Energy Builds After Conference

Energized and Ready to Get Back to Work!

It’s amazing what a few days at a conference can do! It’s been a while since I’ve been at a conference. The past few years have seen me “stuck” in town with family responsibilities. It was really great to get away, and I really forgot how energizing getting out among different people can be.

A lot of the topics discussed at Bruce Eckel’s “Programming the New Web” conference weren’t really things that I use in my daily life. I don’t use ColdFusion or PhP or Python. I mainly live in a .NET/Java world. But I love to hear and talk about technology and solutions as much as the next guy, and so even the topics that weren’t directly related to what I do offered insight and grabbed my attention. The advantage of only having one session at a time is that I felt free to attend these talks, and of course, I learned a lot there too!

And, one thing that pretty much everyone agreed on was that innovations like Ruby on Rails has really driven updates in Java tools!

We even had a session on Java vs. .NET programming that turned into an entirely non-technical talk, about how Microsoft has built up a support structure that really helps business like mine, while Sun has pretty much ignored the Java community. Upon my return, I was amused to see a (totally coincidental) email soliciting Java Champions, which might help to achieve at least part of what Microsoft does with their Most Valuable Programmer and Regional Director designations. I’m looking forward to our local Java user group meeting (next week), and I’m hoping that I can become more involved with that.

Next entry will be on tools!

Dianne heads off to a conference in Colorado

Programming the New Web: An Open Spaces Conference in Colorado

I’ve been in Crested Butte, CO, this week for a conference. Bruce Eckel is running it. The format is “Open Spaces”, which allows the conference attendees to customize the content, rather than the other way around. The first day, we submitted ideas for talks, and we found that we had a full schedule of 4 “talks” per day. In a larger group, we might have broken out into multiple sessions, but we’re a group of 10 and that’s pretty much perfect for consecutive sessions. I’m hesitating on using the term “talks” for such informal discussions. It’s really been a sharing/learning experience and it may well spoil me for a more traditional conference setting.

The attendees span our industry, both in terms of size of companies and in application areas. We have everything from pure website development to embedded systems, in both industry and academia. Company sizes range from the sole proprietor to a Fortune 100 company. It’s been a great experience in terms of seeing what other people are doing, and small enough that we can actually get into more detail than would typically be possible at a conference. I would definitely attend an Open Space conference again!

Crested Butte, too, is an experience. It’s visually stunning and outdoor opportunities abound. Cross country skiing is one of my favorite activities, and I’ve been really happy to be skiing here. There are a lot of other random things that I am really enjoying in this town … the friendly faces (and paper cups) at coffee shops, the yoga studio in town, the metal roofs on all of the houses, the gorgeous scenery.

Check back for technical content, or check out the links below!

Ben's weblog
Attendee at Conference
Barry's weblog
Attendee at Conference
Mike's weblog
Attendee at Conference
Bruce's weblog
Organizer's weblog

Corporate equivalent to flylady?

Cleaning the keyboard reminds Dianne that seemingly silly cleaning tasks maybe just need a little perspective.

Maybe the World DOES need FlyLady ….

A Stay At Home Mom (SAHM) friend of mine recently told me about flylady.net, a website/email service that sends “helpful” reminders about cleaning. I’m not a neat freak (by any stretch), but I wondered if she had some innovative ideas about organization, so I went to her site. Hmm, she posts little jobs that you can do in just a few minutes to spruce up your house and motivate you to keep things clean. Like shining your sink. Like taking a toothbrush and shining a faucet. I was aghast. Do people really DO that? Do people really feel like keeping their house clean because the sink is shiny? Glancing over at the load of dishes in the sink (dishwasher full of clean dishes), I realized that I’m worlds away from being able to be helped by flylady and I got off of the site quickly.

But today, just a few days later, I find myself spending a few minutes cleaning out my keyboard with a Q-tip and rubbing alcohol. Hair, food (and whatever else!) was in there, making typing a bit of a challenge (I KNOW I TYPED A SPACE!). What a difference those few minutes made! I’m typing here without hesitation. No double keystrokes! Woo hoo!

Ah … so maybe cleaning the keyboard is the corporate-equivalent task to cleaning the faucet. I’ll rest easier tonight, knowing that my keyboard is clean and that my work won’t take as long due to unnecessary keystrokes. But, rest assured … the sink is still full of dishes needing to go into the dishwasher. Some things never change.

