CSI and PhotoSynth

Microsoft's PhotoSynth application was used on a recent episode of CSI:New York.

More information can be found on the MSDN blog

I thought it was a pretty impressive use of the technology. The team was trying to reconstruct a gymnasium where someone was giving a speech and everyone was taking photos on their cell phones.

While the technology was used in a very cool way (and probably one of the only real commercial applications of the technology) - I find it hard to believe that the accuracy of the final model. There were no large gaps and even though the only person on the stage was the speaker, how did they get picture towards the back of the crowd?

Other than those inconsistencies, I thought it was pretty cool.

Still moving.....

Wow - 3 months since I have left ThoughtWorks.

Things have been very busy:

* Started my new job at ENMAX which has been a lot of fun
* The learning curve has been very steep but I'm learning a lot about the deregulated electrical industry in Alberta
* School has kept me very busy and I'm looking forward to finishing final exams over the next couple of weeks
* Winter has almost finished - despite the threat of global warming

Congratulations to the ThoughtWorks crew in Canada for representing in the ThoughtWorks Anthology. I was trying to make it to the celebration at McNally Robinson but it didn't work out. Way to go Stelios and Ian.

Moving on......

After almost 6 years, I have decided to leave ThoughtWorks.

I have enjoyed my time at TW and will miss the people, the clients and the work. However, I have decided to take a 90 degree turn in my career and get out of IT and consulting to take a role that is more business-focussed. This has nothing to do with TW and all to do with my chosen career path.

I have worked with some brilliant people in TW - from all over the world. Having started in London and ended in Calgary, I've been fortunate to work on some amazing projects that have shaped me and my career path, so that I am able to take the step that I am about to embark upon.

I remain good friends with ThoughtWorks and ThoughtWorkers. I hope our paths cross again some time in the future.

I'm not sure what will happen with this blog. I will likely post just as occasionally as I have been, but the focus will likely change away from IT, Agile methods and TW.

Leading Clever People is Hard

There is desire by every organization to hire the "best and brightest" to innovate and contribute to the success of the company. In some industries, like drug companies, Research and Development is key the continuing growth of the company; without it, there would be no business and no competitive edge.

Hiring these people is hard; keeping them is even harder.

From HBR:

7 things that make clever people hard to manage:

1. They know their worth. The tacit skills of clever people are closer to those of medieval guilds than to the standardized, codifiable, and communicable skills that characterized the Industrial Revolution. This means you can't transfer the knowledge without the people.

2. They are organizationally savvy. Clever people will find the company context in which their interests will be most generously funded. If the funding dries up, they have a couple of options: They can move on to a place where resources are plentiful, or they can dig in and engage in elaborate politics to advance their pet projects.

3. They ignore corporate hierarchy. If you seek to motivate clever people with titles or promotions, you will probably be met with cold disdain. But don't assume this means they don't care about status; they can be very particular about it, and may insist on being called "doctor" or "professor."

4. They expect instant access. If clever people don't get access to the CEO, they may think the organization does not take their work seriously.

5. They are well connected. Clever people are usually plugged into highly developed knowledge networks; who they know is often as important as what they know. These networks both increase their value to the organization and make them more of a flight risk.

6. They have a low boredom threshold. In an era of employee mobility, if you don't engage your clever people intellectually and inspire them with organizational purpose, they will walk out the door.

7. They won't thank you. Even when you're leading them well, clever people will be unwilling to recognize your leadership. Remember, these creative individuals feel that they don't need to be led. Measure your success by your ability to remain on the fringes of their radar.

Agile Management

Not Agile Project Management, Agile Management.

I think they are specifically different and the latter is monumentally harder.

To me, Agile Management responsibility of the CIO (or senior IT person present afloat). How do you lead IT programs in an agile but responsible manner so that you can deliver predictability to the business?

There is lots of advice out there regarding Agile PM but not a lot about Agile Management. I've found the best blog on the subject to be from David Anderson, Senior Director for Corbis based in Seattle.

