Tomorrow marks the end of a 19-month contract term.

19 months is a long time. It's long enough to get to learn about things, learn about people, learn about process, and learn about politics.

It's been an interesting opportunity, and while every place has memorable moments, there's one I'll never forget. While it may or may not be unique to this field, similar situations have come up frequently enough in my career that I shouldn't be surprised -- though I still very much was.

It started early one morning, about 7:30AM. I was just barely up and about, Ella was waking up, and we were sitting down to have breakfast before getting ready to head off to daycare and work.

Then it happened. My blackberry lit up, and started ringing. It was my manager, who was anxious to have me join a bridge to discuss an ongoing critical issue at work. I was on call at the time, but had left the pager upstairs in the bed.

Pagers are interesting devices. They are loud and obnoxious. They wake people up; they're designed to. Not so good when you have a toddler and wife sleeping within ear shot. So I've gotten into the habit of putting it on vibrate, and shoving it in my pajama pants at night. That way, if it goes off, I don't miss it.

Unfortunately, this morning, I'd left it in the bed because it had fallen out of my pocket. So it had been going off for about half an hour.

After I realized that I'd missed the page, I continued to get Ella's breakfast while I grabbed my laptop to login to work and start investigating what the root cause of the issue was. In the meantime, Ella finished eating, and wanted to play.

Kelly had already left for work and so I had to find something for Ella to do while I worked and joined a conference call.

Of course, everyone knows that the only thing that works in terms of keeping a toddler entertained for any length of time is a television. For this toddler, Dora the Explorer to be exact.

Three episodes later, I was still on the conference call, and the issue was still ongoing. At this point, I let my manager know that I needed to drop my daughter off to daycare. There was no one else to cover.

So, I rejoined the call on my cell phone, stuck my cellular wireless card into my laptop, and hit the road with Ella to go to daycare.

When we got to daycare, still on the phone, I had to quickly hand Ella to one of the teachers, and then run back to the car to continue working via VPN on my laptop, in the parking lot.

By noon, almost 5 hours later, the issue was finally resolved. I was still pretty much wearing pajamas, but I'd at least made it home, taken Lucy for a walk and finally gotten off the phone.

At the beginning of December, I bought a new digital SLR. I've been waiting to buy something for a while, but knew that buying a new dSLR body would ultimately mean buying a whole bunch of expensive gadgets and lenses to go along with it. Almost everyone I know owns Nikon, and having done a bit of research, would have probably bought a Nikon myself, however, my brother-in-law, who's a professional photographer, and my brother both landed up in the Canon camp. I've always owned Canon point-and-shoots, so decided to stay with the Canon brand, and bought a 50D. I was originally looking at the 5D Mark II, but there was no availability in December, and it was priced at almost double what the 50D retailed for, just body alone.

In the end, it doesn't really matter whether it's Nikon, Canon, Olympus, or Pentax, though Nikon and Canon are the biggest brands by far. As most things go, it's what you do with the tool that matters, more so than what it can do.

So in all my spare time, away from work I've been quietly studying and reading about lighting, composition, gadgetry and actually making an effort to get out and take some photos. To that end, I started posting and sharing photos on flickr and at Anthony's suggestion, joined a group called 52 Weeks of Pix. It's a group based around the idea of taking a themed picture every week and submitting it to the group for sharing.

This week's theme was green. In these parts, unfortunately, there isn't much green around. The idea of a golf green with plush green grass came to mind, until I realized that there was no green grass, only a washed out shade of brown. That's where Photoshop comes in. A few digital brush strokes, and the grass looks greener than the middle of summer. The two pictures show the as shot original unaltered image, and the modified version with much purdier grass.

After a couple of years with the province, as any long time government employee will attest, there is a culture that cannot be understood by those who have not been a part of it.

I haven't seen an article so accurately depicting government life until David Martin's article appeared in the Star. The original link is here.

