Half-baked opinions, served lukewarm.
Yep, just like last year, it be Talk Like A Pirate Day. Ahoy, swabbies, look lively and heave to!
If’n you be the type to like them “statistics”, there be exactly 300 posts between that’n and this’n.
Yep, just like last year, it be Talk Like A Pirate Day. Ahoy, swabbies, look lively and heave to!
If’n you be the type to like them “statistics”, there be exactly 300 posts between that’n and this’n.
Recently, at a public model aircraft flying exhibition, a 4-year, 10-month old child named Justin was flying with his father, Benny, at his side. He was carrying the proper insurance, was a registered pilot, and had a track record over the previous year of successful flights. His accident rate apparently seemed a little bit higher than that of more experienced flyers, but not exceptionally so.
Recently, at a public model aircraft flying exhibition, a 4-year, 10-month old child named Justin was flying with his father, Benny, at his side. He was carrying the proper insurance, was a registered pilot, and had a track record over the previous year of successful flights. His accident rate apparently seemed a little bit higher than that of more experienced flyers, but not exceptionally so.
His training was principally performed with his dad coaching on a simulator. This isn’t very different from most other radio-control aircraft pilots. There’s usually a button on the controller to allow you to reset the simulator if you crash. Spending $200 on a simulator — roughly 1/2 the cost of a modest model airplane — will often save you far more than its value in crashes as you build the correct reactions. Regardless, the kid has mad skills. I mean, seriously, he out-flies most adult helicopter pilots.
Saturday at this exhibition was very busy. Little Justin was flying a “T-Rex 600”. This is a radio-controlled electric helicopter which weighs about six to seven pounds. The helicopter’s main blades are carbon fiber, and routinely reach about 2000 RPM and are 1350mm from tip to tip. The tips of the rotor blades at that RPM are spinning slightly faster than 300MPH, and the helicopter itself is capable of flying faster than 100MPH.
The field was very busy, and Justin had been forced to land repeatedly to make way for other aircraft. This field also has the distinction of being very long and narrow, with the audience only 25-50 feet behind the flight line rather than the more-usual 100 to 200 feet. Immediately following one of his landings, Justin resumed his routine. He began a “rainbow” or “tic-tock”. In this maneuver, the helicopter describes an arc in the sky, usually backwards, ends up inverted, then negative pitch is applied and it arcs back to the starting position. This isn’t something a full-scale helicopter can do, but it is a dramatic maneuver for a model. Properly done, a rainbow looks very much as if there is an invisible string tying the tail of the helicopter to a point on the ground, and the helicopter is a pendulum swinging on that point. Thus the name.
Unfortunately, in this instance the tail of the helicopter was facing the wrong way. Instead of an arc in front of the pilot, the helicopter arced over Justin’s head and into the audience behind him. It impacted the ground less than a second after the start of the maneuver, and apparently rebounded with all or part striking a fellow named Wen Wu.
Wu is alive. He suffered a nasty 2″-3″ gash to his head which required numerous stitches to close, his vision may be permanently affected, and he has several other lacerations.
However, model helicopters and airplanes have killed people before. In small numbers, admittedly. Last year in England, a young girl walking through a park was struck in the head and died. The adult pilot was, if I recall correctly, in his fifties. In 2004, at an airshow in Hungary, a 1/4-scale airplane piloted by a very experienced pilot ripped into the crowd as a result of a radio lockout, killing an elderly couple and severely injuring several others. In 2002, a fellow training a helicopter pilot was decapitated by the heli when his adult trainee lost control.
Less-lethal incidents are fairly common, too. At two helicopter expos this summer, helicopters crashed, striking bystanders with wreckage. In those cases, however, they were either photographers or assistants near the flight line, not audience members, and understood the risks of being that close. One of my club-mates received a bad prop strike to his fingers while preparing his airplane; although the fingers are intact, he’s injured badly enough that he’s almost certainly not flying anymore this season, and perhaps the next.
