Sun employee & fanatical motorcyclist Mike Belch's Weblog Biker Mike's Weblog

The CEC 2006 conference is over. I know it finished a week ago but post-CEC meetings, travel and jet lag recovery all conspired to prevent me writing up my closing thoughts.

Pictured left to right in this picture are Christina from the USA, Frank from Belgium, me and then Benny from Belgium. I always titter when I meet Frank and Benny because there is a chain of restaurants in the UK called Frankie & Benny's New York Italian Restaurant and Bar, which is quite apt for such a nice pair of Belgian bon vivants. We are all wearing the incredibly popular AIM or DIE t-shirts that my team had printed for the CEC. These are now a valued prize that may shortly see trading at high prices on eBay!

The conference was a great success and as usual I left it feeling rejuvenated and recommitted to my work. That rejuvenation was then severely tested by diving into two more days of meetings in Santa Clara which gave no breathing space following the intense activities at the conference. By Friday afternoon all plans for a serious shopping trip were thrown out of the window as my colleague Dusty and I were both exhausted.

And so to the Travelympics competition for the journey home. Our journey back to San Francisco Airport (which followed a quick techie-toy shopping trip to Frys Electronics) started badly as we got caught up in heavy traffic. This was probably because Saturday was the start of Fleet Week which featured both the Red Bull Air Race and a display by the Blue Angels.

Dusty and I had both used points to upgrade to Virgin Atlantic's Upper Class service on the way back. Our very smooth check in was followed by a long relax in the Upper Class lounge where a few gin & tonics and a nice dinner helped us prepare for the journey ahead. The flight itself was a dream, I had a light snack on the plane, a couple more gin & tonics and a nice glass of chardonnay while I watched the rather poor film "Click". This was followed by nearly six hours of solid out-cold sleep in a flat 6'7" long bed. I awoke to the smell of bacon sandwiches being served and 90 minutes later I was on the ground in London. My bags were practically the last off the belt which was a real pain (Priority baggage handling? Hah!) and the normally excellent Upper Class Revivals Lounge, where you can take a shower and have your clothes pressed before having a light breakfast, turned out to be a bit of a farce. I rejected two different bathrooms as dirty, before discovering just as I stepped into the shower that the third also had someone else's pubic hairs all over the floor. The 20+ bathrooms in the lounge should be run on the same principles as a good hotel runs its rooms i.e. you should believe that you are the first person ever to use it. I felt really let down and made my feelings known to the lounge manager. In Virgin's defence this has never happened to me on any of the many times I have used the lounge previously. The dirty bathroom incident soured what would otherwise have been a great trip home.

So now I am home and mostly free of my jet lag. My bum still hurts from that cycle trip around the bay and I have probably put on a couple of pounds as a result of the great food, but otherwise I'm really happy that I got the chance to go.

Technorati tags: cec2006, Travel

I'm not as much of a geek as I used to be, but I still think it is rather cool to be able to use a wireless network and post a blog whilst sitting in a room with 3000 other techies. We are going to hear about some of the greatest technology in the world during the next three days and I'm excited by that.

I am presenting this afternoon on Sun's AIM methodology. I can confidently predict that the hot t-shirt at this year's CEC will be our own "AIM or DIE" shirt which says "Architect Implement Manage or Deliver Install Escalate?". The rather tongue-in-cheek message is actually deadly serious. The greatest technology means nothing if you don't architect, implement and manage a solution for a customer using a methodology that ensures the customer's business needs are understood and fully addressed. In the past year we have seen a significant increase in customer satisfaction for engagements that use AIM. The great thing about satisfied customers is that they buy more and they tell other people. Unless we understand what our customers actually want we will DIE. I hope that our team will be able to share that message with as many people as possible this week. Demonstrate that you understand the message and I'll happily give you a shirt!

Technorati tags: cec2006

I scored some good Travelympics points on the flight - I was assigned an exit seat and I boarded the flight without a queue. However, I lost points as well - my in-seat all-singing, all-dancing video-on-demand entertainment system had to be reset twice before it would work and the special meal that I booked came to my seat 5 minutes after I started eating the normal meal they handed me. I saw a great movie on the plane - "V for Vendetta" which is a modern interpretation of the Guy Fawkes 5th of November gunpowder plot. Mikey's movie rating: 7.5/10

When we landed in San Francisco the queues at immigration were negligbile and there was only a short wait to get my bag. The real high Travelympics score though came as a result of a SMS message from my colleague Kate Morris. She had arrived earlier in the day from Sydney and warned me not to take the bus as the organisation was chaotic. Instead a group of us took the BART train and got off at Montgomorey station which emerged at ground level directly outside the door of the hotel. 10/10 for style!

