Category Archives: California

2015/10/08 · 07:08

The next big thing: joining ENow as CTO

It is a cliché to talk about an opportunity that’s too good to refuse (not to be confused with an offer you can’t refuse), but sometimes it doeshappen.

I am very excited to announce that, effective 26 October 2015, I will be taking the position of chief technology officer (CTO) for ENow Software. In that role, I will be driving the development of their next generation of products for both on-premises and Office 365 monitoring. It’s a big step forward for my career, moving me simultaneously back towards the development world and further into the cloud. (It’s also a little surreal to see one’s job change announced in a press release.)

Before I get into the nuts and bolts of what I’ll be doing, a personal note: I want to thank Scott Edwards, Ben Curry, and all my coworkers at Summit 7 Systems. What a talented and skilled group of people! I accidentally learned much more than I expected about SharePoint from them, and both Ben and managing consultant Matt Whitehorn were instrumental in helping me identify soft skills I need to work on— always a challenge. I have huge respect for what the Summit 7 team has accomplished and recommend them in the highest possible terms to anyone who needs Office 365, Azure, AWS, or SharePoint design, strategy, or migration help.

So, the new job. In the CTO role, I’ll be reporting directly to Jay Gundotra, the CEO. I’ll be responsible for technical product strategy and implementation, the customer success team, technical presales, and internal IT. (I am still working on a transition plan to establish an ENow corporate aviation department, but don’t tell Jay.) That’s quite a broad scope, which means I can bring to bear everything I’ve learned throughout my career as a developer, consultant, and administrator. Driving beneficial change across these disparate fields is going to be an exhilarating challenge! Luckily I will have a really powerful team on my side, including Michael Van Horenbeeck (noted hooligan/tequila drinker, Microsoft Certified Master, and Exchange MVP) and Tony Redmond, a member of ENow’s advisory board.

ENow is already very successful in their chosen markets, but the cloud poses a brand-new set of technical and business challenges, both for them and their customers. The #1 question I hear from IT pros and business decision makers is simple: how will the move to the cloud affect me and my business? It’s interesting that I don’t remember many people asking that during the years-long transition from mainframe- and mini-based solutions to the x86 world; people just naturally assumed their skills would transfer. That hasn’t been the case with the cloud. Figuring out how to effectively monitor and manage cloud services when you don’t control the underlying platform is a tough problem. Instrument flight is probably a good metaphor here. On a clear day, you can see the ground, so flying is easy. There’s a visible horizon and landmarks. In the clouds, everything changes– if you’ve ever been in an airplane on a cloudy day, you know that you can see where the clouds are but not what’s inside them. Flying inside clouds is like being inside a ping-pong ball, with no visual cues you can use for orientation. You have to use your instruments to keep the plane pointed in the right direction and right side up. Moving workloads such as Exchange email or SharePoint to the cloud doesn’t lessen your need to monitor what’s happening, it just changes the way in which you’ll do it, and figuring out that change is a key task in my new role.

Of course, Microsoft is releasing new services and capabilities in Office 365 at a rapid clip, so another key challenge will be figuring out how to keep up with them and how best to bring ENow’s experience in simplifying the complexities of enterprise application monitoring to a world where Microsoft seems intent on giving everyone Fisher-Price-style monitoring and reporting tools.

Despite the new job, some things won’t change: I’m still living in Huntsville, I’m still not a Cowboys fan (sorry, Jay), and I’ll still be blogging here, although I expect to be writing some more strategy-oriented posts for ENow’s blog. Where I can, I plan to share details of what I’m working on, so stay tuned!

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Filed under California, Friends & Family, UC&C

2013/05/24 · 04:30

Transitions (or, “Dell, you’re getting a dude!”)

Nearly four years ago, I wrote a post here titled simply “We’re moving to California.” Now I’m writing this post because… I’m moving back to Alabama.

I’m also switching jobs; effective June 3, I will be joining Michael Przytula‘s Global Communications and Collaboration team at Dell as a global principal consultant. My first project will be assisting a large automotive supply company with their migration from Lotus Notes to Office 365, so I’m jumping back into the Exchange world with both feet.

The reasons for these changes can be summed up simply: in order to be an effective father to my sons, I need to be where they are. For two years, I have been commuting faithfully at my own expense to see them every other weekend, plus one week per month during which Acuitus allowed me to work remotely. This has been a great experience in itself in many ways, but it has also been emotionally exhausting, physically tiring, and extremely expensive. The constant back-and-forth has made me at times feel like a visitor, not a father, and I’ve had to miss a great many milestone events because they happened at times when I wasn’t, couldn’t be, there.

