Infinitely Meta
29Jul/08Off

EaaS and Federated Clouds

I predict this will be the buzzworld du jour today and in the weeks/months ahead. "Everything as a Service". Makes perfect sense to me. Cloud computing, which really started to take off when Amazon launched it's AWS platform, is here to stay.

Today, Techcrunch broke the news that they alluded to over the weekend. Essentially, a partnership between Intel, HP, Yahoo!, and a few others to build a new cloud computing platform to allow developers and researchers to test the next generation computing model.

This is a very important development that holds promise for Infinitely Meta, and the engines that we want to build and deploy to the cloud. Our original plans were to leverage Amazon's AWS cloud and Google's App Engine (and related sites/services) as the deployment vehicle for our engines, but this new project may trump both Amazon and Google. Remember that we can't yet discount Microsoft, as they are also working on building their cloud under the Mesh umbrella.

As we continue to build our prototypes, we will likely deploy our engines to whatever cloud we feel will meet our needs. Most likely we will deploy our engines across all available clouds for the highest degree of fault tolerance and redundancy.

I find it VERY interesting that the last domain I registered was http://federatedclouds.com

<∞>

24Jul/08Off

@camp /on vacation

Finally made it to the Adirondack Mountains. This will be the view when I wake up in the morning for the next 2.5 weeks.

Camp

I'm so happy to be here. Now if only my books and clothes would show up. All in good time.

Yesterday was a marathon of a travel day. After leaving for the airport around 9am pacific, I got on my flight after having been delayed at the gate for an hour. Then after flying to right around Cleveland, OH, they held us up to let a series of strong storms pass through the Newark & upstate New York / New England region.

Thunder cell near Cleveland, Ohio Lake Erie
Lake Erie Boeing 737-800

After arriving at Newark, I bolted for my connecting flight to ALB, but that was also delayed, so I'm thinking ok. I can manage that. Then the series of delays started first it was 9:35, then 10:19, then 11:30, then 12:20am. At about 10pm, I decided to bag it and rent a car. Problem is that the Continental customer service line was a mile long and I wanted nothing to do with it.

Continental Customer Service. A line I did not wait in. The line for Continental Customer service at EWR

So I bet on my social engineering skills and headed through security to baggage claim area. I went up to the Continental baggage claim desk, and pleaded my case. The woman who helped me was very kind and helpful and cancelled my flght and filed a claim for my duffle bag which should be delivered to our place about an hour north of ALB. [Fingers crossed, as I still don't have my duffle with all my clothes and more importantly, my books.]

After filing my baggage claim check, I proceeded to the Budget Car rental kiosk and picked up some kind of SUV/mini-van looking Suzuki. This is about 11:00pm Eastern. Then I hit the road heading out of Newark north on I-95 to the NY State Thruway. Well, it soon occurs to me that I've got no cash, change, etc, which makes paying for tolls a bit of a challenge. This happened to me twice before I finally found an ATM (after several failed attempts at other stops).

Then I head for the Palisades Parkway, connect to I-87N (NY State Thruway) for a really boring 2.5hr-ish drive in miserable weather with truckers and other weaving drivers to contend with. I started to fade out at about 2:30am so decided to call ALB my destination (rather than heading all the way to our place on the Lake). So I drive to the Cell phone waiting lot at ALB and crash out in the most uncomfortable position imaginable until I can wake up drop my rental car off and get picked up by my dad.

My wake up call comes at around 8am, drop the rental car off, and wait for my dad to come pick me up. On the way from ALB to our place on the Sacandaga Lake, we stopped to see a couple of the local rivers raging as a result of the storms they've seen over the past few days. Impressive stuff. Here's what we saw:

Rock City Falls Rock City Falls
Raging rapids @ Rock City Falls Raging water near old mill.

Now I'm pretty much operating on vapors at this point having gone to bed at 4:20am the night prior, minimal sleep on the plane, and a long night of driving. I think I'm about ready to crash out for a while and hopefully when I wake up my luggage will be here.

It's currently raining and there are T-storms in the region. I'm 100% content. That is all.

Filed under: Uncategorized No Comments
21Jul/08Off

What I’ve done Professionally over the past 8+ years.

OK. I've just spent the past hour or so updating my profile on Linked In summarizing the past 8 years of my professional career. It was over 2000 characters, which is the limit, so I cut and paste it into this post as well. I know I've probably got to clean it up a bit to polish, but please bare with me, as I dust off the cobwebs of my 8+ year tenure in the enterprise software space.

*****below is pasted from linked in profile *

8 year veteran in the enterprise software space with experience in pre-sales (Systems Engineer), Product Management, Standards & Evangelism (Standards & Technology Liaison).