Meeting up with my team mates last night was good, but jetlag meant that a couple of beers and a light dinner were followed by an early night.

This morning we had a typical American breakfast (a.k.a. a minor coronary) at Denny's then rented cycles to go around the bay and across the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito. The cycle path to the bridge was crowded as we set off at the same time as the annual Bridge To Bridge run. When we got to the base of the bridge I was rather amused to see the sign pictured right - sort of "Welcome to San Francisco, now go home"! Right now I am coffee'd up to my eyeballs and about to set off in search of some food before registering for the conference.

Technorati tags: cec2006

Stylish, smooth, snag-free progress through an airport is every travellers dream. Today I managed just that and started my journey with a great Travelympics score: No traffic on the 135 mile drive to Heathrow, a bus waiting for me as I dropped off my car, no queue at check-in and a smooth passage through security. As an added bonus today is the publication date of the paperback version of Terry Pratchett's novel Thud! so I have something to read on the aircraft. Smoked salmon, eggs benedict, a couple of gin & tonics and a haircut round off my experience in the Virgin Atlantic lounge. My colleague Dusty just got back from his shave and facial massage. I think the smile on his face means he enjoyed himself.

All we have to do now is survive the next 11 hours in a cramped metal tube at 7 miles above the earth's surface. I wish an airline would offer the mode of travel favoured by Howard Hughes - doctors give you an injection in your hotel bed in London. When you wake up you are in a hotel bed in the USA. Imagine that, no need to worry about what seat you get because you have been unconscious the whole time. In-flight service isn't necessary, no need to worry about upgrades, just wheel the passengers in on trollies then rack 'em and stack 'em on shelves in the plane. My only worry is that I would be loaded by the same people that load and unload my bags. Hmmm... then again maybe I'll stick to smiling nicely at the check-in desk in the hope of an upgrade.

Technorati tags: cec2006

A quick Skype chat with Alec Muffett and my Technorati problems are solved.

To get your post tags to appear in Technorati you must first tell Technorati which tags you are going to be using. To do this you need to goto your Technorati account then click on "Configure Blog" where you can add your tags into the boxes provided.

I still can't see the Technorati embedded content on the right side of my page but that problem isn't as critical.

Technorati tags: cec2006

Sun is going to aggregate all of the blogs by employees attending the upcoming CEC2006 conference. One of the suggested ways to do this is to set up a cec2006 topic tag on every post. Well it isn't working for me and I'm at a loss on what to do next.

I have my Technoratic account setup (see my profile), I have claimed my blog, and I believe that I have used the tag correctly. But when you click on the tag you see other people's blog entries but not mine. I have checked my Sun blog settings and it is configured to ping Technorati when I post. I have also done a manual ping.

Additionally I have embedded the Technorati content on the right side of my page, yet it fails to appear. I wonder if the problems are linked?

Can anyone offer some insight on why I am having these problems? Any help would be welcomed.

Technorati tags: cec2006

On Saturday I will fly off on a week long trip to San Francisco, one of my favourite cities in the world, to attend Sun's CEC 2006 conference. I will be attending the conference, for the fourth time in succession, to present on Risk Management and on Sun's AIM methodology. I am also hoping to attend a few of the keynote and breakout sessions to learn something. I may be in a corporate role these days but I am still a techie at heart.

I also hope to have some fun. On Sunday a group of us will rent bicycles (not my usual two wheeled transport!) and ride across the Golden Gate Bridge for brunch and a couple of beers in Sausalito.

After the conference I will stay on for a couple of days for meetings with my team who are geographically dispersed in Australia, Germany, UK and various parts of the USA.

Technorati tags: cec2006

I sat very still and silent at lunchtime today watching BBC news on TV which was showing live the 9/11 remembrance events in New York.

Shortly after we married in 1988 my wife and I moved to New York for six months. During that time we grew very fond of the city. We were deeply shocked at all the plane crashes across the USA on that awful day five years ago, but were especially touched by the events at the World Trade Center, which was the end point of my commute to Wall Street as I emerged each morning from the subterranean PATH station.

