TEDTalks: The best entertainment on the web
Thursday, November 30, 2006
I continue to be entertained by the videos over at TEDTalks. In a nutshell, TED: ...brings together more than 1000 thought-leaders, movers, and shakers in Monterey, California every year for four days of learning, laughter, and inspiration. They've had quite an impressive speaker list over the years. In June, they started making videos from the speaker sessions available on the TED website (i.e., TEDTalks). I try to visit the site every couple of weeks to catch up on the latest videos. I've yet to be disappointed by a presentation and most have been highly entertaining and informative. Considering I listened to over 50 speakers while I was at MIT last year, I can appreciate the consistent quality of speakers at TED.
A Deer Jumped on my Car
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
I never imagined that I'd one day utter the words (or write the words for that matter): A deer jumped on my car. But it is, quite unbelievably, a true statement. As vast areas of trees are cut down to make room for "progress" in my area, the local wildlife has to find a new place to inhabit. Deer sightings are a common occurrence while driving on the back roads near my house. This time of year there isn't a week that goes by that I don't see a deer either on the side of the road or dead on the road. My only really close encounter with a deer came about 4 years ago when I was driving behind a large SUV. Out of nowhere, a deer runs full speed into the side of the SUV which was driving at about 45 MPH. The deer was knocked down, but got up and staggered off into the woods. I got out of my car the owner of the SUV got out of his to look at the damage. As you might expect, a huge dent in his passenger side door but no one was hurt. That was my only deer experience until yesterday. I was driving on another back road around 8am with two cars in my lane directly in front me. All of a sudden I see the car in front slow down and eventually stop. The car behind him did the same. I followed suit. I see a deer sprinting toward the car in front before making a b-line straight for my car. The deer then attempted to jump over my car! I have a Jeep liberty and this was a small-ish doe, so there was no way she was going to make it over my car. And of course she didn't. She didn't even make it up on the hood the first try. She landed on the side of my front windshield and somehow got enough traction to finish the leap off my car before scurrying into the woods. Fortunately, my car suffered little damage. The experience only lasted 4 or 5 seconds, but was quite dramatic for an early morning drive into work. I feared my car would be damaged more than it was. My windshield wiper was sticking straight out, there were scuff marks all over my hood and windshield, and I had a quarter-sized dent on the left side of the hood. I called the insurance company and they said they are getting inundated by all the accidents due to deer in the NC, SC, and VA areas, but this was the first one they heard of while a car was stopped ;-) I know, I know, the odds of being hit by a deer a second time are probably about like being struck by lightning. And I know that never happens.
BellSouth Sucks
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Last year I wrote about my difficulties with Cingular and Suncom. In a nutshell, the service was flaky at best and customer service was not sympathetic. Now, I'm starting to see the same kind of thing with BellSouth. For a couple of years I used Packet 8 VOIP for my residential phone and long-distance service. I couldn't beat the price: less than $21 per month for unlimited long distance. The service wasn't perfect, we were without 911 service for the first year, but I never had any issues with Packet 8. The problem was with my home broadband connection. My wife and I experienced frequent service disruptions with our Internet connection after moving into our home two years ago which would cause problems with our phone service. And since we live in a new neighborhood, we've had periodic power outages due to lines being cut. This would cause my home network to reboot (I don't have a UPS though I probably should) and inevitably the phone adapter wouldn't register correctly and needed to be manually restarted. Of course these issues would happen when I was traveling on business and my wife was home alone. After a couple of years of this, we decided we weren't using the free long distance enough to really get the benefit out of VOIP. And since the disruptions were occasionally annoying, we decided to switch to iron clad BellSouth residential service. We had used BellSouth at a previous residence and had no problems with them. Unfortunately, that wouldn't be the case this time around. First, BellSouth had to run a phone line from the road to the back of our house. That meant they had to dig up our yard. After the first week of service, we started experiencing brief disruptions. None would happen longer than a day, but it was long enough to be annoying. In fact, it happened enough to make my wife and I wonder if we made the right decision switching to the "reliable" BellSouth service. Then yesterday, I called home from my work phone and the call kept dropping. I tried it repeatedly and sure enough, after the first ring the line would drop. I eventually spoke to my wife via her cell phone and she said it had been happening all day. I tried it again this morning and same problem. What made it even worse is that since it would drop after the first ring, caller id wouldn't register so we didn't know who was calling. Maybe it was BellSouth telling us that they were experiencing problems ;-) Not likely. This afternoon I submitted a service form on BellSouth's website regarding my problem. I mentioned that I'm without service and need it fixed ASAP. This was the email I received back (today is Nov 14th). Dear BellSouth Customer,
Thank you for contacting BellSouth regarding your inside wiring. A repair report has been generated to have a technician dispatched on 11/20/06 between the hours of 2:00 PM and 6:00 PM. If this time is not convenient for you, please e-mail us or call us at (800) 867-5662 to let us know. We are required to advise you that you will be subject to a service charge since you do not subscribe to the wire maintenance plan.
