Bob Plankers

Bob Plankers is a man who wears many hats. In his professional career he has spent three decades leading teams that design, build, operate, and talk about reliable, secure, and compliant IT infrastructures, both in the public sector and in the high tech industry. He currently focuses on applied security, compliance, and operational resilience for virtualization and cloud platforms.

Oklahoma!

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It’s been pretty slow on the blog, and for that I apologize. It’s is a busy couple of weeks as Oregon Straw Hat Players gets “Oklahoma!” ready to go. This week is tech week, where we get all the technical problems worked out. Every night I end up with at least four pages of notes for myself, this light is misfocused, it’s too dark in cue 195, my color choices suck, etc. The next day I go in early to work out all these kinks, starting fresh for that night’s rehearsal. Theatrical lighting design is a hobby of mine, and I’m the lighting designer for this show. Computers used to be my main hobby, but once I started to be …

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links for 2007-08-07

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Champions pay the price – (37signals) 4/29truth.com » Blog Archive » Minnesota I-35W: Controlled Demolition?

links for 2007-08-05

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Squirrel roasting prompts new policy at Sask. camp Guy ate what he killed, and killed what he injured. What’s the problem here?

links for 2007-08-03

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Fatigue Evaluation of the Deck Truss of Bridge 9340 – CTS Research Reports This is the evaluation of the bridge that collapsed. MPR: Inspection history of the I-35W bridge

Bridges, Deficiencies, and Bullshit.

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“Functionally obsolete” does not mean “good” to me. It means the object being described doesn’t meet current standards. “Structurally deficient” does not mean “okay to continue using” to me. It means it’s going to break and needs to be dealt with. “Non-redundant structure” doesn’t mean that failure can be tolerated. It means it’s all going to go all at once. Scoring 50 out of 120 points on an inspection is a failing grade, to anybody who has attended any school, ever. You have two options when faced with a structurally deficient bridge, which is functionally obsolete and non-redundant: fix it, or continue inspecting it. “Oh, we’ll just keep an eye on it.” These engineers might be book smart, but ask …

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Knowing Your Surroundings

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(heard at the theater during a rehearsal) “Why’d you put your bottle in the trough?” asks the director. “Keepin’ it cold,” replies the actor, smugly. I’m in character. “You mean ‘wet’ — that water is really warm.” No you aren’t. “Huh?” “It’s a trough, in the sun, in Oklahoma, in summer.” He walks away. “Huh.” It’s hard to be in character when you have no idea where your character is.

links for 2007-08-02

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How to Change the World: On the Other Hand: The Flip Side of Entrepreneurship by Glenn Kelman USBGEEK.COM – USB Missile Launcher Sweet.

I-35W Bridge Collapse, Wow

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I first knew something was amiss when all phone circuits were busy as I tried to call my mom. I have no idea how many times I’ve driven across that bridge. Roads in northern cities suffer extremes. Bitter cold in the winter, scorching heat in summer, expanding and contracting over and over every day. Water seeps in and freezes, heaving the road, widening the cracks. Bridges add water underneath, rusting and corroding. Because they are open underneath they freeze faster and become hazardous, so they are the first to be deiced, often with salt which furthers the corrosion. As with any bridge the load rests on just a few points, vulnerable to washouts and collisions at the very least. Hopefully …

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