Searching for my lost shaker of salt

Welcome to the new blog.  Or really the old blog with a new blog engine and a new host.

I've been wanting to get back into blogging with numerous reasons preventing me.  Mostly because I didn't have the time, but there were legit issues with the old WordPress blog on my old host.  Or just call it laziness.

So the new blog engine is BlogEngine.NET, not surprisingly a .NET based blog engine (guess you figured that by the name, huh).  I must say this has been the EASIEST blog engine I've worked with to date.  Conversion couldn't be easier, working with layouts was a snap.  So far its been a very positive experience... including a 1.4.5 upgrade to 1.5.x which took 5 minutes.  Good stuff.

I've also left WebHost4Life as my webhost.  Their renewal was simply too expensive.  I'll continue to give them props for available features but not at their price point.  So I am going to the other end of the spectrum and going with Godaddy.  The price verses feature set seemed right, and so far their control panels have been pretty easy to work with.  Not a single ticket needed to get my site working and fully transferred.  The hardest part was getting DNS transferred, which took me 10 minutes to figure out.   If you can read this, well, guess it worked.  So the total site migration took about 2 hours. 

Oh, and if you were looking for the consulting part of GP Consulting, well, that part of my business has been closed down for years except to service my prior customers.  That doesn't mean there won't be new things coming... 

Hopefully this will the beginning of new rants and raves.

 

One of my side goals for this year was to return to the sport of SCUBA diving. Yesterday I had that chance with a group of my friends in an introductory freebie dive. We all had a blast and I've been re-bitten by the diving bug. Its also obvious I need to take a refresher course before heading back out into open waters. That aside, my local dive shop, Lynnhaven Dive Center, is holding their annual Dive for a Cure fundraiser this coming weekend (March 23-24). Its a marathon 24 hour dive in their training pool to raise money for Cancer research. I've signed up for the 4-5 AM time slot (yes, that's EARLY) and are looking for sponsors who can donate any amount to cancer research (specifically, the American Cancer Society). I have family and friends, as well as electronic acquaintances who have all been touched by cancer and this is the least I can do to help raise awareness and money... and have a little fun in the process. Please contact me through the site if you are interested in sponsoring me.

One that even the boss loves: http://artscool.cfa.cmu.edu/%7Elee/deanimator.html See Zombie walk.  See Zombie come toward you.  Introduce Zombie to Mr. Shotgun.  See Zombie's head go flying.  Wash, rinse, repeat.

7,072 messages received 111 MB of bandwith At least I only had to read about 600 of them... 

Unlike my friend and fellow blogger Frank who seems to record every find, thought, and daily event, I have been rather quiet here.  To say there have been lots of changes, personally and professionally, would be the understatement of this new century.  Here are the highlights.  Personal life: [censored].  Professional life: I have accepted a new position with AmeriGroup as a Web Team Lead.  I met the most amazing group of folks earlier in March and are simply honored and humbled to join their ranks.  This position will allow a great deal of professional and personal growth, which is both exciting and intimidating.  Growth is a good thing (as long as its not entirely at the waistline), as is trying new things and expanding horizons.  I just hope they can stand my odd sense of humor!

The downside to the new position is the reality of having to leave my old team at CACI.  I met some wonderful and talented people there, as well as made some good friends.  They have a tall order on their plate and I wish them well in their endeavors. 

There have been a number of experiences in my professional and personal life this past year that revealed a number of lessons.  When you think of these, it's pretty straightforward and obvious, even to the point of saying "well, duh!"  These are fully applicable to our work lives as well as our personal lives.

Nothing happens by accident.  No matter what, everything happens for a reason.  Consider the so-called butterfly effect where seemingly unrelated actions in one place affect another.  Clients and projects are discovered because we seek them out, and make ourselves available to be found.  Improvements to software occur as a result of experiences, particular bad experiences no one wishes to repeat.  Our relationships (work and personal) grow or die based on the amount of effort placed into them; in many cases, a lack of work on a relationship (or no communication) can mean the end.  Remember the attiage "no news is good news?"  You can't rely on that; "no news IS bad news".  Even miracles happen because of prayers behind them.

