Month: August 2018

Who Knew My URL Vanity Would Hurt Page Rank

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At the tail end of last year I retitled this blog. I did it to better represent what it had evolved into. It also represented future ventures I was going to have after moving. The other reason is I really didn’t have any sort of name for it. It was a sad state of affairs.

At the time I made a conscious decision not to change the URL of the site. That was because over the years I had changed it a few times and really got no value out of making the change.  I wrote about the history of this site here. I kept simply blog.Scott.ac. It represented one of my oldest domains and that this was a blog. I also liked the simple domain name scott dot something.  Since then I’ve had some time to read about how page ranking works in search engines. Apparently the fact that my site is a.AC domain significantly hurts searches. That is because it gets priority in the country localization that is the Ascension Islands. I generally write this blog for me however I do put some effort into it so having an optimized to get more views is a nice bonus. Who knew that the reason I liked the old URL was causing it to not get much visibility like it used to.

Having used the site title “A Scott Odyssey” for about seven or eight months now, I kind of like it. I relate a lot to the theme of the Odyssey, journey that I wrote more about it on this blogs “About Blog” page.

My Third Apple Watch

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I have previously written a lot about my experiences with the Apple Watch(s). I have had a 42mm Stainless Steal original Apple Watch. I sold that after a while.  When the Series 1 & 2’s came out I decided to give it another try. At the time I bought a Series 1 38mm. I wrote about my reasons for selling the original Series 0 and why I bought a Series 1 back in Dec 2016. I had the Series 1 for a while again and decided it still wasn’t for me as my main watch. Selling that Series 1 justified to me that I am still an old school watch person and I bought a Submariner that i was thinking about for several years.

Another year, another shinny new thing from Apple.  This time its the Series 3.  The Apple Watch Series 3 has been out for a while. I didn’t give it much notice since i was happy with my analog watches. I previously wrote about all the reasons for having a smart watch. Telling time, notifications and as an activity tracker. Both times I owned Apple Watches either failed or were simply ok in all three categories. As a watch they were too slow for me to show the time when i lifted my wrist. The notifications were ok but not earth shattering. The activity tracker was nice however I used a Fitbit for sleep so I was wearing it when i wore the Apple Watch anyway so to me i didn’t care much about the activity stuff it did.

Then a few things changed that gave me different perspective. After having my Submariner for a few months i stopped using the Fitbit every day for activity tracking. I didn’t like the Fitbit banging into my watch. For some reason with the Submariner it was much more noticeable than with my other watches. I started to use my iPhone to track activity. I carry it with me most of the day so it was pretty accurate and the reviews said the same about it. For years i have been very big on tracking data points about my activity and health.

One guy at work I noticed had an Apple Watch on one wrist and a regular watch on the other. I asked about it and he liked the activity sensors and notification however was a nice watch guy. I didn’t think wearing a watch or anything for that matter on my dominant wrist so I didn’t give it any more thought. Then a few weeks later I realized I wanted to track my heart rate. I also rethought my opinion about the phone tracking activity. Since switching to the phone to track activity I was less aware of how much i moved a day. I had the data but it was less in my face. I also was less motivated or gameified to be more active. Going back to a smart watch only was a non starter for me. I then thought about my friend who just had both. I was never one to really care about fashon or what others thought about having two watches. Especially when I wear long sleeves most of the time. The issue came down to would a watch on my dominant wrist be comfortable.

Before spending a not insignificant amount of money on a new Apple Watch I decided to wear my Fitbit for a few days on my right wrist. I wanted to get a feel for if a band on my dominant hand was uncomfortable or a distraction. Initially it was very annoying. Then after a few days it became much less so. I had a feeling about that and that’s why I tried the experiment in the first place. I contemplated just using the Fitbit on my dominant hand going forward. I decided against that since one of the main driving forces for me to buy the Apple Watch was the heartbeat monitoring. The Fitbit was pretty good for step count and sleep however fell a little short.

