of end-user needs, Linux is not.

Consider what the article is attempting to say here.  Does it make Linux an influence or casualty?  Is Apple truly to blame or is the passage of time?

I’ve been at work at Visa for almost 10 months now and its been a very interesting ride and I’ve enjoyed the level of challenge.  I have to admit to feeling a sense of change that overwhelms me every so often.  I think human beings require change much like many of the other core needs.  Either change influences us or we influence the change to happen.  Its a question of whether we are in the driver’s seat and own our existance or whether we are but pawns and larger forces can act on us.  My son would say its a conspiracy theory.

As an armchair anthropologist, I’ve dwelled on our own human condition far more times than perhaps I should; but we seem to be propelled by the idea that we are prime movers, changers, adopters, and adapters.  Witness our own political and cultural history and how it marks us.  Is it purely my imagination or are none of the political candidates on either side truly worthy?  We just seem to have lost the level of intelligence, focus, responsibility with the political leaders of today.  They are all lacking in key areas.  Its a shame.  I think our history shows that our leaders have gradually become less and less down to a level where voting is more of a social responsibility than vesting leadership.  I challenge the so-called leaders to rise above that estimation.  Obama, Edwards, Clinton.  You all are posers.  How about reaching farther, becoming more?

One of the things I’ve considered going back to my own changes is what I’ve done, where I want to go, and what I’ve done.  At a positive level, I’ve lost almost 90 pounds and gone down 10 inches in the waist.  Amazing and what a change!!  But perhaps one change influences another and now I have to admit to wanting more changes.  I want more at work and I want to own more and be more.  But based on our changes, that cannot really happen.  I could venture out…

Out into the wild.  Become a SuperTramp and venture into new places.  I think we all become that person when we face substantial issues that require us to adopt or turn away from.  I’m ready to take it on though and sit on that virtual bus lost in my own wilderness.  I’ve seen the path and the place and thanks a lot to Sean Penn for letting me get back to the consideration of my own “wild” places.  Now I see I could never just leave anthropology and archeology.  It was a part of core load.  I also see that my days of doing the rush out technology are ending.  I enjoy Linux and open source and startups that flare and fire and are silent.  Many things must change to stay relevant.  I’m moving on myself to new pastures.

Recently, I went down this path of wanting to find hard disk mp3 players which would offer a few uses that would not require some dedicated program to install.  Here are a few of the finalists and some disclosures:

1. Iriver H340 – This is the 40g model and its really hard to find.  I happened to find a “used one” on Amazon Marketplace so I snagged it.  I also saw one on Ebay recently here. I have never actually used one of these so I am pretty excited.  I am going to replace the battery and hard disk in it.  If you want a forum site and resource, consider either Rockbox or Mysticriver.  Both other great advice and use.
2. Iaudio X5 – A nice, clean unit with characteristic good looks and easy to use controls.  The sound quality is a cut above.  Support, updates, seeing what the community is doing is at Iaudiophile.  A very nice and popular forum site.  Again, great advice, builds, themes, etc can be found at Rockbox as well.
3. Ipod Video 60/80g and Classic Models – I am not particularly fond of iPods.  Without Rockbox on them, you are stuck using an application which reads and writes to its stupid little database.  That beng said, once you rockbox the thing, it becomes useful and you can simply copy music to any old folder on it you want.  Lets be serious here though… The iPods are not quality; but they are consumerish and available and Apple has cornered the “size in GB” ratio and offers a monster 160gb.  The Touch and iPHone are not even cntenders.  The phone is a wannabe convergence device which does not offer alternatives besides the equally wannabe iTunes interface.  Apple, if you wanna be open as in use why not stop using the stupid database and reliance on hard to decipher codes for use on other OS’es.  Now without the wondrous Rockbox, you have to either use a later version of libgod and gtkpod or other applications.  On the videos, you can remove all that cr-apple stuff and just rockbox it totally.  There are some things you will not be able to do like play DRM files.
4. Creative Zen Vision M -This could be a finalist IF one could simply copy music tracks to its hard drive and not futz with Gnomad2 or other applications to read its obfuscated system.  But I like its quality and it works on Ubuntu and Debian Lenny easy.  I’m also not sure with Gnomad2 how you add tracks or synchronize against an evolving and growing audio collection.  More experimentation is required.

So the facts about the iPod naturally steers me away from anything Apple unfortunately.  They are silos and everyone knows it; but they become the only small footprint media player game in town these days.  Not so much quality but quantity and presence. 

Now I’m all about finding older players, extending their lives, learning about them, etc.  I replaced the battery in my X5 and it was fun to see it boot again albiet a bit scary doing the soldering deed.