My New Job

^ top: Ben Rockwood, Deirdré Straughan, Brendan Gregg

I received email from a concerned reader saying: “when a writer stops writing, one of two things is happening:

— you’re blissfully happy, too happy to attempt to put it into words

— you’re utterly miserable, too miserable to find the energy to put it into words”

As I told him, it’s been both. Between health problems and a job/company that were (increasingly clearly) not a good fit for me, I was not in a happy place for quite a while. I returned to work at Oracle in early November after ~5 weeks’ medical leave, but desperately wanted a change.

That change came on December 1st: I began a new job with Joyent, a company which several Sun luminaries (far more luminous than myself) had joined over the previous months. I’m not an engineer, but when big names in Solaris engineering such as Bryan Cantrill, Jerry Jelinek, and Brendan Gregg all head to the same company, it’s time to take a look at what that company might be up to. There were other companies worth looking at for the same reason (and I did), but Joyent won out.

What Joyent does is cloud computing, a buzzword that I suspect even the non-technies among my readers have heard by now. Wikipedia describes it thus: “Cloud computing is Internet-based computing, whereby shared servers provide resources, software, and data to computers and other devices on demand, as with the electricity grid. Cloud computing is a natural evolution of the widespread adoption of virtualization, Service-oriented architecture and utility computing“.

Joyent has been offering cloud computing as a service for over five years: some of your favorite Facebook games run on Joyent infrastructure. But recently Joyent has begun partnering with companies such as Dell to sell our cloud software with their hardware to third parties who want to run data centers and/or sell their own cloud services.

Where do I fit into this? As the new Director of Technical Education, it’s my job to help customers at every level – from end users to service providers to systems integrator partners – learn how to use our stuff. Which means getting highly technical information out of my colleagues and putting it into a format that can be shared with other people: a familiar theme in my working life.

I’ll still be using video, but in this job I will also be designing and likely even personally delivering technical courses, in the classroom as well as via video. This is a return to the early days of my high-tech career, when I designed and taught custom courses in desktop publishing, then installed and trained people to use desktop publishing systems for the World Bank in Cameroon and Tanzania.

As a working environment, Joyent is as different from Oracle as you can get. It’s grown from 22 to 100 employees this year (thanks to some investment, in particular from Intel) and there’s still way too much work for everyone to do. The attitude is very much that things need to get done, and “it’s better to seek forgiveness than ask permission” – which, as old Sun hands know, was once Sun head Scott McNealy‘s mantra. Those who have worked with me or observed me working know that I thrive in this kind of environment, though I’m having to unlearn some Oracle conditioning (amazing what a company can do to you in only nine months).

I was sad to leave my Sun colleagues (those who hadn’t already left themselves), though of course I was rejoining some. I spent Thanksgiving weekend editing The Faces of Sun, a video tribute to some (though nowhere near all) of the amazing people I got to work with and film at Sun.

Since I started at Joyent I’ve been extremely busy (startup hours), and expect that to continue and increase, including some travel. I probably won’t have a lot of time for my site/blog; the best way to keep up with my daily doings will be Twitter @deirdres

Warmest wishes for whatever holiday you celebrate and for a wonderful 2011!

see also: Illumos in the Cloud: What is Joyent Up to?

Unhappiness

“When you’re unhappy, you get to pay a lot of attention to yourself. And you get to take yourself oh so very seriously. Your truly happy people, which is to say, your people who truly like themselves, they don’t think about themselves very much. Your unhappy person resents it when you try to cheer him up, because that means he has to stop dwellin’ on himself and start payin’ attention to the universe. Unhappiness is the ultimate form of self-indulgence.”
Tom Robbins
Jitterbug Perfume

The Twitter Diaries: Nov 14-Dec 7, 2010

@craigmorgan I’d love to do it for more than just us, but, while cheap, my guerilla video does have some costs and I do need to eat. #
@mtuckerb @NomdeB Agree on that, too. If I were a conspiracy theory type, I would say it’s even designed to create sheep-like voters… #
Ready for the oven:  #

