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The blog of Bob
Scalability
I've been talking about scalability a lot this week, which is interesting in a country of approximately six million homes. That's not to say that there's not a need to support transactions and visitors - quite the opposite. There's some very impressive bandwidth to homes and mobile devices that helps to set user expectations quite high. If I were able to get over 14 Mb/second to my mobile phone, I'd want good response time too. The challenge is providing a robust basic level of service to support the bandwidth while giving application flexibility for compelling content.
The stadium in the picture above is the Melbourne Cricket Grounds which holds nearly 100,000 people - how's that for a high bandwidth requirement? Yes, I did take that picture which means that I finally got out of my meetings and had a chance to wander around Melbourne. It's a great city, very easy to walk and explore. I got a chance to see the Parliament Building, a JFK Memorial and walked along the quay. Unfortunately, time was very short and it was late by the time that dinner was over. Now we just have to work on the availability of souvenir stores late at night.
I'm looking forward to heading home tomorrow after an action packed few days. Hopefully, it won't be another 15 hours in a middle seat on the airplane. Either way, it'll be good to be home even if it's just for a little while.
Posted at 09:13AM Oct 19, 2007 by bs in General | Comments[1]
What happened to Monday?
I left Newark Airport Sunday afternoon heading west for Los Angeles. After a prolonged stop at LAX (thanks to traffic delays on the aircraft from JFK), we finally managed to take off for Sydney, Australia. We finally arrived late Tuesday morning and it felt very good to get off of the airplane. I guess that I had about 3 hours of early Monday morning at LAX but it was really lost for all practical purposes. After 40+ hours of travelling, I finally got to my hotel late last night.
Yes, the bridge in the picture is the one that you can climb over the top. According to Mauricio, the view is fantastic - especially at night.
I'm here to meet with some customers and have been given a terrific Australian welcome. For the Sun folks, that means scheduling every possible minute of the day but I'm happy that there's so many interesting people to meet with. There's a lot of interesting discussions about content and leveraging the power of the network. Compelling content and community continue to drive usage. I've had some interesting discussions but unfortunately not a lot of time to see the sights. I only had about 12 hours in Sydney and the bridge was about the most interesting picture that I could find.
We've got a couple of full days in Melbourne, hopefully I can get out to see the bike race on Friday. This is a very cycling friendly city and the weather is terrific. I'll have to find more time to explore on my next visit.
Posted at 08:46AM Oct 17, 2007 by bs in General |
CEC - Day 3
End of the conference for another year. CEC was a great time again this year, lots of good sessions and time to meet new people and see old friends. The final day was a quick session and then it was off to the airport. Can't wait until next year in Vegas!
Posted at 09:04PM Oct 12, 2007 by bs in Cycling |
CEC - Day 2
Well, we're into the last day of CEC and it's been a busy week. Yesterday was a lot of fun - good speakers and a cool product launch. You can almost see the launch stage from the back of the room, but the new Ultrasparc T2 processor-based servers were really exciting. The performance numbers and features are very interesting, especially for applications in the web tier.
I also had the chance to listen to presentations from Dave Douglas and Jonathan Schwartz. Both were very positive and everyone seem pleased to hear the messages. The afternoon was good, including setup a podcast from the video room at the Paris Hotel. It was pretty fun and I happy to get the help from Seeley to get this done. Thanks!
Then, it was on to a customer dinner and off to the CEC party. More fun before it was time to leave Las Vegas.
Posted at 08:55PM Oct 12, 2007 by bs in General |
Vegas, Baby!
Welcome to Las Vegas - I'm here for the 2007 CEC where Sun's customer engineers from all over the world gather to meet, learn and have some fun. Yesterday was the first full day of the conference, but my second day in Las Vegas. I had some meetings on Sunday, so I left my house bright and early to get here in time for my afternoon meetings.