Moving back was simultaneously a no-brainer (of course I need to be where the boys are!) and a very difficult decision to actually execute on. I believe that ultimately it is the right thing to do for my sons, so that’s what I’m doing.

As much as I believe that what Acuitus is doing is important and worthwhile, and as much as I’ve enjoyed the experience of living and working in California, and as hard a transition as it will likely be, it’s time for me to move on by moving back. I am optimistic and energized about working with Dell, and I am delighted by the prospect of being able to spend more, and better, time with the boys. Against that I have to weigh the upheaval, expense, and hassle of moving, the sadness of leaving valued friends and coworkers behind, and the feeling of unfinished business that comes from leaving Acuitus in the midst of our VA school project.

On balance, though, I am more optimistic than not… as I said back in 2009, it takes work. I still believe that’s true, and I’m going to put in the work that’s required. We’ll see what happens…

7 Comments

Filed under California, Friends & Family, General Stuff, Musings

2012/12/08 · 05:00

Endeavour fly-by

[ this is pretty old– the flyby was 21 September 2012, and I just found this post lingering in my drafts folder. I wrote it with the intention of finding an aviation outlet for it. It would have been much more interesting had I posted it sooner– sorry about that. It turns out that no one wanted a “real” article on the flyby, so I’m publishing this– better late than never.]

“Once in a lifetime” is a perhaps overused phrase. However, with the demise of the Space Shuttle program, almost everything associated with the program has entered its last phase. Endeavour was the last of the shuttles to be built; it was a replacement for Columbia. It is thus fitting that it was the last Shuttle to be retired, and when I found out that its farewell flight would take it through the Bay Area I made plans to see it. NASA announced the route of flight and a tentative schedule a couple of weeks in advance, but I didn’t start planning seriously until a couple of days ago. My first stop: an email to the press coordinator at NASA Ames, asking for press credentials on behalf of Windows IT Pro. Astute readers will know that they don’t usually publish aviation stories (and I am working on a real article for a real aviation publication) but I figured it was worth a shot. Sure enough, they put me on the press access list.

A few coworkers and I got to talking about how to best take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and the game was afoot.

The first decision: where would the best viewing be? The route of flight was supposed to take the Shuttle from south to north. At first it looked like the Palo Alto airport might be the simplest place to go: limited crowds, no problem with parking. However, we weren’t sure exactly what path it would take, and I was worried that we wouldn’t get a good angle from the accessible areas. Eric suggested a spot in the wildlife refuge but we ruled that out as well. With press credentials, we reasoned, we shouldn’t have any problem getting on base or getting a good spot.

Eric picked me up at a nearby Taco Bell about 8am and we made our way to the Ellis gate, where we were quickly admitted and directed to the press area. The helpful NASA PAO staff gave us credentials, and we bumped into fellow Acuitan Tim, whom we deputized as a backup photographer. We tried to buy breakfast, but the food trucks were largely out of food since they had opened at 0600, thus illustrating something about early birds and Belgian waffles. As we walked through the line of booths that NASA Ames had set up to showcase their work, I was surprised and pleased at how many young kids were there. The crowd vibe was surprisingly upbeat given the fact that, when you think about it, this was a sad occasion: the final flight of the last of the United States’ fleet of man-rated spacecraft.

The flight operations building was where we’d planned to watch the flyby. Our press credentials got us in and we made our way through the building to the back apron. Here’s a sample of what it looked like from ground level.

DSC 0506

We heard estimates of the crowd size ranging from 13,000 to 20,000; I didn’t get a final count from the Ames PAO but it was a large and cheerful crowd.

I made a few exploratory forays to the parking apron to see if anyone yelled at me for being out there. No one did, so our first plan was to set up our tripods out there when the Shuttle got closer, on the theory that setting up too soon might get us ordered back to the seating area. In the meantime, though, we went inside the building to have a look around. Seeing a stairwell, Eric suggested we go see what was on the second floor; Tim volunteered to watch the camera gear and Eric and I went upstairs. The second floor is dedicated to offices for the control tower– Moffett Field, of course, has its own Class C airspace with a control tower, and that tower happens to be located on top of the building we were in. At the end of the hall, we came to another stairwell; a quick exchange of glances was all it took to convince us to go up and see what happened. There we were greeted with an imposing site: a big, black metal gate with a sign warning us not to enter. The gate, however, was open, and we could hear voices coming from above– so after a bit of consultation, during which I believe the word “bail” may have been used once or twice, up we went.

Soon enough we found ourselves on the outside of the control tower. There were some other folks on the east side of the tower, in full sun; we had a shady corner on the west side to ourselves. Amazed at our good fortune, Eric went to go get Tim and the camera gear. He then got to meet the tower chief, who was a little aggrieved that the media was invading the outside of his tower. Eric and Tim were able to convince him to let them rejoin me up top, as you can see below.

