May 2013 – Sean Shadmand

Super Nerdy “traceroute” fun

Okay, fair warning this is, as my friend Kanad would say, “Nerdy Gigabyting” stuff.

For all you Star Wars fans out there, and even some op engineers that may not like Star Wars check out these hops in your terminal shared with me my friend and co-worker Jason P.

#> traceroute 216.81.59.173

For those of you that are curious about what the hell a traceroute is, it is a way to see the set of network hops taken to get to the destination in question. For instance, when you visit http://www.seanshadmand.com from your computer the request is sent to your local network, then a nearby network and then the next switching and moving between networks until it arrived at the network that holds my website. Just ike taking multiple roads to get to and from work your request must travle through different “intersection” to get to a web page.

Here is an example of doing a traceroute to my DNS http://www.seanshadmand.com

Sean-Shadmands-MacBook-Pro:~ seanshadmand$ traceroute seanshadmand.com
traceroute to seanshadmand.com (54.245.121.115), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets
 1  10.4.11.1 (10.4.11.1)  3.884 ms  1.013 ms  2.993 ms
 2  10.4.1.1 (10.4.1.1)  0.842 ms  0.977 ms  1.194 ms
 3  50-0-241-217.dedicated.static.sonic.net (50.0.241.217)  9.055 ms  8.422 ms  10.212 ms
 4  gig1-28.cr1.colaca01.sonic.net (70.36.228.97)  9.576 ms  6.047 ms  7.426 ms
 5  po3.cr1.lsatca11.sonic.net (75.101.33.166)  8.560 ms  9.594 ms *
 6  * * *
 7  0.xe-6-0-0.gw.equinix-sj.sonic.net (64.142.0.185)  6.043 ms * *
 8  * equinix01-sfo5.amazon.com (206.223.116.177)  13.506 ms *
 9  * 205.251.229.173 (205.251.229.173)  49.171 ms *
10  205.251.232.70 (205.251.232.70)  38.752 ms
    205.251.232.112 (205.251.232.112)  32.057 ms
    205.251.232.68 (205.251.232.68)  34.793 ms
11  205.251.232.141 (205.251.232.141)  29.312 ms  32.983 ms
    205.251.232.159 (205.251.232.159)  41.429 ms
12  205.251.232.165 (205.251.232.165)  34.375 ms  35.858 ms  64.349 ms
13  ec2-50-112-0-241.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com (50.112.0.241)  41.451 ms
    ec2-50-112-0-163.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com (50.112.0.163)  30.499 ms  28.531 ms

Here you can see the request working its way from our local network to our Sonic.net provider all the way down to the network hosting my site, Amazon.

Okay, so here is what the original traceroute I mentioned above did in 64 hops – the following is a spoiler alert, do not scroll down if you want to try it yourself 🙂