On the forums, many people have been quick to blame the father of the boy for this accident, indicating that they thought a five-year-old had no business flying a potentially lethal aircraft. The exposition was so busy that many experienced pilots have strong concerns about flying there. The flight line was unusually close to the audience (which is, apparently, a big part of the draw of this event, that you can be right up next to the action). A radio lockout seems unlikely (since it’s a spread-spectrum unit and nobody else experienced interference), and it simply seems as if the boy found himself in an unexpected orientation and didn’t correct fast enough.
Questions abound online, but from my point of view, there are some clear facts. Age doesn’t seem to be the issue, as fatal and near-fatal accidents occur in this activity with some regularity. The accidents usually involve adults. What does seem clear is that at NEAT, the flight line was too close to the audience, and that’s something which can be corrected next year without imposing some sort of broad sanction or age limit on the sport as a whole.
Email thread regarding job discussion started earlier last week:
Dear Recruiter,
Do you know how soon I will be notified regarding a follow-up interview with your company? I’m not chomping at the bit or anything, but since Tuesday I’ve been curious about the results of the technical interview.
Regards,
Matthew P. Barnson
And their response:
Hi Matthew,
Email thread regarding job discussion started earlier last week:
Dear Recruiter,
Do you know how soon I will be notified regarding a follow-up interview with your company? I’m not chomping at the bit or anything, but since Tuesday I’ve been curious about the results of the technical interview.
Regards, Matthew P. Barnson
And their response:
Hi Matthew,
Thanks for the follow-up. We’re currently evaluating recent interviews and should have more information for you within the week.
Please feel free to contact me again any time.
Best regards,
Recruiter
So last week, I posted a couple of entries on my blog regarding an approach from a very desirable employer. Somehow, word must have gotten around. On Friday morning, I received six telephone calls from recruiters. Count ’em. SIX.
So last week, I posted a couple of entries on my blog regarding an approach from a very desirable employer. Somehow, word must have gotten around. On Friday morning, I received six telephone calls from recruiters. Count ’em. SIX.
I often wonder what is behind the sometimes-murky facade of corporate technical recruiting. I imagine that, in that stewing pot of sharks waiting to seize onto candidates and reap big rewards, there exists some kind of “blood in the water” when it’s tough to find qualified candidates.
The fact is, if a week goes by that I don’t get a contact from a recruiter asking if I’m interested in another job, it’s unusual. At least for the past three years. And in most of those cases, I’ve referred the recruiter to friends or former co-workers, and found that those folks are also gainfully employed and pretty satisfied and comfortable in their jobs.
So now that I put a toe in the water with an unrelated company in a totally different geographic area… the sharks caught the scent of blood and circled in.
Then again, perhaps there is a more nefarious cause. I once spoke to a manager who told me that — when he was preparing to lay off or fire a worker — he would contact recruiting agencies on a prospective fire-ee’s behalf in order to drum up contacts for him or her. He considered it good business if he could convince an employee to leave due to a superior offer rather than have to go through the paperwork of laying someone off, along with the requisite hush money (read: “severance pay”) — to stave off potential lawsuits.
I’m not sure whether to be concerned for my current employment, to suspect that recruiters leak contacts to one another, or to simply chalk the event up to coincidence and a candidate’s market in technical recruiting. What do you think? Could there be some other cause?
As a result of my Dell Inspiron 9300 notebook going belly-up, I’m in the market for a mid-range laptop. Not that I’m buying right now — I need to save the money first — but I want to be very informed about my choices. I bought a Macbook for my wife last Christmas for her Master’s program, and other than a small problem with some plastic chipping off near the keyboard palm-rest, I’ve been very impressed with the quality of the computer. On the other hand, I have been a Dell devotee for years.
As a result of my Dell Inspiron 9300 notebook going belly-up, I’m in the market for a mid-range laptop. Not that I’m buying right now — I need to save the money first — but I want to be very informed about my choices. I bought a Macbook for my wife last Christmas for her Master’s program, and other than a small problem with some plastic chipping off near the keyboard palm-rest, I’ve been very impressed with the quality of the computer. On the other hand, I have been a Dell devotee for years.
