Random Writings From The Sticks

I just had a bit of a surprise moment where someone who frequents the REALbasic NUG had no idea I am now working for REAL Software.

I thought  that REAL had announced this more widely but then I tried to find a post on the NUG about REAL hiring me and anyone else and could not.

I know they announced it on the forums but it does seem tat they did not on the NUG

No big deal. It was just a bit of a surprise that this had not been done and that some had missed this.

I’m sure that every one of us had made mistakes in our careers.
There are lists of career mistakes like this one which I thought had some good ones.
As I’ve gotten older I’d like to think I have learned enough to avoid most, if not all, of these.

#3 and #4 seem to be ones that are made very early on and should be learned by every person working in an IT role at least if you want to move beyond being just a great coder. And yes early on in my career I figured that I would always want to be JUST a great coder. I have learned that what clients want is not JUST great coders, they want people who can think about the bigger picture. What the changes mean to the overall business, how it will help sell more units, or how it improves the customer experience.

#8 on his list is also one that can be particularly painful when you forget it.
Anyone at any level not focusing on the things that stakeholders think are valuable might just be focusing on the wrong things (minutae instead of keeping an eye on the bigger picture)
And ethics (can you say Enron … WorldCom.. I think some of those folks are doing time)

I know I’ve made #12 at least once (stayed way too long at the last start up. Should have bailed at least a year before I did)

What sorts of things have you learned over the years ?

Lots of places I’ve worked over time have release cycle that vary in how they are managed.
Some do the traditional major/minor/bug fix release cycle but that can lead to really long times between major revisions; sometimes years.
Some have done th e short cycle where a release goes out every 60 or 90 days (REAL is this way and is not the first company I’ve worked for that did this).

I worked for one that did something somewhere in between. A major releases every 6 months or so but minor bug fix releases in between.

They each have pro’s and cons but I really wuld like to know how everyone else works their release cycles. (Don’t go reading too much in to this as it’s just my curiosity now that I’ve been with REAL through just about a full cycle - scary huh ?)

I haven’t had a cell phone for about 5 years. Don’t miss it.
And I was trying to think why it was I enjoyed not having one.
It took me a while to figure out why, but it’s because when I did have one I usually turned it off. Why ? For years I did database server and VMS support. The servers were set up to sms my cell phone (or whoever was on support) if things needed attention. And because I was also a software developer other developers would phone me with software, server and DB questions.

They’d phone at all hours too.

Even after I no longer worked at that client site.

For months.

So when I started with the small startup I worked for I finally got the sms messaging sorted out with my now former client. They were decomissioning the servers anyways so I just turned the phone off at night until they got rid of all the servers that would sms me. (all 120 of them !)

The start up was nice for a while. And I never took many calls on my cell except if I was out at a clients site looking a machine over or on the road. And I got much better at NOT answering every phone on every ring anyways. We’re all so conditioned to hear the ring pick it up. That took a while and it was important as it let me control when I took the call, or did whatever that caller wanted.

It gave me control over my time again.
And I liked that as it gave me the control do work on things for long periods with out distraction.

However, with my wife and kids working out of the house I’m getting back in to the pick up when it rings habit and that’s not always good because I don’t have 2 lines. My home phone is also my work phone.

Combine that with picking up when it rings and I lose control over my time. People can phone any old time and, short of me being very rude and hanging up if I am busy, it’s hard to say “Not right now” and then you get distracted from what you were working on to something else. Sometimes it’s 5 minutes and sometimes it’s 4 hours.

I’m finding that’s not useful as it takes a while to get back to what you were doing (if and when you get back to it) There’s a growing body of research that suggests we’re not as good at multitasking as we might like to think we are. I know I find it distracting and the longer the distraction lasts the harder it is to get back to the original task.

I try to schedule when I’ll work on things, but these sort of interruptions can really throw everything out of whack.

So sometimes I just take the phone off the hook now and check for messages. (I hate the sound of a ringing phone aand we have several in the house so turning all the ringers down is a pain)
I just take one phone off the hook and then I can work without someone else imposing their urgent requests on what I’m up to (yeah iChat is still probably running but sometimes I even quit that)

Getting rid of the cell phone was a major revelation to me that I really do like being in control of my own time. It is kind of nice once you get used to it.

Doesn’t always mean you should.
There’s been this trend to internet enable everything (remember the LG frig you could browse the web on ? They have / had a whole host of internet enabled appliances like frig’s washers, dryers, etc)

And now - the internet enabled coffee maker which runs XP, can be hacked and the remote attacker can alter your brew or deny you coffee all together.

