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Its Saturday morning here in Singapore and I’m planning out the day today. I’m going to visit the Singapore National Museum today and then find a place in the evening to get some Chili Crab. Tomorrow, I am off to the Singapore Zoo for a day of stomping around. Monday I may do this cruise to an island for a day. I decided to take some time away from the whole work cycle.

Its a beautiful sunny day here in Singapore and in about an hour I’ll be departing the hotel for a day here and there. I saw the museum in a cab ride and I cannot wait to get there and explore for a day.

Dreams are strange. I read somewhere they allow you to go quickly and quietly insane every night of your life. Last night, I had this dream about RWR which is strange. I still think about him but I’ve kinda decided that we’ve changed too much and my world and his world are too far apart. I don’t know what I’d say in a real world if I met up with him again; but in the dream scene, we hugged. Val was just smiling and nodding like telling me “you should listen to me; of course RWR wants to see you”. But in the real dream I live in, I simply cannot find the way to do anything there in that old prehistoric archeological world I lived in. Its too distant and different. I still miss it too much at times I think. It had the better parts of most things and perhaps I miss the wondrous mix of science and human endeavor that anthropology offers. I guess I will always be a once separated archeologist and will watch the History and Discovery channels. And dream…

My Saturday AM scramble would not be complete without a sense of the “what next” in my life. It seems you reach a stage in life where the what next thing is kind of decided. Its not a case of what you “may” do but what you “will” do. That is strange. The eggs don’t scramble so wild any more folks. The yokes are all in place and the whites don’t spread in the pan. Gosh… I don’t even eat eggs any more. Bad analogy I guess.

Anyways, go out and make it a fine day. If you go to Linuxworld, I’ll be there on Wednesday. I’m not sure why. Call if a step towards Linux after so many steps away.

After 16 hours of flying and 2 hours of crying, I’m here! I actually landed this morning at 2am or so and the last few hours was spent listening to a 3 year old or so decide that he wanted to be pissed off at flying, parental units, food, whatever. I gotta tell ya. If there is one thing that is irritating, dismaying, and leaves one with the desire to get off the plane; its a howling kid at 30k feet with 1.5 hours to go of flight. No sleep, no ipod, nothing could dim that kids bulb. He had to just let everyone in coach know that he was unhappy with it all.

It takes a bit of time to get here folks. Singapore is not some easy jaunt from SFO. My flight was from SF0 11 hours to Inchon in Korea and then another 6 hours from Inchon to Singapore. Going back, I’m gonna change the flights out a bit and fly into Hong Kong for a few nights and then go back home. I’ve never been to Hong Kong so I’m excited. Never actually been to any of the places I’m going this time so its all good!

BTW, I’m staying at the Royal Plaza on Scotts here in Singapore. Its a pretty nice hotel. Today, I just hung around here and ate in the hotel. My next stop is India and I’ll be staying at a very interesting place that our India team booked for me there for a week or so. Its called RainTree and it sounds very nice.

The final cool thing is that my friend AFT from the GAP, Linuxcare, and Levanta days is also over in Singapore so we are gonna meet and party down a bit here in SG land. Undoubtedly, the work gang will take us out as well.

Linuxworld Expo

It appears that LWE is coming up again. I am going to go on Wednesday but for the first time in about 5 years, I’ve not arranged a Linuxcare Labs reunion lunch. It feels a bit strange but I think the time has come to move past that. I feel like I’ve moved past a few things around Linux and perhaps that’s okay. My current work is very challenging, fun, and personally motivating; but my “touch time” with Linux is low. I guess I will go to the expo on Wednesday, see how many of my old friends did not show up this year, get a Debian CD, and drink a few beers with those that do show up.

Since I have a membership in Technet, I get to play with Microsoft’s new offerings as I want to. Call them “evaluations” if you like; but if you are a habilis boy like me its $400 or so well spent dollars. This last weekend, it was Windows Server 2008 time and how to take it to a workstation that I could be productive on, play around with a bit, and perhaps learn something on. There are some great howto articles out there about this trip already so I won’t bore ya with the story of that trip. I’ll just do a few top things I like and dislike about it.  Its worth remembering that I’m running it on a so-called lower end AMD64 4000 single core chip so I don’t get any to hyper-v it appears unless perhaps a BIOS update or a new system board would take me there.  Anyways, first the likes in no particular order:

1. This pup is fast and its like driving a race car all stripped down compared to my Visa 64 install which seems kind of syrupy slow.
2. I’ve figured out how to install stuff on it like Office Pro 2007, Yahoo Widgets, and even the wondrous Blogjet for writing these blogposts. The applications run at least as fast as on my XP Pro build and faster by degrees than on Vista X64.
3. The interface is malleable but there is some power under that thar hood. It seems to be very responsive and those surly UAC errors I never see. Thank!!

