Events

We spent yesterday touring around and I think there is a degree of mis-understanding with the guys from our Chennai office on what we
would find interesting. I could probably spend a day or two by myself here with the streets with French names, 100 year old churches, and the under current of european french. Our guys here think we need to see showstopper things that are somehow significant. Not for me. I also have relearned that I am not a social being. I really don’t like a crowd of 7 with their affiliated requirements, needs, desires. It will be good again to become a crowd of one.

Anyways, Pondicherry is very interesting, full of history, chalked full of archeology; but we won’t see those parts sadly. It means another trip will have to be made by me alone.

Today we end the social touring thing and go back to being our own individual beings. Wish us well. Hey Jeremy, if you reading this, check out the wikipedia page on Pondicherry. I’d like to see what you think and your impressions.

Well, here we are at November 3d. Tomorrow is the day where we face only the election booth and make up our sacred minds. I think people study the issues beforehand, perhaps make a commitment; but by the time they get into the booth; its all different. How many people who start out to vote for Obama will shift to McCain? I think people will. They will have the best of intents; they’ll remember the calls and mailers. But when you’re in the booth perhaps a different messenger is heard. For me, the voting is more about the act itself and I have changed my mind a few times in the booth. Things look different.

I’ve given thought to how we Americans are programmed to do work. Its such a slippery slope for our lives. Work is a necessity and we’re basically socialized to expect a lifetime of 9 to 5 and then a few precarious years of wishing perhaps it was back. Can it be that there is more than just the 9 to 5 and then missing it? I’m at the point where I wonder what to do next. Do I just continue to do technology? I could see a point where its fundamental attraction leaves me. Where I would want another contribution. What would that be? I’m sure my wife wonders. She is dedicated to her career and I like seeing someone with that level of focus. For me, the whole work thing is good now; but I can see past it.

Perhaps my day dream is to have a thing which is more, less,different. Some thing which is a job but encompasses more. A dream? Of course. We’re americans and thus programmed to live those Thoreau “lives of quiet desperation”. There is nothing left for us as we reach those other years of ages. We’re locked in and locked down.

But our spirits and consciousnesses stream far away and into the clouds and sun and dimensions. I’m sure that our indomitable spirits see much more than even our day dreams show. Perhaps I’ll find that “other thing” that seems to hover forever right out of reach. Time will tell.

Sunday in Singapore. I gave some thought to doing things versus doing nothing and I came down in favor of relaxing today. Its not like next week I am going to do a triathlon or anything. I’m just lazy and inclined to be lazy. I had a great day yesterday hanging at the pool, doing the museum thing, and I found this great American expat hangout for dinner. Tonite I do chili crab nearby. I also rev’ed wordpress to 2.6 and the Tarski Theme up to 2.2.1. How you may ask could I reach out to a friendly webserver and get that done? The answer is tools and habilis friends and a dash of OpenVPN. OpenVPN is one of those wondrous pieces of code that switches on productivity by default. I think its an automatically enabled compile option!! Yet what it actually does is open up corridors if you have the right creds to reach corridors where there are friendly Unix or other servers. OpenVPN is a tool for the multi-habilis toolkit where a single thing can be used for multiple enabling toolkits.

Tomorrow I go back to work and I’ve thought a deal about my last week traveling. I’ll be glad to get back home in a week or so. I miss the family unit and it’ll be good to see them. The little spats, arguments, family time is good when you don’t have them. But I also have enjoyed the “me time” on this trip. I’m on to Chennai India for a few days later this week and then back to Singapore for a evening and then on to home next Saturday. In the global sweep of time, I get in an hour after I leave from here. Its really kinda strange how that works but it all leads up to a few days of roaming, waking at strange hours, and trying to acclimate.

I’ll be blogging each day I think which is more than what I’ve been able to do when I’m just at home @ work. That seems good since I feel less blogstipated when I take the daily dose.

