Even tho my profile states that I work for Joyent, FB keeps showing me ads titled Work at Oracle? #FAIL # The Twitter Diaries: Mar 5-20, 2011#
But not in a Disney way  #
@edsai that may be taking hard-core geek too far #node #fedramp #csa # @edsai That, we all need tattooed on our foreheads # in Italy anything thats worthy of interest or comment has a bit of mommy in the mix#
Would like breathing to be a little easier right now # @reiger best of all possible worlds. Even better when you can do it just walking. 😉 # @reiger nice! # @zaps l’unico politico italian che mi manca – la Bonino. Forse anche Rosy Bindi #la7 #linfedele # @jamescmcpherson Congratulations to all! #fb #
Hans Rosling and the magic washing machine | Video on TED.com  #
Ross is playing music that I would ordinarily sing along to, but I have no voice. Frustrating. Maybe not for her. #
The DTrace book is off the press! Final copies will soon be shipping from the publisher’s warehouse, mostly to Amazon #
rose from my sickbed to come to the Joyent office, was missing my peeps #
RT @avareltech: @DeirdreS will the book be available on safari? — already is! #
Sometimes the most valuable thing I can do is get people in a room and let /them/ talk. Especially when I have no voice. #
More sleep and less cough would be very welcome… starting 6 hours ago #
(only the Italians would consider food a strategic resource, but thats another story) Â # @ryah I’ve been up all night coughing. I’m not sure which of us had a worse time. # @ryah Thanks. Just tell me it’ll be over soon? #
Just saw a hawk being mobbed by crows outside my window… in San Francisco # @trine Diesel is a surname in German, no? In Anglo cultures, at least, it’s not unusual to use a surname in the family as a given name. # @trine I was giving them the benefit of the doubt. 😉 # @MartinDBADTrace videos#
.@lskrocki Revolutionary then still is now. Which is both amazing and sad. #
RT @notmatt: In six months, I expect I’ll post something just like this from @ryancnelson – Amen, +3 months # @standaloneSA Isaac Rozenfeld of Sun/Oracle would be awesome for this #sysadmin #lopsa # @WinnieWongSF What on earth are you up to over there? # @ryah The power of the tweet is yours #
Showered, changed into a fresh t-shirt… and got back into bed. If only I could sleep! # @sh1mmer Why would anyone pay money to buy dead-trees wikipedia? Makes no sense at all #
Twelfth Night – THE RAIN IT RAINETH EVERY DAY Â #
#1 inBooks > Computers & Internet > Operating Systems > Solaris DTrace book#
Top ten lists on several ways of being Best Places to Live for Expatriates – Italy not on any   #
Suggestions to stop a tickling wet cough so I can sleep? Tried mucinex dm, tea, hot lemon & honey (w & w/out bourbon), syrup, drops… # @bubbva there’s no lack of humidity in Sf right now, esp since I’m barely using heating # As we get more education we get more confidence and income, women are saying, she finally had the guts to walk out. Â #
Let’s see if any of this new crop of medicines can tame tho cough enough for me to sleep #
.@timminchin That takes real guts in her situation – she has a good chance of being killed for that interview. # @vdotw@edsai too late to get it tonight, I took dextromethorphan. Mix with acetiminophen w codeine left over from surgery? # @deirdresm I don’t think she has a choice, unless she can find visas and a way to supprot herself and 6 siblings in some other country… #
s@trine Good luck, my dears. Thinking of you. #
Argh! Why am I not in New York? Â #
RT @JessicaGottlieb: My Childhood Bullies Apologized to Me on FB 20 Years Later – careful, that’s not always sincere #
Sometimes the apologetic ex bully is just a scam artist ready to make you the victim, as ever. Or just plain batshit crazy. #
As I expected, doc says it’s just a really bad cold. But he’s giving me the good stuff. # @MrSimonTaylor What if they just move the Y they’ve got? # @anildash is that home made pizza? Sounds like the kind of awesome I would like to try #
the doctor told me to eat lots of non-dairy protein. Fortunately, I was planning to do exactly that. # @deirdresm dairy causese mucus, whcih I already have too much of # @GodlessAtheist Eww, eww, get it off me! #
Finally got a fair amount of sleep, I’m always surprised by how good that feels. Think I’ll do it some more. #
RT @nodejsconfit: http://nodejsconf.it the first italian conference about #nodejs #webdebs /cc @joyent@jsconfit#
We’re long past point of diminishing returns on awareness, days, ribbons for various causes. I don’t care what color you’re wearing or why #
.@johnnysunshine Spot on! Even non-believers are not entirely rational. We believe that thinking good thoughts somehow magically helps. #
Not even if Jesus Christ himself… Italian Idiom and Sayings#
.@elizadushku My photos of beautiful graffitit on trains in Italy and walls #slightlyobsessed #
RT @sogrady: @jasonh: give me analytics and i’ll pay – true dat. Tho you can do a lot with bit.ly #
Those who recommended codeine cough syrup were right – very effective. I’m tempted to sleep through the weekend. Probably shourd. #
the comments say far more than the article: Sex and the Long-Term Relationship – NYTimes.com  #
the state of my life 4 years ago: Light at the End of the Tunnel#
and one year ago: Gallery: Tech Days 2010 Hyderabad# @WinnieWongSF Yup. I can deal – happily – with change. It’s stasis that kills my soul. #
Dave Pacheco’s Blog Example: HTTP request latency and garbage collection#
Friendly Atheist Prayer: It’s Almost Like Doing Something# @webmink@lskrocki I love goats, but they are tricksy beasts, and you have to be way smarter than they are. Harder than you might think. # @rob_ellis Giving way to hipsters and suits? Remember our mascot! #
.@acarvin How many of the deniers are women? #
it should be possible to know a great deal about me by analyzing who I follow & retweet. Is anyone doing this kind of analysis? #
.@zephoria IPuzzled by the slut shaming that flourishes among schoolkids. Why is teen culture so vicious and unforgiving (and hypcritical)? #