Current role: Senior Systems Engineer, Business Process Management & Composite Applications. I'm one of 4 navy seal like SEs that make up the "Solution Center" team at Software AG. We are a "swat team" that can be deployed across the globe (virtually) to support pre- and post- sales activities. We support regional sales reps and SEs with the delivery of customized VMware-based demonstrations that showcase the breadth and depth of the Software AG Product Suite. My area of focus and expertise is in Business Process Management, Human Workflow, and Composite Applications. I'm fluent in most BPMS lingo, can crank out JSF-based webapps, and know enough Java to be dangerous. When I'm not building custom solutions, I'm supporting colleagues in the field and across the organization with a wide range of support duties that range from leading training sessions, generating content (whitepapers, tutorials, webexes), traveling on site to conduct on site demos / proof of concepts, online training & mentoring, remote web conferencing (webex). I also own and manage the 5 core business processes that govern what we do as a team (Solution Center).

Senior Product Manager - for about 5 years I was the product manager for an enteprise portal technology suite, first called DataChannel Server, later renamed Netegrity Interaction Server, then changed to webMethods Portal, then webMethods Access, then My webMethods Server, then webMethods Composite Application Framework. Whew. Lots of names, 3 major re-architectures, 4 major releases, countless minor releases, and god knows how many service packs, hot fixes, and feature roll-ups I've been through. I acted as PM for the Portal technology from roughly 2001-2006. In 2006, I transitioned out of Product Management into the Sales Organization where I currently serve as a Senior Systems Engineer.

Standards & Technology Liaison - I was originally hired by DataChannel, Inc in May of 2000 to serve in this exciting new role. I reported directly to DataChannel's CTO Norbert Mikula, where my primary responsibilities were to participate and sit on relevant standards bodies, seek out speaking opportunities at industry conferences, and generally oversee DataChannel's strategy with respect to leveraging emerging Web standards in our products and services. I was DataChannel's Advisory Committee Representative to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), sat on the OASIS XML.org Advisory Committee, was co-chair and co-editor of the ebXML Technical Architecture Standard, and particiapted in some capacity to the following standards efforts: SOAP, WSDL, UDDI, SAML, webDAV, XML Schema, SSTC, RosettaNet, ebXML, BPML, BPMI, and a few others that escape me now. When DataChannel was about to be acquired by Netegrity, I realized that my role as standards guy were probably targets for elimination, so I started building demos that showcased what our portal technology could do. I did that for about 6 months and then moved into my role as product manager for Netegrity's Portal technology initiatives, which were done under the brand "Netegrity Interaction Server" and later "PortalMinder".

This effectively sums up the past 8 years of job experience for me. I've only been hired once, back on May 8, 2000, but I've now officially worked for four different official business entities. I'm thankful to be working (albeit indirectly now) with the same core team of Java devs for 8+ years and that is the only thing that keeps me going during challenging times.

21Jul/08Off

My fear of linked-in

After reading this conversation thread on Friendfeed, I started to comment, but did a quick cut and paste into this here blog post. What follows was my original comment (not posted) that I would like to expand upon here. Then I'd like to get your feedback on Friendfeed, Twitter, or whatever stream you like to post your comments to. I really could care less where you reply, just make it findable!

Regarding my use of Linked In -

"I must admit that I have a LI account, but I have not updated it in probably 6 years. I've been working with the same team for 8+ years, having weathered 4 M&A events and countless reorgs. I've come to ignore Linked In because after having gone through the first M&A event, the only time I would get Linked In email would be when friends are riffed and forced to move on to other new positions in the industry."

*Expanding on comment here*

This became a recurring pattern after a while, where the only times I'd ever get email updates From Linked In were from people who were let go or less often just quit for other opportunities. I found myself trying to avoid accepting any of the "friend requests" or whatever their term is for adding people to your network, and I just stopped using it altogether.

I haven't logged into my account in years and if you check out my profile, you'll see that the last position I posted was "Senior Product Manager", which was 2 companies and three job title's ago.

I'm tempted to login to Linked In and update my profile, just so my stuff is accurate, but I have this recurring fear that all those people who tried to "friend" me and all of my CURRENT colleagues are going to come out of the woodwork and start picking my profile apart.

Many of my professional colleagues are not on Twitter, Friendfeed, or most of the other social networking sites I use regularly, and I'm not sure that I want them to "invade" the communities that I participate in outside of my dayjob.

I'm all for transparency, but I'm having a very hard time figuring out the right balance between personal vs my professional uses of these socnets.

What do you think? I'm very curious to hear what other people think and where I'll find the most valuealbe advice.

