Re: [OPINION] Best place in the US for NetAdmins
On Fri, Jul 25, 2014 at 05:35:45PM -0700, Scott Weeks wrote: One day, hopefully, telecommuting really takes off [...] It often strikes me as incredibly ironic that companies which *would not exist* were it not for the Internet are among the most resistant to the simple, obvious concept that telecommuting allows them to hire the best and brightest regardless of geography. Telecommuting should not be a rare exception: it should be the default. And corporate headquarters should be as small and inexpensive as possible, staffed (in person) only by a handful of people -- if even that. Asking net admins to do stupid, wasteful, expensive things like commute 3 hours a day and live in areas with ridiculously inflated housing prices is a good way to filter *out* the employees one would most like to have. ---rsk
Re: [OPINION] Best place in the US for NetAdmins
Rich, In principal I agree, and I've said this many times, for years I've telecommuted myself, mostly effectively. I'd work much longer hours, but not always worked as efficiently during all of those hours. When I started my own company, with $$ be in short supply like all start ups I I planned to have as many folks telecommute as possible. In some cases it worked out, in others it was a terrible failure. Maybe it was my hiring choices, maybe it was being a bad manager but without people in the office it was harder to tell. Also with most people under one roof now, I also see the on going information sharing that isn't as possible with a mostly remote office. -jim On Sat, Jul 26, 2014 at 8:04 AM, Rich Kulawiec r...@gsp.org wrote: On Fri, Jul 25, 2014 at 05:35:45PM -0700, Scott Weeks wrote: One day, hopefully, telecommuting really takes off [...] It often strikes me as incredibly ironic that companies which *would not exist* were it not for the Internet are among the most resistant to the simple, obvious concept that telecommuting allows them to hire the best and brightest regardless of geography. Telecommuting should not be a rare exception: it should be the default. And corporate headquarters should be as small and inexpensive as possible, staffed (in person) only by a handful of people -- if even that. Asking net admins to do stupid, wasteful, expensive things like commute 3 hours a day and live in areas with ridiculously inflated housing prices is a good way to filter *out* the employees one would most like to have. ---rsk
Re: [OPINION] Best place in the US for NetAdmins
On Sat, Jul 26, 2014 at 7:04 AM, Rich Kulawiec r...@gsp.org wrote: On Fri, Jul 25, 2014 at 05:35:45PM -0700, Scott Weeks wrote: One day, hopefully, telecommuting really takes off [...] It often strikes me as incredibly ironic that companies which *would not exist* were it not for the Internet are among the most resistant to the simple, obvious concept that telecommuting allows them to hire the best and brightest regardless of geography. Hi Rich, It's hard to manage telecommuters. Any manager can see whether or not you're at your desk, but gauging your work output and assessing whether it's happening at an appropriate rate is actually pretty challenging. This is especially true of systems administration where the ideal output of your efforts is that nothing is observed to have happened -- you prevented all problems from escalating to where they became visible. So not only does your manager have to be really good at management, he has to understand your work well enough to assess the quality and quantity of your results too. In other words, you may be asking more of your manager than you're willing to ask of yourself. Generally speaking, you're more valuable to a company if that equation is the other way around. Regards, Bill Herrin -- William Herrin her...@dirtside.com b...@herrin.us Owner, Dirtside Systems . Web: http://www.dirtside.com/ Can I solve your unusual networking challenges?
