Ann McDermott's Blog: Welcome to Manhattan!

Another Day, Another Explosion

Ok, I know I'm supposed to blog about the latest new product, but what happened today was something that just has to be recorded and what better place to do that than my Sun Blog, afterall, it happened at the Sun Office.

You may or may not be aware that Sun's New York Offices are located 1/2 a block from where the massive explosion happened in New York today. Those of us who were there lived through loosing our office on 9/11 did not waste anytime in grabbing our stuff and GOING!!! Thank you to those quarterly fire drills we knew where the stairs were and got out and we're only on the 3rd and 4th floor, so we were the first ones down. Unfortunately the stairs I took lead right to 41st street, the scene of the explosion. We then had to go up the escalators and I yelled "Hurry Hurry" to get to 40th street and literally "run for our lives".

I was sitting there looking at some papers when I heard this big ROAR. Where I sit on the 41st Street side is right above the loading dock of 101 Park Avenue and I often hear load bangs which turn out to be trucks hitting the building. I've sort of gotten used to it, but this was different. So I got up looked out the Window and saw a brown haze in the air and what appeared to be steam coming out of the Chanin Building (41st and Lexington). The Chanin Building is a landmark so of course I thought the worst. I grabbed my bag and my Sunray card and RAN through the office toward the stairs near the Bathrooms yelling "Get out of here, the building next door is coming down!" We had ALOT of visitors in the office today due to the Solaris 10 event and other meetings and everyone followed in kind ... GRABBING AND RUNNING!!!

Once we all got to Park Avenue and 40th Street, everyone scattered and I just ran south as fast as I could. People were just standing around looking up in the sky but I just wanted as far away as fast as possible. Got down to the village to our favorite Mexican place (Maryanne's) and had dinner with friends and one VERY BIG Margarita!

Here's a New York Times article which shows the giant hole in the intersection of 41st and Lexington most of us cross everyday to get lunch.

Posted at 10:21PM Jul 18, 2007 by anniem in Personal  |  Comments[5]

John Fowler's YouTube Systems Challenge

I did a video about Systems
In response to John Fowlers Challenge
I do, afterall, work in the "Systems Practice".

Posted at 11:22AM Nov 30, 2006 by anniem in Sun  |  Comments[1]

Delegates Smiling at the Opening of the UN Global Youth Summit

So I went around with my little point and shoot camera at the beginning of the session and took as many pictures as I could of the Delegates who had traveled to help work on how to implement the 8 UN Millenium Development Goals. You can find Bio's of the delegates at the Website. My color ful friend, Eugine Ngalim Nyuydine in the first picture is from Cameroon and his friends, Hauwa Ashley Umar is from Nigeria and Hama Ould Souvi is from Mauritiania.

View Eugine's Story of working against Violience in Cameroon	Hauwa Ashley Umar of Nigeria Hama Ould Souvi is from Mauritiania	Maguy Mfumu Lemba Christian Banzadio Luzayadio of the Democratic Republic of the Congo	Sally Maipelo Senai of Botswana and Nelis Kovacevic Naida Kucukalic of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Antton Ronnholm and other attendees from Finland	Goldie Scott of Guyana	Luciana Ramsay and Andre Wedderburn of Jamaica	Nannoh T. Seekey of Liberia
Mauritius (I've been there!)	Phikolomzi Mbuqe of South Africa	Sudyumna Dahal of Nepal	Raifa Khneifer of Lebanon
Sheldon Scott of Grenada	Iraq	Malta	Senegal
Adje Kpatagnon Tetteh of Togo	Rotimi Olawale Hauwa Ashley Umar of Nigeria	????	Amel Abd Elfadil Eldihaib    Elradi Eldihaib Abu Sufian Taj Elassfia of Sudan
Omar Armbrister Angelique Sawyer of The Bahamas	Andre Luis Silva Sobrinho of Brazil	China	Abdullahi Abdirahman    Adan Adan of Somalia

Dr. Djibril Diallo Welcomes the Delegates to the Opening Session of the UN Global Youth Summit

Dr. Diallo Address the Assembly in the presence of the Secretary General, Kofi Annan	Ramsey Nukho, Ace Sales Rep from Sun Michelle Kovac, Who ran this project Myself Chris Walter, THE MAN at the UN

Posted at 10:28PM Oct 31, 2006 by anniem in Sun  |  Comments[1]

UN Global Youth Summit ... It's a Wrap !!!

WOW, what can I say, no blogging the last few days, no TIME. OK...so now I have LOTS of pictures and even more VIDEO...is there room on this Blog of all of this?

