Darkly Colored Felines of Fury » lifelines

Yarr!

Patrick Audley — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 05:09:49 +0000

Transitions can be special times, full or grey areas, vieled agendas and often littered with misdirected intentions. They are almost always packed with adventure and, in my experience, incredible lessons. My recent forray into public companies was a fascinating transition though it proved to be extraordinarily brief - the long and short of it is that my public company vessel has now cast off and set sail back into the shark filled but more lucrative private waters. These are waters and reefs that I know well; I feel no desire to venture back into waters I've tread for so many years just yet. So I hoisted my anchor (thankfully not my petard!) and have set my sights on new land.

This month I joined a new venture - I like to think of them as a band of merry privateers - on a much larger ship as an Integration Architect. I'm joined by new friends (sadly none that actually have a boat, odd, no?) and some cool new problems. I'll be working on scaling out a very large, established marketplace into the cloud and new markets. I sense peg legs and tricorns in my future. It's occasionally surreal starting at a company that has around 5000 employees and a stone's throw from a billion a year in revenue. My small division here in Vancouver is a small island in the large company but one populated by all tech people which makes it a little like a small engineering firm.

Methodology is a fascinating thing in development shops. Most of my ventures have been fast agile startups. Agile in the development world is all about iterative, responsive development that's business driven; usually the leading edge of the business flows features right into development who makes them into reality. Dominion is more like an engineering firm because we have existing customers and, in some cases, whole markets that depend on us for their continued success. This means that spiffy new features take a distant second to functionality and stability. I'm enjoying the rigour and planning that go with such a beast. If we were real pirates, we'd be the Crimson Permanent Assurance kind.

On a completely unrelated note, I'd like to welcome Erin as my new life partner. *Erin takes a bow, audience applauds* It's safe to say that I'm loving sharing my living space again.

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A Less Twisty Road

Patrick Audley — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 21:07:45 +0000

For years I've been enmeshed in startups, enjoying the adrenaline filled funding cycles, wacky ideas, breakneck development cycles and incredible people. I've finally been tempted off the midway rides by a Vancouver post-startup, one45 Software. The promise of working on a mature project with a very large user base to solve problems that will have large societal impacts was a powerful pull. Couple that with smart people and a stable, revenue positive company in a funky heritage building and I was hooked.

I'm the new Sr. Developer at one45 and I'll be working on optimizing the delivery of medical education with the long-term goal of helping to design curricula that produces better doctors. It's a combination of efficient process optimization and predictive statistics - both of which have been recurring themes in much of the work I've done in the past. I find the prospect of working on code that is in wide production use to be very satisfying.

This also means that I'm working back in the downtown Vancouver core which makes me quite happy. There is something special about Vancouver's heart that resonates deeply with me, I can't quite explain it. It's a quiet energy that permeates the streets; unlike the high frequency buzz in Toronto, or the fast walking and driven movements of New York. Almost a fusion of the sharp Silicon Valley enthusiasm with a restrained, polite Canadian flavour. An admixture of bemused tourists, distracted suits and stoned neo-hippies. And, even better, my best friend is soon to be working but a few blocks away in Gastown. Really, what more could I have asked for?

This will be a less twisty but no less enjoyable road to follow, one that winds through old pastures and haunting grounds. A traveller returning home but with new eyes and vantages, seeing different things in the same vistas. I'm very grateful for the amazing people that joined me on the road this year as well as the ones I've parted with.

Comments

October 16, 2010, Vincent Byfield writes: Good call, paud. :-)

Joyful Things

Patrick Audley — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 06:44:32 +0000

As the summer comes to an end, I thought I would talk about a few of the things I've found joyful this season. So what do cloud computing, code tuning and soap have in common? All three are about clean solutions, good ingredients, and they all make me joyful. Yes, even the soap - that doesn't make me strange, just clean.

For the non technical readers, you can skip down to the soap at the bottom and avoid all the jargon and programmer centric bits in the first two.

