Me want one of these. Oh Santa? Can you please get me a extra special present if I’m really a good boy? I want one all tricked out with more memory and stuff. This thing looks plenty cool. I think I will add six and n to my mini 9. This thing will run Ubuntu too and it comes with Dell’s kinda weird ubuntu 8.10 which can be safely removed and refactored into the netbook remix.
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At work, I have a few choices about doing email. I can use Thunderbird and just do IMAP with our exchange server. I don’t get the calendar stuff that way. I can do OWA which is okay but it requires me to have a browser open. I can do Outlook Anywhere (or RPC over HTTPs). This means I run Outlook natively or in a emulation environment. There are choices for this:
Codeweavers Pro – Codeweavers has released version 8.0 which may work with Outlook. It has IE 7 integrated so it may work. In the past, it never worked and I tried for hours/days to get it working. It would mean that Outlook would show up in a true seamless mode on the desktop (Ubuntu desktop).
VMware – Player, Workstation only here. I want the unity mode which allows the windows applications to show in their own window and not have the desktop showing through. The desktop means I lose the window really and there is this coolness factor.
VirtualBox – My choice for a few reasons for this task. The seamless mode of VMware seems to mess up and it wants some heavy duty system to run it on. My T43 Thinkpad will not handle Unity mode. Moreover I don’t think its well worked out. Virtualbox OTOH, is quite suited for light weight systems and its seamless mode seems more developed.
Now down to what the ideal underlying OS is for all this. I approach this at a tool user level so it could be Windows Server 2008 or 2003. It could be Ubuntu AMD64 Jaunty. What works the best for me given my needs to run a single application? Windows seems to be a lot of OS to just run stuff. I would probably not use much of the underlying Windows goodness since I tend to veer away from Windows stuff in favor of Linux. So I think either Debian or Ubuntu make the best underlying OS. Perhaps that underlying OS is never really seen and you run the emulation full-screen. I just trust Linux more as a real system and Windows more as a virtual one. Whatever I run on top, be it VMWare, Codeweavers, or Virtualbox will thrive with Linux under there. If it misbehaves, I have the command line and SSH and “PS ax” to resort to. What do I use on Windows? There is no real command-line mode to shell into.
So, my selection is to run Windows virtually and Linux on the hardware. Its a “duh” factor type of thing. I just don’t trust Windows on real hardware. Not enough command and control. Windows does just fine when it can be killed by process controllers in Linux and rebooted safely. I can snapshot it, roll it back, make it sane again.
Lets face it. Windows 7 is a nicer cousin even undone. Still, I’ll choose to run it in a virtual space in a seamless mode with Linux underneath.
You all need to decide if Virtualization can work for you. If the answer is yes; ask yourself what you need from the guest at a tool level. One tool or ten? It may form what choice you make for the host OS. If its games you are after, this analysis does not really apply. I don’t do games. For me, its a dash of word, excel, and powerpoint on occasion; but mostly talking to our exchange 2007 server. Seems the best tool for that is outlook 2007. But it does not equate that I need to run it in real space…
Things have been accelerating at work lately. I just noticed that my last blog post was over a week ago. Engineering stuff is keeping me busy.
I did upgrade the blog engine to wordpress latest and it keeps on churning. I’ve been playing with foswiki as an alternative to twiki. I’ve given up on GTD. I just cannot do it. It beats me because I cannot focus on it and make it work. I get caught up with the tools, wondering how to make it better and I cannot just take things. I don’t have a system now to remember things or to give things contexts or actions. Know what? I’m happier. I think it was a false thing for me. After awhile no matter what system I used, it grew tedious.
I do too much managing time these days with work; its hard for me to apply discipline to a tablet of paper or a laptop or a smart-phone’s nagging about doing something in less than 5 minutes if I can do it. Honestly, what if I don’t want to do it in 5 minutes. Am I damned to hell? So, I’ve reached the consensus opinion that GTD never let me get things done. I toyed too much with the apparatus. I don’t like the “contexts” either. Its all false to me. I make something this context or waiting for or that context or someday/sometime. Who the hell cares? I don’t care and it made me go through things way too often and get frustrated.
I tried though. I think some of us are not meant to do GTD and its okay. If you feel like me, its okay. GTD for me was difficult and I never was satisfied with any “trusted system”. It was like why should I do things this way when I could… I’m too much of a software tool user.
