Programmers are, in essence, problem solvers. They live to solve problems. When
they identify a problem that needs solving, they cannot resist the temptation
to study it, poke and prod it, and get to know it intimately. They then start
considering solutions. At this point, the programmer is not often thinking in
code — they’re thinking about the problem using high-level concepts and terms
that most non-programmers would understand.

Consider the problem of how to post a news story to a website. The programmer
might think about the solution this way:

• Log in
• Go to ‘new story’ page
• Enter title and text
• Press ‘submit’

Of course, there are a million details in between those points, and after them
as well. The programmer knows this, but defers thinking about details until the
higher-level solution makes sense and seems reasonable/plausible. Later in the
process they’ll think about things like the site’s security model, WYSIWYG
editors, tags and categories, icons, avatars, database queries and storage, and
the like.

Once they’ve reached a point where they’re satisfied that their solution will
work and is thoughtful of the major points to be considered in the solution,
they open an editor, and begin to type things that make no sense to their
immediate family. Programmers express their solutions in code, of course, but
they express them nonetheless, and this is not a trivial point.

The Parallels Between Programming and Writing

Writers often take the exact same course as do programmers. Programmers and
writers alike are often given assignments. Assignments take the form of a
problem that needs solving. For a programmer it’s a function or method or class
that needs implementing to perform a certain task. For a writer it’s an article
or column or speech that covers a particular topic. So in these cases, the
problem identification is done for you (not that more discovery can’t be done
– in both cases).

Next is the conception of the solution. Programmers puzzle over the problem,
its context in the larger application or system, its scope, and its complexity.
Writers puzzle over their topic space, its breadth and depth, and its context
in the bigger picture of what their publication tries to accomplish. In both
cases, writer and programmer alike take some time and probably kill some trees
as they attempt to organize their thoughts.

At some point, for both writer and programmer, the time comes to use some tool
to express their thoughts using some language. For a writer, they open a text
editor or word processor and write in whatever language the publication
publishes in. For the programmer, they open an IDE or editor and write using the
standard language for their company, or perhaps their favorite language, or (in
rare cases), the best language for accomplishing the task.

In neither case is this the end of the story. Programmers debug, tweak, and
reorganize their code all the time. Writers do the exact same thing with their
articles (assuming they’re of any length). Both bounce ideas off of their
colleagues, and both still have work to do after their first take is through.
Both will go at it again, both with (hopefully) a passion that exists not
necessarily for the particular problem they’re solving, but for the sheer act
of solving a problem (or covering a topic), whatever it may be.

Finally, once things are reviewed, and all parts have been carefully
considered, the writer submits his piece to an editor for review, and the
programmer submits to a version control system which may also be attached to an
automated build system. Both may have more work to do.

Starting Out

The process is essentially the same. If you’re a new programmer, you can expect
to have more than your fair share of bugs. If you’re a new writer, you can
likewise expect your piece to look a bit different in final form than it did
when you submitted it to the editor.

Just like programming, writing isn’t something you do perfectly from day one.
It’s something that takes practice. At first it seems like an arduous process,
but you get through it. As time passes, you start to realize that you’re going
faster, and stumbling less often. Eventually you get to a point where you can
crank out 1500-2000 words on your lunch hour without needing too much heavy
revising.

You Should Write

So, I say “you should write”. As someone who owes his career to books and
articles (not to mention friendly people far more experienced than myself), I
consider it giving back to the medium that launched my career, and helping
others like others helped me. I hope I can make the technological landscape
better in some small way. If we all did that, we’d be able to collectively
raise the bar and improve things together.

If altruism isn’t your bag, or you’re just hurting from the recent economic
crisis, know that it’s also possible to make money writing as well. It’s not
likely to become your sole occupation unless you happen to live in a VW Bus, or
you do absolutely nothing else but write full time, all the time. However, it
can be a nice supplement to a monthly salary, and if done regularly over the
course of a year is more than enough to take care of your holiday shopping
needs.

I’ve had good experiences writing for editors at php|architect and Python
Magazine (I *was* an editor at both magazines, but you don’t edit your own
work!), O’Reilly (oreillynet.com and a book as well), Linux.com (when it was
under the auspices of the OSTG), TUX and Linux Magazine (both now defunct), and
others. I encourage you to go check out the “write for us” links on the sites
of your favorite publications, where you’ll find helpful information about
interacting with that publications editors.

So, today I tried browsing to one of my sites, linuxlaboratory.org, and found a 403 “Forbidden” error. Calling support, they said it was a “billing issue”. Well, I pay my bills, and I haven’t received any new credit cards, so I’m not sure what that’s about. Further, they haven’t contacted me in any way shape or form at all in a very long time, and I’ve had the same email addresses for years now. Last time they failed to contact me, it was because they were sending all of the mail to “root@localhost” on the web server.

What’s more, the tech support guy, having determined that this wasn’t a technical but an administrative problem, transferred me to a sales person who was not there. I left a message. That was 3 hours ago. So I took matters into my own hands and changed the name server records to my webfaction account, and linuxlaboratory.org now points to an old test version of the site that uses Drupal.

It’s Over Between Us…

Drupal holds the record for the CMS that has run LinuxLaboratory the longest. Since its launch in 2001, LinuxLaboratory has used all of the major, and some of the minor open source PHP CMSes. Drupal gave me something very close to what I wanted, out of the box. Nowadays, Drupal is even nicer since they redid some of the back end APIs and attracted theme and module developers to the project. I’ve even done some coding in Drupal myself, and have to say that it really is a breeze.

But the problem is this: I’m a consultant, trainer, and author/editor. I am an experienced system admin, database admin, and infrastructure architect who makes a living solving other peoples’ problems. I really can’t afford to have something that is super high overhead to maintain running my sites. With Drupal releasing new versions with major security fixes once per month on average, and no automated update mechanism (and no built-in automated backup either), it becomes pretty cumbersome just to keep it updated.