Because it's so good, I've copied the text below:

How to survive the civil service
TheStar.com - Opinion - How to survive the civil service

July 16, 2007
As a 57-year-old public servant, I feel that I owe it to the next generation to educate them in the ways of the federal government. In order to make the transition as painless as possible, I want to pass on my accumulated wisdom in the hope that new public servants can avoid many of the bureaucratic pitfalls.

First, don't drink the Kool-Aid. Remember that everyone from the deputy minister on down has to preach the gospel of "client service," "world-class organization" and "employer of choice." You can sing from the same hymn book, but don't make the mistake of actually believing what is preached.

Second, always say "yes." The key to success in the government is to be a team player. Those who turn down an assignment or refuse a request, even for a good reason, are viewed as negative malcontents.

The trick is to defer any and all tasks until they are absolutely unavoidable. In the meantime, most will simply fall away due to a change in plans, senior management or the government of the day.

Third, wait for the inevitable. The current government may be committed to changing the bureaucratic "culture," the deputy minister may be looking to shake up your organization or your supervisor may be a wild-eyed refugee from the private sector looking to make his mark at your expense.

But if there's one constant in the public service, it's that the bureaucracy doesn't change; only the faces do. Much as you hate the current situation, before you know it the government has been voted out, the deputy minister has been transferred to another department or your supervisor has been promoted beyond his level of incompetence.

Fourth, don't forget the five-year rule. For those new to government, it's tempting to believe senior management when they announce a new, dynamic employment initiative that will revolutionize the workplace. For the uninitiated, much effort can be wasted buying into and contributing to such programs. But any public servant who has been in government for 10 years or more knows such grand schemes appear in five-year cycles and disappear a year or two later.

The way to survive such quinquennial exercises is, as always, to say "yes." But don't spend any time on these bureaucratic white elephants. Just smile and wait for their inevitable demise.

Fifth, do not exercise any of your rights. The bureaucracy is replete with employee "rights," everything from upward feedback to reclassification to a formal grievance. But those measures are not designed to be used; they're just progressive window dressing for the employer.

Those naive enough to exercise their "rights" will soon regret it as they are isolated and labelled troublemakers. So if you ask management or human resources about pursuing a particular remedy and someone replies, "It's your right," that's the time to back off and reaffirm your commitment to the team.

And finally, the most important lesson you can learn is that the best way to work in the government is not to work for the government at all; be a consultant. As a consultant, you'll get twice the pay, half the headaches and, by the time anyone realizes your work is useless, you've moved on to the next project and an even higher "per diem" rate.

Remember, whatever career you choose in government, there's no life like it. After all, where else can you drink coffee all day long and pretend that "policy analyst" or "associate program assistant" is a real job? Welcome aboard and enjoy the ride.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
David Martin lives in Ottawa and is the author of My Friend W (Arriviste Press).

For a while, before I was in-the-know, I tried different RSS aggregators under Windows and OSX, including Outlook 2007, Vienna and netNewsWire. They're pretty nice, but then I found Google Reader. Like everything else Google these days, it's a Web 2.0 application and since most of the time you're online when you're wanting to look through your plethora of RSS feeds, it's very convenient. No more worrying about synchronization and cross-platform feed settings. You can even import and export OPML files to and from Google Reader in case you still want to synchronize your Reader and non-reader feeds.

So, as per typical google style, you can easily search through all of your feeds, it supports keyboard shortcuts for quick and dirty navigation, and even trends what you read.

It constantly recommends other feeds that you might find interesting too, and my feed list has been growing because of it.

One of the really cool features is integration with Google Gears, which allows you to even use reader in "offline" mode. You can click the "offline" mode button in reader, and it will download the most recent 2000 feed items for your viewing pleasure in a disconnected state.

We bought a new ceiling fan from HomeDepot the other day. The remote only allows you to dim the light once it's on, but you can't start from light off and gradually increase light levels.

I sent the company an email because I saw that there was another remote that had seperate controls for both light level down, and up.

