It seems that a lot of companies have become a fan of virtualization. I can understand why. Instead of having 5 single machines — and as such 5 sets of hardware — all doing one task, you can have one machine run 5 virtual servers running their one task. It saves space, power consumption, and in the end money.
There’s a problem though. If those servers are chugging along doing their thing and needing to utilize CPU cycles or I/O to hardware, things slow down. A lot. We’ve run into this issue lately since we’ve started doing a lot of parallel development — developing on multiple projects that are releasing at different times on the same product. We have code check-ins happening at all times of the day — we also have an offshore team hard at work — and as such we have continuous replication builds firing off all the time as well. If multiple products or projects are being worked on, then all those builds queue up, which normally isn’t a problem. It’s once we need to move a product to another environment (ie: Integration Testing) that things become evident that there is a problem. Once we start a build which also stages files on a different server (but happens to just be another virtual on the same physical machine) everything creeps to a halt. Coupled with other builds trying to run while large amounts of files are being transfered from one virtual to another things get even slower.
Solution time. To help take the load off the Dev environment server, we thought of getting setting up a new build server on its own physical machine. Makes total sense. But we’d have to go through all the bureaucracy of getting approved hardware, putting in requests, blah blah blah. Developers don’t have time for that kind of thing! So we thought about what we could do, and it struck us! Why not use our own machines? Release management has three members in it, that could be three extra build machines!
So I used myself as a Guinea pig and installed the build service on my machine. I configured it and with a few minor tweaks was able to get builds running on my machine without too much impact on performance. Since then, we’ve planned to take our workstations and dedicate them to one product each. This way we can have 3 CI (Continuous Integration) builds running at a time. We’re still planning on keeping the staging builds local until we get all issues ironed out — because I’m sure there will be issues that will come up.
So far, so good though. Everything seems to be running well, and our Integration Testing push times have been cut in half.
If you have existing builds that use special build properties (ie: use VB6 to compile an executable) make sure that VB6 is in the same location on all build machines that will be used for such builds.
If your initial build server has special properties for MSBuild, make sure you copy the MSBuild directory to your build machines. This will help with issues due to certain Imports not being available.
I’m not sure what’s happened to me in the last few months. Actually, that’s a lie. I do know. But I’m not really comfortable talking about it in the open. Short version is, I was kind of depressed. But I think I’m getting better, I’m starting to be interested in things again. I have desires to go out and do stuff, instead of just moping around the house and going to go get shit faced on the weekends.
Yay me!
Ok, so, now for some updates as to what I’ve been doing. About a month ago I started P90X, which is a pretty intense workout program. Since then I’ve slacked off, since I’ve also picked up Judo on Monday’s and Friday’s. I’ve been going with some friends, and it’s quite enjoyable (besides the conditioning portion of the lessons, that’s always quite.. exhausting). So, right now I’m only exercising twice a week. I’d like to get that back to at least 3 times a week. I think we’re (the friends I’m doing Judo with) going to try and do something on Wednesdays. Maybe Yoga, or some sort of stretch routine.
I’ve been pretty busy with work too. This weekend will be the second weekend in a row where i have to work on saturday, and the third weekend this month. It’s not too bad because i get days comped, but it does suck that i can’t sleep in on Saturday This Saturday will be extra strenuous. We’re doing our scheduled monthly release, which means i get to be at work at 3am and work until everything (our software) is out in production. I should be home sometime between 9am and 10am. So that means i’ll have a few hours to sleep before Brew at the Zoo! I’m sure we’ll all have a blast
After a 3-ish month hiatus I’m playing Eve again. I always come crawling back I’m taking it slow this time, only playing for an hour or so a few days a week. But it’s fun to talk to all my old friends, even that crazy nut borked
I also have plans to work on my car again. I think next up will be the valve cover gasket and VANOS. That’s going to be a weekend project I think, and the next few weekends don’t look like i’ll have enough time to do it. I also have to find a fairly inexpensive VANOS (maybe from DrVANOS?).
Either way, I think I’ll be busy-busy for the next few weeks. And it feels pretty good.
Ok, something i found that’s not really funny. Just really awing. I mean, i don’t consider myself rich. But in the big picture, maybe i am? How rich are you?
Also.. We have tons of nukes out there. Kinda scary. What’s scarier, is thinking about how many are unaccounted for? Just how many nukes does the US have?
i’m not really sure what happened. I used to post all the time. now it’s very intermittent. maybe it’s because i feel that i don’t have anything to write about. but now i do
I bought my ticket for Virginia today. I’ll be visiting Virginia over Memorial Day weekend, and it will be an awesome weekend.
Other than that, really nothing has been going on. I go to work, i come home, i do random things on the computer or in front of the TV, or in the yard, and then i go to sleep.
Right now i don’t think i’m in the right state of mind to keep going, as there’s some Kraken in me.
While I might still be a youngster when it comes to working in the corporate world or knowing how management and employees are supposed to interact, I still think common sense should apply. An employee is expected to perform certain tasks for pay. When asked to take on extra responsibilities the employee is within his or her rights to ask for more pay. If more pay is agreed upon, the employer is then ethically obligated to fulfill their end of the bargain. Not doing so does more than just upset the employee, it sows the seeds of mistrust and resentment.
