Today I’m trying to fix a friend’s Windows Vista laptop that BSODed because we had the audacity to hook up a Bluetooth dongle to it to use Bluetooth headsets with. Now it won’t run for more than a minute or so before it crashes again. My usual mantra of “Install Linux” is not an option in this case, because it needs to run iTunes. So far, the computer is winning. CHKDSK is running, and the percentage done on stage 5 is stuck at 11% , even though it continues to count how many files it’s processed, so I can see it’s about 80% done. Learn to count, and maybe I’ll think about buying your OS.
As a form of therapy, we went to Jake’s Dixie Roadhouse (yes, their food is much better than their website), to help them celebrate Hogtoberfest. For an appetizer, we shared Death By Bacon, which is chicken-fried bacon with southern gravy. I am afraid it was insanely good. Dangerously good. I’m glad this is a temporary special, or my Doctor would probably have me banned from the joint. Memphis dry rub ribs for the main course, natch. I’m not a big fan of BBQ sauce. It takes away from the flavor of the meat too much. Dry rubs tend to complement the taste instead of hiding it. I washed it down with a Three Philosophers, which is a Belgian beer.
For dessert, we had bacon drizzled in chocolate with spinkles. Again, I was pleasantly surprised how good this was. The bacon had a heavy maple component, which made it pair with the chocolate very well. The extra sugar in the sprinkles tempered the salt in the bacon nicely. Note that this bacon was cooked to the point that it was still moist and chewy, not hard.
Evil foods, truly. And I would do it again.
On 09/30, I was part of a layoff at my employer. I am on the hunt again.
I am looking for a full-time hands-on Team Lead/Manager, Architect, or Principal Software Engineer position in the Greater Boston area. I prefer to work in Java and other cross-platform technologies, but I’m fluent in many others. I would also prefer an Agile/Scrum environment, but that’s not a requirement.
If you hear of anything, my resume and portfolio are available here.
I’m an officer in the Boston Linux and UNIX group, and have been a member for over a decade. Here are the details of the Wednesday, 06/17 meeting:
Date and Time: Wednesday, June 17, 2009 from 6:30 pm to 9:00 pm
Location: MIT Building E51, Room 315
Presenters: Kurt Keville, SDC Coordinator, MIT Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (kkeville alum mit edu) and Brian DeLacey, (bdelacey gmail com)
Kurt Keville, Brian DeLacey and others discuss the 802.11s (Mesh) standard and what it means for embedded Linux distros such as OpenWRT and Robix, the distros of choice for the upcoming local Muniwireless rollouts. Kurt gave earlier talks on Muniwireless at our February 2008 and August 2006 meetings
Note that Brian and Kurt will be holding an all-afternoon pre-meeting, beginning at noon in E51-063. This afternoon session will build a multi-node solar-powered super computer as a clustered web-server using fast flash and Marvell’s SheevaPlugs. Rabeeh Khoury of Marvell will be onsite for lots of Linux and SheevaPlug Q&A. Sage Radachowsky will be showcasing his latest solar circuitry. The working SWARM system will be demonstrated at the main meeting, but anyone is welcome to drop by and pick up a soldering iron or keyboard to work with earlier in the day.
Also, this month is BLU’s 15-year anniversary, and we will be celebrating with a cake at 7:00 PM.
Scientists understand this. If you don’t fail, you don’t learn. But you have to be careful how you define failure. To a Scientist, not getting the results you want is not failure, it’s success. That is, as long as you get reliable, consistent results.
One of my family’s favorite TV shows is MythBusters. Of course, much of what they do is horrible science in the name of entertainment. I’m OK with that. But it certainly gets fun science out there. Adam Savage, one of the two main hosts, recently appeared at Maker Faire (run by Make), where he gave a wonderful talk (video from fora.tv can be found here), mostly on this topic.
I just moved my server from Fedora 8 (way discontinued) to Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope. Many networking problems and other wildly different config files. Much sleep lost. But now I have the website back up, webmail working, the Wiki is working, mail with IMAP working, and MythTV working.
Yes, indeed, much sleep lost.
Update
Last night was another night of going to bed after 2AM, but I finally got all the critical set up and working. This is a very multipurpose box. Off the top of my head, it hosts mail in (SMTP), mail out (IMAP), this blog, my Wiki, mailman, subversion, home automation software, and database. I still have a lot to do, but nothing that’s going to keep me up late again.