Reading through his blog backlog I've found it interesting to see his thought processes moving from greenfield ideas to productive team. Along the way evaluating Scrum, XP, FDD and many other methodologies to end up with his kanban system.

I've also enjoyed his evaluation of tools. Team "Frustration" Server in particular. Its interesting to note that they have gone back to use CruiseControl as their CI tool of choice.

Excel 2007 Can't Multiply

According to AppScout, there is a bug in Microsoft Excel 2007 which produces the wrong answer whenever the product of two numbers is 65535.

Here's the whole story. And here is Microsoft's answer.

What is 65535? Why it's 2^16 - 1. Hmmmm.....pretty significant.

Careful how you use those numbers to make decisions - don't repeat TransAlta's mistake.

Airlines. Everyone seems to be at 'Acceptance'.

This article on a book about RyanAir in the Economist piqued my interest.

How does an airline that is "voted the 'least liked' on TripAdvisor.com" become so successful. The key to RyanAir's success seems to be "you get what you pay for". You get your flights at a low price, but the company has a famous reputation for poor customer service, misleading advertising and "jeering rudeness" so don't expect anything else.

Micheael O'Leary the CEO originally had no vision for the airline "other than to make money". Then he figured out that lowering costs could allow them to lower prices and open up the flight market to a sector of the population that had previously been ignored.

Comparisons to other airlines such as SouthWest or WestJet don't seem to make sense given their record for good customer service - and equivalent success. Can you be profitable and provide poor customer service as long as you aren't breaking customer expectations?

This paradox seems unique to the airline industry. What other industry allows a company to provide such appalling customer service, yet provide the service that customers expect and therefore is successful?

Blowing the Pitch

Selling is hard. Getting it right a large percentage of the time is even harder. CIO Magazine has a list of 7 ways Technology Vendors Blow the Sales Pitch:

1. Be arrogant - don't mistake confidence for attitude
2. Don't be Punctual - you never get a second chance to make a first impression
3. Be Aggressive - being pushy overrides product capabilities
4. Don't Follow-up - nurture any interest at all
5. Have a Domestic - support your support people
6. Don't tailor the pitch - take an interest, angle for what they want to hear
7. Don't take no for an answer - wasting time won't get you back in the door
   

Spectacular Failure

A former client has just jettisoned a huge multi-year major enterprise system and written off over $30m and almost 2 years of work.

The client is very agile. They have to be. They are in a very competitive industry. They move with the times, change when things aren't working and focus on what their customers want - great customer service. I use them all the time and have never been disappointed.

Our work there was very symbiotic. They were a good client because they understood the way we worked. They wanted to be asked "What is your business?" and "How can we enable you to do your job better?". They were fun to work with and a good business partner.

Here is a public comment from the vendor of the aforementioned failed software project:

"Their business model continued to be in a state of flux, as a result their requirements continued to be in a state of flux."

If your vendor doesn't understand that this is NORMAL and NECESSARY, then find a new vendor. They aren't the right one for you and you will end up in the same problem - hopefully with a smaller loss then my previous client.

browsershots

How many times has your QA/BA/Dev team had to run test after test to see how your website performs or looks in the dozens of different browsers currently available?

Now comes browsershots - you give them a publicly available website, select the browsers that you would like to check and the application goes through and takes screenshots of your website in the selected browsers.

What a great idea!

Agile PM

My new role has me as an Iteration Lead on a very large project - at least 12 months. I am really looking forward to it, especially getting to help manage such a large team.

I've been looking at some Agile PM blogs and came across Mike Griffith's Leading Answers blog. Mike is based in Calgary as well, and used to worked for Quadrus before he set out as a consultant. I haven't ever met Mike but I've heard lots of good things about him and know that he's working with a couple of ex-ThoughtWorkers on his current project.