Amazon: WTF?!? Customers who have purchased or rated Sondheim’s Putting It Together might like Sarah Palin’s Alaska… Uh, no. Really NO. #
Why, yes, I am up at 430 am hacking up a lung, thank you for asking. # @webmink dying from not-surprise 😉 # @gedamore thanks’ I’m trying to! #
.@hridaybala Even experts will find the DTrace book useful – it’s 1100 pages of mostly new invention, bound to be something they don’t know #
Oh, shit, our mascot got loose: @BronxZooHBadger#
Hmm, even the White House camera person bumps and shakes from time to time. And the President is a lot easier to film than most of my stars #
The world needs more singing in public. Â #
@sogrady Officially, Amazon doesn’t let you re-download music you’ve lost any more than Apple does. So far they’ve been kind to me, but… # @NickKristof I happily paid for it a few years ago, was surprised when they stopped charging. Now I’ll have to see if I run into the limit. #
RT @KatieS: I wonder what the @honeybadger thinks of @BronxZoosCobra? – drat, there’s another one? #
Amazon says the Kindle edition is available now: DTrace book #
RT @marczak: dtrace, I love you. – Aww # @hridaybala Cool, thanks! #dtrace # @konobi Dunno, but it’s affecting SF as well. # @LusciousPear Better that it’s an ex, no? #headdesk # @arclight Bed Spencer & Terrence Hill? You’re either Italian… or Indian. # @neo_indian I initially read nuns and wickets…. # @neo_indian Oh, I know. If I had any way to watch it here< I would. #
Not allowed to take pictures in the historic mills bldg because it’s a historic landmark and people go after places like this. Huh? #
Browsing at Walgreens, I realize there’s a genre missing in romance novels: Hot Tech – My Sexy Geek. Someone could make millions. #
RT @Annarella: @DeirdreS My Sexy Vampire Sysadm and My Wolfish Dba 😉 – That’s more like a reality show! #
My kid accuses me of being a terrible mother, but one of my failings is needing a definition of a good one. !Italian Mamma for Dummies? # @sriramnrn Heh. My parents cheated – I was in boarding school from age 14, never came home again # @bcantrill You hiring or looking? 😉 # @rioter In case any of these are helpful. And of course there’s the book. #
whoever pointed out this new weather site, thanks! I like it – WeatherSpark | Interactive Weather Charts#
.@jlb13 Science fiction writers could see technology wd zoom ahead, but found culture hard to reimagine. Maybe Heinlein was the exception. # @jlb13 It’s even funnier to read early Spinrad where characters living in 20nn are using hip 60s slang #
5 years ago today we buried my Aunt Rosie. She left a huge hole in many lives, and we gave her the send-off to prove it  #
I believe sleep is finally on the way. For which I am deeply, deeply grateful to the pharmaceutical industry. # Real life will overtake a cynical national health-care debate.# Illumos in the Cloud: What is Joyent Up to? – umm, yes, I wrote that # @dexterous Thanks, will get that fixed. Too many fingers in the pie – I wrote most of the article, but not that bit #
I’m told that this is a 21-day cold & I’m lucky it hasn’t turned into pneumonia. Maybe that means I’ll be able to stop coughing & sleep soon # @ryancnelson You need to move it into that corner conference room that’s always too cold # @jlb13 (Eyebeam)Â #
.@ebertchicago If he really had the courage of his convictions, he would go burn Korans in Afghanistan. #
1 year ago I arrived from Colorado and moved into this apartment is San Francisco, with the help of @jeffreytaylor Still happy to be here! #
RT @jamescmcpherson: Is there any point in keeping 3.5 floppy disks these days? #fb – I’m using them as drink coasters – geek chic! #
I come from a family of drama queens (myself included). It gets very tiring. #
RT @NomdeB: Thinking that in honor of cricket & India, must watch Lagaan (2001) http://bit.ly/dJxuq6 🙂 – Good idea! # @mamash Plus – they sing and dance! # Intel Cloud Builders – Joyent# DTrace book on its way to Amazon, those who ordered fm Informit get it this week. Kindle & other e-versions avail NOW #
RT @hudsonette: Hmm. I miss Walter Cronkite, too. – Yes, tho I hated him reporting the Vitenam casualties every night. Dad coulda been one # @quasi42 I thought that date a bit optimistic, US Amazon says Apr 11. Informit orders arrive this week, though. #
RT @hudsonette: @DeirdreS oh, glad he wasn’t! Yes, those were scary news broadcasts. – Scary times. # @heckenpenner83 Got book? 😉 #dtrace #freebsd #
.@hudsonette Not sure if this is really scary or just hilarious. The US combines the most advanced tech with the most backward superstition. #
.@hudsonette I have long feared that the powers that be want a crap education system so they can have a mass of gullible sheep as voters # @binarycrusader Oh, is that what that’s about? Hmm… # @jitterted good point # @Cdash@shawnferry I’ve heard you two described as a pair of alpha dogs. 😉 #
My gut says the GOP Path to Prosperity is just that: the wealthy of the GOP will benefit, the rest of us will be thoroughly screwed. # Once you enter the democratic political arena on a religious platform, your beliefs are up for legitimate attack#
RT @melanierenzulli: Anyone have the MLB At Bat app? Can you stream the games on your tv? Wondering if it’s worth 15…. @ryancnelson ? # @Cdash Heh. Guess. # Mirroring Facebooks Culture in a New Corporate Campus – NYTimes.com  – will be sad but interesting to see results #
It has to come to life… bit by bit, Putting it together  – Is other words: it’s showtime, folks! #
For years – decades, even – Sun Microsystems held some of the world’s greatest engineering talent fast in its cozy embrace. Then, as so often happens, acquisition unleashed a storm of change. A year later, a good deal of Sun’s top talent has moved on, including some well-known names from Solaris engineering. I’m sure this tech diaspora will benefit the industry as a whole, as Sun talent spreads far and wide.