If you wish to cancel this request, please let us know. Please accept our apologies for your inconvenience. We appreciate your business.
Thank you, The soonest they can send someone out is next Monday?!?! Not only that, but I'm going to have to pay for the visit because I didn't purchase their "wire maintenance plan". This is eerily similar to my Cingular/SunCom fiasco. I have a major problem with paying a company for service and when the service doesn't work, being asked to pay MORE to get it to work. It might not be so bad, but I went from paying $21 per month for unlimited long distance with Packet 8, to over $50 per month for basic residential and pay per minute long distance. Now my wife and I are thinking about getting rid of the home line altogether and just using our cell phones. Ahh!!!
Payment Processing with Paypal and Ruby
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
For the last few years, I've been a series editor for O'Reilly's Windows Systems Administration titles. I was involved in both acquisition and development of several books. As my interest in that series waned, I started to look for other editorial opportunities working on non-Microsoft oriented books. This summer I met Andy Hunt of the Pragmatic Programmers (he lives nearby in Raleigh) and now I'm working with the Pragmatic Bookshelf. The first title I edited, Payment Processing with Paypal and Ruby, is now available. The author, Joe Fair, was a pleasure to work with. This short book will be helpful to Ruby programmers looking to integrate Paypal with an existing website. 
Air travel: An efficient mode of transferring germs
Monday, October 16, 2006
My wife gets sick pretty easily by being near other sick people. She's gotten sick four or five times in the past year and a half. Each time was either during or directly after a trip we went on. It has happened so many times in a row now that she's afraid to travel long distances because more than likely she'll get sick. I'm fortunate to have a pretty good immune system. I lived in Boston most of last year and survived some pretty brutal weather. I was around a bunch of sick people in classrooms and conference rooms and didn't even get the sniffles. I haven't gotten sick in three years…until recently. I was flying to Las Vegas for a conference and started filling ill shortly after I got there. It wasn't a bad cold, but enough to make my two week trip uncomfortable. There is only one thing we've found in common with the illnesses my wife and I have had for the past two years: air travel. Of course, part of the problem with trying to identify the source of an illness is that you can't be 100% sure what caused it. Common reasons for getting sick include being around other sick people (airborne germs) or touching your mouth, nose or eyes after touching an infected person or thing. My wife and I have become pretty fanatical when it comes to washing our hands and using antibacterial cleaner while traveling, so we are skeptical that would be the cause. We've come to the conclusion that being on an airplane is more than likely the reason. It only makes sense, right? An airplane has a large number of people in tight quarters all breathing the same air. There should be more studies to see the effect of air travel on the dispersal of illnesses in the population. I can envision a social networking application that allows people to associate illnesses with potential causes/places/times. Of course there would be some false positives (identifying the cause as air travel when it really wasn't), but I bet distinct patterns would emerge. Wouldn't it be interesting to know that you weren't the only person to get sick shortly after a recent flight you took? I know if I got sick with my good immune system on a plane recently, there had to have been others that got sick too. I wonder if we'd see crazy things like half of the passengers on the plane got sick? I wouldn't be too surprised. Turns out that there have been some studies on the effect of air travel on the spread of the flu. Specifically, scientists found that 9/11 caused the 2001 flu season to be delayed by two weeks. I bet the results of a larger scale test would be even more shocking. Imagine all of the wasted productivity due to catching a cold from a plane. What can do you to protect yourself? You can take a bunch of vitamins, but that hasn't helped my wife much. This website suggests a layered approach. Wear a mask with a dampened hankie inside the mask. That would make for a fun 4 hour flight! At the end of the day, there are no guarantees. The airlines and the FAA really need to look at this problem and figure out better ways to clean the air or they need to be more receptive to ill passengers rebooking their flights (at minimal cost). Last year my wife was very ill during the middle of one of our trips and the airline would not let her rebook her flight without a huge penalty. There's no telling how many people get sick because of that policy.
