Archives for posts with tag: softskills

Book Review: Time Management for Systems Administrators

November 6, 09 //
2

Recently I took on a new position at work. Instead of just banging out help desk tickets and incoming phone calls, I’m assisting customers on longer-term projects. It’s an entirely different workflow, and it’s helpimg me appreciate this book even more. I’m glad I procrastinated writing this post, as it helped clarify my thoughts to simmer with the information contained within. I can confidently give this book a rating of

Multiple Thumbs Up

although it’s not without it’s flaws.

Pros:

This book is what it says it is on the tin: a time-management system specifically geared to the workflows of systems administrators.

It’s a shorter book, yet covers the topic more than adequately.

Both the tips and the overall system are chock-full of utility.

Cons:

The folksy style is off-putting, for myself at least. Geeks drink Mountain Dew! And it’s funny! *rolls eyes*

This book can be repetitive. I recognize that repetition is a hallmark of pedagogy, but the eighth time I heard the filling-the-gas-tank example I very nearly endangered the material well-being of my copy. (But now I know and use the point of that example often. So, it worked while it annoyed.)

The last con I see is more subtle; you might consider it a con as such.

Books in the time management genre (e.g. Getting Things Done
) tend to espouse a somewhat-eastern zen-like worldview (taking the “be a systems administrator NINJA!” metaphor too far, perhaps?). This book, though milder in that respect, does have some (pro-yoga) moments. (I can’t stand yoga, in part because I am an inflexible jerk.) For me, that’s a con; it may not be a con for you.But I am the one writing this review, so I call it a con. And not the kind of con that prevented me from enjoying and recommending this book.

Disclaimer:

Dear FTC: I bought this book. Nobody is compensating me for this review. If I’m lucky, I’ll be able to get a latte with the proceeds from the amazon affiliate links I’ve placed here. The fact that I felt the need to mention any of this makes you jerks.

Emacs vs. VI Keybindings

August 31, 09 //
4

Chances are, if you’ve spent any significant amount of time with POSIX-compliant systems, you’ve made an effort to learn either emacs or vi. (Unless crontab -e shunts you to nano, and you’ve not moved on.) I suspect that those who stick with emacs are generally programmers, while those who stick with vi are generally sysadmins (although I do recognize that plenty of programmers spend their days in vi – this is a hasty generalization made for the sake of argument). Since both editors are so different in approach, it makes sense to get deeply involved in one to the exclusion to the other. Being proficient in one is eventually more productive then only half-knowing both.

That said, I suggest learning both sets of keybindings.

The reason I suggest this is because many other programs implement either emacs or vi keybindings. By default, bash uses some emacs keybindings for moving around the command-line, although it can be configured to us vi-like bindings too. The aforementioned frankeneditor nano also has emacs-like bindings. Pagers such as more, less, and most utilize vi keybindings. As a systems administrator, at some point you’re going to find yourself on an unfamiliar box, with a less than familiar tool. I guarantee that pulling the old “I wonder if this tool uses vi commands for navigation” trick will result in a percentage increase in productivity that, while completely cooked up off the top of my head, is nevertheless real and measurable.

So. If you’ve slavishly commited yourself to one editor and one set of keybindings to the exclusion of the other: Be Ye Not So Stupid.