For three years at Sun, I worked closely with top Solaris engineers. Many became friends, so I have kept in touch with those who left, and kept an eye on where they went. A number of the best and brightest settled at a cloud computing company out of San Francisco, called Joyent.
Bryan Cantrill, Jerry Jelinek, Brendan Gregg (with whom I worked very closely on the DTrace book), and several other members of Sun’s FISHworks team made the move to Joyent in late 2010. In addition, Joyent had brought on Ryan Dahl (the creator of Node.js, a hot new technology the world was beginning to hear about), Isaac Schlueter and more recently, Tom Hughes-Croucher (author of the upcoming Node.js book for O’Reilly). Putting all these elements together, it was clear that Joyent must be up to something very interesting; I had to become a Joyeur myself to find out exactly what was going on in the company!
We should first spend a few words to answer the question: What exactly is cloud computing? As Steve Gillmor said when asked at the O’Reilly Web 2.0 conference in 2008: to developers, cloud computing means being able to implement ideas at a very early stage, without having to concern themselves about future scaling up. This applies to start-ups and enterprises as well – companies too want a place to implement and deploy their applications or games quickly and flexibly with confidence they can scale rapidly if needed.
A good cloud hosting company provides the just-right amount of computing infrastructure, exactly when you need it. This includes “bursting” CPU capacity, so that your Facebook game doesn’t fall over when it suddenly goes viral, making you a victim of your own success. A good cloud hosting company has monitoring tools that can tell the difference between a short-term surge in traffic and a longer-term need to scale up capacity. Launched in early 2004 as one of the early pioneers of cloud computing, Joyent was the platform of choice for many popular web startups, including Twitter, WordPress and more. Over time, Joyent’s public cloud service became hugely popular with casual/social game studios, retail and ecommerce companies and many social networking applications. While the public face of Joyent has been a cloud computing service much like Amazon’s (but a lot faster), at heart Joyent is a software company.
I was already familiar with Joyent as one of the most innovative users of OpenSolaris: Ben Rockwood was a frequent conference speaker on OpenSolaris and related topics, and was active in the OpenSolaris community. Joyent was also one of the biggest contributors to OpenSolaris patches and is now a supporter of Illumos.
Based on Illumos, Joyent has created its own operating system, SmartOS, optimized for cloud computing. Why make a cloud kernel based on Illumos? From the cloud operator’s perspective, the advantages are obvious:
Maximize resource usage
Illumos virtualization (zones and Crossbow network virtualization) lets a cloud hosting provider put more customers on the physical server (each in their own SmartMachine), while still giving all of them phenomenal performance. Joyent’s servers typically run at 70% CPU capacity, against an industry standard of around 30%.
Creation and startup of additional zones – in other words, adding new paying customers – is nearly instantaneous.
100% of RAM is allocated to SmartMachines or repurposed for SmartCache as an ARC-cache layer between application and disk.
Maximize performance
No hardware emulation means the machine runs much faster; SmartOS is the hypervisor.
In cloud computing, latency is everything. ZFS with ARC dramatically improves disk performance, reducing a major source of slowdowns.
3X more transactions per second compared to Amazon EC2 of similar size and cost.
Know what’s going on
Users of Solaris, Illumos, Mac OS X and FreeBSD know that DTrace gives you an unprecedented view throughout the software stack. But all that power comes at a price: using DTrace effectively requires expertise. The Joyent team is now harnessing the power of DTrace in a more user-friendly form with cloud analytics, which will be available to Joyent customers via a GUI and an API.
Companies who want to take advantage of the benefits of the cloud – variable costs, flexible resource usage, and affordability – are choosing Joyent for the efficiency it offers compared to legacy cloud systems. Thank you, Illumos, for giving us much better utilization and faster performance, and hence lower costs to customers.
The power of SmartOS is now available to another kind of Joyent customer: the Service Providers (telcos, ISPs, datacenter operators) who are using Joyent’s cloud software to deliver cloud services to their customers. With the cloud market expected to grow from 30-55% in coming years, it’s no wonder that so many existing providers want to get into the cloud business too. And Joyent is making this very, very easy to do.
Led by VP of Engineering Bryan Cantrill, Joyent’s very talented engineering team has rolled up years of cloud computing experience into a powerful yet easy to use software package, SmartDataCenter 6. This is the fruit of a major engineering effort around multi-tenancy operation in the cloud, including enhancements to OS-level virtualization, DTrace and ZFS. These technologies – powerful and revolutionary as they are – are only the foundation of a cloud operating system. Using Node.js – a Joyent framework for high-throughput, evented-oriented systems – Joyent has built orchestration and management software that turns these foundational OS technologies into a revolutionary cloud offering.
