Count Your Blessings #24 – Getting Comments Back

Lily

One of the nice things about being a bit of an unknown on the Internet is that I can leave the comments on this blog wide open and allow anyone to comment. I get comments in all sorts of ways outside the blog comments as well. Sometimes people I know actually talk to me, but I also get comments coming through on email, IM and on flickr. It’s great to receive your comments; thank-you for making the effort. It means a lot to me that people actually read what I write and that the meager offering mean something to them.

The main purpose of this blog is to allow people to connect with the things that I regard as important and worthwhile. We live in a society that tries to rubbish and degrade everything and I wanted to be one of the people that stood against that attitude. I’m not trying to be an ego-maniac I’m just trying to put out there what I have been given.

Bless you for your contributions and comments, they really brighten my day.

Service Entropy in IT Systems

Heat On

A while back (probably years now) Steve introduced me to the concept of ‘service entropy’. By this he was referring to this definition of entropy: ‘The tendency for all matter and energy in the universe to evolve toward a state of inert uniformity’. Both Steve and I are from an engineering background where entropy is evident in real things. Steve’s theory was that IT services operate the same way and drive down towards the ‘lowest common denominator’. If you heat something up, it doesn’t matter how hot, it will always cool down to the level of everything around it, unless you keep heating it. If we view an IT project as a heating process and the resulting service or application as the thing being heated up, what happens after the project has finished is the entropy process.

As I have pondered this and how it impacts IT infrastructures I have seen it at work all over the place. As with the heating process, it starts before the project has even finished. As soon as the project is exposed to the outside world it is already giving off heat. As soon as a project starts to be exposed to the cold light of day the ‘heat’ is leaving it. I’m using ‘heat’ here as a metaphor for the changes that the project is seeking to make in the environment in which it is being delivered.

As an architect who has a vision for a certain amount of ‘heat’ (change) to be produced by a project it is a huge challenge to consider how you can insulate the results of the project from entropy. Because entropy dissipates the energy within the ‘closed system’ the larger the ‘closed system’ the more energy you have to put in. In the context of an IT ‘closed system’ the extent of the change (heat) may be the whole organisation or may be a smaller group. In a ‘heat’ system it’s the insulation that makes it ‘closed’, for an IT system it’s probably the organisational construct that replaces the insulation and is the thing that keeps the ‘heat’ in (you have to remember though, that there is no perfect insulation)

Entropy explains why it is easier to impact a small organisation in a big way and to make a permanent change. Entropy explains why it is very difficult to make a small change in a large organisation and to make it stick. Entropy also explains why a large change in a large organisation is practically impossible without massive amounts of ‘heat’. I tend to be involved in making medium sized changes in large companies where organisations presume that because the change is ‘not huge’ that it should be easy. Most of the time these projects result in deploying technology and some process change, but never make the productivity increases that were expected. At this point it is generally the technology that is blamed rather than the lack of ‘heat’. It’s not normally the technology itself that generates the ‘heat’ though, it’s more to do with the way that the technology generates change and community.

The other thing with large systems is that it is impossible to apply the ‘heat’ uniformly. Some people will get direct ‘heat’ from the project, others will get it transmitted to them from another. Some people are conductors and some people are insulators. In some ways this lack of uniformity is worse than having a small amount of ‘heat’ everywhere. The reason for this is that when ‘hot’ meets ‘cold’ you generally get a reaction that cools down the ‘hot’ as much as it warms the ‘cold’. Take the example of calendaring and scheduling functions. These functions have been available for years (decades even) in corporate email services. Some organisation have managed to make a transition to making them uniform, but many organisations have not. As soon as there is any doubt (cold) about whether someone uses their calendar the value of all calendars is reduced.

There is a great danger in taking this metaphor to far, but I just want to take it one step further. You can undertake the heating process in one of two ways. You can either heat a small area to a very high temperature and hope that it will reach the edges of the system; or you can heat everything in a uniform way to the same temperature. The Internet has shown us that for large systems heating up a small area to a very high temperature works better than trying to heat up the whole. Take the example of Google Earth, this is a very ‘hot’ piece of technology and has generated a huge community. A few connected with that ‘heat’ and bit by bit the ‘heat’ is distributed. The trick is to keep the ‘heat’ going at the centre, which is what they have just done with the integration of National Geographic data. As a system becomes older it is more difficult to keep the heat going at the centre, and that is the challenge for Microsoft with Office 12 and Vista.