Those nonscientific findings I went to the Apple Store to pick up a series 3. I was originally going to get the standard sports black 38 mm. I ended up spending the extra 50 pounds and got the cellular version. My justification for the splurge was I really liked the band that came standard on the cellular sport version. Since I’ll be putting the watch on and off with my non dominant hand (the watch will be on my dominant wrist) I have trouble with regular clasps. The Velcro like sport and was nice. I know I could’ve bought one As an accessory. The reason I didn’t was that I did not need to bands and the one that came with the lower end watch I did not like. For a slight difference in price then buying the cheaper  watch and extra band I got the cellular version of the watch and the band I wanted. I’m not currently using or even signed up for cellular plan on it. I’m not even sure if I ever will. I do like options, so having the option to do it later was worth it.

As of writing this post I have had the watch for a few months now. My overall impression of it is positive. I have been using it for exactly what I bought it for. It’s doing its job perfectly fine. I do use it a little bit for notifications however not very much. As an activity tracker it is great. The motivations to get up and move around are very helpful. The semi use of notifications and the heartbeat in my mind does justify the extra cost of getting it versus Fitbit. It was more about wanting and not needing for me. I thought that having something on each wrist would look odd however I haven’t had any issues so far.

The W Sisters and The Story of The Smuggled Change Purse

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With school out for 7 weeks the girls are in day camp for a few days a week.  You can send each kid to camp with 50 pence for a snack they can purchase after lunch.  The girls were excited about that so M has been sending them to camp with money for snack.

The other day A didn’t eat her lunch, or eat well while at camp.  Presumably she did eat her snack so M withheld A’s money the next day.  There does need to be consequences to not following directions.

That lead A to apparently take her coin purse (presumably with coins in) it to camp.  She took it upon herself to buy a snack.  Outstanding questions remain around  how much it cost her since she really can’t tell the coins apart from each other.  What facts are in evidence is she got her snack.  Her coin purse went to camp.  Knowing A i am not surprised she pulled a stunt like this.  Before she could talk she would smile at you while hiding her favorite stuffed toy in a bag or behind her back as she smuggled it out of her room (she knew she wasn’t supposed to do that).

If the apocalypse does happen I know who to turn to for black market items.

News Relapse

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I have been pretty good at avoiding the news since early July. Today I had my second big relapse. The first one was due to someone at work who will remain nameless. This time I went on Facebook for a specific reason. I significantly decreased my Facebook usage but I said i wasn’t going to shut down Facebook all together. Going on my news feed for 5 minutes today got me exposed to a whole bunch of bad news stories that I then felt i needed to read. That just made me sad.

I think i need to step up my social media avoidance to keep me from seeing the news. Of course an Onion post I saw got me wondering what it was making fun of. Then I had M tell me the real story and i was sad so even satire is potentially dangerous now a days!

My 221st Day in London Update

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Many of my British friends or people we meet out and about ask me how do I like it in London? They may instead ask what’s the biggest difference between England and America? I feel the answer to both of those questions are kind of related. They are also not really answerable in sentence or two unless I want to wildly generalize. As I start to write this entry a British friend of mine who I’ve known for years asked me how I was liking the country while we were at a pub the other night after work. That question turned into a 15 to 30 minute conversation about it. It also inspired me to want to write and address the question. It may be a complex answer however it’s a great question to address.

At the time of this being published we have officially been living in England for 221 days. I’ve said it a few times to multiple people that either we are still in our honeymoon phase of adjustment or we are already adjusted to life here. The reason is I haven’t really felt a huge amount of stress over adjusting.  It feels like it is a short amount of time to be adjusted already after everything I’ve read. That is why I sometimes think were still stuck in the honeymoon phase however there were rough patches early on so maybe we are adjusted already.  I bring all this up since my answer to this question may obviously change over time especially if we aren’t fully adjusted.

The short answer to the question how do we like it is we’re loving it (so far). The longer answer is that we are generally loving it, however it’s different. It is hard not to compare everything you experience with your prior experiences. That means everything I do I end up comparing it to New York.  In reading about adjusting to a new country they tell you not to do that. I am not saying that’s a good thing to do however it’s what generally happens. When I do that comparison some things are better here.  Some things are not.  Most are just different.

A good example of what is better is our house.  We have a garden with lots of space for the kid.  We are on a good tube line very close to the station. My commute is about the same from New York.  We loved our neighborhood in NY.  Were we are in London is much more suburban feel yet it is basically the same type of area. The house and neighborhood wins out in London over NY.  In general the work life balance in London seems much more relaxed.

