Authorize.net down?

Looks like Authorize.net is down, due to a fire.

Notable links:

• http://search.twitter.com/search?q=authorize
• http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23fisherfire
• http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?p=6268604 (post #11)

No ETA yet.

Cwningen's Toe Kickin' Tunes

Mailbox Spam

So, one of the great things about owning a home with a mailbox is the continuous stream of spam in your mailbox. This one was too good to pass up. If I'm not mistaken, this is an invitation to join an electric power supply pyramid scheme. Sweet!

Chik'n Salad (v0.9a)

I've had to rescind my previous statements about Boca. Their Original Chik'n patties are actually decent, dare I say, good. They're on par with the Morningstar ones, and they're vegan to boot (this recipe, however, is not). I made the following dish this evening, and Cwningen approved. The version she had didn't include the preserves, but without them, you could tell something was missing. Chopped grapes would be appropriate, instead of the preserves, but the ones in the fridge looked a bit suspect. I chose the rosehip preserves for their tart flavor, to balance the sweetness of the mayo. The same goes for the mustard. The measurements below are estimated; I'll revise the recipe if I keep using it.

Ingredients:

• 2 chik'n patties (Boca, Morningstar, &c.)
• Mayo to taste (approximately 1/4 to 1/2 cup)
  
• 2 tsp tart preserves (rosehips, concord grape, &c.)
  
• 1 tsp brown mustard
• Any type of bread (hamburger rolls, fajita wrappers, &c.)
  

Directions:

1. Cook and cube the chik'n patties.
   
2. Mix mayo, preserves and mustard together.
3. Mix in the chik'n patties until well coated.
   
4. Taste and add mayo as needed, mixing until the desired consistency or flavor is reached.
   
5. Spread on bread and enjoy.
   

My Long Months

The majority of my professional career has been spent in a mixed position. What I mean by that is that my duties always seem to evolve from "developer" into some conglomeration of development, systems administration, database administration, desktop support, and cable monkey (code-sys-dba-who'a-cable-monkey for short). After 7 years of that, I decided to focus solely on development, but fate had other ideas.

After 4 years of almost straight development, my job came to a turning point. Our sysadmin at the time, one of the best I've ever worked with, had decided to leave us for a job in Mountain View. The company was unable to find a suitable replacement, so 4 developers took up the part instead, the idea being that 1/4 of our time would be spent on systems. As anyone who has worked in a sysadmin position can tell you, that never works out as planned. So, in order to minimize the impact on the development team, another developer graciously took it on as a full-time job. He was finally able to get back into development after several months of training and assisting our old sysadmin's replacements.

Fast-forward a few more months, and we're back down to 0 sysadmins. I was asked to take on the role, so I did, along with my boss and a new hire. It literally seems like that was yesterday. The past 2 months have been a total blur. Systems crashed, systems died, systems choked, databases crapped out, disks filled up, customers screamed, bots slammed us, etc. Normal stuff, really, but the intensity has been high enough to set my average bedtime to 2 am, just trying to catch up and keep up.

Interestingly enough, this was the stuff I was trying to avoid when I took this job. Now that I'm back in the thick of it, I find that I like it. It brings back memories of spending 2 days straight in a data center running cable and setting up systems. Memories of running madly around a plant keeping the IT aspects of shipping and production running smoothly. Of dealing with Mac OS before it got good. Learning VMS and NT and making them play nicely together, so that the guy on the dumb terminal can work as well as the guy on the Windows box. Learning how to keep a site up despite hardware failures or extreme load. The smell of a data center. The thrill of it all.

So, I guess what I'm saying is, I still don't know what I want to do with my professional career. I thought I wanted to do development. I thought that I didn't want to do systems. Now I just don't know. Maybe the answer really is that I'm happiest when I'm a code-sys-dba-who'a-cable-monkey.

Time will tell.