2018-09-06
As I make the move from the world of GNOME to i3, I found myself digging deeper into the terminator preferences to make it work more like gnome-terminal.
I kept running into an issue where I couldn’t move up and down between buffers using alt and arrow keys. My workaround was to call the buffer directly with alt-8 (for buffer #8) or alt-j 18 (buffer #18). However, that became tedious. Sometimes I just wanted to quickly hop up or down one or two buffers.
To fix this problem, right click anywhere inside the terminal and choose Preferences. Click on the Keybindings tab and look for go_up and go_down. These are almost always set to Alt-Up and Alt-Down by default. That’s the root of the problem: terminator is grabbing those keystrokes before they can make it down into weechat.
Unfortunately, it’s not possible to clear a keybinding within the preferences dialog. Close the window and open ~/.config/terminator/config in a terminal.
If you’re new to terminator, you might not have a [keybindings] section in your configuration file. If that’s the case, add the whole section below the [global_config] section. Otherwise, just ensure your [keybindings] section contains these lines:
[keybindings]
go_down = None
go_up = None
Close all of the terminator windows (on all of your workspaces). This is a critical step! Terminator only loads the config file when it is first started, not when additional terminals are opened.
Open a terminator terminal, start weechat, and test your alt-arrow keys! You should be moving up and down between buffers easily. If that doesn’t work, check your window manager’s settings to ensure that another application hasn’t stolen that keybinding from your terminals.
2018-05-09
I’m at the 2018 Red Hat Summit this week in San Francisco and I am enjoying the interactions between developers, executives, vendors, and engineers. It’s my seventh Summit (but my first as a Red Hat employee!), but I regularly meet people who are attending their first technical conference.
The question inevitably comes up: “I’m so tired. How do you survive these events?”
One attendee asked me to write a blog post on my tips and tricks. This is the post that explains how to thrive, not just survive, at conferences. Beware - these tips are based on my experiences and your mileage may vary depending on your personality, the event itself, and your caffeine intake.
Discover the area
Traveling to a conference is awesome way to experience more of the world! Take time to enjoy the tourist sites but also find out where the locals like to go. Any hotel concierge should be able to give you advice on where to go to truly experience the location.
Take some time to learn the area around your hotel and the venue. Be sure you can navigate between the two and find some important spots nearby, like pharmacies and coffee shops.
Food, water, and sleep
These conferences can often feel overwhelming and you may find yourself forgetting to eat the right foods, stay hydrated, and get some rest.
Take every opportunity to eat healthier foods during the week that will give you energy without weighing you down. All the stuff that your Mom told you to eat is a good idea. My rule of thumb is to eat a heavy breakfast, a medium sized lunch, and then whatever I want for dinner. Evening events often have free food (more on those events next), and that fits my travel budget well. It also allows me to splurge a bit on foods that I might not eat back home.
Take along a water container when you travel. You can’t always depend on the conference for making water available and you’ll often need more than they offer anyway. I’m a big fan of Nalgene’s products since they take a beating and they have really good seals.
Sleeping is a real challenge. Early morning keynotes and late night events put a strain on anyone’s sleep schedule. Lots of people have trouble sleeping in hotels or in cities where the noise level remains high all night long. The best remedy is to be choosy about the events you attend and the time you spend there. Think about what is more valuable: more time listening to blasting music at a party or more time with your head on the pillow.
Consider using an application on your phone that provides various types of noises, such as white noise. I love the White Noise app on Android since it has tons of options for various sounds. In my experience, brown noise works best for sleeping. Pink noise can help in extremely noisy environments (like downtown San Francisco) but it’s often too loud for me.
Keep your devices charged
Find a way to keep your devices charged, especially your phone. I use Anker battery packs to keep my phone topped up during the day when I can’t get to a plug. A dead phone disconnects you from your friends, maps, and conference details.
Dress for success
Your clothing selection really depends on the type of conference and the company you represent. If you need to dress formally each day, then your choices are already made for you.
Pack layers of clothing so you can add or remove layers as needed. The walk to the conference center may be warm, but the keynote auditorium could feel like a freezer. This also prepares you for evening events which might be outdoors.
Wear clothing that makes you feel comfortable. You’ll find a wide range of outfits at most tech conferences and you’ll find that nobody really cares how formal or informal you are. If you’re there to listen, learn, and contribute, then dress casually. If you’re looking for a new job, doing a talk, or if you’ll be on camera, choose something a little more formal.
