juecker.net

10. Picnic tables and chairs
9. Vending machines
8. Foyer/storage room
7. Poor quality labs
6. Poor quality text
5. Lack of overall organization
4. Lack of security
3. Turnover
2. Brad is sleazy
1. They still owe me $750

This past week I was sent to California for business and I decided to visit San Francisco. After walking around a bit, I decided to walk to Coit Tower.  As a I got to the base of the tower I looked to the West and saw a glamorous sunset.  I tried to climb the tower because I figured that would offer the best views.  Unfortunately it was closed so I found a good place to sit and enjoyed the show.  Here’s a picture from my iPhone.

As I sat there, I thanked Paul and said my goodbyes.

I noticed that I’ve received more people visiting my site because of Paul then I ever have before.  I’ve also been reading and listening to what people have had to say about him and it’s all very consistent and positive.  Friends and loved ones value his friendship and attitude.  Co-workers admired his kindness, helpfulness and willingness to engage in new things.  I know that I never heard him complain about inconsistent tasking or rapidly changing gears.  He laughed a lot and always had a smirky smile like he got a joke that no one else did.  This is going to sound a little obvious be we all miss him not the output he produced or the work he didn’t get done.  This is what I think people have been commenting about.  One person put it like this: You’re not going to look back and wish you spent more time at the office.  You’re going to look back and wish you had spend more time with friend and family, traveled more or did something great.

I plan to take these lessons to heart.  In memory of Paul I’m going to make a conscience effort to watch the sunrise occasionally, smell the flowers, enjoy the small things that we all to often seem to take for granted.  Thanks Paul.

Early Friday morning a co-worker of mine, Paul Maidman, was killed in a car accident. Although I only worked with him for a short period of time, his loss hit us all pretty hard. This was the first time that I personnally lost someone due to an a cident like this. It is hard to not question the meaning of it all or feel a little nervous riding on these Las Vegas roads.

I’m finding it harder and harder to feel that spending 9 or 10 hours a day is anywhere close to being important. Although I get some value out of work, it’s definately not worth wasting my life doing. I plan in spending some serious thought on this problem but I’m hopeful that I find some solution. Th real questik. To be able to answer every morning is: if today is my last day on Earth would I be doing what I’m doing? My answer nearly everyday is no. I wonder if Paul knew his life were going to be cut short, what choices would he have made differently?

I also expect that my outlook on everything to change when our baby arrives.

As I stated in a previous post, I’ve been doing some reading about Lifestyle Design and productivity.  I was thinking about it today as I was ripping out the backerboard underneath previously removed tile.  I decided to do it myself rather than paying for “The Tile Lady” do it (seems I’m better at destruction and removal).  But I kept wondering, is that the most effective choice?

Essentially, I was trying to determine how much my time is worth.  Let’s say that I earn $10 per hour at work.  The most straightforward calculation is:  Time taken to remove backerboard x $10/hour = Cost to remove backerboard.  Thus if that amount is greater then the cost to pay “The Tile Lady”, I should pay her.  Just for grins, let’s say that it would take me 5 hours (seems reasonable), then my total cost for removing it would be $50.  If she is willing to do it for $40 dollars, I’d save $10 by outsourcing it to her.

The problem is, I think this is overly simplified.  It doesn’t account for what I am missing out doing while I’m slaving away.  If I were watching TV, I’m not really missing out on anything.  If, on the other hand, my wife went into labor, suddenly my time gets a lot more valuable.  There needs to be a time-value factor (TVF) addition to the equation:

(time * wage) * TVF = Total Cost
where 0 < TVF

Notice that as the TVF value increases so does the total cost of working on the project. That’s why as you get more busy, it pays to get help.

Something else struck me as a I went back to work on the floor.  There’s an element of enjoyment that needs to be added.  Doing something you enjoy immediately increases it’s value which means you’d rather do it yourself rather than pay someone to do it for you. Since removing the flooring was something that I hadn’t done and provided immediate progress feedback (I could look down and see the effects of my efforts), I found that I enjoyed it.  As a side note,  I don’t plan on quitting my day job, this one area was enough.  It seems to me that there should be a Factor of Fun involved as well:

(time * wage) * TVF/FF = Total Cost
where 0 < TVF and FF

So as things get more fun, it means you would pay less to have someone take it from you.  The trick here is to determine the TVF and FF for the tasks you are considering outsourcing.

Here’s a few on my list:

• Yard work
• Cooking
• Doing my job (that’s an interesting one)
• Cleaning
• Laundry

Signaling is the control information that is used in call setup and maintenance of VoIP endpoints.  In the PSTN world, the protocol that is most commonly used is the Signaling System 7 (SS7) protocol.  While some gateways can speak SS7, it’s much more common to use VoIP signaling protocols like:

• Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)
• H.323
• Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP)
• Skinny Client Control Protocol (SCCP)

Obviously, there’s some advantages/disadvantages of using one over another.  For example. SIP and H.323 are peer-to-peer protocols and MGCP and SCCP are client/server protocols.  They can’t do anything without the direction of a Call Agent, like Cisco CallManager.  Although Cisco recently renamed it to Cisco Unified Communications Manager. Signaling can also happen in band or out-of-band.  The difference is whether or not the signaling traffic happens on a dedicated channel or it is part of the data channel.

This blog originally started as a way for me to write posts about networking – specifically Cisco networking. As I’ve become more introspective about myself, I’ve come to realize that networking is a small part of what I think about and I am interested in. I’d like to think that’s part of the reason why this has become somewhat neglected. Yeah right, I’m just choosing not to put forth the effort! In any case, I’m going to try to use this blog more and more as a creative outlet rather than a single purpose blog.

Most recently, as I’ve turned inward in my focus, I’ve started reading blogs like Scott Young’s (http://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/). I’ve also started listening to the audio book  The 4-Hour Work Week. What is most interesting to me right now is motivation and achievement. This all started as a task given to me by my boss to help me figure out what I want to do. I’m no closer to discovering that, but I’ve started thinking about what I can do and what I want to do. What interests me so much about the writing of Young and Ferriss is they don’t seem to have boundaries. I’m trying to learn from their mentality and get the most out of life. What that means at this point, I’m not sure but I hope to write some of it here. Stay tuned.

Whew, it sure has been a long time since my last post.  So what’s kept me away?  Laziness mostly but here’s a list of some new developments.  1) Finished up CCBOOTCAMP projects.  That wasn’t a fun process, but I won’t say too much more.  I wouldn’t keep your eyes peeled for anything with my name on it in Cisco Press.  2) Doing baby things!  My wife and I are expecting our first baby (it’s a boy) in July.  So we’ve been going to doctor’s offices, ultrasound appointments, buying cute little outfits and furniture, all the great things you do when expecting your first child.  3) Most recently, I’ve started teaching at the College of Southern Nevada.  It’s a regional Cisco Networking Academy located here in Las Vegas.  The first class was a bit rocky but I’m confident it’ll be a great experience all around.

I haven’t posted in awhile, obviously.   I’ve been involved in a project with CCBOOTCAMP which required a lot more time than I thought.  Something that I need to get better at: estimating the amount of time required for a particular project.  In any case, here’s a link to the project I worked on.  Just when I finished that, I got involved doing a writing project, which I’m really enjoying.  I’ll talk more about it when it’s closer to being completed.  I don’t want to put a hex on it