The TV showed President George W Bush observing the silences at a New York fire station, where he hailed the firefighters who died as heroes. The emergency services in New York did a fine job, but there were also many unsung heroes on that terrible day. A great example is Sun's own hero Avel Villanueva, a Xerox engineer who was assigned to Sun's offices on the 25th and 26th floors of the south tower. I tried unsuccessfully to find an old article that I read the San Jose Mercury News about Avel. However I did find the following extract which shows that without Avel's unselfish actions 9/11 could have been a very different day for Sun Microsystems and its New York based employees.

Taken from a HAPA Newsletter. HAPA is an organization for the advancement of Hispanic engineers within Xerox.

During the tragic event one of our very own, Avel Villanueva, was recognized as a hero. Avel has been a Xerox employee for 8 years. He has worked 7 of those years on the Sun Micro Systems account. He was promoted to Facilities Coordinator when Sun moved from 1 New York Plaza to 2 WTC in February, 1999. He is the father of 4 children; ages 14-21.

Here is a recap of the events on Tuesday 9/11/01:

* After the initial impact, Avel looked out of the window and saw a huge hole in 1 WTC. He went to the Regional Director, John O'Donnel, and told him that he was going to evacuate Sun employees.

* He paged everyone to leave the building as quickly as they could stating “Please, with calmness, go to the nearest exit. This is not a drill. Get out.” He repeated this from the reception area several times.

* He went to the 26th floor to make sure that everyone was out. He repeated his page at every phone he passed.

* He went back to the 25th floor and did a walk through while paging at every phone.

* He returned to the copy center for his personal belongings and made a final page to evacuate the building.

* He left. Approximately 3 minutes later, the second plane hit 2 WTC. Avel left the building alive.

Avel's actions saved the lives of many. A Sun Microsystems executive stated, “Avel unselfishly placed the safety and well being of the Sun employees located on the 25th and 26th floors of Tower 2 before his own health and safety. In my book, Avel is a hero!”

One Sun Microsystems employee did die on 9/11. Phil Rosenzweig was on American Airlines flight 11. Rest in peace.

Sun employee Derek "DIM" Maxwell died suddenly yesterday.

I knew of Derek even before I worked for Sun because I was heavily involved with Wabi (remember that anyone?), PC-NFS and Solarnet PC-Admin. I was honoured to finally meet him shortly after I joined the company in 1995. His knowledge of the products and their application was second to none and he was always happy to help.

My thoughts are with his wife and children at this sad time.

For the past four years I have been part of a team that has been developing and rolling out an improvement programme to Sun's field engineering community. The programme which consists of methodology components, tools and document templates - all underpinned by a wealth of standards, best practice and experience - is called AIM. The name is derived from three stages that form part of any customer engagement lifecycle: Architect, Implement and Manage.

So why am I blogging about AIM? Why should anyone in the blogosphere care about an internal change programme within Sun? Simple. AIM makes a huge difference to our customers. More on this later.

AIM allows Sun's customer facing engineers and partners to architect, deliver and support quality solutions to customer business issues. Detailed attention to understanding and documenting customer requirements followed by methodical implementation, test and deployment of a solution architected to meet those requirements, means that we are more likely to meet the customer's needs and to deliver on scope, on time, on budget and with a carefully manged risk exposure.

The result of using AIM is a tangibile increase in customer satisfaction. After every significant engagement Sun asks the customer to complete a satisfaction survey. Think of this as the "How was it for you darling?" question. The survey asks the customer to rate a number of aspects of the engagement including: satisfaction with Sun and its engineers, professionalism of Sun's engineers, technical competency, communications with the Sun team, ease of doing business with the Sun team, project management effectiveness, effectiveness of the overall project and (most importantly) whether the customer will re-engage the team and do business again with Sun. For every single question asked, Sun is rated higher by our customers when AIM is used.

Customers are satisfied because the Sun solution delivered using AIM does exactly what the customer needs. This helps the customer's business run more smoothly and obviously brings benefits to the customer. But it also brings benefits to Sun. A happy customer is more likely to do business with us again, and a happy customer is more likely to recommend us to other companies.

So let me throw down the following challenges:

• If you are a Sun employee involved in customer engagements please make sure you use AIM for every customer engagement.

• If you are a Sun partner then please come and talk to us about AIM. Share our best practice and share in our success.

• If you are a Sun customer then ask your account team whether they are using AIM to deliver your solution. In fact, go one stage further and insist that they use AIM. If they don't then come and talk to me!