I now return you to creating 1000 contexts and assigning your life experience to them. Hopefully you remember what you put where 
Today is it for me. No more wandering days in Tokyo putting on miles and calluses. I ended up walking about 5 hours a day and last night my feet and body felt it. Slept pretty well; but it gets light early here in Japan so I woke up thinking it was around 7am but it was only 5. Got back to sleep for 2 hours. This afternoon around 1pm I’ll catch the airport limousine for 3000 yen back to Narita. Then into the friendly skies and back to SFO. This flight takes about 8.5 hours so its not so bad compared to the 15 hours from Singapore.
Things I got accomplished this trip:
- Got to see a bunch of Tokyo and learned basics about the subway lines here.
- Learned an easy way to plan out a day of activities and how to effectively tourist in Tokyo.
- Redid the friendship with a few places I had been before; notably the Emperor’s Palace and the Lion Beerhall.
- Got to see and meet and eat with Jay. That was one of the bright spots. Don’t even mention we had burritos
- Figured out I truly love Japan and want to come back.
But now, in a few hours, it all ends. Its the day of changes and move backs. Thanks for reading along. I’m sure to be here again but it will never be like this time.
My Lonely Planet book tells me that today I will see soaring skyscrapers and wondrous serene parks with reconstructions of ancient temples faithfully executed. I’ve come up with a simple way to plan the day out which works for me each day. First off, I need the day pass on the Metro. For just 700 yen, it cannot be beat as a tourist value. I’ve also learned how to exercise the various and sundry routes. Look at the routes and trains below.
Wow! That’s a lot of places and a lot of lines that go all over the place. It took me a day or so to get myself familiar with how to get around but some practice on the system pays off. Now I can plan out the trip. Anyways, here is what I do:
- First I need coffee in the morning so I call room service. I’m pampering myself a bit so this is a nice indulgence.
- Then I look at the Lonely Planet guidebook and my trusty subway map and target an area. I’ve picked geographies that are closer to each other in Tokyo. Like first day it was Yuen and Asakusa. Then next day a bit south around Akihabara and the Tokyo Imperial Place.
- Next I plot out what trains I will need to take. I try to consider all the stops I want to make so I can see what goes where. This saves me a bit of confusion time.
- Next, another cup of coffee over breakfast
- Then, its time to prepare. I suggest a daypack or shoulder bag to carry needed stuff. For me its, glasses, guidebook, subway map, pen and paper. I try to write down what I see but am not too good at that part.
If you stay at the ANA Hotel, the nearest Tokyo Metro station is merely yards away. Walk out the Level 2 lobby entrance, walk down the street, voila! On the train its fun. I sacrificed my seat to two older Japanese women and they laughed, blushed, and bowed and took the seat. Riding the subway is just fun. All announcements are in english, train names are in both, each stop is numbered. Can you say, “cannot get lost?” Well, you can and I have here. I got all turned around and a kindly policeman showed me that a subway station was only about 100m away. I thanked him effusively for his kindness to stupid tourists. He just smiled and in almost collegiate english informed me that they were used to such questions and that no question is stupid besides the one not asked.
So, in essence, that’s how I do Tokyo each day. I pick an area, plot its location on maps, research it a bit. But I always change in mid-stream which makes the travel more like what I told my friend Todd at work. “We blindfold ourselves and hop on the next subway”. I wish Todd could be here. I missed the last chance to do Tokyo with him January of this year.
Today signals the last day for me in India this time around. Tonite I hop on a evening Singapore Airlines flight and jet back to Singapore’s wondrous Changi airport. From there back to the Royal Plaza Hotel for a few nights and meetings in Singapore. Then I’m on my own time at my own schedule after this Friday. I’ll be in Japan for a few days of R&R.
For now, I am sitting in my room at the Raintree, watching CNN International and relaxing. I deferred going into the office this morning and instead will show up after lunch today.
Changes and Re-arranges
A friend dropped me an email letting me know after 15 years in technology he was moving completely away and going into something else. He was worried about the decision and the outcome. It was an exciting career change but risky for him. He was going from a job at a leading IT consultancy making 100k++ a year to something making 50k. What was the reason and why would someone do such a drastic thing I can hear the folks that read this ask. Its basic. People need change in their lives. Change that rips apart the regular old fabric and exposes a thing which sometimes ends up missing. That thing is “challenge”. We all need it and its a medicine, a drug, and it makes us re-invent. But the more basic thing is change. We are creatures of change. We either adapt and adopt to change or we are destroyed bits of detritus left on a path that withered away to nothing.