Eric and Tim

Here are Eric and Tim enjoying a moment of peace and quiet before they started slinging camera equipment around.

(I should note that this picture was taken with a Nokia Lumia 800, the camera software for which is about a million times better than the iPhone’s built-in app.) The elbow you see in the extreme right of this picture belonged to Pat, one of the tower managers; he was very friendly and was kind enough to keep us informed about where the Shuttle was during its flight. We had been expecting the Shuttle to fly down the length of the runway from the south; turns out it was going to approach from the north, meaning that it should have come from right next to Tim’s head in the picture above. We set up our cameras: Eric and Tim had theirs on tripods; I had a camcorder on a monopod and my D5100 around my neck.

We waited; the PA announcer would occasionally give the crowd updates, and at last the call came telling us the aircraft were only a couple of minutes out. We readied our cameras. Surprise! Rather than flying along the runway centerline, as the PAO (and announcer) had repeatedly told us would happen, the Shuttle stack flew along 101– to the west of Moffett– on our side of the control tower! Our seeming bad luck at getting a spot away from the runway turned out to be perfect luck indeed. The Shuttle’s chase aircraft flew down the runway centerline, but I doubt anyone was paying much attention to it.

The actual flyby… wow. I was too busy taking pictures with my camera to notice which way the camcorder was pointed, so I didn’t get any video, and some of my pictures are poorly composed because I was eagerly watching the flyby with my Mark 1, Mod 0 eyeballs instead of looking at the camera. Here are the two best of the resulting pictures:

DSC 0522

DSC 0525

After the flyby, the crowd slowly dissipated; it took us about half an hour to exit Moffett and get back onto 101.

Thursday trivia #77

The boys and I are headed for New Orleans this weekend to see my mother and, not incidentally, to hit the Voodoo Music Festival. Of the bands there, I am most excited about seeing Metallica and Skrillex, but there are a few other gems; hopefully we’ll make it there in time for Thomas Dolby on Friday.
The law surrounding workplace privacy in California is really, really interesting.
I’m really intrigued by two new devices: the iPad mini, because it’s the perfect size for use in the cockpit; and the Microsoft Surface, because it looks like a better device for some of the most common tasks I do on the road. I’m not quite ready to order either of them just yet, though…
Candy corn on the cob. What will they think of next?
So far season 3 of The Walking Dead is excellent. I am actually enjoying it more than season 2 because I’m watching it in HD on my AppleTV instead of in crap-o-vision from AT&T’s Uverse, which had terrible picture quality on AMC.

Bonus: if you like airplanes (and, really, who doesn’t?) then this video of Endeavour flying over southern California is priceless. Watch it in high-quality and full screen for maximum enjoyment.

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Filed under California, General Stuff, Musings

Tagged as Thursday

2012/07/10 · 08:10

Long solo cross-country, 4 July

What better way to celebrate Independence Day than to exercise my Constitutional right of free travel? That’s right: “free” as in “not encumbered by TSA or any of their baloney.”

The FAA requires that private pilots know how to plan and safely execute what they call “cross-country” flights. I’d already flown one with Andy from Palo Alto to Columbia, but the FAA requires that private pilots plan and carry out a cross-country flight of at least 150nm total distance, with one leg being at least 50nm and landings at 3 separate airports.

Andy had originally asked me to plan a flight from Palo Alto (KPAO) to Paso Robles (KPRB) to Salinas (KSNS) and back to KPAO. The first leg to Paso Robles is 129nm, so the total trip distance would meet all the FAA’s requirements. In my earlier post I gave a quick summary of what it means to construct a VFR flight plan; here’s a slightly more detailed list:

Puled out a bunch of paper charts: my San Francisco and Los Angeles sectional charts and my San Francisco terminal chart. Sectional charts are large-scale charts that show terrain features, airports, roads, navigation aids, and other useful items at 1:500,000 scale. Terminal charts show a smaller area at double the scale, so they’re great for navigation planning in urban areas.
Used the paper charts to plot a direct route of flight, using a straightedge and a Sharpie marker to lay out my course. Paper charts cost about $9 each, so you might wonder why I’d be willing to deface them with a Sharpie. The truth is, they expire after about 5 months, so you may as well mark on them.
Used the route of flight to identify checkpoints– visual features on the ground that I can look at to tell where I am and what my progress along the course is. There are some well-known visual checkpoints already marked on the sectionals. For example, VPSUN is the golf course at Sunol, while VPMOR is the LDS temple in Oakland. You can use these as reporting points; for example, I can call the Palo Alto tower and say “Palo Alto, Cessna One Niner One Tango Golf, overhead Leslie Salt, landing Palo Alto with Juliet.” That doesn’t mean Juliet’s in the airplane; rather, it means that I’m reporting being overhead the Leslie Salt Company’s salt refinery with ATIS information— a radio broadcast telling me what the current airport weather and runway conditions are– Juliet.
Measured the distance between checkpoints and put that into my navigation log.
Got a weather forecast showing the projected winds aloft and used those to calculate the amount of wind correction necessary for each leg.
Used the wind and airspeed data to figure out how long each leg would take to fly, or, in other words, the ETA to go between each pair of checkpoints
Used the ETA data to estimate fuel consumption for each leg
Reviewed the airport data, including which runways exist, whether they were open or closed, any restrictions on their use, what the standard traffic patterns and altitudes were, and so on.

