Video: Thunderstruck - Folk Style

An acoustic version of AC/DC Thunderstruck with banjos, spoons, accordion and an anvil.

Bonus

People is a Greek shopping mall traditional dancing to Thuunderstuck.

Hattip: <a rel=“nofollow” target="_blank" href="" >@just4nick

Technology Evangelist

Saw this, instantly thought of people who call themselves “technology evangelists”

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Photo: Cirencester 20141009

I was in Cirencester, England for a meeting last week and this building caught my eye. I wish I had time to know it purpose and learn some more about it but the pictures are dramatic and pleasing.

 

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CIO Cancels The Project

The engineer is getting on with the project and the CIO cancels the deal.

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Source: brkwydln.tumblr.com/post/9958…

Video: Jonathan Ive Shares Three Lessons He Learned from Steve Jobs

Inspiring.

“Steve [Jobs] was the most remarkably focused person I ever met in my life,” Apple’s senior vice president of design Jonathan Ive told Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter during the closing event of Vanity Fair’s New Establishment Summit in San Francisco.

Source: http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2014/10/jony-ive-lessons-from-steve-jobs

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Twitter Thoughts 20141002

Twitter Thoughts is a pseudo-collection of stuff I’ve tweeted. Bitter, snarky, humorous but collected here so I still own it after Twitter goes away.

 

The only person who rings mobile is my account manager or as I call it “Hell on a Cell”

Only deleted 122 emails so far today. Quiet day.

Sometimes I wear a scary clown mask to vendor meetings. Its about respect.

Relax, John. The duct tape and chair is to help you think very carefully about how much discount you are going to offer me.

My wife has gone out with the girls. I’ve cheated on her with six slices of pizza. Who doesn’t love pizza ?

Some of my best naps have been during webinars.

You can’t be sad when there is cheese around

This Network Design will soon be issuing it’s own credit card called “Technical Debt”

Hiring an engineer for his business skills is like mixing Skittles and M&Ms in the same bowl

 

mediatization

This word and meaning took my fancy.
mediatizationn.
[‘ In Germany under the Holy Roman Empire: the action of reducing a prince or state in position or power (see mediatize v. 1a); the condition of being mediatized. Now hist.’]
Does this mean that "media" is a balancing of power to the people. I should look up the meaning of the word media.
My Websters 1913 dictionary states
"Media is the plural of Medium" -
"1. That which lies in the middle, or between other things;intervening body or quantity. Hence, specifically: (a) Middle place or degree; mean.
(b) (Math.) See {Mean}. (c) (Logic) The mean or middle term of a syllogism; that by which the extremes are brought into connection.
But the current Dictionary in OS X
medium |ˈmiːdɪəm|noun (pl.media or mediums)
an agency or means of doing something: using the latest technology as a medium forjob creation | their primitive valuables acted as a medium ofexchange.• a means by which something is communicated or expressed: here the Welsh language is the medium of instruction.
the intervening substance through which sensory impressions are conveyed or physical forces are transmitted: radio communication needs no physical medium between the two stations.• the substance in which an organism lives or is cultured. these cells are grown in a nutrient-rich medium.• a liquid (e.g. oil or water) with which pigments are mixed, with a binder, to make paint.
a particular form of storage material for computer files, such as magnetic tape or discs.
the material or form used by an artist, composer, or writer: oil paint is the most popular medium for glazing.
(pl.mediumsa person claiming to be in contact with the spirits of the dead and to communicate between the dead and the living.
the middle quality or state between two extremes; a reasonable balance: the song soon discovers a happy medium betweenthrash and catchy pop.
Medium rarely means middle, but mostly refers to delivery. How things change.

I Beat Cancer at 19 But I'm Still Fighting To Be Healthy

I beat cancer when I was 19. Well, I say “beat” but you don’t really win against cancer, it leaves all sorts of mental and physical scars. Thirty or so years later its easy to forget how my life changed and  my legacy of small health issues.

I got early treatment from a progressive surgeon who was willing to share some risk with me. We took some difficult decisions to avoid the more damaging choices and take some calculated risks about the spread of the cancer. In hindsight, they were the right choices and I avoided surgery that would have nearly crippled me and negative impacts on my life today. Compared to some people, I had what medical people call “a good outcome”.

A “good outcome” doesn’t mean fully healthy. I developed a few secondary medical problems around that time. Nothing too serious (compared to dying, at least).

One that took 10 years to diagnose is a viral infection that gets grouped into Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. If I work too hard, expend too much energy, too much stress and don’t get enough sleep then my body isn’t able to cope. Sometimes I miss the warning signs, I get fevers, exhaustion, lack of concentration.

