This last week, I ended up on an impromptu work trip to New York. While on the trip, I had the opportunity (and plenty of time with flights and layovers) to read a few books. I'll be updating the blog shortly with some reviews on those books.

Some notes on NYC though...

This was my second trip, although this time I was on my own in the evenings. I did go to Times Square a lot, since it was nearby, and there is always something going on there. My hotel was right by Madame Tussaud's and Ripley's Believe It or Not, but I didn't go in. What was the point? When I went out there, no camera. That did change. As per a blog review from Scott Hanselman, I picked up the the Flip Video Ultra. It is a nice little camera - takes some good video, but no stills. However, you can get a still out of the video with the desktop software. The downside was: it kept throwing errors on Server 2008, and after some extra settings in Windows I finally got it working. The videos are exported as AVI files and are decent quality. I unfortunately was unable to get the staff at one of the Chipotle's restaurants to record a message to D'Arcy Lussier, what with his insane fascination with the restaurant chain that is unavailable in Canada... Maybe if he had Papa John's pizza instead he could focus on bringing them to Winnipeg (they are in Canada, but far and few between...)

Times Square was amaazing. The Reese and M&M's store... the HUGE Virgin Megastore... The Toys 'R Us with the ferris wheel inside it... as well as posters for all the broadway plays including Spamelot, Lion King, Young Frankenstein... Yes, Young Frankenstein on Broadway... Right across from my hotel... I wished I had the time to make it there.

I also attended the New York .NET User Group meeting, which was their Speaker's Idol. Was a great presentation. Was invited out for drinks afterwards, but I had a few things I had to pick up before I headed back to Winnipeg the next day. It was a great time, but humid as hell. I was not prepared for that.

Anyways, book reviews to come in the next few days!

Although this does not relate directly to coding in general, but to any company that services customers in any field, one must always be concerned with quality and how you relate that to the customer. For those who have worked with me, several things are apparent when dealing with a customer-related project:

1. I am picky as hell when it comes to quality and getting the functionality right.
2. I am PICKY AS HELL when it comes to quality and getting the functionality right.

Today, as many know, was Canada Day which is usually a holiday for most Canadians. But, for some of us select few who service clients outside of the Great White North, it is also a day when some people have to work. Today, several issues raised their head and I am proud to say that my coworkers were able to overcome each and every issue thrown at us today, with naught but a skeleton crew. There were big issues, small issues, and some ultra-critical issues. However, the purpose of what I am saying here is to ensure that quality is paramount, or at least that the client understands when quality is being put to the wayside for a delivery.

When I was a development manager, I reviewed (in excruciating detail) most of the items that launched through my team. And when I say excruciating, I think I drove some of them nuts with my detail. "That accented French character is missing..." "This validation is not enabled but has to be as it is a required field..." "The image is 2 pixels too big..." (Yes, I have done the 2 pixel thing. Many times. I have 2 former client contacts i credit for that - I became ultra-picky to please them and I don't regret it one little bit.) When most of my products were general public-facing items, I had to be; we are working on the "face" of our clients on the web and have a duty and responsibility to ensure that they have no egg on their face. We have to ensure that the information provided by them and their other partners are presented in the manner they expect.

So, with public facing items, we have 2 problems: Proper functionality and proper information. Proper functionality, in a developer shop, is somewhat simple: Play with it and make sure it doesn't break. How do you do that? Do everything in your power to break it using the interface provided (which, in these cases, are web browsers). We had all the proper functionality, without doubt. Everyone did a great job. However, we caught a few errors on our demo server before launch today. Why were some things caught here? Partly because I am PICKY AS HELL (see above) when it comes to ensuring the message is correct. Usually I don't QA the whole task anymore, but this was a significant launch... well, this was SEVERAL significant launches, so that explains why a few things were missed, especially with the skeleton crew (again, you guys did an AWESOME job today). But this is why we have a demo server - to catch those items BEFORE they go live. I am glad to say that although a few were tasks on our part, some were not and were provided by the client. (To explain without breaking any client confidentialities, some information displayed was completely wrong. As the client was out today, we launched with the info provided, but made them aware that updated information to be correct should be provided immediately after they return tomorrow.

