Technozania

Technozania


How else to describe it?  The server that hosts
this blog was down.  Not just for a few minutes, a few hours, or
even one of those fully forewarned outages in the middle of the night
for a tune-up, modification, upgrade, installation, or whatever the
technogeek squad might call it.  Nope, it was down for a few days.
In this, the day of Moore's Law [1], a few days is nearly a lifetime, practically a generation.




As we used to say back in the dark ages of the prior millenium [2]
and before the shifting of all things paradigm . . . it was as though
the blog (and everything else on the server) went through a
tunnel.  Like with AM Radio.  I date myself with references
of this sort.



This was pretty scary, particularly since it occured almost a year to the day after the old weblogs.com shutdown [3] fiasco [4]
of June, 2004.  Worse yet, the page that came up (the few times during the recent outage that a page even came up at all)  was the 2005
equivalent of the exact same page that came up during the 2004 fracas [5].



Was history repeating itself?  Egad, not now, just as I have
outlines and partially written blog posts, and ideas for a ton more
entries. And not at this moment in time, right after I'd just given two presentations (you can see one of them here [6])
and some  proposals on business blogging.  Many  in
attendance at those sessions have been reading the blog, looking at
some other sites to monitor writing or guest blogging  I've done [7]
-- and some of these readers are also talking about me doing consulting
work with them.  Aargh!  This is like getting drive-by curb-splash [8]/soaked [9] by a speeding car when you're wearing your best duds on the way to an important meeting!



Google [10] and Yahoo [11] searches pointed many would-be visitors to last year's reaction site [12] to the weblogs.com shutdown. 
It is gratifying (and rather calming) that nearly everyone seems to have something nice to say about the FauxBlog [12].  My son's good work lives on!




But then reality sets in:.  YIKES!  No in-the-moment blog, no
current or topical posts, no thematic continuity.  One wonders
about perceptions, and how does this look?




Oi vey, a blogging/website/connectivity & distributed
communications consultant (let's not leave out business development,
strategic planning, marketing) with his main website --this very
blog--  suffering an outage?   This seems like a recipe
for disaster. Or at least a mild dose of near-panic on this end.




As you can tell, simply by virtue of reading this very blog post,
things are back to normal.  Time to calm down from the
no-blog-neuroses.  Whew! .


Technofrustration



When tech matters go nuts, there's no way for the mortal human to even
assist in the repair process, and that process just goes on and on
until the more geeky amongst us get things fixed.


We know it to be more than axiomatic, a veritable truism of  the
information age, a plight faced a by all in the era of connectivity, a
hex on those who rely/participate/conduct business in the "always on"world.  Machinery and programs (excuse me, I meant hardware and software)  are vulnerable to mechanical problems, aging issues,  coding or machine-language or interrupt problems.


I, for one, feel utterly helpless when tech problems are hardware
based, or have to do with deep coding, programming or  software
development issues.  As an applications guy, a user, someone who makes things happen with the available tools of the trade (note: that's a metaphor -  I have no idea what to do with the actual tools a tech/geek would use) I am calm, collected, confident and comfortable.


Kind of like with cars.  I can drive, I can check the oil, and
after years and years behind the wheel, I can diagnose some
problems,  even know what to tell the mechanic to help isolate or
define a concern.  But can I repair the brakes, change the
transmission fluid, overhaul the exhaust system?  Give the car a
tune-up?  Hell, no!  I wouldn't have the first idea where to
start after opening up the hood.  And put the car on a hoist and I
am completely lost, except perhaps to be able to say, "Hey, Bud, look
at the underside of the chassis!"


There are capable service people, mechanics, professionals with
knowledge and skills in these areas.  I leave it to them. 
But one can rent a car, borrow a car, use another of the family
vehicles when the car needs service.  Even with my computers (I
work in a cockpit-like setting, with a  network appliance, two
desktops and a laptop surrounding me in a horseshoe desk arrangement),
though, I am at a loss to  be of use when a server or something on
the hosting end goes awry.


And there is no backup when this happens.


It seems incumbent that I become redundant in these areas.  I work
with a good number of  IT types, people who might have
recommendations on how to avoid or at least be prepared for
circumstances such as these past few days.


In a peculiar turn of events it happens that I spoke about this
situation with two people this week, both of whom are comlpetely
computer illiterate.  And through these conversations, with both
of them , I began to see solutions emerge to these dilemmas.


It always amuses me when people describe me as a tech type. 
Usually that  indicates that I know more than they do, as opposed
to being a true tech savant.  In much of the work I do I interact
with people with complementary skill sets: coders, designers,
developers.  And yet in a few recent events I have indeed
performed tech support functions for people.  In most of these
cases it has had to do with blogware, posting, using FTP and being able
to dig out data or modify presentation of websites or other visual
elements. 


Many of us possess a certain range of technical skill.  We hone
these chops and become more adept as our usage (application) 
increases and as the ubiquity of tech aspects of our lives are on the
rise.


I told a friend that if I had the life of Riley, no need to work and
the ability to do whatever I pleased, one of the first moves I'd make
would be to take some technical courses.  How to build and repair
machines (read: computers) , and  some entry level programming
courses.  The frustration of feeling out of the loop, unable to
offer any help under the hood, and just not knowing anything about the
hardware -- is enough to drive one mad.


Of course, if it were truly the life of Riley, I'd have total
redundancy, a tech/geek-on-duty on a 24/7 basis, and would just spend
my time writing and doing business only by and of choice.


For now, though, my mission is clear: create redundancy, develop a plan
for breakdowns, outages, add the like.  Time to take the Boy Scouts
approach: one must be prepared!