New! downloadable version: Markus Flierl’s Introduction to Oracle Solaris 11 Express – Oracle Solaris Summit at LISA10 http://bit.ly/eRSNnm #
@NomdeB You can download and read pdfs on the kindle, but they don’t resize well. #
@tgardner While singing loudly: Don’t you wish your girlfriend was hot like me. #
@dreamofitaly Website lovelly & full of info – except what town the place is actually located. Italian web designers miss important details. #
Vance George is sending homesick-making emails from Mussoorie. Oh to be in the foothills even with the well-known bone-chilling cold. #
the Himalayas (Bandarpunch) in winter, from Mussoorie/Landour:  #

Oracle Solaris Developer Tools – Oracle Solaris Video – sorry, can’t attach the slides right now, upload borked #
What a wonderful day to… stay home! #
@dreamofitaly Snide, but true – I’ve seen a lot of this in Italy, eg restaurant site that doesn’t tell you what day it’s closed, or phone # #
Now editing the Solaris Summit videos that did get UStream captured, so you’ll have downloadable versions. I know people watch on planes. #
The Harder They Come  #


@paolovalde See you next year! Buon viaggio. #
1st video of the day (Markus Flierl Sol 11 overview) uploaded, processing on blip.tv, 1st section of next (Bart on IPS) now compressing #
@glynnfoster Agreed, it looks like they’re trying to invoke the atmosphere of a seedy Vegas poker club. #
@Lisa827 @jscarp I like this idea, have signed up. #
Bart Part 2 compressing while Bart Part 1 uploads (Smaalders, not Simpson). #
The rich will always say ‘give us more money, we’ll spend more, it will trickle down.’ That has not worked – Buffet  #
@melanierenzulli cornbread stuffing with chestnuts is the BEST. #
RT @jdub: solution to enraged Whedon fans is a sharpened stick? – Stake is the word you’re looking for. It’ll take more than that, tho. #
It would make sense to move the major American holidays to a time of year when the northerm hemisphere is not absolute crap for travel. #
@jasonh He did. #
Amazon keeps wanting me to spend money to outfit my Kindle. I carry it around in a cloth OpenSolaris schwag bag. Got it free, works fine. #
@Roam2Rome @wanderingitaly Problem is, Italy is failing on both fiscal and humanist fronts. Hard to sustain la dolce vita on no salary. #
I really really really hate these robot phone trees that try to be too clever. Can you please say that another way? #
@wanderingitaly Guess I wasn’t furba enough. In fact got tired of needing to be furba. #
Just used iPhone self photo + Mms to get 2nd opinion on new glasses. Yay technology! #
Even if airline travel could be made totally safe, wouldn’t terrorists then just target other crowded venues? Then what? #
Starting to feel downright smug that I am Not Going Anywhere this holiday. #
@urbanturbanguy You have to do a bit of both, I think. The root causes are very deeply rooted, it’ll take time to fix those. #
@urbanturbanguy Yes. And we could start addressing the root causes effectively with just a small fraction of what we spend on security. #
@NomdeB Maybe Americans overreact because the news tells us constantly BE AFRAID. #
RT @flipcritic: There is no such word as Updation. There never has, and there never will. – but there /should/ be. Also upgradation #
Upgradation  #

RT @yesthattom: I predict this will be an instant classic:  Now there’s a holiday I can get behind! #

RT @GodlessAtheist: RT @nicktatebate: Only God can convince an atheist. <— Have him get in touch when he’s ready to party. – Doonesbury #
@DellCares I did the interntional tag transfer a few days ago. What happens next? Do I need to do something? #
@DellCares Thanks very much! #
Joan Baez – Oh Freedom – Turn Me Around – 1984  #


@wastedcarbon Congratulations! #
So where wd I find black Friday deals on Ugg boots? #
#

Bartender at Osha made me a special drink involving mango, basil, and Irish whiskey. Yum. But did he really say his name is Golf? #
@sogrady Almost always, except when the iPhone goes immediately to voicemail for no apparent reason. #
@sogrady …I did once use Twitter to interrupt a call from my mother (begged someone – anyone! – to call so I’d HAVE to answer). #
I’m flattered, Twitter, but is @ebertchicago /really/ all that Similar to Me? #
~12 year old girl with a t-shirt inscribed: Life is short, and so is your penis. Huh? Even on an adult, that would be disturbing. #
@portertech Ah, you hit some keywords I know. You might enjoy this #
Having fun editing an entirely new (for me) kind of video. #
Daughter & her friends making a full-on traditional American Thanksgiving feast in Italy. I’ll be having a non-traditional one in San Jose. #
I wouldn’t mind an iPad, but I suspect I’d use it mostly to play Angry Birds. #
The people of Naples are fed up with this story and perhaps with themselves, too.  #
Where’s @iamsrk ? Seems like I haven’t seen him on Twitter in ages. #
RT @ebertchicago: When did public stupidity cease to be a liability? – When public came to believe stupidty = sincerity #
#


