What are Walking Meetings and how can they help us?

I hope you are not tired of “trend” terms, the neologisms that multiply everywhere and the upstart concepts that you can’t seem to memorize that well because they always sound like something else. I actually hope you are not, because here it comes another one, fresh from the oven. Take note, because as soon as you learn about it, as it usually happens, it will start mysteriously proliferating around your acquaintances. Today, in our alien-green Pandora FMS blog, we talk about what Walking Meetings are.

What are Walking Meetings?

Walking Meetings, *drum rolls*, are nothing more than work meetings while you walk. Yes, instead of sitting in an expensive and comfortable desk chair you take a stroll. Therefore, if you work remotely, we recommend you to have a pretty big living room, otherwise, it won’t work, we guarantee…

One of the excuses that surround the concept for its immediate implementation is that it helps us alleviate the sedentary lifestyle of today’s jobs. And it is true that we are all fed up with those pounds we seem to be gaining afterwork, a concept with which I hope you are familiar with, because it is one of the few that truly succeeds today and it is worth it. Although, as for me, I would continue to call it “things got out of hand and I ended up having a hard time the next day at the office.”

Walking Meetings or “Walking while you talk to your boss“, in addition to lowering the volume of your stomach, would help you relax, set you in a good mood and foster a positive environment. The bad thing is that if you are immersed in teleworking and you no longer have data on your business cell phone, your walk would be limited to the place where you still have Wi-Fi connection. That is why it is better to have a big living room.

As we already knew from the famous peripatetic school, walking while talking encourages creativity and reasoning. It is not surprising then that Aristotle strolled around the gardens bordering the temple of Apollo, along with his disciples, to teach them while they did some exercise to digest lunch better.

I know that maybe you are more of an oval noble wood table, blazer and tie, cards and Power Point, seriousness and silence person, while someone explains the new ideas that will no doubt relaunch the company. But things are evolving and what is trending now are Walking Meetings, something like walking the dog but with your work colleagues and while someone assigns, by Skype or in strict presence, the tasks of the week. Sorry, boomer, the elevator pitch is more popular than the static monologues of seniors of the company remembering better times, back in the old days. Dynamism and fluidity, relaxation and conversation, pedestrian exercise and rhythm, cardio and walking, project solutions and original answers. That is what prevails nowadays. And we welcome it with open arms. I have already bought my sneakers for that purpose!

But Walking Meetings already existed

As it is often the case with these types of newly coined concepts, Walking Meetings already existed. There we also have freeganism, for example. Which is basically, for those of you who may not know, “the collection of food that has previously been thrown away or discarded because its expiration date is near or past.” That was already in motion since garbage existed, however now it has a striking name, which some may consider unnecessary, and different nuances, ranging from hipsterism to anti-consumerism.

With Walking Meetings it is the same thing happening again, there were already conversations in the hallway on the way to the cafeteria or restroom, but they have finally become institutionalized and we now have a new excuse to wear shorts to work.

So what before could be a meal for those leading two different companies to reach an agreement of vital importance until way later after dinner, now they meet at the park to talk between gasps while keeping a light gallop. Of course, it is much better for strengthening the core, than the digestive gin tonics and a cigar after a good steak.

Possible benefits of Walking Meetings

• Promoting creativity:

For some causal reason, walking is better. Synapses proliferate, our neurons sparkle, everything seems clearer, and creativity arises, from ear to ear, with a rainbow glow. Stanford University does not have to come to tell us about its experiments with sedentary and athletic people, we all know that movement shakes our heads and favors creation.

• Exercise included:

Until we can eat popcorn without choking and pay attention to Netflix as we drive around with the porch, walking while working is the closest thing to doing something uplifting while exercising. You take a break from the screen for once, relax your burned corneas, and make other just as interesting muscles work.

• Ideal for dealing with complicated topics:

Being locked up, immobile and face to face with someone is not the healthiest way to deliver sensitive news. It is much better to enjoy the air, space, exercise to distress and see the landscape views. If things get ugly you can always accelerate until you leave your teammates behind.

• Good vibes:

Do you remember how good it felt when the teacher decided to teach the class outside because it was too good a day to be inside? Well, the same happiness and good vibes arouse Walking Meetings in the open air. Encouragement and positivism will flood us when we listen to something more than the photocopier in the background and we see something more than the gray facing of our cubicle.

I hope that with this information you can guess by yourself whether Walking Meeting instauration is worth it and you should give it a chance or whether you should just completely ignore them. Maybe you like them and they seem appropriate but with another name, something more simple and humble like “Meetings strolling” or the always cool “Marathon Meeting” or “Running Reunioning”.

But once you’ve gotten into these ins and outs, would you like to keep going? Go even further but into the world of technology? What about spending a couple of minutes to find out what computing system monitoring is and why it is also very important?

Monitoring systems are responsible for supervising technology (hardware, networks and communications, operating systems or applications, for example) in order to analyze its performance, and to detect and alert about possible errors. And this leads us to Pandora FMS, that wonderful tool thanks to which this blog is possible.