Extending the desktop (via a script)
Saturday, August 26, 2006
Over the last few months, several articles have been written about the productivity boost associated with having two (or more) monitors (e.g., NYTimes). I've had dual monitors at work and home for two months and I love it. Extending the desktop environment over much larger screen real estate means you don't have to constantly switch between various applications. I can have my email, IM, or browsers up in one monitor while I read a document or code in an IDE in another. One pain associated with doing this on Windows XP is the fact that you have to go into the Display Properties, select the second montior, and check "Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor.". This is a pain because sometimes when I undock my laptop, it won't recognize that the second monitor isn't attached. And even if it does recognize that it is disconnected, when I hook up to the docking station again I have to go back into the properties and re-check the "extend my desktop" box. I figured there had to be a way to script this setting. I found the ChangeDisplaySettingsEx API, but it wasn't easily scriptable. Next I looked at simulating GUI movements. A quick Google search led me to AutoIt, which looked like exactly what I needed. Plus it is free! AutoIt was very easy to install and use. It only took me a couple minutes to create this script which will toggle the 'extend my desktop' box: Run("C:\WINDOWS\system32\control.exe desk.cpl,@0,3")
WinWaitActive("Display Properties")
Send("{TAB}")
Send("{DOWN}")
Send("{TAB}")
Send("{TAB}")
Send("{TAB}")
Send("{TAB}")
Send("{SPACE}")
Send("{ENTER}")It's a hack, but it works great. Even better than that, AutoIt has an option to compile scripts to executables. This won't work for everyone, but here is my compiled script.
Xobni is Looking For Hackers
Saturday, August 26, 2006
My friends at Xobni are looking to hire some top notch hackers. I met Adam Smith, one of the founders of Xobni, during my New Enterprises class at MIT. Very sharp guy and I'm optimistic about Xobni's chances to make a big impact in the email intelligence market. If you want to work with smart people in a startup environment that has a decent chance of a good return, check them out. Oh, and did I mention that YCombinator made the initial investment in Xobni?
BarCampRDU was a success!