Monday was a very full day of content - we heard from our Global Systems Engineering leadership team about where we've been and where we're going. The picture is from a video that at the start of the keynote session. It's just what I thought Hal's avatar would look like - he had to be wearing a NJ Devils jersey. The messages were good - leverage the community, there's a long tail of expertise and interest at Sun - find creative ways to use it.
And a most profound message from Jim, "Rethink 'Stuff!'". We've got some very interesting systems and approaches that demand us to think about how to we do things differently to take advantage of innovation. How does your approach changes with systems based on Niagra chips or a X4500 server/storage or a Blackbox? One of the things that attracted me to Sun was the quality of the people. Over the years, I've been amazed by the talent. Yesterday, was no exception with presentations from Andy Bechtolsheim and Marc Tremblay. The roadmap and features for new systems and SPARC chips is very exciting.
After the keynote, I had a full day of sessions including a cool session on Project Darkstar, our new open source gaming server. Darkstar provides a scalable, flexible platform for online gaming. It's a great idea for companies that would rather spend their time being creative on the games interface than worry about how to scale shards and manage users. In fact, part of the scalability comes from not having to worry about shards and zones. Plus it provides persistance and failover capabilities for the game environment. And, Jeff's Bunny Hunter game demo was awesome.
Lots more yesterday, including a belated Happy Birthday to my co-presenter - Tom! We had an unconference and speed geek session in the evening which led to a well deserved night out.
We're back in session bright and early this morning. Should be another fun day in Vegas!
Posted at 11:59AM Oct 09, 2007 by bs in General |
Biking, technology and the web
This could be the latest craze in online gaming - combine cycling, technology and the internet. Talk about a mashup... Oh wait, there's already MotionBased that takes GPS data from your cycle computer and plots it onto a map. It could be more addictive than Webkinz is for your kids (or you). But, it's really just what I've been talking about for the last two years in my blog. I just checked to see when I started this blog and it was officially posted on September 30, 2005. I can't believe that I missed my own anniversary! There was a slight gap in the middle, although it's picked up a bit lately.
So, two years later and I'm starting a new job at Sun - Chief Technologist for the Web Industry Practice. It's very exciting for me to be in such an interesting role. We're a small group, but focused on what we can do to help web companies. The groups focused on different types of companies including internet services, new media, social networking, e-commerce or gaming. There's an interesting collection of technology from Sun, partners and free/open source software that we're working with. It will be interesting to see how my experience from the Media & Entertainment companies will help with these customers, especially as more content is distributed through these sites. Plus, there's common needs relating to understanding customers, integrating new features and scaling for performance.
It's going to be a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to meeting new customers, co-workers and seeing new places. Stay tuned!
Posted at 10:02AM Oct 05, 2007 by bs in Web.next | Comments[1]
Sports and the new web
I went to a very interesting ny:mieg panel Wednesday morning - thankfully, it was interesting since it started very early in New York City. The panel talked about "Enhancing the Sports Fan Experience" and featured speakers from College Fanz, The NFL Network, CSTV, Kickapps and NEP Broadcasting. The panelists all had experience with sports broadcasting and bring a unique perspective to building sports communities on the web.
Bill Rasmussen, founder of ESPN and now College Fanz had a great perspective on providing a place for fans to gather, cheer and celebrate or scream at their favorite teams. It was said that there's more passion around sports than other topics and I believe that it continues to be true. According to Rasmussen, that's especially true for college sports because there's such a long affiliation with the school. Today's professional sports teams can change players or even cities, but once you've attended a school - it's your alma mater for life. That not only gives a long time period that people follow a college sports program but a continually growing audience.
I've seen this with sports in general, whether it's MLB , NFL, NHL or Cricket. Sports websites in general drive tremendous traffic and visitor loyalty. The ability to follow your favorite teams and players while receiving updated scores and stats is a great resource for both the casual fan and fanatic. Fantasy leagues, statistical tracking and community building are all driven by the content on these sports sites. New communities like College Fanz only help to extend the attraction. Sports fans will always find places to congregate and celebrate, these sites give them a virtual destination to call home.
