RE: Hello from Twitter!

Yet another LI approach, this one that didn't know who at Twitter was a Hadoop committer and therefore someone I knew/had consumed beer at the Highbury with.

What I will flag up here is Twitter's storage team's plans to build a new data platform from scratch. Not heard of that before.


Hi. I 'm afraid I must decline your invitation. I am having lots of fun at hortonworks building the future of Hadoop, and am not interested in any discussions.

While I am at it, can I point out
http://steveloughran.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/hadoop-recruiter-minefield.html
and
http://steveloughran.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/reminder-to-hadoop-recruiters-do-your.html

these state my reference policy for dealing with unsolicited approaches. A quick scan of the Hadoop committer list would identify who I have worked with at twitter, so who to approach me through more personally.

On 8/30/12 1:00 AM, Mike  wrote:
--------------------
Hi Steve,

I lead passive candidate engagement for the core storage team at Twitter. I ran across your profile and I wanted to see if you may be open to a short conversation.  The storage team is working on a next generation big data platform we are building from scratch.  This will fundamentally change the way we store and analyze data.  Would you be available to speak sometime this week?

I look forward to your response.

Cheers,

Mike

EPO & TdF

I guess I should undeclare all photos of me cycling in either US postal or T Mobil cycling tops, such as here where A. and I topped out Col de Madeleine (1993m) in 2009, having a meal at the top before descending -the first time my son had been over 40mph on a bicycle before. Those burley tagalongs corner well -the rack mount gives them a good CofG, but are not so good off road.

Regarding the TdF, I was down in Grenoble in '98, and almost drove up to Annecy to catch the stage there -I chose to head east and ride Galibier from both sides instead. That was a good choice, as that was the day the riders had a sit down strike "If you make the drug tests harder -make the tour easier".

This shows the problem. The riders want to win -but the TV companies wanted exciting television; the little towns wanted the intermediate sprints, as did that French betting company (PMC?), the sponsors wanted the TV coverage. EPO and blood doping were the dirty little secrets: undetectable drugs that meant from Indurain's era onwards, all winners of the TdF probably cheated.

It's hard to blame or criticise Lance Armstrong here, because, well, that was how the game went that year -and it wasn't just the cyclists who benefited.



Me: I just regret not taking an afternoon out from Geneva in 1988 to catch Lemond.

Page Mill Hill Work, T+20

This is me atop Page Mill; photo on Ilford B&W, hand developed:


Date? Summer 1992; spending a few weeks in Santa Clara.

I've just made it up Page Mill, the bike -my original mountain bike- is carrying about 6-8kg of surplus weight on the back.


Here's the scene again, this time on a digital camera that even knows where it is:


Date: Summer 2012; spending a few weeks in Sunnyvale.


The 6-8kg of surplus luggage has moved off the bike into my body, making it impossible for me to leave it behind on rest days; the fringe on my hair has moved back, and the sunglasses hide the fact I look more tired.

Otherwise, not much has visibly changed.

Except that climb up Page Mill on the first photo was followed by a ride all the way up Skyline, dropping down to the pacific coast side of San Francisco where I eventually turned up at my motel to discover that my reservation had been voided & because of some event in the city if I wanted somewhere to stay I would have to sprint over to the YMCA in that fairly rough part off Market -Tenderloin?- where before I could get a room the people in front were complaining they'd been robbed through a window on the third floor. Needless to say the bike came in the room. Estimated distance: 90-100 miles, 3000-5000' of ascent.

The next day: over into Marin, over Mt Tamalpais on an off-road trail, where I got to enjoy overtaking people who didn't have luggage, then over to Pt Reyes and the Youth Hostel there; 70-80 miles, 5000-6000' of ascent.

These days, up Pagemill then S. on Skyline before descending to Cupertino and home is enough for me to declare victory (50 miles; 3000' of up), where I can then settle down and drink a beer pretending to myself that I've earned it.

That's the difference.