I found this infographic about how your personal choices reduce your contribution to climate change today. I found it really interesting especially the eating plant based diet and reducing one international holiday flight and especially around not having more children. Definitely selecting on your washing machine to wash cold is an easy one for sure.

I went for a cycle around Wollongong today, can you recognise where I went?

I started off from Bulli pass and did a off-road ride down into Wollongong.

Then I cycled down to the waters edge and to the Lagoon.

and lastly along the coast to Wollongong lighthouse. What a beautiful day to sight see Wollongong.

Working in the IT industry now for close to 20 years I’m starting to understand how IT culture fits together a lot better.

There are two groups of people in Enterprise IT, the new guard and the old guard. The old guard are those who have been around in the organisation for (depends on the organisation) 2 to 3 years plus, they’ve seen a few projects come and go, they know who to speak to, they are the connection makers, which teams to speak to, which individuals make things happen, which don’t, who to avoid, what the processes are, how to get things done!

The new guard are quite often contractors and come in with fresh new ideas, new ways of thinking, new ways to make the business move ahead, bring new technologies, generally they have the ability and knowledge and energy to make the organisation better.

The issue with the new guard is they do not know who to speak to, the processes, generally how to make things happen to apply the knowledge to drive things forward.

To receive the ultimate outcome of successful projects and moving things forwards you need to make a connection of the new guard and the old guard. If they work effectively together they will be able to deliver outcomes for the business, complete projects and everyone will be happy.

In some circumstances the old guards feel threatened by the new guard because of their new increased knowledge levels they bring and it may show them up negativly, so the old guard and the new guard actually don’t want or don’t get on together, and this can create a bad and toxic environment.

The old guard are typically permanent staff who have been with the company for a while on a salary income like to receive their bonuses and understand a comfort level within their role (I’m just doing my 9 to 5), and will probably be there for quite a few years yet. The new guard as mentioned before are contractors who are typically in either temporary backfill rolls or specific projects.

In my current role that I’m just about to leave, I felt like I was moving into a old guard type role after a year and a half, I was connecting new guards that would come into the organisation to the right people to make them successful and deliver their outcomes.

Previous to my current role I’ve always been a contractor so fall into the new guards category and I enjoyed the dynamic nature of trying to deliver with a challenge within large organisations working with the old guard.

The moral of the story is, if you are a manager in an organisation and you’re bringing on new guys to deliver a outcome/project, make sure you empower them with solid and good connections with your existing knowledgeable long term staff.

Anyway that’s my way of thinking what do you think? What’s your view?

If you’ve got young kids I’m sure your like me and always finding bits of toys have gone missing and most likely it’s under the sofa.

Most sofas have a gap at the front, great for small toy bits to get under and too small to get your hand in so you have to pull the bloody sofa out all the time.

Time for mission ‘stop stuff going under the sofa’.

I found this sticky backed 12mm thick foam.

I measured the foam into 8cm strips.

Cut them all to size.

Peeled off the sticky backs and stuck 3 together at a time to make a 36mm tall block, and stuck them to the bottom of the sofa. Just a couple of cm’s back so you can’t notice them.

End result with no more toys, bits, and popcorn (a always culprit) going under the sofa!

To give back to the wider community, I’ve provided all my course notes for the 70-534 Architecting Microsoft Azure Solutions certification exam. If you read through all of these bullet points and diagrams and understand the lot, you will know enough to pass the exam. To prove that, this is everything I learnt to pass the exam myself, late July 2017. All 11,000 words, enjoy! and hope you get certified as an MS Azure Cloud Architect!

I have created a separate page for it here: Marks 70-534 Architecting Microsoft Azure Solutions Course notes June 2017

Had a great drive today with a group of car guys that called themselves ‘Autofocus’. Had to set the alarm for 5AM, a time unheard of for me. It was worth it though to see Sydney winter at its best, with ice on the roads, frost in the grass/bushes, and the temp a low -3, you just wouldn’t think -3 in Sydney, Australia would you.

Outside temperature -3!

A good mix of cars and driving abilities from the guys.

Here are the autofocus guys.

A cold and icy stream, I would definitely not want to take a dip.

Check out the cold freezing icy grass.Ice patches on the roads, had to be careful. At one point I slipped for a few metres but the stability control  saved me well once the tires regained grip.

To give back to the wider community, I’ve provided all my course notes for the AWS Solution Architect certification exam. If you read through all of these bullet points and diagrams and understand the lot, you will know enough to pass the exam. to prove that, this is everything I learnt to pass the exam myself, late May 2017.

I have created a separate page for it here: Marks AWS Solution Architect Course notes – Apr/May 2017

A little self gratification, I passed my AWS Architect Associate exam today after studying hard for 1 month.

Just a few more photos from Wakefield Park last week taken by a photographer stationed around the track.

This photo below is a great one, as if you look closely my rear right wheel is nearly off the ground.

Yesterday I have a great day at Wakefield Park Raceway which is 2 1/2/ hours from Sydney for a trackday. Perfect Autumn weather, top of 17 degree’s and sunny all day.

Driver briefing:

My friend Geoff has a  Porsche GT3 Cup which is a race car which cant be driven on the road. He took me our for 3 laps, but got a puncture so had to come in early. It was a  real experience, the main thing that stood out was just how loud it is inside a race car. Even with your helmet on it is so loud. It was so loud that in the video below the microphone on my phone just couldn’t handle it, that’s why it goes all quiet.

My Lotus next to a Mitsubishi Evo V:

It was a open pit lane type of event so I could get a lot of laps in to practice driving, I went through a whole tank of fuel, my fastest lap time was 1:13. I was impressed with how fast the Lotus was, I could pretty much get past most road cars on the track, including a Audi R8, only the proper race cars were faster (and by a fair way) than me.

I found the Series 3 Elise is so much easier to drive fast on track with its 2 mode stability & traction control system compared to my old Series 2 Elise & Exige’s. I put it in ‘Sport’ mode all day except a few laps with everything turned off so I could do a bit of power sliding on a nice left hander halfway round the track.

Excuse my poor lines and too early breaking, turning in in the video below. I got a 1:13 as my personal best, not great by good drivers standards, but I had a lot of fun and that’s what trackdays for me is all about 😊

Have a watch of my video below:

YouTube link: https://youtu.be/Ws8xVdw0m8I