My Day As Mr. Big Shot
09 Feb '06 - 05:01 by benrToday was very interesting... I got to break out of the norm and be Mr. Big Shot. At least, for me it was pretty nifty. I stacked up several Sun related events and took a half-day of vacation to hang out at Sun's Menlo Park campus.
The day started off in Menlo Park Building 14 (MPK14) where I was asked to be interviewed for a segment of the upcoming Sun Developer Network Channel show, supposedly to be released around the 22nd of Feb. This was an all together interesting experience for me for several reasons. First, I'm not charasmatic before about 1pm but they scheduled the interview for 11am, so my answers were short and lackluster and I probly looked alittle spacy. In a sense that worked to my advantage because the interview was so short and he switch topics so quickly I couldn't really give a meaningful answer anyway. Secondly, because it was like all "lights-camera-action", just like you'd joke about. There was a crew of 3, camera guy, sound guy, and (I kid you not) a director, in addition to the host and co-host. In an effort to reach "real developers" they don't want these videos to seem corp-ish, so how do the solve the problem? Film it standing next to a foosball table. Ironically, I hate foosball, its just retarded and lame. "Real" would have been outside JavaJava (a little upscale cafe inside the Menlo Park Campus) having coffee and a cig. But, foosball it was. Now, to make matters more interesting, they filmed several close up shots of a goal being scored, and then they cut to the host shaking my hand and saying "Haha, great game.... My guest is Ben Rockwood, good to have you on the shot" etc. So, it might look like I'm playing a match, but I literally never touched the table. The third interesting bit, is that not only am I standing next to a foosball table and mic'ed for sound and only half awake but in order to stay in frame, because the camera was so close (filmed in a hallway) I'm like no more than a foot away from the host, and so its kinda akward, for me anyway. Very very interesting experience. Apparently it went well because we "got it on the first take". 11am I was there, 11:30 I was escorted out, just that quick. I'm totally honored that they'd ask me to do it. I think they said that my segment would come right after a segment by Jonathan, so thats even more kick ass. Maybe it'll look good, I don't know. I'm a minimalist sort of guy that figures "real" means coffee and smoking or Guinness and laptops... you know, like "real" geek stuff. But maybe those ideas are to be saved for my own show, should I ever make one. :)
After the filming (sounds wierd to say) I had an hour before my next stop so I asked Sun's best and brightest PM, Jennifer Bauer, if she'd be free for an early lunch, and thankfully she was. We had a nice lunch in the caf and caught up on things. I always enjoy keeping up on her action packed adventures.
Following lunch it was off to MPK17 to join in on the second half of the CAB Con-Call. It was fun though to be on the call in person with all the Sun guys. I looked for some of the guys that would be on the call in their offices but they weren't around, so I checked a couple confrence rooms and eventually, not finding them, just ducked into an empty room and called in. Turns out they were down a couple halls for me, so I gathered my stuff and ran over. To my supprise both Simon and Casper were in the area and in the room for the call, along with Jim and Stephen, leaving Rich and Al on the phone.
At 1pm I was done with the call and was tenatively schedualed to meet with Bill Vass (Sun CIO), or one of his people, about an article for an upcoming newsletter. How kool is that! Sadly, I'd tried all morning to contact the appropriate persons and just couldn't get ahold of them, so after leaving another vmail or two I figured it wasn't happening today. So I guess that'll be forthcoming.
I figured since I was on campus I'd try to slip into the Sun Store on campus and pick up some new Sun shirts and stuff. I walked over, rockin' out to some Fear Factory on the iPod, and into the caf when it just so happened, by chance, that I'd be walking the whole time behind two very kickass persons: Dr. Stephen Hahn and Karyn Ritter. I'd never met Karyn in person before, and the first time I'd met Stephen in person was in the call that I'd just been on, although I didn't realize it was him from the back. When they saw me behind them they said hello and invited me to have lunch with them. Thats an invite you just don't say no to, but I'd eaten so I told 'em that I'd catch up to them a couple minutes later. So I ran into the Sun Store, bought about $110 worth of Sun shirts, then ran over to get some coffee from the Pete's they have there (although no one was behind the counter, so after a minute or two I freaked out the other people around by just going behind the counter, pouring my own coffee and leaving $2 on the register).
