Scaling at ebay
Usually I don’t like to pass along links to articles without some sort of technical comment on its content, but in this case I’ll let the author’s words do the talking. This is a particularly interesting topic for me because I was part of the original POC team that enabled ebay on WAS back in the day. My how they have grown…. http://www.infoq.com/articles/ebay-scalability-best-practices 
Patience, my long lost virtue
I have a serious problem. I’m losing all patience. Admittedly, I never really had much. My Dad often called me “instant gratification Tom”. Perhaps I’m just becoming increasingly aware of my lack of patience as I grow older but I think things are getting worse. In an attempt to fit in with our prevailing societal wind, I will blame something other than myself for my problem. It seems to me, that the confluence of two realities of the world I inhabit are exacerbating my already a ailing patience.
First, I’d like to blame the always-connected nature of my life. Where ever I go, whatever I do, I’m always reachable, usually in many ways. At work I am available via my work phone, cell phone, work-email and work IM (sametime). When I’m away from my desk the number of ways to reach me drops by one or two…. At home I’m available by home phone, cell phone, Yahoo! IM, MSN IM, and 1 of N per personal email addresses. When on the road, I’m still accessible by cellphone. About the only places where I’m not accessible is in church and on an airplane, and only because I’m shamed into shutting off my mobile.
Second I blame data-overload. Every day it becomes easier to acquire data. It would be one thing if the data were boring or random but it is not. It is interesting data. Data I want to have. There are news sites, tech sites, special interest sites, and the latest and largest offenders, blogs. All with interesting data. However acquiring data comes at a cost, it must be processed. And processing takes time. To much time.
The net result of being always-connect and having data-overload is that I have no patience. This works against me in three ways. First, I expect an instant response. When I send an email I expect a response within a day. If I send and instance message I expect a response within a minute. If I get someone’s answer machine I hit ‘1′ immediately in hopes of by-passing the undoubtedly long and boring message. The irony of requiring instant responses from people is that I don’t have the patience to listen to the responses thoroughly. There is so much data out there that I must skim for content. This often results in disastrous consequences where I ignore part of the message or miss in an important detail. Finally, since I expect so much of others, it would be hypocritical not to expect the same from myself. Thus I feel pressure to instantly answer requests which negatively effects the clarity and content of the response.
The sad reality is that as time moves forward things will get worse. More interesting data will become easily accessible and I will become available in additional ways. Something has got to give, and I hope it is not my sanity.
Best of Luck Joe!
Joe Gregorio, a constant tumbling tumbleweed, is moving on to his next challenge. Over the course of the past year I’ve had the privileged of working closely with Joe at IBM within the WSTI. I’ve learned much and come to think of him as friend. I’m sure he will do wonderfully at Google, as he has at IBM. Here is wishing him the best in all future endeavors.
Madison proclaimed Best College Sports Town, Again
My friend Joe Gregorio posted a link to the Money Magazine article ranking Apex, NC, the city where I currently reside, as the 14th best city in America in which to live. That is great, but I have better news.
My profile doesn’t state it, but I am an alumni of the University of the Wisconsin Madison and a Badger to the core. Few things make me happier than seeing in print what I already know in my heart to be true. Madison is the best college sports town in America, nay the world. One of the more memorable proclamations was written in Sports Illustrated with this 2003 article. Now ESPN has jumped on the Madison bandwagon with Scott Van Pelt’s reaffirmation that UW-Madison belongs in the #1 spot (mp3 found here).
Hogwash you say, another homer proclaiming his alma mater as the best in the nation, nothing new here. Well as it so happens one of the benefits of working for I‘ve Been Moved is having the opportunity to inhabit many different cities. While working at IBM I’ve lived in some of the other cities vying for the #1 spot, including Austin, TX and The Triangle (Chapel Hill and Durham NC) areas. Let me tell you, while each of these areas have their charm, Madison does stand alone as the best college sports town…in the world. Period.
Let me end by saying: “On Wisconsin!” and “Go Badgers!”