Here's what I sent (at the very bottom) and what I got back:


Dear Adrian,

Thank you for your email. The Stonebridge is a remote controlled fan. A receiver and hand-held transmitter were included in the box with the fan. You cannot add another type of remote or wall control to this fan. Model 27187 is not compatible to this fan. Model 27148 is for a fan that does not come with a remote control.

If a receiver and hand-held transmitter were not included in the box with the fan, please let us know.

When calling from Canada, please phone toll free 866-268-1936 for missing parts. Our hours are 7:00am -7:00pm (Central) on weekdays and 8:00am -5:00pm on Saturdays. Any representative can assist you.

Our non-peak hours are between 7am-9am CST.

Sincerely,

Tara W.
Technical Support Representative
Hunter Fan Company


-----Original Message-----
From: Adrian Chung [mailto:ad..com]
Sent: Wednesday, August 22, 2007 10:58 PM
To: Batts, Larry
Cc: Technical Support
Subject: Dimmer control question for Hunter Stonebridge Fan.

Hi there,

We recently bought a Hunter Stonebridge Fan from HomeDepot here in
Toronto, Canada.

One thing we're disappointed about is that the light dimming functionality
only allows for maximum brightness on, then dim-to-off, but there's no way
to go from off to increasing light levels -- at least not with the
packaged 27187 remote.

The wall switch where the fan is connected is a two-wire only control, so
that limits our options in terms of separating fan and light controls with
a wall switch.

I notice that for the Prestige line of fans, and specifically for remote
27148, there is an ability to control light levels in both directions,
both up and down.

Question is, can this remote be used with the Stonebridge 60" fan I bought
(model 27575A) to provide the functionality we're looking for?

Or does the 27148 remote need to be paired with a different type of
receiver that can't fit inside the Stonebridge canopy housing?

Reason I ask is that the manual for the 27148 remote says "not recommended
for use with Hunter Original Fans", but not that it won't work.

Thanks!


I later called the number and spoke to someone else who told me that it should work to increase light levels, and that if it doesn't likely the receiver unit in the fan is malfunctioning. Which is odd, because the manual clearly states that the remote only dims, and doesn't do the opposite.

The person on the phone however, does think that the 27148 remote with both up and down light-level controls will work just fine.

Now to find one.

Our dog Lucy, who's now 6 and a half years old was rescued from the Ottawa Humane Society. When it comes to food, Lucy doesn't mess around -- she finishes everything, eats anything and is done before you can look twice. If ever food kernels end up missing the bowl on the delivery, she makes sure she finds them all and takes care of them.

We're spending a couple of days in Sarnia, with both Lucy and Ella. At the dinner table tonight, Kelly and her folks were talking about their late dog Trixie, who Lucy apparently bears quite a resemblance to. Specifically, when it came to food, Trixie would always eat when the rest of the family ate, and she'd always leave two or three kernels of food in her bowl for a rainy day. Kelly and I were mentioning how funny it was that Trixie would do that, since Lucy would never leave a fallen kernel behind.

So we watched Lucy eat, with her water and food bowls situated in the same place Trixie's used to be -- and lo and behold, Lucy left two kernels of food behind in her bowl, then went and lay down.

Go figure.

As an early birthday present, Kelly bought me a new BlackBerry Curve. It replaced my old 8700R which was a great device for the year and a half or so that I had it. The Curve feels like much more than a BlackBerry. Its got expandable storage in the form of a MicroSD socket, and a media player which can manage fullscreen video in a variety of formats, MP3s, ringtones and the multitude of photos captured with the built-in 2MP camera.

One personally long awaited feature over the 8700R is the Curve's Bluetooth Dial-Up Networking profile, which finally allows me to wirelessly tether my laptop and use the Curve as a modem to connect to the Internet when on the run, or train as the case often happens to be.

The upgrade itself from the 8700R to the Curve was surprisingly easy and painless -- having our own BlackBerry Enterprise Server means that besides our Outlook email, contacts, calendars, memos and tasks synchronizing wirelessly in near realtime, after activating the new device even call logs and settings were synchronized.

