Liz and Sascha

Last night we had dinner at Mom's, and it was extra special because Sascha was in town for a visit. I'm pretty sure he came to Austin for dinner, but I'm also sure he was happy to see Liz. We had a nice dinner of baked chicken, broccoli and cauliflower salad (a staple these days - I'm warming up to it), scalloped potatoes and some great bread that you have to take out of the freezer exactly 10 minutes before heating it up. Ginny was busy preparing other people's taxes (for free!), but Jack joined me and April and Mom and Liz and Sascha. They all played "dime me" after dinner, but I had to go to the other room to catch "24", since I'm hopelessly addicted to that show. It's a good thing I didn't play anyway, since Liz was on fire and won big. I'm saving my money for Vegas!

Configuration Management Strategy

In large scale software deployment, a good project plan should have a comprehensive configuration management strategy. There are often several application environments such as testing, prototype, training and production, and each should be configured consistently throughout the system architecture. Configuration management strategy enables organizations to apply changes to the system in a predictable manner that will ensure compliance and availability.

A corollary can be drawn between configuration management strategy and proper seating at Mom’s table during meals. Sitting too close to the kitchen may require the user (dinner guest) to disrupt the application (meal) by forcing unplanned interruptions. Something as basic as forgetting the butter dish often requires the participant to leave the dinner table, find the butter, and return to the meal after significant downtime.

I’ve found that the best strategy for seating at the dinner table is along the south wall, which makes it inefficient for the dinner guest to leave the table and thus maximizes the effective consumption of the meal. So, sit on the south end, and strap on the old feed bag!