The hallway track
You won’t find the hallway track on any agenda, but it is often the most valuable part of any gathering. The hallway track encompasses those brief encounters you have with other people at the event. Turn those mundane events, such as waiting in line, eating lunch, or between talks, into opportunities to meet other people.
Yes, this does mean that you must do something to come out of your shell and start a conversation. This is still difficult for me. Here are some good ways to start a conversation with someone around you:
- “Hello, my name is Major” (put out your hand for a handshake)
- “Where do you work?”
- “What do you work on?”
- “Man, this line is really long.”
- “vim or emacs?” (just kidding)
The secret is to find something that makes you and the other person feel comfortable. There are situations where you might be met with a cold shoulder, and that’s okay. I’ve found that sometimes people need some space or the issue could be a language barrier. Making the attempt is what matters.
These are excellent opportunities for learning, for listening, and for sharing. These new contacts will show up again and again at the event (more on parties/networking next), and you can talk to them again when you feel the tendency to become a wallflower again.
Parties and networking events
Evening events at conferences are a great way to keep the hallway track going while taking some time to relax as well. Some of the best conversations I’ve had at conferences were during evening events or vendor parties. People are more candid since the conference demands are often reduced.
However, it’s incredibly easy to make some spectacularly bad decisions at these events. This list should help you navigate these events and get value from them:
Enjoy an open bar responsibly
Early in my career, I looked at an open bar as a magical oasis. Free drinks! As many as I want! This is heaven! (Narrator: It was not heaven. It was something else.)
I think about open bars much like I think about a trip to Las Vegas. Before I go, I think about how much money I feel like losing, and I only bet that much. Once the money is gone, I’m done.
Go into the event knowing how much or how little you want to consume. Zero is an entirely valid answer. Keep in mind that the answer to “Why aren’t you drinking anything?” does not have to be “I guess I’ll get something.” Nobody needs to know why you’re not drinking and you shouldn’t feel pressured to do something you don’t want to do.
Think about how you want to feel in the morning. Is a massive hangover worth another round of shots? Is it worth it to ruin your talk the next day? Is it worth it to get belligerent and say something that may be difficult to take back? Think about these things ahead of time and make a plan before you begin drinking.
Leave when you want
Some evening events can last much too late and this could derail your plans for the morning. If the party runs from 7-10PM, don’t feel obligated to stay until 10PM. If you’re not meeting the right people or if you’re not having a good time: leave. It’s better to abandon an event early than suffer through it and crawl through the next morning.
Turn down an uninteresting invitation
The conference may host various events or a vendor may invite you to an event. These are just invitations and your attendance is not required (unless you work for the vendor throwing the party). Feel free to do something else with your time if the event or the venue seem uninteresting or unsafe. (More on safety next.)
Get a party buddy
Remember those people you talked to in the hallway and during lunch? Find those people at the event and tell them you enjoyed the conversation from earlier. I’ve been to conferences before where I’ve been the only one from my company and after letting the other person know that, they invited me to hang out with them or their group at the event.
This is a good idea for two reasons. First, it gives you someone to talk to. More importantly, it helps you stay safe.
Dealing with harassment
This gets its own section. It has happened to me and it will likely happen to you.
Nobody ever wants it to happen, but people are often harassed in one way or another at these events. It’s inevitable: there are drinks, people are away from home, and they’re enjoying time away from work. For some people, this is a combination of factors that leads them to make bad choices at these events.
Harassment comes in many forms, but nobody should put up with it. If you see someone being treated badly, step in. If you’re being treated badly, get help. If you’re treating someone badly, apologize and remove yourself from the situation. This is where a party buddy can be extremely helpful.
Harassment is not a women-only or men-only problem. I have been touched in unwelcome ways and verbally harassed at evening events. It is not fun. In my experience, telling the other person to “Please stop” or “That is not okay” is usually enough to diffuse the situation.
This may not always work. Grab your buddy and get help from conference staffers or a security guard if a situation continues to escalate.
More ideas
These are some ideas that help me thrive at conferences and make the most of my time traveling. Feel free to leave some of your ideas below in the comments section!
2018-03-07
Walt Disney said it best:
We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.
The world of technology is all about change. We tear down the old things that get in our way and we build new technology that takes us to new heights. Tearing down these old things can often be difficult and that forces us to make difficult choices.
Rackspace has been a great home for me for over 11 years. I’ve made the incredibly difficult choice to leave Rackspace on March 9th to pursue new challenges.