Pleasantly, the Curve also acts as a USB Mass Storage Device when a MicroSD card is installed. No special DRM software is required for importing or converting MP3s prior to transferring them onto the device, simple drag-and-drop works for MP3s, ringtones (which can be MP3s), video and photos. The media player also reads ID3 tags, and organizes your tunes by genre, artist and album. There's even a 3.5" stereo headphone jack, the first of it's kind on a BlackBerry.

We're still getting acquainted with each other, but so far, so good!

Born at 23:45 on May 18th, 2007 and weighing in at a compact 7lbs, 8oz and 20 inches long.

Mom, Dad and Ella are home safe and sound, doing our best to get her used to her new surroundings.

Her latest images can be found here

In my work life, I'm involved in the design and architecture of systems and network solutions; I'm also primarily tasked with the implementation of these solutions. In all but rare instances, there's always more than one way to accommodate requirements and choosing the best option becomes the real challenge.

I personally favour options which provide the customer with the most flexibility and control; and it should go without saying that choosing the right tools for the job goes a long way to providing this.

Lots of applications which are Internet facing, or primarily web-based utilize load balancing to distribute load across a farm of servers. This provides fault-tolerance and higher performance. Dedicated hardware load balancers usually perform the role of monitoring the servers in the farm, and distributing incoming requests across them; they can also provide HTTPS and SSL offloading so that the servers in the farm don't have to deal with the processing overhead of generating session keys for encryption. This is a good thing for reasons including but not limited to:

• It allows the server farm to concentrate on serving web requests and not on performing encryption which is processor intensive, increasing overall application performance
  
• It simplifies SSL configuration for websites by centralizing SSL certificates on the load balancer instead of on every server in the farm
  
• Wherever security policy allows an HTTPS connection can be terminated on the load balancer, and then sent over HTTP to the server farm, allowing for Intrusion Detection/Prevention systems to inspect the request for malicious content and potentially prevent the server farm from being compromised
  
• Since the load balancer can see the unencrypted request, it has a greater variety of options available to it to accomplish sticky or persistent style configurations where an application requires that a particular web client or browser is always served by the same server in the farm

Some common workarounds:

1. Stop terminating SSL on the load balancer, and instead pass it through to the server farm
   
2. Have the load balancer send a redirect to an HTTPS version of the same URL if the original request was to an HTTP URL
   
3. Have the server send a redirect to an HTTPS version of the same URL if the original request was to an HTTP URL

1) Should be used as a last resort, since it negates all of the aforementioned benefits of offloading SSL.

2) Isn't always possible depending on what type of hardware load balancer is used. It's convenient, but moves control and responsibility away from the customer's application logic to the load balancer. In many hosted customer environments, load balancers are not under direct customer administration.

3) Is marginally more difficult because the server can't tell whether or not the original request was HTTP or HTTPS. This can be fixed easily by having the load balancer insert a custom HTTP header when the request is an HTTPS request, and having the server-side application logic check for the header and send a redirect if it isn't present. It's about 3 lines of code.

Since the decision to have to redirect is based on application-driven security requirements, and the customer is responsible for the application, it would seem to make the most sense to perform and code the redirect logic at the application level.

In the real world, this isn't a common perspective.

It's almost game time -- another 3 and a half weeks, and if everyone's on the money, Tony and Rob will have someone else to contend with on their birthday. And a girl, no less! Unless of course, the ultrasounds are wrong.

We've been busily getting the nursery ready and assembling all manner of baby gadgetry and furniture; though Facebook is managing to consume way too much time for both Kelly and I. It's so addictive in fact that I had to finally bite the bullet and move my blog from a home-grown solution to MovableType just so that I can import blog entries into my facebook profile like Anthony does. It's been a long time coming though, MovableType is really well designed, and has all the things my blog's needed like trackbacks, permalinks, comments, and of course RSS/ATOM.