Facebook – let’s call it a draw.
Anyone who knows me, knows that I think facebook a huge waste of time. I don’t know, maybe if I wasn’t working my guts out trying to launch a business, I’d feel differently about it.
Anyway, when I logged into facebook to see about an event (that was only to be found on the privileged pages of facebook), I noticed the invites in my “inbox” and I couldn’t say no to them (”them” meaning my friends, well… and my wife). I now have like a dozen virtual friends.
*BREAKING NEWS*
I couldn’t even finish this post without my brother congratulating me for getting inline.
*BREAKING NEWS*
Anyway, I like people. But I’d rather spend an hour chatting with a friend in the flesh, over lunch, then reading about what random people ate for breakfast. You think I’m kidding? I read over my wife’s shoulder when she’s logged into facebook. I know how lame it gets.
The other thing is (and most people will not understand this), I don’t like my personal information being held and managed by an outside party. Those relationships are mine. Many of then were carefully nurtured over many years. Putting them in a closed repository is fundamental broken (don’t tell me about an API – still fundamental broken). Those relationships had personal value to me before someone figured out how to leverage them to get new user sign-ups and to sell advertising. That’s why most of the conversations I have will be, in person, using personal email addresses, on the phone, over IRC, over IM (jabber only) or posted on my blog. Like I said, most of you don’t see it the way I do. Oh well.
So, yeah, micro-rant over. I’ll be on facebook from time to time, but I’ll mostly focus on the great things I have going in person, like my wonderful wife and kids that I see too little of.
Wait a minute! Shouldn’t I be working and not wasting time on my blog? Maybe, but at least I don’t require you to create an account to read about it :)
I really am a good guy and I don’t mean to sound grumpy. So, pull my blog’s feed, drop me a line (gabe@gundy.org), or give me a call. Let’s get together and talk shop, attend a conference, go to lunch, do some fishing, build something cool or just chill. Failing that, go ahead and add me to you facebook account. At least we’ll be able to share answers from the “What kind of cat would you be?” quiz ;)
I’m off to work. Let me know when the “next BIG thing” comes. Wish me luck and we’ll see you around :)
And just like that…
I end a years old relationship with Bloglines. You were good (maybe even the best), but that’s all changed now. Sorry.
I guess I’m giving Google Reader a try for now. I don’t know if it will last. After all, I am on the rebound.
If you have a better suggestion, I’d love to hear it.
Taxes 24-7
I dreamed about taxes last night. So yeah, now they’re ruining my days and my nights.
Inkscape templates for 960 Grid System.
As I mentioned a few days ago, I have some templates for Inkscape to use while mocking up websites using the 960 Grid System. Here they are. Tell me what’s ugly, bad and broken about them and I’ll make changes.
960-16 SVG (for Inkscape)
960-12 SVG (for Inkscape)
Do with them as you will. Consider them public domain.
UPDATE: These templates are for Inkscape. You will not see anything in other SVG views (such as Firefox).
960 Grid System – easy and fast
So, I’ve been looking around at web design resources on the interweb and I happened upon the 960 Grid System. So what is it? From the 960.GS site:
The 960 Grid System is an effort to streamline web development workflow by providing commonly used dimensions, based on a width of 960 pixels.
It’s basically a CSS framework that helps you get your main site layout down so you can focus on the other parts of its design.
I’ll be using it. It makes laying out sites wicked easy and has almost no learning curve.
It’s not for everyone (and not for every website), but it doesn’t claim to be. What it sets out to do, it does well.
Thanks goes to Nate for the great tool!
Oh yeah, I also have some Inkscape templates for designing sites that I’ve created. I’ll be posting them soon. SVG FTW!
iPhone FAIL
This is my iPhone about a week after buying it. Talk about bummed.
It dropped from about 2 feet onto my driveway (slipped out of the van when I opened the door). It was dark out, so I didn’t realize that it was broken until I got inside.
When I shared this story with the guy at the AT&T store, he literally said, “I don’t believe it. I’ve never heard of the screen breaking on one of these; they’re practically indestructible.” What a moron. Maybe he doesn’t have access to google images, or maybe he wasn’t being truthful. To be fair to AT&T, the guy who sold me the phone was super helpful and professional.
As an Open Source user/hacker, it was hard for me to buy an iPhone over the G1, but I needed one for development. Izeni (my start-up) builds hosted communication applications that work with voice and all manner of mobile devices –iPhone being one of the most important players in the mobile market place. Anyway, my brother Jordan (co-founder of Izeni), will be getting a G1 for development pretty soon. We’ll see how rugged it is.