A few dislikes to even the road a bit:

1. Installing was fun and it did not like my activation code at first and insisted it was wrong. Then when I wanted to activate it, it spat out some silly DNS non-existant error. Hey! If you wanna tell me to re-enter the code that technet gave me, just ask!
2. Adding roles requires rebooting. Why? On that other OS, I can add a so-called role or feature and I don’t need to reboot at all. It still means mucho power cycle events for a new system
3. Desktop Experience is cool but it takes a bit to get it right. How about enabling it if I install its feature? Perhaps I really want it if I go so far as to choose it?

Final thoughts on the whole thing are varied; but to tell the truth; I like it. I like its stripped down and ready to run nature. I’ve never really hated Microsoft; but I’ve liked other things better. This OS gets me closer to being a powerful under-the-hood thing with great visuals. Its interesting that people donate lots of blogposts about making this into a workstation and draw criticisms about the Vista client side. If both share similar code bases, I don’t get how Vista can be so poky and this can be electric.

Anyways, I am gonna use it for fun and frolic and try different sets of roles and features out. Technet makes the habilis in me smile!

I like to write posts about using Linux and open source most likely because I show how much I don’t know but how I really want to learn. I told a friend of mine once I classified myself as a habiilis or tool user and he agreed. I’m not a terribly adept scripter or coder but I’ve managed groups of developers and consultants and I’ve learned a few interesting facts about how Linux is done (or not) in a few settings. One of the places on and off since 1999 I’ve played is Linux startups. I was talking with a friend at Visa that’s a recruiter today and we were laughing about how these companies juxtaposition themselves, make themselves relevant, build incredible offerings, and even social ideologies. But the one thing that they don’t seem able to do is build themselves a conscience and morality and honesty. I’ve worked, played, learned, hated, and left a few of these companies. I think there is a commonality between many of them. They all think they’re the best until the 5th restructuring or the 2nd cease and desist legal suit. In the case of my favorite star-crossed Linux startup; we accomplished both. Linuxcare just was and the memory is still fresh.

But, as usual I digress. Since I am a habilis and tool user, I rate things on how well they satisfy my needs and whether the tools presented integrate, offer, and let me build. Habilis like to build using the tools. In some ways, the Linux toolkit seems somewhat adverse to this with the classical “tool for every job” mentality. But that’s changing and it has to. To make Linux adoption happen on the desktop; we cannot tell new users that they must learn how to manage 5000 unique tools and they don’t talk to each other - ever. No, dear readers, we must go and further and do more. New users want to learn; but the path cannot be incomprehensible. Operating systems are judged by the user base and not by the complexity of the tools or the pureness of the message. That’s why I kinda left Debian and went to Ubuntu. I simply love Debian and its community; but I am a tool user. I need fresh tools, new tools. I must learn how they work. Simply put if a tool ceases to be a tool, my mantra is to leave it behind. It may mean I go use Windows XP because it has tools I like or tools I need. There are cool and good applications on them all.

Taking it to the streets; we can all learn from what we choose to use whether its a computer, an idea, a plan. An old friend, RWR, once told me “you have to know where you are and what you are doing”. I always remembered that. Its a great chant when I wonder or am unclear. RWR always knew and I admired, respected, and even loved him for it. He had “presence”. Finally put, have you ever met someone with presence? A person who just knew? He could be equally at home in the desert, a fancy bar or a hotel where we tramped in one evening dirty from the field. The hotel attendant believed we were “scum of da earth” and prepared to eject us. Until RWR presented a corporate AMEX card and charged 5 rooms, food, beer. It was a moment of presence.

I have a feeling though that the crop of open source companies I still see do not have presence at any great level. They seem to still believe the press about themselves. They still chant and sing the song egotistical. Its okay. What you have done will soon pass too.

I’ve been doing weblogging for almost 7 years and have gone through a few circles. One of the places I have come back to a few times is the freely provided services that maximize the chances of being read. I posted in the past my interests at writing and not being read; but I think that this stand philosophically disagrees with the idea that I am putting out “there” some dialogue,  rssHugger is one of the sites I have looked at that can promote an established weblog and provide a bit of readership for some of the things I feel are worth communicating about. Specifically, I think readership means that people can find a thing which either promotes or denies a reality and then find ways and means to communicate those changes. The new thing in my way of thinking is that we need to find places that authors and contributors can find like thoughts and not live in isolation. I believe that services that offer views of the top posters, feeds, and allows search criteria may enrich the lives of the bloggers, the people that find the blogs, and then add to the sum total of writing. This is contrary to my beliefs in the past regarding writing this blog.

I think everyone can re-invent themselves, their weblogs, etc. The main thing I see with services that track a weblog is that the author is not tied to that one domain, that one service, that one provider. We need universal blogs as well as email and other services. I think that rssHugger may provide that.

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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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You know how you want something better when you spend money on a thing?  I reached this point with my Ipod the other day.  It came to me that when I mounted the Ipod on Linux, it truly was just a file system mounted up use the usb-storage system.  Why should I be held hostage by having to use some clunky interface and some program to access the music on my Ipod.  Why not just rsync files to it?  Well, because by default Ipods have databases on them which seem to be gatekeepers of music.  I think you should have full use of devices like Ipods and be able to mount them as disks, use them, copy to them, remove from them.

