So finally

01 Aug 2014

Today I complete my (scurries to check calendar) third week of work at OpenDNS. There is a lot to take in.

I flew in to San Francisco without problems; like previous times, there was no having to opt out of scanners at YVR (the airport, not the office). I got moderately tangled up in the BART because I'd become convinced it was Saturday instead of Monday, but once I figured that out I got to the office without problems. The corporate apartment is right around the corner, which is definitely handy, and close to the 21st Amendment Brewpub which was even more handy. Went there for supper:

The #goldenpony made it to the @21stAmendment brewpub. But if it tries to drink my b33r there will be trouble. pic.twitter.com/2WowiC1c62

— Saint Aardvark (@saintaardvark) July 15, 2014

I stayed for a while, listening to the startups happening around me (not even kidding), then went back to the apartment and slept fitfully.

Next day was first day. There were 7 of us starting that week, including one other YVRite. The onboarding (and now I'm using that word) was very, very well organized: we've had talks from HR, from the CFO, from the VP of Sales and from actual sales people, from Security, from the IT guy (and it is strange not to be the IT guy) and from the...oh god, I'd have to look it up. There was a lot, but it was interesting to get such a broad overview of the company.

The second meeting of the day, right after HR got us to fill out the necessary forms, was to get our laptops. Mine is a 15" MacBook Pro AirPony CloudTastic or some such; 16 GB of RAM, Retina display, SSD. What it works out to be is wicked fast and pretty. It has not been nearly as hard to get used to it as I thought it would be -- not just because I'm adaptable and like computers, but because even though it's not Linux it's not getting in my way any (which in turn is because, much more than anywere I've worked previously, so very very much of what we do is done through a browser, using apps/services which have been designed within the last five years).

Natch this makes me question my ideological purity. But I can also see, really see the point of having things be easy, particularly at scale. Which is kind of a ridiculous thing to say for a sysadmin, whose job is supposedly making things easy for other people. But there you go. I love Linux, but there's no question that (modulo the fact that I'm seeing the end product, not the work that went into it) making everything that seamless would probably be a lot more work.

Speaking of which, I'd just like to give shoutouts to the IT people at OpenDNS. They are incredibly well organized, efficient, friendly and helpful. I need to take notes. Oh, and: it is strange not being the IT person -- at one point my laptop was misbehaving, and I had to/got to ask someone else for help fixing it. Wah.

Oh, and: the HR department is well-organized too. Everyone shows up to their new desk which is clearly marked with a) balloons and b) swag:

Onboarding the #goldenpony. pic.twitter.com/hbdywOedKk

— Saint Aardvark (@saintaardvark) July 15, 2014

In the midst of this week full of meetings, I got to meet my coworkers. Some I'd interviewed with, some were new to me (like Keith, who a has degree in accounting: "I learned two things: don't screw with the IRS, and I hate accounting!"). They are all friendly and smart. There were knowledge drops and trips to the lunch wagons and finding different meeting rooms (".cn is booked." "What about .gr?") and whiteboarding and I don't know what-all. Oh, and one of the new people starting that week is Levi, another systems engineer, who came over after 7 years at Facebook. Wonderful guy; I was intimidated, but it turned out I knew a few things he didn't (and of course vice-versa), so that restored my confidence.

Things are organized. There is agile and kanban boards and managers who actually help -- not that they wouldn't, I guess, but I'm so used either being on my own or wishing my manager would just go away. This is nice. There are coworkers (have I mentioned them?) who help -- it's not just me anymore. This means not only that I don't have to do anything, but that I can't just go rabbiting off in all directions when something cool comes up.

Oh, and: there are these wonderful sit/stand desks from GeekDesk.com -- they're MOTORIZED! They're all over the SFO office, and will soon be coming to the YVR office. They're wonderful; if I ever work from home on a regular basis, I will really really want one.

There wasn't a lot of time for wandering around -- mostly, by the end of the day I was pretty exhausted -- but Thursday night I walked across town, from King Street BART station to 39th pier. It was ~ 9km all told, and it was a wonderful walk. I ended up going past City Lights Bookstore and Washington Square park; back in 1999, my wife and I spent an afternoon in that park, where a homeless guy insisted that I remove my sunglasses so he could see if I was an alien (I wasn't). It was cool to see it again. The touristy stuff was great in its schlocky, touristy way, and I hunted around for sportsball tshirts for my kids.

Friday we had the weekly OpenDNS all-hands meeting, where (among other things) new hires tell three fun facts about themselves. Mine were:

1. I counted moose from a helicopter when I participated in a moose population survey. And when I say "participated" I mean "was ballast". I worked one summer for the Ministry of Natural Resources in Ontario. A helicopter was flying out with one pilot and two biologists, so it was unbalanced. I came along so the helicopter could stay level. Saved a lot of lives that day.

2. I'm an early investor in David Ulevitch, OpenDNS' CEO. Back when he was running EveryDNS, which provided free DNS service for domains, I sent in $35 as a donation. When Dyn.com bought EveryDNS, they grandfathered in all the people who'd donated, and I've now got free DNS for my domains for life. Woot!

3. And of course, the story of the golden pony.

Friday afternoon I flew back; opted out of the scanner (and forgot to tell my coworker flying back with me that I'd be half an hour getting through security; apologized later), had supper and a beer at the airport, and just generally had an unventful flight home. The beers I brought home for my wife made it through everything intact, there were stickers for the kids, and everyone was happy to see me (aw!).