Amazon EC2 t1.micro Instances

A few days ago Amazon announced micro EC2 instances that fall into the $15-20/month USD price range. This gives you a dedicated cloud server running your favourite flavour of Linux with a modest amount of CPU and RAM. I say modest because it's smaller than the other EC2 offerings not because it's too small to be useful. I see these as strong competition to the $20/month shared hosting offerings that a plethora of people use. You require UNIX skills (or a willingness to research, learn and try things out) but you can literally go from zero to making your first mistakes and back again on a brand new instance in mere minutes.

Contrast this to your first experience testing out Linux on your desktop computer, fumbling around with CDs or installation media, grappling with obscure partitioning and disk layout issues (this comment probably dates me). These new instances are, in my humble opinion, an incredible way to learn and experiement with LAMP, Linux and web services in general. For old hands like me, it's a joy to tinker with experimental networks, software and, at this price, even cluster computing. You can have a five node cluster running Grid Engine for around $75/month.

PHP Code Tuning and Care

I'm a little bit of an optimization and performance nut. I mean that in a good way, not as an obsession over random micro-benchmarks early during development. Optimization is always a temptating for me during development; a little bit of architectural thinking at the start to steer clear of scaling bottlenecks coupled with beating down slow spots in later development turns out to be a great formula for me. The first part involves good knowledge of your target language, environment and application - there are no substitutes for good design up front. The latter is greatly helped by good tools that give you insight into where to focus your optimization efforts and tell if they are paying off.

For PHP, thankfully, there are some really great tools. Building on the incredible work done on C and C++ with Valgrind, the Xdebug PHP extension spits out cachegrind compatible profiles of running scripts. You turn on the extension, tell it to start profiling anywhere in your application and save the traces to a file. After you get them you can use KCachegrind to delve into the profiles and find out exactly where your application is slow. Use this in a profile, tweak code, test, profile cycle and you can make solid progress towards removing many bottlenecks in your application. Things you can't beat out of the profile might need some reengineering but at least you will now have the knowledge to make the right changes. All these tools work easily on Linux and OSX (and with a little more work, on Windows) so you have no excuse not to understand what is going on in your code or why it' slow anymore.

Click on the profile image above for a window full of profile and call graph goodness from one of my other pet projects.

Dr. Bronner - King of Soap

Castille soap available in a variety of scrumptious flavours (peppermint is my favourite) and wrapped in the most interesting labels of any soap anywhere, both the bar and liquid soap are superb quality. Made with high quality coconut and palm oils and lye, they make great hand, body and even in a pinch, shampoo. Not only do you get good soap but the labels always make me smile. They are a little wacky but full of such obvious well wishing and Leary-esque statements that I can't resist reading them each time I unwrap a bar.

You have to respect a man that makes good soap and preaches world harmony. Kudos to his family for continuing the efforts after his death and even going fully Organic.

ENJOY ONLY 2 COSMETICS, enough sleep 4 Dr. Bronner's "Magic Soap" to clean body-mind-soul-spirit instantly uniting One! All-One! Absolute cleanliness is Godliness! … To dream the impossible dream! To reach that unreachable star! 41 AII-One, All-One we are! To fight that unbeatable foe! To go where the brave dare not go! To right the unrightable wrong!
Emanuel Bronner

I know I find those inspiring words when showering or battling stubborn code.

Curriculum Vitae

One Third

Patrick Audley — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 21:56:18 +0000

One third of my life is behind me. Looking back on my life I'm forced to admit that it has not been the smooth, brightly lit street I expected as a child. Instead it was a meandering cobble lined path, filled with adventures and ravines I would never have foreseen, with highs and lows that dwarfed my early guesses. I am both humbled and amazed at some of the experiences on the journey; at some of the truly amazing and profound people that have joined me for parts of it. This is a good time for contemplation; a wistful look back and a climb to the nearest hill to see what might be ahead.

