September 2009

There were 8 posts published in September 2009 (this is page 1 of 1).

Crazy … bcfg2 for netapp?

While talking with Tom, it struck me that we could use bcfg2 to manage our filer configs. Filers are basically a bunch of files with some sort of way to trigger a re-read. If we mount the /etc dirs of a filer on the management node and run bcfg2 in a chrooted environment against that […]

The Duct Tape Programmer – Joel on Software

Jamie Zawinski is what I would call a duct-tape programmer. And I say that with a great deal of respect. He is the kind of programmer who is hard at work building the future, and making useful things so that people can do stuff. He is the guy you want on your team building go-carts, […]

Ugh. Four hours wasted.

I’m sitting here with a browser on one window and a text console to an installing system in another. Why? Because I’m waiting for the installation to finish. I’ve been debugging an odd bcfg2 failure during kickstart post-install for our provisioning system. It first started last night when I left the office. I’d just fired […]

Tips: See the contents of an RPM post-install script

Today I had the need to look at MySQL.com’s post-install scripts for MySQL Advanced. Unfortunately, I was lazy not having quick and easy access to the specfile, I used my blackbelt in Google-fu to figure out that it was simpler than I thought. In my case, I had already installed the RPM. All I needed […]

ComputerWorld Opinion: The unspoken truth about managing geeks

Two quotes stick out from this article for me: Foundational (bottom-up) respect is not only the largest single determining factor in the success of an IT team, but the most ignored. I believe you can predict success or failure of an IT group simply by assessing the amount of mutual respect within it. and The […]

Four Short Links: Tues., Sept 8th 2009

Rand in Repose: Your People — Rand talks about the idea of Your People. “These are a strange lot of people you’ve discovered in a motley array of places because you were searching for them. […] while Your People may be less work, they are harder people to have in your life. These are not […]

Rands In Repose: No Surprises

In my ideal management world, a review is simply a documentation of well-known facts, your performance over the year. It also contains constructive advice and insight regarding how your boss believes you can improve on that performance. My dream is that you already know all of this information because you’ve been getting year-round feedback from […]

Not every cloud has a silver lining: Cory Doctorow | Technology | The Guardian

The tech press is full of people who want to tell you how completely awesome life is going to be when everything moves to “the cloud” – that is, when all your important storage, processing and other needs are handled by vast, professionally managed data-centres. Here’s something you won’t see mentioned, though: the main attraction […]