Humble beginnings
I came to Rackspace as an entry-level Linux administrator and was amazed by the culture generated by Rackers. The dedication to customers, technology, and quality was palpable from the first few minutes I spent with my team. Although I didn’t know it at the time, I had landed at the epicenter of a sink-or-swim technology learning experience. My team had some very demanding customers with complex infrastructures and it forced me to take plenty of notes (and hard knocks). My manager and teammates supported me through it all.
From there, I served in several different roles. I was a manager of technicians on a support team and had the opportunity to learn how to mentor. One of my favorite leaders said that “good managers know when to put their arm around to people and when to put a boot in their rear.” I reluctantly learned how to do both and I watched my people grow into senior engineers and great leaders.
Datapoint office closing in 2011
I was pulled to Mosso, Rackspace’s first cloud offering, shortly after that and discovered an entirely new world. Rackers force-fed me “Why’s (Poignant) Guide to Ruby” and I started building scripts and web front-ends for various services. Rackspace acquired Slicehost after that and I jumped at the chance to work as an operations engineer on the new infrastructure. That led to a lot of late nights diagnosing problems with Xen hypervisors and rails applications. I met some amazing people and began to realize that St. Louis has some pretty good barbecue (but Texas still has them beat).
Slicehost humor in 2009
Not long after that, I found myself managing an operations team that cared for Slicehost’s infrastructure and Rackspace’s growing Cloud Servers infrastructure. OpenStack appeared later and I jumped at the chance to do operations there. It was an extremely rough experience in the Diablo release, but it taught me a lot. My start with OpenStack involved fixing lots of broken Keystone tests that didn’t run on Python 2.6.
Working on OpenStack in 2012
If you’ve attended some of my talks on impostor syndrome, you may know what came next. We had a security issue and I sent some direct feedback to our CSO about how it was handled. I expected to be told to “pack a box” after that, but I was actually asked to lead a security architecture team in the corporate security group. It was definitely a surprise. I accepted and joined the team as Chief Security Architect. My coworkers called it “joining the dark side”, but I did my best to build bridges between security teams and the rest of the company.
Talking at Rackspace::Solve in 2015
This role really challenged me. I had never operated at the Director level before and our team had a ton of work to do. I found myself stumbling (and floundering) fairly often and I leaned on other leaders in the business for advice. This led me to take some courses on critical thinking, accounting, finance, and tough conversations. I’ve never had a role as difficult as this one.
Our cloud team came calling and asked me to come back and help with some critical projects in the public cloud. We worked on some awesome skunkworks projects that could really change the business. Although they didn’t get deployed in one piece, we found ways to take chunks of the work and optimize different areas of our work. An opportunity came up to bring public cloud experience to the private cloud team and I jumped on that one. I discovered the awesome OpenStack-Ansible project and a strong set of Rackers who were dedicated to bringing high-touch service to customers who wanted OpenStack in their own datacenter.
Impostor syndrome talk at the Boston OpenStack Summit in 2017
During this time, I had the opportunity to deliver several conference talks about OpenStack, Fedora, security, and Ansible. My favorite topic was impostor syndrome and I set out on a mission to help people understand it. My first big talk was at the Fedora Flock conference in Rochester in 2015. This led to deep conversations with technical people in conference hallways, evening events, and even airport terminals about how impostor syndrome affects them. I took those conversations and refined my message several times over.
Talking about impostor syndrome at Fedora Flock 2015 (Photo credit: Kushal Das)
Gratitude
I couldn’t even begin to name a list of Rackers who have helped me along the way. I wouldn’t be where I am now without the help of hundreds of Rackers. They’ve taught me how to build technology, how to navigate a business, and how to be a better human. They have made me who I am today and I’m eternally grateful. I’ve had an incredible amount of hugs this week at the office and I’ve tried my best not to get a face full of tears in the process.
I’d also like to thank all of the people who have allowed me to mentor them and teach them something along the way. One of the best ways to understand something is to teach it to someone else. I relish any opportunity to help someone avoid a mistake I made, or at least be able to throw something soft under them to catch their fall. These people put up with my thick Texas accent, my erratic whiteboard diagrams, and worse of all, my dad jokes.
Another big “thank you” goes out to all of the members of the open source communities who have mentored me and dealt with my patches.