The Road Behind

The journey started with the solid foundation my family gave me - it was a childhood that was unlike any other I have seen. My mother taught me to program at the tender age of 6; my father gave me the eternal gift of curiosity shortly after; my grandparents inculcated a deep sense of values and duty. From these beginnings, I have spanned the globe and taken flight in ways that none of us could have imagined. I have been graced with three women in my life that have reshaped and grown my view of the world by turns; I treasure them all deeply still. Danielle the stalwart companion and mirror; Elizabeth the muse and inspiration; Kathy the maiden and teacher. From all of these people I've learnt so much, done so many things, changed so much.

I have scaled urban mountains aligning lasers, experienced hidden religions, built super computers, engineered new lifeforms, walked paths thousands of years old, plumbed the depths of the mind and come back mostly sane. I have loved and lost many times, felt pain and joy I could not have imagined.

The Woods Ahead

Turning forward, where does the road lead? I have returned to my home to find out. I have given up predicting the future and am endeavouring to walk blindly forward. I know that I have had my best growth and learning where I least expected it. To sit in lonely contemplation and await the future is hard. So, I am looking for the next change, the next turn in the road. If I had my sparkly druthers I would ask for a loving, stable relationship, a full time job that keeps my interest, and a change of pace in life from the hectic start-up laden gallop to a slower more contemplative cantor.

So, without much ado, this next month of Summer shall be devoted to seeking a full time venture to captivate my mind and talents as well as a the occasional moment of peaceful rest. If you are reading this and remember time we have spent together on the path, drop me a note and we'll have a beer/coffee/virtual drink. If you think you might want to join me for a few turns, I am always glad for the company.

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”
Robert Heinlein

Comments

July 29, 2010, Vincent Byfield writes: Pretty amazing part one, my friend. I am looking forward to the next installments.
July 30, 2010, Bruce Audley writes: Life's greatest reward is the jouney itself.
July 30, 2010, Zephyr writes: Nice Heinlein quote. I've always liked that one.
July 30, 2010, Don Parker writes: Patrick We spent a short time colaborating when our path crossed, I recognised your strengths, now you need to continue to apply them to pursue your next stage of growth, leverage the past. Happy Birthday
August 14, 2010, Zephyr writes: Hey Patrick, I am curious about these hidden religions and engineered lifeforms. Wanna go for coffee sometime and tell me all about them?

A White Christmas and Teeth

Patrick Audley — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 03:13:41 +0000

I flew to Vancouver to visit family for the holidays and this time I carted my cat Lana with me. Christmas itself went off without a hitch and was joined with the usual huge turkey dinner, assorted gifts, a few rounds of good wine and general merriment. Though I love getting together with family, travel during the holidays continues to worsen and given my lack of religious lock-down to specific dates has become something I think I shall avoid in the future. A story of teeth, gypsies, blizzards and cheer follows. Well... perhaps not gypsies.

A White ChristmasTravel Nightmare

I normally eschew traveling on Air Canada and I have never been more thankful of that choice. I had a very surreal moment when I was in the Calgary airport and overheard an Air Canada minion telling a traveler that no planes were taking off because the runways were closed. I could see this was a tough sell because behind the man, perfectly framed in the huge window facing the tarmac were several Westjet planes taxiing out and in the far distance a plane just lifting off. I can almost imagine the scene in the Air Canada employee lounge hours before where disgruntled workers probably drew straws to see who was going to go out and tell bald-faced lies to weary travelers whose flights have been canceled while all the other airlines somehow managed. I understand why, in most cases, Air Canada just didn't show up to say anything. My own Westjet flight was half an hour late but Lana (who can travel in the cabin with me) and I made it to snowy Vancouver eventually.

Family Christmas

My mother has been collecting ornaments and bits for the family Christmas tree since before I was born and it's always formed a comforting part of the season for us. That and turkey dinner. Lots of turkey. Heaps even. This year was no exception and we had a great dinner with family on Christmas Eve. The next day was followed by gift opening and generally lazing about in post turkey lethargy. We also went to see Bugs Bunny on Broadway at the Vancouver Orpheum - a wonderful fusion of symphony orchestra and Merry Melodies. All together it was a nice and fairly standard Christmas though the addition of huge amounts of snow in Vancouver made it mildly bizarre (as well as adding that little edge to driving as you are surrounded by others with summer tires trying to pretend they can drive normally on ice). I managed to get together with my best-friend, Danielle, too which is always a great time. We're planning a party trip to Vegas in the Spring - it will be a hoot!