I’m excited to be here at Joyent, working with amazing people on wonderful things. If you’re a current Joyent customer, or a prospect interested in learning more, please drop me a line or go to Joyent.com or JoyentCloud.com to learn more. I’mDeirdre@joyent.com.
billblum @DeirdreS Seriously, I’ve wound up using it so often, it’s as if #Dtrace provides all the insight I never knew I always needed. #
nmar @deirdres ottimo, grazie! #
hdibani RT @DeirdreS Seriously, I’ve wound up using it so often, it’s as if #Dtrace provides all the insight I never knew I always needed. #
DeirdreS video itself is evolving from a passive entertainment medium to a powerful, global teaching tool http://huff.to/gucmiC #
DeirdreS Whoever coded this wiki software: if you were here now, you’d be sharing my pain – AND THEN SOME. #
fitzage @DeirdreS Isn’t that true of all wiki software? #
DeirdreS RT @fitzage: @DeirdreS Isn’t that true of all wiki software? – YES. Maybe someday there will be a truly usable wiki. Not holding my breath. #
The DTrace Book
DeirdreS Guess what we’ve got? Watch for an opportunity to win a rare, pre-print copy of the DTrace book! Â #
openpoesia @DeirdreS already bought it ,thanks indeed for the opportunities #
DeirdreS Anyone at Joyent care to comment on Linux has strace… http://bit.ly/ebB8va @brendangregg@bcantrill – Unleash the hounds! #
ben @DeirdreS@brendangregg@bcantrill D comes before S, so Dtrace has got to be better… #
DeirdreS 3/9 SFOSUG @brendangregg DTracing File Systems  – Join us for your chance to win a pre-print copy of the DTrace book! #
DeirdreS @creationix start grabbing some good screenshots – you’re about to want them! #
DeirdreS Running cloud analytics on no.de? Start grabbing screenshots – I’ll tell you why shortly. Or can you already guess? 😉 #
pborenstein @DeirdreS Uhm…. You’re redoing your living room wall paper? #
DeirdreS @pborenstein No, the color scheme would be all worng for that. My living room is red and black, mostly. #
creationix @DeirdreS Sadly it’s died down at the moment. The lifespan of data on that page is pretty short. I’ll check it throughout the day. #
creationix @DeirdreS Now what would be really cool is if the page beeped when there was data and the volume was proportional to the log() of traffic. #
befreax RT @DeirdreS Running cloud analytics on no.de? Start grabbing screenshots – I’ll tell you why shortly. Or can you already guess? 😉 #
DeirdreS @monaeltahawy I’ve had men tell me how I /should/ be happy. Somehow that usually involved doing what /they/ wanted. <wry smile> #
notmatt @DeirdreS oh man, they went there? #
DeirdreS @notmatt So far they’re not taking the bait. 😉 #
DeirdreS New: screencast of @brendangregg ‘s demo added, so you can get up close and personal with cloud analytics#
DeirdreS statues a metaphor for the condition of Italys archaeological heritage: An immense treasure w no one looking after it  #
DeirdreS International Women’s Day and Mardi Gras are tomorrow. The universe may implode. #
jdcasa RT @DeirdreS: International Women’s Day and Mardi Gras are tomorrow. The universe may implode. #
whygocanada Pasties and protests? 😉 RT @jdcasa: RT @DeirdreS: International Women’s Day and Mardi Gras are tomorrow. The universe may implode. #
niltiac @jdcasa@deirdres@citytravelbug And Pancake Day too. But I guess that’s just Mardi Gras for Anglos. #
DeirdreS @cairobabble@monaeltahawy AND it’s Mardi Gras. I think that explains everything. #
DeirdreS Forbes  Walker would have done well to take yes for an answer when the unions agreed to his financial proposals. #
DeirdreS Strangely appropriate : there’s a bartender in Bombay whose last name is @joyent – I’ll have to have a drink there. #
DeirdreS 4 years ago I began translating Aggiungi un Posto a Tavola An Italian Musical (and haven’t quite finished yet) Â #
DeirdreS @saraford spitting, but don’t ask me why #
hiddentrack @DeirdreS finding other uses of @joyent in the wild reminds me of this ad that I think @mamash found a few years back  #
DeirdreS RT @hiddentrack: reminds me of this ad that @mamash found a few years back – Wow, we really do everything! #
DeirdreS Brendan’s blog DTrace book talk SFOSUG#
DeirdreS @monaeltahawy Since I don’t believe in any entity that listens to prayers, I suppose it’s ok that idiots waste their time praying against u #
DeirdreS Urge to Own That Clapton Guitar Is Contagious – reading this out of interest, find a familiar name (schoolmate Karen) #
DeirdreS @trine Catholcism? #lent #
trine @DeirdreS ha! If i was, i would 🙂 #
DeirdreS @paulmwatson Getting some screenshots for us? There’s a contest in the wind… #
DeirdreS Goodbye, Discovery NASA – NASA TV Â #
paulmwatson @DeirdreS soon as I get more than one user on my node! 🙂 #
DeirdreS @paulmwatson Let us know where and what it is -may be able to help you get traffic #
DeirdreS .@daveweigel Funding one of the best educational TV programs ever, emulated worldwide, in a country where basic ed sucks? TOTALLY WORTH IT. #
DeirdreS get up close & personal with cloud analytics: hi-res screencast of Brendan’s preso at node.js Community Event Mar 1 – Â #
Brendan Gregg, author of the DTrace book
DeirdreS At last! #
billblum RT @deirdres: Tonight’s SFOSUG meeting live on USTREAM from 6 pm PT: http://bit.ly/f6diBt – Join for a chance to win a pre-print copy of… #
brendangregg pre-print copies: RT @DeirdreS: At last! http://yfrog.com/h6e8yodj #