The first big community I joined was the Fedora Linux community. I’ve been fortunate to serve on the board and participate in different working groups. Everyone has been helpful and accommodating, even when I pushed broken package builds. I plan to keep working in the community as long as they will have me!
The OpenStack community has been like family. Everyone - from developers to foundation leaders - has truly been a treat to work with over several years. My work on Rackspace’s public and private clouds has pushed me into various projects within the OpenStack ecosystem and I’ve found everyone to be responsive. OpenStack events are truly inspiring and it is incredible to see so many people from so many places who dedicate themselves to the software and the people that make cloud infrastructure work.
The next adventure
I plan to talk more on this later, but I will be working from home on some projects that are entirely different from what I’m working on now. That adventure starts on March 19th after a week of “funemployment.” I’m incredibly excited about the new opportunity and I’ll share more details when I can.
Top photo credit: Wikipedia
2018-02-28
If you’re on the latest Fedora release, you’re already running lots of modern packages. However, there are those times when you may want to help with testing efforts or try out a new feature in a newer package.
Most of my systems have the updates-testing repository enabled in one way or another. This repository contains packages that package maintainers have submitted to become the next stable package in Fedora. For example, if there is a bug fix for nginx, the package maintainer submits the changes and publish a release. That release goes into the testing repositories and must sit for a waiting period or receive sufficient karma (“works for me” responses) to move into stable repositories.
Getting started
One of the easiest ways to get started is to allow a small amount of packages to be installed from the testing repository on a regular basis. Fully enabling the testing repository for all packages can lead to trouble on occasion, especially if a package maintainer discovers a problem and submits a new testing package.
To get started, open /etc/yum.repos.d/fedora-updates-testing.repo in your favorite text editor (using sudo). This file tells yum and dnf where it should look for packages. The stock testing repository configuration looks like this:
[updates-testing]
name=Fedora $releasever - $basearch - Test Updates
failovermethod=priority
#baseurl=http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/updates/testing/$releasever/$basearch/
metalink=https://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/metalink?repo=updates-testing-f$releasever&arch=$basearch
enabled=0
repo_gpgcheck=0
type=rpm
gpgcheck=1
metadata_expire=6h
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-fedora-$releasever-$basearch
skip_if_unavailable=False
By default, the repository is not enabled (enabled=0).
In this example, let’s consider a situation where you want to test the latest kernel packages as soon as they reach the testing repository. We need to make two edits to the repository configuration:
enabled=1 - Allow yum/dnf to use the repositoryincludepkgs=kernel* - Only allow packages matching kernel* to be installed from the testing repository
The repository configuration should now look like this:
[updates-testing]
name=Fedora $releasever - $basearch - Test Updates
failovermethod=priority
#baseurl=http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/updates/testing/$releasever/$basearch/
metalink=https://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/metalink?repo=updates-testing-f$releasever&arch=$basearch
enabled=1
repo_gpgcheck=0
type=rpm
gpgcheck=1
metadata_expire=6h
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-fedora-$releasever-$basearch
skip_if_unavailable=False
includepkgs=kernel*
Getting testing packages
Running dnf upgrade kernel* should now pull a kernel from the updates-testing repository. You can verify this by checking the Repository column in the dnf output.
If you feel more adventurous later, you can add additional packages (separated by spaces) to the includepkgs line. The truly adventurous users can leave the repo enabled but remove includepkgs altogether. This will pull all available packages from the testing repository as soon as they are available.
Package maintainers need feedback!
One final note: package maintainers need your feedback on packages. Positive or negative feedback is very helpful. You can search for the package on Bodhi and submit feedback there, or use the fedora-easy-karma script via the fedora-easy-karma package. The script will look through your installed package list and query you for feedback on each one.
Submitting lots of feedback can earn you some awesome Fedora Badges!
Photo credit: US Air Force
2018-01-06
The Overland Expo in Asheville last year was a great event, and one of my favorite sessions covered the basics about radio communications while overlanding. The instructors shared their radios with us and taught us some tips and tricks for how to save power and communicate effectively on the trail.
Back at the office, I was surprised to discover how many of my coworkers had an FCC license already. They gave me tips on getting started and how to learn the material for the exam. I took some of my questions to Twitter and had plenty of help pouring in quickly.
This post covers how I studied, what the exam was like, and what I’ve learned after getting on the air.
The basics
FCC licenses in the US for amateur radio operators have multiple levels. Everything starts with the Technician level and you get the most basic access to radio frequencies. From there, you can upgrade (with another exam) to General, and Extra. Each license upgrade opens up more frequencies and privileges.