So how as architects do we resolve the entropy problem. For starters we spend as much time and attention on the insulation surrounding our heat source as we do on the heat source itself. In other words we try to understand where the heat will be taken out of the project and insulate the project from it. The other thing we do it to try and generate as much heat as possible knowing that some it will be dissipated.

The Need for Something New

morecombe Bay

What is it that creates a drive in people to always be looking out for what’s new.

I recently let on to Jonathan (my son) that I had access to the Windows Vista Beta code. This was followed by a couple of requests from his friends to get them access. I declined, but it did get me thinking. What is it about people that keeps them pushing for the new. Is it something that you grow out of? Do you go into reverse at some point and start pushing for something old?

My drive to see something new is certainly less than it is for these teenagers. Perhaps I’m just getting to the point where I feel that there is nothing really new. A new version of Windows and a new version of Office; both of these things will make a difference to the way that millions of people will work (even if they don’t use it). But will it make a real significant change to the way people live their lives. We’ll still be typing for the most part, even though voice recognition software has been available for years. We’ll still be using devices on a desk, whether they are laptops or desktop. Other device types won’t really make a significant difference to us, they’ll still be on the periphery of most of our lives. Let’s face it, the iPod and other MP3 players haven’t really changed the way we live our lives, all they have done is made it more convenient, it’s still personal music coming through those headphones.

Boy, I sound like an old man – “there’s nothing new under the sun”.

Perhaps I’m suffering from a bit of a mid-life crisis – perhaps IT is suffering from a bit of a mid-life crisis. IT has certainly moved out of the pioneering phase into more of the mainstream, but you certainly can’t regard it as a utility or even ubiquitous.

Count Your Blessings #23 – Having a Purpose

North Berwick at Sunset

(I hope no-one thinks I am writing these items in order of their priority in my life because it would give you a really false view of the things that I regard as import. I write them when I feel the muse coming to write about a particular topic.)

“What is the purpose of my life?” It’s a really important question. It doesn’t always manifest itself in those exact words, but the root issue is the same. It’s a question that people ask at different times of their life. I was 17 when I first asked the question but for most people they seem to reach the question when they are in their 30’s. It creep up on people and no-one tells them that they are going to face it sooner or later. Even if someone did tell you that it was coming, I am not sure that anyone would face the question before it arrived.

When we are young we can barely see beyond the next big event in our lives. Even if that big event is only the next weekend, or the activity we are going to do that evening.

As we move into teenage life our time-frame broadens a bit, but not that far. We might be able to think as far as passing a qualification, but the thought of anything as grand as marriage and children is well beyond most teenagers. Most teenagers I know are looking as far as passing their driving test.

Most people go through radical changes in their twenties; they may get married; they may get a qualification; they may have children; they may get a job; they may buy a house. All of this activity leaves little time to think about the purpose of life, that’s for old people.

Through all of this a few realise that there is more to life; they seek a purpose and some even find it.

It is not until people reach their thirties that many of them start asking the question ‘why?’. Why did I bother? Why did that happen? Why didn’t that happen? Many people don’t even reach the question in their thirties but certainly many of the people I know do.

In the Bible there was someone who decided that they would try every part of life in order to find it’s meaning. He came to this conclusion:

“I was a wise teacher with much understanding, and I collected a number of proverbs that I had carefully studied. Then I tried to explain these things in the best and most accurate way. Words of wisdom are like the stick a farmer uses to make animals move. These sayings come from God, our only shepherd, and they are like nails that fasten things together. My child, I warn you to stay away from any teachings except these. There is no end to books, and too much study will wear you out.

Everything you were taught can be put into a few words: 

Respect and obey God! This is what life is all about.