20Jul/08Off

Busy Busy Busy

I'm in countdown to vacation mode, which requires hyper-productivity on my part. Tying up loose ends with Eastlake Associates LLC, digesting major org changes at my dayjob, and moving rather quickly with startup activity around Infinitely Meta.

I've finally got some talent working on my personal & corporate brand. Mad props going out to Sean Blake (aka @bluefox) who has graciously agreed to help with this effort. Here's what he sent me after I briefed him on the idea / concepts behind Infinitely Meta. What do you think of the new logo/brand?

The possibilities are endless

The possibilities are endless

16Jul/08Off

Amazing trip to San Francisco

Just a quick post to bump my last one, as it's been a while. Just got back from San Francisco after an amazing week of fun, work, and great conversation.  Met a TON of GREAT new people and made a lot of new friends. Here's a quick list of amazing things I got to do while visiting friends and meeting new ones over the past week:

  • Streaming the iPhone launch from Apple Store on Stockton St.
  • Buying new iPod Touch, upgrading to 2.0, loading Pandora and other apps from the AppStore
  • Discovering my new addiction at the Blue Bottle Cafe. Siphon Pot coffee is unbelievable. Check out my Flickr pics.
  • Super secret meetings with some very big names that I can't really talk about.
  • Rocked the Mechanicrawl, met Terry Lindell (uber-master of the Mark IV TDC).
  • Attended Gary Vaynerchuk's party for taping of the WLTV 500th Episode  (insane energy and good vibes at that event). Ran into old friends like Scott Beale (@laughingsquid) and an old college buddy - Brad Murphy - who is VP at Revision 3. Got to meet/talk to Kevin Rose and many other notables in the local tech scene.
  • Attended the Freshbooks Tweetup at 21st Amendment. Geeked out with fellow iPhone/Touch enthusiasts. Drank 9.2% IPA that was out of this world.
  • Attended Social Media Camp San Francisco. Met some AMAZING people at this event. Met Erica O'Grady. Hung out with @danielbru and the Qik guys. Got to meet @Corvida and a lot of other awesome people.
  • Attended Mashable SummerMash San Francisco. Met Pete Cashmore, ran into lots of friends & met new ones. Met Steven Fruchter, CEO of Stickam. Discussed some ideas / opps for collaboration.
  • Dinner with Yeshi Govindas Friedland and drinks with Brad Murphy. What happens when you get together with 2 college buddies who haven't seen each other together since around 1996? A late night that ended at 2:45am this morning.
  • Upgraded to First Class on Virgin America flight from SFO -> SEA and had the absolute pleasure of meeting and talking with Actor Peter Coyote (wikipedia him). Overhead voicemail on ride from SEATAC (he offered to share his driver) from Matthew Modine.

That about sums it up. Tomorrow I attend a day long course by one of my true idols, Mr. Edward Tufte.

I have a crapload of stuff to do between now and next Weds, when I fly to Albany, NY and head up into the Adirondack Mountains to a little area where there is still no mobile phone coverage. There I will continue work on one of my engines. This is a VERY exciting time for me right now.

Thanks to all my new friends, followers, and supporters!

Onward & Upward.

--Brian

- ∞ +

8Jul/08Off

Congress trying to restrict Twitter, Qik, and other social media sites’ usage by Representatives?

Ok. I saw a little bit of this break earlier today, but I'm just now catching up. I guess the word got out that John Culberson and Tim Ryan are using Twitter, Qik, and other socnets to interact in near real time with their constituents. Now apparently, there is a growing uproar of objection to using Twitter, Qik, and other social media outlets by representatives in Congress

Aaron Brazell has a post and conversation on going on Friendfeed on this topic. We need Scoble and the rest of the crew to blast this out to make sure some attention is paid to this alarming development.

UPDATE: looks like this got micro-blogged a bit out of proportion. Just read this post and this conversation.

While we're at it, I REALLY REALLY don't think I can EVER EVER EVER vote for a PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES that does NOT know HOW TO USE A COMPUTER.

6Jul/08Off

Still recovering from July 4

It's Sunday morning and I'm still exhausted from July 4. The party was a HUGE success. Great people, great food & great drinks. Things got a little crazy just before the fireworks started up on the roof. This year, I got up on the roof early and setup a tripod with my Panasonic HD video recorder and my Quickcam Pro 9000 that I used to stream the Fireworks show on UStream.

Streaming & Video capture setup.

I typically invite those who are brave enough to climb both ladders and view the fireworks from the roof of my 4-plex building as there are unabated views of the Fireworks barge and Lake Union from there. The view is spectacular and the Fireworks show this year was most excellent.

