Updated: 12/4/05; 9:47:18 PM

 Friday, December 2, 2005
Firefox Taking Notes from Apple's Switchers Campaign
firefox.jpgHelp spread the word, Firefox 1.5 has been released this week and it's a compelling upgrade feature wise (despite still looking like Ass on the Mac).

I can't tell you how happy it makes me to see the success that Firefox is having on the web. This is one of those all too rare occasions where a novel idea is achieving quasi-mass acceptance with every day people much to the detriment of Microsoft. This site closely mirrors Apple's previous Switcher campaign and at the same time, offers some great talking points for the uninitiated.

To help celebrate the announcement, be sure to check out todays bit by Rocketboom which is absolutely hilarious. While watching this, make note of the people who appear (as a general statement) to be the most out of touch, clueless are the ones answering with Internet Explorer while everyone who generally seems to be the more clued in folks all answer FireFox. Of course, you can always edit a piece to paint any picture you want but on the whole, this was very funny.

While you are at it, check out this fantastic Firefox extension which really shows off the innovative side of the third party extension makers.

4:01:13 PM    
Top 10 System Administrator Truths
bofh.jpg This is a Top 10 list for all of the System Admins out there. The article goes into more depth on the topic but I find it somewhat humorous, especially a few of the items which are entirely 'BigCorp' centric (see #7).

Do you think that you'll ever, EVER walk into some progressive, interesting start up company, the folks doing the really interesting work that's happening on the web these days (Pick any give Web 2.0 companies at random) and see their server room decked out in pure Microsoft gear the way larger companies are? No. Instead you'll more likely going to see one or two extremely capable sysadmins running the entire shop supporting some extremely hefty technical demands of their users (who are mostly developers).

  • #1 – Users Lie
  • #2 – Email is the Lifeblood of Non-Techies
  • #3 – Printers Suck
  • #4 – Cleanliness is Godliness
  • #5 – Backups are Crucial
  • #6 – Switches and Hubs (Usually) Die One Port At A Time
  • #7 – No One Ever Got Fired For Buying Microsoft
  • #8 – Politeness > Brevity
  • # 9 – Know Your Needs
  • #10 – The Holy Grail of Tech Support
There was a time, years ago, when the thought of working at Microsoft was such a dream job -- or alternatively, supporting a large Windows based network just sounded like it couldn't get any better but after living with Windows since Windows 1.0, that pretty much sounds like a lifetime of hell to me. The thing that I never got was that a lot (but by no means all) SysAdmins are some pretty damn smart people who live and breath technology just like us developers -- yet by necessity, their focus is on living in Microsoft-land and making similar recommendations. It makes sense, job security and all but who wants to spend their professional life dealing with the lowest ladder on the technical food chain (as far as what's actually interesting and enjoyable to work with)? It's like being in the automotive business but specializing on the Ford pinto while all the cool kids are off test driving the Ferraris of the world. Go figure. While we're on the topic, be sure to check out one of my absolute, long time favorite SysAdmin related items, the Bastard Operator from Hell! A true English classic.
3:45:01 PM