morphs That is one BIG book.. cannot wait to carry that round to and from work : ) (@DeirdreS)http://yfrog.com/h6e8yodj #
DeirdreS @morphs E-versions avaliable from http://bit.ly/gZPR5O and http://bit.ly/i83hqc , I imagine in other formats as well (checking w publisher) #
craigmorgan @DeirdreS hurrah, tell him to stop reading it and starting packing/shipping them 😉 gonna kill the postie tho! #
DeirdreS .@mmcallen Be nice if we could grow past thinknig that it’s an F bomb in this day and age. #transparacyworks #
DeirdreS RT @montemagno: Salman Khan: Let’s use video to reinvent education  – YES! #
NomdeB > @DeirdreS Agree. Khan Academy is a great example of information that works well as Audio/Visual. #
DeirdreS @bloatedlesbian We have all (Dems and R.pubs) been trained not to question the fundamental tenets of capitalism. #
DeirdreS if you’re at #sxsw, you must experience the awesomeness of Italy’s most geek-friendly comestible. And of @sararosso#
DeirdreS RT @bdha: @jasonh@brendangregg Comprehensive is what those books look like. Waiting! – Yes, even exhaustive. #
DeirdreS I wonder if they’ll migrate blogs.sun.com/video/ – I’ve got one hell of a portfolio there #
trochej @DeirdreS Time to download them, just in case. #
webmink @DeirdreS As if. #
DeirdreS I understand the urge to pray when you can’t do anything else, but… why would a loving, caring god pull this shit in the first place? #
jacques @DeirdreS can’t you host your old blog content on your smartmachine? Let me know if you need some wget love. #
DeirdreS @trochej Yes, if only I could remember whcih ones I already stashed somewhere… #
DeirdreS @tamrmint uncertain. His last tweet was shit several hours ago. Sure hope he and his are ok #
tamrmint @DeirdreS Okay, thank you. Ben said he was more inland, so he should be okay. #
myinnervoice @DeirdreS why? Because otherwise we will forget there is Gd #
miglsd @DeirdreS so you don’t belive in God, but think he is cruel anyway :)? #
shawnferry @DeirdreS I keep seeing noise to that effect but I’m guessing it will be a wreck #
DeirdreS @miglsd For those who do belive in god, I don’t see the point n praying to a manifestly cruel being in hopes of mercy. #
DeirdreS humans are adept at social learning, so a large social network is effective at spreading and accumulating knowledge. Â #
DeirdreS @ibannieto so am I, and many others. No word in 10+ hours #
DeirdreS @Schlomo hugs #
DeirdreS @BrookeJarvis Maybe they’re hoping some left coast liberals will drown 😉 #
DeirdreS @Zee Ohhhkay… #sxsw has just officially jumped the shark [this was about a “Where the Girls Are” app]Â #
DeirdreS @mtuckerb Hatten down the batches! #
DeirdreS For those asking about @jimgris, FB message from his dad says they’re all ok. Phew! #
lowbit @DeirdreS Great to hear! #
DeirdreS Very tired. Lack of sleep will do that to me. #
jimgris @chris_mahan@Joanmarie@lskrocki@lowbit@alanc@jamesdwi@benr@DeirdreS@hcsaltiel Thanks, guys. 🙂 #
DeirdreS @comay our leaders are the finest men, and we elect ’em again and again, that’s what I learned in school today… #
DeirdreS this time 5 years ago: La Buona Educazione (Good Manners) Â #
DeirdreS My middle-of-night anxieties, in the scale of world events, are so very petty – and I know it. But they keep me awake anyway. #
DeirdreS I tell the chorus, the orchestra to keep up their work, but their salaries don’t even let them pay their bills#
riccardo_iommi @DeirdreS how envious I am… you escaped from this shame in time #
riccardo_iommi RT @DeirdreS: I tell the orchestra to keep up their work, but salaries don’t even let them pay their bills http://apne.ws/eVOA9w << SHAME #
DeirdreS .@riccardo_iommi Living 17 years in Italy cost me a huge amount in taxes to a corrupt system, and lost wages. Should’ve left sooner. #
riccardo_iommi RT @DeirdreS: Living 17 years in Italy cost me a huge amount in taxes to a corrupt system […] Should’ve left sooner. << I have to RT this! #
DeirdreS .@monaeltahawy@Hragy Holy words written by tribal men saying women should submit to men. How surprising. #
DeirdreS @bloatedlesbian Looks that way to me #dreamhost #
DeirdreS no.de users, remember: you’ve got a chance to win just for sending us pretty pictures! Brendan Greggs Book Giveaway  #
DeirdreS Ok, that’s it for post-lunch marketing, time to put the training hat back on. #
DeirdreS Geoff gets his Italian on  #
DeirdreS @deeharvey I had hoped not, but… #
DeirdreS This is more kinds of beautiful than I can describe… colorapi#
DeirdreS http://amzn.com/k/2DJTIR8B63IJV #Kindle #
DeirdreS @hudsonette Reminds me chillingly of a Heinlein story from the Cold War era. #
DeirdreS .@onfaith Beck is utterly predictable, what’s worrying is the people who actually believe his crap. A merciful god would strike HIM down. #
DeirdreS Sun.com and its subdomains eg blogs.sun.com was one of the greatest repositories of technical knowledge on the web. I’ll mourn it. #
DeirdreS @ryancnelson weird cat behavior: if in isn’t on YouTube, it didn’t happen. #
DeirdreS @nonstick And the Oracle classic people by their envious stares at the Macs? 😉 #
stewarttownsend RT @DeirdreS: Sun.com and its subdomains eg blogs.sun.com was one of the greatest repositories of technical knowledge on the web. < sad day #
DeirdreS Happy I’m going to see my kid today. #
nonstick @DeirdreS There’s one guy here with an Apple sticker over the Dell logo on his laptop. Gave him a hard time about it. #