God will judge everything we do, even what is done in secret, whether good or bad. “

I regarded it as a blessing is that I found the purpose of my life when I was 17. I did quite a bit of living before that point and I came to a place where I knew that none of the living was worth anything. It was at that time that I had a personal encounter with God. I don’t have the words to explain how that felt or even the mechanics of what happened; I just know that I met with God. From that point on I have known that the purpose of my life is to be an apprentice of God; to ‘respect and obey’ Him. The rest of my life has been framed within that single purpose.

The reason I write this blog is framed within that purpose.

The way that I am a father and husband is framed within that purpose.

The type of employee that I am is framed within that purpose.

My leisure time is framed within that purpose.

This purpose is the ultimate purpose upon which all other worthwhile purposes are built. I’m not talking here about a cause to champion or an aim to fulfill, I’m talking about a relationship between me and God.

The Herding Instinct

Shoes

Organisations and governments spend millions and millions of pounds every year on advertising and marketing. Trying to communicate to people their message. Over the last few days here in the UK we have seen an example of the futility of all of this compared to the power of word-of-mouth.

A bunch of activists threaten fuel protests. The government and industry says – “you will not have any problems getting fuel during the fuel protests that are going to occur over the next few days”. That’s alight then, we can all sit comfortably and just get on with our lives – apparently not.

I’ve sat back and watched it all happen, but apparently we have filled our cars with a weeks worth of fuel on just 24 hours. The herding instinct has well and truly kicked in. I’m not sure quite what the mechanics were but I imagine it was something like this:

  • Some people didn’t believe the government so went to full up there car.

  • They then told others what they had done and why.

  • All of the others they told thought “well there can’t be any smoke without fire, there must be something in this” and joined the queue.

  • Other see the queue and think the same.

  • Before you know it everyone is sat on a garage fore-court filling up.

  • The government and industry experts give endless interviews on radio and television to say that it will all be OK but to no avail.

  • A short-term fuel shortage is created.

I am absolutely convinced that most of these people won’t use up all of the fuel they have bought for another week at least. I’m also convinced that most of these people will also be very embarrassed that they bothered. Of course I could be embarrassed when I’m shown to be wrong; but I don’t think so.

It would probably do our environment some good if we all stopped using our vehicles for a few days anyway. It would do some waistline a lot of good to actually do some walking.

I work in customer environments when one of our most difficult issues is communicating with people. This story just goes to show that people will listen to whatever they choose to listen to; it doesn’t matter how much money you spend.

Count Your Blessings #22 – Sport (but not to serious)

Jonathan

England & Wales win the Ashes and the country goes wild; but in a very British way.

I go out to play tennis and win a game on my very flaky serve and I am ecstatic.

I am so privileged to be able to participate in sports as a leisure activity. There are so many people in this world of ours who have got far more basic things to think about, like where to find clean water. Being in the very  privileged position of having enough I can choose how I use my leisure time, and one of the things that I love to do is to play sport.

I’m not one of these sport junkies who has to get their fix of whatever sport is on. I enjoy my sport, but it’s not really a huge part of my life. One of the main reasons it’s not that dominant is because I’m not actually very good at it. There are four of us who try to play tennis every week, and have done for years. I am easily the weakest of the players, but that doesn’t stop me enjoying it. On a purely rational level I’m not sure why.

Playing sport is part of exploring the fullness of life. As well helping me physically it also exercises the mind and the spirit.

Why does a ball travel like that when I hit it like this; and why when I try it like this does it not do that?

Why does my serve go so much better when I’m not thinking about it. I sometimes sing a song in my head to stop me thinking too much?

Why do I feel refreshed from an our on a tennis court when 30 mins in a gym tires me out?

I suppose it’s about self-discovery.

Microsoft use Single Instance Storage on All of Their FIle Servers

CD Stack

Single Instance Storage (SIS) – what’s that? Single Instance Storage is when duplicate copies of a file on a file system are stored only once, with pointers to the location in the various directories. In this context we are talking about the file system. For anyone who has any Exchange experience – it’s the same concept, but on a file server.

I have been aware that SIS has been available in Windows for some time now, apparently since Windows 2000, but no-one I know has used it. I always thought that the issue was support from third parties, particularly backup vendors.