I’m thankful to be alive. I’m thankful to not die a truly awful death through cancer eating me alive from the inside. But I’m still fighting to stay healthy, to keep living. These viral relapses remind me that I’m not dead and that science is a wonder.

I’ve had several bad weeks with exhaustion which is longer than usual recovery period. I’m not able to concentrate fully. I’m not keeping up with my schedule and commitments. I need to sleep 12 hours a day to return to health.

But I’m not dead so it’s a good outcome. I’ll keep telling myself that until I’m back to full power.

Video: Emma Watson Inspires In This Speech

Emma Watson gives an impassioned speech for men to join women in equal rights for everyone at the UN. Make women equal to men.

Simply beautiful and genuine speech that is really touching. Standing ovation at the end.

Twitter Valediction

I will be spending less time on Twitter. Going forward, my primary focus is to publish more often on my blog here and at EtherealMind.com and PacketPushers.net. They will be my primary focus for sharing ideas, thoughts and commentary and just a little snark.

It has been a good seven year run and twitter has lasted longer than I thought but it is time to move back to blogging at the best source. Blogging is the only permanent social media and will survive twitter/facebook/google plus. In almost every way, my own content is more satisfying and pleasing.

twitter.com/etherealm…

I would like to suggest that you directly subscribe to my blogs using an RSS subscription and a suitable RSS app. EtherealMind RSS Greg Ferro RSS and Packet Pushers.

I will continue pushing a tweet when I publish blog posts, in the same way that I do so on Google Plus, Facebook and LinkedIn but I won’t be engaging on these sites either. It possible that I might do some testing in LinkedIn but I find LinkedIn too intrusive to an enjoyable experience.

What's Changed

Own My Content - it has become a personal goal to own more of my content. That which I write, record and share will be on sites that have my name associated. 140 characters on Twitter won’t achieve that goal.  Twitter wins most of the benefit from my content.

Distraction - Twitter has become a distraction for me that I need to control. The Noise-to-Signal ratio has increased over time. Attempts to change use patterns with less followers/different followers have made no discernible different. It is no longer useful as an information gathering tool or signal source.

Where once my time was well spent on twitter - fun, enjoyable and conversational,  I do not feel this is the case now.

Curated Feeds - This article from Wall Street Journal is the final motivation to make a change. Twitter is moving towards ‘curated’ feeds where an algorithm will make choices about what I see from the people I follow. This creates an incomplete view of what you say online and I will no longer reliably see what you have to say. In which case, what is the point ?

Equally, that which I publish to share with you will no longer reliably reach you.

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Note that this is a primary reason for not using Facebook. If I post something there, less 10% of people who follow the account will see the post. Its not practical to follow me on Facebook since you won't see most

Valediction

Lets try this and see how it goes. I need to be productive in other places and reducing twitter is one part of a strategy. I may occasionally popup since I will have twitter apps on my iPhone only just to keep an eye on things. I have a quasi-regular tool that tweets some snark and I will be tweeting about appearances and commercial events. I’m not quitting twitter, just scaling back to the minimum.

If you would like to engage/contact me then send me an email at greg.ferro@packetpushers.net and I should have more time to respond to you.

Vale, Twitter, at least for a while.

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Twitter Thoughts 20140921

This tech conference is like a yard sale of nerds.

Came to work today and saw a chalk outline of my soul on the floor under my desk.

I’m the best damn network engineer in the room (when I’m in the toilet)

My “free time” was paid for by my “work time”.

Close your eyes. Take a moment. Imagine the world without you in it. Realise nothing would change. Stop worrying.

This beer tastes like I can’t afford Bollinger or Veuve Cliquot.

Too young to throw in the towel, too old to pick it up.

Me: I made you a friendship necklace. Storage Expert: This looks like hangmans noose. Me: Does it fit?

I put on casual trousers, belt and lace up shoes when I leave the house. Unlike most people in Silicon Valley.

Instead of ‘ice bucket’ lets do ‘have sex’ challenge - who is with me ?

Whenever someone asks me if I’ve been living under a rock I’m always like “no but that sounds awesome”

Today has been signalled by my middle finger.

The thing ITIL teaches me about making mistakes is to not do any work.

What rhymes with syphilis ? I can’t get this poem to my product manager quite right. Its so hard to give good feedback.

I’m “can setup a 3-way call on a desk phone using only the number pad” years old.

Vendor relationships are one-sided. Its not about how much they love you now but how much more love there will be next quarter.