But, just because you CAN put an internet connection in it, should you ?

What’s a coffee maker going to tell me over the internet that really can be that useful ?
It’s brewing ? It’s not brewing ? It’s done ?
Sure I could set t up so that I can remotely tell it to start brewing while I’m on my way home.
But seriously, how big a deal is it to wait a couple minutes after I get home and push the BREW button ?
Remote service ? It’s a friggin coffee maker ? How much service can it require ? Turn it on it gets the water hot and it works … or not and you buy a new $39 unit that does.

I admit when I read about this coffee maker I laughed just about as hard as when LG tried to sel their internet frig for $8000 then wndered why they sold so poorly.

DUH !

An interesting post about a new patent MS had applied for that would enforce “digital manners” got me to thinking about manners and how they seem to disappear when things take place via email, blogs, and forums.

It’s easy to ignore the email you get from someone and just not reply.
In person that would be considered quite rude, but online people do it all the time. They just ignore the mail instead of saying “No” or “I’m not interested”. Or sometimes you get something profane.

Or the things that people say in email replies, forums posts and blogs about others or in language they’d probably never use in person. A quick read of some of the forums and email lists I’m a member of reveals a disappointing number of posts and replies that include language that would probably never be used face to face.

Perhaps the anonymity of the web is part of it. You don’t actually have to face the person your being rude to. You can just quietly delete the bits or sen out a nasty post without having the possibility of the receiver be insulted right in front of you.

I wonder if this MS patent could be applied to the web at all ?

Hard to believe it’s June based on the weather

The weather for the Relay For Life was about as crappy as it could possibly have been

Normally they run entertainment all night long and have games etc to keep people awake and engaged

It was so cold, raining and at times hailing and snowing/sleet that they shut the electronic gear for the entertainment stage down about 11:00 - 11:30. That kind of dampened spirits a bit. And the heavy precipitation from about 1:00am on really took its toll.

By about 2 we were all cold (I had 3 jackets on) and wet.

So we all packed into the minivan and got warmed up and had a bit of a nap. 

I’d wake up every short while and check only to hear the rain pounding down with loud thunder and lightning.

My wife and daughter, who have done the relays for many years, both commented that this was about the  worst weather they’d seen for a Relay.

Well it’s this weekend.
I’m not sure I’m ready for waling all night Fri but what the heck.
I even had to go buy new shoes for this as my old ones were really shot (like a hole right through the sole)

Should be fun though and I’ll need the Saturday and Sunday to recuperate
As my kids keep telling me I’m old.

TO EVERYONE WHO HAS SPONSORED ME THANK YOU VERY MUCH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wish me luck and if you happen to know where I can get a foot massage at 6 am on a Saturday morning I’m all ears

I may need it

WOW
Hard to believe that it’s been 4 weeks since I started with REAL
I think I’ve made some useful contributions and I sure hope that when the next round of betas starts up - NO I can’t tell you when that will be - that a lot of people will find the things I’ve done useful

I think they’ll be darned useful

There’s … um … oh yeah can’t say

I think I’ve actually tackled some fairly big items and a fair number of small ones.
Small ones first just to get a feel for the code, how things worked, how to recompile everything (C++ and RB) and work

I even had to clear a corner of my desk to put a monitor on for a Windows machine
At least I can test out my changes on OS X (Intel and PPC, 10.4, 10.5.3 and 10.5.3 Server), Linux (Fedora, Ubuntu, SLED 10 and openSuse), Vista and XP.

Yes, I can sun tan in my office with all the CPU’s and screens going full tilt

But I hope everyone find my additions to the IDE as useful as I think they will be.
Can’t wait for the next beta to start now.

Come June 7 I’ll be dead tired
That’s because on June 6 I’m participating in the local Relay For Life

It’s a very worthwhile cause and one that is near and dear to us.
My wife’s mom died of lung cancer, her step dad of throat cancer, and her aunt of cancer of the lymph nodes. And my grandmother had breast cancer very late in her life.

For the last 6 years my sister had organized a team and walked in the relay. Commitments this year prevent her from doing that. My youngest daughter immediately formed her own team when she heard Auntie wasn’t going to form one.

And so the inevitable question arrives “Dad ? Will you join my team ?”

Of course. So I’m walking in my daughter’s team and I need sponsors

If you’re so inclined follow this link