out with the old…
…and in with the new.
On the 31st of December of last year (boy that sounds weird to say “last year” and it only be 4 weeks ago), I traded-in my 2004 Ford Escape which had served me well for 4.5 years (including racking-up nearly 90k miles in the time I had it (and for almost a year it was driven less than 10k miles … which I think means I used to drive a lot)) for a new vehicle.
my cute wife, and our new car 
We had been looking at replacing one of our cars for a while, and with the end of the year incentives in place, it was a good time for us to do it.
So we are now the proud owners of a 2012 Ford Fusion in “steel blue”. It’s not quite fully loaded, but it’s more than adequate for our needs.
Topics: personal | No Comments »
welcome to 2012
If the Mayans are right, in 11 months (give or take), all our debts disappear.
But since they’re not (more accurately, it’s merely the next roll point on their calendar like 2000 was for us), we have a host of things to look forward to this year and beyond: a presidential election, graduations, births, new friends, and more I cannot think of right now.
So, to all 5 of my readers, welcome to 2012!
Topics: personal | No Comments »
extended file attributes with ext[2|3|4]
Most Unix/Linux users, and – hopefully – all admins are familiar with the standard 9 bits of permissions typically supported on various *nix file systems:
---------
rwxrwxrwx
uuugggooo
Where “u”, “g”, and “o” indicate “user”, “group”, and “other” while “rwx” indicates whether the item can be read, written, or executed.
Also of note are file ownerships in the form of
user:group
So a file might be owned by warren:warren with read/write privileges only for the owner: rw-rw----.
That’s pretty handy.
How many of you know there are hidden permissions that do not show up in a normal use of ls -l?
I didn’t until last week – and I’ve been using Linux for more than a decade 
Turns out that – at least with ext2, etx3, and ext4 filesystems – there are a variety of other attributes that can be assigned to a file. One of them is the immutable flag*.
(Using a related command to ls, lsattr, a person can view the extended attribute flags of a file.)
In specific, the immutable flag disallows even the owner from deleting his/her own file! There was the source of a very ornery issue I ran into while doing an upgrade last week of a customer’s management environment. The upgrade installer ran into an issue wherein it interrupted its own process. But when it did, it left the filesystem in an inconsistent state – specifically with regards to an SSL certificate file and the machine identifier file (agent.srv and mid, if you’re curious) having the immutable flag set. When attempting to pick back up with the upgrade, the installer failed more [apparently] asymptomatically (and esoterically) than I had ever seen before.
After several exchanges with senior product support, a working fix of running chattr -i /path/to/file was provided. Neither myself, nor any of the senior admins at my customer had ever heard of chattr. So off to the man pages. Turns out that chattr is quite the command – but it’s not well publicized (at least, I don’t think it is).
If you run into a file you own, but cannot delete, be sure to inspect the extended attributes with lsattr, and fix any mis-set flags with chattr.
*The entire list of alterable flags: “append only (a), compressed (c), no dump (d), extent format (e), immutable (i), data journalling (j), secure deletion (s), no tail-merging (t), undeletable (u), no atime updates (A), synchronous directory updates (D), synchronous updates (S), and top of directory hierarchy (T).” Non-modifiable, but visible with lsattr, flags: “huge file (h), compression error (E), indexed directory (I), compression raw access (X), and compressed dirty file (Z)”.
Topics: technical, work | No Comments »
gaming expense reports? really?
At various stages in my career, I have traveled extensively - yet never even thought of “gaming” the expense reproting system the way it has been recently reported by CNN.
Being terminated over charging a movie to your room? Seems harsh (getting the $9.95 back from the employee would seem to be easier) – but breaking the rule is breaking the rule.
Being terminated over buying gum? Ok, so I WOULD terminate somebody over that … but I hate the stuff 
But it’s repulsive, revolting, and wrong
chewing and chewing all day long
The way that a cow does*
There are a host of ways listed in the article – that I find truly shocking – to cheat on expense reports: blank receipts? buying gifts and then selling them on eBay? double-billing? Wow. The sheer effort taken by some people to cheat is astonishing!
Where I work now has a corporate credit card issued to every traveling employee. The only time we submit non-AmEx charges is if a place doesn’t accept AmEx: it’s just way easier to use the corporate card than it is to try to give all the supporting documentation of a personal card. Plus, there’s the benefit that it’s not my personal limit that is being affected if a customer delays in paying a bill.
