Darrin Johnson's Weblog: Need for speed...

I have been an avid gamer all the way back to playing the original Oregon Trail from MECC via a "dumb" terminal connected to a central mainframe using an acoustic coupled modem. Fortunately gaming has come a long way especially playing on my Xbox 360 consoles (Standard and Elite thanks to my wife!). Here are my favorite Xbox 360 games (in order):

1. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - The ultimate console RPG with hundreds of hours of game play.
2. Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (GRAW) 2 - This game turned me into a huge fan of tactical shooters.
3. Halo 3 - An outstanding first person shooter and likely the first to get me into online play.
4. Bioshock - An immersive first person shooter like no other. Who's your Big Daddy?
5. Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars - Best darn RTS available on a console with easy to use controls.
6. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas - Another worthy tactical shooter.

How did these games get on my favorites list? Mostly because they are easy to learn (sorry I am not of the "combos" generation), immersive (it helps in HD), and allows with lots of interruptions with out penalizing the player.

There are others (e.g. Call of Duty 3, GRAW, Gears of War, FEAR, Crackdown, Lost Planet, etc.) which I own but haven't gotten around to playing so I can't rank them as of yet. However there are a number of cool games on the horizon that might keep me from getting around to the older games:

• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
• Blacksite: Area 51
• Tom Clancy's EndWar
• Grand Theft Auto IV

So many cool games and so little time to play.

While cleaning out my office (see previous blog) I came across a stack of periodicals that I haven't gotten around to, nor will ever get around to, reading. It was pretty clear to me that from an eco-responsibility perspective that it didn't make sense for me to get "hard copy" versions of these because I had clearly demonstrated that I wasn't going to read them. Additionally they are a relatively inefficient (e.g. low signal to noise ratio) way to get the information that I am interested in. So instead it makes much more sense to get e-subscriptions via RSS/XML feeds (see previous blog) to stop wasting paper while tailoring the information to my needs. Network World is a great example of a weekly periodical (fortunately they went to smaller magazine size) that also has a robust set of available RSS feeds to select from. Channel Reseller News is another example of a weekly magazine that has very good selection of RSS/XML feeds at http://crn.com/rss/rssSignup.jhtml. The updside is less clutter, less wasted paper, and better tailored information. The downside though is that diameter of the information fire hose only gets bigger.

The blog action day on the environment earlier this week got me thinking about my work office which is, as my mother would say, a "pigsty". The clutter is largely a result of giving higher priority to working (e.g. meeting with people, dealing with email, etc.) rather than taking the time to sort through the mess to clean it out. However I have taken a different look at my office by putting on my eco-responsibility hat and thinking in terms of the eco opportunity cost of not cleaning it. What outdated and unused documents sitting there could be recycled for a better use? What piece of equipment could be passed to somebody who could actually use it rather than it gathering dust and eventually being e-waste? These are some of the simple questions I asked myself.

Although it is a work in progress here is what I have done so far:

• Recycled an equivalent of two reams of paper
• Returned five or so VPN Token Cards to be refurbed/recycled
• Passed a set of Solaris Internals books to an engineer who could use it
• Gave an Intel Developer Forum backpack from a recent conference to a colleague whose son could use it
• Gave away a fiction book that I will never get around to reading
• Cleaned out partially filled boxes to recycle/reuse the boxes and distribute the equipment in the boxes to team members to use
• Took home eight or so lunch bags to reuse (Note: Starbuck's bags are great for this)
• ...

There is no need to calculate carbon offsets, watts per hour saved, etc. to see the obvious eco-benefit of taking the time to do something as simple as cleaning your office.

Today, October 15, is Blog Action Day with the focus being on the environment. Click on the banner for more information:



My contribution to Blog Action Day was the blog titled "Watt's Up...Component Power Consumption...". Enjoy!

Eco-responsibility is a hot topic (pun intended :)) at Sun and certainly worldwide with the recent announcement of Nobel Peace prize. One of the questions that comes up often is "What really consumes power in a system?", so here is a good table that I found on tomshwardware.com for desktop power consumption:

Component	Best Case	Worst Case
Power Supply	5-15 W	40-60 W
Motherboard	10-15 W	30-50 W
Processor	12-30 W	60-120 W
RAM	5-15 W	30-50 W
Hard Drive	3-5 W (2.5")	10-15 W (3.5")
Graphics Card	3-10 W (integrated)	25-180 W (PCI Express)
Total	38-90 W	195-475 W

The information above gives are really good starting point for understanding power consumption in a system.

I say "staring point" because components like CPUs, video cards, and memory are increasingly becoming power pigs. An Intel Dual Core Xeon Processor (5080) consumes up to 130 watts per processor and an AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ consumes 125 watts per processor with multipe processors per motherboard being a common option (reference). NVIDIA's flagship GeForce 8000 GTX graphics card consumes 277 watts loaded and other cards measure up to 387 watts (reference). New fully buffered DIMMs (FB-DIMMs) are now pushing over 10 watts per DIMM (and remember you generally have 2-4 DIMMs in a desktop).

