Network Infrastructure at Faithlife
The network infrastructure powering Faithlife has seen a massive transformation in the last eighteen months. We’re really excited about all the cool new changes, and the measurable impact they’ve had on our employees, customers, and the products / features we’re able to offer. Given that, we thought that sharing our solution was a fun way to live our values and showcase what we think is pretty cool.
Philosophy
At Faithlife we value smart, versatile learners and automation over expensive vendor solutions. Smart, versatile learners don’t lose value when technology changes or the company changes direction, as vendor solutions often do. If we can use commodity hardware and open source software to replace expensive vendor solutions, we do.
Commodity hardware is generally re-configurable and reusable, and lets us treat our hardware like Lego bricks. Open source software allows us to see behind the curtain, and more easily work with other existing tools. We’re empowered to fix our own issues by utilizing the talent we already employ, not just sit on our hands waiting for a vendor support engineer to help us out (though we do like to keep that option available when possible). Additionally, combining commodity hardware with automation tools like Continue reading
Are Your Tweets Really Your Own?
We’ve all seen it recently. Twitter bios and blog profile pages with some combination of the following:
My tweets are my own.
Retweets are not endorsements.
My views do not represent my employer.
It has come to the point where the people in the industry are more visible and valuable than the brands they work for. Personal branding has jumped to the forefront of marketing strategies. But with that rise in personal branding comes a huge risk for companies. What happens when one of our visible stars says something we disagree with? What happens when we have to pull back?
Where Is My Mind?
Social media works best when it’s genuine. People sharing thoughts and ideas with each other without filters or constraint. Where it breaks down is when an external force starts interfering with that information exchange. Think about corporate social media policies that restrict what you can say. Or even policies that say your Twitter handle has to include the company you work for (yes, that exists). Why should my profile have to include miles of disclaimers telling people that I’m not a robot?
Is it because we have become so jaded as to believe that people can’t Continue reading
Spock Encouraged Geeks to "Live Long and Prosper"
Spock Encouraged Geeks to "Live Long and Prosper"
by Brian Boyko, Contributor - March 3, 2015
When you think of how many ways “Star Trek” advanced society, there are a number of standouts. This includes everything from the treatment of then-modern social issues like civil rights and racism, to showing the irrationality of war when war with the Soviet Union seemed inevitable. But one that often gets lost in the shuffle is the idea that Star Trek started the ball rolling on what can be best described as “nerd pride.”
That is, while there were certainly smart, well-read, mathematical, logical people in 1966, before Star Trek, being a smart, technically minded person was - for most of society - a character flaw.
Indeed, being a “nerd” or a “geek” continued to be an insult first and foremost for decades afterwards. However, the thing about Star Trek is that it allowed some of our forefathers the ability to think of themselves as heroic. And that mostly had to do with giving young technical people a cherished role model - the character of Mr. Spock.
Spock was an enigma, because there was little on television or in any form of Continue reading