Category Archives: Work

It’s all about the tools

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I had heard that the Manager Tools podcast won best podcast in the People’s Choice category in this years Podcast Awards. Being a new manager, I decided I should check it out. Boy, am I glad I did!

If you are a new manager like me you must listen to at least a few of the episodes. Even if you are, as they say, an “individual contributor,” you would benefit from the education. They cover topics including decision making, professional etiquette, interviewing, and even packing for business travel. I’ve only had the opportunity to listen to a few but will be working my way through their Manager Tools “Basics” which represent their best of geared for new managers as well as hilights of their library of episodes.

A quickie on compliments

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I just received a compliment from a colleague (a customer) at work today and it made me realize that they are always appreciated. To prove my point, let me ask you a few questions. If you ever got a written compliment at work did you save it (or them)? Would it take much effort to remember one? Might you remember them all?

I hope I don’t sound “whiney” but working in Information Technology is largely a thankless job, though I suppose that can be said for many vocations. If things are working, everyone is happy, but if something goes wrong, you’ll be sure to hear from all sorts of people.

I challenge you to make note of someone who regularly serves you and let them know you appreciate the service they provide. Better yet, let their boss know. Want a radical (albeit Christian) idea? How can you serve them?

A nice addition to my home theater

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A friend at work that knows that I have a Mac-based home theater, offered an invite to the in-development software/service, Boxee. It is a very well-designed piece of software currently for OS X and Linux that presents not only your own library of music, videos, and pictures, but also can present web services like Hulu, YouTube, Flickr, Last.fm, and others. Hopefully, it’ll add support for EyeTV so I can watch recorded shows in the same interface.


quick intro to boxee from boxee on Vimeo.

While it is considered alpha, the amount of function and polish is quite significant. There’s social aspects like seeing the things your friends have listened to or watched. The service is invite only currently, so if you’re interested, please let me know.

Did I say transition?

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Almost six months to the day from when I started my transition from staff to manager, today marked my first official day as Manager, Information Technology. Four of my peers for the last three years are now my subordinates.

With some interesting timing, I was just down in San Diego yesterday at LISA 2008 taking two management classes (Management 101: Effective Communication Tools for Sysadmins and Management 201: Effective Team Management of System Administrators). As with any training, the test is in the application. In the hopes to make good education effective, I’m going to GTD a few of the better reference slides for regular review in the hopes that it becomes second-nature.

As I know at least a few of my “peeps” read my blog, I want to publicly thank you for your support and understanding. I hope and pray that I am able to be a manager you can trust and respect.

What a cool honor (and fun, too!)

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LittleBigPlanet Logo

I just got email that I was accepted for the LittleBigPlanet beta. Not surprisingly, my kids are quite ecstatic. Having the opportunity to test play one of the most anticipated games prior to release is worth crowing about. I’ll be honest that this is largely due to the fact I work for the publisher, but not everyone is going to get in so it is an honor, nonetheless.

Not only is it an honor, but it really is a responsibility. Working for Sony is one of the best career opportunities I’ve ever had, but LittleBigPlanet is, honestly, one of the biggest titles ever for the Playstation 3 and it is in my best interest to make sure it meets every elevated expectation possible upon release.

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to talk about the experience, but I’m sure it won’t be hard to find information and, of course, you’ll be able to find out for yourself when it is released on October 21st.

Is 11 too early for rebellion?

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My daughter Kaelyn recently started middle school as a 6th grader. It was a bit of adjustment switching from one class with one teacher to five teachers in six classes but she hit the ground running. It is a different school than she was supposed to attend so, as a result, all of her friends from last year are not in the same school. That was a bit tough for her. Fortunately, she has made friends and even had a sleep-over with a few of them this past weekend.

A parent always worries about their children’s friends and the influence they have on them. You trust that you’ve raised them well and that all the many lessons and examples sunk in. Unfortunately, sometimes no matter how much you teach your kids, they will make decisions that you disagree with.

Due to the influence of her newest friends Kaelyn has decided to use her hard-earned money to buy a Nintendo DS Lite.

What should I do? Can I love her still? Can I tolerate such deliberate rebellion in our household? I’ll do my best.

P.S. If for some reason you are confused, it will probably help to know where I work.

Project 68

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As most folks know I have quite a commute. Fifty-six miles door-to-door. It can be a bit of a drag at times, but it was the known down-side when we decided to move up here twelve years ago.

With the increasing price of gas, there is a growing trend for “hypermilers” which are folks that try to get the absolute maximum gas mileage out of their cars. To really make it work, you need to make physical modifications like adding airdams and spoilers. I read an article on it last week and heard that my car (a Honda Civic) is a popular model.