DeirdreS @planspark it will be worth the wait #
DeirdreS @monkchipsDr Melvyn Bert – I recommend him heartily. #
TomRaftery Hey @DeirdreS@monkchips asked me to say thanks very much – he just left to go to the doctor you recommended #
DeirdreS @TomRaftery Cool. I adore Dr Bert, great with patients, worldwide#
bubbva @DeirdreS blogs.sun.com is migrating, all content. Old urls will probably be busted 🙁 #
NomdeB @DeirdreS – Silly me. Forgot to @ you on that last tweet. #
DeirdreS I don’t know why the sound of people chewing and crunching food irritates me extremely. Unless I’m also eating, I guess. #
riccardo_iommi @DeirdreS no no, it irritates me even while I’m eating. It’s something you cannot bear. #
mentalmosaic @DeirdreS I like watching animals eat, though. My own species – not so much. #
DeirdreS http://t.co/QKRGgjx #
pborenstein @DeirdreS Pretty. But I still don’t get cupcakes. #
DeirdreS @NomdeB Heh. I’d already sent her a link about that. #
DeirdreS @pborenstein To me, it’s a devil’s food cake without the commitment #
pborenstein @DeirdreS I think it’s because I don’t like frosting. So much of it on cupcakes. #
DeirdreS If AT&T is going to cut me off at 150 Gb / month, would be helpful to know how much I’m using now. Anyone know if there’s a way to see? #
lowbit @DeirdreS They are apparently going to be adding tools to monitor usage once the change is official. #
DeirdreS @NomdeB That’s wireless, talking about home internet #
billblum @deirdres AT&T is supposedly going to have a tool available for DSL customers— I’ve got a Netgear router with usage stats built in. #
DeirdreS @billblum good point – I may be able to find that out on my own router #
NomdeB @DeirdreS Can see data use on Cox Communications website too. Think our limit is 200GB/month, but we can bump up to bigger if needed. #
billblum @deirdres We’re being force upgraded to UVerse, so that gives me some headroom on the bandwidth cap. #
DeirdreS Baby cruising around the arrivals area on all fours. I remember when airports were exciting #
DeirdreS It is no longer possible to guess where anyone embarked based on ethnicity, language, dress… #
bubbva @DeirdreS I think our parents drilled ‘silent eating’ into us; therefor, others are annoying 🙂 #
bubbva @DeirdreS I think ther’s am app for that? #
pborenstein @DeirdreS Hitchens et al strike me not as atheists but as a(specifictheism)ists. They worry a lot about the afterlife they don’t believe in. #
DeirdreS @pborenstein Seems to me they worry about others’ belief in that afterlife, and how that affects their behavior in this world #
pborenstein @DeirdreS True. I wasn’t fond of James Watts’ idea that conservation wasn’t necessary because the rapture was just around the corner. #
DeirdreS Enter to win 1 of 2 Canon 60D camera bodies & 1 yr @SmugMug Pro membership. Please RT. Info at: http://bit.ly/hDiOdy #
pborenstein @DeirdreS Prof atheists tend to be specific about the god they don’t believe in. Like sec. Jews: The synagogue they don’t go to is orthodox. #
johnnysunshine @pborenstein@DeirdreS I don’t think that’s entirely true, I’ve met plenty that equally point out Hindu bullshit as JudeoChristian bullshit #
pborenstein @johnnysunshine Maybe I just keep hearing and reading the same Hitchens, Pullman, Dawkin clips 🙂@deirdres#
mentalmosaic @DeirdreS Good point, although on my last flight to NYC, the New Yorkers wore much more black, I noticed, than the tourists. #
DeirdreS Had to come to the AT&T store to reactivate ross’ phone. Been here 40 mins. This is absurd. #
DeirdreS The AT&T people on the phone are holding us up over process with their own store people. Hello, you work for the same company! #
DeirdreS Capturing minds [Mark Cavage and Aaron Slettehaugh of Joyent] Â #
DeirdreS @edsai get a white noise appfor your iphone. Works wonders #
edsai @DeirdreS you are my hero. I had no idea there was an app for that. #
DeirdreS @edsai I used to travel with a separaet white noise machine, now no longer necessary #
edsai @DeirdreS will my alarm still go off? What app do you use? #
DeirdreS @edsai Yes, AFAIK. I use WhiteNoise by TMSoft, I think it was free #
jhk24 @edsai@DeirdreS love whitenoise! sleep tight! #
shawnferry @DeirdreS@edsai I use the same. I don’t recall any alarm issues #
scriptavolant The Fabio Masetti Daily is out! http://bit.ly/b2hwKX Top stories today via @stefanomizzella@deirdres#
edsai @shawnferry@deirdres my heroes. was able to get some sleep but running on fumes from yesterday #
DeirdreS RT @bleepster: hallelujiah! http://bit.ly/gAWeMC – wait til you see the new ones coming out with the book! #
DeirdreS @TomRaftery Realpolitik is often ugly. <sigh> #Libya #
johnkt09 @DeirdreS Funny how often realpolitik turns out to be geldpolitik, isn’t it? #
DeirdreS @johnkt09 Yup. After all, what’s realer than money? (Don’t answer that!) #
DeirdreS Argh. Sneezy, Dopey, Grumpy, Sleepy… also Headachy and Runny. Damn cold everyone else has had finally caught up with me. #
DeirdreS <sigh> I would really, really prefer not to be on the phone with AT&T right now over yet another screw up. #
mentalmosaic @DeirdreS You, too? This is the 3rd month in a row for me with the same AT&T billing screw up. Love my phone, though. #
DeirdreS 12 mins on phone with rep only to be told I have to pass you to customer care, this line only deals with customers <30 days old WTF? #