Determined to settle once and for all whether or not there is a real price difference between identically-configured Intel-based Macbooks and Dell laptops, I settled on the following specs:
So I sat down with the Apple Store (http://store.apple.com/) and Dell (http://www.dell.com/) side-by-side on my desktop and configured systems which matched. I came up with the Dell Inspiron 1520 and the Macbook Pro. Trade-offs:
When all is said and done, and the systems are configured as close as I could come to identically, the final price was: Macbook Pro: $2,423 Dell Inspiron 1520: $2,226
Now, I realize that you can come up with all kinds of coupons for Dell gear. You can do the same for Macs. I wanted an apples-to-apples retail price. If I were to buy a Mac, I would probably pick from one of the available refurb deals. If I were to buy a Dell, I would certainly shop coupons or their refurbs as well. But the price of these two systems are within 10% of one another… and Dell’s current promotion for 10% off of the price of your computer if you buy the extended warranty is responsible for almost all of the price difference.
Myth: Apple computers are far more expensive than their Wintel counterparts. Myth busted. They are practically identical.
But including the little discount for the extended warranty, what exactly does $180 buy me if I buy a Macbook Pro rather than a Dell Inspiron 1520?
Now the downsides:
Regardless, I knew going into this comparison that, all else being equal, I’d prefer to get an Apple laptop this time around. My old Dell Dimension desktop — which I’ve owned since 2000 — has been a tank. My Dell D620 laptop for work just keeps plucking along despite a few hardware issues. My Dell Inspiron 9300 died a horrible death months ago, largely in part due to the power-cable issue mentioned above (and I only bought the 1-year warranty on it… silly me) and a graphics-card failure which would cost hundreds to replace. But my wife’s sexy little Macbook provides enough usability improvements to really put that kind of engineering over the top for me, particularly considering the modest price difference between a top-shelf Dell and a similarly-configured Macbook Pro.
Best emoticon I’ve seen in a while. I had to think about this one.
In response to “Come here and give me a hug!”
Best emoticon I’ve seen in a while. I had to think about this one.
In response to “Come here and give me a hug!”
o.O
>.>
<.<
<<shakes hands instead>>
Translation: (one eye larger than the other, like a raised eyebrow) (looks left) (looks right) <<shakes hands instead>>
I am a fan of the Bohemian Rhapsody. I also think various body noises are funny.
If you are like me, this is funny!
(Safe for work, headphones recommended.)
I am a fan of the Bohemian Rhapsody. I also think various body noises are funny.
If you are like me, this is funny!
(Safe for work, headphones recommended.)
In conversations over the last few days, I’ve been told that I’m not an atheist, but that I’m “agnostic”. Perhaps I should have business cards printed up with definitions.
Both “atheism” and “agnosticisms” are words which describe what someone isn’t. We don’t have a lot of these types of words in the English language. These two terms can only be defined by what they are not, so in that vein, I’ll describe what they are, what they are not, and why I’m not one of them.
In conversations over the last few days, I’ve been told that I’m not an atheist, but that I’m “agnostic”. Perhaps I should have business cards printed up with definitions.
Both “atheism” and “agnosticisms” are words which describe what someone isn’t. We don’t have a lot of these types of words in the English language. These two terms can only be defined by what they are not, so in that vein, I’ll describe what they are, what they are not, and why I’m not one of them.
(Confused yet?)
Theism is the belief in the existence of one or more divinities or deities. Atheism is the absence of such belief.
Gnosticism is the belief one can be privy to secret or sure knowledge regarding God or gods*. Agnosticism is the absence of such belief.
Agnosticism is not some “in-between” position of disbelief bridging the divide between theism and atheism. It is rejection or absence of a specific belief that you can know truths about supernatural beings. There are many highly religious, theistic people who are, in fact, agnostics, since they don’t think they can come to a secret or sure knowledge of the Divine.
I am not an agnostic. Since I have no belief in the supernatural of any sort, I’m not in a position to form an opinion as to whether I can come to have secret or sure knowledge of beings I don’t believe in.
I am an atheist. This does not imply a positive non-belief in a god or gods. I think they are no more likely than invisible pink unicorns or the giant spaghetti monster, but just because I think something is silly doesn’t mean I think it cannot possibly exist.