So the iPhone works with the cracked screen and I still use it. The bad news for Apple is that I’m asked about the broken screen 2 or 3 times a day. It’s like a walking/talking billboard being presented to your target market saying, “Yeah, it’s a great phone. BUT, it’s fragile, poorly backed and expensive to repair.”
To sum it up, FAIL.
Izeni time
Well, if you don’t blog about forming a new company and getting ready to launch a new product, what do you blog about? I guess when you’re busy, that’s what it takes to get you posting again.
I don’t have much to say right now, but we’ve worked our guts out, spent much of our savings and gave a slice of our lives –it’s the American dream. There will be time to talk more about what we are doing; right now, I just need to get some sleep.
Before I do… now’s a good time to give thanks to my wife for putting up with all kinds of nonsense. I love you Emily. Thanks for your support :)
Now head on over to Izeni’s website and sign up for announcements.
More work stuff
Wow, landing contract work can be time consuming. Sometimes it takes more work to find the contracts than to fill the commitments. In the last couple weeks I was able to land a few good deals and get few solid leads, but I had to let a big one fall through so I could attend an out-of-state family funeral.
I think I’ve pretty much decided against the full-time employment route. Contract work has been fun so far, but it’ll probably be a month or two before the flow of contracts becomes more or less steady. With that in mind, I’m starting to think that in the long run I’d rather sell a product than my time. I guess I’ll keep looking for contract work, meanwhile revisiting some of the business plans I’ve drawn up in the past…
I noticed that there will be a few voip-related tracks at UTOSC tomorrow. If you’re going to be there want to talk shop on open-source telephony, I’m game.
A big thanks to those that have reached out with employment and contract leads. I’m sincerely grateful. Make no mistake, no matter what entrepreneurial schemes I come up with, I’ll still need any work I can get. After all, I’ve still got mouths to feed. ;)
Right time, place and skill sets.
Looking for work has actually been kinda fun. I get the feeling it has something to do with looking at the right time, being in the right place and having the right skill sets.
I’ve known that Utah was a hot-spot for tech and I assumed it was a great place for Open Source hackers. This post over at Pingdom seems to confirm my suspicions. The point is that no matter what Linux or Open Source topic you pick, Utah tends to be at the top of that search trend. Try it: Linux #1, Kernel #2, BSD #2, GNU #2, GPL #1, Apache #1, Postfix #1, Bash #1, Python Scripting #3, Asterisk #1, IPTables #1, Cron #1, MySQL #1, PostgreSQL #1… As you see, I could go on and on. I don’t know what can really be learned from those rankings, but one thing is sure – there is a lot of local interest in Open Source.
Just for fun, let’s see how Utah does for 5 random words. Thinking… taco (not in top 10), printing (not in top 10), ear plugs (not in top 10), drills #9 and microwave (not in top 10). Well, I’m glad I’m not selling drills door-to-door.
Also, I find it interesting that while I’ve been looking for different types of work (in this order: consulting, contracting, business opportunities and full-time work), nearly everyone I’ve interviewed with wants full-time employees. They say that although business is down a little (economy, or whatever), they’re all mostly cookin’. I say, good for them, good for Utah and good for me. ;)
Putting on a brave face
Scary and exciting. That’s how I would describe my new occupational path. I’m going to be accepting contracting work while I look for a more stable arrangement (read: get-a-job). I want to be able to look around and get to know some of the many businesses in the valley that have need of a Linux sysadmin/programmer before I make the choice to join one of them. I don’t want to be overly needy when searching for the right fit.
Anyway, if anyone has advice on job searching, contracting, resume building, networking or has any other general advice they would like to share, I’m all ears.
I also feel like I need to get plugged back in. I’ve been pretty heads down for the last year and a half. I haven’t been hanging out on IRC, blogging, posting to mailing lists, attending local user/business groups, volunteering or developing my skills. Heck, I haven’t even been logged into IM more then a handful of times during that period.
Along those lines (getting plugged back in)…
I’m changing over my IM contact to gabe@gundy.org using Jabber (XMPP). Feel free to add me to your buddies if you use Google Talk or another Jabber service. If we already chat using my old account, you’ll notice a change sometime later today.
It’s also a good time for me to breath life into my LinkedIn profile. If you and I have worked, played, studied or chilled together, send me a LinkedIn invite so I can keep in touch and see what others are up to. BTW, I don’t do “social web” stuff very often, but LinkedIn is one service that I find useful.
Lastly, if you (or anyone you know) has need of an experienced Linux sysadmin, drop a line. I can do just about anything, but I mostly enjoy and work with Linux, Asterisk, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Python, Mono, C#, Bash, IPTables, Django, Postfix, Mailman, Apache, Subversion, Django, FreeSWITCH and all things Open Source.
Thanks and I’ll be seeing more of you!