Enter Rockbox.   This amazing bit of open source firmware installs on a few different devices including my Video 60g and frees one from the clunk and fragility of the iTunes interface.  Instead imagine just copying files that you want to play right to it using the windows explorer or rsync or copy or whatever.  Open a Linux terminal and move to the directory that the Ipod is mounted on.  Run a nice program like rsync.  Copy.  Use a theme.

Read on their forums and wiki about it.  Works very nice but read the instructions and obey.

Writing blog entries of meaning and reason seems to avail me not these days.  Instead, wondrous entries that twist down meandering streets greet my fingers.  I had tried to give up on the blogging and just go with static pages.  This does not work sadly.  I start feeling a bit uncomfortable that there is no real way for me to “publish”.  I don’t live under any fantasy that people would actually get something of value from my spaces here.  Instead, after almost 7 years of this, its come down to my own catharsis and release.  Its a drug and I cannot stop.  I need it dammit.  I guess I can blog the body Linux these days and also go on to talk about various and sundry happenings much like I’ve done so many years and times.

Linux and Ubuntu

Here is the latest in my adventures with Linux.  I’ve reached the point at home where I desire Linux in the evenings. That’s a good sign, BTW.  I spend some hours each day on XP with Outlook and Exchange poking me with meetings, email, and remnders.  I need something on its own level that cannot poke.  I’ve also been working at trying to get ACPI working better on 7.10.  It just is not stable unfortunately and often it works perfectly and other times it just fails.  I’ve edited a few files and tried different suspend and resume scriptlets.  The honest truth is that Linux just cannot do suspend an resume too well yet.  Perhaps that’s okay in the end.  I don’t do work on these computers so it really does not matter.

Work and Play

Work is play for the most part.  I love the work and when you love the work it transcends and echoes and makes you glad.  It seems that its been years since I actually could say that I love the doing of it.  Thanks Visa and my colleagues there.  You all truly and wisely rule.  Its also nice to work for a computer that is not a VC target or hampered by those buzzards.  Perhaps its just me but it seems that the VCs really don’t get what they do too well.  That’s why they support and extend funding to companies that really cannot turn the corner and never will.  Well, such is life.

Conclusions of the day

Seems that weblogging is my thing like it or not.  I’ll just dig in here, get my pencil sharp and gather some notes.  I do have one other good bit of news.  I’m now down to a smaller piece of my original self by almost 75 pounds.  Unbelievable. it was all eating and drinking and not doing either too well.  I’ve learned the value of food over the past months.  Food is to be treasured and loved and enjoyed.  But one has to place boundaries and limits.  Understanding the limits is truly a lot of work.

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Sometimes an easy truce prevails but in this case, I’ve found a place where I can live with Ubuntu and its power management.  Somewhere with the changes to the driver, editing a variety of files, and explicitly defining the radeon driver suspend now works.  Why?  I don’t really know.  But I like it.  Perhaps my laptop had enough and decided to become the reed.

Now I can get back to merely enjoying evening computer use and let my work laptop govern my days and Linux drive my nights.  Gonna install Ubuntu Gutsy on one final box and all that will be left is my finicky T43 running XP.  I think I need a real XP box; but soon I’ll have a VMware server on Ubuntu running my vmware XP image which is almost as good.

Its all good!

Premonitions of a Great SCALE 6x

I started getting flashes of penguins and I think this year’s SCALE 6x will be the best yet.  A few friends are going and I’m looking forward to it.  I’ll be meeting with them, breaking sacred bread, and actually remembering a few people.  On November 15th or so, it will be a year since the DaveR left us.  I plan on having a service.  I still miss him buts gentler now. Tempered with understanding, time, and perhaps a point release of acceptance.

Most of all; thanks to the SCALE folks for providing a show of consistent quality and one that’s still fun to attend.  I always feel that its just the right mix of community, corporation, enterprise, and good old fashioned use.  I’ll be there starting on February 8th around mid-day.

Work Diligence

One more to go… Work.  Work evolves and revolves.  Roles change and shadows dart in and out.  Its been an interesting albeit painful few weeks with a reorganization that took us over.  What we did shakes things down to the core and makes things become re-invented, defined, and characterized.  I’ve been with Visa for 7 months or so now and its been very good to me.  Best thing I’ve done in some years.  I figure the one year at Levanta was a lost thing and I had to pay for the privilege of working where i am now.  I’ll resist saying anything about this news.  I will say congrats to the folks that still matter.  I wish you all the best.  You know who you are.  The other ones that don’t matter know who they are too.

Meanwhile Visa just rules at so many levels my work days.  I do the good work during the day and in all my months have never been bothered at night.  Its great to manage infrastructure and services and see how they expand and scale.  Thanks to everyone there.

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