Concepts in the Paradox » mark ballew http://markballew.com/blog The writing of Mark Ballew Wed, 17 Mar 2010 23:53:12 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Tweeting, Blogging, and Facebooking http://markballew.com/blog/2010/03/17/tweeting-blogging-and-facebooking/ http://markballew.com/blog/2010/03/17/tweeting-blogging-and-facebooking/#comments Wed, 17 Mar 2010 23:53:12 +0000 MarkBallew http://markballew.com/blog/?p=147 A lot has changed in the last few years I have been online. First it was the dial up BBS, then it was the University email account, and now we are in a hyper-social networking phase. A lot of people are tweeting these days (include myself), others are playing games on Facebook (me too), but a lot of original and insightful information is still posted on good’ol fashioned blogs.

That leaves out an important part of social networking, which ties this all together, and that’s user comments and track backs. You should be able to comment on a blog, have your comment posted to Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, or wherever else, with just a few clicks. That’s what I’ve done here on the blog. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

]]> http://js-kit.com/rss/markballew.com/blog/p=147 2 Bike to work day May 14th http://markballew.com/blog/2009/04/09/bike-to-work-day-may-14th/ http://markballew.com/blog/2009/04/09/bike-to-work-day-may-14th/#comments Thu, 09 Apr 2009 22:54:25 +0000 MarkBallew http://markballew.com/blog/2009/04/09/bike-to-work-day-may-14th/ Don’t forget that May 14th is Bike to work day. My commute is one hill shorter this year, so the total commute time should be around 25 minutes, or 4 miles flat. I’ve been able to time the lights along Market and Division Streets, and with any luck, I can do a full scale downhill assault and cut the time to 20 minutes.

Now that the Bikeplan has been unblocked, I can look forward to a safer commute over the next 2 years while construction goes on. Hopefully there will be some new riders who can experience how safe biking in the city is, along with having a healthier, and cheaper, way to get to work and run errands.

]]> http://js-kit.com/rss/markballew.com/blog/p=146 1 Quoted in SFgate http://markballew.com/blog/2007/09/16/quoted-in-sfgate/ http://markballew.com/blog/2007/09/16/quoted-in-sfgate/#comments Sun, 16 Sep 2007 07:18:51 +0000 MarkBallew http://markballew.com/blog/2007/09/16/quoted-in-sfgate/ Transbay project design selection

The whole reason we are putting up a tower is to help pay for the Caltrain terminal. All the tower designs are ugly and pre-’90s L.A. designs, nothing to show the world that San Francisco is a world-class city. At this rate we should just directly fund moving Caltrain to First and Mission and retrofit the 1939 terminal.

- Mark Ballew, 29, Cole Valley

]]> http://js-kit.com/rss/markballew.com/blog/p=138 0 I need a juice http://markballew.com/blog/2007/01/22/i-need-a-juice/ http://markballew.com/blog/2007/01/22/i-need-a-juice/#comments Mon, 22 Jan 2007 18:58:34 +0000 MarkBallew http://markballew.com/blog/2007/01/22/i-need-a-juice/ On the way to work this morning, I walked by a young woman who was doing trash duty on Ellis street. This is part of the never ending battle against the trash people throw on the ground around Hallidie Plaza. Usually, trash duty is one of the many selections that a citizen can choose from to work off a citation or jail time. Think, “community service”. This young woman added value to her community, by giving me a warm smile and turning to me to ask a question as I went forward in my day to earn a day’s wages.

“You gotta dollah? I wanna buy a juice.”

And with that, I ignored the young woman and silently thought to myself how much this program offers the community.

]]> http://js-kit.com/rss/markballew.com/blog/p=115 2 …and then all of the sudden, I’m busy! http://markballew.com/blog/2007/01/12/and-then-all-of-the-sudden-im-busy/ http://markballew.com/blog/2007/01/12/and-then-all-of-the-sudden-im-busy/#comments Sat, 13 Jan 2007 02:30:37 +0000 MarkBallew http://markballew.com/blog/2007/01/12/and-then-all-of-the-sudden-im-busy/ January has been an active month, with dead time between events starting to go back to back with things to do.

At work, I’ve ended up diving head first into SAN virtualization. I didn’t want to go this route for a another few months, but we’re evaluating SAN technology, and the research needs to be done quickly. This stuff isn’t as hard as I thought it would be, and in fact it is pretty straight forward. LUNs here, WWNS there, sparse volumes and mirrors over there.

I finally heard back from David Snyder at SPUR, and he’s going to put me in touch with the transportation communications intern there. The idea is for me to do “online advocacy” for transit, something that I’m already knee deep in by nature. We’ll see where things go. SPUR’s membership fee was a whopping $65, but it is for a good cause. These folks seem to know what they are doing.