Now, back to an initial point: the customer service. Because we launched early, this product did not have the level of QA we would normally give it (many members of a team reviewing it), but the one saving grace for that today was that it WAS a holiday. This allowed the team members there to focus on the applications and dive in to ensure a proper review was done. Less bodies, but more focus. And quite a few items were found and corrected, before launch. The client was made aware that the level of QA was not to our satisfaction because we were launching early, but we still gave it our all. I think the amount of QA done today was less, but the quality of the testing was higher than normal because people could focus more without distraction. (And, because I was not interrupted a lot, I gave my 2 cents in the testing as well.. OK, my thousand dollars, and I apologize to those I continually sent updates to, because I am... see above point 2). But we set the customer's expectations, gave them what they wanted, and still managed to ensure quality was not jeopardized. And, because of this, the client was happy.

What more can you say when the client asks for something on a holiday and you meet and most likely exceed their expectations? No more needs to be said.

Team, you all did a great job today.

Once again, I needed to clean up my laptop with a fresh install. So, today, I tried again in installing Server 2008.

After some worry and how the last time it failed for network usage, the assistance from D'Arcy Lussier helped a lot! It is now running on my machine.. and a HELL of a lot faster than Vista.

However, some things I noticed:

• Windows Live services will not install. (I am not the only one who noticed this.) Going back to an earlier version of Windows Messenger is not a big deal... but I miss Windows Live Writer since I just got it installed and was liking it for my updates.
• Setting up Windows Aero (some people hate it, I really like it) was kind of dumb - had to enable the service manually
• Wireless setup took some enabling and installing from my Dell disks, but got it working finally

Even with the problems... Server 2008 was the quickest Windows installation I have ever had! Was pretty sweet. Now to install VS and start my Silverlight presentation...

Just installed Windows Live Writer to do my blog posts, and so far, it's not bad at all. Very simple interface. And the nice thing is it will allow me to save drafts without being online.

What will this mean? It means I may blog more, as I can do other tasks a little easier rather than worrying about timeout on the interface (which has happened before), or an internet connection which just dies from time to time (thanks Shaw).

I just got back from Toronto today. Yes, I went again. This time it was for client meetings, though, so was not for a purely technical experience. That being said, I do work in a software company and so it was about software we were talking about.

Although the client conversation has nothing to do with the various technical pieces running through my mind right now, I have 3 primary things I want to learn in the near future:

• Silverlight development
• WPF development
• WCF development

But the question is... how can I make sure that I learn the technologies?

After reading a recent post by Justice Gray where he discusses technical presentations of late, he makes a strong point about how many presenters are in it for the wrong reasons. There are many who participate for the right reasons, but there are some who do not. I would be doing presentations going forward for somewhat selfish reasons too, but for a different end goal. My goal is to learn the technologies. How can I make myself do that? By preparing to do a presentation on the topics that I am learning. This gives me incentive to learn better, as I would have to present that information to others to absorb. Yes, it's selfish, but it makes sure that I know what I am talking about otherwise I make myself lose all credibility with anything I do in the future.

Pressure? Sure. Resulting satisfaction? As D'Arcy said recently, there is a difference between teaching and speaking. But your incentive for how you approach the presentation is really what is key. For me, any presentations I do would be twofold: one, to teach (depending on the depth of the presentation; introductory ones may be used merely to spark interest in others rather than detailed teaching)... where was I? Oh yes, to teach others a new technology or idea. But second, to teach me several things - the necessary information one needs to make a valid presentation, to learn new technologies for myself and my own personal growth, but also to give back into the community here and elsewhere that has helped spark a newfound interest back in developing. (For those that don't know me very well, my current position has me in a project management role, not a development one. The Winnipeg .NET User Group and DevTeach, as well as meeting many people at these conferences, have continued my interest in development and keeping me current and wanting to challenge myself more.)