After doing all that, I reviewed the weather forecast and saw that Salinas and Monterey were both fogged in. That didn’t bode well for my planned route, but I went to the airport anyway to meet with Andy and discuss my flight plan. Student pilots have to have an instructor’s logbook endorsement to legally do the long cross-country, you see, so meeting with him was a precondition to taking off. I reviewed the route of flight with him and pointed out some alternate options given that I couldn’t overfly the fog areas. He suggested a completely different route: over the hills to Tracy (KTCY), then down to Los Baños (KLSN), then to KPRB, and then back either direct (if the fog was gone) or by reversing that route. I replanned the route, got his endorsement, and went to check out the airplane I’d reserved… except that it was gone.

OK, OK, I exaggerate… a bit. The automated scheduling system that Advantage uses expects that you’ll sign out the airplane at the scheduled time. If you don’t do so within 30 minutes of your scheduled time, the system puts the airplane back in the available pool. I had an 0800 reservation, but at 0830 I was still meeting with Andy, so the plane became available and someone else grabbed it. Luckily there was another G1000-equipped 172 available at noon, so I took it instead.

Before I took off, I asked Palo Alto ground control for VFR flight following. This is essentially radar surveillance; air traffic control assigns you a unique transponder code that identifies your aircraft on radar. ATC will issue traffic and safety advisories, notifying you of other aircraft in your vicinity and so on. As you leave each bubble of radar surveillance, ATC hands you off to the next one. For my flight, I started out with Palo Alto and was handed off to NORCAL Approach, the TRACON (or terminal radar approach control center) that owns the airspace over most of northern California. I stayed with NORCAL until I got to an area outside their control, at which point they handed me over to Oakland Center, the air route traffic control center (ARTCC) that provides radar services outside of TRACON-controlled areas.

Anyway, one of the benefits of flight following is that you get traffic advisory calls. I got several on my route towards Tracy; that airspace is heavily traveled as people fly into and out of Palo Alto, Hayward, San Carlos, and the other airports in the area. My favorite call? That’s easy: “Cessna Two Hotel Golf, traffic your 1 o’clock, 2 miles, 5000 feet northbound, flight of two F-18. Hobo 51, traffic your 11-o’clock, 2 miles, 3000 feet eastbound, Cessna 172.” Sure enough, there went two F-18s zipping past, too fast for me to unlimber the camera and get a picture.

The flight itself was great! Good visibility on the outbound leg; I took off from Palo Alto, made a right Dunbarton, overflew Sunol, overflew the Livermore area, and headed to Tracy. AsHere’s what the Tracy airport looks like from 5500′ up; it looks small from the ground, but those two runways are 4000′ each.

My route of flight from metropolitan Tracy (!) down to Los Baños took me roughly along Interstate 5. To the west there are all kinds of interesting hills; to the east there are a string of smallish towns, plus lots and lots of cultivated land. From the air, the patchwork of different shades of green is absolutely gorgeous.

that salad you’re eating? it probably came from the Central Valley

My approach and landing at Los Baños were uneventful, with a good landing on their runway. The Los Baños airport is uncontrolled, meaning there’s no control tower or radar service. Each aircraft is required to vigorously “see and avoid,” of course, but there’s also a radio frequency on which aircraft in the vicinity announce their location and intentions. So you call to tell anyone listening that you’re approaching the airport, where you’re going, and where you are… i.e. “Los Baños traffic, Cessna Two Hotel Golf, 5 miles north of the field, two thousand five hundred, entering the pattern for landing runway 32”, or whatever. Then you call again when you get closer; meanwhile, other aircraft, if any, are making their own calls. I landed well, taxied back on the parallel taxiway, waited a minute for another aircraft to take off and clear the pattern, and took off to the south.