His recent post "Be Enthusiastic - It's Contagious" really struck a chord with me. Having passion for your work not only has a positive effect on you, but it naturally affects those around you. I strive every day to be enthusiastic and not let any setbacks get me down. I agree that this is not a "once in a while" thing, it has to be sustained to have the desired effect. Sincerity is the way to go.

I've worked with a lot of nay-sayers (thank goodness not recently) and it's hard to get motivated when the only comment that you get from someone is a negative one. Then they wonder why they are not liked or not asked for their opinions anymore.

It's a hard skill to learn if it doesn't come naturally. I have learned over the years as a consultant that coming out of my shell as a leader, while difficult, is necessary to exhibit the energy that I'm feeling inside.

Also, congrats to Mike on his award for his blog from the PMI.

Vancouver Canucks are heading to the Golf Course

The run is over. The Vancouver Canucks made it to the 2nd round of the National Hockey League finals (longer than the Calgary Flames!) but succumbed to the still-Mighty Anaheim Ducks. Roberto Luongo was amazing. Without him they wouldn't have even made it to the playoffs.

Which makes this picture so accurate. Over the 5 games that they played against Anaheim they had over 48 minutes (more than 2 full periods) on the power play and scored only 1 goal.

Training camp is only 5 months away. Next year.

Sigh.....

WPF Needs a Brand - Yazzy?

From Kurt Brockett (via Ryan Stewart):

WPF stands for Windows Presentation Foundation and is the programming platform to build extremely rich UI windows applicaitons. That sounds great, but it doesn’t translate outwardly. WE NEED A BRAND. This was never more evident than last week at MIX07 where Silverlight stole the show. I believe without the rebranding to Silverlight, WPF/E would have had the same wow factor that WPF currently shares.

I totally agree that Microsoft needs to identify this framework as they have with Silverlight. I hate acronyms. I work in them all day and the software industry certainly doesn't need anymore. What was wrong with Avalon? I suppose that it is already used almost everywhere? The code name won't work anymore so it has to be one of those fancy Web 2.0 names that have lots of vowels. I suppose we could start here where good 2.0 names can be generated.

My personal favourites: Yazzy, Bubbleshare, Meeko. Sadly, not many of them are available these days.

I jest, but the sentiment is serious. Selling .Net 3.0 to our clients needs strong and compelling messages both technical and business. In the enterprise, stand alone applications and webapps would benefit from WPF to make them functional yet provide a fancy user experience. If we could make the case for "Yazzy's ease of use and production of compelling user experiences", it would be easier.

Fire up that name generator Microsoft.

MIX 07

Microsoft do conferences well. I have been to a number of TechEd conferences (most notably in Australia where they did a Mad Max Theme Night with waiters serving beers from wheelbarrows and held a Tina Turner impersonator concert) and enjoyed them all. I remember when they were first talking about C# and the Australians didn't get why it was called "C-Sharp" and not "C-Hash".

They are very good at creating a sense of community and getting technologists excited about new technologies. Sun has never been able to do this. I don't know anyone who has been to a JavaOne recently, but it certainly doesn't generate the interest that a MS conference seems to.

I wish that I was at Mix07 in Vegas. Especially now that I'm learning more about WPF and Silverlight. Luckily, in this age of broadband internet, most of the sessions will be put online.

Here is where to keep updated on the happenings:

Visit Mix07.com
Mix07 Aggregator WPF Application from Thirteen23.com (needs .Net 3.0)

WPF? WTF?

As I mentioned earlier, I have just purchased Adam Nathan's Windows Presentation Foundation book (upon several recommendations) and I'm eager to do a deep dive on a new technology.

.Net is increasingly becoming the development framework of choice and keeping up with the latest technologies is hard when they are coming so fast and furious. I've decided to pick one, become knowledgeable in it to ensure that I keep my brain ticking over, even if I'm filling "post-technical" roles in my day job.