ACE Unix Guys, Victor Restrepo and Robert Lee and Victor's Sister Myself Ingrid Van Den Hoogen, Sun Sr. Vice President, Brand, Global Communications & Integrated Marketing	Dr. Djibril Diallo helps Serena Williams back to her seat

The Youth Summit was a total success from my vantage point. What a great time, meeting people from all over the world, literally and Dancing in the General Assembly Hall of the United Nations. Who knew such things happened? But apparently they DO! And it was all for a VERY good cause, Roll Back Malaria. What a Lineup!!! Khaled - BROUGHT THE HOUSE DOWN! Angelique Kidjo - What a Great Voice and Stage Presence, Yvonne Chaka Chaka - Dancing in the Aisles!! Jy Park - Man can he and his guys perform and dance, Karina Pasian - Did anyone say Mariah??? Beautiful Voice!!! Gordon Chambers - His songs gave me chill bumps and "almost" made me cry!

I invited an old friend, Phil Donaldson, a/k/a Poodyglitz who's into World Music to to join in the fun. What energy and creativity! And it just felt so special to be there, in that room, where all the important world leaders of the last 60 years have met and be a part of it. What a priviledge. Thank you Sun! Thank you Dr. Diallo!

Khalid Sings and the Serena Williams and Delegates Dance...Part 1

Khalid Sings and the Delegates Dance...Part 2

I do have to admit, however, after volunteering in a tent outside the UN bounds for 5 days, I sort of felt like I was living the the security line at the airport.

Posted at 09:41PM Oct 31, 2006 by anniem in Sun  |  Comments[1]

The Participation Age at the UN Youth Summit

Well...it happened, the Summit is off and running and our Global Village is bringing delegates together, even with the little matter of a GIANT rain storm (did someone say Electricity, Water and Computers ????) Good thing we turned them off last night! But Sun Chief Scientist and one of my personal heros, Dr. John Gage was his usual educational, informative and visionary self in speaking with the Delgates about the possiblilities of the Participation Age. Lot's more pictures tomorrow (I left the cable in the Tent), but these I took with my cell phone just to get the picture thing started. Dr. John Gage of Sun Microsystems and Mrs. Kofi Annan

Dr. Djibril Diallo of the UN and Dr. John Gage of Sun	Dr. Gage poses with delegates	Helping the Leader of the African Youth for Peace from Cameroon learn how to get his information out to the world	Smiles all around!

Sort of like a Ride on the #6 Train

Posted at 12:34AM Oct 29, 2006 by anniem in Sun  |  Comments[1]

Building the Global Village at the UN Youth Summit

Today my colleagues and I assembled the Sun Equipment, that's two SunBlade 2500s and 16 SunRays (one of our BEST products, I think) all running one of the World's Best Operating Systems, none other than Solaris 10. This hardware will be used in the next four days to connect the Delegates together as they assemble for the first ever UN World Youth Summit. It was ALOT of work, ALOT of concalls, ALOT of emails but hopefully it will produce ALOT of results in helping to solve some of the Globe's outstanding issues. I have to say, it's been a real priviledge to work at and with the UN in pulling this off. It's kinda cool to get your picture taken in the General Assembly Hall thinking of all the times you've seen that on place on TV! (Can anyone say Nikita)

In any regard here's some pictures of my very hard working collegues who helped make the Sun portion of the Global Village happen today!
We sure could have used one of those Black Boxes.

Victor Restrepo Smiles as he configures the SunRay	Robert Lee and William Bello check those vmstats on that box	Christine Brezee quietly works and makes sure it all comes together while we're in a corner working on the Video stuff
		(
Deneen of GELC puts together Digital Story telling	Michelle Kovac's over Jetlag from CA and working Hard!	Julie Smith our very very hardworking Volunteer Coordinator is keeping it together

If you want all the "official" news on this event Check out the News at Yahoo OR...check the Blogs of the Delegates...to be announced!

Wednesday 10/25/06, alot of the Sun Volunteers from the NY Office who will be helping out over the course of the confernce, received an Orientation from Dr. Djibril Diallo and Vera Mehta who are running this conference that included setting a vision for Partnership with the Worlds Youth through our Mentoring program and visiting the General Assembly Hall and the Security Council...You know that one...the one where all the really really really important decisions are made about what will happen in the world. Here's a tour of our tour, click on the pictures if you want the larger version.

PUZZLE: I'll Offer an Official Sun Metal Coffee Mug to the first person to find the picture of Boutrous Boutrous Galli AND the word Russian! email me at ann.mcdermott@sun.com.

Posted at 10:37PM Oct 27, 2006 by anniem in Sun  |  Comments[0]

Visit to NASA

So on my vacation I went to The Kennedy Space Center, at Cape Canaveral, Florida. All I can say is WOW!!!!! If you're a Geek, even a sort of Geek like ME....this trip is a must! To actually see, the launch pads where Man went to the Moon from, the Control Rooms where the Apollo Mission was managed from, an ACTUAL Saturn 5 Rocket and all the Equipment that "would have" gone to the Moon if the Space program hadn't started focusing on the Shuttle instead of Apollo in 1972 was overwhelming for this tail end of the Baby Boomer (I guess I just gave away my age, can anyone say Tang?). If you want to see pictures of the Launch Pads and Saturn 5 Rockets, etc, check out http://i5.nyu.edu/~am26/NASA All I can say is WOW!!!