The route of flight that Andy and I had planned called for me to go from KLSN to New Coalingua airport, then turn southwest for Paso Robles.. so that’s what I did, being careful to stay out of the Lemoore military operating areas (MOAs). Andy warned me that I’d know when I was getting close to New Coalingua because I’d be able to smell Harris Ranch. I thought he was pulling my leg, but, sure enough, I could smell the stockyards from more than a mile up and several miles lateral distance. I made the turn before C80 and found Paso Robles right where it was supposed to be. I landed, taxied in to a parking spot, and went inside to find out if they had any food, having neglected to pack anything. They didn’t, but the kind folks at Paso Robles Jet Center loaned me a crew car so I could drive into town and eat at Margie’s Diner. As advertised, the diner had extremely large portions, which suited me just fine. I had a delicious grilled ham-and-cheese and two large diet Pepsis; meanwhile, the line crew refueled my plane so that when I got there (after a brief encounter with the airport’s resident cat) I was ready to go. I took off and headed to the northwest, towards Salinas, but there was a huge layer of haze that looked like it covered pretty much my entire route of flight.

Haze, of course, diminishes visibility rather than eliminating it. It wouldn’t have been legal for me to overfly an area of fog that obscured the ground completely, whereas I could have legally flown over the haze. However, “legal” and “prudent” don’t always mean the same thing, so I elected to go back the way that I came, mostly. Instead of going back to C80, I cut the corner by flying to the Priest VOR, then to the Panoche VOR, then telling the G1000 to take me back towards Tracy and thence to Palo Alto. On the way back, I practiced using the GFC700 autopilot in the airplane a bit. This might seem contradictory– why use the autopilot at all as a student? There are several good reasons. First, I want to know how every piece of equipment in the airplane works so that I can get the most utility from it. Second, for instrument flying the autopilot is a tremendous aid because it can keep the aircraft pointed in the right direction at the right altitude while the pilot aviates, navigates, and communicates. Third, one of the things you’re required to demonstrate on the FAA check ride is what the FAA calls “lost procedures”– in other words, what do you do if you get lost? I want the option to be able to tell the autopilot to keep the wings level and altitude steady while I’m rooting around looking for charts or whatever. Fourth, it’s cool. Anyway, I spent some time refreshing my knowledge of how to set up the autopilot to track a heading and maintain an altitude. There are many more sophisticated things it can do that I haven’t started exploring yet, like fly a profile such that you end up at a specific altitude over a specific point on the ground. That will come with time.

Coming back I had a great view of the San Luis reservoir, near Los Baños; see below.

There was a bit of haze, but off to the west I could still see heavy haze on my original planned route, and I was perfectly happy to see it over there instead of underneath me. My approach through the hills and the east side of the Bay went well, and I nailed the landing back at Palo Alto. 4.0 hours of pilot-in-command and solo cross-country time for the books!

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Filed under aviation, California

Tagged as aviation

2012/05/23 · 18:00

Pictures from my B-17 ride

I still have to write a more detailed post about my adventure flying in Nine O Nine, the Collings Foundation‘s immaculately restored B-17. I took 3 cameras: my iPhone, a Nikon D5100, and a ContourHD helmet cam (only without the helmet). It was my first outing with the D5100 and the ContourHD both, and I’m really pleased with the results. Check out my Flickr stream for airplane pics; as soon as I get the video edited (which will probably be a while), I’ll post it too.

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Filed under aviation, California, General Stuff

Tagged as aviation

2011/05/30 · 08:43

Legoland

Lego’s version of the famous Houmas House

Legoland was 100% worth the trip!

We drove down from Morgan Hill on Friday, taking the I-5 route. Because of construction at CA-58, we were a bit delayed en route, so we stopped overnight at the Rodeway Inn in Castaic, CA. It was a bit dingy, but given that we arrived after midnight I was prepared to relax my standards a bit.

Saturday morning we got up bright and early and made a beeline for Legoland. We arrived shortly after the park opened, and it was surprisingly crowded. Legoland’s crowd skews pretty young; there were lots of under-6-year-olds.

Our first stop was the aquarium. We’re undoubtedly spoiled, but I found it mediocre. Had it not been included in our ticket price I might have been disappointed.

The park, however, was well worth the price of admission. The models are jaw-dropping (see my Flickr stream for a few examples from Miniland, the model city area.) The rides are clever and well-designed, although the lines were long because there’s no equivalent to Disney’s FastPass system.

The boys’ favorite was probably the large, well-appointed water park. I sat in the sun and relaxed while they shivered in the water and claimed that they weren’t cold (the lazy river’s heated, however.)

A note about Legoland food: mediocre and expensive. Take your own if you can.

We closed the joint down, which was easy given that it closes at 6. Our hotel, Carlsbad by the Sea, was delightful; clean, beautifully landscaped, and well located. Breakfast the next morning was included, too, always a plus.

