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Thursday, July 24th, 2008
by Brian Daniel Eisenberg
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
Monday, July 21st, 2008
by Brian Daniel Eisenberg
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.
Sunday, July 20th, 2008
by Brian Daniel Eisenberg
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
Thursday, July 3rd, 2008
by Brian Daniel Eisenberg
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!
Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008
by Brian Daniel Eisenberg
Tuesday, July 1st, 2008
by Brian Daniel Eisenberg
I’m gearing up to try and solve a really really big challenge in our online existence. Most of us speak a single language, myself included (although I can kinda hang en espanol). I’ve seen many thought provoking posts (mostly images) from folks in Iran and elsewhere who speak Farsi and similar Arabic languages.
It pains me not to be able to communicate with these people directly. Through some ideas I had over a year ago, I am renewing my attempt to tackle this difficult challenge.
Please check back for status updates. Our first project is http://ytranslate.us. This is some exciting shiny new semantic web tech y’all. Stay tuned.
Friday, June 27th, 2008
by Brian Daniel Eisenberg
Lookie lookie there. #28. Too funny.
Friday, June 27th, 2008
by Brian Daniel Eisenberg
Got my Friendfeed t-shirt in the mail today from CafePress. Check it out. Order yours here
