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Stagnation Station, What’s Your Motivation?
Stagnation occurs - in my opinion - when you no longer have the energy to continue learning something new at least every day. Unfortunately with projects like my home renovations and the contract with Tobyhanna Army Depot I am unable to devote as much time as I’d like to my own knowledge development. However, I find plenty of time to share the knowledge I have already acquired with colleagues at the job site.
I am learning plenty of things about ASP.NET that I hadn’t known before. But I’m learning on the .NET Framework version 2.0. And here, Microsoft has already begun working on .NET version 4.0. How is a guy to keep up? Microsoft’s pace is certainly not a fault, however, I’ve noticed that many “Microsofties” spend so much time keeping up with the most recent Microsoft technologies that they have no idea how to use CSS. Or… anything else for that matter.
I don’t fault those people for these things. I do however, blame Microsoft at least a little bit. The problem is that Microsoft is enabling them to put the blinders on while Microsoft handles the heavy lifting. Microsoft provides themes, GUIs, and other tools to reduce the amount of actual code that a developer needs to be concerned with.
I consider myself a different breed, though. I am one of those .NET developers that rarely uses “Design Mode.” Design Mode in my opinion is sacriligous. I need to be able to see everything that is going on. I live in the source. If I can’t understand what is actually going on behind the scenes then I’m not learning. I’m not expanding my thoughts. If I were to just settle for using the same old Microsoft provided controls, and the same old Microsoft provided interfaces, then I’d be like one of those zombies in the Matrix. I’ve got the lining pulled over my eyes. They’re spoon feeding me my regulated dietary requirements. My wings will never be spread, my legs never stretched, my eyes never to see.
So I’m glad I have a somewhat different perspective. So maybe I’m not a Microsoft MVP - yet - but I am damn good at figuring out how and why things work. Then by transferring that knowledge, I help improve everyone’s condition.
And with that… I’m out. It is about 23:23 and I’m already awake 2 hours and 23 minutes past my bed time.
A List Apart Survey 2008
If you are a professional web developer and you haven’t yet taken the 2008 ALA Survey you may want to consider doing so. It provides some interesting insight on the career landscape for people of our expertise and trade. I for one like to see what the world marketplace is like for my chosen career path. In my opinion the ALA Survey has proven its worth in that regard. ALA publishes some nice graphics depicting major points that are shown by the data set provided by people from around the world who have chosen to take the survey.
Intel® Pentium D® space heater 840
In March of 2007 I built a file server for ELK Lighting, Inc. The server was built from a bare bone kit purchased from Global Computer Supplies, a subsidiary of Systemax, Inc., and it seemed like it was going to be the right system for the job. The job was to build a 1.5 terabyte file server with consumer hardware components. I spec-ed out the hardware for the system and placed the order after approval was given.
The processor that came with the kit was an Intel® Pentium® D 840 which comes clocked at 3.2 gigahertz. I found a heat sink that advertised that it would cool the processor. The heat sink purchased was a Thermaltake TR2 M21 RX which is part of Thermaltake’s bargain cooler line. However, the bargain line doesn’t dissipate enough heat. The M21 RX is advertised to dissipate 115 watts of heat. The 840 puts out a whopping 130 watts1; which is nice if you’re looking for a small space heater. I didn’t realize at the time that the TR2 series is the bargain offshoot of Thermaltake. I previously had very good experiences with the Thermaltake brand and therefore had no reason to question this product.
The system is mounted inside a 3U rack mount case. This means that vertical clearance is limited. Most of the heat sinks I saw that said they’d cool an LGA775 processor clocked at 3.2GHz were much too tall with heat pipes galore. I’m sure they would have done the job, but that would have meant that I needed to either cut a vent in the top of the case or leave the top off completely. This isn’t an option because we need to keep dust to a minimum.
The 840 processor is based on Intel’s 90 nanometer fabrication process. It also happens to be the highest clocked processor in that line. This means that of all the other 90nm Pentium D’s this one is the hottest. The 840’s maximum operating temperature is 69.8 degrees Celsius. I have seen mine hit 72°C just by opening Internet Explorer. Anything above 70ºC and the processor begins to drag. It begins to modulate the core clocks, reduce the clock speed, to reduce power consumption and thus heat dissipation. Luckily, sharing files over a network requires very little processing power. However, rebuilding a RAID 5 array on the other hand requires a lot of processing. A 1.5 terabyte array requires roughly 20 hours to rebuild a single 500 gigabyte drive. Keep in mind that this is utilizing a soft-RAID controller and not a dedicated hardware RAID controller card.
Regardless of what I did a year ago, I am in the market for a good 130W or better heat sink. If you know of any that would fit in a 3U case, let me know. I advise that next time you’re in the market for a processor, check out the spec sheet and see if the cooler you chose can handle it.
Pentium® and the Pentium® D logo are registered trademarks of the Intel® Corporation.
Silly IT Recruiters
Why is it that recruiters - particularly those that sound like they are of mid-eastern descent - feel that it is necessary to immediately follow up an e-mail with a phone call? Is their urgency such that they think that we IT professionals don’t check our e-mail? It is not that urgent to me that you contact me twice in the same minute. I check my e-mail regularly. I check my voice mail as well. I suppose it is really my fault. I should stop using Dice. Every time I update my Dice resume I get a torrent of calls and e-mails from aforementioned recruiters. These are not, I might add, the type of recruiters I’d like to be speaking to.
The type of recruiter I’d like to speak to are the ones that honor my request that you absolutely DO NOT call me during the hours of 9:00am to 6:30pm. If you need to contact me during those hours you may e-mail me. I do check it regularly. Your message will be received. Additionally I am a tad miffed by the types of jobs these people are offering. These are not local. Nor are the tele-commute-able. Do they even read my resume before suggesting I might be a candidate for such a job?
My theory is that they are commissioned to blanket any and all IT professionals with absurd job offers and annoying phone calls. I can’t even understand what they’re saying on my voice mails. It is absolutely pointless to call me to notify me that you have e-mailed previously. NOTICE: I may not have checked it within the three seconds it took you to dial my phone number. It is a game of numbers. If they contact X many professionals they are bound to get Y many potential matches.
I have an idea. Make your recruiting company’s website not look like it came from some template. Don’t contact every single user of Dice. You could hire fewer recruiters this way as you wouldn’t need to staff a freaking call center to do your job. Alternatively you could sweeten up the deal a bit. If the job looks attractive then you’ll get responses. If it looks like you’re not even trying then forget about it.
I am Stephen Holsinger and I’m hounded by mid-eastern recruiters that got my info on Dice. *Grrr!*
Tornado rolls through Nesquehoning / Jim Thorpe
Here’s some video footage of a tornado / thunder storm that went through today while I was at work. Here is some video footage taken by me. I just happened to have my digital camera with me today. The storm included hail and high winds. It actually came through town, and swept back around and came through again. We’re lucky that a tornado didn’t touch down near us.
Part II
Part II