There was this old saying in the military when I was there, “lead, follow, or get the Hell out of the way”. I bet you all know people you work with, who have management responsibility, who could become prime movers that seem to walk on eggshells. They’re afraid to do and their afraid not to do. What happens is that nothing gets done because fear is the twin polarity of their existence. What should happen with those types of people? In small companies that struggle for their daily dimes, someone has to step forward that can innovate and integrate. These people don’t know how to do that. They simper around and hate it because they have never had an original idea.

I built a manifesto for a emerging product we have which is based on Linux. I felt that the products were not understood, sold, managed at a few levels like our more entrenched windows products. Why? They need product management expertise at the basic level. Someone that could:

define their basic roadmaps, definitions, and goals
reach to a set of early stage companies that may have similar interests
build out a community based set of forums, bug reporting, and collaboration

What this does is align product management, engineering, sales, support into a common vision. You cannot sell something you don’t understand or grok or get. How do you sell something that is so foreign and different that even the people charged with support cannot manage supporting it. Its difficult. You need a product vision. I’m not saying I’m some visionary product manager. I struggle with basic premises of product management but I also know what I see. We cannot expect emerging products to suddenly be revenue generators. They take time to “sink in, become known, gain a following”. How does one do that?

Its damned difficult. But I’m committed to it above all else. I’ve seen many open source project like Open Office.org, Mozilla, The GIMP, reach critical mass. Why do they? Part of my so-called vision. They have a community behind them that sees and shares. I would argue that each of the products is “disruptive” in nature and to manage a disruptive product requires innovative and integrated thoughts, plans, roles.

Leaving Las Vegas (or SF…)

I’m leaving next Friday for Singapore to go to training on our products. I’m excited because I’ve never been there. I’m also going on to India to meet with our India development team. I’m flying out from SFO next Friday and I’m very thrilled that I work for a company with such a presence. I’m having fun at work and extending things to places I want to work while still supporting sales and SE activities.

Or so the story goes. I believe that this must be a “real world” curse for those of us who may have had mundane and regular days. Inciting those days to become real things can be a blessing and a curse. Most of all though, its a blessing. Work has become doubly interesting and I found myself in the unusual position of being able to make a respectful demand of Visa. Its interesting, fun, and stressful. And I have not decided. In fact, I’ve decided not to decide. Is that being decisively indecisive or what?

I don’t know if I blogged this before, but I hit my weight goal. Its been a year. I started last May 20th or so I believe. I topped the scales then at 275 pounds of happy beer guzzling and burger swallowing me. But I had back aches, strained this and that. High blood pressure which was really bad. I’ll just say a word for going to see a Doctor if you are the usual American Male. Go. If you are over 40, Go. There are too many things which can happen. My friend DaveR; with every reason to live did not. Go seek out the physician and listen if she tells you that the time has come to look whatyou are inserting into thy stomach. Bad things cause bad things.

I’m probably doing about 1700 cals a day now but its not so much the cals but its what I eat. Only a little meat and not even every day. More salads and lots of fruit. Veggies once a day or so. Now I am at 181.5 and I feel pretty good. Definitely better than a year ago. I’ll just try to get my friend Ed to move forward. Ed you owe it to you, kids, wife, world.

The job thing has inserted stress; but one funny thing at Visa is the classic level of most people’s computing experience. People I talk with complain bitterly about Windows and its virii, malware, spyware, bad things. I tell them “why not try something else?” Get a Knoppix or a Live Ubuntu CD. But its too hard. Its easier to just be miserable. After all, Linux does not work on desktops or laptops and its only really meant for servers. The last time I booted a Windows desktop here was a Virtual One and since Amazon was kind enough to release the Linux MP3 client with easy dependencies to satisfy for the most part; iTunes and its silly “all or nothing” thing does not befuddle me any longer. Now I buy music, sync music with rsync. Yes… I don’t even use the original iPod firmware. Thanks to Rockbox. My iPod has signed its declaration of independence away from iTunes and Windows as well. But I am speaking to those that choose to be deaf. Its far easier to just bitterly complain than to try something else.

So, I’ll just go away into my corner with my Linux systems that don’t work.