I’ll just say we all need to change and leave it at that.
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.
There is a power to the force. The force does run deep and over the past 24 hours or so I experienced how the force can be displayed. Imagine this scenario. Many sets of years ago, you were in the US Army and worked at a prominent base outside of El Paso, Texas. You were a senior manager there and had a team of 3 to 5 enlisted personnel. Life was good and simple and you enjoyed it. But the time came and you had decided to move on. It was not that the military life was bad; it was that you wanted something different. So then the years went by as years do. Those people were faded images you could call out by looking at old papers and letters.
As it happens the “you” is “me” and this happened to me. I happened to be on one of those reunion sites (not the worthless classmates.com) but one called military.com. I had done some searches out of curiosity and interest. Then a name came up. The name made me remember with a degree of fondness a group of people I had been associated with. Our beer drinking escapades, the life we enjoyed. I reached out to that person and a connection was made. A net was drawn. A link was renewed.
The internet force truly is good and bad. For its good essence, there are circles within circles and webs within webs. There are connections still waiting. I let this go for so many years and now I feel particularly humbled and joyous to find this person. My message to you all is to not let the years let those connections slide by. Keep the circles intact and the webs in both directions.
May the force be with you.
I like trying new stuff out. I figure that my technet subscription is a big playground where I can download, install, and run a variety of server and workstation OS offerings from the guys up north. I’m using Server 2008 as a desktop by applying the logic found here and now my older Thinkpad T43 is sporting a new Windows 7 RC look. I enjoyed the enGadget Review but had planned on doing this anyways since the T43 seemed dog slow on Vista. Let me just say that on this older Thinkpad, that Windows 7 RC moves right along. It boots faster, runs cleaner, has less of those mysterious Windows stops and the interface is actually pleasant to look at. I came up with a few things to like about the RC:
- Its not Vista. That’s the greatest thing to be said for it. My work laptop runs Vista but that may change tomorrow since I have a 500g SATA drive for it. Its a finicky Lenovo T500 so perhaps that will be a good test for the RC.
- Secondly, its kinder to more mature hardware. Yay! It actually gets along well with my Centrino powered laptop.
- Finally, every application I’ve tossed at it runs quite well and I’ve loaded up Office 2007 Professional Pro, Visio, OneNote, Project. Double Yay!!
I happen to think of operating systems as playgrounds for this and that. The most likely and fertile playground for me is Ubuntu. There is more that can be done, touched, changed there than most places. I’ve had to move a bit away from doing the Linux only thing though because work requirements have come along which makes me have to run Windows stuff. As you can probably guess, I’m a toolsy guy. I use what works.
If you’re looking for some fun, and I think Windows 7 is a bit of fun; give it a try. There is a lot to like in this release. It sports a simpler, faster, nicer interface. It runs on old hardware decently. Its like someone there heard many people whispering “simplify”.
Now the challenge for the guys in Redmond is to keep things simple and not feel challenged to dope the interface up like Vista’s default. BTW, you can dumb down Vista’s and get something to run decently. Just turn off the themes, the gooey goodness that turns it into mush, and go over the services that you just don’t need. After that, Vista may not be lean, mean computing machine; but its at a decent level. Took me about 2 hours of scouring the web and finding crap that it does that it don’t need to. That’s compared to Windows 7 which seems to have most of that stuff right.
So I am weakling and need my wordpress I guess. I lasted a few days and felt horrible. I facebooked and linked-ined. But I just read what others blogged about. No nonsense from my pen. I also have had to change things for work recently. Work has propelled me to places I have been before. Almost pure project management last few days. For 20 some years I did this one way or another. Visa USA taught me a great deal about effective management; but the best Project Managers I ever worked with and around were at IBM. Caro told me about the credo a few times. She would tell me, “you have to manage the process and the people”. Thanks Caro!
Work has changed me out a few ways and that’s good.
I went with my son, wife, and daughter to the wondrous Hearst Museum at Cal Berkeley. I enjoyed it but came away with some different feelings. I’ve truly left many of those things behind and while my heart still beats with the echo of a field archeologist; those folks were academics. I don’t mind them and the world needs them; but its not what I ever did. We need both, but I was an am far afield (excuse pun) from their worlds. I loved the Hearst but my reality back then was deserts, mountains, valleys. Not the hallowed halls of the museum with its never-ending exhibit halls. I was a dusty field archeologist and treasured it.