Things that I want to get out of the book:

* What is WPF?
* Where does it fit into the .Net framework?
* Is it really "Flash for .Net"?
* Is XAML too complicated to use as a GUI creation mechanism?
* Is XAML the next generation of XUL?
* How hard is it to put code behind the XAML building blocks?
* How does WPF work for desktop applications versus browser applications?
* Can I convert existing apps to the WPF framework?
* Why would I recommend WPF over anything else to a client?
* Does WPF help make a compelling argument for choosing .Net as a framework?

Submerging......

Time is of the essence

As a youngster, I remember ordering pizza's from a local pizza joint that promised to be delivered in 30 minutes or you got to keep the driver's watch. We'd always sit and wait as the time ticked away, even delaying answering the door if the driver was cutting it close. It was a great gimmick even though the pizza was usually pretty average and the driver wore a watch that was worth $1.99 (plus tax).

Marketing Time, a blog post by Seth Godin (on my "must read blogs" list) talks about how adding an element of time to your branding makes the customer feel important:

A contractor that prides himself on finishing every single job on the day it's due, regardless of what it takes, is telling a powerful story, doing marketing that's actually cheaper and more effective than advertising ever could be.

At my company, a reputation for delivering projects to the users on time is more compelling than any advertisement. The software development business is rife with stories of projects that have failed between inception and delivery, usually at the expense of huge amounts of money and personnel.

I'm very proud of the projects that I've participated in that are still being used in production today. As a matter of fact, I was in a retail shop the other day and saw the software that I wrote being used on the cash register. Of course, when I mentioned it to the clerk he proceeded to tell me everything that he'd like to change about it, but that's another story.

Making technical books easier to read

I've discovered a great blog by Jeff Atwood called Coding Horror. He has some great posts about putting human factors into software programming. His latest post entitled How Not To Write a Technical Book is very interesting.

He shows two different technical books, one that uses colour and has less writing and one that does that opposite. Which one is better?

Jeff posits that the book with the code in colour (rather than just Courier type) is better, but really, both presentations are flawed. Technical books are inherently hard to read. I spend a lot of time reading while I commute and I'd love to be able to really grok a good technical concept, but it's more difficult when you are away from the keyboard. Unfortunately, e-books aren't much better. They improve the ability to learn programming (cut and paste usually), but then it's difficult to read the text off of the screen.

I agree with Jeff that out of the two examples, Adam Nathan's WPF Book is easier on the eyes, but it doesn't overcome the bigger issue of a paper manual for a technical problem.

I'll find out soon enough as I've just ordered Adam Nathan's WPF Book and I'm eager to see the differences in real life.

My Favourite Podcasts

All links are for ITunes

Technical:
TWIT
Diggnation
The BuzzNet from CNET
ScobleShow
Webnation

Health:
Podrunner

News:
CBC - The Best of DNTO
CBC - Editor's Choice
CBC - Best of Sounds Like Canada
The Economist

Other:
Grammar Girl

Designing Conversations

At my company we are acutely aware that conversations that we have with clients are the lifeblood of our business. We are also aware that any tools that can help clients communicate with their customers, will help them improve their business and thus help us as well.

This presentation shows good examples about how conversations need to be designed. There must be easy avenues for two-way communication. These avenues do not happen auto-magically, they have to be designed. YouTube is a great example of this.

On any video page you can watch the video (without having to download any special player), cut and paste a link to embed the video in another web page, view statistics on how often it has been viewed as well as see similar videos and playlists. It is well designed and useful - that didn't happen by accident.

My favourite part is the comparision of Crocs to Twitter. Both are either loved or hated but both encourage communities and are advanced by enthusiasts. That is how you build a brand.

(via Kosso's Braingarden)

The Microsoft Roadmap for Development Tools

Microsoft has released the Roadmap for future versions of Visual Studio and all of it's different flavours.