Skype: Out of the mouths of babes

The toddler gets in on the hype of Skype

Question: How do you know when you’ve been talking too much about something?

Answer: When your toddler talks about it, in context

The other day, I was explaining to my 2.5 year old that we couldn’t get together with her friend (for the umpteenth week in a row) because something had come up. She piped up with, “He should get Skype. THEN we could talk to him”. She’s got it all figured out.

Bad Software

Dianne rants about software, documentation, and technical support

Recently, I’ve been working on a couple of projects where I’ve had to select software for a customer to purchase (for a fairly routine task, IMO). I’m finding myself on the “other” side of the documentation and software, and I’m not liking it, not one little bit.

The software is crap. The documentation is crap. The tech support is crap.

I encouraged the customer to purchase tech support (as I typically do). Most of the answers I’ve gotten are that our questions are out of the scope of tech support, and that we would have to purchase custom software services in order to get a solution (or an answer).

So, let’s see. They write software that does about 70% of what people need it to do and their documentation describes ways to get to the other 30%, but we can’t actually DO it unless we pay for custom services on top of the software. Sorry, guys, but if it’s advertised as being IN the software, it should be documented. And if it’s NOT documented, then you shouldn’t be charging your customers to tell them how to use your software! If that’s the case, don’t document that capability at all, and tout it as an “add-on” service.

Ugh, and let’s just say that the tech support guy who told me that adding “custom perl” to configure their software was an “advanced technique” got an earful from me. Sure, he’s not used to dealing with programmers, but come on! Turns out, he couldn’t do what I was trying to do either (the software was supposed to be able to do it, but couldn’t), and so he just told me it was “outside of the scope” of their support. Grrr. And the answer I seem to get most often is, “We rarely get questions about that feature”, as if that’s a reason not to document it.

Sigh. I just want to talk to the developers (not tech support, not sales). I want to know if THEY sanction this crap. If I thought that this was an isolated incident, I wouldn’t even blog about it, but I think it’s fairly widespread in the industry and it annoys me.

My Biggest Software Failure

Dianne fesses up.

Bill Wagner offered “What is your biggest failure” as an appropriate interview question. I like it. I especially liked his answer! But in calling his bluff, I promised that I would confess my biggest failure if he did, so I have to be true to my word … not sure that mine measures up as well as his does!

At my first job out of college, I developed software for laboratory instruments. We controlled hardware with our software, as well as doing measurements and analysis. It was really a fun job! In any case, the fact that I was controlling REAL hardware was driven home one day when I forgot to turn the power off to the furnace before raising the piston. Yowza! The two pieces of metal touched and arched. Luckily, no one was injured, but it was fairly scary. This was a lot different than SIMULATING something. Real people were putting their hands in there. Real machinery was moving and under POWER. I’ve always made sure I understood the components of a system after that incident! And in the nearly 20 years (ouch) since then, there have been several times that I’ve discussed this failure with new grads to impress upon them the importance of a broad understanding of the application.

More Praise for Technology

Skype and a family conference call

You know that technology is becoming ubiquitous when your totally non-technical parents are using Skype (http://www.skype.com)! I’ve been promoting Skype for use within my family for a month or so now, ever since my parents got high-speed internet. My dad’s first reaction was “JOANNE! Come look at THIS!”. Somehow, the video component totally overwhelms my parents with coolness. The ability for my parents to see their grandchildren eating dinner is priceless. And since my sister recently moved to Wales (with 2 of aforementioned grandchildren), I think that Skype will end up being a lifeline to them for my mom.

So, this morning, when the entire family was on a Skype conference call, it was a bit like the dinner table at Christmas, quite exuberant! I look forward to many more conference calls in the future, but I suspect that we will end up using the 1:1 video calling more frequently because the video component is an amazing touch for families far away from one another. I’m not really wild about using the video feature for business calls (with 2 small kids, I don’t always get to shower before work!), but for family it’s great!

Ah, but then I read in the news about how Skype calls may (heck, probably are) used extensively by terrorists and such, because of their encrypted nature. EEK. Well, the whole wiretapping thing freaks me out a bit for privacy reasons. Of course, then I go watch an episode of “24” (http://www.fox.com/24) and that makes me think about the ramifications of NOT being able to tap into calls (and the geek in me wonders if Skype’s gonna show up in the show soon!).