I’m posting this from iBlogger on my phone, so this update is too short to capture the full flavor. Suffice it to say that I highly recommend Legoland.

Morgan Hill superintendent’s statement on the Flag Four

Straight from the horse’s mouth:

Good evening. This is Dr. Wesley Smith, Superintendent of the Morgan Hill Unified School District.

The Morgan Hill Unified School District does not prohibit nor do we discourage wearing patriotic clothing. The incident on May 5 at Live Oak High School is extremely unfortunate. While campus safety is our primary concern and administrators made decisions yesterday in an attempt to ensure campus safety, students should not, and will not, be disciplined for wearing patriotic clothing. This situation and our response are under review.

We know that this is an emotionally charged topic. We would ask you to encourage your students to be safe and focus on their academics while in school. If conversations and/or activities are necessary to express their feelings on this issue, we will find appropriate venues that do not disturb student learning or jeopardize the safety of our students. Furthermore, we encourage everyone to demonstrate respect for each other, open communication, and responsibility.

Thank you for your support and understanding.

in other words, the assistant principal who caused this mess just got pitched under the bus, and Dr. Smith would really appreciate it if all y’all stayed in school instead of going downtown chanting “We want respect!” while offering none to your adopted nation.

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Filed under California, FAIL

2010/04/19 · 21:19

Don’t buy from Airsplat.com

Long story short: their customer support is poor, they don’t stand behind their products, and they aren’t honest about either.

I bought two electric Airsoft rifles for Dave and Tom for Christmas. Tom’s was fine; David’s was poorly designed and built. I got an RMA for it the day after Christmas, then had to fight with them for months before getting a partial refund. First they ignored me, then they claimed that the rifle had been damaged in return shipping (but couldn’t produce a UPS claim), then they claimed that it was damaged before shipping.

I eventually had to dispute the charge with my bank. The whole thing was a big hassle and not worth the few bucks that I might have saved by buying from them instead of a more reputable vendor.

Avoid them.

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Filed under California, FAIL, Smackdown!

Tagged as Airsplat, California

2010/03/17 · 09:50

Power to the people, California style

My office is currently suffering our second power outage of the year. Earlier this year, a plane carrying Tesla employees crashed into power lines, knocking out power to much of Palo Alto. Yesterday, a transformer in our office park failed, killing power to our building and the one next door. Incredibly, 18 hours later, we’re still without power! People here delight in looking down their noses at places like Athens, Alabama or Houma, Louisiana, but certainly I was never without electricity for longer than an hour or two, even during weather that would make the average Californian run for shelter.

Interestingly, outages seem to be a Palo Alto theme: there have been several other notable outages, and at least one other company has moved to neighboring Mountain View to get more reliable electric service.

Our critical servers are protected with UPS systems, but those only help provide time for a clean shutdown, not for ongoing operations. Our landlords arranged for a 1-megawatt diesel generator to tide us over; it’s set up in the parking lot but isn’t yet providing power to the building. The utility estimates that it will take two or three days to make the necessary repairs and get us back online. In the meantime, I have a fully-charged laptop and a mostly-charged MiFi, so at least I can get a few things done.

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Tagged as California

2010/03/08 · 10:59

A few things I learned at Scout outdoor leader training

I attended the first part of the Boy Scouts of America "Introduction to Outdoor Leader Skills" course this weekend. Here’s a brief summary of the major things I learned:

I’m not dyslexic, but I might as well be when it comes to tying knots. I tend to interchangeably use my right and left hands, and that meant that it took me about five times longer to learn how to tie some of the stupid things. I’ll be practicing this week.
The Chesebrough Scout reservation is a beautiful facility, but it doesn’t have any AT&T coverage (or, at least, not much).
A cardboard box, cut properly, makes a dandy split for lower-arm breaks or ankle injuries.
Black electrical tape is better than duct tape or masking tape for securing slings, splints, etc. It’s just sticky enough, and it stretches more than the other types, but not so much as to be useless.
When traveling in bear country, use unscented sunscreen to keep from becoming a bear magnet. You should also plan on wearing special clothes just for sleeping—if you sleep in your day clothes, they’ll have food scents on them, and bears love a good food scent.
The best way to test the fit of your hiking boots is to walk downhill. (More boot fitting tips here.)
The Scouts’ "Leave No Trace" program is surprisingly comprehensive; its principles include only camping and traveling on durable surfaces, minimizing campfire use, and attempting to avoid disturbing wildlife.
Your kitchen is probably a pit of filth, even if you’ve just cleaned it. (The food safety/prep class was a real eye-opener. Good thing it was delivered right before lunch!)

The second half of the training takes place Friday night and Saturday; we’ll be pitching tents, camping and cooking outdoors, and all that good stuff. Should be big fun.