This is in addition to my experiences trying to do e-commerce with Drupal. I tried to use one plugin, but soon found myself in dependency hell — a situation I’m not used to being in unless I’m on a command line somewhere. So, out with Drupal. I know it well and I’m sure I’ll find a use for it somewhere in my travels, but not now, and not for this.

Is Django the Future of LinuxLaboratory?

So I’m thinking of giving Django another shot. In fact, I thought I might try something new and interesting. Maybe I’ll build my Django app right in front of everyone, so that anyone who is interested can follow along, and so people can give me feedback and tips along the way. It also lets me share with people who have questions about a feature I’m implementing or something like that.

For fanboys of <insert technology here>, know this: I’m a technology whore. I consume technology like some people consume oxygen. I love technology, and I get on kicks, and every now and then, a “kick” turns into a more permanent part of my tool chest. Python is one such example. I’ve done lots with Python, but have never really made friends with it for web development. I got a webfaction account specifically because they support Python (and Django). I’ve done nothing with it. Now I think I might.

But not to worry! I own lots of domains that are sitting idle right now, and I’m considering doing a Ruby on Rails app for one of them, and I’m dying to do more with Lua. There’s only so much time!

Webfaction Django Users: Advice Hereby Solicited

So if you’re a webfaction customer using Django, please share your tips with me about the best way to deploy it. I’ve used nothing but PHP apps so far, and found that rather than use the one-click installs webfaction provides, it’s a lot easier to just choose the generic “CGI/PHP” app type and install the code myself. This allows me to, for example, install and update wordpress using SVN. Is Django a similar story, or does webfaction actually have an auto-upgrade mechanism for this? How are you keeping Django up to date?

Thanks!

As part of my business plan, I’ve put in place a policy of accepting one pro-bono consulting project per year. So far, I haven’t gotten any requests for free consulting work, so here’s my public shout out to let you know what types of services are available:

1. Speaking or Training. My specialties are things like advanced Linux administration and SQL, but I’m perfectly capable of delivering content for people who just need to know how the internet works, or want to know more about social media.Training, funny enough, has been the bulk of my business for the past year.

2. I can help with MySQL performance tuning on *nix systems, including finding hotspots related to the design of the database itself, or how your application code interacts with the database. If it happens that your MySQL server is performing poorly due to an underpowered system, I can also pinpoint which resource is dragging on the performance of your database.

3. If you just need random scripts written to perform *nix system administration tasks, I can consult with you about the requirements and write them for you. Note that while I can script in several languages, my preference for anything longer than 40 lines of code is Python.

4. I can build PC’s, install networks, set up firewalls and wireless routers, and all of the normal “office IT” functions, but note that my consulting is Linux consulting. I don’t work with Windows (well, I do, but not for free)

5. If there’s some other thing you’ve seen me blog about here, chances are I’ll be willing to perform a pro-bono consulting engagement to do it for you, or show you how to approach a problem, a large project, a migration, automation, monitoring, security or whatever.

Unless you happen to live within commuting distance to Princeton, NJ, work will be done remotely

Please email your request to jonesy at owladvisors dot com. Include your organization’s name, your contact info, and as much detail about the project and what your organization does as possible. The decision of which project to take on will be based solely on the information in your request!

The first half of the talk was about the general concept of a startup weekend, the problems it avoids (“we’ve been working for 9 months and haven’t launched anything”), the problems it brings up (“If you’re not using Java, you’re an idiot, so count me out!!”), and lots of details about how to organize, how to assign roles, and some common tools they use (like Basecamp and whatever your IM of choice is). There was also talk of legal issues, how (basically) to think about forming the company with the people involved, and decisions that need to be made at a business level aside from just the coding.

The second half of the talk wasn’t a talk at all. Instead, people who had ideas stood up, presented their idea in a couple of sentences, and once the ideas were out there, we were told to break into groups and get to work! So people would get up and move over to the person whose idea they liked, and they’d start brainstorming. I decided to head out after about 30 minutes of observing and talking with people about ideas, but when I left, there were probably 6-8 groups of people engrossed in conversations, and the energy level was very high. Overall, it was a really exciting experience!

It was worth it. If you haven’t been, Henry’s Tavern boasts 100 beers and hard ciders on tap (oddly, the beer list is the only menu *not* online – guess it changes too frequently). There are a ton of local beers that you can’t even get on the east coast just waiting for you to try, but there are also some rare treats, like the Belgian Lambic beers, which you don’t often see on tap. The food is a little pricey, but is really good, and the staff is very friendly. A couple of us were in a rush to get back by 7 for the BoF sessions, and when we asked the waittress how easy it was to catch a cab, she immediately informed us that she would have the hostess call one for us. About 2 minutes later we were in a cab on our way back (we wouldn’t have made it back in time if we had to walk back to catch the light rail).

I was not one of those rushing to a BoF, so I did a little poking around the area near the convention center. It was getting dark, and I didn’t want to stray too far, but I did find a couple of points of interest. First, there’s a bank right across the street from the convention center. I’d be willing to bet that the ATM there is less than the $3 the ATM inside the center charges.

Beyond that is a paintball place. It was closed by the time I found it, and I don’t know if they run every day, or anything else, but interested parties might find it open during the lunch breaks or something if you wanted to check it out. The paintball place is located behind a building that is directly across the street from the conv. center. If you see the bank, it’s on the other side of the side street the bank sits on.

Tonight appears to be low-key from what I can tell. There’s currently no chatter on irc, the hotel bar had a few people chatting, and I might go down to catch the rush of people as they return from dinner and BoF sessions. Stay tuned tomorrow for more!