Anyhow, Skype is cool. Anything that gets my kids’ grandma to use the computer is definitely cool. She hasn’t called us yet using it, but she’s getting close to being comfortable enough to do that. And that’s very very cool.

In Praise of Technology: Sportvision

Just embracing the little ways in which technology has enhanced entertainment!

In Praise of Technology: Sportvision

Well, I have decided that if I could do ANY job as a software developer, I would want to work at Sportvision (http://www.sportvision.com). This is the company that developed the 1st and 10 line in football. That yellow line for the 1st down is one of the reasons I like to watch my MEEECHIGAN football at home (in addition to easily accessible bathroom facilities, no traffic, not being squeezed into the small seats at Michigan stadium, and my husband’s fabulous guacamole!).

My Olympic viewing has also been enhanced by SportVision. I love the “world record line” that the swimmers chased in the last summer Olympics. I love watching the current ski leader superimposed on the screen with the current racer. And the team who developed the technology to “embed” the country flag below the ice for speedskating amazes me. The graphic is SO good. I’m not all that much of a speedskating fan, but I will confess to have watched a bit last night just to get a good glimpse of the flags to see if any shadows, etc. were missing. It just looks flawless to me!

I heard an interview on NPR yesterday by a representative of Sportvison, about the use of their technology at the winter Olympics. It was pretty cool. You can hear the interview at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5204366.

So … the real geek question is … what language, toolkits, etc. do they use? Wouldn’t you love to know?! (Of note: their website doesn’t work very well with Firefox)

Choosing Tools: Java Installer

Choosing an installation builder

Choosing Tools: Java Installer

Java programmers seem to spend a lot of time choosing tools. I figured I would start a series of blogs on tools that I use.

I’ve been looking for a good installation builder for Java for quite a while now. For years, I have been using InstallAnywhere NOW, a free version of the popular InstallAnywhere product (by ZeroG, now owned by Macrovision). It’s a nice multiplatform install builder, but lately, it’s been causing me grief both in Windows executable files not running properly all of the time and in terms of licensing. ZeroG stopped providing the NOW version. And then, I upgraded my computer and lost my key for IA NOW (it was free, but required a key), so all of my installation executables were tagged as being built with DEMO software. That wasn’t very professional, so I went in search of a new installation builder.

Of course, I started with InstallAnywhere, thinking that their “for-fee” products might offer a seamless migration both in time and in my mind. Sigh, I just couldn’t justify the cost ($2000 for the professional version!).

I’ve heard a lot about install4j (www.ej-technologies.com) over the years, but I had dismissed it previously because IA Now worked fine for me and was free. But, given few other options, I evaluated install4j and found it to be just what I needed. With a professional license available for $399, I went ahead and bought it for use in building client installation executables.

I’ve received some happy responses from clients after migrating them to the new install builder using install4j. They are happy to have a bit more control over the installation process. I’m happy that some of the problems I had been seeing with IA Now (namely, problems getting a Windows-specific executable to run) are not plaguing me with install4j. And I’m REALLY happy that I didn’t have to pay $2000 for the privilege.

Install4j
Where to get install4j

How the Heck do they do the NetFlix thing?

Technology in our Everyday Lives

Sometimes, I just want to know what the underlying technology is … when things touch me in my everyday life. Today, I’m thinking about NetFlix. Do they REALLY have huge warehouses all over the country with copies of obscure titles to send to people the same day? Really? Or do they have some agreement with the movie/DVD industry to burn CDs on the fly? Sheesh, only the latter seems reasonable to me.

I mean, come on. I put “The Thin Man” on my queue and it was shipped to me when my previous movie was returned. Now, I don’t really REMEMBER if I only had it there for a day … or a few hours … or whether it had been sitting in my queue for several days. If it had been sitting in my queue for a while, then I can understand … they could look ahead at queues and ship movies to “closer” locations to get them to us faster. But … but … but … it would make SO much more sense to have an agreement to burn the DVDs as needed and toss the movie when it’s returned (if no one else is demanding it).

Hmm, so I went on an internet search to see if there was anything describing how NetFlix is doing what they’re doing. I couldn’t find anything. I would GREATLY appreciate a heads-up if someone sees something somewhere … or if a NetFlix insider wants to blab. Newsweek had an article on NetFlix a week or so ago, and the article really did seem to imply that they warehoused the DVDs.

Why do I care so much? No idea. I’m just curious, and I hate it when I can’t get the answer to a question!