Welcome to PointyHair.com

If you have read Dilbert cartoon, you know what the name is about.

Management: I believe in open, transparent, predictable engineering management... so I try to write my thoughts for everyone to use, and to make the Silicon valley software engineering companies a better place.
Code: I get so much from the open source community, and I donate my code and implementations back
Contact: You can reach me at taneli@otala.com for advice, consulting, whatever — I think my spam filter is finally strong enough to handle me posting my email address on a web site

Crazy project

• Floyd I can't even describe what it is — but I'll start with home automation

Philosophy

• Programming Language silver bullets? Again?
• Software Engineering best practices, links, favorite stories, Code Reviews
• Technical Roles what does a good CTO or a VP Engineering do?
• Solar Panels good, bad or evil — it's not all it's cracked up to be, we have photovoltaic solar panels
• Operating Systems just some commentary and observations; what works, what doesn't (robust, functional)
• Home Office Implementation notes on combining a 24hr/day hobby with a family life (boundaries, quiet, integrated, kids, work from home, telecommute)

Recipes, tips, tricks, blogs, source code, scripts

• Projects, open source — let's start with lookupd
• DNS for email (mx, spf), for VoIP (naptr, srv, iax2), and so on
• RoadWarrior Dell Precision M4300 ships with Redhat Linux!
• CellPhone Integrating a T-Mobile MDA phone/PDA into my life
• HomeAutomation how to automate your house, and Otala.Net the system that runs it all
• VoIP Success Story VoIP Blog (Voice over IP) phone system for home use using Asterisk and MySQL database with both softphones and hardphones
• Linux explained for Windows users
• Home Networking the quest for bandwidth and reliability at reasonable price — pick any two, or risk your sanity
• ToolLinks for IP, DNS, Blacklists, speed test, etc
• Network Security for small scale — home, small/medium business
• File galleries containing code snippets I've used in Network Security and HomeAutomation projects
• MySQL database tips, tricks

This site is Solar Powered, and Wireless!

The house has solar panels and it produces more power than my datacenter ever uses — I could cut the wires...
The best connection I have found is a wireless link to the closest mountain with a line-of-sight...
Let's see... Now that electricity and broadband are out of the way... what about water and gas?