Sean-Shadmands-MacBook-Pro:~ seanshadmand$ traceroute 216.81.59.173
traceroute to 216.81.59.173 (216.81.59.173), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets
 1  10.4.11.1 (10.4.11.1)  1.586 ms  0.751 ms  0.748 ms
 2  10.4.1.1 (10.4.1.1)  0.863 ms  0.922 ms  0.976 ms
 3  50-0-241-217.dedicated.static.sonic.net (50.0.241.217)  9.179 ms  7.557 ms  11.639 ms
 4  gig1-28.cr1.colaca01.sonic.net (70.36.228.97)  9.738 ms  8.369 ms  6.678 ms
 5  po3.cr1.lsatca11.sonic.net (75.101.33.166)  7.323 ms  50.077 ms  7.756 ms
 6  0.xe-5-1-0.gw.pao1.sonic.net (69.12.211.1)  6.980 ms  12.417 ms  6.569 ms
 7  0.xe-6-0-0.gw.equinix-sj.sonic.net (64.142.0.185)  5.534 ms  5.873 ms  5.865 ms
 8  10gigabitethernet2-3.core1.sjc2.he.net (206.223.116.37)  6.746 ms  13.966 ms  12.247 ms
 9  10gigabitethernet14-7.core1.lax2.he.net (184.105.213.5)  26.900 ms  20.975 ms  22.262 ms
10  10gigabitethernet2-3.core1.phx2.he.net (184.105.222.85)  74.895 ms  40.622 ms  29.217 ms
11  10gigabitethernet5-3.core1.dal1.he.net (184.105.222.78)  56.980 ms  55.502 ms  54.686 ms
12  10gigabitethernet5-4.core1.atl1.he.net (184.105.213.114)  75.773 ms  74.998 ms  72.689 ms
13  216.66.0.26 (216.66.0.26)  73.062 ms  74.324 ms  72.802 ms
14  * * *
15  episode.iv (206.214.251.1)  116.403 ms  130.009 ms  112.626 ms
16  a.new.hope (206.214.251.6)  111.127 ms  112.484 ms  109.912 ms
17  it.is.a.period.of.civil.war (206.214.251.9)  109.559 ms * *
18  * rebel.spaceships (206.214.251.14)  112.966 ms *
19  * * striking.from.a.hidden.base (206.214.251.17)  114.395 ms
20  * have.won.their.first.victory (206.214.251.22)  114.337 ms *
21  * * against.the.evil.galactic.empire (206.214.251.25)  136.658 ms
22  during.the.battle (206.214.251.30)  116.953 ms  115.696 ms  112.170 ms
23  rebel.spies.managed (206.214.251.33)  110.094 ms  112.563 ms  114.632 ms
24  to.steal.secret.plans (206.214.251.38)  110.638 ms  109.706 ms  109.454 ms
25  to.the.empires.ultimate.weapon (206.214.251.41)  110.453 ms  114.561 ms  114.792 ms
26  the.death.star (206.214.251.46)  113.295 ms  115.245 ms  115.005 ms
27  an.armored.space.station (206.214.251.49)  163.362 ms  113.893 ms  114.685 ms
28  with.enough.power.to (206.214.251.54)  115.263 ms  111.979 ms  117.865 ms
29  destroy.an.entire.planet (206.214.251.57)  114.727 ms  113.755 ms  126.718 ms
30  pursued.by.the.empires (206.214.251.62)  115.042 ms  116.474 ms  110.436 ms
31  sinister.agents (206.214.251.65)  113.995 ms  115.831 ms  115.973 ms
32  princess.leia.races.home (206.214.251.70)  111.079 ms  131.545 ms  115.804 ms
33  aboard.her.starship (206.214.251.73)  111.702 ms  116.699 ms  113.923 ms
34  * custodian.of.the.stolen.plans (206.214.251.78)  120.468 ms  116.254 ms
35  that.can.save.her (206.214.251.81)  112.573 ms  117.197 ms  123.432 ms
36  people.and.restore (206.214.251.86)  110.282 ms  119.757 ms  114.538 ms
37  * * *
38  0-----i-------i-----0 (206.214.251.94)  134.709 ms * *
39  * 0------------------0 (206.214.251.97)  131.887 ms *
40  * * *
41  0----------------0 (206.214.251.105)  116.773 ms  114.683 ms  111.513 ms
42  0---------------0 (206.214.251.110)  114.764 ms  111.789 ms  114.402 ms
43  0--------------0 (206.214.251.113)  111.076 ms  116.629 ms  111.154 ms
44  0-------------0 (206.214.251.118)  112.852 ms  114.205 ms  111.433 ms
45  0------------0 (206.214.251.121)  115.202 ms  112.044 ms  114.663 ms
46  0-----------0 (206.214.251.126)  201.307 ms  111.747 ms  117.750 ms
47  0----------0 (206.214.251.129)  116.196 ms  111.185 ms  110.688 ms
48  0---------0 (206.214.251.134)  110.780 ms  114.799 ms  113.196 ms
49  0--------0 (206.214.251.137)  113.402 ms  115.738 ms  114.843 ms
50  0-------0 (206.214.251.142)  113.381 ms  111.589 ms  116.851 ms
51  0------0 (206.214.251.145)  116.478 ms  111.657 ms  116.318 ms
52  0-----0 (206.214.251.150)  115.002 ms  115.580 ms  116.904 ms
53  0----0 (206.214.251.153)  138.367 ms  115.620 ms *
54  0---0 (206.214.251.158)  113.654 ms  111.288 ms  111.488 ms
55  0--0 (206.214.251.161)  117.350 ms  118.801 ms  147.315 ms
56  0-0 (206.214.251.166)  114.342 ms  120.037 ms *
57  * * 00 (206.214.251.169)  118.554 ms
58  i (206.214.251.174)  117.896 ms * *
59  * by.ryan.werber (206.214.251.177)  150.234 ms *
60  blizzards.breed.ccie.creativity (206.214.251.182)  115.374 ms * *
61  * please.try.again.tracerote.to.obiwan.scrye.net (206.214.251.185)  120.250 ms  146.107 ms
62  read.more.at.beaglenetworks.net (206.214.251.190)  116.038 ms *  115.467 ms

What a company manifesto means to me and what I would expect it to accomplish

A Manifesto reveals the strengths and values within a company, and does so in a way that decreases the number of complex decision making hurdles for its employees in the day-to-day.

