Thoughts on System Administration

I’m at Velocity 2008 right now. So far I’ve learned several things:

1. Twitter can’t handle a conference.
2. Sun might succeed in its attempt to restore its relevance.
3. SSDs are going to be abother layer in server memory, between disks and RAM.
4. Whenever a member of the Ops team is unavailable, something breaks.
5. Con food isn’t remarkable, in either positive or negative ways.
6. Arrive early to talks so you can snag a spot on the power strip.
7. I FAIL at socialization.

At least I managed to score some Puppet schwag (whoever made these shirts has a different definition of XXL than me…) and managed to track down Luke Kanies and Andrew Shafer of Reductive Labs to say “Hi.” Haven’t socialized much with them; they look like they’re working.

About to watch a talk on measuring performance; a topic I’ve always had big questions about; hopefully I’ll learn something good. I’m kinda regretting my decision to sit towards the front, though.

It’s quiet in here. Life has been hectic and I’m somewhat confused as to what I’m allowed to say without getting in trouble at work.

Hopefully I’ll have some more Puppet content soon.