@timoreilly Shareholders are happy when the bottom line looks good, no one cares what it cost the employees to get there. #
@davetong Assam is a proper noun, rasam hasn’t made it into an English dictionary yet, I suspect. #
@wastedcarbon Poor kid. Take it from one who knows: having a birthday around Thanksgiving… meh. #
RT @c_bright: @DeirdreS And what is the deliciousness that you tweeted?!? Here’s the recipe [for orange-lemon-olive oil cake]: And it IS delicious. #
@italylogue You know of at least two friends I’ve made by inviting strangers to my expat Thanskgiving feasts. 😉 #
@jeffreytaylor Not quite up to your standards of complex baking, but it’ll be tasty. #
I don’t think I’m going to mind that it’s not turkey  #


@vdotw Lamb, Moroccan style. Tanvir cooked it, it was delicious. #
@vdotw In Big Sur, cougars eat joggers. #
Great Thanksgiving with a Woodstock classmate (that counts as family), his family and friends – all great people. I probably talked too much #
@LiveForever1D @almightygod Huh? Just… huh? #
So today’s the day I’m supposed to leap out of bed and go stand in lines to buy stuff? #
@alecmuffett How does one put ducks to bed? #
Wood doves keep flapping accusingly about the balcony and staring pointedly into the window. Their food dish is empty. #
Why is every relationship in the world easier than those between spouses, or between parents and children? Or am I just lucky? #
@vdotw All valid points, and I think expectations also have a lot to do with it. We are far more forgiving of anyone else than our families. #
Italy’s decline began 20 years ago, economy not able to face globalization, every year production figures go down #
The Outlook for Italy? Rather bleak.mItaly is a country without direction. When a world expert on Italy expresses…  #
Dear Amazon: I need a single operation to change all my wish list books to Kindle editions of same. Please fix. #
Deleted all DVDs from my Amazon Wish List, added to Netflix queue instead (tho some were obscure – Netflix doesn’t know about them yet). #
Vance George keeps sending out gorgeous descriptions of his visit to Woodstock, Mussoorie, and environs. Such beauty. Making me homesick. #
RT @ilpost: Berlusconi claims he has resolved all emergencies, brought Italy out of economic crisis – I feel sick. #


#

Saw this in produce at Whole Foods. Who would eat whom?  #


RT @NomdeB: @DeirdreS THAT is creepy. No way to know if this is genuine concern or an abuser/stalker.. Dunno, but he also knocked on my door #
RT @billblum: Berlusconi’s interests do not extend beyond his zipper. – Sadly, no – they also include making more money, staying out of jail #
@frailgesture Expiring? They take stuff away?!? #netflix #
Now that I’ve found a perfect fit of jeans at the Gap, it’s not available at the store OR online. What gives? #
@vdotw Real Straight – the mind boggles that I would fit anything called Real Straight, but I’ll take it. They have em, but only in 2 styles #
@vdotw Damn, was hoping for corduroys. #
RT @wanderingitaly: I’d like an answer, too! RT: @italianescapes: Why do women love Italy? – It’s all the (myths about) Italian men. #
@wanderingitaly Perhaps they were mythical even then. #
@wanderingitaly It’s more US women (in particular) cherish an enduring myth of the Italian male, which adds to the whole dolce vita thing. #
@shawnferry @lskrocki Me, too, which is Shawn’s fault. #smugmug #
I’m up early on a Sunday (and my birthday), of my own free will, to… go discuss software with a bunch of drs. I must live in the Bay Area. #
@NomdeB That’s not myth – that’s fact. Goes for the girls as well, tho to a somewhat lesser degree. #
Thanks for all the birthday wishes on both Twitter and FB. So far not doing any of the normal birthday celebration stuff, happy nonetheless. #
Extraordinarily close relationship between Putin & Berlusconi causing US suspicion…lavish gifts, energy contracts…. #
Berlusconi a feckless, vain, and ineffective leader whose penchant for partying mean he does not get sufficient rest. #
Cablegate? I’m enjoying the refreshing honesty. When a world leader is a psycho criminal, I’d rather know about it and act accordingly. #
Tweetdeck didn’t scroll Mentions column, so I missed all the birthday wishes. Thanks, everybody! Spent the day on creative projects – fun! #
a song for my next year: It’s Getting Better All the Time  #