Having an employer that follows through with what they promise typically has happier employees who would do more for the company than one where the employer constantly breaks promises.
Employees who work for a company who doesn’t value them, or treat them with respect and dignity also won’t recommend the company to others. If everyone knows that a certain business has shady practices and often abuses it’s privileges, soon that company won’t have any customers or referrals from employees.
It just makes sense to me if management makes promises to an employee, such as a raise. They should keep that promise, especially if that employee has taken on the extra responsibilities for which the raise was promised.
Lying to employees only breeds disgruntled employees. And we all know that’s not a healthy work environment.
As a note for anyone concerned, this has nothing to do with my current employer. Where I work people are treated with respect and decency. I wish every place could be this awesome.
So, yeah, i know.. it’s been a while. It’s been a combination of things that have kept me from posting anything; mainly laziness i think. But i have my laptop at work today, and it’s lunch time, so i figured.. why the hell not? It’s about f-ing time.
//Work
First up is work. Things have been going great! I’m still learning more than my brain can handle every day and I’ve been put on a multitude of projects. Well, one project but a bunch of tasks. The issues i thought i was going to have for a while, like understanding how everything is layered and how they like to structure things have come and gone. I’m really starting to understand the bigger picture of how everything works together. Things are picking up now though, there are release dates that have to be hit, and code that needs to be pushed. And there’s a new guy. He seems pretty cool, and seems to know his stuff. And most of all, has replaced both Zach and I as the new guy. Though we’re still noobs.
//Eve
I’ve become re-addicted to Eve. I know, i seem to say that a lot. But this time does seem a little different. ONYX Heavy Industries has a good bunch of people in it, and I enjoy hanging out with them while online. Heck, there have been a few time when i wouldn’t even be in game, and i’d just be doing my thing (programming or whatever) and chat on teamspeak.
//Development
Speaking of development, that bug has bitten again too. I’ve been working on this http://www.blackmesacorp.com/eveCharCheck. It’s going to become a site that allows directors in corporations to check character’s Limited API keys and see if they can really do all the things they claim (based on the skills and certificates they have). There is currently only very limited functionality, but i hope to expand on it soon once i figure out some major bugs. Something between the ale Eve API libraries and my database libraries is colliding.. and i’m not sure why it’s doing that.
//Social gatherings
I’ve been hanging out too. Not as much as i used to, but i think that’s good too. Sometimes i just want to be alone at my house. I went and saw The Crazies the other weekend. It wasn’t a bad flick for a horror/thriller/action-ish movie.
//New computer parts
I bought a new monitor the other day, it’s wicked. I am now rocking two 22″ LCD monitors! So much desktop space! They’re Acer x223w‘s and they’re fabulous!
I’ve finished my first week at my new job. It’s a weird sensation. I feel like I’ve been there for quite a while already, but that time has gone by really fast. Maybe it has to do with the fact that i was totally sick for about half the week? The first three days were pretty much getting to know what the company does and how they do things on a very high level. Thursday and Friday were pretty much dedicated to scouring over thousands of lines of C#, ASP.Net, and Javascript to learn how their Consumer site works. Not the most exciting stuff in the world. Everyone is very nice and patient with our questions.
Boy, was i ready for saturday though! I guess my body was still used to sleeping for 10 hours every night. Instead i’ve been up by 7am everyday and out the door by 7:30. Yesterday i finally got to sleep in a bit, lounge around in my PJ’s, and then finally in the afternoon leave the house. Josh and I went up to Louisville so Josh could test drive a Infiniti G35. A very nice car! After that we went and ate pizza and drank beer at Za’s where we met up with some friends, one of whom neither of us had seen in years! After pizza and beer we went and saw Daybreakers, which was ok. It’s nothing to rave about, and I feel the previews mislead the audience to thinking the movie was something else. But exploding vampires are always nice.
Tomorrow starts week two! Hopefully nothing will go wrong, and the roads will stay clear!
Today was my first day at iPay. We did the usual stuff you do when you start a new job. You fill out paperwork, you get oriented to where everything is, you meet your supervisor and the people you’ll be working with, all that fun stuff.
Tomorrow (or actually today since it’s 4am and i can’t sleep for some reason), we’ll be doing more onboarding as they call it. And we’ll also go more in depth into what the company does and how i’ll be part of that. The setup they have is similar to where i worked before in a few ways. First it’s a secure site, meaning only people that work there or have business there are allowed access. Second, they’re watched/audited quite a lot since they deal with moving money (electronic payments, not literally moving cash).
I’m a little anxious to actually start looking at code and tables, I want to know how big my learning curve is going to be. It always sucks knowing that you’re going to have to play a bit of catch up, but you don’t actually know how much.
Ugh. My brain is tired but my body isn’t. WHY IS THIS?!
Anyway, tomorrow is day two! I can’t wait to get in there and start doing stuff!