Re: [OPINION] Best place in the US for NetAdmins
On Sat, Jul 26, 2014 at 7:04 AM, Rich Kulawiec r...@gsp.org wrote: Telecommuting should not be a rare exception: it should be the default. And corporate headquarters should be as small and inexpensive as possible, staffed (in person) only by a handful of people -- if even that. Automattic (WordPress) works like that. There's a book about it. http://www.amazon.com/The-Year-Without-Pants-WordPress-com/dp/1118660633 j -- --- Joly MacFie 218 565 9365 Skype:punkcast WWWhatsup NYC - http://wwwhatsup.com http://pinstand.com - http://punkcast.com VP (Admin) - ISOC-NY - http://isoc-ny.org -- -
Re: FTTH and DSLAM Access Vendors
I would definitely find any information on this quite useful. I've had clients try to make this very comparison in the past, and it can become quite tedious when dealing with sales staff from 6 different companies who want to sell you something, while not explaining further as to why their platform is better than 'xyz' On Thu, Jul 24, 2014 at 10:49 PM, Colton Conor colton.co...@gmail.com wrote: I am looking for comparisons between the following FTTH GPON and VDSL2 access platforms. Has anyone recently compared the capabilities of each of these platforms? Alcatel-Lucent 7360 ISAM Adtran Total Access 5000 Calix E7 Cisco ME4600 Huawei MA5600T Zhone MXK They all look great on paper, but there has to be some key differences other than price. Besides the vendors listed above, is there anyone else in this market? -- Ryan Gard
Re: [OPINION] Best place in the US for NetAdmins
Joly MacFie wrote: On Sat, Jul 26, 2014 at 7:04 AM, Rich Kulawiec r...@gsp.org wrote: Telecommuting should not be a rare exception: it should be the default. And corporate headquarters should be as small and inexpensive as possible, staffed (in person) only by a handful of people -- if even that. Automattic (WordPress) works like that. There's a book about it. http://www.amazon.com/The-Year-Without-Pants-WordPress-com/dp/1118660633 Funny thing. A place I'm working now (not as a sysadmin, though) builds intelligent transportation systems for buses (dispatch systems, passenger information, and the like) - half of us are spread all over the place. A lot of us live pretty far from the home office, and spend most of our time working from home; then there are all the folks on the road doing sales; and the deployment teams working on-site at customer locations. About the only folks who are actually in the office a lot are the design engineers and the folks who build hardware. Works pretty well - though proposals get kind of interesting (which is what I mostly do these days). The problem isn't so much remoteness (email, audio bridges, and webex work well enough) - it's finding blocks of time for meetings - everyone is juggling too many things - kind of organizational ADHD. Personally, I think there's a lot to be said for actually having everybody in the same physical place - makes those impromptu hallway conversations a lot easier. Cheers, Miles -- In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is. Yogi Berra
Re: [OPINION] Best place in the US for NetAdmins
On Sat, Jul 26, 2014 at 7:04 AM, Rich Kulawiec r...@gsp.org wrote: On Fri, Jul 25, 2014 at 05:35:45PM -0700, Scott Weeks wrote: One day, hopefully, telecommuting really takes off [...] It often strikes me as incredibly ironic that companies which *would not exist* were it not for the Internet are among the most resistant to the simple, obvious concept that telecommuting allows them to hire the best and brightest regardless of geography. Telecommuting should not be a rare exception: it should be the default. And corporate headquarters should be as small and inexpensive as possible, staffed (in person) only by a handful of people -- if even that. Asking net admins to do stupid, wasteful, expensive things like commute 3 hours a day and live in areas with ridiculously inflated housing prices is a good way to filter *out* the employees one would most like to have. Something like 40% of IBM'ers telecommute, saving IBM $2.9B (if you believe some PR). And IBM is about as large and bloated, report heavy, mgmt heavy, conference call heavy, that a company can get. :-) -Jim P.