Monday, July 24, 2006
BarCampRDU was a resounding success. The turnout exceeded our expectations and it didn't take long to fill up the schedule with sessions. I made some good connections and learned a lot both in sessions I attended and led. Fred Stutzman showed his knack for leadership and orgainzaton by initiating and driving the conference. He deserves much of the credit, but the conference wouldn't have been possible without the other organizers, sponsors, and volunteers. I'm looking forward to the next one! Below are some notes I jotted down in some of the sessions I attended. Refactoring your WetWare by Andy Hunt- Discussed the Dreyfus model - Novice and Experts don't work in the same way. Novices need rules, experts use intuition - Certification programs and SWEEBOK don't work - Learning by synthesis rather than analysis is much more powerful - Does design matter? Short answer is yes, that's how toilet brush makers can charge $6 for their highly designed product. - R-mode vs L-mode processing - L-mode thinking tends to dominate - Draw house example - L-mode takes over and shows a standard house - How to engage R-mode? - The more senses you use to work on a problem, the more of your brain will being to work on it. - For a given design: write it down, draw a picture, describe it verbally, engage in open discussion - Lozanov Séance - R-mode to L-mode flow - "You want to write drunk and revise sober" - Start off with an R-mode approach to learning (multi-sensory) and then move to L-mode - Rock climbing experience - Techniques: Image streaming Free-form journaling Working on a keyboard is a L-mode activity When you run into a problem, step away from the keyboard A Whack on the Head Try to see a problem from a completely different viewpoint Recommends: Mental Whacks The magic of an "oracle" Everyone has good ideas. Few people keep track of them. Even fewer act on them. And even fewer act on them successfully. If you don't keep track of great ideas, you'll stop noticing you have them Capture good ideas Keeps Carries Fisher Spacepen and small notepad at all times Capture isn't enough, you need to process them Thinks a personal wiki is the best thing for this Check out: Pragmatic Learning Context switching: If you constantly interrupt the task you are working on with will drop your effective IQ by 10 points Get a second monitor: get productivity improvement by 20-30% He has two 23 inch monitors for 46 inches of space + 6 virtual desktops organized by function (editing, communication, etc.) Desktop metaphor is really the Crowded airline seat metaphor Mailing list available on the topic, email Andy Sex & Death of Advertising by Martin Smith- Recommends: Attention Economy - Infomercials have become extremely costly. As more people do something, the most costly it becomes - Magnetic Poetry - Word of mouth is the most powerful advertising, but also the most difficult to get Social Networking by Fred StutzmanUser Experience by Rick Cecil- You are not your users - Best practices Information Scent Enough! Not too much, but not too little. General (more) <-> Specific (less) - As you get more specific, ask if the use really want this? Do they care? Hick's Law Eliminate Errors - (like Google spell checking) Always allow undo Set Defaults Fitts Law - time to acquire a target is a function of the distance to the size of the target (i.e., if you have a button that is important, make it big -- and vice versa) Obviousness If it needs a sign, it is badly designed
Windows Server 2003 Networking Recipes
Friday, July 21, 2006
I just received my author copies for Windows Server 2003 Networking Recipes. This was my first book with Apress and despite some ups and downs (which every book goes through), they were good to work with. Congrats to my co-authors, Laura and Brad, who did all the heavy lifting.
Table of Contents
Book Home Page
Buy from Amazon
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Windows Server 2003 Networking Recipes is ideal for network managers and Windows Server 2003 system administrators responsible for setting up and running computers and networks. Think of this book as the comprehensive, task-based guide to installing, deploying, and configuring the various networking protocols and services supported by Windows Server 2003--and the only book you'll need.
You'll find hundreds of quick reference solutions. And the featured recipes are all based on the first-hand experiences of the authors. You can rest assured that this book is written by a team of leading experts in Windows administration.
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My new favorite places: Charleston and Kiawah
Friday, July 21, 2006
My wife and I recently spent two days in Charleston and three days on Kiawah Island. I had been wanting to visit Charleston for some time. The history, the Southern culture, the great climate -- all right up my alley. I was not disappointed! Nor was I disappointed by Kiawah Island, which is easily the nicest resort/golf destination in the Carolinas. In Charleston, we walked around a bit and went on a nice tour of the historic area. We also stopped by a couple of the old cemeteries. Here is a rather eery cemetery we went in that has tombstones dating back to the 1700s:  Notice the hanging moss. It grows all over Charleston. Charleston also has my two favorite trees growing in abundance: palm trees and crape myrtles. The crape myrtles were in full bloom, which made Charleston's Historic section very colorful. Kiawah Island is a private resort island set about 30 minutes southeast of Charleston. You need reservations to even get beyond the first gate. We stayed at the lone hotel on the island called The Santuary. It is the nicest hotel I've stayed at on the east coast and rivals many of the nice resort that you'd find in California:  This was the view from our room:  We reserved the basic Garden room, but they upgraded us for free to a premier ocean view. Nice! Kiawah is known for golf (they want to host a future US Open and will host the PGA Championship in 2012). They have 7 golf courses total. 2 are restricted to members of the "club" while the other 5 are open to anyone staying on the island. I chose to play at the one the concierge told me was the "most wide open" of the 5. It was the Osprey course, so named after the large, rather ugly birds that can be seen all over the course.  I saw signs warning about alligators, but I didn't really believe it. Alligators on a golf course? As we drove to the clubhouse after playng 18, I saw something in the grass right beside the sidewalk:  On closer inspection:  Yikes! Talk about a hazard. My wife and I saw another alligator in a river by the hotel one evening as we drove around. You are definitely close to nature in Kiawah! All in all, we really enjoyed the trip and plan to go back again (hopefully soon).