Studying
A coworker recommended the official ARRL book for the Technician exam and I picked up a paper copy. The content is extremely dry. It was difficult to remain focused for long periods.
The entire exam is available in the public domain, so you can actually go straight to the questions that you’ll see on the exam and study those. I flipped to the question section in the ARRL book and found the questions I could answer easily (mostly about circuits and electrical parts). For each one that was new or difficult, I flipped back in the ARRL book to the discussion in each chapter and learned the material.
I also used HamStudy.org to quickly practice and keep track of my progress. The site has some handy graphs that show you how many questions you’ve seen and what your knowledge level of different topics really is. I kept working through questions on the site until I was regularly getting 90% or higher on the practice tests.
Testing
Before you test, be sure to get a FCC Registration Number (commonly called a FRN). They are free to get and it ensures that you get your license (often called your ‘ticket’) as soon as possible. I was told that some examiners won’t offer you a test if you don’t have your FRN already.
The next step is to find an amateur radio exam in your area. Exams are available in the San Antonio area every weekend and they are held by different groups. I took mine with the Radio Operators of South Texas and the examiners were great! Some examiners require you to check in with them so they know you are coming to test, but it’s a good idea to do this anyway. Ask how they want to be paid (cash, check, etc), too.
Be sure to take a couple of pencils, a basic calculator, your government issued ID, your payment, and your FRN to the exam. I forgot the calculator but the examiners had a few extras. The examiners complete some paperwork before your exam, and you select one of the available test versions. Each test contains a randomly selected set of 35 questions from the pool of 350.
Go through the test, carefully read each question, and fill in the answer sheet. Three examiners will grade it when you turn it in, and they will fill out your Certificate of Successful Completion of Examination (CSCE). Hold onto this paper just in case something happens with your FCC paperwork.
The examiners will send your paperwork to the FCC and you should receive a license within two weeks. Mine took about 11-12 business days, but I took it just before Thanksgiving. The FCC will send you a generic email stating that there is a new license available and you can download it directly from the FCC’s website.
Lessons learned on the air
Once I passed the exam and keyed up for the first transmission, I feared a procedural misstep more than anything. What if I say my callsign incorrectly? What if I’m transmitting at a power level that is too high? What power level is too high? What am I doing?!
Everyone has to start somewhere and you’re going to make mistakes. Almost 99.9% of my radio contacts so far have been friendly, forgiving, and patient. I’ve learned a lot from listening to other people and from the feedback I get from radio contacts. Nobody will yell at you for using a repeater when simplex should work. Nobody will yell at you if you blast a repeater with 50 watts when 5 would be fine.
I’m on VHF most often and I’ve found many local repeaters on RepeaterBook. Most of the repeaters in the San Antonio area are busiest during commute times (morning and afternoon) as well as lunchtime. I’ve announced my callsign when the repeater has been quiet for a while and often another radio operator will call back. It’s a good idea to mention that you’re new to amateur radio since that will make it easier for others to accept your mistakes and provide feedback.
when I’m traveling long distances, I monitor the national simplex calling frequency (146.520). That’s the CB equivalent of channel 19 where you can announce yourself and have conversations. In busy urban areas, it’s best to work out another frequency with your contact to keep the calling frequency clear.
My equipment
My first purchase was a (cheap) BTECH UV-5X3. The price is fantastic, but the interface is rough to use. Editing saved channels is nearly impossible and navigating the menus requires a good manual to decipher the options. The manual that comes with it is surprisingly brief. There are some helpful how-to guides from other radio operators on various blogs that can help.
I picked up a Kenwood TM-D710G mobile radio from a coworker and mounted it in the car. I wired it up with Anderson Powerpole connectors and that makes things incredibly easy (and portable). The interface on the Kenwood is light years ahead of the BTECH, but the price is 10x more.
My car has the Comet SBB-5NMO antenna mounted with a Comet CP-5NMO lip mount. It fits well on the rear of the 4Runner.
Managing a lot of repeater frequencies is challenging with both radios (exponentially more so with the BTECH), but the open source CHIRP software works well. I installed it on my Fedora laptop and could manage both radios easily. The BTECH radio requires you to download the entire current configuration, edit it, and upload it to the radio. The Kenwood allows you to make adjustments to the radio in real time (which is excellent for testing).
More questions?
If you have more questions about any part of the process, let me know!