Cat Tooth Fairies

Lana spent this holiday at the vets being boarded and generally checked out. The checkup revealed very badly inflamed gums and required surgery to extract a few teeth. I'm a little ashamed that I hadn't peered into her mouth more regularly because I certainly would have seen the very sore gums. *sigh* She had contracted a mycoplasma infection in her gums which thankfully is treatable with antibiotics. We also have a fun new fish-tasting toothbrush game to play that I'm sure will bring hours of ... joy... to both of us when she heals up. I picked her up today and she's perfectly happy and seems in much better spirits now that her mouth isn't sore. If you're looking for an excellent cat veterinarian/kennel in Vancouver, I've included Cat Care's information at the bottom of the post.

A Night at the Movies: Gran Torino

Gran Torino
Excellent movie, a clash of cultures and generations. I got a chance to see this with my family last week and it's on my must see recommmendations list now. The trailers were a little misleading with their portrayal of a typical Eastwood Dirty Harry persona. Eastwood's character, Walt, is amazing and deep - filled with racism and a product the American Dream (with all that entails, including war) he finds peace at the end of his life by reaching out to a young Hmong boy. Stunning acting and classic cinematography make Eastwoods last film incredible. Go see it. You'll have tears in your eyes at the end - we all did.
My rating: 4.5 stars

Comments

January 12, 2009, Brenda May (Audley) writes: For the first several years of Patrick's life, I made Christmas decorations for our yearly tree. Ceramic, crocheted, stained glass, sewn - all reflected Christmas from a child's perspective. When Patrick has children, all of these decorations will be given to them, and hopefully, passed on again. Every year I wear my Christmas apron and oven mitts from Patrick's first Christmas too. We always celebrate Christmas morning with a champagne brunch. This year, we had a huge snowfall - what a surprise! Christmas is peaceful, and we try never to rush:) Lana is a real trooper! She seems to overcome evey obstacle put in her path. What a sweet kitty. Mom

Fall is the Season of Change

Patrick Audley — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 23:29:04 +0000

As I was walking to work last week I was astounded to see the ground littered with oranges and yellows -- fall had pounced upon me like a stealthy cat. Back in my old Vancouver haunting grounds I knew that all was green and verdant but Calgary had already succumbed and the crisp air hinted of the snow and ice to come. This revelation both foreshadowed and provided background to the rest of the week. All changes bring mixed emotions; rarely in my life do they provide me with the absolutes; this week was no exception. Some good and some not good but overall, I think I'm ahead of the game.

Crowdsourced Joy

My new job at Cambrian House has been unreal with it's stock of amazing people, it's bubbly excitement and cool technology that brings back slightly surreal memories of the startup days at GroupTelecom. I've deeply enjoyed work lately -- work has always been a large component in my life which, if the magical resonance of doing good and making money can be hit, brings huge personal satisfaction. We have very challenging problems to chew away at, crazily smart people to work beside, an endless supply of coffee and a fridge crammed full of food and beer. We're even making money (shocking for a startup I know, we actually sell things!). All of that has been great and I'm thankful that my life has yet again steered into a cool venture.

The Fairer Sex

As often seems to be the case in our great human struggle, there is a counterpoint to such things. Kathy, my intrepid former girlfriend, and I have muddled through much of this year searching for our relationship and I think we've finally arrived at the conclusion that it not only took a vacation but indeed moved to a foreign country, set up a small noodle business and has no intention of coming home. It's been a very sad week as the we realized this -- emotions for me went the whole gambit and I'm left now with just sad and a little disappointed. Our stunningly different lives and personalities which were so fascinating and attractive in our early days had become burdens without the stability that commonality brings.

