Surf Roots, Software Thoughts

It’s been nearly six months since my last update.  What can I say?  I suppose I just haven’t prioritized sharing my life and thoughts on the internet (which is perhaps the biggest reason why I’m not on Twitter).  I admit that I miss writing, but I’ve managed to fill my days with some cool stuff I think.  I’ve been cycling like a maniac, working — still at Cloudera — a lot, reading (currently The Dark Tower series), exploring San Francisco (which means eating and drinking with friends), and road tripping on the weekends to various places to see various people who are important in my life.  Life is good.

Anyway, enough emo shit.  I’m here to tell you about my new blog, which is solely about the beer I drink and the sandwiches I eat.  The blog is very bluntly named Beer and Sandwich, and it’s composed of short descriptions and photos.  I decided I needed to start this blog for three reasons: first, my coworkers made me realize how much I love food, sandwiches in particular; second, my friends made me realize that I know a fair amount about beer and really enjoy a good beer; and third, I tend to forget beers and sandwiches that I enjoy, which hopefully won’t be the case any longer now that I’m documenting my experiences.  I hope my writings and experiences are helpful, and possibly entertaining.  Enjoy, and I’m always open to recommendations :).

(PS: Tumblr is pretty awesome.  The iPhone app made it the perfect blog platform for me; I usually write each post immediately after I’ve had a beer or eaten a sandwich.)

Learn Django and you’ll be revitalized.  Django is like drinking from the fountain of youth when it comes to web programming.  It makes your life better by being insanely intuitive and generally unbelievable.  Expect a more in-depth post hopefully soon.

I can say with a strait face that Django has made my quality of life higher.

Django: web programming nirvana.

I ranted pretty hard yesterday about American automakers getting bailed out.

Jack and Sierra just shared this, and I had to share it as well:

Photo credit: here.

Have you run a bad business?   A business that has failed to cater to the market’s needs?  A business that has continued to sell bad, unreliable products?  A business that should be filing Chapter 11?  A business that is utterly inefficient, plagued by unions and bureaucracy, and completely inferior to its competition?

It’s OK.  The government will give you billions of dollars.

U.S. automakers are “very likely” to get bailed out.  This infuriates me, because they absolutely don’t deserve it.  My first new car was an American car.  It needed a new transmission only a few months after I drove it off the lot.  I have heard similar horror stories from many of my friends.  For these reasons, my current car is a Toyota, and I couldn’t be happier with it.  I have done 360s on ice, hit snow banks, forcing me to go on 2 wheels, been hit while parked, offroaded like a mad man, and my Tacoma runs like a dream (knock on wood).  My whole family has gone from entirely American to entirely Japanese, and we couldn’t be happier.

All reliability concerns aside, I have two favorite things about American car companies:

Unions
American automakers pay nearly double for their unionized workers when compared to most foreign automakers, whose workers are not unionized but are on average happier.

Warning: the claim I have just made is not supported.  I heard this quote from a friend, who read it in a book.  Please do some digging if you plan to use this claim, research that I am too lazy to do :).

Product Development
You’ve heard of these hybrids, right?  You know, those cars that get good gas mileage?  I got an idea.  Let’s take our disgusting large SUVs, put hybrid engines in them so their fuel efficiency goes up by a few miles-per-gallon, and sell them for thousands of dollars more.  Sounds like a great idea, right?  GM would agree.

The most irritating thing about this bailout, though, is that the foreign automakers who have ran their businesses well will not see a dime of money.  The U.S. government is giving money to failing businesses and not providing any reward for businesses that have succeeded (as far as I know).  This is not capitalism.  This is ridiculous.

I should say, though, that it is easy for me to be annoyed, because I do not know anyone employed by any U.S. automaker.

Update: make sure you take a look at this photo.

I just got a new Macbook Pro.  Wow.

The packaging is unbelievable.  Seriously.  I wanted to cry when I was opening the box.  The computer is just sitting there waiting for you, even staring at you with its puppy dog face.  It was one of the happiest moments of my life.

And I thought the packaging was good … The computer is awesome.  Insanely beautiful.  Sleek.  Mysterious.  Exotic.  Take every good adjective, add them up, and that sum can only partially describe my first impression of the new Macbook Pro.  Apple, the world would not be as beautiful, in reach, or fun without you.

I want to run around the streets of Berlingame (where the Cloudera office is), skipping with glee and joy and excitement, while bumping “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” by Wham! on my shoulder mounted boom box.

Apple: Computer Nirvana

I would estimate between 5,000 and 10,000 people were grouped around the steps of City Hall, listening to stories, hoping for change, and believing that Gays will have equal rights soon.  I was utterly touched by my experience today.  I laughed at a few signs like the following:

I was sapping towards signs like the following:

And I was moved by the turnout, speakers, and general essence of such a wonderful movement.  With the passing of Prop 8, a proposition that creates an amendment to the California constitution outlawing same-sex marriage, Gays are no longer recognizes as equals by our governing doctrine.  This is despicable.  Every man and woman enters this world as an equal, some loving the opposite sex, and some loving the same sex.  Certain religious organizations made large contributions to the Yes on 8 campaign, the most notable being the Mormon Church, who donated over $20,000,000 (that’s 7 zeros).

Reverend Amos Brown, one of Martin Luther King Jr.’s six students, gave the best, most motivational, moving speech I have ever witnessed.  His booming, powerful voice echoed off the concrete and steal buildings which house our governing body, preaching love and equality and peace and happiness.  His words touched our hearts, and his presence gave us that tingly feeling in our spine that makes us understand that this is something, that there is something here, something worth fighting for.  Here is the speech, though the video isn’t all that good:

After the speeches had finished, the whole crowd proceeded to march to Market Street, the most famous street in San Francisco, towards the Castro, which is perhaps the largest Gay neighborhood in the world.  Thousands marched as millions watched.  They marched for their rights to love whom they have wanted to love since they were born.  They marched for their friends and family, loved ones and childrens, in hopes of one day having equal rights.

America has fought for equality before, and now it fights again.  It fights now, not for gender or race, but for love.  It fights for love, and what a wonderful thing to fight for.  Love.

There’s a nation-wide Prop 8 protest this Saturday.  Find the protest nearest you by reading this.  I’ll probably post photos from the SF protest, which is at 10:30am in front of city hall.

Peace and love.

I love Keith Olbermann.  As a friend has said, “He is fearlessly confident to speak his opinion.”  Not to mention he and I have similar political views.  Please watch this six-minute video of Keith Olbermann on Prop 8.  He talks not of politics and religion but of love.

Today is a sad day.  Today marks the end of an era for me, an era of rack-mount computers, data centers, nerdom, and fantisticism.  Nearly 18 months ago, some friends and I installed a 1U rack-mount in a Seattle data center.  I had purchased the machine thinking my social network startup, Cellarspot, would create enough traffic to require a monster machine.

After 18 month of spending $97 each month, not to mention an up-front cost of $2,800, my machine has been unracked and is now waiting to be picked up and sold off, never to be in my life ever again.  The pinnacle of my nerdom was installing that baby, and today I feel slightly empty.  However, I’m quite excited to be chipping away at my credit card bill.  And to be totally honest, purchasing a server, power, and a fire hose was insane overkill and an entirely uneconomic hosting decision.

I tried to sell services such as game server hosting, web hosting, etc, but I didn’t get any bites.  I will step foot in more data centers as time goes on, and I will have another rack mount at some point.  Goodbye, Dell PowerEdge 1950.  I will see you, or at least your sisters, brothers, and cousins, again.

With love,

Alex