Chris Fischer

Archive

Everything, in order. Companies, races, houses, people, wins, misses, and whatever I was trying to figure out at the time.

  1. Hi, I'm ChrisI build technology companies, work with startups, run and ride bikes, fix old houses, and start more side projects than I need.
  2. Ten Miles in South NyackI ran 60:53 at the 2024 South Nyack 10-Miler, finished ninth overall, and won the men's 40–44 age group.
  3. A 5K at McCarren ParkI ran 18:44.86 at the 2024 Dime McCarren 5K and finished second in the men's 40–49 age group.
  4. Wahoo Shut Down RGTWahoo closed RGT on October 31, 2023 after a difficult period for connected fitness and the indoor cycling market.
  5. The Last StateThe final six days crossed Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York to finish the 3,000-mile ride.
  6. The First RainDays 20 through 23 crossed the Mississippi, followed an Illinois rail trail, and brought the trip's first real rain.
  7. Two Days in ArkansasDays 18 and 19 were combined into one post about Arkansas roads, dogs, an armadillo joke, and the ride into Missouri.
  8. Thank You, Big TedAfter Texas and two days in Oklahoma, the trip account thanked Big Ted for driving support and keeping the group fed.
  9. Dead Biker PassFour days in New Mexico included Meow Wolf, recovery in Santa Fe, Taos, mountain roads, and a sign at 7,043 feet.
  10. Interstate 40 by BikeDays 6 through 8 crossed Arizona by red rocks, Route 66, Interstate 40, Winslow, and the Continental Divide.
  11. Day 5: MechanicalsFour desert days included heat, help from strangers, Route 66, a night ride, and mechanical trouble in Peach Springs.
  12. 2,913 Miles to GoDay 1 started at the Pacific in Santa Monica with about 2,913 miles left to ride.
  13. TRX Training Club, One Year LaterTRX Training Club launched on June 8, 2021. One year later, the company announced Chapter 11. Both dates belong in the story.
  14. The Chicago Marathon with JoelleAt the 2021 Chicago Marathon, I changed my goal and stayed with a teammate who was having a hard day.
  15. Duathlon National ChampionOn May 23, 2021, I won the men's 35–39 draft-legal sprint duathlon national title in Tuscaloosa.
  16. Aaptiv at HomeIn April 2020, Aaptiv reported a sharp rise in at-home fitness use and opened a new enterprise and API channel.
  17. The Training Sheet Stops in MarchA 2020 race plan recorded illness, a sore Achilles, and several target races before the schedule stopped during COVID.
  18. Apply Stickers in 2020Apply Stickers started as a small side business while I was still working full time at Aaptiv.
  19. Building Aaptiv's Half Marathon PlanWe built a twelve-week Aaptiv running plan with base miles, hills, tempo work, long runs, recovery, and a taper before race day.
  20. Running to Work at AaptivAt Aaptiv, I could run or bike to the office, train with coworkers, and work on a fitness product I used myself.
  21. Trying Aaptiv Before I JoinedWhile I was considering a role at Aaptiv, I tried the workouts and wrote Ethan about navigation, training plans, class data, and recommendations.
  22. Growing Managers at ReonomyAt Reonomy, I hired individual contributors with room to grow and promoted managers from the product and engineering team.
  23. Getting Into the Reonomy CodebaseNine months after I joined Reonomy, a long onboarding email showed why new engineers needed the product history as much as the preferred architecture.
  24. My Training Fell Apart for a MonthIn early 2015, getting sick, closing on a condo, and interviewing for a new job pushed training out of my schedule.
  25. Planning the Reonomy Product and Engineering TeamBefore I joined Reonomy, I made a deck covering cross-functional product teams, engineering leadership, hiring, and onboarding.
  26. A Security Incident During Christmas WeekDuring a possible Shutterstock account-security incident, I tried to get the technical investigation and customer communication moving at the same time.
  27. How We Ran OpenStack at ShutterstockAt the 2013 OpenStack Summit, I explained how Shutterstock provisioned virtual machines and physical servers through one automated system.
  28. A Broken Mobile Alert on SundayThe Shutterstock mobile site worked when we tested it by hand, but one automated check still failed and needed an owner.
  29. My 2013 Race Plan Was a LotA few weeks after Shutterstock went public, I planned a marathon, two half Ironmans, Leadville, a long swim, and several time goals for 2013.
  30. Testing the New NetworkWe put real load through a new Shutterstock network layout over the weekend and found a bottleneck before Monday traffic arrived.
  31. One Petabyte Across Three SitesBy October 2011, Shutterstock had deployed more than one petabyte of storage across three sites for a growing collection of photos and video.
  32. Critical Alerts at ShutterstockTwo months into Shutterstock, I asked the systems team to call me for every critical alert while I learned the environment.
  33. From Peek to Reality Check to ShutterstockIn 2010 I left Peek, spent seven months running a hosting company, and joined Shutterstock in New York.
  34. Syncing the Thumbnail ServersI changed the copy path for a one-terabyte thumbnail data set to reduce load on the production servers.
  35. Setting Up PowerDNS at ShutterstockI set up PowerDNS with a MySQL backend because database records were easier to automate than hand-edited BIND files.
  36. A Database Import ProblemA database import kept producing the wrong row count during a week that also included illness and a London data-center trip.
  37. Getting to the Somerset Data CenterA consulting job in Somerset required a rental car because I could not find a practical transit route from Manhattan.
  38. Planning Storage for SoundfiberAfter Beatport I helped think through storage, catalog size, interfaces, and customers for a new high-quality music store idea.
  39. The August 20 Peek OutageA Peek email outage lasted four hours because the POP nodes failed overnight and nobody answered the monitoring call.
  40. Applying for the Same Unix Job AgainThe Unix administrator job kept appearing on Craigslist, so I sent a third application and explained why I still wanted hands-on work.
  41. Beatport's Data Center in 2009By early 2009 Beatport's data center had more than 300 devices in a 750-square-foot cage.
  42. Looking for a Second JobI was Beatport's IT director and applying for night and weekend data-center work because my family needed more money.
  43. How I Got Into Systems WorkI studied molecular biology but spent most of my time learning Linux, Unix, storage, and distributed systems on hardware in my basement.
  44. Trying to Move to New YorkIn 2008 I was running Beatport's systems in Denver and trying to turn a New York Unix job into part-time remote work.
  45. Beatport's Systems in 2007A 2007 job application listed the web servers, databases, storage, traffic, and uptime I was responsible for at Beatport.
  46. Four Years of Praxis TechnologyPraxis was the consulting company I ran from 2003 through 2007 while working at CU Boulder, SimAuthor, and Beatport.
  47. The SimAuthor Data CenterIn 2006 I rebuilt SimAuthor's network and moved its data center in-house for a sixty-person aviation software company.