Posted at 08:11PM Oct 08, 2006 by anniem in Personal  |  Comments[0]

Sun Volunteers at the UN for the Global Youth Summit

Today Julie Smith, our Global Volunteer Coordinator and I had lunch with Dr. Djibrill Diallo and Vera Mehta of the United Nations Office of Sport Development and Peace to discuss the upcoming Global Youth Leadership Summit that the UN is sponsoring and Sun is partnering with them in.

Youth Leaders from 192 countries will come to New York for four days to discuss the United Nations Millenium Development Goals and how to apply them in their countries of origin and the world at large.

Sun will be partnering with them and Sun Employees are invited to Volunteer and share our knowledge of Leadership and Technology with the Youth Delegates.

More to come on this exciting opportunity!

Posted at 12:21AM Sep 27, 2006 by anniem in Sun  |  Comments[0]

9/11, Sun Microsystems, Two World Trade Center

I dare say that being an employee of Sun Microsystems on September 11, 2001 will be the defining event of my life. Everyone in NYC was severely affected by the events of that day, but for those of us who called the WTC our "home" the shock was something that will always be with us.

There were meetings on the calendar that day and when my phone rang at 9:11 at home, I thought it was one of the Sales Reps I worked with calling me about a pending deal with one of our financial accounts. No, it was my friend Annie calling and leaving me a voice mail to say "I heard what happened at the WTC and just wanted to see if you were OK?" And I thought to myself, World Trade Center? What happened, Oh, probably another explosion in the basement like in 1993. I had worked in lower mid-town back then and had a directly line of sight to the helicopters trying to rescue people from the roof. But then I turned my TV on to New York One and it was like I was watching some bizarre horror film...WHAT...a plane into the building where I was headed. WOW...what do I do know? Gee, I guess that meeting won't happen? I should call everyone I know and let them know I'm OK (especially my family in Scotland).

So I sat there on the edge of my bed just really not knowing WHAT to do...and then our building collapsed...and I went into a panic and I emailed Scott McNealy and here's how that went:

> Scott,
>
> I was late for work today and watched the Sun Office
> explode on TV. How can I find out about my friends
> and do I still have a job?
>
> Ann McDermott
> SunPS, NYC

We are trying to account for everyone. We will be trying to
get information posted to SunWeb.

Hang in there. We will need you help getting through this.
Scott

After the attacks, one of the ways I came to terms with what had happened to me was to try and document through photographs the changes in my world.

The weeks that followed the terrorist attack and destruction of our business home were VERY disorienting. Even though Sun is very "work from home" friendly. I had lost my laptop, my enigma card (security to sign into our network), all my customer documentation, my collection of O'Reilly Books as well as a few pairs of shoes. I would go to Starbucks thinking "Should I work here?" Work what work, my customers were as devestated as we were and everything below 14th Street was closed. It wasn't until about two weeks later that Sun set up a temporary office in what was our Education Center at 33 Whitehall Street and there we all sat. From the highest ranking to the lowest in rows of desks and workstations and phones, like students and family in one of life's most horrifying lessons.

What was even more significant was that this location, 33 Whitehall Street, literally stands on the ground upon which New York was founded. It's in this area that archeologists have dug up 18th Century Taverns, where some of the first churches and synagogues in the US were founded and to walk down from Battery Park. Wearing a surgical mask and seeing smoke rising over what you knew were your belongings sort of made one nautious. But yet...we were determined to just do what needed to be done to recover and continue doing the job we all loved to do.

Thanks to my colleague, Ellen Shapiro for sharing photo's she had taken of our offices on 25 of 2 WTC for those of you who'd like to see them.

Looking to New Jersey
The View to Tower 1 from 25

Posted at 01:00PM Sep 11, 2006 by anniem in Sun  |  Comments[0]

Ringing the Nasdaq Bell

I wasn't thinking stand-out...I was just wearing my favorite Red suit.

It certainly was a very fun way to spend a cold morning in NY.

http://www.nasdaq.com/reference/200603/market_open_030606.stm

And I must say, those people at Nasdaq serve one heck of a NY Bagel!

Posted at 05:47PM Mar 07, 2006 by anniem in Sun  |  Comments[1]

Greetings from Manhattan

Sun Microsystems has been my employer since August 1997. Originally I was an instructor teaching Advanced Systems Administration and in 1998 I moved over to work in a Sales Support capacity primarily supporting major financial institutions. Professsional Services was my home for a while where I did project work at the Wall Street firms but now I'm back as a Technical Specialist to those same firms.

I'm new to blogging here...but I used to teach HTML (how to code a website) and Unix (where the website runs) at NYU School of Continuing and Professional Studies, so I've had a website since 1996 and my friend, Mark Meretzky, whom I used to teach with is writing a book on C++ that's pretty cool for all your developer types out there.

He also teaches Unix, I used to teach using his materials. His handouts are very well written and are basically a starter on Shell Scripting if you need to know the difference between ' " and ` in the Shell language and other such esoteric things.

Posted at 04:33PM Mar 03, 2006 by anniem in Sun  |  Comments[3]