Everyone that works where I do now also follows the expense guidelines we have – don’t exceed the IRS per diem rate for your region (on average). If you want to eat someplace nice for dinner – that’s fine. Just eat someplace less expensive the next day. Sticking within the rules isn’t that hard … so why would you want to try to evade them and end up with employment history issues like termination on your record?
Topics: commentary, hmmm, insights, news, work | No Comments »
defaulting pxe boots with hpsa
I recently found a very helpful nugget with regards to OS Provisioning with HP’s Server Automation product.
OS Prov is most typically done using PXE (or the similar bootp process). SA provides a PXE server that gives a boot menu to network-booted systems. That menu contains a variety of choices: linux, windows, winpe, etc.
In most environments, one particular OS will be dominant, and typically one particular version of that OS – whether it be RHEL 5 x64 or Windows 2008 R2, it’s usually just one that makes up the lion’s* share of systems on the network.
If you know that you will be provisioning, say, Windows 2008 R2 90% of the time, it would be nice to not have to always have to pick it manually from the PXE boot menu.
Here’s what you need to do to make that happen (presuming you want to use Build Plans):
Edit the following file:
/opt/opsware/boot/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/defaultFor example, if you have this at the beginning of the file:
"prompt 1
default local
timeout 100
display pxelinux.msg
implicit 0"Change it to this for the OGFS version of winpe64:
"prompt 1
default winpe64-ogfs
timeout 100
display winpe64-ogfs.msg
implicit 0"
You can use the above process – modified, of course – for any of the available boot images.
*And if you’re provisioning Mac OS X 10.7, “Lion” makes up all the share
Topics: technical, tutorial, work | No Comments »
1401 argentinean bistro
Wow.
It’s truly that good.
This week I was working in Fort Lauderdale. It’s been over 4 years since I was last in the area, and I’ve always wanted to visit Miami – at least once.
As I am wont to do, I checked-out OpenTable to see what interesting food places were available. One of them was 1401 Argentinean Bistro. It’s a fusion restaurant selling Argentinian food with Italian influences (the owner/chef’s dual heritages).
I went with a coworker and the customer contact with whom we were working. We all ordered the skirt steak, and LOVED it!
Our waiter was the chef, Fabio Pizelman: he enjoys tending tables 2-3 nights a week to get a better feel for what his customers like, don’t like, want, etc. We arrived late enough Tuesday that we were [effectively] the only customers. So I do realize that our service was perhaps slightly more attentive than it may be when the place is packed, but it was still a phenomenal place to eat.
Due to circumstances beyond our control, we ended up leaving work late, and had to move our reservation a couple times – but that worked to our advantage in that we had the place to ourselves.
The outdoor seating was excellent on the balmy fall evening, and we decided by the end of the rolls that we had to go back.
While waiting on our entrees to arrive, I rebooked us for Wednesday – when we planned to sample the non-steak portions of Chef Fabio’s menu.
Due to some more unforeseen (and unavoidable delays), we had to no-show Wednesday – but Thursday was our night.
Alas! Senor Pizelman must think we’re flakes! Last night we didn’t get to leave the office until it was almost today
And with my return home imminent, it also means that I won’t have a chance to eat at the Bistro again for some time – a true shame. Chef Fabio’s food, service, and personality couldn’t be better.
And so, with this, I must wait to return to 1401 Bistro until my next trip to south Florida.
I wish Mssr Pizelman all success until (and after) then.
Topics: food, review, travel | No Comments »
new host!
Woot – everything has been migrated to the new hosting provider. Hopefully it all runs right now
Topics: update | No Comments »
host migration
As mentioned recently, I am about to be switching hosts from my current VPS provider, Tektonic.
I have found a non-VPS ISP that meets the requirements I’d previously outlined, and have everything but the MySQL databases for WordPress instances sync’d to the new host.
With a bit of luck, the migration will be invisible to all 4 of my readers
Topics: personal, technical, update | 1 Comment »
doing technical phone screens
Related to a previous post on career development, I thought it could be interesting to look at one approach to the technical screen that I have used over the past few years when interviewing candidates.
