Fred's Random Thoughts Frederic Jean's Weblog

Flying on 9/11

I've been summoned to the Santa Clara campus for planning meetings around the next iteration of the Sun Update Connection. Since our director wanted us to be ready to work early on Monday, we were asked to fly in on Sunday if possible. So there I am, preparing myself to board a plan in a little more than one hour.

Well, it happens that today is 9/11. At first, I was a little nervous to be flying on that date. 9/11 still has a strong imprint on the American psyche, and it is easy to bring back the horrible images of the planes crashing into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania. Still, I did convince myself that everything would be OK. So there I am at the airport, getting ready to leave.

Mollie, my beautiful wife, is worried though. She can't help it, she is a worrier and would be worried on any other day of the year. She made me promise to call her as soon as I am allowed to do so. I'll of course do so since I know that she will be worried sick until I call her.

Flying on this day is certainly a sobering experience.

-- Fred

Update: The flight was uneventful. I called Mollie as soon as we were allowed to use a cellphone. She was very much relieved.

Technorati Tags: puppy, Sun, update

( Sep 11 2005, 10:50:57 PM MDT ) Permalink Comments [0]

iTunes 5: Worth the Reboot

Well, today was the Big Day, where Steve Jobs & Co announced the long rumored iTunes phone as well as the iPod nano. The phone leaves me indifferent. I'm not about to switch carrier at this point in time since Cingular's plans are more expensive than my current carrier. The iPod nano does look really, well, slick. Still, I'll hold on to my iPod mini until it's batteries just wont recharge anymore. Possibly longer, who knows.

iTunes is a different story though. I use it every single day to listen to music or sync up my iPod mini. Sure, it's DRM laced, but there are ways around it if you really object to DRM. Well, today Steve Jobs & Co. released iTunes 5. Beside the new design (a mix between the metal and unified themes), a few new features were added. These include parental controls, a search bar, and a play list folder.

You can either download the new iTunes from the Apple web site or through the Mac OS X Software Update feature (which is an inspiration to all Mac users working on the Sun Update Connection). With it comes an update to Quicktime, which will require you to reboot.

Still, I think it was worth the reboot.

-- Fred

    [posted with ecto]

Technorati Tags: Apple, iPod, iTunes, Quicktime

( Sep 07 2005, 11:16:47 PM MDT ) Permalink Comments [0]

Running Firefox/Mozilla under VNC

A favorite past time of bloggers at Sun is looking at the referer list to see how people get to their blogs. The vast majority of people come to my random thoughts through a direct link. There are some interesting Google searches though.

So, this hint is for the individual who googled [sic] for vnc "solaris 10" -x86 and found me on the second page. If you are having problems with Firefox crashing your VNC session under some web site, configure your VNC server to start using an 8 bits depth rather than a 24 bits one. Sure, it will not look as nice as it could, but it will run and not crash.

Things you learn doing distributed demos :)

-- Fred

[posted with ecto]

Technorati Tags: Google, Solaris, VNC

( Sep 06 2005, 11:50:42 PM MDT ) Permalink Comments [0]

MCI Neighborhood Broadband Update

It's been well over month since I transferred my home phone number to the MCI Neighborhood Broadband VoIP offering. The sound quality of the call is pretty good (having Comcast Broadband service does help). I hadn't had issues placing or receiving calls. They even allow 10 digits dialing rather than force us to do 11 digits dialing.

A positive is that MCI did transfer my phone number as promised, when promised. It happened on my birthday to boot. This certainly beats Vonage's "6 months and still no transfer" story.

As a result, I am now free of the local loop tyranny brought to Denver by Qwest. My calls are going over the internet. And I'm saving well over $70 a month.

Maybe I can use that for gas money...

-- Fred

[posted with ecto]

Technorati Tags: Broadband, MCI, VoIP, Vonage

( Sep 06 2005, 11:30:10 AM MDT ) Permalink Comments [2]

Apple's Preview Nice Touch

Did you know that if you close Preview while reading a PDF file that it will open the file at the page that was displayed? This made reading books such as My Job Went to India or Agile Web Development With Rails: A Pragmatic Guide a lot more pleasant than I expected.

Apple: Thank you for paying attention to the little details.

-- Fred

( Sep 02 2005, 12:49:43 PM MDT ) Permalink Comments [0]

Reach out, help someone (or a few)

We have all seen and witnessed the tragedy that was brought by Katarina on the Gulf of Mexico's coast line, mostly around New Orleans and the Mississippi coast. We are bombarded by the media with images of terrible destruction, pain and misery.

In spite of this, most of us cannot rush out to the affected areas to lend a hand personally. We still need to work, pay the bills and take care of our families. We have our obligations to our communities and our employers. Yet, we still feel that we must do something to help.

Many organizations have staff and volunteers who are either there already or on their way. Thanks to organizations such as the Red Cross, supplies, food and rescue workers are making their way to Katrina's victims. Shelters are being put together, refugees are evacuated, people are cared for and rescued.

All of this isn't free. It isn't even cheap. If you haven't done so, go to Amazon, iTunes or the Red Cross web site and give some money to help pay for the rescue efforts. See if your employer has a donation matching policy in order to amplify your donation. It doesn't need to be much to help. Even $5, $10 or $20 can make a difference and bring a little hope to a hopeless situation.

So reach out. Help a few people in great need.

-- Fred


( Sep 01 2005, 10:04:16 PM MDT ) Permalink Comments [0]

Chad Fowler's "My Job Went To India"

The Pragmatic Programmer is in the process of releasing a new book by Chad Fowler titled "My Job Went To India (And All I Got Was This Lousy Book). I had already read and heard good things through different blogs and at the Just Stuff, No Fluff conference.

I have read the extracts and decided that I needed more, so I got the PDF + Book combo and have been devouring the book so far. The book contains advice to developers and programmers on how to improve their chances of staying employed. The advice would be relevant even outside of the outsourcing/offshoring context.

A key point of the book is that our jobs are changing as a result of the availability of cheap labor globally. When seen through this lense, the advices contained in the book are more about how to increase your value to your employer than how to fight a (loosing) battle against offshoring and outsourcing.

It also provides an insight on what is driving the Indian programmers. What is driving them to get in this field, what is motivating them in terms of career, why so many of them are calling themselves "senior".

So far, it has been an excellent read, and I would recommend this book to any developer who is interested in staying in this field. If anything, listen to Andy Hunt's read of the introduction.

-- Fred
( Sep 01 2005, 11:50:02 AM MDT ) Permalink Comments [0]