There are things that were better in New York.  For us we had a lot of family and friends that we just can’t see anymore. My mom saw the kids twice a week.  We spent a weekend or so a month with M’s parents, etc. We will always have more family in the states however over time we are making friends here.

Then there are things that are just simply different. Maybe marginally better or worse.  They are really just different. Those are the hard ones to explain since my mind immediately tries to rate if it’s better or not to New York or the United States. The reality is it’s all about personal preference. I might love something that someone else might not. For example I’m a relatively fast-paced person. When I lived in Louisiana and I would get behind someone who is writing a check to pay for their groceries I would have no patience when they  stood there for five minutes writing it. London is definitely much more laid-back than New York. It’s still a global city however things are not as fast-paced. Younger version of me who had to deal with the slow of Louisiana likely would be very frustrated by London. Me today however is enjoying that slowdown.

When I think about that abstract that things are slower and more relaxed it is hard to describe. What pop’s into my head is sitting in a café in a museum.  The kids eating scones while drinking coffee on real China. In New York everything would be so rushed and everything would be disposable paper.  In London over the winter we went to the museums a bunch of times and relived that scene I described.  M more than I. Everything is all about the context. The subtle differences would have annoyed me in the past and I actually enjoy them today. That doesn’t mean there better or worse. It’s the differences that were trying to experience and enjoy.  Thankfully for now those differences are favorable to us.  In a year, or 5 years in the context of the example I gave will I return to my old impatient self?  Who knows. I hope not but you never know.

I can write so much more on this topic.  It is likely best to pick up at another point in time.  I will say for all of our friends in the States curious about how we are doing we are having a great experience.  It is harder than it looks however the rewards are totally worth it. It boils down to a Simpsons quote I like to use.  If you ask me am I enjoying life in England.  The yes or no answer is “Yes with an if, no with a but. Leaning towards yes…

The Story Of How I Found My Why

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As the division I work in is going through its own branding exercise as it prepares to be spun off from the rest of the company. I thought it was a good idea to work on my personal branding. Last October I wrote about the book Start With Why. As I mentioned at the time my initial reasons for reading it was to come up with my personal brand. That morphed into writing out what my “why” was. I given it a little bit of thought on and off since then. I was frustrated that I couldn’t come up with something that truly explained me.  So I parked the objective while I gave it further thought.

If you’ve read this blog you can tell that this year’s been very transformative for me. I moved across the world. My dad passed. You know lots of life stuff happened. Along the way it dawned on me that I want to focus more of my career on information security. It has always been a big part of my work however never a direct focus. For the past few years I have been focusing on growing SRE teams and cloud technology. Information security and cloud technology go hand-in-hand. I found myself wanting to be more directly involved in the security aspects of work than anything else. It’s what I find myself most interested in outside of work. So why not be my focus for my career.

I think that was the bit of information that I needed to click in my head to come up with my wife statement. Surprisingly after I had that clarity of focus on why I was motivated writing out the “what” and “how” of what I do came very easily. I have asked a few friends in the industry for feedback.  I liked the idea of my own personal board of directors after reading a few articles on the topic.  With some trusted friends advise I only had some minor tweaks. I felt like it was time to post to LinkedIn.  Then I felt like writing about it here.

This doesn’t necessarily mean I’m shopping around for new job. I’ve worked enough in incident preparedness to know that you need to be ready for the unexpected. That means having my public profile to date.  It is also always a good idea to keep my options open.  Sometimes the best things come out of the blue.  That is how I ended up at my interview at my current job in the first place!

Without further ado my personal why statement (aka personal brand) is:

I want people to feel safe using technology. People are not able to truly feel secure using technology if they fear they are being watched.

I manage teams that build, maintain and support secure fault tolerant applications and infrastructure be it on premises or in the public cloud. I do this by hiring engineers who believe DevSecOps is more than a buzz word. I grow high performance teams that believe those who do the work should have a say in how the work is done.

I build world class tools and procedures to empower operations teams to provide high level of availability to whatever they build and maintain.

What can I build for you?