View of Lake Union from my roof.

What I hadn't expected was the mass migration of people from surrounding houses/parties to my roof! At one point, my brother in-law counted over 50 people on the roof. There was even a DOG! Someone even brought the KEG up. It was unreal. I was a bit nervous about the structural integrity of the roof, but I asked everyone to spread out and distribute the weight. I also asked folks to stay away from the edge and just be careful.

The fireworks show was most excellent and I'll be importing and converting the HD video I shot as soon as possible. Until I get that up, here's the raw video footage. There is probably some language and conversations that are NSFW, so apologies in advance. I claim no responsibiilty for the content (audio) portion of the video. Enjoy! We did.

3Jul/08Off

2nd Annual July 4 Tenant Appreciation BBQ – Eastlake, WA USA

Everything is falling into place for the 2nd Annual Eastlake Associates Tenant Appreciation BBQ. Here are the details.

When: July 4, 2008, 12pm - ???

Where: 2218 Franklin Ave East, Seattle, WA 98102 USA (Lake Union)

What: A party of course. BBQ, drinks, food, & FUN!

Food: Assorted burgers, hot dogs, Flank steak, sausages, BBQ chicken, chips, dips, cherries, pasta salad. Don't see anything you like, then bring you're own.

Drinks: My awesome tenant Debbie and her boyfriend kindly donated a fresh keg of Hales Ales, so we'll have plenty of beer. Soda (Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite), and some OJ.

What to expect:

  • Great people, food, drinks, etc. You've heard of "block party". This more like "neighborhood party". There are pretty much parties at every house for a 20 square block area. Riley hosts the infamous party down on Minor St. - this year they have a dunk tank and will be putting on quite a show from what I've heard.
  • Fireworks - all day, all night. For the big event, those brave enough can climb 2 ladders and get on top of my roof for an UNABATED view of Lake Union, the fireworks barge, and Gasworks park. It's insane the view. I'll be streaming it live on UStream and also recording some HD video.
  • Tons of traffic. If you want to come early, it is highly suggested. Street parking fills up by about 2pm. I have no off street parking available, so if you can use public transit or ride a bike, that's the best way to get around.
  • They close the streets to through traffic for like 10 square blocks around my neighborhood so don't count on being able to take the side streets.
  • If you are planning to stay and watch the fireworks, plan on staying LATE. If you thought it was bad getting into Eastlake, wait till you try to get OUT. There's no rush, so if you are planning on driving down and then driving back, expect to get out no earlier than 1am.

I think that's about it. If you are in Seattle and in the neighborhood, I highly recommend you stop by and at least say hello. Call me on my mobile @ 206.227.8535 if you have any questions or get lost.

Happy 4th Everyone!

Filed under: Uncategorized No Comments
3Jul/08Off

Accomplishments for Q2 2008

Here's my accomplishments for the quarter, scrubbed for any internal/confidential/proprietary stuff.

===========================
Category 1: Infrastructure
===========================

$$$$ $$$$$ v4 Project -

See $$ v4 Project Status email sent on July 2, 2008 for more detailed
breakdown.

Feature Spec: http://$$.$$
Feature List: http://$$.$$
Network Topology: http://$$.$$
Collaborative Development Guidelines:
http://$$.$$

Business Processes
$$$$$$ Management - Implemented in Q2. Roll out to field early Q3
$$$$$$ Management - Implemented in Q2. Roll out to field early Q3
$$$$$$ Engagement - Implemeneted in Q2. Roll out to field early Q3

$$$$$$ - Modeled in Q2. Implement in Q3
$$$$$$ - Modeled in Q2. Implement in Q3

$$$$ UIs
New $$$$ - DONE
My $$$$ - DONE
Update $$$$ - ALMOST DONE
Search for $$$$ - DONE
New #### - DONE
My #### - DONE
Update #### - ALMOST DONE
Search for #### - ALMOST DONE
New @@@@ - DONE (partner)
My @@@@ - ALMOST DONE (partner)
Search for @@@@ - IN PROCESS (partner)

&&&& UIs
Review $$$$ - DONE
Acquire $$$$ - DONE
Resubmit $$$$ & Request Review - ALMOST DONE
Review #### - DONE
#### Compliance Check - DONE (Pending review by YYY)
Update ####  - ALMOST DONE
Review & Quantify @@@@ - DONE (partner)
Assign @@@@ Project Lead - DONE (partner)
Define Project @@@@ - IN PROCESS (partner)
Review @@@@ Project Plan - IN PROCESS (partner)
Upload & Review $$$$ Documentation - NOT STARTED (Joint)
Upload Final Doc & Signoff - NOT STARTED (Joint)