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Filed under California, General Stuff

2009/10/15 · 17:00

Official California: gypsy moths

So Tuesday morning, the Atlas Van Lines truck showed up right on time. The driver handed Arlene a form.

"What’s this for?" she asked.

"Gypsy moth quarantine," said the driver. "Yer s’posed to have it when ya move here."

It turns out that the great state of California requires you to have your belongings inspected for the dreaded gypsy moth. Then again, maybe they don’t. Santa Clara County says yes, but other sources say no. I went ahead and called the inspectors to come check out the kids’ toys (which were pretty much the only outdoor thing we brought from Ohio), but no one came.

Of course, it might have helped if someone had told us before the move that we’d need an inspection. I mean, by the time the truck’s unloaded, these hypothetical moths would have free run of our yard… if all the rain didn’t kill them first, but that’s another post.

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2009/10/07 · 15:32

Official California: the DMV

So yesterday I had my first real “official California” experience. You’ve probably heard all about the state government here: the problems with bloated pensions, the budget, the knuckleheads in Sacramento, and so forth. I was worried about having to deal with the DMV, because– really– does any state have a good one?

First I hit this extremely useful unofficial DMV guide. It was a lifesaver. The fun started when I wanted to make an appointment. The web-based interface for doing so is ugly, but functional, (and hey, at least they have one, unlike Ohio), but I was really surprised to find that the soonest I could schedule an appointment was… yesterday, or almost three weeks from my scheduling attempt. There weren’t any better times available at any of the other offices that are quasi-near my office, so I decided to wait the three weeks instead of trying to show up and get in.

Second hurdle: you need to fill out a form 44 to get your license, but you can’t get one online; they’re all individually barcoded. So much for being prepared. Anyway, I showed up yesterday (about 15 minutes late, sad to say). When I got there, I waited in line for 5 minutes or so, got a copy of form 44, and was sent to fill it out. After filling it out, I got back in line, spent some time with the nice appointments lady (10 min, say), sat and waited for 10 minutes, went to a different window to have my documents verified and pay, went to yet another window to wait in line to get my picture taken (10 min), got a rules-of-the-road test form, took the test, and waited for it to be graded (15 min). At the end of all this, I walked out $30 poorer with a paper “provisional license” and a promise that my real license would be in the mail in two or three weeks.

Was it bad? No, but a far cry from the efficiency and speed of even the Bowling Green office of the Ohio DMV. I still have to go back and register our vehicles, too. Le sigh.

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2009/09/07 · 17:47

California roundup: one month in

Today is Labor Day, which means it’s the start of the third full week that David and I have been living in California, and my fifth overall. I miss Arlene, Matt, and Tom so much! I can’t wait to see them again on the 25th, right before we close the sale of our house in Ohio.

A few assorted thoughts on being a newly-minted Californian.

I am adapting to traffic and commute times. Note that I didn’t say I liked them, just that it seems like I’m getting used to them again, much as when I lived in Atlanta. David has seminary each school day at 0650, so once I drop him off I can usually be at my office between 0745 and 0800. That usually makes me the first one in, which is fine with me. On days when he has football practice, he’s done about 1830, which leaves me plenty of time to leave the office and still get him on time. Of course, once Arlene, Matt, and Tom are here I’ll be able to take the train more often.
Speaking of which: I took the train last week to get back to Morgan Hill after dropping off my rental car. It worked fine. It’s about 40 miles each way from Morgan Hill to my office. The Saab gets about 28 mpg in mixed city/highway driving, so figure (5 * 40 * 2) / 28 ~= 14 gallons of gas per week, or about $44 at today’s gas price. Train tickets cost $7.75 each way, or $52.75 for an 8-ride pass, or $205 for a monthly pass. Thus I’m paying a slight premium to be able to sit and work, or read, or whatever instead of just sitting in traffic. Not a bad trade, it seems.
It seems like these guys are everywhere. I see at least three or four cruisers each day going to and from work. Kinda makes the Ohio Highway Patrol look like slackers.
The weather seems to have two states: pleasant and hot.

Work? Work is awesome. I am still enthralled with what I’m doing in three respects. First, we have an extremely talented and smart team. Second, I continue to be impressed with the tutoring engine and what I’m leaning from it. Third, I am having great fun setting up our experimental Exchange 2010 environment. Compared to what we have now, Exchange 2010 is light-years ahead. It’s like moving from this to this.

Our typical daily routine is to get up around 0545, shower, and grab breakfast at the hotel. I drop David off at seminary, drive to work, work, and then pick him up again after football. We’ve really done a good job of eating in: turkey burgers, salmon, pasta-in-a-bag, and so on are all typical fare. Arlene sent us a crock pot but I broke it about 2 minutes after it got here, so that hasn’t been much help. We definitely miss her cooking!

