Surf Roots, Software Thoughts

I just got finished with my semi-weekly Facebook friend-list pass.  I am utterly inspired by how many of my friends are talking about voting today.  I have at least 50 status updates from friends encouraging others to go and vote.  Some mention who they are voting for, and others don’t.

The point I’m trying to make is that this is something.  My friends, who are generally apathetic about politics, are getting involved in this election; they have an emotional connection and a deep, strong hope that this nation’s politics will change.  Generation Y wants change; we’re hoping for change.

And we need change.  Too long have we been plagued with neoconservative bullshit.  Too long have we spent money and time on issues that are both irrelevant to common good and are not our own.  Too long have we, American citizens and residents, been represented by an administration that does not represent anything that we believe in, that we agree with, that we need.  Enough.

GO VOTE!  If you’re not sure where to vote, then take a look here.

You may have noticed that my blog has been relatively quiet lately.  I have about eight posts that are on my to-write list, but I’ve been slightly preoccupied lately.  I haven’t had time to fold my laundry, so I sleep next to a huge pile of clean clothes.  I think I’m going to get in the habit of doing this, because it’s so convenient.  I don’t have to open drawers to get clothes.  Instead I just walk over to my bed and grab some articles from the pile.  What have I been preoccupied with you ask?

I announced a few posts ago that I’ve been working for Cloudera, a Hadoop support and training company.  It turns out that startups don’t really mix well with blogging, or life in general really.  I’ve been working like a madman, and I’m loving it.  Hadoop is an awesome, relatively new project, with lots room for improvement and involvement.  Not to mention the Cloudera team is composed of some awesome dudes that I’m totally excited to be spending my time with.  I don’t find it burdening at all to wake up, start working, work all day, work most of the night, sleep super late, and wake up early to repeat the process again.  I’m lovin’ it :).

Here are some posts on deck to give you taste of what I’ve been doing and thinking about: Django; iPhone has changed my life; Remember the Milk and Get Things Done; social constructs and how proximity is not close: a case study on China, Europe, USA and how I’ve changed; super markets and preservatives; San Francisco and how it’s my favorite city in the US.

Stay tuned!

I signd up for a $85 service plan (basic plan + $10 upgraded text plan), and my first bill totalled $156.  The extra costs are for prorated minutes and texts, a $30 activation fee, and tax.

New iPhone customers, watch out.  Your first bill is gonna be a doozy.

Me and the Cloudera gang are going to start contributing to our new Hadoop and Big Data blog, so add the RSS feed if you’re interested.  The only post there now is an introduction from Mike, our CEO.  More good stuff coming soon, though.

I spoke previously about a few really awesome datasets.  I claimed my favorite was Enron emails from 150 employees.  Now that I’ve started playing with the Enron corpus, I’ve decided that the best thing to do is post the funniest emails I stumble across.  Here’s the first of hopefully many:

From:     Bass, Eric
Sent:    Friday, November 16, 2001 1:11 PM
To:    Love, Phillip M.; Blanchard, Timothy; Ryder, Patrick; Farmer, Daren J.; Smith, Jay; Olsen, Michael; Parks, Joe; Baumbach, David; Hull, Bryan; ‘val.generes@accenture.com’; Lenhart, Matthew; ‘kevin.a.boone@accenture.com’; Winfree, O’Neal D.; Rabon, Chance; Mills, Bruce
Subject:

I’m trying to get a feel for everyone’s desire to play PAINTBALL in the next few weeks.  This would obviously not be sponsored by Enron b/c Enron doesn’t have enough cash to buy anything right now.

So let me know if you would be interested and, if so, when you would be available to go.   The cost should be around $30-40 a person.

Please forward to anyone I have forgotten or might be interested.

-Eric

Note the date: November 16, 2001.  Enron went under at the end of 2001, according to Wikipedia.  I feel a little strange posting these with names attached to them, but I suppose since this is public data I might as well go for it.

I’ve been referred to some really, really awesome datasets.  I wish I had known about these while taking data-analysis classes in college.

• theinfo.org
• infochimps.org
• PoliParse

My personal favorite is the Enron emails of 150 employees, mostly executives.  Included are their names, their sent items, inboxes, notes, etc.  WOW would I have a blast hacking away at this for hours.

I have to restart Firefox 3 at least a few times a day to avoid having it eat most of my resources.  Take a look:

We need Google Chrome on Mac!  Why not Safari you ask?  I don’t like Safari’s interface all that much.  Perhaps it’s because I’ve been using Firefox so much?  I don’t know; there’s just something about it that turns me away.  Give me some Chrome!

Marty Stepp, a former lecturer of mine, a lecturer for whom I have given a few guest lectures, and a friend, has asked me to write a chapter in his new web programming book.  The chapter will be a rework of the lecture I’ve given to his classes a few times, which I’ve mentioned and linked to here.  I’ve agreed to write the chapter, which makes me a guest author.  If only my high school English teachers could see me now … BOY would they be surprised.

I’m pretty excited to be contributing to Marty’s book, and I’m hoping that my chapter will provide a good insight for students trying to launch a website.

Marty is writing the book with Jessica Miller.

I’ve been keeping my lips zipped about what I’ve been doing in San Francisco, but today VentureBeat broke the story.  I’m doing engineering work at Cloudera, a Hadoop-based cloud computing company.

It’s super exciting to be at a small startup, working on a relatively new and innovative product.  I’m excited to be a part of the Cloudera team :).