The manifesto will be “the bible” (though only a page) of reasons that lead a team without a need for individual leaders to be present, and can help create the next generation of leaders to form in the same vein.

It relieves people from the stresses and distractions inherent to complex (or seemingly complex) decisions, in the middle of the workday, while fighting in the trenches.

Picture this: A team of army rangers are falling back in the middle of an amazonian battlefield. They realize one of their platoon members went missing while under fire. What do they do? Unorganized soldiers may scatter under this pressure and lose their head. Should the next step be “Every man for themselves!”, or “Let’s hide it out until morning”? Luckily this group of rangers knows that there is one core value that prevails in situations like this: “never leave a soldier behind”. – Boom, decision made. They spend their time devising a plan to find him first and foremost (no matter the hurdles – it will be resolved).

Values help form a strategy. Most importantly, when things go wrong, values help keep the bigger picture moving tactically. Especially when “fires” make decision making difficult. Plans fail, but values do not.

More practically speaking, the battles on a tech company’s floor may be less tragic, but are battles nonetheless. Imagine there is a team developing a widget. It is done so with poor (if any) design, but is backend-ready and functional. A discussion may come up around the pros and cons of deploying something that doesn’t look good but is ready to ship for testing. The debate could rage on, but, with a core manifesto that decision is already made: if the core value says design is key to our tests – then the decision is made to implement a design before deploying. If the core value says release when ready and iterate – again the decision is already made.

Those decisions shape a company and should not change week-to-week, problem-to-problem, or day-by-day from department to department. They shape outcomes and the character of a company through a decision tree that is easy to repeat. Consistent and efficient decision-making is more important than re-assessing the perfect decision for the situation each and every time it comes up. The written word is amazing at facilitating that.

Of course, we all have great thoughts and your company has awesome values already, but having them written down is the difference between an interesting legend shared by some and a religion followed by many.

Documentation, although necessary, does not substitute for a short list of values. Documentation is rarely re-read, and often forgotten; we remember “Go when green” not “Statute 32 Section 5: All those that use public road shall obey stop lights based on the following color …..”

Finally, it is extremely important that your list of values are glossed over. One lazy move away from following your values can easily turn into a utter mess over the years. That does not mean you can’t change your values. If a situation comes up, and your values does not represent how you want to act two things MUST happen: 1) You re-examine your values and change them accordingly or 2) You adjust the situation to fit your values. Period.

As for my suggestions regarding the setting for how a document can be built as a team here are some thoughts.

Make sure people feel heard (i.e. right down every idea)
Help filter outlaws that promote restrictions (which end up being things people feel reprimanded for doing) and turn them into the concept that create direction and productivity to help people grow, expand, and focus. It is a document of supportiveness.
Use it to help give people clarity in situations that need tie breakers, or rules of thumb. For example, “future value does not trump current value” has saved our team from missing out on what we have while over planning for something we do not.
Be clear on what an item suggested means when it is written (often times one person’s perspective on what “awareness” can be, for instance, is different than another’s) Be descriptive.
Find a/the person that matches the essence of what a manifesto item describes. They will most likely be the champion of that thought and help keep it alive and well. Find the passion in the people and you will also find the strength in the doc.

I believe once the fundamental concepts are solidified into the manifesto it becomes a spine for current, and as importantly, new employees that come in so they can quickly latch onto and adopt the companies process/thinking as it expands in size.
There will be the debate over the items presented, and debate is good. As such, it may also be a good idea to nail down some keywords that keep the conversation on track to what we believe the manifesto points should adhere to.

The words I propose are:

positive
smooth
friendly
helpful
productive

If an item does not instill many of these words, for instance, then the item may be off track.

No matter what happens to you – make good art

Great commencement speech from Neil Gaimen passed on to me by Isaac Mosquera. Lots of poetic insights…Have a looksee

If you don’t know how to do it pretend you are someone that knows how to do it and do it. – Neil Gaiman

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ikAb-NYkseI