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Shindig (for Firefly fans)

If you are a Firefly fan and you would be interested in a costumed shindig, perhaps in June or July, please send me an email with the email address you would like the invite to be sent to. Please title the email “Shinding, Yes Please” and I will get you on the list. My scottnolan.org address is the correct one to use.

This is a repeat message for those who missed a similar one last month; I already have several people on the list.

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Cool enhancement to MobileMe email system

I am not sure exactly when this happened, but MobileMe mail spool finally supports server-side filtering; you can finally put some spam fighting rules into your web account so the spam does not get to your iPhone/iPad (the Mail.app client has always supported client-side filtering).

This potentially fixes the problem where your Mac saw no spam because of the filter rules; but your iPhone saw all kinds of viagra spam.

Bring up Mail.app Preferences/Rules
Point a web browser at Me.com and log in, click the silly cloud logo
select the Mail cloud
click the preferences wheel (top right corner, next to your name), select the Rules menu item

Copy any rules you have already set up in Mail.app over to MobileMe’s rules.

Spam you already have rules for will no longer appear on your iPhone.

While this is a little clumsy, it is some improvement; and perhaps with pressure and time Apple will bring more of the automatic junk filtering into the server side of the Mobile Me system so iPhone users enjoy spam-free email on their MobileMe accounts.

Of course, if your mail spool already sits on most web hosting services, you already have Spam-Assassin enabled.

Job Openings in Sterling, VA

Sr Mgr Information Security

Qualifications/Education Requirement:

* Requires a bachelor’s degree in a related field or equivalent
* Minimum of 7-10 years of experience in the Information Security field
* CISSP, CISM, CISA, and/or others a plus
* Experience managing a 24x7x365 operations environment
* Ability to communicate clearly and effectively with both technical teams and non-technical management

Sr Project Manager – Technical Projects

Qualifications/Education Requirement:

Bachelor’s degree. Minimum 8 years in project management/coordination. Experience with CMMI or ISO9000 is a plus. Software systems development and hardware implementation. Ability and desire to quickly gain domain and business knowledge. Extensive hands-on experience with Project management tools (e.g. MS Project Standard or Server). Excellent organization, verbal and communication skills.

Systems Data Analyst

Qualifications/Education Requirement:

* High level of comfort working with monitoring and metrics infrastructure
* Experience managing and analyzing KPI’s for a technical organization
* Self-starter who is able to build consensus around goals beneficial to the organization
* Proven ability working within technical architecture and related end-to-end data flow
* General level of understanding of internet protocols
* In depth experience utilizing Excel or other tools to effectively present graphs, dashboards and reports
* Familiarity with processing data via scripting languages (such as Perl, Excel/VBScript or other tools)
* Experience extracting data from databases via GUI-based tools (e.g. Access, OBIE, etc.)

VP Network Engr & Ops

Qualifications/Education Requirement:

· Successfully led Engineering operations for a publically traded, global company exceeding $1 billion in annual revenue

Possess a deep understanding of operational management practices and technologies, including: data networks, data center operations, servers & storage, service desk operations, and the technologies that support/enhance the online customer experience

· Extensive experience in managing large scale Data Centers to Tier 4 standards; mastery of production technology platform management and operations, experience in providing a robust and scalable network environment in conjunction with a track record of a creative and entrepreneurial approach to the delivery of technology innovation

· Experience with developing and deploying telecommunications and internet focused solutions

· Experience managing in a SAS 70/PCI/SOX compliant environment

· Minimum of ten years of professional experience in roles with significant IT management responsibility

· Bachelor’s degree is required, an advanced degree is preferred

· Must have led an Engineering/IT group that had to deal with multiple offices both domestically and internationally as well as serving remote employees

· Exceptional written and verbal communication skills and the ability to communicate complex technology concepts to non-technical audiences

· Proven experience in outsourcing enterprise application and services, as well as developing and monitoring related Service-level agreements

· A strong interest, talent and intellect for engaging and partnering with employees to support the range of technical needs presented are critical

· Must demonstrate proven ability to: a) creatively resolve problems in close consultation with stakeholders and, b) build consensus among differing perspectives to reach decisions that leverage the company’s use of technology in service of its mission

· In-depth knowledge of emerging technology trends in the area of IT architecture, software development and large data warehousing tools is essential Previous experience with mergers and acquisitions.

Systems Operations Specialist II
Qualifications/Education Requirement:

* Excellent customer service aptitude
* Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
* Strong analytical and troubleshooting skills
* Proficient with UNIX or Linux, MS Office Suite, and Netcool.
* Working knowledge of RADIUS, ACE, SecurID, and SQL.
* Familiarity with MS Windows, MS SharePoint, MAC OS, Oracle, Siebel, eHealth, CACTI, SNMP, syslog, traffic shaping, DNS, WAN, or LAN would be pluses.
* Able to work shifts; including nights, weekends, and holidays.

