The first server I connected to the Internet sat on the floor of my office, close enough so I could hear -- and feel -- its response to heavy load. It seems weird to admit that I relied on those sensory cues, but I've talked to enough system administrators to know I'm not alone. The sounds of a working machine enable the pattern recognition engine in your brain to create a baseline -- and to detect deviations from it -- in ways that are effortless, automatic, and incredibly efficient. [Full story at InfoWorld.com]
My title for this column was "Listening to my server" but InfoWorld's CEO Kevin McKean came up with a better one: "The network song." In his column, Kevin points out that InfoWorld.com is now using a TinyUrl-like scheme to compress URLs printed in the magazine. Excellent! Since moving my column from its online-only venue to its current position in the printed magazine and online, I've been frustrated by the need to curtail the amount of linking I do. This will help a lot.
Former URL: http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2003/07/05.html#a737