The Faces of Sun #
@macsun Sorry, I knew you were missing, but the only footage I could get hold of of you was so bad you were unidentifiable. So much was lost #
In case anyone was left wondering: yes, I did resign from Oracle today. Yes, I do have a very exciting new job to go to! #
…and, since at least half my world had figured it out already: yes, I’m going to Joyent! Very VERY excited about that. #
Feared YouTube would censor my use of a copyrighted song. Instead, they put links to you can buy the song. Smart!  #

– Yes, Bart Smaalders is in there – look again. 😉 #
Accidentally turned off comments. If I’ve filmed you & you’re not in the video or on the Missing list, please say so! #
@LudoMP Indeed it is. So where are you now? #
Reminder to self: you do NOT need more socks. Unless they’re really pretty and warm ones… #
@NomdeB I admit it, I have a sock fetish. Best socks I’ve found so far were from New Zealand. #
I’m told the music on The Faces of Sun is blocked on YouTube in some geos. If that’s your case, let me know. #
@Crescenzo As far as I recall, it’s a great film about growing up. why not? #
@flexrex Yup, didn’t even need a ring of invisibility. Just a circle of friends. Liked the vid? #
Taking back payments on my iPhone, and AT&T requires a credit check. Why? I was a customer in good standing for 2 years. #
@Cdash Glad to hear it’s going well for her. #
This is what I should have tweeted yesterday #

@Crescenzo I remember a body lying on the floor behind a desk, that was about it. (We’re talking about a movie, folks!) #
90 mins on phone with AT&T, perhaps 30 of which was I do apologize for the hold & bear with me. Maybe too polite! #
Life is good. Lunch is good. #


#
Interesting. 3 YouTube videos flagged for copyrighted content. 2 owned by Sony blocked in Germany only, WMG blocks worldwide. #
@tpenta Good point, have done so before. But takes research to find the right song, I didn’t have time for that + editing. Next one. #
@flexrex I probably did, but that was among the vast amount of footage I couldn’t get to in any usable format. #
Dear media: the plot of a TV show is not news. That Assange’s mother doesn’t want him hunted is not news. You’re being paid for this? #
@pelegri Was just noticing that myself. Funny thing is, I can still access email to see all these workflow notices go by. #
@pelegri … and I feel an unbearable lightness of being about it all. #
I know how you feel, buddy…# [somewhat overwhelmed]

Fell asleep at 10, exhausted. Woke up at 3, brain buzzing. This job will def keep my mind busy. #
Funny how everything fits together in the end. My visit to SuperNap back in April was almost accidental. #
Brendan Gregg’s talk from LISA10 is now available to attendees/USENIX members – check your LISA10 reg email 4 login #
Brendan’s LISA10 talk on Visualizations for Performance Analysis (and More) is now available to all  #
@gtirloni It was my pleasure, and I look forward to doing more with at least some of my favorite video stars! #
Getting my digital life moved onto a shiny new Macbook Pro. #
500 GB of HD right on my laptop, and a cloud at my disposal? Video processing and hosting nevermore a problem. <sigh of happiness> #
Okay, this is a bit bizarre… DTrace is a religion? I guess that makes @bcantrill a cult leader  #
The top 1 of Americans earn more than the bottom 50 COMBINED – Call me socialist, but I find that deeply wrong. #