Re: Richard Bennett, NANOG posting, and Integrity
Suresh wrote: The debate is dominated by the parties of the first part unfortunately (and add professors of law to this already toxic mix) Ahem. I resemble that remark. Anne Anne P. Mitchell, Attorney at Law CEO/President Institute for Social Internet Public Policy Member, Cal. Bar Cyberspace Law Committee Author: Section 6 of the Federal CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 Ret. Professor of Law, Lincoln Law School of San Jose
Re: Richard Bennett, NANOG posting, and Integrity
I hardly ever see you say something wrong about net neutrality or anything else :). No, other, far more usual suspects in mind here. On Saturday, July 26, 2014, Anne P. Mitchell, Esq. amitch...@isipp.com wrote: Suresh wrote: The debate is dominated by the parties of the first part unfortunately (and add professors of law to this already toxic mix) Ahem. I resemble that remark. Anne Anne P. Mitchell, Attorney at Law CEO/President Institute for Social Internet Public Policy Member, Cal. Bar Cyberspace Law Committee Author: Section 6 of the Federal CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 Ret. Professor of Law, Lincoln Law School of San Jose -- --srs (iPad)
Re: [OPINION] Best place in the US for NetAdmins
On Sat, Jul 26, 2014 at 7:29 AM, jim deleskie deles...@gmail.com wrote: In principal I agree, and I've said this many times, for years I've telecommuted myself, mostly effectively. I'd work much longer hours, but not always worked as efficiently during all of those hours. [snip] It's worth noting that working at max efficiency is often not even the best thing for a company. This has been known for years [1], but most companies don't put it into practice. [1] http://www.amazon.com/The-Principles-Product-Development-Flow/dp/1935401009
Re: [OPINION] Best place in the US for NetAdmins
On Tue, 22 Jul 2014, Nolan Rollo wrote: I've been trying to decide for a while what makes a good home for a Network Admin... access to physical, reliable upstream routes? good selection of local taverns? What, in your opinion, makes a good location for a Network Admin and where in the US would you find that? Some place with someone willing to pay for a network admin services. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has employment and salary data for computer and network administrators covering the entire USA. http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes151142.htm Other than that, what people are willing to accept, and what people are willing to offer will vary alot. Self-employed, small, medium, large organization. Rural/city. Family/single activities. Work anywhere/Get away from work. Colloborative/solitary environment. And so on. http://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/network-and-computer-systems-administrators.htm
Re: Richard Bennett, NANOG posting, and Integrity
On Fri, Jul 25, 2014 at 4:44 PM, Eric Brunner-Williams brun...@nic-naa.net wrote: On 7/25/14 4:29 PM, Suresh Ramasubramanian wrote: Not that some leading proponents of net neutrality would even know a router if it bit them ... i'm _trying_ to imagine the lobbyists, corporate counsels, and company officers above the v.p. of engineering i know who have vastly superior clue and i'm finding my imagination lacking. Oh, they're out there. Not every company can be so lucky as to have an awesome corporate general counsel, but I've gotta say, they do exist; I'm amazingly lucky to have a corporate general counsel who is technically savvy, genuinely personable, incredibly smart, and one of the nicest people you'll ever meet. #shamless plug http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/print-edition/2014/03/14/at-yahoo-ron-bell-stood-up-for-users-privacy.html?page=all Matt $friday.
Re: [OPINION] Best place in the US for NetAdmins
--- s...@donelan.com wrote: From: Sean Donelan s...@donelan.com http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes151142.htm http://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/network-and-computer-systems-administrators.htm -- As is usual, you come up with the coolest data on stuff. This http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/sw151142.png Annual Mean Wage of Network and Computer Systems Administrators by State, May 2013 is surprising, though. The numbers are much lower than I would expect. scott
Re: [OPINION] Best place in the US for NetAdmins
--- m...@mtcc.com wrote: From: Michael Thomas m...@mtcc.com Maybe the webrtc stuff will help this by making ad hoc communication trivial - Some work from home well and some don't. It all depends on self-discipline. However, for those that can telecommute successfully (I've done that in the past, so I have experience to speak from) easy communication of various types (text, audio, or a/v when needed) with team members is crucial. scott
Re: [OPINION] Best place in the US for NetAdmins
On 7/26/2014 5:55 PM, Scott Weeks wrote: Some work from home well and some don't. It all depends on self-discipline. However, for those that can telecommute successfully (I've done that in the past, so I have experience to speak from) easy communication of various types (text, audio, or a/v when needed) with team members is crucial. To be fair, it also depends on the office environment. People slack off in the office just as easily. I find that I prefer self-imposed stress running my own business rather than being stuck in a job where I was unappreciated and had to listen to how replaceable I was. Not all work environments are the same. I definitely agree on the communication, though. However, I think that is vital in any environment. Has this mailing list never helped you out? Have you never made contacts online that have been invaluable? When working in a team, it is vital to have team communications, but does our expertise stop at the team? Perhaps I view things differently since I'm surrounded in real life by people who don't do what I do. My online contacts are my comrades, my sounding board, and my teachers. It's rather lonely to accomplish something and have no one to share it with. I still work in a team environment, but my team covers all aspects of the business. The fun of writing code or designing a routing policy tends to escape my fellow team members. Then again, I probably don't appreciate the success of a sale or successful price negotiations. Jack P.S. You know who you are that have helped me over the years. Thank you.