This is a pretty cool discovery, if you buy into it.  It can mean that, no matter what, you CAN make a different and shape the future, no matter what it may appear today.  It also comes with the burden and responsibility that one must make things happen (or, create situations that allow things to happen).  And that can lead to a great deal of frustration when our reality is disjoined with our desires, which leads me to my next lesson.

Manage your expectations.  When you think about it, there is a greater chance of having positive experiences than not.  When an expectation is set (X action will yield Y result) there are three possible outcomes; that expectation is met (I got the raise of an expected amount), the expectation is exceeded (I got a raise, plus sweet dual-display LCD's for my desk!).  The experience is almost always a success because what we hoped and wanted to happen did (no, I didn't get dual LCD's :( ).  What creates problems is when expectations are not met (I got a rock!).  Failing to meet an objective means a project isn't going the intended direction, which creates stress and tension (even a threat of security).  We expect our employers to treat us a certain way; when they don't it creates friction.  We expect software to behave a certain way; when it doesn't, we (as software developers) look bad, get frustrated, and may choose to not use that software.

There is this grey concept I've talked about in my seminars and with my clients, about setting "realistic expectations".  When a client expects the world and gets a rock, you bet its going to cause problems.  But maybe they really believed they were getting the world, even when their words and action led to the rock.  This is why open and honest communication is so important to managing a project, or any relationship.  When communication is "political", "controlled", or with any obstacle there increases the chances of expectations being missed by both sides.  It can take organizations a great deal of time to adapt to "over-communicating" intentions, status, and information. 

This leads me to a wonderful quote that I am unable to attribute to its author.  I found it on a slide on a PowerPoint presentation, and have it hanging over my desk.  I think it needs to be at home as well:

It is far easier to act yourself into a new way of thinking than to think yourself into a new way of acting.

May 2006 be filled with peace and joy, realistic expectations, and positive actions.

 

This is how the Internet works:

I was reading an article from my friend Frank on the naming of Bill and Melinda Gates as Time Magazine's people of the year (along with Bono).  He went on to mention that Melinda was the project manager of Microsoft Bob, one of Microsoft's more humerous offerings.  His link lead to the all knowing Wikipedia article on Microsoft Bob, which at the bottom has a see also link to Abondonware, a intersting topic on who technically owns software (particularly games) when the authors go out of business and do not transfer the copyright to another legal entity.  The bottom of the page lists a number of games that are legal to download, but also contains a link to another site listing even more.

Therefore, the nomination of Bill and Melinda Gates as Time Magazine's people of the year is a indirect endorsement to downloading free games.

 

 

It may only weight 6 points and stand 15" high (a little small for a lightsaber launcher-mod), but it will obey voice commands.  Repair a hyperdrive?  Save the galaxy (repeatedly)?  That remains to be seen...

www.hammacher.com/publish/72698.asp 

And all this time I thought it was just me who has been having a harder time focusing on creative works. 

http://news.com.com/Driven+to+distraction+by+technology/2100-1022_3-5797028.html

There is always this drive to “get it done” and “get it done right”, but how often are we actually provided the quality time to think these things through?  Sometimes I get the impression that employers want those “quality“ thoughts outside of the workplace, or they would require the guys with loud and frequent telephone calls to do so somewhere outside of my ear shot.

"If you don't have that sort of free time to dream and muse and mull, then you are not being creative, by definition," said Dan Russell, a senior manager at IBM's Almaden Research Center in San Jose, Calif. “

“Russell has turned off the e-mail settings that deliver a note as soon as it is received. Instead, he pulls down unread messages twice a day. “

What a concept; not being constantly available to take someone's call or e-mail so you can actually do the work thy need! 

Its like the situation where you are at the checkout ready to make a purchase, cash in hand, and the clerk makes you wait to take a call that will most likely not result in the sale.  Hello, did you not see me?  Do you not want my money?