Only Yahoos Work in an Office!?
Ok, so I think almost everybody has either slammed Marissa Mayer about the new Yahoo non-remote worker policy or said that it’s the medicine they have to swallow. Very few are actually pointing out however, that Yahoo was probably just really bad at managing their remote employees. In the end, I don’t care, that just [...]
Surface & iPad Collision Course
Ok, I’d been looking around for a Surface I could try out. Even though I have my doubts about Windows 8 and especially RT I also am excited about a lot of the features that these operating system(s) have. But amid the parts that I hate and parts I hate, there is the simple fact [...]
3 Things Companies Do Wrong by Developers, The New King Makers
I’m sitting on the train heading from Seattle to Portland today. I live in Portland, but spend a significant amount of time in the beautiful Emerald City. The time on the train is immensely useful to think about concepts, thoughts, introspect, code and generally be uninterrupted in focus. All the while it makes the 3 plus hour trip productive [...]
The Bad, The Ugly and The Good Bits :: Sexism, VMworld 2012 & Smart Cool People
The Divide in Technologists… Sexism & Those That are Building Tech There seems to be a pretty distinctive divide in the technology industry today. There are the young, open minded, devop oriented, free-thinking individuals and then there are the old guard of IT. This later group still brings the “booth babes” and finds an incessant [...]
Microsoft, Which I Hate and Which I Love
Ok, I’ll admit, I got issues with some of the past Microsoft ethical breaches of business dealings. Sure, but who doesn’t? Their technology that they develop ranges from complete crap (re: Bob, paperclip, sealed classes, The 1st X version of Entity Framework) all the way to the completely awesome amazing stuff, like the Node.js SDK [...]
Office Applications, Cloud Office Applications: An Open Letter
Alright, there are a dozen office suites out there that sit in various places on one’s computer, in the cloud, can do X, Y, and Z and the list goes on. However, I don’t want to talk about any of those suites. I want to talk about the suite we all want, the suite that [...]
Following Good Practice, The Negative Bits About Windows Azure First, But Gems Included! :D
Ok, I’ve used Windows Azure steadily over the last year and a half. I’ve fought with the SDK so much that I stopped using it. I decided I’d put together this recap of what has driven me crazy and then put together something about the parts that I really like, the awesome bits, the parts [...]
Resumes Are Worthless
Ok, so a question came up recently about hiring people for software development roles. In answering that, the group discussing this started talking about resumes. Resumes, which I’m told mine looks good and reads well, hold a certain value to someone entering the field of software development. There are also major problems with having a [...]
Cloud Failure, FUD, and The Whole AWS Oatage…
Ok. First a few facts. AWS has had a data center problem that has been ongoing for a couple of days. AWS has NOT been forthcoming with much useful information. AWS still has many data centers and cloud regions/etc up and live, able to keep their customers up and live. Many people have NOT built [...]
Job Posts that Don’t Suck!
Ok, as promised, this is the post with solutions. Job posts should get a prospective candidate excited about a possible gig. Don’t lose top talent the second you post, don’t freak out people and load it up with a “we’re hiring so we just have to throw bait out for all you sucker programmers” type [...]
I’m Not Looking, But These Job Posts Just Suck
BEWARE: This is the beginning of a rant. If you’re temperamental it might piss you off. You’ve been warned, prepare to have a bit of rant with reality thrown on top for good measure. I’m not looking for another gig. I’m extremely happy with what I’m doing right now. The Russell Team I’m working with [...]
Overloaded to Death, “Cloud” Computing is Dead
I’ve gotten to a point where I won’t argue it anymore. The word Cloud as defined on Wikipedia “location-independent computing, whereby shared servers provide resources, software, and data to computers and other devices on demand, as with the electricity grid. Cloud computing is a natural evolution of the widespread adoption of virtualization, service-oriented architecture and utility computing. Details are abstracted from [...]
Rework Reminder (Kill your BDUF, Code Smells, Anitpatterns, Etc ASAP!)
Rework is ok. Refactoring is ok. BDUF (Big Design Up Front) is bad. Minimal amount to get to market is good. Getting to market is good. Don’t get into analysis paralysis. Best book that cleanly cuts to the chase I’ve read in a long while: Rework …and a few friendly reminder videos. httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mlw0aLp14Us httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IU3imeeLHiA httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJFTC9C_IBk [...]
Windows Azure SDK Unit Testing Dilemma — F5DD Plz K Thx Bye
I’m a huge advocate for high quality code. I will admit I don’t always get to write, or am always able to write high quality code. But day in and out I make my best effort at figuring out the best way to write solid, high quality, easy to maintain, easy to read code. Over [...]
Improving the Time Suck of Social Media
Social media, albeit being a great boon in many regards, has also become a massive time suck for almost everyone involved! Sure, news is up to date, down the minute, real-time almost with every single little bit of craziness right there to read about right now! The t0-read, to-do, to-make, to-code lists all keep getting [...]
