June 2007 Blog Posts
Pretty fun post actually, sparked a lot of debate and good examples on both sides. So I got to thinking tonight and the funny thing about that post is that I was talking about why I reject the title of engineer and of course it led to a debate about whether we should all be called engineers or not which I think is deconstructive to what I was trying to convey. Then I got to thinking that it would probably make more sense if I provided the audience with what I would prefer to be called.
I want to be known...
This wordpress post has been making rounds on the internet as an internal email being passed around at Microsoft about the views of an employee who previously worked for Google. Being the darling of the day, any look inside Google is of interest to a geek like me and probably you readers too. Here's the link, read it then come back.
http://no2google.wordpress.com/2007/06/24/life-at-google-the-microsoftie-perspective/
So what did I learn from this article? Despite the pay and benefits, I really couldn't see myself working at Google and being happy and successful. I have the following observations:
1. Not having a personal space or privacy to call...
When I actually get some free time and surf around the blogosphere I often see people referring to software as "engineering". I've always had a problem with this term because it implies things about software development that simply are not. Let's take a look at Dictionary.com for a moment. re: engineering
the art or science of making practical application of the knowledge of pure sciences, as physics or chemistry, as in the construction of engines, bridges, buildings, mines, ships, and chemical plants.
So here's where the whole software engineering thing falls down for me. Building software is not like building a...
For the last few months, I've been rather scarce while we put the finishing touches on the new enterprise software that runs the company I work for. I've been meaning to kick off a series of blog posts on what worked, what didn't, and why the team was able to finish a critical and complex project like this on time and under budget. Given the abysmal project success rates in software, it's vital that we recognize contributors to success and repeat them.
Project Background
I work in the insurance industry, more specifically (and still general enough) the property and casualty niche. On top...
Being that I was so irritated with Team System dying on me, in addition to the relative immaturity of the interface there, I decided upon return from Tech Ed to change direction and move the team to SourceGear's Vault product. In addition to Eric Sink being a stand up guy and blogger community figure, the sourcegear vault product has frequently been a favorite of mine in the 3.* version days at other jobs.
So today we purchased the latest version of Vault and I'm pleased to say that the initial set up and administration was a breeze. Even though I had...
It's actually been more than a month since I received this promotion, but I've been so busy pushing towards release for the new internal insurance processing software that my company needed that I haven't had any time to blog! Anyways, I thought I'd quickly and formally announce that I was promoted to Application Development Manager which is a positive step forward in my career.
With the MBA and all I've always planned to move up the corporate chain to Dir/IT or CIO some day, and while I've been a team leader at various times in my career, this is the first...
All in all, it's been a pretty fun week so far. My favorite sessions by far were Rocky's architecture session and David Platt's jam packed session on Why Software Sucks. Rocky and David are both very engaging speakers who use humor and make the audience feel comfortable in interacting with them and I wish that all the TechEd speakers would take note of this and try to spice up their sessions a bit.
On the technical side, more of the conference was about Vista, Windows Server 2008, and those types of technologies. There really wasn't a whole lot of new on...