A new respect for lightning!
Sunday, June 25, 2006
After my workout at the gym on Friday, I checked my vmail to find a frantic message by my wife. Apparently, our next door neighbor's house was struck by lightning and was on fire! My wife was upstairs in our house when it happened. She heard a loud "boom" and thought it might have been our house that was struck because it was so loud. She went outside to look at our neighbor's house:  Yikes! She called 911 and checked to make sure no one was in the house. The homeowners pulled up shortly thereafter. I can imagine their surprise to see their house was on fire. I rushed home, but by the time I got there the fire was already out. The Cary and Morrisville fire departments arrived within 15 minutes and put it out. They were awesome.  They cleared out the top floor of the house to ensure nothing would catch on fire after they left. They even stayed around to help us carry our neighbor's valuables to my garage for storage. After the smoke had cleared, the 3rd floor was completely burnt up and about half of the second floor had serious smoke/fire/water damage. Most of the things stored in their attic and 3rd floor were destroyed. It looked like a small bomb had been dropped on the roof:  My neighbors are going to be displaced for 4-6 months while their home is repaired. In a blink of an eye their whole summer was ruined (they have 3 kids to boot). It really makes you think how fragile life is!
In a Japanese bookstore near you
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
A reader of Windows Server Cookbook wrote in the other day to tell me he enjoyed the Japanese version of the book. The Japanese version? I didn't know there was a Japanese version. As it turns out, yes. One of the interesting quirks of the publishing biz is that foreign subsidiaries may translate and publish a foreign edition of your book without you even knowing about it! I've already received German, Czech, and Russian editions of some of my books. However, none are as cool as the Japanese edition. Here is a low res picture of the cover:  One of the interesting things about the book is that it comes with a dust jacket. You know, the kind that are usually found on hardback books in the US. Well I guess in Japan they put them on paperback books too.
Active Directory Cookbook, 2nd edition now available
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
The much awaited second edition to the best-selling Active Directory Cookbook is now available at Amazon. This edition has over 500 recipes (up from 325 in the first edition) with new chapters covering ADFS, MIIS, ADAM, and Exchange. The lovely Laura Hunter provided most of the additions and we had another strong group of tech reviewers. You can get more info about the book here. Source code coming soon. 
BarCamp RDU Update
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Fred has been working diligently to find a venue and date for BarCampRDU. It didn't take him long! Red Hat is kind enough to host it (great location btw) and the date is set for July 22nd. Sign up on the wiki. Great work Fred! UPDATE: I've signed up to be an "organizer" for BarCamp RDU.
MacBook Beginner
Thursday, June 01, 2006
I haven't used a Mac in over 10 years. In 1996 I ditched my Power Mac in favor of Solaris for development and Microsoft Windows for office apps. Now I find myself coming full circle after purchasing a MacBook Pro last weekend. Over the last couple of years I've seen more and more of my colleagues in the web community using Macs. Now I'm using my Thinkpad T42 along side my new MacBook Pro. It is unlikely I'll fully switch to the Mac in the near future due to lack of support for some applications I need at work. However, I did install Parallels which lets me run Windows on the Mac. So far so good and you don't have to reboot to get into Windows like you do with Boot Camp. Parallels is very similar to VMWare or Microsoft Virtual PC on Windows. As my Mac journey progresses, I'll post updates on how I'm doing. There are some things I already like a lot better and there are some things that are really annoying. The learning curve is pretty steep to become as proficient with Mac OS X as I am with UNIX and Windows. I can do the basic stuff, but I still have to look up how to do simple tasks (such as doing a screen capture). 
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