dltq @DeirdreS hahaha, sounds like that service rep needs a spanking #
a_random_claire @DeirdreS Did you explain you were well over 30 days old? 😉 #
DeirdreS @a_random_claire I’m not a human being here, just an account. Gah! #
DeirdreS I would gladly pay more money to any company that doesn’t put me through billing hell, for whatever service. Does such a thing exist? #
fitzage @DeirdreS Doubtful. #
fitzage @DeirdreS Actually, when it comes to cell phone companies, T-Mobile was always top notch at customer service. #
DeirdreS Dear corporations: get customer service right. The company that accomplishes this – in any sector – will rule the world. #
NomdeB @DeirdreS Isn’t this day 2 of your AT&T saga? Ouch. 🙁 We’re Verizon. Know people have complaints, but we’ve always had great service. #
riccardo_iommi @DeirdreS they won’t understand this simple thing #
DeirdreS ps I did front-line customer service for years, and I did it well. I KNOW it ain’t rocket science. #
riccardo_iommi @DeirdreS you are ranting like a machine gun, sorry to hear that 😉 #
DeirdreS @riccardo_iommi I’m supposed to be resting at home with a nasty cold. Phone hell is not making me feel any better. #
riccardo_iommi @DeirdreS u have my simpathy, I understand #
DeirdreS ok, unlimited data plan for iphone restored – I had specifically asked at the store y’day not to touch that, hence went spare when they did #
urbanturbanguy @DeirdreS that unlimited plan is useless. I have had it for 3 years now. #
urbanturbanguy @DeirdreS Wanted to get the personal Hotspot activated – They said not with the unlimited plan. They were happy to milk us till now. #
pborenstein @DeirdreS You might try @FancyHands for that kind of thing. #
riccardo_iommi @DeirdreS glad to hear that #
DeirdreS @pborenstein I don’t think they’re allowed to take personal data such as they wd need to manage an account #
DeirdreS This was sent to me in response to my rants earlier today: Saturday Night Live: Ernestine http://bit.ly/gNS2SX #
TopTv_Shows RT @DeirdreS – This was sent to me in response to my rants earlier today: Saturday Night Live: Ernestine http://bit.ly/gNS2SX #
socialtagger RT @DeirdreS – This was sent to me in response to my rants earlier today: Saturday Night Live: Ernestine http://bit.ly/gNS2SX #
DeirdreS companies subscribing to statistical insignificance in customer care will become companies that used to exist. http://bit.ly/eSlbMk #
DeirdreS ‘hipster’ (e.g., people who call themselves ‘nerds’) – Huh? Is that the definition? Or is it just rolled-up jeans and ‘tude? #
DeirdreS WTF? there is nothing to prove that students are allegedly influenced by the presence of the crucifix in classrooms#
DeirdreS @rob_ellis Sure you’re not in marketing? 😉 #joyent #
DeirdreS Some days your colleagues are a lot better off NOT seeing you at the office. For me, this is one of those days. #
riccardo_iommi @DeirdreS a healthy #FF to you #
DeirdreS American protesters should ponder the fact that the government they propose 2nd amendment resistance to is not in fact shooting at them. #
willbldrco @DeirdreS Re hipsters: I thought his was funny: RT @petapixel Hipster traps in NYC use Holgas as bait: http://j.mp/fv6fjG #
DeirdreS @willbldrco I’m dismayed that smoking is hip again. I had to live through that the first time. #
DeirdreS @bcantrill tornado warning for areas including… Redwood City… – moving in on the Emerald City? Surrender, Dorothy! #
willbldrco @DeirdreS +1! After enjoying the heavy-handed anti-smoking laws at home in CO, I was shocked every time I bellied up to the bar in FL! Ugh! #
DeirdreS .@slashdot@pbeyssac Sun.com is worth more than 1 million, if its Google karma transfers. It has huge SEO weight. #
DeirdreS At the same time, like all parents, sometimes I just want a pause button. Â #
NomdeB Don’t have children (by choice), but still found this parenting piece utterly delightful: http://bit.ly/fNRSIa HT @DeirdreS#
DeirdreS @acarvin Sigh. No one is meant to die easily. But somehow many do. Condolences. #
DeirdreS How can you make love stay? Love is the ultimate outlaw. It just won’t adhere to any rules…#
DeirdreS R tried out Bikram yoga yesterday. Said it was smelly. #
DeirdreS @acarvin In which aspects of it do you think training is needed? For the A/V – tech, lots of info/tutorials out there. #
DeirdreS There’s never been truth-telling that I know of that had that kind of immediate effect#
DeirdreS most bloggers have no institutional credibility, so must build it by linking transparently#
DeirdreS @lskrocki We will not be seeing it from here – rain, rain and more rain! #
DeirdreS I rarely get the common cold/flu – had forgotten how miserable it is. #
edsai @DeirdreS argh. hope you feel better… #
DeirdreS @natashabadhwar I’m told that Nehru’s nieces ended up at Woodstock School because all of the older generation of the family were in jail. #
DeirdreS @edsai Thanks. It’s the fault of all our colleagues. That’s what I get for working in an office. 😉 #
natashabadhwar @DeirdreS I just read your bio. It is incredible, so much love, loss, moving on. Sending you love and the warmth of Delhi on the eve of Holi #
DeirdreS A Brazilian asking for info on the origins of his Italian family names – can anyone help? Â #
jasonh @aaronheckmann@bigfleet yes ping me. We have @sh1mmer and @DeirdreS working on such things @joyent#