@thinguy Yup. I think we saw trickle down not working under Reagan decades ago, why are we still stuck with that illusion? #
tired and weakened by scandals and a souring political atmosphere: in one meeting, Berlusconi fell asleep.  #
RT @rosannecash: Mr. L to me today: ‘You distort my sense of what’s normal’. #ThatsMyJob – Normal is overrated, I don’t recommend it. #
Reviving the company coffee machine (tried 4 kinds of Nespresso, didn’t like any of them). #
… Pop Tarts in the kitchen could be very, very dangerous. #
@pijewski Just brewed up a fresh half-pot to try it out – help yourself. Costco beans, I’ll get more if we all like them (I do). #
@timfoster I have at least once managed to set a Pop Tart on fire, merely by toasting it. #
Yes, my life is officially crazy again. YAY! #
What if her coach is 2nd class? She at least gets to travel – The Glamorous Life  #

@reiger When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro – Hunter S. Thompson #
Had a beer, but that’s not the principal reason I’m happy. #
One of the things I miss about Italy is an Argentine cartoonist: QUINO …who is well known in Italy, but not in the US #
RT @bcantrill: Alexander’s birthday present for me – Technology: a million new ways to embarrass yr kid! 😉 #

I’m the dream of all Italians. #
@jitterted Identifying a root cause is useful only if there is the will and ability to fix it, otherwise it’s just depressing & futile. #
@ryancnelson What, your birthday too? Lotta Sagittarians about. #
@wastedcarbon @brendangregg Intermittent Octopus? I guess that goes w the Rainbow Pterodactyl, and whatever new menagerie Brendan captures. #
@adamsbaldwin @Ben_Howe Exactly the same can be said of almost any religion. Any belief too fervently held can lead to violence. So? #
@Ben_Howe I would not go so far. I would say that *many* of the horrors of human history have been done in the name of someone’s god. #
@Ben_Howe Ture, most wars do boil down to resources. But religion is all too often the excuse, and used as motivation. #
@Ben_Howe Yes, there’s also patriotism, for example. But there is the odd juxtaposition that most religions claim to be about love. #
Breakfast, groceries, housecleaning… I need something a little more exciting in the calendar for today! #
Don’t know why I’m so resistant to vacuuming my very small apartment; it’s only going to take about ten minutes. #
Problem with feeding birds on the balcony is they most ungratefully poop everywhere. #
I wouldn’t mind TV/Hulu ads so much if there were more variety. I promise, I get the idea in only one viewing. #
@pborenstein Apparently I don’t watch nearly enough TV to have a clue what you’re talking about. 😉 #
Daughter is at the Lady Gaga concert in Milan, presumably having fun. I’ll bet (and have heard) she puts on a great show. #
It’s just the rain making me lazy, right? #
Was considering going out to a movie in an actual cinema, but it’s raining so hard I can’t be bothered. I’ll cook instead. #
Enjoy watching brilliant minds wrestle with interesting problems, even when I don’t entirely understand what I’m seeing. I’m a geek groupie. #
@hudsonette Saw the 6-hour adaptation of His Dark Matrials in London a few years ago, a truly stunning piece of theatre. #
@hudsonette His Dark Materials Part I 2003/04 – Productions – National Theatre  #
I dont care what picture you put on your FB profile. Take the extra 30 seconds to also do something worthwhile. #
Apparently my new sleep pattern is: collapse at 10, wake up at 4 needing to empty my brain. It keeps thinking when I’m sleeping, dammit! #
Damn. I always lose something in a computer move. This time it was a song translation in progress – many hours of work. Damn damn damn. #
@jgerst I’d like to know the converse: what do companies lose on employee stress-related illness? #
@wanderingitaly My daughter spent 6 hrs waiting in snow to get into the concert last night (dunno why that was nec), so I guess she cares ! #
RT @izs: OH: Sleep is a bad idea. Don’t sleep. Just do work. — @bcantrill – Does that constitute HR abuse? 😉 #
@droberts Congratulations! #ThoughtWorks #
Mmmm… eggnog. #
@jonto – Thanks! I’m the Director of Technical Education, which is mostly about getting knowledge out of our experts and into our customers. #
#
I am an awfully cheap date these days… #

Ben Rockwood, Deirdré Straughan, Brendan Gregg

^ Ben Rockwood, Deirdré Straughan, Brendan Gregg
I heat up, I cool down, when something gets in my way I go ’round it…  #

Deirdré Straughan on Italy, India, the Internet, the world, and now Australia