It takes 26 muscles to smile, and 62 muscles to frown. I’m such an over-achiever.

Typing an email to the vendor account manager using only my middle fingers with my palms up takes some practice. But SO worth it.

I have a few regrets. Kicking the sales grunt in the backside as he left the building is not one of them.

Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen. (Managers -> PM -> Engineers)

Started connecting the dots on this network design. Turns out it was Morse Code for “you dumb ass”.

This vendor presentation makes me want to be a better drinker.

If there was a god, then this network would work the way that the reseller promised.

Favourite boy band for network architects ? Backstreet Boys. Because they want it that way.

Closing my study window. Neighbours are concerned about the crying and banging noises my head is making on the desk.

This Vendor SE is clearly having a long distance relationship with the truth.

Project Mgr: “Greg, what do you think of the proposal ? " Me: “We need to finish this meeting in 22% battery time”. Goes back to twitter

Saving my farts for vendor meetings so we can wrap up on time isn’t so wrong.

need an option for “Pffftt, Idiot”

ATM LAN Imitation was the sincerest form of networking flattery

Fifteen minute meeting with reseller sales-grunt. Attempted close on purchase order no less than nine times. This is what stupid looks like

All my pleasures are guilty. I’m middle aged and overprivileged. Don’t judge me.

I use professional lubricant.

Nothing lasts longer than a temporary solution.

Office Living Tip: A coffee mug is really an enhanced cereal bowl. Of course, if you are Checkpoint, a cereal bowl is really a coffee cup, done the right way.

Where is the button for for “Pffftt, you Idiot” ?

Having face sex with this ham & cheese toasted sandwich. Don’t judge me.

The key to anything is to have a key.

Fit in. Learn to laugh at yourself and join the others already laughing at you.

Cheese always forgives you.

Sometimes building at scale feels more like the Titanic than a Saturn rocket.

Making a note to bring nutshells to next customer meeting - “that’s it in a nutshell” will be so much funner.

On this day in history, the network was broken. Somewhere.

Disappointed. Pandemonium doesn’t have involve pandas.

Apple and Too Much NLP

Quote from Tim Cook in an Apple Press release: Apple - Press Info - Apple Announces Record Pre-orders for iPhone 6 & iPhone 6 Plus Top Four Million in First 24 Hours]

“iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are better in every way, and we are thrilled customers love them as much as we do,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Pre-orders for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus set a new record for Apple, and we can’t wait to get our best iPhones yet into the hands of customers starting this Friday.”

Notice the overloaded neurolinguistic programming (NLP) in this heavily prepared statement

" better in every way", " thrilled customers love", " new record for Apple", “best iPhones”

NLP is obvious, manipulative, and feels creepy.

Video: Turbo Encabulator

Yes, please, its a Cisco UCS Server and EMC VMAX rolled into a single product - The Turbo Encabulator.

Thanks to @packetsar for the reminder.

My Choice for Consistent Charity

Charity. Hard to talk about and hard to do. My principles are:

  1. Give consistently. One off donations do not sustain business models.
  2. Be Quietly Public. I would prefer to keep my donations private but there are two counter-aspects. First, public giving inspires other giving. Second, too much publicity about donations provides egotists opportunities for grandstanding. So, I aim for quietly public.
  3. Business Models. Look for charities that are run well and can deliver big results.

Here is how I do it.

For the last 4 years, I’ve been donating at Kiva to support people in some of poorest countries in the world. Kiva is about micro finance where sums as low as USD$75 can fund a startup business. In rural Kenya, a loan of $500 can transform the business of shopkeeper or farmer.

  1. Kiva lets me donate consistently using PayPal. I donate a portion of profits from my e-books and banner advertising on my blogs.
  2. I can do this quietly. The information is available at Kiva if it is important to you.
  3. I have travelled through Eastern Africa and seen the damage and waste caused by well meaning but misguided charity. Church-related charities especially have delivered poor quality outcomes. Supporting business people and stimulating the economy is a lasting change and let the community decide their own futures.

I would hope that you will join me at Kiva - http://www.kiva.org/invitedby/etherealmind and give consistently to charity and support long lasting change through supporting local entrepreneurs.

 

These amounts of money are too small for traditional banking. The cost of simple administration plus shareholder mean that these business struggle to grow and people remain in poverty no matter how hard they tried.