Weekends have been quite a bit more relaxed. Saturday David and I went to the 144th annual Scottish Highland Gathering and Games. It was everything we hoped for: there were pipers, the Marine Band San Diego, Scottish Heavy Athletics, and sheep-dog trials. Sadly I didn’t get to have a Scottish egg, as the line was about 45 minutes long. Apart from that, though, it was delightful, and it’s nice to know they’ll be in the same place at the same weekend next year in case we get a hankering to go back. Sunday we did essentially nothing except attending church, devouring a Costco take-and-bake five-meat pizza we bought Saturday, and driving around to look at houses we found on RealtyTrac. For our evening entertainment, we watched the first part of “Torchwood: Children of Earth” (brilliant so far!) and an episode from the first season of House. We’ve also been reading a lot; the library system here is quite well-stocked and has many of the amenities we came to expect from Way Library.

Today David has some friends from church over to swim in the hotel pool while I write. Interestingly, even though today’s a holiday, he still has football practice at the usual time, so once I drop him off I’m going to look at a couple of rental houses. Right now we’re leaning towards renting for a year, letting our equity from the Ohio house marinate in a nice CD while we wait to find exactly the perfect house. Tomorrow it’s back to the weekday routine!

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2009/07/22 · 10:36

We’re moving to California

(Mental playlist for this entry: Led Zep’s Going to California; Fatboy Slim’s Kalifornia; Take California by the Propellerheads; the Royal Gigolos remix of California Dreamin’; close out with the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Dani California).

From the title of this post and the playlist above, you might have figured it out: we’re not moving to Seattle, but instead to somewhere in the wild, wild Bay Area. Worse, I’m leaving 3Sharp and joining another company altogether. Shock! Horror! How did this happen?

It’s complicated.

Since my dad’s death in 2007 I’ve been thinking more about who I am and what I do. In my early career, I built software, a process that has tangible (and hopefully executable) results. In my current role, I spend a lot of time researching how things work, and the good and bad aspects of various technologies, and communicating my learnings to people in different ways. Over time I began to feel as though I was losing the passion that had made me successful at 3Sharp. I still enjoyed tinkering with new technologies (yeah, Exchange 2010, I’m looking at you), but I felt as though my inner fire was turning into banked coals instead of a roaring inferno.

At the same time, 3Sharp has been growing and changing in some new and exciting ways. Some unforeseen (and very much unwanted) changes in our business meant that we had to lay people off– people I valued as friends and for whose welfare I felt responsible. That was a hard pill to swallow for me. At the same time, PKS, and its related technologies, have been strong areas for us, as has the work we’ve done focused on Office and SharePoint. The only way I could help move that work forward was by driving 3Sharp’s sales and marketing efforts, but I quickly found that– compared to the other things I knew how to do– that I was neither very excited by nor very good at these critical things.

When Acuitus approached me to do some on-site training for them in Monterey, I jumped at the chance because Jim McBee (my longtime friend and a great American) had told me they were doing some interesting things. After the training was over, I flew down to San Jose to talk to them about hiring 3Sharp to do some additional work. During that time I got more hands-on experience with their digital tutor, and learned more about their long-term plans. Instead of hiring 3Sharp, they offered me a job.

After a lot of soul searching, and many long conversations with Arlene, I decided to accept their offer. I’d been approached by other companies before, including competitors of 3Sharp and companies that wanted Exchange talent in-house. This offer was different, though. What tipped the scale is this: I firmly believe that what Acuitus is doing will revolutionize the way computer-based learning works and how it’s used. Working there will give me some unmatchable opportunities to build and do things that can make a lasting impact for millions of people. That was too much to resist!

There are a lot of scary parts to this change: I’m uprooting my family to move someplace that none of us have ever wanted to live, going back to working in an office instead of from home most of the time, and having to prove my skills and worth all over again from scratch. Instead of the established support system we would have had in Seattle, we’re starting over in a new, and very different, environment from what we’re used to. These things are all hard.

The change is hard for another reason. I think of my partners in 3Sharp– Paul, Peter, and John– like brothers. Telling them that I was leaving was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to face. I have learned so much from them that I owe them a debt I can’t ever repay, not that leaving them is helping to repay it any! However, I believe in their talent and drive, and I know that 3Sharp will continue to thrive and prosper under their care.

However, sometimes it takes work to move on to the next stage of whatever the Lord has planned for us. That’s what I’m trying to keep in mind as we go through the process of looking at ridiculously overpriced houses and figuring out how we’ll make the leap to this new environment. I’ve added a new category called “California” for posts just about the transition, even. Onward…

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