- for folks with no “real” experience yet, I ask them to rank themselves on a few key technologies on the “Google scale”
- the range is 0..10 where a 0 is no knowledge, 1 is some, 10 is “you wrote the book”, 9 is you could’ve written the book, or you edited/contributed
- on a few occasions, I have had folks ask to change their ranking from their initial [overconfident] statement to one that is much closer to inline with their true experience/comfort/knowledge level – and that’s OK in my book – honesty is always the best policy here
- a couple quick “about us” questions – open-ended inquiries that let the candidate tell me what they’ve done for work
- this verifies their resume
- gets them warmed-up for the rest of the call
- allows the candidate to brag on something
- perhaps a couple quick probes to find out more about a specific experience
- a few basic / intermediate questions to assess candidate’s technical chops (ie, verify that their resume is accurate)
- this goes along with my personal rule of “never put anything on a resume you don’t want to be asked about”
- open-ended, intentionally-vague questions to gauge problem solving ability, and methodologies
- see how they go about refining the problem statement (if at all)
- gauge estimation skills
- gauge teamwork and delegation aptitude
- a few intermediate/advanced questions about an area they *don’t* know anything about – to gauge their response to unfamiliar/stressful situations
- in my field in particular, it is impossible to know every new technology or even (probably) to be truly 100% aware of those that you do use every single day
- a few intermediate/advanced questions in their now-articulated fields of expertise (presuming I have any)
- this verifies more of their stated (and unstated) job experience, and helps determine at what title/work level they should start
- lifestyle/workstyle questions
- how much they enjoy travel
- how they handle last-minute demands and “requests” by customers and management
- a few questions to gauge flexibility of response to changing requirements
- for example, switching a project from being Solaris-based to Windows-based part way into implementation because a new CIO has come in, or new licensing is available, etc
- open time for them to ask me whatever they may wish to know that I can tell them
- this usually ends-up being very short because the candidate was stressed-out over the interview, and can’t think of anything about the company they want to know on the spot
What I try to NEVER ask:
- “trivia” questions – I bet there are C questions even K&R couldn’t answer
- I guarantee I can ask you a question about your area of expertise you cannot answer…just like I guarantee you could do the same to me
- since that is the case, trivia questions are pretty pointless, and more of an ego stroke to the asker than anything else
- pointless “MindTrap“, lateral-thinking questions
- riddles are fun – but only add to the stress of the interview
- pointless problem-solving and estimation problems
- for example, “how would you move Mt Fuji”, “why are manhole covers round”, or “how many gallons of water flow into New York Harbor from the Hudson River per hour”
- estimation problems are wonderful tools and games to play, but not in an interview
- illegal questions
- sometimes they slip out, but it’s never intentional
I adjust my questioning to fit the situation, timing, and candidate responses – so it’s [somewhat] different every time.
When the interview is done, I write-up my evaluation of the candidate and send it on to the hiring manager. In line with Joel Spolsky‘s “Guerilla Guide to Interviewing“, I make sure to put my firm conclusion of Hire/No-Hire near the top, and again at the bottom – with my reasoning in between.
One thing I have noticed about almost every interview I have ever taken or given is that I end up learning something in the process – and not just about the candidate (or company). It’s important to listen to both how and the candidates responds to questions, and what they say.
So, if you ever get the chance to interview with me, you have an idea of how I’m going to run the show
Topics: education, ideas, insights, interview, personal, technical, work | No Comments »
preliminary update on kirk’s crash
All who knew Kirk Aragon are still in shock over his sudden and tragic loss Sunday.
The N&O called me this week for a brief interview, and some of what I had to say is in an article published today by Aliana Ramos, along with the following preliminary information about the crash:
The private-plane crash that killed an Apex man this week probably was not caused by mechanical failure, according to early findings by an investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board.
…
Aragon’s plane went down about 12:45 p.m. Sunday, minutes after radioing to air traffic control that he was departing. A pilot who was in the air at the time told investigators that Aragon’s plane appeared to be lower than usual and losing altitude before crashing.
“The entire airplane was consumed by fire,” Rayner said. “The engine was significantly damaged; the gears are melted together; the instruments have been destroyed.”
…
Aragon was alive immediately after the crash and managed to separate himself about 10 feet from the plane, said Deep River Fire Chief Larry Kelly. A trio of area residents managed to reach Aragon before the fire department arrived and helped to remove some of his clothing.
“They helped to keep him calm until we could get there,” Kelly said. “He was conscious. I was able to talk with him to find out if anyone else was in the plane. He was in a lot of pain. He did not give any indication of what happened.”
My prayers are with his family especially today.
Topics: news, personal, update | No Comments »