Re: [OPINION] Best place in the US for NetAdmins
On Sat, Jul 26, 2014 at 1:13 PM, Owen DeLong o...@delong.com wrote: Bill, on your list of not so wonderful things in DC, you left off: Weather In the sumer, the DC area is, well, what you’d expect from a hot, humid, fetid swamp. In the winter, you can make ice cream outside without rock salt (though there’s plenty of salt available on the roads). Meh. The weather is always temperate indoors. You ARE a computer guy, right? Contrary to Bill’s claims, we have nearly as many data centers housing lots of interconnect, content providers, etc. out here, too. We’re also a primary gateway to Asia and the Pacific as well as Australia. I wouldn't dream of suggesting that silicon valley lacks for anything of interest to computer and networking folks. You even have heavy taxation, heavy regulation and a state government ever on the brink of financial collapse, all things less prevalent in Northern Virginia. Though if you really enjoy those things you can always visit DC or the People's Republic of Maryland. Regards, Bill Herrin -- William Herrin her...@dirtside.com b...@herrin.us Owner, Dirtside Systems . Web: http://www.dirtside.com/ Can I solve your unusual networking challenges?
Re: [OPINION] Best place in the US for NetAdmins
On 07/26/2014 06:01 PM, William Herrin wrote: On Sat, Jul 26, 2014 at 1:13 PM, Owen DeLong o...@delong.com wrote: Bill, on your list of not so wonderful things in DC, you left off: Weather In the sumer, the DC area is, well, what you’d expect from a hot, humid, fetid swamp. In the winter, you can make ice cream outside without rock salt (though there’s plenty of salt available on the roads). Meh. The weather is always temperate indoors. You ARE a computer guy, right? Contrary to Bill’s claims, we have nearly as many data centers housing lots of interconnect, content providers, etc. out here, too. We’re also a primary gateway to Asia and the Pacific as well as Australia. I wouldn't dream of suggesting that silicon valley lacks for anything of interest to computer and networking folks. You even have heavy taxation, heavy regulation and a state government ever on the brink of financial collapse, all things less prevalent in Northern Virginia. Though if you really enjoy those things you can always visit DC or the People's Republic of Maryland. Don't forget the hipsters with their skinny jeans. And $1M median housing prices. It's awful out here. We're on the brink of collapse and will be joining the ranks of Mississippi soon, with our main export being deep fried silicon. Mike
Re: [OPINION] Best place in the US for NetAdmins
On Sat, 26 Jul 2014 15:34:14 -0700, Scott Weeks said: Annual Mean Wage of Network and Computer Systems Administrators by State, May 2013 is surprising, though. The numbers are much lower than I would expect. Remember that's the *mean*. There's a lot of small companies that have some kid that has a 2 year degree and the first Crisco/MCSE cert and not much else. They're not going to get rockstar salaries in places like Wyoming or West Virginia pgpQJPx4W3j17.pgp Description: PGP signature