Live Pre-Alpha / Active Development site: http://$$.$$

===========================
Category 2: Implementation
===========================

Field Support

ppp ppppp - xxxxxxx - one week "firedrill mode" field support for team
on site at xxxxxx. See email summaries from ppp for details. I believe
his comment on my presentation to the xxxx Java development team was
something like "You hit it out of the park."

pppp ppppp - supported custom task UI and uuu development for xxxxxxxx
opportunity. [Need to verify VMs that ppp submitted this quarter.]

pppp ppppppp - built custom skin, shell, pages, & rules for xxxxxx opportunity. Assisted with implementation of
yyyyyyyyyy for [Need to follow up and make
sure that pppp submits this solution after the engagement is over]

pppp pppppp - helped with specific UI tweaks for custom jjjjjjjjj for
follow up demo/showcase to sssssss (hot customer).

ppppp ppppp - helped him setup custom ffffff Report viewer portlet for
hhh demo.

ppp ppppp pppp - helped with questions on file attachments
provider/panel for custom UI.

pppp ppppppp- assisted with zzzz UI, assignment, and rules config for
zzzzz demo VMware image.

pppppp pppppppppp- assisted with zzz UI, nnnn and page refactoring
for new version of zzzz w. sss demo / VMware Image. [Need to
confirm that we have this vmware asset/solution.]

ppppppp ppppp - helped with specific questions on Bootcamp training
setup and some of the initial modules. Provided email assistance.

ppppppp ppppppp - support on techniques for using zzz and/or sss
for publish to xxx ccc directly from Windows.

ppppp pppppp - assisted with sss UI, ddddd,  page design & layout
for refactoring sssss demo.

ppppppp ppppppppp- assisted pppppp and Course Developer with scoping out
and validating zzz course topics and techniques for Advanced zzz course.

pppppp ppppp - helped ppppp with some issues he was having with zzzzz
Reports. Sent him copy of my generic zzzzz Report Viewer portlet, which
seemed to solve his problem.

General Field Support - monitor and respond to questions when
appropriate on zzz and aaa mailing lists. Day to day repsonding to
questions on qqqq team aliases.

=======================
Category 3: Innovation
=======================

Product Development & Product Related Innovation

Submitted at least 10 bugs to
Product Development teams. [NOTE: I can track down xxxxx entries if you
need them.]

Defined new approach and technique for ***************************************

*********************************** [super secret sorry]

Perfected new technique to **************************** [ again too cool and confidential]

ppppp ppppp - worked with ppppp to setup hosted zzzzzz
environment for him to test sssss z.z.z scenarios. In exchange, he's
going to personally help us use zzzzzzz to **********************.

Perfected new techniques for ****************** [ sorry. that's the super secret special sauce]

pppp pppp - Product Marketing - Reached out to pppp to help get
our business processes more visibility within the company.
Hoping to use our current zzzzz project as a success story for how xxx
is***************** [sorry]

ppppp pppppppp  - Reached out to ppppp to begin exploring
options for building new ******* [sorry]
ppppppppppppppp - managed collaborative development
and implementation of  ********* [sorry confidential ]

****************

*******************

****************

******** [confidential & proprietary]
====================
Category 4: Improve
====================

Assets (e.g. Bootcamps, training, CAF Utils)

Training & Mentoring - assisted ppppppp & pppppp
with zzz and xxxx UI skills development for projects they were working
on this quarter. Held several webex sessions to demonstrate techniques
and showcase implementation patterns for zzz/xxxx UI building.

Training & Mentoring - delivered several 1:1 sessions with zzzzzzz
partner development team to establish baseline level of agreement and
understanding for specific *************** [confidential]

Training & Mentoring - held several 1:1 sessions in zzzzzz office with
pppp ppppppp to do skills exchange. I helped him with some zzzz/xxxxx
stuff and he helped me by showing some of his dddd/ssss techniques.

Training & Mentoring - worked directly 1:1 with pppp pp to help develop
zzz UI and kk backend skills and techniques. pppp's expertise in
Database/DBA stuff is critical to making sure our relational model is
optimized.

Training & Mentoring - Recorded Webex of advanced zzz UI building and
custom Java coding techniques from presentation to xxxxx Java developer
team.

Created new section on aaaaa site for reusable components. Precursor to

zzz Util library that we will roll out on aaaaa site in early Q3. Added several reusable components such as xxxxxxx, yyyyyyy, zzzzzzz, etc.
Personal growth, knowledge & skills development

Technology - Learning fundamentals

Self-paced learning of essential skills needed to independently develop,
deploy, and manage ************** [ confidential]
Implemented all ************** [confidential]