At Tech-ED this time the Windows 2003 R2 Storage Server team stated that all of Microsoft’s file servers ran SIS and that it was saving them loads of money. Over the last few weeks I’ve been ferreting around trying to find out what the story is; and yes Microsoft are running all of their managed file servers with SIS.

It turns out that the main reason SIS wasn’t being widely promoted (or widely adopted) was because there wasn’t really an administration interface for it. That’s been fixed in Windows 2003 R2 Storage Server and Microsoft are going to start promoting it’s usage. I’m not sure whether they are going to port the Administration Interface to other Windows versions, I’ll have to get that Windows Server 2003 R2 box built to have a look.

My experience with file servers would give duplicate file numbers lower to the ones the Microsoft experience. They experience a saving of 60%, I’d put it nearer 40% but it’s still a load of storage and associated backup that is being saved.

What do you do in a dull teleconference?

Jonathan

Like many people these days I spend a lot of time on teleconferences these days. The thing with teleconferences is that the level of involvement can often be very low. You need to be sitting listening and adding value when required, but the involvement can often be low enough to enable you to do another activity. There is something about teleconferences which make them particularly poor at time keeping (perhaps it’s because we are all doing something else as well).

You can’t do something requiring a lot of thought, ideally it is something you can leave and come back to with ease. There are, therefore, a number of things that I find myself doing while on a teleconference.

One of the things that I do is to browse flickr pictures in the groups that I am interested in. I particularly like to look through sunsets and sunrises, or UK pictures.

It’s also a good time to catch up on feeds that don;t really need reading. It’s surprising how many of these there are. There are loads of feeds where it’s sufficient to know that it exists, a prime example of this is the Microsoft Download feed. I don’t get an RRS feed for news because there is too much of it, so I also spend some time looking at the BBC News site.

Every now and again someone will send me a silly game to play. My attention span for these things is not very high. The latest one pokes a bit of fun at Steve Ballmer and his (reportedly) throwing a chair at news of one of his employees leaving to join Google. I can’t do games like the Pit Stop Game because that requires my attention, and part of my brain is still listening to the teleconference.

I have, from time to time, also used the time to sort through my task list.

The other thing I do is to write blogs.

I have considered whether it would be possible to do some exercise while sat listening but concluded that it would be difficult to sound calm and convincing while riding an exercise bike.

The question I am not particularly clear on is whether this actually adds to or removes from my productivity.

Small Well-Focussed Teams

Bringing the Sheep In

Jeffrey Philips over at Thinking Faster exposes a philosophy that I have exposed myself for a long time:

Note though, that I am advocating making your team, your hierarchy, your organization as small as possible.  That’s counter-intuitive in a time when we are evaluated on how large a team we manage.  Frankly, I’d rather manage a smaller team that has greater focus and higher commitment.  I guess it’s a question of guerilla tactics versus the armed frontal assault.

Put me into a small team focussed on a task and we will together each miraculous things, put anyone (including me) into a large, diverse, physically separated team and the level of productivity will diminish into nothingness.

This morning I have attended a conference call with a cast of thousands on it (well not really but I think you get the viewpoint) and the call followed the age old rule on productivity – a meeting will only move at the pace of the slowest person. Small well-focussed teams don’t work like that, everyone knows where they are going and agree how to get there. What’s more small well-focussed teams allow for a much better division of responsibilities. In large teams you quite quickly get to the point where you rely on individuals to answer questions because the team isn’t of one mind. This is counter-intuitive, but having been the individual that others rely upon on more than one occasion I can tell you that it’s true. Questions don’t get answered in a timely manner in this model. What’s more questions are normally asked more than once. This happens because the trusted individual isn’t always available, so a semi-trusted individual is asked who may or may not answer the question correctly. It doesn’t actually matter whether they answer correctly or not, because they are semi-trusted the question will get asked again of the trusted individual. This wastes everyones time.

Small teams behave like a pack of dogs – large teams behave like a pack of sheep.