I’m not inclined to put any money into the effort, but I can certainly slow down. I decided, somewhat arbitrarily, to limit myself to 68 mph. It’s a fair amount lower than the 80 or so that I often go. Now, before you react, that speed on I-15 north of Escondido is quite common.

I’ll try to remember to post an update on how it’s going in a week or two.

What a wet, wild, and fun week

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I was fortunate to take a week off last week and was able to enjoy a vacation “around home” with the family.

Tuesday – Toobin’

Just about an hour South-East of our home is the La Jolla Indian reservation. $15 dollars for the car for the day and $10 each for an inner tube (if you didn’t bring your own) and we had a fun time going down the San Luis Rey River.

We’ll have to go back for a whole day sometime. The water could have been a bit deeper (don’t forget to “butt up”) but it depends on how much they choose to let go from Lake Havasu.

Wednesday – The Wave

Kaelyn went to The Wave Waterpark in Vista during her last week of 5th grade and practically insisted that we all go. Unfortunately, I got sunburned but spending about 6 hours in the sun is hard to protect against.

A lazy river, competition size pool, and four water slides gave plenty of options.

Thursday – Mission Bay

One of our vendors at work treated us to an afternoon at Mission Bay a few weeks ago and I had the opportunity to ride a waverunner for the first time. Going 50 mph on the water is quite thrilling.

I decided to share the experience with the kids. Didn’t go nearly as fast but still had a fun time. We took a little spill trying to turn around which dumped all three of us in the water, but it was more fun than anything else.

Friday – Cabrillo Tide Pools

We drove down to San Diego (picking up Becky‘s mom on the way) and went to the Cabrillo National Monument.

Walking around the tide pools, we saw plenty of other folks and various forms of waterlife.

I miss being around the ocean. I grew up in Encinitas and spent much of my summers being a beach bum.

Saturday – Company Picnic

My work does a summer picnic every year. This one was in Poway (so was last year’s but we missed it) and unfortunately, was lightly attended and as a result was kinda booring.

The company events are getting more awkward as the company grows. More and more people I don’t recognize.

It was a good week. Can’t wait to do it again sometime. Granted, I’m hoping that maybe next time it’ll be sans kids.

Must… resist… urge…

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I am on vacation this week and I honestly have to resist the urge to check in on things at work. Granted, for the past weekend I was in the mountains near Yosemite so my Blackberry was of no use, but so far this is one of the longest periods I haven’t checked email at work. If you look at the screen of my Blackberry below you’ll see that I have 2,420 unread messages:

My blackberry screen

My blackberry screen

That is since Thursday night (I’ve been on vacation since Friday). I should note that most of the mail is automated and can be scanned through in just a few minutes, but the temptation to check on it is significant.

I do keep checking to see if I’ve been paged, but I will see if I can continue to resist. I’m just hanging at or around home this week so if something important comes up, I know I’ll be contacted. When I get back next Monday I’ll have quite a bit of mail to get through, but if I can make it, I’ll be better for it.

Radio is dead to me

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I listened to morning radio since high school. In fact, I listened to Jeff & Jer since they first started at B-100 in 1988 and followed them through their many station jumps.

As I got more into listening to podcasts, I would mostly have them on when I was at work. With work getting quite busy and stressful this past January, I realized that I was more productive when I turned them off as I felt I had this weird obligation to wait until a commercial break to do something not at my desk (I didn’t want to miss anything, you know). So, around February, I unceremoniously turned the radio off and haven’t turned it back on since.

Another reason radio is dead is my iPhone. Of course, I’ve had an iPod for years and have listened to my own music, podcasts, and Audible books. Having all of that content with me at all times on my phone is quite liberating. I can listen to whatever I want whenever I want.

With the release of the 2.0 software for iPhone and the support for 3rd party software, one of the applications I’ve been really enjoying is Pandora. The service (which is also available in a browser at their website) let’s you create a “radio station” based on a song or artist you identify. From then on songs are played that are similar as determined by the Music Genome Project. For each track that plays, you can give it a thumbs up if you think it fits and a thumbs down if you think it doesn’t. It is really cool to hit play, and listen to music you like and new music that you are likely to like all without commercial breaks, announcers or anything else that might get in the way.

One of the last benefits of radio for me is the opportunity to hear new music and to identify the songs that catch your ear. While Pandora identifies the songs you are listening to Shazam does one better for the music you hear on the radio, TV, movies, clubs, or elevator. It will take a 12 second sample of whatever is playing and using a really cool fingerprinting technology, identify the song, artist, and album. The results can be saved and it provides links to the iTunes music store for purchase and also YouTube links for similar content like music videos. You have to see it work to believe it.

For me, I don’t think radio is a big deal anymore. I know I don’t miss it.