Realizations of Connectedness

My love woes (how's that for a loaded set of words!) served to highlight a rather shocking amount of support in my life from friends, acquaintances and colleagues. It was a thankful and uplifting experience to see just how intermingled humanity becomes in times of difficulty; the speed of this has certainly grown faster with newer technology and I'm happy to say I'll actually be working on making such things better in the future! I've often seen myself as a lone cat, a view I now consider a little mistaken, cats are colony creatures after all. Thanks go out to all my friends, new and old, for all your support and kind words.

The Coming Cold

Quite a few of my friends (and a no small chunk of my family) have asked if I'm moving back to Vancouver. The short answer is: no. I dove into Calgary with an open mind and have had my usual luck (whose magic touch never seems to extend it's sublime ease to relationships *sigh*) in finding the makings to a great life. I've made commitments here and most importantly, at least to me, I'm having a good time in general! My father expresses constant surprise over how easily I move around and this is just another chance to grow my flexibility muscles. Now I just need a few things to prepare for this new season (are you listening Universe?!?): some local friends to hang out with occasionally and explore new restaurants, a chance to dust off my snow board sometimes this winter and a dash of personal growth.

Comments

October 1, 2008, Pam writes: In Alberta, fall is the season of you-blink-and-you-miss-it! Looks like you're sharing Edmonton's little patch of warmth this autumn. Be well.
October 5, 2008, Brenda May (Audley) writes: Change is often a good thing. New beginnings, new doors to open as others close. Just another stepping stone to a new experience. If you are not looking for happiness, it often jumps out at you.... Take care.

Calgary’s version of seagulls

Patrick Audley — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 17:02:07 +0000

The little differences between cities fascinate me. Calgary has ravenous magpies to replace the seagulls of Vancouver. Instead of syringe wrappers strewn all over the sidewalks I find meat-stick wrappers (which look eerily similar). It's amazing what the minutiae of a city reveals... Posted from my shiny new iPhone.

Moving to Calgary I

Patrick Audley — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 07:24:49 +0000

The Big Move to Calgary has begun! Kathy and I just couldn't take being in different cities anymore so I'm mashing (no really, see the pictures of the storeroom!) all my possessions into storage and moving in with the family until the 15th of July when the moving truck, the [LANA001, cat] and I are abandoning Vancouver. This move was very cathartic -- I donated all my un-wearable clothes, old books, and unneeded household things. I converted all my paper items into scanned PDF's (huge job, thanks go out to PrintPlus in Vancouver for their Herculean effort). And finally, much was just thrown out or recycled. The Digital Conversion(tm) along was worth all the effort of the move! Stay tuned for the actual move into Calgary.

Comments

August 23, 2008, Brenda May (Audley) writes: You never know how much stuff you really have until you move! I could not believe the amount of boxes we packed for Patrick's move to Calgary. He has moved before, but this time, almost everything was kept because Patrick bought everything new and of excellent quality. It was a very nice apartment with a great location, but moving on.............. I must say that I won't miss the hour commute from Richmond to Vancouver!

Contributed art: Sara’s Interpretation of Dresden at Night

Patrick Audley — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 04:16:14 +0000

This oil paining is a rendition of a picture from my "[COGNETO002, Dresden Trip]" was contributed by Sarah Davis.

Cool, eh?!

I've sold a few pictures for publication over the years but this makes me much happier than any of the sales. *big grin*

Whirlwind Europe trip with Ralph

Job Search in the New Year

Patrick Audley — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 02:14:32 +0000

After taking a few months off and spending some time with my family and fiancee, it's now time to jump back into the fray. I'm primarily looking for jobs in the Vancouver and Calgary areas but I'm also considering making a serious go at telecommuting. Most of my recent experience has been in the identity 2.0 space but I'm very interested in exploring new industries and problems. So, if you have a good problem or need a deep thinker for your team, keep me in mind.

Darkly Colored Felines of Fury » lifelines

Yarr!

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