FeedBurner Feed and Link

Memory

I have added a feedburner feed to this blog and to happenings. It’s purely a selfish reason. Typepad doesn’t give very good statistics on the number of subscribers you get and the other logging tool I use doesn’t show you RSS downloads either.

Anyway, if you wouldn’t mind being really nice to me, could you please change over to the feedburner feed if you are subscribed.

I won’t fall out with you if you don’t.

I’m also considering putting together a master feed of my del.icio.us feed, my flickr feed, oak-grove and happenings. One feed would give you everything, but may just be a huge overhead. Let me know what you think?

Count Your Blessings #21 – Meeting Interesting People

Fringe Dancer

I find that I am schizophrenia in many different aspects of my life. There are things which I know I enjoy, but I don’t do them. I enjoy a trip to the gym; but struggle to get myself motivated. I enjoy turning the television off and reading a book; but don’t do it very often. I really enjoy meeting new people; but I worry about it and avoid doing it. I think that this particular worry is really a fear of what people will think about me. It’s an irrational fear that has been there for for a very long time. I’m actually writing this in a room full of people, but I wouldn’t dream of talking to any of them so I’ve got my headphones on looking industrious.

Even though I worry about it, meeting interesting people – which for me, is most people – is a blessing.

There are billions of people on this planet, and they all look different. But looking different is only the surface of the differences. These people all think differently. They all eat differently. They all have a different heritage. Each of these and the numerous other differences aren’t small incremental nuances they are deep and they are profound.

On a person-to-person level I have rarely come across someone who didn’t interest me in some way.

One year Sue, Jonathan, Emily and I went to Florida on holiday, and to visit my brother’s family. On the way back we were sat in the airport opposite another British family. This family fascinated me. There was Mum, Dad and two teenage children. These people had been on holiday, the same as us, but they had obviously had a completely different experience to us. We were chilled; they were anything but chilled. The teenage son didn’t even need to say a word for his mother to chew his ears off; “don’t you start”. Once the mother had said her piece the father would have a go and then the father and the mother would have a go at each other. What needs to happen for family communications to get that bad. It’s a mystery, to me anyway.

It wasn’t until I was an adult that I realised that things that I found dull and boring actually enlivened others. My job is predominantly project based, start, execute, complete, get out. I have a work colleague whose job it is to keep things running once I have been in and done my stuff. He didn’t choose this job because he wasn’t good enough at the project stuff, he chose it because he is good at it. It’s the thing that gets him going in a morning. If you asked me to do that job I would be bored in less than a week, he does it with a passion. I have known him for a long time and I still can’t get my head around it, it’s a mystery to me. It’s the mystery that is the thing that makes him so interesting.

This summer I sat and listened to a man who had been lead by God to do some amazing things. He wasn’t a particularly good presenter, but his passion and his heart shone through. That passion and that heart reached across a tent of thousands and entered my chest and struck right into my heart. It’s a mystery how someone’s heart and spirit shines through. He could probably have talked about his cat and I would still have communicated his heart.

At our church we meet regularly in small groups where we discuss different aspects of our faith and it’s impact on our lives. Sometimes one of the quieter members of the group will spark into life and go for it. There heart for the particular topic will spill over the top of their shyness and they will reveal a fascinating insight into their relationship with Jesus. A relationship which is personal to them. The thing that is a mystery to me is the thing that lights the fuse. It is often something that you wouldn’t associate with the individual at all. That regular interaction with that small group of individuals enlightens my own existence and experience in a way that only the interaction of people with people can do.

Strange Search

Fish

The Internet is a strange place. Yesterday I got a few hits on my site from people searching MSN for the words “happy” and “bunny”. Having looked on MSN today I seem to be 13 in the list for this particular search. It’s a phrase I think I have only used the once, but there were eight different people in about two hours who came through. These people were all over the place – one was even in Tunisia.

Did I miss out on some major world event yesterday which involved lots of jolly white tailed rodents, or is it just one of those things. It shows how far we have to go with search technology, because I suspect that the context in which I was using the phrase “happy bunny” was completely different to the context in which they were using it.

(Now, of course, I have just made the problem worse by using the phrase a number of times in this post )