Two Recommendations On Linked-In

I honor integrity and justice.  It’s part of who I have chosen to be.  And as a part of my attempts to come to closure with my recent job change, I have devoted some time this morning to expressing my gratitude for the people who contributed to my thriving at Verizon, both by their examples, and in our professional interactions.

I present to you, my words about Dante Pacella:

Dante Pacella is the full package.  In my time working with him, I have come to characterize him as a brilliant and long-sighted engineer whose memory for detail is incredible, and whose ability to integrate those data into systems is, to me, simply stunning.  He also navigates negotiations within the company bureaucracy with incredible skill.

I was in the Systems Integration Testing group when I worked with Dante, and every experience with him was an immense privilege.  He produces the best and most detailed test requirements that I have ever seen, which incidentally also demonstrated his deep understanding of the systems we were evaluating for deployment, and an understanding of how to be concise by focusing on fundamentals.  He was the spiritual author for many of the best tests that I ended up automating and building upon.

I can never possibly repay Dante for everything I have learned from him.  It’s impossible.  And that’s some serious praise.  But I come to work with an active mind and hopefully, that at least makes me worthy of that privilege.  Thanks, Dante.

And my words about Jim Koskulitz:

Jim Koskulitz is a man that I credit directly with my thriving at Verizon.  Under his management, we began an initiative to systematically automate repetitive and time-consuming testing to make the entire process more efficient, more consistent, and to leverage non-working hours.  

This had been attempted by managers prior to Jim.  Jim made it a priority and gave me and a couple of teammates a lot of freedom and guidance on how to go about building it.  These are important things, as is the time risk involved in possibly having project deadlines slip.  It was a calculated gamble and it paid off in big ways for Verizon, and for me personally.

I would like to thank Jim for his leadership and his continued inquisitiveness and attentiveness for the half-decade or so that I worked with him.  He’s a great technical contributor and a damn good manager.

My New Linked-In Summary (who have I been and where am I going?)

Francis Luong (AKA “Franco”) is a man in transition. 

He spent the last decade refining and improving the methodologies used to test IP/MPLS topologies and network elements by exploiting TCL/EXPECT as a means of automating the testing work flow. This made the method and output more consistent and detailed, and extended the workday beyond the usual 8-hours that a typical human being is present and attentive. 

Says Franco, “Test engineers who create automation spend less time doing things in a mindless stupor. They will get more satisfaction as creators of interesting things that just improved the quality of their lives than as do-ers of boring tasks with which they feel somewhat unconnected.”

He is now on a two week “rest” period before starting his next Network Engineering position with Juniper Networks. During this time, he expects to be busy as hell diving into the world of DC entrepreneurs, leaning about the problems they face and how he can contribute both in terms of technology, and in sheer terms of untangling logistical rats nests. He will get to see “bootstrapping” in action, and, hopefully, to do some of that himself. With any luck, he might find a glimmer of passion in the process.

A very fond fare thee well to each of you...

UUNET Vacation


It has been an amazing decade and some change since I joined UUNET as a Sales Engineer.  We have been through a lot together and shared some very dark times and come back from that to really achieve quite a lot. 

 

I am grateful for the privilege of having been through all of this with you…. For what I have learned from you… for the times that I felt like the king of the world for having conquered a problem or two with a very clever script.  J

 

This is goodbye… for now.  My journey with Verizon has come to its end and it has been worth it the whole way.  I will see you again.  Bet on it. 

 

More importantly, make it happen! Add me on Linked-in and/or Twitter.  Send me a message from time to time and tell me what is good in your life.  Send me a message and tell me life sucks, then tell me how I can help you.

 

I look forward to it.

 

-Franco

 

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Francis Luong (Franco) – franco [splat] definefunk.com
https://twitter.com/#!/FrancisLUONG
http://www.linkedin.com/in/francisluong

“Some things are worth getting your heart broken for.”
— Sarah Jane Smith, Dr Who S02E04

Using CamStudio.org to record demos with commentary

Spent today trying to figure out a freeware solution to record a windows demo with audio commentary so that I can record some brain dumps for work.  Ended up using camstudio.org but I had to drop the frame rate some to get it to work for any respectable length.  But I have recorded a couple of them at this point and have a decent process.  

This was a bit frustrating at first but quite gratifying as I have worked to remove barriers.  Now, I love it.  I have a way to pass along knowledge that is more durable than a good-luck-remembering-it walkthru and it is not as tedious to create as a document.

Just Add Blurry

I just realized I can experience bokeh any time I want. Just have to remove glasses… Best experience is at night.

“

A good memory is better than a bad photograph any day. Discipline yourself to put the camera away without taking the picture.



…what counts is saying something meaningful, producing something with impact and insight.

”
— The Art of Photography by Bruce Barnbaum

Starting from Scratch

I am reading online materials voraciously at the moment.  I started going through CYT’s Top Personal Development Blogs of 2011 and seeing what was interesting at the very upper end of that list.  And since the list starts from #50 and goes downward to #1, I skipped ahead.  Ahem… :)

This brought me to #2 pretty quickly.  Therese Schwenkler is a very energetic writer whose main gist seems to be that we need to be more okay with not having everything worked out and that we can’t simply sit and think our way into meaning and purpose.  And she follows on with clarifying advice: don’t sit down in the maze. Her style is very personal, informal, and spunky.  Her words and ideas are accepting and encouraging.  And ultimately, she posits that we have to take action and explore. 

I’ve enjoyed the bits of her writing I have read and I am checking out some of the materials she thinks are worthy reads, such as Recession Proof Graduate.

People who know me know that I’ve been doing the same job for a while.  And it has been really good and really satisfying at times.  But it’s been a bit stale lately and I have been trying to figure out what is next for the last year or so with no tangible progress.

I stand at the beginning of some serious change in my life and I hope that soon I will be a few steps closer to doing work that is more personally meaningful and that I can’t wait to get to after I wake up, right after I coffee and feed myself.

“Hello World”