"Orcas" - the next version of Visual Studio to include:

• Visual Studio Team Suite (including MSF process guidance)
• Team Edition for Architects
• Team Edition for Database Professionals
• Team Edition for Software Developers
• Team Edition for Software Testers
• Team Foundation Server

Beta 1 - Q2 07
Beta 2 - Mid-year 07
RTM - TBA

"Rosario" - (no, not THAT Rosario) - The release after "Orcas" (known as Visual Studio Team System) to include:

• Application Lifecycle Management (award-winning apparently)
• Integration with MS Project Server
• Integrated Test Case Management
• Test Automation
• Metrics for 'go/no go' release decisions
• Integration for distributed and outsourced teams

Release Date: TBA


There seems to be a focus on integration, but the Rosario release seems to have a "all-in-one" solution to programs that people already use separately. Is it compelling enough to wait that long, get used to your tools and then migrate to Visual Studio Team System?

Time will tell.

Seven Crucial Management Roles

(from Canadian Business Magazine)

CEO's, CFO's, CIO's, CTO's and COO's all have broad and fairly well-defined roles and responsibilities; sometimes too many responsibilities. There are duties that a CxO should perform as part of their role that often get pushed down the list of priorities, to the detriment of the company and employees. Michael Stern, an Executive Coach, has come up with seven positions that need be filled to ensure that CxO's can carry on with their regular roles. I've summarized them here, since the article is not online:

Chief Binding Officer
I'm not sure about the name of this role, but this person would be responsible for retention. Retaining existing workers is much cheaper than the cost of recruiting and training a new worker. This person would make sure that salaries are in line with expectations, projects don't get buried in bureaucracy and that resources are available to accomplish project objectives. Just telling someone that their success is important to the company before they are standing in your office handing in their resignation is extremely valuable.

Chief Results Officer
A CRO would be the person that motivates, encourages and helps others to take responsibility for their projects. This is a "no excuses" person who creates teams that support each other and holds them to their success. This is a very positive position where creativity and communication are king. The rest of the management team also must stand, deliver and be accountable.

Chief Value Officer
This person makes sure that "value for money" happens at all levels of the firm. Whether it's cutting costs to ensure that budgets can be met or convincing others that extra money spent on a more senior hire versus a cheaper junior hire is valueable, the CVO is looking out for the best deal. Ensuring value is distinct from ensuring lowest cost. Success means knowing how to pinch pennies, when to do it and when not to.

Chief Communications Officer
Internal marketing is often pushed down the priority list. It takes a long time to ensure that messages are on point and that both good and bad information are presented evenly. However, in the absence of good information, bad information is assumed. A CCO can be the facilitator of good news, ensure that successes are celebrated and commit to consistent transparent communication, leading to more engendered trust.

Chief Swot Officer
"Has anyone seen that Strategy Document? No? Ok, lets do a new strategy." The transactional nature of business means that longer term strategies are harder to keep an eye on. There may be a management retreat that outputs a document, but often measuring progress against it is foregone for fighting the fires of today. The CSO would keep an eye on competitors, how the company is delivering value to customers, trends in the marketplace and how the firm is behaving according to agreed strategies.

Chief Chocolate Officer
This person doesn't have to be in charge of all the chocolate (mmmmm, chocolate), but they do have to be in charge of ensuring that project teams are taken care of in their daily work, regular rewards are given out for exemplary efforts and in the process monitoring employee morale. It's often easier to criticize or ignore as "regular work" but "little things mean a lot".

Chief Flat Officer
The "Flat" part of this title refers to Thomas Friedman's book The World Is Flat. CFlO's look out for the larger trends, looking forward to where the business is going. Open Source and CrowdSourcing are great examples of new methodologies facing business. How does your business fit into that paradigm? The CFlO will know.

To me, the central themes running through these roles are: communication, visioning and accountability. These roles are often being played by one person but they can become overwhelming in the light of higher priority matters. Even parsing out these responsibilities to part-timers (especially those interested in more full-time management positions in the future) would be beneficial.