I had a wonderful chat with both Stephen and Karyn. Both of them are exceptionally bright people and very friendly. Stephens personality is pronounced, very bold, and very powerful. Karyn was very kind, very experienced, and has a classic smile thats friendly and warm, a trait which reminded me very much of Claire Giordano. Our discussion was interesting and lively. I'm always interested in getting off-the-record, personal, and open input on how they feel the community is doing, what we can do to help, and just get general feedback and opinions that you just can't get via a more structured communications channel like email. Lots of ideas, comments, and experiences flew back and forth and it was thoroughly enjoyable and enlightening. Its one of those sorts of discussions that you don't neccisarily walk away with any specific point, per se, but you tap the pulse of the project from specific points of view, high ranking internal ones in this case, and get a general vibe on things. I consider the conversation private, and thus won't disclose the contents of the discussion but I'll say that one thing I look for in discussions like this is whether or not the vibe I get from them in person is consistant with the vibe you get from them in general... that is to say, are they geniune or do they start unloading on people when the cameras are turned off. I'm glad to say that without a doubt, both Karyn and Stephen are straight shooters, very consistant, and very driven, and I feel even more confident in the project as a whole with them holding the reigns internally. It was a great oppertunity and I'm really greatful for it.
We wrapped up lunch about 2:20pm and I ran back to my car. Since I actually have a job that isn't with Sun I didn't want to get into hot water with my manager, particularly because I'm in the middle of several time sensative projects right now. Thankfully he was understanding about it all and there wasn't a problem. The rest of the afternoon consisted of email, finally getting a media kit for NetBackup 6.0 and installing it on my bad ass Sun X4200 server, and prep'ing 6 crappy X86 boxes for a mail system I'm eval'ing.
So, a very interesting day. Being around so many important folks and being featured in a video and all that kinda makes me look like a big shot guy, but I'll tell you I don't feel like it. Its both intimidating and exciting to be involved with all these things and to have your opinion valued and requested. All these people at Sun are just people, like you and I, but as a Solaris enthusiast and Sun zealot I look up to these people with great respect, to hang out in the same room with them or having lunch with them is no small thing in my book. I certainly don't take anything for granted. I feel really honored and greatful to be involved as much as I am and that I'm given so many oppertunities to be involved. I'm no one special or particularly unique, no more so than anyone reading this blog, its perhaps due more to the fact that I'm a) very vocal, and b) live in the silicon valley where all this stuff happens. If you (my humble reader) and I swapped places I'd be the one reading this post, and so I might get to play Mr. Big Shot for a day, but its just a day, and its not solely because I'm me, but, it sure is fun for a day.
Sounds like a great day.
Dan Lacher (Email) (URL) - 09 February '06 - 05:50
Fear Factory.. nice.. Soul of a New machine, Demanufacture? man.. only if we had a Sun Store in Texas.Derek Crudgington (Email) (URL) - 09 February '06 - 12:36
damn it. now I gotta figure out how to one-up you on this one. damn you!pandora (Email) (URL) - 09 February '06 - 12:41
for the record, my favorite albums are Archetype, and Concrete. w00t.pandora (Email) (URL) - 09 February '06 - 12:42
I’ve got just about all their albums in my iPod, but for a quick mid-day pick me up nothing beats the song “Cyberwaste” on Architype. Its fast, upbeat, and really gets me pumped up. Trying not to headbang is always a challange though. :)And as for the Concrete album, I’m not a fan, I’d take “Soul of a New Machine”, which is effectively a better recording of many of the songs on Concrete but with all the anti-god songs removed…. you can only take so much “God hates me, God kills me, blah blah” before you just wanna tell them to stop being so whiney and take a little responsability. When in doubt, refresh with Slayer’s only non-whiney slbum: “Seasons in the Abyss”.
benr - 09 February '06 - 13:02
That would have made a good audio clip !Francois (Email) (URL) - 09 February '06 - 13:17
haha ya good point on soul of a new machine, very good point. aside of my fear factory fix…. pantera, and lamb of god are frequent in my playlists :)pandora (Email) (URL) - 09 February '06 - 18:44
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