So there we have it. I will be learning these technologies and holding myself accountable for them via a presentation/teaching method, either through the User Group, through a code camp, or even if just being used internally in my own workplace to impart the knowledge. I know there have been challenges before that I have slacked on, but a more focused method here (along with still reading a ton of books, alternating technical and business (usually company profiles) ones) will allow me to continue to grow.

I said I wasn't going to comment on pop culture or anything here. I lied. My other blog that I want to set up for that isn't there yet, so it goes here so I don't forget about it.

 I use software from Collectorz.com to manage my comic book collection. It's awesome! They also have a movie collector which I might get for my DVD and book collection. (Don't let the website fool you - they have a really nice looking community site also available.) At any rate, I was reading some of the blogs there and found one referring to a Dutch show called "Dames in de Dop". According to Wikipedia:

The series follows a group of ladettes (i.e. loud, foul-mouthed, uncultured and unpleasant women, who like to drink and smoke and who are often sexually promiscuous), who are given an old-fashioned six-week course in learning how to behave like a real lady. They are sent to Huis 't Velde, a International Butler Academy situated in Warnsveld, Gelderland. Huis 't Velde was specially re-opened in order to try and change the ladettes' habits. 

So basically, the opposite of Velvet Jones' "I Wanna Be A Ho" course. It's "I Don't Wanna Be A Ho"... or, alternately, "I want to show how much of a ho I am on international television".

I'm surprised Fox hasn't picked this up yet...

May 12-16 is the DevTeach conference in Toronto. I will be attending. This will be my 3rd DevTeach, and since I am not a presenter this must tell you something about the technical quality of the presentations and presenters there.

 One of my fellow Winnipeggers, D'arcy Lussier, posted on his blog about some of the presenters who will be there. Including himself. And with his post, he labelled himself D'Arcy "Don't Dare Me, I'll Do It" Lussier.

So... I now open up the floor to accept the list of dares that will be presented to D'Arcy at DevTeach. I will collect them all and take them with me, and at random times around the conference will present D'Arcy with a "Community Dare".

Let the antics begin...

At the recent Community Connections event in Winnipeg, we had a section talking about workers within the IT industry. (I was not a part of that session, but we all heard the summary of each group there.) Gary Pronych blogged about that same item and how it affects Regina, but we see the same thing in Winnipeg - many companies hiring the experienced, but new graduates don't get the opportunity to get that experience needed to progress.

A friend of mine attended the event with me. She is a recent graduate with a DBA diploma and is having a heck of a time finding work in the industry. Why? She has no experience outside of work, even though from talking with her she knows her stuff. But why won’t companies give new graduates more of a chance?

The company I work for, we do just that with recent developer graduates. We hire both experienced and new, depending upon skill set, the needs of the projects we know we have in queue or have the potential of having, as well as certain elements of the individual. Having been part of the interview process, I have always looked for several criteria in those that I have interviewed:

• Technical skills
• Interest in the field
• Personality

Technical Skills

For a development position, technical skills are the key. If you don’t understand programming, you won’t cut it as a programmer. But what I do (and some others here do as well, but many companies do not; when I say I here I refer to the “royal we”) is look at the potential of the programmer. Many companies see minimal experience and dismiss the person offhand, but that shouldn’t be done. What about that diamond in the rough? (We’ve found quite a few of those.) You don’t need to be the master of your domain, but you need to be able to have the potential to be the master of a domain. Not every domain, but a domain. Which leads to the second criteria…

Interest In The Field

I have had many people come into interviews that look amazing on paper, but when they get in to the interview they don’t have any interest in the field. “I heard it was a good industry to make money.” They heard, but from whom? If all you are in it for is the money, that’s fine, but to me software development is about challenges and pushing people to excel with new problems and technologies. You need a drive in SOMETHING in order to succeed.

