Request Tracker, KDE 4.0 & My Eyes We determined the need for a ticket system at L&Y before Christmas. I had looked into several options. I even installed phpticket, which was very simple. It was a little bit too simple. I looked into the code a little bit and it kinda made me choke and puke a little bit. I already saw way too many problems expanding the system into what we would want to do with it. I did not feel like hacking on yet another PHP project. Granted it is actively worked on (to what level I don't know), but it just wasn't a fit.

I went on to install (without much effort), the Request Tracker system. I knew it was much more complicated than phpticket, but I also figured it would give us everything we wanted. Written in Object Oriented perl. It uses PG as a database back end by default. Packages are available in feisty. So we gave it a whirl. I spent the afternoon with Kevin and Kris one day walking through all of the scenarios that we would be using it for. Opening tickets, stealing and assigning tickets. The differences between commenting, and replying to a ticket. How the emails worked, and the most important thing ... how the ACLs worked. You get to control _everything_ via ACLs in RT. Which is both nice, and also involving to set up. Once you have the hang of how it works, you can get around quickly. The level of control is so fine grained. You have to specifically grant rights to each user / group / both in order to do things. It is also highly extensible, and we eventually plan on making use of additional features (like mail processing). But for now ... we're on our way.

Last week I went to the KDE 4.0 release event in Mountainview, CA. The event was at the Google campus. I accompanied Aaron there. We had a full day of travels to San Jose on the 16th. We arrived at the Wild Palms hotel in Sunnyvale that night. It was a fantastic hotel with great staff. What up to Elicia (sp) who made me PB cookies 2 nights in a row. She rocks the front desk at 2 AM. That night I met several KDE people and my introduction to Aaron's world began. Franz (Media Man for the event), Martijn (Marketing), Jos (Marketing), Jeff (Kopete? / Amarok?), Wade (Just awesome), Holger (KDE Windows), Ingo (KOffice), Adrian (KDE E.V.), Helio (Madriva), Sebastian (KDE E.V.), Stefan (Sun) ... just to name a few. A group of us went for diner at a Perisian place across the way. Greta kabobs! Great conversation. We mixed up a few drinks back at the hotel, and it was a night.

The next day started off with Aaron and I missing the bus (oops). So we cabbed it to Google, and the were kindly directed to our building. We got settled in and I met some more people (I won't name them all) I sat in on some BOFs, one for Konstruct, and the other for KDE on FreeBSD. I had lunch with Aaron outside with Dirk Muller and John Terpstra. I enjoyed a tour with some Google folks in the afternoon as I was not going to be around on Saturday for the next tour. Aaron and I got a ride back to the hotel with Jimmy Johnson. I ran and grabbed a quick bite and some cash. The mixer that night was going for a while when I joined. They had a wild awesome spread. The fruit kabobs were AWESOME. California has the best fresh fruit! We had drinks, and I chatted with all sorts of industry folks about programming, and we were basically a bunch of tech geeks. It was so enjoyable. We did meander down the street to the Oasis bar. Zack Rusin showed up late and joined us. We had a few drinks, and I made friends with Stephanie the "Bar Bitch" as she called herself. She called me "The crazy Cannuck", because I wanted Canadian Club. I guess she does not get too many requests for it, but she sure has a heavy hand when pouring ... more on that later.

The next day was the major event, and there was no way I was missing the bus 2 days in a row. Zack and I caught the last bus (there were 3 of them). We hung around, and found our seats and waited for the presentation. Aaron did a fantastic job. It was an excellent presentation, and a great success in my opinion. I didn't catch most of the KOffice presentation, as I was outside with people. We broke for lunch again, and I enjoyed it outside with Pat Volkerding (Slackware) and it was quite enjoyable. I had the privilege of joining some folks from KDE as they met with some Google Kernel people, one of whom was Andrew Morton (Kernel 2.6 maintainer). I was basically an observer, and it was a really interesting meeting of minds to witness. We wrapped up, and drinks were available. I was with Zack, and Chris Lee (Nvidia), and we were waiting for Aaron who was talking with John Terpstra and the CME guys. We left without him, and they were to be meeting us at an Indian restaurant in Sunnyvale somewhere for diner. It was an amazing Indian buffet! Tandoori noodles, and vegetables, Achari chicken, tandoori chicken, flat breads, saffron rice, and some other chicken dish I can't remember what it was called. Thanks to Chris for taking us there! It was awesome. Back to the hotel, and onto the drinking. I cracked the bottle of Rye, and dug in. Went with Zack to Oasis again, as they had Karaoke going on that night. My heavy handed Stephanie kept the drinks coming, and I got royally ripped up. Back to the hotel to find Aaron in the kitchen with everyone, and more rye, then back to Oasis. We closed the place down. Now at 2:30 in the AM. Aaron went for a hot tub. I went to pack, and drink non alcoholic beverages.