The car has been up for sale for almost 2 weeks now. I put it up on cars.com for $21750, but the only contacts I’ve gotten are other sales agencies wanting to list my auto for another $50. I hate to lower the price, it is already low compared to other cars for sale in the area, but every month it sits is another possible parking ticket or accident, plus deprecation and the insurance payments I have to make.

Speaking of parking tickets, the two citations I got from DPT came back after I wrote a very polite letter to the them. Their reply? Pay the $100 or find a cop to verify that the tags are current, have him sign off on the tickets, then submit $10 per ticket ($20) for “administrative fees” to have the citations written off. I about flipped my lid when I read that. The DPT brings in $40m a year, so I have little concept of why I must pay fees to have my fine waved. Such is the law, and such is yet another complaint letter for me to write. I’m getting good at writing them these days.

Finally, I went to the MacWorld expo this week. I ended up buying a keyboard cover, 2GB of RAM for my Mac Mini, and laid out the cash for an academic version of Adobe CS2 + Acrobat 8. It’s about time really, I’ve been suffering with The GIMP and I’d like to greatly improve the designs of my various blog sites. Now I have something more to learn, but it’s graphics, so it should be fun!

]]> http://js-kit.com/rss/markballew.com/blog/p=113 1 Happy Birthday Christa http://markballew.com/blog/2006/12/26/happy-birthday-christa/ http://markballew.com/blog/2006/12/26/happy-birthday-christa/#comments Tue, 26 Dec 2006 20:50:55 +0000 MarkBallew http://markballew.com/blog/2006/12/26/happy-birthday-christa/ My sister would have been 37 today.

]]> http://js-kit.com/rss/markballew.com/blog/p=110 0 LiSA’06, Day 3 http://markballew.com/blog/2006/12/05/lisa06-day-3/ http://markballew.com/blog/2006/12/05/lisa06-day-3/#comments Tue, 05 Dec 2006 18:35:10 +0000 MarkBallew http://markballew.com/blog/2006/12/05/lisa06-day-3/ Today’s LISA class involves VMware ESX server. It’s starting out slow like Sunday’s day-long class, but I’m hoping to walk away with more knowledge on good practices on deploying virtual machines. Some key things I’ve gained so far:

  • SAN and LVM are the best way to seup partitions

  • Configuring too many virtual CPUS causes contention if you don’t need that many VCPUs
  • You can’t mix and match CPU types (Intel Vs. AMD)

Also, no power outlets in this room. I’m playing power vulture during the breaks. :\

]]> http://js-kit.com/rss/markballew.com/blog/p=102 0 LISA’06, Day 2 http://markballew.com/blog/2006/12/04/lisa06-day-2/ http://markballew.com/blog/2006/12/04/lisa06-day-2/#comments Mon, 04 Dec 2006 15:42:29 +0000 MarkBallew http://markballew.com/blog/2006/12/04/lisa06-day-2/ I’m here in DC for LISA.

Yesterday’s class got better toward the end of the day, covering topics I was only weakly familiar with. LVS, OpenLDAP, PAM, and even OpenMP were covered. I even took notes!

Today’s morning session is THE LATEST HACKING TOOLS AND DEFENSES by David Rhoades, which has started out with a bang. I know none of his material, showing how far behind I am in computer security. For every question you ask, he throws a little monkey at you. As of the break, I am still monkey-less.

Also, VMware seems to be the hot testbed tool here.

]]> http://js-kit.com/rss/markballew.com/blog/p=101 0 My first kitty died http://markballew.com/blog/2006/11/09/my-first-kitty-died/ http://markballew.com/blog/2006/11/09/my-first-kitty-died/#comments Fri, 10 Nov 2006 01:44:31 +0000 MarkBallew http://markballew.com/blog/2006/11/09/my-first-kitty-died/ My first kitty, who lived with my mom in Carson City for the past 18 years, had to be put down today. She wasn’t eating and had gotten really skinny.

I don’t even have a digital picture of her to post. :(

My mom still has 4 cats, but now she is one kitty less. *sigh*.

2h15m until ZG. I’m gonna need to start drinking before I even head out.

]]> http://js-kit.com/rss/markballew.com/blog/p=95 2 No, not again… disconnected http://markballew.com/blog/2006/11/08/no-not-again-disconnected/ http://markballew.com/blog/2006/11/08/no-not-again-disconnected/#comments Wed, 08 Nov 2006 20:41:01 +0000 MarkBallew http://markballew.com/blog/2006/11/08/no-not-again-disconnected/ I left my cell phone at home — again. How am I supposed to function? What if I get a text message? What if someone tries to call me?! How will I check bus arrival times?!!

Wait, no one ever calls me. Maybe since I left it at home, I’ll suddenly be popular?

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