We have also interviewed some experienced people who, for one reason or another, have been out of the development game for a while but apply as a developer. Again, this is fine. But one of my key questions I have posed is “What have you done to keep yourself up to date in that time?” It surprised me as to how many responses have been “nothing”. It is understandable that some people need to step back for whatever reason (life circumstance, a mind-break, etc.), but if you want to get back in you need to show some initiative. (Again, personal observation and feeling here.) Keep up to date with blogs, read magazines, side projects, SOMETHING that shows that you actually are interested in the field.

We have hired several people where I am at that were new graduates, but had the most AMAZING potential. They did projects on the side, either for friends or family, or sometimes even just for themselves for fun – and that says a lot. We have a developer who learned Flash and ActionScript for fun, making some nifty little videos and animations. We have one guy who learned how to make games for his Nintendo DS. They may not have the experience right out of school, but this shows the interest and the initiative that they love the field that they have chosen and will most likely excel.

Personality

This is a hard one to gauge and is very subjective. Depending on the company, programmers can work as part of a large team or very independently. We try to have 2-3 developers per large product, so we need a team environment. And for this, personality is key. We need people who can get along with other people, both technical and otherwise. That is somewhat hard to gauge in an interview, but you can still get a feeling from how they present themselves, how they answer your questions, etc. Hard to say here, as everyone who interviews needs to get a grasp of this for themslves, but there is no one metric to gauge a personality.

So what do we do?

When interviewing, you kind of need to have an idea as to the projects that the individual may be working on. This will help determine if they are a right fit. Without that knowledge, you are hiring for the sake of filling a seat, but you might not get the right person or (potential) skill set you need to make that project succeed.

Of the 3 above, technical skills and interest can balance one another out. Strong skills are great, but there has to be some interest. Interest and excitement can balance out someone who doesn’t have the strongest technical skills yet, but who can have the potential for it. And again, personality is extremely subjective.

(And as a side note, my friend is still hunting. If there is anyone in Winnipeg who is looking for a recent graduate DBA, drop me a line and I can put you in contact with her.)

This is the second relaunch of my blog. Everything I had prior to now is toast as I changed blog platforms and even infrastructures in order to get things to where I want them. Why the relaunch again?

Blog Purpose

I wanted to start focusing more information in 3 general areas: technology (including book reviews), project management (which is my current profession), and other geek-type things that interest me in the realm of technology. As those who know me quite well, I am a pop-culture nut who reads enormous amounts of novels and comics, watches a lot of TV, and sees a lot of movies. (According to one coworker, I would be the perfect partner for Cranium, if ever I showed up at the events where they play it.) I plan on setting up another blog for things along those lines separate from this one, but would add a link to it when I get to that point.

More Focused

I work in the IT sector, having moved up from a development position to that of a project manager. I still dabble in code though, as it has always been something that has been there for me since I was in elementary school (read: grade school to the Americans). I see a larger picture now than I did before, and having worked mostly on public-facing web applications and sites in the past, I have some strong feelings and thoughts about the user interface and experience of applications (hence my growing fascination for Silverlight and WPF technologies). I would like to think that this blog will allow me to focus upon that.

Modifiable Technologies for Me

It has been many years since I played around on Linux. The last blog I set up was based on WordPress and installed within Linux by GoDaddy (my hosting provider). It worked all right. However, I am more a Microsoft technology developer, and using a Linux-based solution meant that it would be a different learning curve for me to look at applying changes, creating modules, etc. With that, I installed BlogEngine.NET on my hosting account after changing it over to a Microsoft-based account. (I will recap how fun THAT was to make happen in my next post.) Suffice to say, I am now back in an environment that I am more comfortable with.

The blog will undergo some changes soon, mostly in terms of look and feel as I get used to creating a theme of my own. This only got working last night so I haven't had much time yet... but creating at least one module for this system is on my to-do list. Once I get those items done, I will post them here as well, as the goal here is going to be to give back to the community in terms of what it has given me: continued growth and insight into the development world, which is great since my day-to-day is no longer that of a developer.