Posted at 05:57PM Sep 15, 2007 by bs in Web.next |
A Day to Remember
September 11, 2001 was a beautiful, sunny September morning. I had a nice bike ride through the Great Swamp and thankfully chose to work at home that day.
Six years later, I'd hoped for another bike ride but it was a rainy September morning instead. Somehow fitting. I remember calling my wife and telling her that a plane hit the building next to mine and then minutes later calling back to tell her that a plane hit my building. I remember seeing my kids come out of school that day and being thankful to see them, although they were confused that so many parents were there to greet them. I remember being thankful that our entire office got out safely and I remember that so many others were lost, including one of our own from Sun - Phil Rosenzweig.
But mostly, I remember to be thankful for what we have.
Posted at 11:28PM Sep 11, 2007 by bs in General |
Scenes from New York City
Sun's office is on the same street as the steam pipe explosion - that's our building on the right side
(photo from Damon Winter/The New York Times website)
Posted at 11:45AM Jul 20, 2007 by bs in Cycling | Comments[1]
Back from vacation!
A week off from work can be a very good thing. Sun's offices in the United States have been closed over the July 4th holiday for the last few years. Although we weren't officially closed this year, it's usually a slow week after the hectic end of our fiscal year.
I had a nice week at home with some time to catch up on things around the house, ride my bike and sit by the pool. The 4th of July was a beautiful day in New Jersey and I had a great ride through towns like Far Hills, Gladstone and Pottersville. This was actually a five county ride, from Essex through Hunterdon counties. If you've never been west of the NJ Turnpike, you'd be surprised at the rural areas that are very close. Gladstone is the last stop on one route of NJ Transit's Midtown Direct train service into New York City. It's a picturesque town with some beautiful surrounding areas.
You can see a great view of Lake Street in Far Hills from Google Maps. It's a narrow country road that follows the (very narrow) lake. At one point, the road narrows so much that it has to split - north bound traffic goes up the hill and south bound traffic is down the hill by the lake. NJ DOT must not have a lot of choice in signs, because they put a "Divided Highway Ends" sign on this quiet street.
I had a great experience with IMBA and the Subaru/IMBA Trail Care crew to end my vacation this weekend. Subaru of America sponsors two crews to travel around the US and help build sustainable multi-use trails. I spent Saturday morning in class learning about the background and principals of trail building, including the rules of how to build trails that will last. Jason and Anna (Happy Birthday, Anna!) did a great job explaining trail planning and building for all of us newbies. The local trails have been hit hard by rain this winter and these methods will help ensure that the new trails will endure the weather. It was very interesting and we got to put our instructions to use in the local park. It was great to see the community in action - hikers and bikers from all over New Jersey came to our area to help build some tremendous new singletrack. There were over 40 people who spent their weekend planning and building trails. We built over a kilometer of new trail that will replace a completely washed out section which can now be reclaimed. I learned how to use a clinometer to measure grade changes and plot an appropriate trail. It was a lot of hard work, but definitely time well spent.
Update: Picture of the trail crew:
Posted at 10:34PM Jul 08, 2007 by bs in Cycling |
Communities in the rain
I attended the first opensolaris users group meeting in New York City last night. They say that rain at a wedding is good luck, so the downpours in New York should be a very sign for the success of the new user group. Sun's office is on the east side of Manhattan where there were power outages and subways out of service. Despite the difficulties with transportation, there was a good group that showed up for the first meeting (and free pizza, of course).
There were some good presentations on opensolaris in general and Crossbow. Isaac took us on a field trip of the opensolaris and genunix websites. The audience was engaged and agreed to meet monthly to continue the conversation. The group was a good mix of Solaris users, developers and Sun employees. If the rain was any indication, this should grow into a very strong group.
Posted at 02:13PM Jun 28, 2007 by bs in General |
Surf's Up!
Okay, maybe that's the old Web-guy in me - maybe "interacting" is a better way to look at it. It's been an interesting week - two early breakfast meetings in the city (which reminded me why I don't schedule those anymore), lots of customer meetings, a quick trip to Henry Stewart DAM Conference, more conference calls and a little time to catch up on some reading and interacting.