Storage Engr
Overview/Job Summary:

Responsible for the daily operations, configurations, administration, and security of the Neustar storage and backup systems(in US and international sites), including maintaining reliability, performance, and availability of the environment. Perform basic troubleshooting and service recovery assignments. This is a 24 x 7 operational support with an on-call rotation. The candidate must be able and willing to support 24 x 7 and perform off-hour on-site change management tasks (especially from Saturday midnight through late Sunday morning) and travel on short notice.

MobileMe vs DreamHost or HostMonster Review

We’ve been pretty happy Dreamhost and MobileMe customers for years, and despite several MobileMe outages and a few Dreamhost outages we are pretty happy with both services. It is always wise to reassess your technology decisions though, as things do change.

What we love about MobileMe:

  • Absolutely fantastic web gallery for photos; best integration with iPhoto, simple, elegant, accessible
  • very good AddressBook/Contacts sync between many Macs and iOS devices (iPhones, iPads, etc)
  • very good Calendar/iCal sync between many Macs and iOS devices
  • Find my iPhone feature (insurance if I lose my iPhone)
  • Remote Data Wipe (insurance if my iPhone/iPad end up in the wrong hands)

Update: It turns out Apple now offers Find My iPhone and Remote Wipe for free with a free, limited functionality MobileMe account for iOS 4.2 devices (iPhone 4 and iPad). Yahoo!

I consider the MobileMe iDisk sharing to be unusably slow, especially when there are so many free alternatives. I can’t stand the MobileMe hosting platform, as I need ssh access, and MySQL or PostgreSQL server access with php to even consider web hosting.

I don’t even use MobileMe for email much because it lacks server-side spam filtering (filtering on my Macs is amazing, but then I see all the junkmail on my phone when viewing the same spool).

What we love about Dreamhost:

  • direct ssh access to the server
  • MySQL databases
  • SpamAssassin protection on the email spool
  • MailMan for discussion lists

I wish I had simple CalDAV and AddressBook services on the Linux server at Dreamhost; and I can get them, for a price… $50 (Australian) one time charge for AddressBookServer with 2 user license is not bad… And some of this is possible through free Google services (Google Calendar; Google Contacts, though they don’t sync with iPhone/iPad yet).

So, I am trying to figure out if I can consolidate the two services to save a little money. I am not unhappy with either; just unhappy at paying for two good services when I might be able to do only one.

Bluehost, Hostmonster, Hostgator all compete directly with Dreamhost and appear to offer comparable deals these days…

The gotcha is, no one has the gorgeous gallery software that Apple does; or do they? Please let me know… I have tried Gallery2 – and I am not impressed, and I want to own my own server space; so Flickr/Facebook/Picassa are not the solution for me though we use those services for specific tasks.

Am I stuck continuing to pay for both types of cloud services? Or has someone found something that syncs multiple devices, publishes photo galleries, and allows hosting all at once?

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Documentation, Training, Safety

If you ever wonder why I document things so religiously; this will explain it in part (I lived in Japan for three years, and was in the USAF for 10):

Some Perspective On The Japan Earthquake

I learned a lot about safety conditions, documentation, and training. Training to the point of boredom.

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Confusing the message

HP needs to figure out what business they are in.

On the one hand they appear to be trying to get out from under Microsoft’s thumb:

HP CEO: WebOS on all our PCs in 2012

Yet, on the other hand their Server Blade iLO software group wants to bind HP customers to the use of Microsoft Windows and .Net framework; iLO v3 requires both Windows and .Net to mount Virtual Media, when iLO v2 only needed any Java applet capable browser. That’s a broken design, unless HP is in the business of pushing only Windows administrative computers. Very frustrating.

HP, I like your blades, but please bring back the any browser, any operating system java applet for mounting virtual media so I cam boot from a Linux server ISO without being forced to use Windows.

Buh-bye IE6

Internet Explorer 6 Countdown

I guess Microsoft is pretty ashamed of IE6… I join them in wanting to see IE6 go away forever…

Stuxnet and Cyber-Warfare

VanityFair has a new, easier to read story about the Stuxnet virus and cuber-warfare:
A Declaration of Cyber-War

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Drilling in deep water again?

Really? Have we learned NOTHING about drilling through one fluid through another? Disgusted.

First Deep-Water Drilling Permit Issued Since Spill

Oscar night at Evo Bistro

While we were loving the delicious anniversary dinner at Evo Bistro last night, and stunned at how quiet and empty it was; we asked wait staff why, and they guessed Oscar night.  We replied: “oh was that happening now?”  Cool.  

I would like to thank the academy for a lovely, romantic, quiet night at one of our favorite restaurants, and Erci’s dad for introducing us to fine food and wine, and Erci for 18 lovely years of adventure filled partnership, and the wait staff at Evo for taking great care of us despite a computer glitch and for having such fine assets, and the chef for making such incredibly delicious food, and Toyota for making our 2006 Prius that got us to Evo… … …