I really enjoyed Michael's article and thought others would appreciate it too.

Cool photo of the day

View of the Northern Lights from 30,000 feet. The window that I sit next to on planes never looks this clean. :)

Click Here to view the photo

Jolt Award Finalists

Congratulations to ThoughtWorks' dbdeploy team who have made the Jolt Award finals in the Database Engine and Data Tools category.

dbdeploy is an Open Source tool developed by Nick Ashley, Sam Newman and Graham Tackley in the course of various client projects for ThoughtWorks. The Java-based tool manages database change quickly and effectively. For full information or to download dbdeploy, visit http://www.dbdeploy.com

Also, congratulations to Pramod Sadalage for his nomination in the Books (Technical) category for his book Refactoring Databases, co-authored with Scott Ambler.

Good luck everyone.

Phew, glad that's over

Did the disaster that was forecast happen? Nope - looks like there was very little reaction at all to the time change in North America on Sunday.

GoDaddy.com had a problem with their systems and some of their sites were not accessible for a couple of hours Sunday. If you don't know, GoDaddy.com hosts, registers domains and redirects a large percentage of websites around the world (but predominantly in North America).

Was this a problem caused by the DST time change? Doesn't look like it.

The problems at GoDaddy.com were apparently caused by because of DOS (Denial of Service) attacks rather than the time change. That's a good thing because if it was, there might be an urge to declare the Y2K07 bug bigger than the original Y2K!

Sun had to re-issue their Java fix because the first fix didn't fix everything. Sun looks to be the only casualty and it's a minor PR exercise at best.

The changes required to patch applications probably weren't as serious as the Y2K problem, but in that era, budgets had a large line item that was simply "Fix the Y2K problem". IT departments shut down all new work while applications were tested and patched.

With this DST time change the problem had to be fixed on top of all the rest of the demands on an IT department. That is what made the changes so difficult.

Time and dates are hard.

From GMSV:

"Lockheed’s F-22 Raptor is the most advanced fighter in the world with its stealth capabilities, advanced radar, state of the art weapons systems and ultra-efficient turbofans.....crossed over the IDL [International Date Line], multiple computer systems crashed on the planes. Everything from fuel subsystems, to navigation and partial communications were completely taken offline. Numerous attempts were made to "reboot" the systems to no avail."

"Luckily for the pilots behind the controls of the Raptors, they were not involved in a combat situation. Had they been, it could have been a disastrous folly by the U.S. Air Force to have to admit that their aircraft which cost $125+ million USD apiece were knocked out of the sky due to a few lines of computer code."

Time and dates are hard.

Code Monkey like you.......

(via Amber Mac)

Daylight Savings Redux

In my previous post on the new Daylight Savings changes that are happening this year, I talked about some of the software changes that are required to ensure that programs can cater for the extra hour in March rather than April and the loss of an hour in November rather than October.

Now that the actual change is imminent - the issue is gaining more and more attention.

CIO Magazine has a recent blog post about this very problem. Will it be as big as Y2K? Most likely not, as the change won't crash systems (famous last words) but it will throw measurements out and possibly make you an hour late for that important meeting.

My favourite part of the article is the comment by Barb Kunkel, CIO, Troutman Sanders LLP who said:

"Let's take no action and see if Nicholas Carr's theory that IT Doesn't Matter holds up in practice".

Nice.

I'm just glad I won't be on a Help Desk on Monday March 13th. Good luck to those that will be.

Rock Concerts in a workplace safety environment

I went to a Barenaked Ladies concert recently and it was fantastic, as usual. I think this is the fourth BNL concert that I've been to all in amazingly different venues - the Railway Club in Vancouver, the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver, Royal Albert Hall in London and now the Calgary Saddledome. Definitely preferred the smaller venues - and the Royal Albert Hall is a magnificent venue to see ANY music - especially if you know the music inside and out.