Pandora FMS is a flexible monitoring system, capable of monitoring devices, infrastructures, applications, services and business processes.

Everything Has a Beginning: The Genesis of Tentacle Protocol

You probably know all kinds of remarkable “genesis”: the biblical and canonized, where Adam and Eve have their first Tinder date, the British rock band from the 60s with excellent Peter Gabriel on vocals and Phil Collins on drums, and of course, the Hyundai Genesis, a passenger car manufactured by the South Korean brand Hyundai Motor Company since 2008… But this time, none of them interests us. We’ll leave the trunk capacity of the Hyundai for another day, but not today, today, in our ominous and greenish Pandora FMS Blog, we will talk about an even more important genesis for the history of the beginnings and the startings (drum roll), the beginnings of Tentacle Protocol.

And to talk about the origins of Tentacle Protocol, we had to make an effort to find our colleague Ramón Novoa Suñer, Head of the AI department and Senior Chief Programmer at Pandora FMS, a hero for the company, who has been here for as many years as it exists and that, therefore, houses all the possible knowledge on the matter, right within its experienced and ancient testa.

To find Ramón, we had to undertake a dangerous journey, crossing the icy glacier and the burning desert, traveling day and night without rest, risking our life and our physique, crossing the most spectral swamps and mountain slopes, enduring merciless winds, to finally reach the medieval fortress where he was, always involved in his chores and completely oblivious to the admiration that the world professes him.

Proposing an interview with Ramón was easy, but it took time to carry it out, that’s why I stayed with him as an apprentice. I slept in the highest tower of the castle and devoted myself to absorbing all kinds of technological knowledge that got thrown on me to the ground like little bones. I didn’t want to waste a second spent with him. After all, he is one of the most recognized geniuses in his field. The Dumbledore of programming.

Weeks passed, then years, but finally the long-awaited interview about the origin of the Tentacle Protocol that I longed for and that led me there came. Now I want to share it with you on this blog, as I ride away from the fortress as the voice of Master Ramón still resounds in my head:

Oh Master, what year would you say it was when the Tentacle Protocol was invented?

* Hmm … 2008, if I’m not mistaken, because by now it’s already been a few years… I would say shortly after I finished my degree and started working at Ártica. It still seems to me that it was yesterday, and here we are, more than a decade and a pandemic later…

*Important remark: All of the answers that Ramón gives us, should resonate in your head with the deep voice of a wise hermit, if not, you’re not reading this the right way.

¿Where does that science fiction name come from?

I’m very glad that you asked me that question, little Dim. You see, the Pandora FMS logo at that time was an octopus, so the name seemed like the most appropriate, don’t you think so? It is also a tribute to a popular video game from the 90s. You don’t need me to give you more clues, right? Authentic and pure people, the ones who are really worth it, will know what video game I refer to.

Do you remember who was involved in the project from the beginning?

The idea of the project came from Sancho Lerena, the famous CEO, and I was the developer. Keep in mind that at that time there were only two programmers in Ártica ST. We still had absolutely no idea about the people who would join us in this dream.

From what did the idea of this protocol arise? What is its true origin?

Well, at the very beginning, Pandora FMS agents used SSH or FTP to send data to the server. But users had a lot of trouble configuring these protocols correctly. So we decided to develop a simple protocol that would work without no more additional initial configuration than that of the IP address and the port of Pandora FMS server. Helping and simplifying has always been the purpose of the Tentacle Protocol, and boy did it do well.

What exactly is the Tentacle Protocol?

It is a text protocol (like SMTP or HTTP) to transfer files. The specification is very simple, it is given in our Wiki, the most sacred group of texts that I know, it contains from the Alpha to the Omega of this organization. The Tentacle Protocol is less efficient than a binary protocol, but more readable and easier to debug. Giving it that magic that it has.

What is it for?

Basically send and receive files. The advantage it has, as I mentioned before, is that it is very easy to configure. You don’t even need to specify the destination directory. It also supports slightly more advanced features such as data compression or the use of X.509 certificates.

How important is it for Pandora FMS?

It is essential for transferring XML data files from agents and satellite servers to Pandora FMS server. It is also used to manage remote configuration, file collections, etc. Also, the Tentacle server can work as a proxy.

Is it true that in good hands and used in the right way it could save the world?

If the instructions to save it had to be sent through a TCP/IP stack, I have no doubt.

Let’s fantasize, if you could rename it now, what would you call it?

A) Metal Gear Solid Protocol: Solid Snake you are the boss.
B) Testicle Protocol
C) Tenta-cool protocol
D) Protocol A Feira

E) “Octopus” too, in reference to Doctor Octopus as well.

And that was it for my story of how I managed to find Ramón Novoa at the end of the world and have him explain everything about the genesis of the Tentacle Protocol. I will never forget his hospitality, his erudition, or how the monk’s habit that I wore throughout the training in technological knowledge, there in the tower, was constantly killing my waist.