So, where have I been?
- Joost
- Twitter
- Doppler
- Boing Boing
- Media 3.0 with Shelly Palmer
- Techie and the Media
Of course, it's not all work: Daily Peloton and VeloNews are good too.
Have a great weekend!
Posted at 11:34PM Jun 08, 2007 by bs in General |
Growing the digital media community
I had breakfast at Gracie Mansion this morning (that's not a sentence that I thought I'd use to start a blog entry).
Katherine Oliver, Commissioner of the Mayor's Office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting, hosted a breakfast along with a panel moderated by Shelly Palmer. The group was gathered to discuss digital media in New York and how to grow the community. There are unique challenges that digital media companies face in the city but the benefits can be tremendous. There's a strong media and advertising community that would like to be able to leverage local digital media talent.
I was encouraged to hear about some of the programs for small businesses that both the City and New York State have to offer. The most exciting news for me was some of the educational opportunities that they are planning for city schools. There's already new Acadamies planned for NYC schools that focus on Arts & Media including web technologies and digital media. The ability to offer new opportunities to home-grown talent is an excellent plan.
It was a very interesting session for me, but I have to leave time for a tour with the docents next time.
Posted at 09:57PM Jun 04, 2007 by bs in General |
It's a video world
It seems like there's a new user generated or collaborative video site coming on-line everyday. The sites may not be proliferating that quickly, but there's been a tremendous number of announcements over the last few months from both community-oriented and corporate-sponsored web sites.
It's hard to say where this all started - was it with YouTube or are the roots of the community/"reality" programming further back? I think the first dedicated show based on user generated content may have been America's Funniest Home Videos with host Bob Saget which started in 1989 making it the second longest running show on ABC. Although, Wikipedia calls Allen Funt's Candid Camera one of the earliest reality shows.
The question isn't really where or when this started, but rather where is it going? There's room for many different business models so I don't think it's a choice between YouTube or AOLVideo or Google Video. It's not really even a choice between Joost or NBC or the CW.
There will continue to be a need for linear television programming for the near future. The audience, network programmers and advertisers will all demand that. But, the increased availability of on demand content will continue to drive alternate viewing models for both time shifted and place shifted content. As content owners and distributors continue to embrace video delivered over IP, consumption models will expand and proliferate. Each view will determine their own mix of ad supported, subscription and free content to consume where and when it's appropriate.
These factors will continue to drive change as users have more options for their entertainment time and money. There's some very compelling content online that's available for free (and some's even legally obtained - check out Hal's t-shirt). But the key question is what viewing circumstances will cause you to choose free or paid content? If you're paying for the right to view content, what do you consider when looking at sources of content and viewing options. I think it's more about access and personalization and trust. You'll look at recommendations from your friends or the community for video from user generated content and you'll pay for content where you find value (for example, a live baseball game). There's a very low barrier to sample content, you can find shows or parts of shows and many web sites to see if it's interesting to you. If it is, that's when you decide how and when you'll watch that content.
There's been a lot of progress towards viewing content more flexibly. That's only going to get better as more content is created and made available for access in many different ways. How you access the content will be your decision.
Related note: I saw Hal Stern's blog today and found this when I followed the link:
Posted at 01:34PM May 30, 2007 by bs in General |
Happy Memorial Day!
I know that it's almost summer when Memorial Day weekend arrives. The weather cooperated this year with some hot, muggy summer-like weather and a few brief showers for good measure.
This is also prime bike riding season for me, so I was happy to ride every day. We found a couple of new routes on the road and also rode the trails in the woods too. The weather cooperated this morning and I was able to finish a quick 31 mile ride before our local Memorial Day parade. We're fortunate to have a good parade through the middle of town and spent a nice hour or so in the heat enjoying everything from the local police and fire departments to the circus and Shriners!
Posted at 07:21PM May 28, 2007 by bs in General |
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