If you haven't heard of BNL then you are missing out on some of the most energetic and funny music ever. Plus, they are Canadian to the core. Check them out, especially some of their older stuff.

Often during a slow song at a concert, lighters would be struck and held up high. I'm not sure what the origins of this tradition are (torchlight song maybe?) but apparently lighters aren't safe anymore.

Apparently this isn't done anymore. The new trend - holding up your open cellphone and using the screen light as the "torchlight". When did this happen? Am I the only one who finds that this misses the point? Has society gone safety mad or is it just that nobody smokes anymore? I find that last one hard to believe but that may be the case.

Garth Turner & Political Accessability

I've tried to keep politics out of my blog (for the most part) but I thought that I'd comment on Garth Turner because his latest exploits have an IT aspect to them.

In January 2006, Garth Turner, the member for Halton, Ontario was elected as a Member of Parliament to the Canadian House of Commons for the Conservative Party. As an experienced politican, the Prime Minister Stephen Harper (PMSH) appointed him to the inner circle of Canadian government, the Cabinet.

Garth is a big fan of making politics open and accessible. He perceives that there is a big discontent with politicians once they are in office because the communication channels shut down until there is another election. To help to break down this barrier, Garth created a blog on his website where he talked about what was happening in the House of Commons and in government. He even started MPTV where politicians and those around them were interviewed about different subjects.

It is a great source for all Canadians, not just his constituents, to hear about what is happening in their government (at least from one MP's point of view).

PMSH didn't like the fact that Garth was blogging all this information and decided to not only kick him out of the Cabinet, but also the Conervative Party, forcing Garth to sit as an Independent. The sad thing is that the government told the media before they told Garth.

The point of this post is that not only was this a knock against Garth, it was a knock against blogging and openness in politics. I enjoy reading Garth's blog - if only to find out what it's like in Ottawa at the seat of my government which I am expected to vote for every 4 years (or sooner with a minority government) but then just accept willingly until the next election.

Garth's attempt at openness (successful or not) is 100% more than anything else I've experienced in Canadian politics. My own MP (not going to link to his website - would rather link to the second most popular google search for him - http://www.voteoutanders.com) doesn't even have to campaign in his riding, doesn't provide leaflet updates as to what he is doing and has a general contempt for his constituency. Most pages on his site have MySQL errors and seems to be "updated" with government press releases.

Garth Turner has now joined the Liberal party, who embrace his openness and accessibility on the web. I think this is a good move for him, as operating as an Independent is exceedingly difficult and often ineffective.

Keep up the good work Garth. And good luck.

Radio Silence

I've been pretty quiet over the past month - partly due to the holidays, but also due to an unexpected stay in Calgary's finest health establishments.

I'm still recovering but well on the way to a full health soon. I'm back at work so I must be better. :)

How much Open Source can you do on company time?

Over at CIO magazine, there is an interesting article about allowing company time for developers to work on Open Source projects. Many companies like to take advantage of existing Open Source applications to help them develop their projects, however they are less inclined to allow employees to release any changes back to the community.

I'm very fortunate that I work for a company that allows and encourages developers to contribute to this community. The experience that comes from working on different projects gives those people a wider view of what is possible when it comes to their new project.

As usual, compromise is the key. If a developer is willing to devote time to a project and they feel very passionate about it, then it is likely that that person will enjoy coming to work.

The strategy mentioned in the article about "patching" code or creating "plug-ins" is a good one. Nothing like having to customize a piece of open source software, and then having to retro-fit it again everytime you want to move to the next version of that software.

Of course, the legal implications of releasing products with Open Source software is a whole other ballgame.

Great Street Art

Makes you look twice.

Charlie Brown Christmas - Performed by the Cast of Scrubs

Charlie Brown Christmas - Peformed by the Cast of Scrubs.

Worth 10 minutes to watch. Hilarious.

Google Reader

Mike Roberts has a good post on how Google Reader has brought him back to reading RSS feeds. I'm in the same boat.

