I see People in the Data Center, do you?

8 years ago I left Microsoft after 14 years and didn’t know what I would do next.  One of the people I connected with in 2007 OSI’s Founder and CEO Pat Kennedy.  He asked the question on how to save power in the data center running applications.  After two weeks of noodling on this I figured out how to solve the problem, but then there were all kinds of other problems on how to execute a change in the system to use less energy.

Attending OSIsoft’s User Conference, I met at the time Microsoft’s data center executive Mike Manos and we started a business relationship and friendship that jump started my work in data centers.  One of the next executives I connected with was Olivier Sanche who at the time worked at eBay and again we started a business relationship and friendship that lasted until he tragically passed away.

One of the common traits of Mike and Olivier is they are/were great with people.  They cared deeply for their team and what they could do to support their team.  Hanging around Mike and Olivier I was able to observe first hand the people issues in running data centers.

So many times people when they tour data centers, they focus on the technology in the data center.  I have learned to focus on the people in the data center.  Even when things become automated, there are people behind the automation, design decisions, and maintenance choices.

When you tour a data center, do you see the people or the technology?

You can learn so much more from focusing on the people and talking to them, then analyzing the electrical, mechanical, and IT systems.  And, people can be your friends.

Can you see the choices made in the Media? Gives you insight into how useful their information is

DatacenterDynamics Seattle just on Sept 4, 2014 in Bellevue at the Hyatt.  It was good to catch up with Stephen Worn and one of the conversations I had is does he think people understand how the media companies that cover the data center industry work?  He and I know, but do others?  He agreed that OMG, yes.

Here is a study on traditional media companies.

Rowse found the charges of news bias to be valid--in selection, in display and in tone--on both political sides, but preponderantly in the pro-Republican direction. He concluded that, "with the possible exception of the New York Times, all papers--both Republican and Democratic--showed evidence of favoritism in their news columns in violation of their own accepted rules of conduct," and that "almost every example of favoritism in the news columns coincided with the paper's editorial feelings." This "would indicate that over 80 percent of the nation's newspaper readers may be getting their editorials with some Republican flavoring."

The conclusion of this study is to have media judge other media.

Rowse concludes his book with remarks on the problems of measuring bias. "The persons best qualified to evaluate newspaper fairness," he says, "are newspapermen themselves; yet they are unwilling to do this." He thinks that the next step is to set up regional panels of newspapermen who would meet periodically and rate each paper's performance.

This isn’t going to happen and last to change how we perceive media.  The above study was printed in 1957.

What is useful if you are going to read the media looking for data centers news is to understand how they work.

Too many people read the media and take what is written as gospel.  Many of us laugh when their coworkers quote a media publications article as if it is a fact.

Part of what I have enjoyed is being in the role of blogger and media is learning how media organizations work, and in the process making good friends.  These friends are people who because I know them and how they think and work allow me to refine my perspective on how to read their work.  It is kind of funny to think when I am in a media briefing with other media that I gain more insight on the writers, than the briefing.  Watching the flow of questions from media, what they ask, how they dress, what equipment they have, who they talk to before and after the meeting.  

Wow, just figured out that media briefings are a chance to evaluate the fairness of media.  Watch what is presented.  What is asked.  Then analyze what is written and where the bias is.  All the writers were in the same meeting, yet look at the range of coverage.

Pizza Dough Recipe, Best Taste - Clean and Supportive

For years I have held off on making my own pizza dough.  I tried a couple of times, but I didn’t like the taste and time it took to make the dough.  So I would use pre made dough from Whole Food or Trader Joe’s.

Over the past few months I have gone back to trying to make my own pizza dough, using Woodstone’s pizza dough recipe which is the same company that makes my pizza oven.  I like this recipe because of the taste, clean and supportive for toppings.

Wood Stone Dough

Yield: Makes 6 ea. 7-oz. dough balls
 

Ingredients

1/2 tsp. dry instant yeast
1 tsp. sugar
2 tsp. salt
2 cup water, 65 degrees
1 cup semolina flour, Bob’s Red Mill is great
 4 1/2  -5 cups all-purpose flour, we prefer King Arthur for this dough
Olive oil

Writing this post I discovered this dough tip page that gives you great information to modify the recipe.

Three Styles of Crust

  1. Crispy Crust (thin or thicker crust): Lower gluten (as low as 7.5% is available), a wetter dough (without being sticky), protein content can be the same or lower (for less chewy dough), and oven temperatures between 550-600 degrees.
    • Lower temperature for thicker crust (needs to cook longer, 5-7 minutes)
    • Higher temperature for thin crust (quicker bake, 3-4 minutes)
    • Minimal toppings and sauce: the more “stuff” you have on the pizza the longer it will take to cook and the less crispy it will be.
  2. Cracker Crisp Crust: low protein (10.5-11.5) low gluten flour, longer mixing time (12 minutes) better developed dough.
  3. Thick and Chewy Crust: Gluten in the range of 12-13% and a bit dryer dough, higher protein as well as a lower oven temperature (525-550 degrees) and longer cooking times (6-9 minutes). Use a larger dough ball if using our dough. This is a good style if you like more toppings and sauce on your pizza.

Is your Data Center Team Arrogant? Do you see the impact?

A data center team has a hard job and almost everyone tries to recruit what they think are the best.  What my friends and I have been noticing is how some of the data center teams have been tipping towards an arrogance of thinking they know more than others.  Curious I ran a Google search on “technical arrogance technology” and the following are 5 articles, all about silicon valley’s arrogance pop up.

Why is arrogance bad?  Check out this article.

“Arrogant people are more
than willing to take credit for
their successes, but not their failures,”

Silverman notes. “They 

get angry when their ideas are
criticized, and they tend to put
their personal agendas ahead of
organizational objectives.”