As part of being eco-responsible it is important to consider "Watt's in your system?". :) Seriously though, the next time your decide to buy a new system, or upgrade an existing one, consider the philosophy "less is more" by asking what do you really need. Getting a GeForce 8000 GTX may be cool but unless you are a hard core gamer it will likely be a waste of money and power. Maybe getting one 2 GB DIMM instead of two 1 GB DIMMs or getting two 1 TB hard drives instead four 500 Gig drives will give you the same capacity with less power consumption.

Tivo, and DVRs in general, have been both a boon and bane to society. On one hand they do a great job recording the shows you want to see and other hand they record ALL the shows you want to see. The consequence is that you end up watching more television than ever before. Google Reader (www.google.com/reader) is also both a boon and bane. Gone are the days of trying to memorize websites and RSS feeds, having bookmark lists the length of your arm, custom links on your desktop, etc. Google Reader creates a fire hose of information with a remarkably easy to use interface and even provides easy to add bundles on a variety of topics including news, sports, technology, video, etc. What you don't find in the bundles can easily be added manually or by clicking on any RSS feed icon. Once you have your feeds in place it is trivial to scan them to either ignore them (and the counter automatically decrements) or clicking on them for more information. Google Reader even gives you trends to show how addicted you are:

From your 81 subscriptions, over the last 30 days you read 15,280 items, starred 1 items, shared 0 items, and emailed 0 items.

Ironically one of my feeds is Zen Habits which recommends to simplify your life and shy away from such foolish tools. What can I say I am addicted! Those of you who still rely on memorization, bookmarks, custom links, etc. should give Google Reader (or similar tool) a try.

W. Edwards Deming has been quoted as saying, "Whenever there is fear, you will get wrong figures." I would like to propose the corollary of "Don't fear figures because they may be wrong." Often it seems we are presented with facts, figures, metrics, etc. which we automatically assume they are accurate and (re)act accordingly. However there are some basic questions that should be asked to critically analyze such data: What was the methodology used to generate the numbers?, Is the underlying data reliable that was used to generate the numbers (e.g. bad data in, bad data out)?, Does the intent of the numbers match up with the data?, etc. Understanding the intent of the numbers is particularly important because it can have a direct impact on both the methodology and the accuracy of the underlying data.

For example, bug metrics are often used to imply the quality of a product from a customer perspective. However in reality most bug databases include bugs that will never been seen by customers or have bugs that are seen by a repeated number of customers. When looking at the data it is important ask the question of whether or not the former should be excluded and the later should be given extra significance. This is particularly important for the downstream use of the data including prioritizing and resourcing which bugs to work on. A priority 2 hit by several customers should probably get resourced before a priority 1 bug that a customer is unlikely to ever see. Again the key is to always have a critical eye for any facts, figures, metrics, etc. that come your way because through validating them you will make better decisions.

I recently came across the term "heterarchy." The contemporary definition is "a form of institutional organization based on distributed intelligence and collaborative decisions rather than hierarchical structures. A heterarchy is an organizational structure resembling a network rather than the top-down tree of a hierarchy (www.yourdictionary.com)." Within a heterarchy the decision-making (e.g. power and authority) is distributed horizontally rather than vertically in a hierarchal organization. Some would consider a heterarchy to be the opposite of hierarchy but generally a hierarchical organization is constructed of vertically connected heterarchical elements with each of the elements having bounded decision-making authority (wikipedia.org).

Can a pure heterarchy (e.g. lacking the hierarchical framework) exist in a corporate environment? Or more importantly what conditions need to exist to make it successful without the loss of efficiency? If it can be made to work, it would seem that there is a tremendous value in leveraging this type organizational structure as a means to adapt to the often often dynamic nature of some business environments. Having the ability to dynamically connect a network of experts, empowering them to make the decisions, delivering on the objective(s) and then dissolving the organization for reuse for the next objectives seems like a powerful tool. Do any of you have pointers or anecdotal information where heterachical structures have worked?

My wife and I decided to take the long way home after a weekend in Half Moon Bay to have lunch at Zelda's in Capitola, CA. Right as you enter Santa Cruz is Donnelly Chocolates in an unassuming building (1509 Mission Street, Santa Cruz, CA) that is easy to miss. However you certainly don't want to miss and is worth making a frequent pilgrimage to get some of the best chocolates (better than Pierre Marcolini, Woodhouse Chocolate, Joseph Schmidt, etc.). Truffles, bar chocolate, baking products, liquor bombs, toffee, etc. are all superb. The huge variety of flavors can appease any taste and make it nearly impossible to pick. What I particularly appreciate is the high quality and consistency of the chocolates which makes it even easier to go back again and again.

Donnelly Chocolates
1509 Mission Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Phone: (831) 458-4214
Toll Free: (888) 685-1871
www.donnellychocolates.com

Here are some of the cool RSS feeds (and websites) that I use to track new gadgets:

• Engadget (website)
• Everything USB News, Reviews, Tips (website)
• Gear & Gadgets Section - Ars Technica (website)
• Ubergizmo (website)
• Wired Gadgets (website)
• Woot! - One Day, One Deal (website)

Anybody have any other suggestions?