* Yes, I understand Gnosticism can actually have a much broader meaning than this, and that there’s a huge history associated with it. This is the most convenient definition, and the only easy one to target in a modern context. An “agnostic” could, of course, just be someone who does not hold to the beliefs of or who rejects gnosticism, but that’s most of the world today so it’s a meaningless distinction.
According to an LA Times article on left-wing vs. right-wing brain processes, it seems that human brains are actually wired differently and political preferences reflect this fact. In this test, conservatives would tend to favor an answer — even if it is the “wrong one” — more than liberals, who would tend to react to changes faster.
According to an LA Times article on left-wing vs. right-wing brain processes, it seems that human brains are actually wired differently and political preferences reflect this fact. In this test, conservatives would tend to favor an answer — even if it is the “wrong one” — more than liberals, who would tend to react to changes faster.
Really interesting.
As many of you know, I was approached by an intermediate-sized company which I would like to work for about taking a role as one of their lead UNIX administrators a couple of weeks ago. For Round 1, I prepared a few code samples, updated my resume, and wrote a lengthy cover letter pitching myself. For Round Two, I spoke with a fellow named Mike about an interview. Today, Round Three, was the technical interview.
As many of you know, I was approached by an intermediate-sized company which I would like to work for about taking a role as one of their lead UNIX administrators a couple of weeks ago. For Round 1, I prepared a few code samples, updated my resume, and wrote a lengthy cover letter pitching myself. For Round Two, I spoke with a fellow named Mike about an interview. Today, Round Three, was the technical interview.
I interviewed with two fellows named Chris and Matthew. Chris, apparently, is moving on to the Engineering department, and they need to replace him as well as attempt to backfill some head count of other UNIX admins who have moved into development within the company. A third fellow, Hung, was unable to make the interview as scheduled.
We chit-chatted about technical topics for about thirty minutes. Both guys were very amiable, and it was obvious within a few minutes that we all spoke the same “language” as far as computers were concerned. I expressed some concern that, despite hunting on the Internet, I had been unable to find any information regarding the back-end server configuration for their flagship product (though I had found some bits, pieces, and pictures regarding a competing product from 2005).
Well, it turns out there is good reason. Operating system, supporting software, and configuration is regarded as company proprietary information. All I can say is that I currently work in a data center with over 7,000 machines, and this company’s configuration dwarfs it by an order of magnitude. From their description as well, it’s a marvel of hands-off systems management and exploitation of favorable power rates and taxes in certain states. Virtually none of the servers are housed in their Southern California offices, but are located around the globe, remotely administered except for occasional trips out by admins.
There are a few weeks of travel involved, and of course the Southern California locale would require relocation. However, they treat their employees very much like a startup — despite the old-age of the company compared to most others in the industry — and have memorable company events, product launches, and so forth. They have very few admins for the huge number of customers and servers they support and, according to these fellows, no UNIX admin on the staff has ever left the company in its history.
Moral: Treat your employees well, and they will treat you well.
Anyway, from their descriptions it sounds superb compared to the somewhat ignor-ific treatment I routinely receive from UltraMegaCorp where I work now. The next step would be to be flown out to headquarters, spend a day with them in interviews and negotiations, and then fly home to either put in two weeks notice or else continue with my job as if nothing had happened. Of course, that’s the real question, isn’t it? Will it happen, or won’t it happen?
My general sense of the interview was that, although I know I bombed a few of the technical questions, I’d rate myself as a 7 out of 10. Not quite senior administrator material, but I could grow into the position. And the fact is, a lot boils down to what my competition is. I think I did very well on the code samples they requested (thanks to friends for reviewing, you know who you are!), and that I’m a fairly obvious fit personality-wise and experience-wise, but that there are some fundamentals I’m sketchy on.
Specific things I blew:
Overall? Well, they are trying to fill several positions, and apparently have had trouble finding competent senior admins to do the job. I really only have to be better than whoever the next fellow is.
I’ve interviewed a lot of UNIX administrators. Most of us, sadly, are idiots and end up out of the business inside of a few years. Other ones get so pigeon-holed into a particular role that they stop learning new aspects of their job.
So it’s up in the air whether or not there’s going to be a “next step”… but at the very least, I realized that despite my experience there are certainly a few areas I need to work on.