The 6.625' View

I Have Met "The Man," and The Tail Will Not Be Pretty.

 I love "dives."  You know those places that you look at from the outside, and say..."hmm..."  But with lines out the door, you know they must be doing something right.  Once you get inside, you know there's something special going on in the kitchen.  My wife has always accused me of taking her to only the "finest" establishments, but this one almost killed her.

A little backstory:  As my little brother was graduating from college, he was seduced by the Dark Side and moved to Redmond Washington to work for the large unnamed software company based there.  coughcough*bluescreenofdeath*coughcough  It made for interesting family dinner conversations, as dad was always trying to get his boys to talk smack about each other's company.  Sorry, Dad, I'm not Scott McNealy!

Apparently all visitors to the Microsoft campus have to make the pilgrimage to Dixie's BBQ in Bellevue.  The walls are adorned with about a dozen maps each with hundreds of colorful pins, each signifying where a previous customer was born.  The place is infamous for its colorful characters, pretty good BBQ, and "The Man."

So how does one describe "The Man?"  Imagine one of the lowest fiery Circles of Hell, say those reserved for corrupt politicians, people who commit simony, or OpenJDK developers who break the build.  Now imagine these people are served a nice BBQ lunch.  As this is Hell, the BBQ sauce is punishingly spicy, somewhere just between "Dave's Insanity Sauce" and "Lord, if you would just remove this molten lava from my mouth, I won't ever _______ again!!!"  Now, place a couple of gallons of that BBQ sauce in a large cauldron, and allow it to simmer/reduce for several years, to the volume of a small quart pot.  Now give this pot to a Bellevue Washington restaurateur named Gene Porter, and have him walk around his restaurant asking if you've met "The Man." 

Fortunately, for most people, Gene is nice, and only dips the tip of a toothpick into his concoction, or if you're unlucky, the tip of a spoon.  Whatever you do, don't say something stupid like say "I love hot sauce!"  For those idiotspeople, Gene scrapes the bottom of the pot.  Trust me, you don't want to be anywhere near when that happens.

For years my brother had warned us about "The Man".  I've even had some at family picnics.  But until last weekend, I'd never had it straight from the pot.  Whoa Nelly!   Fortunately, I was in control of the camera, and got to capture my wife's reaction.  She's not normally that pink!  It took 15 minutes and a lot of peanuts, but was finally able to speak again.  She gave us a very memorable quote:  "That would make a great diet aid!"  I wasn't sure if she meant on the way in, or out.

A few other reviews of "Dixie's": 

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/131302_momentwith18.html

http://www.seattledining.com/ARCHIVE/restaurants/dixies.htm

Posted at 02:53PM Mar 05, 2008 by Brad Wetmore in Misc  |  Comments[0]

Leave me alone, I'm on vacation!

I've got no qualms about giving my all when I'm working.  I've done the long days, the long nights, the long weekends.  But when I officially pull the plug and go on vacation, I expect to be able to leave Sun behind, and enjoy some well-deserved time off without any reminders of what I do the rest of the year. 

I don't think that's too much to ask.  But have you ever tried to unplug yourself completely when you work for a "network" company like Sun? 

I first noticed it on a trip to Nepal.  I had just finished a rather stressful project, and was glad to be getting away.  But as I'm walking between planes in Bangkok, there's a 20 foot ad image of then-CEO Scott McNealy, smiling with his big toothy grin from his perch on the wall, reminding me that "Sun in the . (dot) in dot com."

Trip to Brazil.  Sun's being profiled in the in-flight magazine.  Trip to Spain/Portugal:  Sun's being advertised on a whole wall of posters in a small city.  Ok, gloves are off.  Hawaii?  Nope, there's a high-tech design exhibit in SFO United Terminal featuring all kind of high-tech product designs.  I was halfway through before I saw the case that featured a Sun Ray.  Dagnabit!!! 

Out of all the buildings in Sydney, Australia, our route took us right by the Sydney sales office.  Cameroon?  I thought for sure, I stood a fighting chance.  Nope.  I forget what I saw in the Cook Islands, but was not amused.

I guess it's good to work for a company with a global presence.  But just for a couple days a year, can't you just leave me alone¹?

On the other hand, I'm glad I don't work for another unnamed large software company.  I don't know how many times I've walked by an airport flight status board only to see an infamous "Blue Screen of Death."  It does give me a chuckle.

1.  Maybe now I'm looking for Sun references just to keep the streak alive. 

Posted at 05:02PM Feb 14, 2008 by Brad Wetmore in Travel and Outdoors  |  Comments[2]

"You're a...Gatekeeper? Uh huh. What's a Gatekeeper?"

What does it mean to be a "Gatekeeper" in the OpenJDK?  A look behind all the smoke and mirrors, and why you should pay attention to those men and women behind the curtain.[Read More]

Posted at 03:12PM Feb 11, 2008 by Brad Wetmore in Sun  |  Comments[0]

Nice Overview for Getting Started with OpenJDK

Lars Westergren posted an article in his blog about what the OpenJDK project is and how it works.  I found it to be a great overview, as he did a nice job on culling information from various sources and presenting it in a very coherent manner.

Posted at 03:08PM Feb 11, 2008 by Brad Wetmore in Sun  |  Comments[1]