I used to be a big FeedDemon fan. I even bought a license. This is more extraordinary than you would think as there is a tendency among Software Developers to not buy software they haven't built themselves. This is a bit of NIH syndrome that is rife in this industry but it shouldn't be as rare. Pay for those licenses, especially if it's software that you use every day. Alas, I digress.

FeedDemon used to be great for reading offline, in a nice, easy to read format (like a newspaper) and I also felt that I was supporting a new product. Apparently other people thought so too and FeedDemon was bought by NewsGator.

Since that time, I've become less and less impressed with each version that comes out. There are at least 200 default feeds that I am not interested in, I'm never sure that their default feeds will overwrite my existing feeds and it constantly wants to connect to FeedBurner to update their feeds. I admit that the interface is really nice, creating an easy-to-use "newspaper"-like viewer but the feed-bloat is just too much.

Google Reader is the new boy on the block. It's interface reminds me of the FeedDemon of old, easy to use, innovative usability and no bloat. It also gives me a chance to review my feeds and only keep the ones that I actually read. Scoble has already mentioned the J and K key usability innovations that make you want to have that feature on every application that you use regularly.

For now, I'm giving Google Reader a try and shelving FeedDemon. Gotta go, the Freakonomics guys just posted.

Just in time for Halloween

The Thirteen Scariest Things in IT.

Highlight:
# 12: Application Development

Talk about a trip down the proverbial rabbit hole. Mostly you get to deal with people who prefer machines to people and can't understand why people don't behave like machines. What's amazing is that the line to get into this rabbit hole gets longer every day.

"Daylight Savings" is the new "Year 2000"

In the history of the world, Daylight Savings observance has varied by time, region and social politics. For every argument in favour of Daylight Savings, there is an argument against it. Those who enjoy Daylight Savings say that it saves energy because the consumption of electricity goes down as the sun is up later.

The arguments against Daylight Savings range from "not enough justification of the energy savings" to "disruptions in sleep patterns". When I lived in Western Australia they used to talk about the referendums that they had held (3) where Daylight Savings had been voted down. Arguments there ranged from "it will fade the curtains" to "the livestock won't like it". I'm sure the livestock couldn't care less, its the farm worker who have to get up with the sun regardless of the time on the clock.

I digress.

Next year, the United States & Canada will be altering their Daylight Savings to start 1 month earlier and end 1 month later. The US Energy Department is going to monitor the energy usage to see if the change is justified. If it's not, they may change the rules again, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Computer programs that work on an hourly basis or cater for Daylight Savings will need to change so that "the missing hour in April" and "the extra hour in October" become "the missing hour in March" and "the extra hour in November". Now, you might think that this is a small thing, but it's not. Scientific programs that deal with hourly data must be accurate and ensuring that the changed hours don't interrupt the collection of accurate data is essential.

Don't assume that the framework will take care of it either. Not only would you have to upgrade your framework - you have to ensure that it will deal with the change in dates in your location - ie. not in UK or Australia (as far as I know). Australia has seen some of this before when they had some issues in 2000 when the end of Daylight Savings was delayed for the Sydney Olympics and last year when they changed some time zones.

Your application can get the default time zone from the operating system, but unless your framework (and OS) know about the date change, any getDaylightSavings() method may be incorrect. Java or .NET - the challenge is the same.

Upgrade your applications if you are an owner and update your frameworks if you are a vendor.

And make it easy to find and change again, because this may not be the last time it will change.

Don't need it? Give it away....someone probably wants it

Freecycle.org is a grassroots and nonprofit organization that helps to coordinate message boards where people can post messages about items that they don't want anymore. The kicker is that you can't charge anything for the items. They must be offered for free, legally and for all ages.

So if you have something you want to get rid of, or are looking for something - instead of throwing it away or marching from garage sale to garage sale, then give the boards a go.

I noticed that they don't have total coverage all over the world, but hopefully that will change as the word spreads.