Our flight left at 6:30 AM, so we needed to be at the airport around 4:30 AM. It took a few phone calls, and a trip to Aaron's room to find him. I was still fully in the bag when the cab dropped us off. The line up for security was INSANE! I had never seen anything like that at 5:00 in the morning. I was fine at the hotel, in the cab, in security, and turned a shade of green right at the gate. So I puked a lot before I got on the plane. the take off did not help, and spent some time with a barf bag in the bathroom of the plane. It was a rough flight to Denver for me. We had a short lay over, and onto CGY! The flight crew ended up giving me a whole row to myself on the second flight. I got to stretch out, and actually sleep a little (as best I could). Still feeling like crap, but only a few long hours left until my bed. We arrived in Calgary, and headed through customs. Waited for our luggage (2 of the last 3 bags off). And then home Jeeves! After all was said and done, I had an extraordinary time, although if I was to do it again, I would avoid the Indian buffet and getting hammered, then skipping sleep to catch a 6:30 AM flight. That can all be avoided with some careful planning though. 6:30 PM flights! Thanks for asking me to go Aaron!

So today I broke some blood vessels in my eyes. It sounds way worse than it apparently is. I was at the office, and went to the bathroom, and after washing my hands saw my face in the mirror and went WTF?!?!?! It really freaked me out. I was like ... am I having a stroke? I went to the clinic. I apparently had a minor eye infection (I just attributed it to being over-tired and lack of sleep causing itchy / dry eyes). That apparently strained my eyes, and I remember a large gust of wind when I got out of my car at the office. Wind can cause your eyes to "bruise". The doctor said this is like what happens when you bruise your arm, only it's on my eyes. It just looks freaky. I had no irritation, no pain, no vision problems. He took my blood pressure, and it was fine (114/84). I got a prescription for some drops, which I have already begun to take care of the infection. The bloodshot on steroids will take 10-14 days to subside he said. But to not worry ... it is apparently normal. So I am much calmer than I was at 3:00 this afternoon when I discovered this. But I am going to take it easy the rest of the week. Here's to not straining my eyes!  ¶ 12:13:00 AM 0 comments

  2007 Happy New Year!

The 2007 year in review - I was having drinks with Aaron the other night. We conversed about all sorts of things as we normally do. He said to me that I don't look back on the past enough. I'm always in the moment, and looking into the future, but the past has value as well. I had said it was a tuff year, and he said ... "It's always a tuff year, but it was a way better year than the one before". I have been thinking about that, and he's right.

All the good things that have gone on this year : I got to visit with my sister twice this year, which has not happen for many years. My company revenue is the highest in it's history. I have solidified friendships, both personal, and business. It is my privilege to be working with people like Ray Bowler, Marlon Lee Him, Kevin Brown, Stan Leung, Jonathan Nituch, Jacques Tedoux now. And I remain to work along side with people like Aaron Seigo, AJ Young and Gregg Shields. I have taken on responsibilities for other team members in various projects. My brother is moving forward with career opportunities, my mother seemed very well when I saw her. I actually got to go home for Christmas with the entire family there (7 years past).
My flyers went from the basement team to contenders (YAY) ... lol. My knowledge of business, and technology, and so much more has grown.

I felt like it was a hard year, and I realized it was because there was so much progress made everywhere, it just felt like hard work all of the time. Some things I would like to work on for the next year is to get myself feeling better and back to the gym. I want to get back to some social rings that I have unintentionally ignored (like Jaman and the poker boys, and the gang out on the west coast). I want to start eating better, and everything else one wishes for themselves at the beginning of a new year. I think everything ties together into time management. So I'll be working on that.

What are you going to be working on?  ¶ 12:09:00 AM 0 comments