A few years back, we bought up a bunch of “.mn” domain names at work. That extension is the country code for Mongolia, but it also works well for Minnesota-based sites.

I have several domains in production now (golfing.mn, hockey.mn, run.mn, proam.mn), but we have a bunch that we don’t plan to use:

• bride.mn
• cabins.mn
• concerts.mn
• deals.mn
• homefinder.mn
• seats.mn
• sexy.mn
• theater.mn
• zoo.mn

If you would like to take ownership of any of these domains, drop me a line at dk@studio-4.com and we can chat. I hate domain squatters, so all we are looking for is to recoup some of our costs (.mn domains are more expensive–starting at $49.95USD per year).

August means the end of summer, the Minnesota State Fair and the beginning of the school year. It’s that last one that means my workdays will be getting longer soon. Here’s a short list of things going on:

• Rebuild and upgrade the networking infrastructure in the server room and big advisory space at HSRA Minnesota (pictured above)
• Execute a new Apple lease for Minnesota and take delivery of a boatload of new equipment that needs to be configured and deployed (50+ workstations and 25+ laptops)
• Install upgraded studio and pre-production equipment in Minnesota
• Reposition security cameras and upgrade and enhance digital recording systems
• Upgrade Minnesota server operating system and re-configure
• Re-image older workstations in Minnesota
• Deploy site licenses for Final Cut Pro, Logic Studio and Aperture
• Upgrade and deploy enhanced graphics lab in Minnesota
• Plan for tech contingencies at HSRA Los Angeles and a possible late August visit

On top of all that, I’m still dealing with DNS and firewall issues in Seattle, an overall cleanup of the four Seattle servers, test installs of Elgg, Moodle, Buddypress and Drupal and a re-design of the HSRA New York website. Oh, and I’m trying to learn Ruby on Rails and subversion on the side. Fun, fun.

Yesterday I had an unexpected visitor in my office at HSRA Minnesota: the Honourable Ken Krawetz, Minister of Education for the province of Saskatchewan.

Mr. Krawetz and his assistants were being hosted in Minnesota by the talented education architect Randy Fielding. They visited the School of Environmental Studies in Apple Valley in the morning and were on their way to the new Minneapolis Central Library.

It was a pleasure meeting the delegation. I made sure to thank Mr. Krawetz for all the great hockey players (the Wild has three Saskatchewan natives: Derek Boogaard - Saskatoon, Josh Harding - Regina and Nick Schultz - Strasbourg).

So is Studio 5 one better than Studio 4?

I just realized this year’s WWDC was my tenth. I started going in 1998 when it was still held in San Jose and only missed one year (2002 - dark days in my airline career). The company names on my badges have changed quite a bit, even though I’ve really only worked two places my entire life.

I thought of asking “When was my first WWDC, where was it held and what company did I represent?” at Stump the Experts this year, but I wasn’t sure of the company until I dug through my junk drawer today. My how time flies…

Another WWDC is history. This is always a highlight of the year for me: a great city and loads of professional development. My head is full of new ideas and things I want to work on this summer:

• Ruby on Rails
• Leopard Server upgrades in MN and LA
• Remote system administration, imaging and automation ideas
• Javascript and Ajax
• iPhone web development
• Cocoa and Xcode
• Graphic design and Illustrator

Yesterday was the beer bash in Yerba Buena Gardens and the surprise musical guest was Barenaked Ladies. I’m not a big fan of them, but they were funny, clued in to the audience and entertaining to watch. Plus they’re Canadian, which is always good in my book.

I’ve never seen so many nerds packed into one place. They did the same regional food stations as last year and the caterer was mostly able to keep pace with the hungry crowd. I had some Italian, Chinese and “All-American” finger foods, all of which were pretty good.

For lunch yesterday, I went to Lark Creek Steak in the Westfield Centre. This is one of the restaurants associated with Bradley Ogden, whose namesake restaurant in Las Vegas is one of my favorites in the whole world. I had the steakburger with sharp cheddar, fries and a shake. It was one of the best burgers I’ve ever had–so good.

Hanging around downtown until my Sun Country red eye later tonight. There are lots of people still at the convention center, even though the sessions are over (labs go until 6:30). I’m currently using the high-speed wireless to watch the live Tiger/Phil stream from the U.S. Open. Kung-Fu Panda is showing across the street, so I might go and catch me some animated JB too…

Last weekend I planned an executive retreat for my company at Mystic Lake Casino Hotel in Prior Lake. This was actually my second choice for venue (none of the Cabins at Deacon’s Lodge were available), but it turned out to be very nice.

I picked up the HSRA LA program director from the airport on Friday morning and took her to Al’s in Dinkytown for breakfast. Afterwards, I dropped her off at The Marsh spa in Minnetonka for a massage.

The actual retreat started with a dinner meeting Friday night at the buffet, which ended up lasting more than three hours. Everyone had their own rooms Friday and Saturday nights and we had a lovely meeting room from 8-5 Saturday and Sunday (the Winuna Room).

We used up all nine hours both days for meetings (with a few delays here and there), but I did manage to get in some fun things too. On Friday, I played a twilight round of golf on the Meadows course with a neighborhood friend. Also played a little video poker both days and lost $45–almost as expensive as the golf.

The family came out and stayed both days, taking advantage of the extra bed and the swimming pool. I didn’t get to see them much, but we did have dinner at the Meadows Grille on Saturday night (it was family BBQ night). Kid one went to a friend’s birthday party sleep-over Saturday night, but they all got to go to Canterbury Park before that to watch the Preakness (and see the live horses too).

In hindsight, I probably could’ve used a massage before this retreat as well. It was a little tense at times and was mentally draining. Our organization is small and has a loose, unstructured culture that is very different from my past corporate experience. That’s not a bad thing, but it does drive me crazy sometimes.

We’ve scheduled a follow-up meeting in California for the end of June. I think the next few months will be a very interesting time for Studio 4. More details coming soon…