I’m Assistant Director of the Boston Linux and UNIX group. A few times a year, we have an event at MIT where people come down with their computer and we help them install Linux, or just answer their questions. The event is free (though we do ask for a donation, since we’re not-for-profit), and we’re there all day.
Date and Time: Saturday, May 30, 2009 from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm
Location: MIT Building E51, Room 061
Summary: A periodic get-together where volunteers from our group help people with Linux installation and other hands-on issues.We invite you to become a member of the Boston area Linux community and offer our assistance in getting Linux installed on your computer.
We hold our InstallFests several times each year; we meet on a weekend at a location where people can bring in their computers and we can help them install Linux or other Unix variants. It’s also a great way to get together and share our collective experience with each other in a hands-on learning environment, in the grand tradition of the UNIX community.
For more information, check out the page on the BLU website.
Title: A Jet Engine On Your Pinto: When HyperSpeed Agile Teams Pull A Slow Organization
When: May 28 06:00 PM – 08:30 PM
Where: Pizzeria Uno – Newton, MA
Cost: Free, though donation toward food cost is welcome
Parking: Garage (entrance off Bacon St.) parking is free with validation from Uno’s
If you piloted an agile team that was successful, you might start a few more. If they were successful, you might then initiate a push to convert the whole company as soon as possible. One company did just that – started forty agile teams, each one delivering impressive results. But it strained the organization so badly that the whole agile program was scrapped. They are not alone – others have experienced this. It’s like installing a jet engine on an ordinary car; the engine will go fast but will tear the car apart. Unless you add the right support structures! We will examine what these structures are for companies on their agile journey.
Agile Bazaar is an ACM chapter and an Agile Alliance affiliate. If you’re into Agile/Scrum/XP, it’s a great organization that has great meeting topics, and they welcome new ideas and topics. Here’s the info page for the event.
In this post, I talked about the upcoming Deep Agile 2009 event. Apparently there was some confusion about the “hardship discount”:
Are you unemployed? About to be? Hardship discounts are available for Deep Agile 2009 for those who wish to learn about modern embedded software development techniques and to network.
“Due to strong sponsorship and great speakers, our Deep Agile event for April 25-26 has passed the “break even” point. As a community based non-profit professional group we can now afford to help more people attend this first of its kind event. In light of the current economic situation, we are offering discounted hardship tickets, priced at $75.00 for those who are unemployed, about to become unemployed, or who have some similarly difficult circumstance. Don’t wait – it’s first-come-first-served and seats are limited. Please contact us via this link and include “hardship request” in the subject field to request a hardship discount. Continental breakfasts, lunches, and Saturday dinner are included in the price. (Note that Saturday dinner seats are limited and will soon be gone.)“
Just to make it perfectly clear, this means that the entire ticket price is $75. It’s not a $75 discount. Woot!
Sorry for posting so much about this event, but I think it’s going to be a good one, and I’m all about helping the unemployed.
I mentioned the upcoming Deep Agile 2009 conference in this post. To explain what it’s all about, Nancy Van Schooenderwoert and James Grenning recorded a podcast. They asked me to host a copy of the .mp3 file, so I placed it at this link. Jack Ganssle also recorded a podcast with Nancy, which can be found here. This event should be a great event for people at all levels of Agile experince.
Deep Agile 2009: Agile for Embedded Systems
Sponsored by Agile Bazaar, New England’s agile community hub
Join us for a two-day deep dive into Agile practices for embedded systems. We’ll get beyond superficial prescriptions and cookbook advice to understand how a methodology that demands extreme flexibility can work in an environment known for its rigidity. Jack Ganssle has the deep experience to pose the kinds of challenging questions all embedded folk want to ask, and James Grenning and Russel Hill have been practicing embedded agile programming long enough to give us answers grounded in experience, that is, *embedded* experience!
Host: Nancy Van Schooenderwoert, founder of Lean-Agile Partners
When: Saturday, April 25th – Sunday, April 26th, 2009
Where: Maxwell-Dworkin Building, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass
Cost: Regular registration: $545 through April 18th, 2009, Just in time: $685 through April 25th, 2009. Group discount, Hardship, Student and Academic staff (see the Deep Agile website). Save a further $50 by entering this discount code when you register: ABZlist_09.
Register at the Deep Agile website.
Read on…