I can’t go back to Africa to help them myself (although I wish I could and one day I hope to do more),

Video: Abiogenesis

In this breathtaking science fiction spectacle, a strange mechanical device lands on a desolate world and uses the planet to undergo a startling transformation, that has profound implications for an entire galaxy. www.abiogenesisfilm.com www.facebook.com/abiogenes…

Museum of The Order of St John -

One of the few delights of walking around London is finding pieces of history in random places.

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Video:Cellphones Make People Flaky as #%@*

Yep.

Opinions, Individuals and Meetings

Meetings: Several individuals with independent opinions. Me: Individual with several independent opinions

Will hold more meetings with myself. Get Same Result.

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Turd Polishing with Glitter

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5 Job Interview Tactics With Startups That Piss Me Off

Working for a startup looks exciting and enticing. Interviewing for a startup job  is hugely annoying. Let me run through a list of “piss me off” things. Multiple Interviews: I’m willing to have a couple of telephone interviews and maybe two face to face interviews. The current Silicon Valley method of ten interviews with lunch and dinner is a massive time waster, a stupid way to hire and sure sign that you are hopeless at hiring people. If you don’t know what you want, I don’t want to work for you.

No wonder CEOs of startup complain and whine about recruiting - they waste so much time and the method is a mess.

Kool-aid victim: Working for a startup is a pretty big gamble and you probably need to have some passion for what the company does to take the risk. But don’t bring the attitude to an interview. The interview is chance for me to see if your company has a real vision and whether I can realise the financial reward. If I want to clap hands and sing songs about an unknowable vision I can visit a pentecostal church to do that. I want facts and numbers about your business.

job-interview-tactics-opt Weakness:  Do not lie about your SWAT. If I ask where the business could go wrong, competitors and exit strategy then tell me straight. If I’m smart enough to ask, you need to be smart enough to answer. If the person doesn’t ask this question, then you are hiring someone who doesn’t understand business. That might be fine for a programmer or someone who lacks a business focus but it doesn’t cut cake for me.

Risk and Opportunity Cuts Both Ways: I have an especial loathing for interviewers who think they are taking all the risk in hiring me and treat me like some kind of alien. This misguided attitude will have me walking out the door in mid-interview. This demonstrates self-centred and obsessive behaviour of the worst kind. If you lack empathy for the risks I’m taking, losses I will sustain in making a transition and my personal situation then you aren’t someone I want to work with.

Don’t Lie, Don’t Promise What You Can’t Deliver:  The worst of all is telling me how much money you will make, or how large you might be, or how your technology is …. much great, so something and big awesome. That’s all lies until proven otherwise. If you live in a make-believe land of fairy technology and princesses that will purchase your product/service/company then I’m not working with you because you are clearly an idiot.

Solutions

Make it easy for me to join you then make it easy for you to get rid of me. This put risk on the job applicant who knows that you will be invoking the 4 week exit clause. Be brutal and tell them that you will ditch them out the door if the applicant doesn’t fit it, make the grade, demonstrate the technical knowledge. Now the applicant has to make a serious commitment.

The current method wastes time, money and effort for negative gain. You have invested so much time and money in the interview process that you are highly unlikely to get rid of me. Which is stupid.

Yes, interviewing for startups pisses me off and I won’t be rushing to do it again.

I want is an interesting job that pays fair money, interesting work and nice people. You want someone smart, motivated and team player. Have you got that ? It’s all you need to attract the right person.

Doctor Who Notice

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Source: Doctor Who notice on The London Underground - Imgur

You Can Never Be Lonely On The Internet

You can never really be lonely anymore.

The Internet is always here to criticise you.

you can never really be lonely anymore the Internet is here to criticise you

Building Focus By Removing Distractions

A couple of days ago I wrote about focus but I’m also built out of habits. Habits that I find hard to break.

I need to build a habit around focussing on writing in Scrivener so I took 10 minutes to write this distraction killer using Keyboard Maestro on my Mac.

While I am using Scrivener, it will terminate my twitter and RSS reader apps hopefully help me build new habits.

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I’m so weak I’m embarrassed to even write this post but maybe that will help too.

Three Things I Wish I Was Better At

One: I wish I could concentrate better on a single task so that the task gets done. There is value in distractions, creative activity and exploring news things but the core activity needs total concentration.

Two: Listening is getting harder. I always thought that listening would get easier as I got older but that isn’t happening.

Three: Life balance. I’m not spending enough time on external activities. Possibly because I’m not concentrating. I need to do spend more time on social activities.

I could also wish to be writing three really cool things that I wish I was better at.

Video: AXIS of Awesome - 4 Chord Songs

Shake your head that all of these songs actually use the same chords but you can’t hear it.

Funny video too.