A lot of stuff has happened this year. I’ve gone from single, to in a relationship, to single again. I’ve worked on some really great ideas, though most of them haven’t really taken shape. I’ve gotten really close to getting violent at work (ok, not really, but i wished i could get violent at work ). All those things seemed to climax into the events that have occurred in the last few weeks.
I’ll start with a quick recap of my previous post. Zach and I have been job hunting for the last few months, since the end of September/beginning of October. We’d even enlisted the service of some recruiting firms — TEK Systems being one of them. We had some meeting with our recruiting representative — or whatever they’re officially called — and talked about why we wanted to leave our current job, what we’re looking for in other places of employment, what kind of qualifications we have, etc, etc. Along with that we’d also put our resume’s up on job searching sites like Monster and Dice, and we even applied at some local positions online. That choice bared fruit in what happened next. iPay Technologies got in contact with both of us, as we’d both applied for some of the positions they had posted. We had our phone screenings, we even got interviews! Meanwhile back at work, nothing seemed to change. We’d told our management months before that we were job hunting, and now we’d told them we were interviewing with a company. They still didn’t seem to be doing anything — like collecting resumes or putting feelers out.
About a week later, Zach and I had another phone interview with someone else from iPay, and the next day there was an offer letter in our inbox. At first we thought the amount they were offering was a monthly salary until Zach noticed it was bi-weekly! So needless to say, we told our boss that we’d both found a new job, and we’d be starting there at the beginning of January. We then accepted the offer letters. Now is when things start getting interesting. We told our bosses that we’d go through all our projects and document everything and write up abstracts on the projects themselves — we did this not because we were told to, but because it was the right thing to do — and we’d even screen any people they found as possible candidates. All these actions were done out of kindness and professionalism.
One Friday Zach calls me to tell me what he’s just overheard, management talking about how horrible we were, how none of our projects ever worked how they wanted, how all the reports were always wrong, how apparently we were just big pieces of shit! Even though it was Zach telling me this, I could feel that flame of anger building inside of me. We were going to help these people out, find them replacements for our positions, and they’re going to stab us in the back? In the big picture i shouldn’t really care, as i have a new job already lined up, and they’re expecting me after the new year. But just to hear what people really think of us after working with them for almost three years.. it just hurts. I thought some of those people were good colleagues if not friends. So in response to that action, i moved my final day of work up to yesterday. I still did everything else I’d promised, documenting code, writing overviews of our projects, going over submitted resumes. But i wasn’t going to work there for another few weeks in that kind of environment. I also wanted to cash out all my vacation time in one paycheck, heh. That’s almost 2 1/2 weeks of pay on top of my week of pay this week. Should be a nice paycheck indeed.
Now i can’t wait until my first day at my new job. I’m kind of anxious and nervous, but i think it will be a big step in the right direction for my career.
Over the last few weeks things have been changing for me. I started working with a consulting company, TEK Systems, which will help me find a new/better/more fulfilling job. I had a meeting with my representative and talked about what I was looking for and what my current work environment is like. I have the feeling that I ranted a bit. I then updated my resume (both physical copy and the ones online, including on this site) and she found some possible employment opportunities for me, which I reviewed and gave her the go ahead to submit my resume. I also applied for a bunch of jobs online on Dice and Monster.
Last week I got an email from iPay Technologies. They wanted to do a phone screening for their interviewing process. I accepted. I had my phone screening on Thursday, and Friday morning there was another email in my inbox stating they wanted to call me in for an interview. Zach went through the same thing. And now we both have interviews with them. Good thing they have two job positions open , maybe we’ll be the ones filling them. The only thing i’m concerned about right now is the compensation. They never said how much or what range the pay would be. I’m hoping they’re not going to try to hire me for what I’m being paid now.
Depending on how the interview goes, I may or may not be giving my boss a two weeks notice here in the future.
In other news, my dad got his M1 Garand. It’s beautiful! I could only imagine lugging that thing around through a combat environment though. It’s quite heavy. Hopefully soon we’ll be able to go shoot it! I kinda want one now. ^_^
Over the weekend I played lots of Left 4 Dead 2. I’ve finished all the campaigns on normal, and am now working on some of the achievements. The game really takes the feeling you get from when you first played Left 4 Dead and refines it. The chills, the excitement, the freak outs. They’re all there! There were a few times where I actually yelled/screamed like a little girl! The new zombies really do add a whole new dynamic to the game, by not letting you take advantage of the tricks that you could in L4D. The new melee weapons are also awesome, there’s nothing like beating a zombie over the head with a guitar or frying pan. And Realism mode.. oh so awesome.
I also finished reading Helix by Eric Brown. It was a good read. It really sucked me in, which is probably why i finished it in two days (or so). The characters were really believable, and the environments were well detailed. I’d recommend it to anyone who’s into science fiction and likes a story about a mission gone bad, crash landing on a strange alien structure filled with thousands of different alien races.
This Saturday will be extra strenuous. We’re doing our scheduled monthly release, which means i get to be at work at 3am and work until everything (our software) is out in production. I should be home sometime between 9am and 10am. So that means i’ll have a few hours to sleep before 
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