My wife and I decided to get away for the weekend and head over to Half Moon Bay to have some good seafood, see the sites, pick up some pumpkins and simply relax. We decided to splurge and stay at the Ritz-Carlton in Half Moon Bay in part because of the tremendous brand reputation of customer service. Ironically, customer service certainly wasn't their strength with a comedy of customer service errors (13 to be exact) that individually could be written off but as a whole was a stunning disappointment. The manager and assistant manager quickly acknowledge the problems as being fault of the staff and were apologetic. The both repeatedly asked what they could do (beyond trying to resolve each individual problem as they arose). This brought to mind the question..."What is good customer service worth?" or put another way "What kind of compensation would mitigate the bad service?". Other questions also factor in..."Should cost of services/goods factor into the equation?", "Should brand reputation be a factor?", "Does the severity or frequency issues factor into it?", etc. These questions however lead to a natural desire to negotiate for the maximum compensation possible.

I however take a different approach. Instead of negotiating, I prefer to let the person know that it isn't up to me to ask for compensation for the trouble but instead up to them to decide what value I am to them as a customer. They need to understand the value of good customer service with the consequence of their decision having a direct impact on whether or not I remain a customer (and tell others). It is my belief that ultimately the payout is far greater in that the company is more likely to make the changes needed to eliminate the service issues in the future. In the case of Ritz-Carlton in Half Moon Bay, I genuinely believe that the message was understood and that I will gladly be a customer again. Additionally, although I had insisted that I am not looking for compensation for the issues, they took care of the room charges which was completely unexpected.

Here are my favorite RSS feeds on the topic of chocolate:

Chefs.com - Candy and Chocolate
NYT > Chocolate
The Chocolate Blog (website)
Chocolate & Cioccolato World (website)
Chocablog (website)
Chocolate & Zucchini (website)
Chocolate Blog (website)
Chocolate Obsession (website)

Please comment if you can recommend any other chocolate RSS feeds.

Recently I have encountered a phenomenon that I thought was reserved for actors.....being typecast. In this case being typecast as "just a manager" with the perception that once one becomes a people manager they have a lobotomy that limits their ability to function beyond certain boundaries. Those boundaries of course are not well defined but seem to be centered around the common tactical managerial tasks of status reports, performance reviews, project management, etc. Being "just a manager" seems to preclude having technical depth, contributing to the strategic direction, or having a broader understanding of technology or business in which we work. Having been a people manager for nearly a decade, I have prided myself on trying to master both the classic skills of a people manager as well as going beyond those boundaries to leverage my experience as a scientist, engineer and business person to add greater value to my team/organization/company and for my own personal fulfillment.

Fortunately the typecasting is the exception, not the norm, and has helped me to reflect on what is important to me and what I think should be important for my fellow managers. Don't limit yourself to being "just a manager" and take it upon yourself to define your own boundaries. Take on the role of being a strategist, technologist, leader, business person, etc. if only for your own personal fulfillment. Take pride in breaking the typecast by being able to add to your own credits by being a scientist, author, change agent, entrepreneur, technologist, inventor, visionary, etc.

Sun has launched OpenEco.org which is an online community to provide free tools and resources for calculating, tracking, and comparing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Dave Douglas, VP of Eco-responsibility at Sun, says, "This project came about because we were trying to calculate our own carbon footprint ... and we found that the tools out there were proprietary or expensive, or else companies were building spreadsheets (to calculate their footprint) on an ad hoc basis."

http://openeco.org/
http://weblog.infoworld.com/sustainableit/archives/2007/09/sun_delivers_op.html

In popular media and technical journals we frequently see reports of the latest security weaknesses, hackers breaking into systems, services and data being compromised, etc. Professor Arun Sood, at George Mason University, has taken a novel approach to confronting these security threats. The fundamental approach of Self Cleansing Intrusion Tolerance (SCIT) is to create a known good version of a service (e.g. identity, dns, webserving, etc.) which is then replicated with some of the services put online and some held offline in reserve. Then periodically the offline copies are brought online with online versions being taken offline, scrubbed and ready to be brought online again. I don't do the technology justice so I recommend taking a look at his his website at http://cs.gmu.edu/~asood/scit/ and especially the listed publications.


Professor Sood also posted a great introductory article on Reavis Consulting Group's RiskBloggers.com on "Exposure Time - A Metric For Proactive Security Risk Management". The article discusses the critical consideration of the relationship between the intruder residence time (IRT) and the potential for loss as defined by the loss curve. The "exposure time" however, as Professor Sood asserts, is a more interesting metric. Unfortunately there is invariably a trade-off of cost (e.g. increased number of replicated services, additional equipment, etc.) and exposure time. If you are interested in services security and how to design low exposure time systems then this article and related links are worth reading.