DeirdreS .@jasonh@aaronheckmann@bigfleet Yes, @sh1mmer has training ready to go, don’t know of specific plans for Portland. #
DeirdreS Another trove of material I’d sorta forgotten about, must move to new blog… India Vlog 2005#
DeirdreS added a few updates and a new photo to my Autobiography#
DeirdreS 7 years ago today: Holiday Treats Italian Seasonal Goodies#
DeirdreS not much has changed since this post ~5 years ago: Talking Back to Politicians: A Lesson in Modern Italian#
edsai @DeirdreS uhm. why do you not have the pink hair anymore. it r0cked. #
DeirdreS 3 yrs ago: I’ve tried for 17 years to achieve this in Italy. made progress on my chosen road but it’s getting harder#
DeirdreS @edsai I liked it, but I’ve been scared off with stories of conservative Asian customers. Plus hard to get it done well. #
DeirdreS The DTrace book final version is now available for download purchase, with a different free sample chapter #
lskrocki @DeirdreS Bummer. Going to try snapping some pics — may be cloudy here too. #
DeirdreS Losing my voice. Which doesn’t matter on Twitter. #
DeirdreS Hmm, intriguing. Now just need to get all my friends to use it. Voxer#
DeirdreS Deja vu. Didn’t we bomb Tripoli a while back? Like, 1986? #
ryancnelson RT @DeirdreS: Deja vu. Didn’t we bomb Tripoli a while back? Like, 1986? //whoever lives in the Halls of Montezuma is nervous right now. #
DeirdreS Dear new followers: I am not likely ever to own real estate again in my life. What made you think otherwise? #
DeirdreS Enter to win 1 of 2 Canon 60D camera bodies & 1 yr @SmugMug Pro membership. Please RT. Info at: http://bit.ly/hDiOdy #
DeirdreS Dislike what I just did. But could really use a new camera… #
DeirdreS Either Mucinex works really fast, or I had already coughed out everything I was gonna. Still feel like the top of my head came off. #
webmink @DeirdreS That’s what one has a second account for 😉 #
bdha @ryancnelson@deirdres Nice. #
DeirdreS memoir: The (Previous) Bombing of Tripoli#
PCOWandre @DeirdreS You should check his 5D Mk. II giveaway thing too. Far more fun lurking in a 5D2! #
DeirdreS @PCOWandre Thanks, I think I signed up for both. #
PCOWandre @DeirdreS Well, hope you win! #
DeirdreS Woke up to a patch of blue sky. Will it last? #
DeirdreS A lot can be said with a little the mundane and the extraordinary. Philosophers were kings of the aphorism. Â #
DeirdreS @arekdreyer I’d never seen it – I like the song better than the store! #
DeirdreS Brief bout of sunshine definitively over. #
rattay @DeirdreS Somehow I knew we would have to some payback for that 80 degree stint in January. #
DeirdreS Hmm, I lied. Blue sky is back, at least temporarily. #
DeirdreS R: Does this look stupid? Do I look like a Canadian? (multiple patterned sweaters) #
DeirdreS @rattay Yeah, I wish we had that good weather now while my daughter is visiting #
DeirdreS Rather than waiting to help financial consumers, Warren has been trying to help them now. Can you believe the nerve?#
Reading the news today that US forces are bombing Tripoli brought on a quirky memory, almost completely unrelated to today’s events.
Last time the US bombed Tripoli, in 1986, I was on a study abroad year in Benares, India. I had chosen to live in Vijayanagaram Bhavan, the headquarters of the College Year in India program, so knew about all the students’ comings and goings. I also kept an eye on what was going in the world (a habit picked up from my dad the newshound). I owned a shortwave radio, and used it to listen to the Voice of America, BBC World Service, and Radio Moscow (whose announcers all sounded as if they had been raised in Nebraska).
I wrote up daily news summaries and posted them on the center’s bulletin board for my fellow students, a service they seemed to appreciate. So it was I who informed them about the US attack, which was not well received by the world community, nor by many Americans. There were fears of retaliatory attacks on American citizens worldwide. I heaved a sigh and got on with my life – been there, been threatened with death by the Islamic Jihad. We also imagined, I don’t know how realistically, the possibility of full-scale war, complete with Vietnam-style conscription of US youth.
A few days later, an American showed up at the Bhavan with a list of student names he wanted to check. His wife was a consular officer with the US Embassy in Delhi, so it was her duty to keep track of US citizens in the region in case there should be a need to whisk us all to safety. I was pleased that, having put my life in danger, my government was at least proposing to get me out of it again, and was happy to give the man the information he needed. Meanwhile, my classmates were at the other end of the verandah, muttering among themselves about the stranger and what his business might be.
As the man and I were finishing, one of the students – J, a painfully politically correct young man – came bustling up.
“Sir,” he said officiously, “I would like to lodge a complaint about the actions of the US government in Libya – ” He didn’t get to finish.
The man looked him straight in the eye and barked: “I am here to inform you that all US males over the age of 18 are being drafted into the army, and you have two days to report to the nearest recruiting center!”
J’s jaw dropped, he turned white as a sheet, and for once had nothing to say.
“Just kidding.”
The man smiled sweetly, and went about his business.
