Nice weather… I didn’t wear “THE VEST” when I left the house.
No badge.
Oh, work doors are gonna be a pain today.
Also, no phone… it’s in my vest.
IM only.
Tag Archive: Work
I have been in Software Engineering Training this week.
This is not teaching me how to code. It teaches me the tools I need to be effective to get to the point where I code.
Working with requirements, proper planning, interacting with test and project managers.
One of the main responsibilities of an engineer is making an estimate. In the ST:TNG episode “Relics” we learn the truth about Scotty and how every estimate he made was always overly padded to always come off like he was a miracle worker.
As an example exercise we were shown a photo of a jelly-bean jar. We were asked to estimate how many were in the jar. The jar front was shaped like a hexagon. The side view was rectangular.
I looked at the screen. I counted the number of beans across and down the front rectangle (discounting the side triangles) I counted the beans along the depth of the jar. I also counted the beans across the with of the side triangle.
I multiplied out and got an estimate of just shy of 3000. People started yelling answers. A couple yelled 3000, some yelled 4,000. I knew it was short of 3000 and I also knew this was just a pointless exercise. But my general character kicked in and I had a smart-ass moment. On the “Price is Right” you always try to undercut the guesses.
I said, “2850”… The room laughed at the detail I put into such a trivial exercise. I was asked to explain. Someone shouted out, “Price is Right” and I agreed that went into it. We discussed the different methods people used to get their numbers.
Afterward the teacher looked up and said… By the way. the correct answer was, “2845”
There was much laughter and applause.
During the break, I asked if I won the Prize winning pig.
I worked for a tech startup in ’99 as a dev. Our company’s dev attended a technical developer’s conference. At the conference was a trade floor. The dev’s were told that they needed to put in shifts during the conference at the booth with the marketing and sales guys. This is pretty much standard practice.
What was not standard practice, was that this company’s sales and marketing force were pretty much a row of impotent has beens. As the adage goes, they couldn’t sell a bottle of water to a dying man in the desert.
When I took my shift I watched as the two suits at the booth stood there like they were waiting for the delivery of the next roll of toilet paper. After 10 minutes of this I decided to “switch on”. As people passed by I engaged them. You’ve seen this in action done very poorly at malls. Typically you’ll pass a fragrance or cell phone kiosk and a person will physically move towards you. You probably instinctively respond with a wide swerve and a Wolverine-esqe attitude that says, “Don’t engage me, or die.” Because you can get this instinctive defense up so quickly, it proves the mall-drones suck at their jobs. This is why they are working kiosks (not even real stores) as drones.
Engaging people is one part character and 10 parts reading the person you’re talking to.
Hill of beans time… as I often point out. (What does any of this have to do with a hill of beans)
This morning (ah… here we go)
This morning, I’m standing on line for my bus. There is a ‘just out of college’ aged guy listening to an iThing. He has a backpack on the ground. Outside, it is pittering with rain. I pop my umbrella and look at him with my usual friendly smile and nod.
“It’s weeeeehht owt, aw-right”… Which is a harshly badly transliterated copy of what came out of his mouth.
Now… here’s where experience and a little study of absolutely useless facts makes itself absolutely useful.
The average person would say, “Well, that’s not an American accent. Must be British.”
The slightly educated person who’s watched maybe one piece of culture from outside this country would say, “No, not British… must be Aussie.”
Now… there is a little known rule. It’s similar to the concept of Pitt vs. Penn State.
Don’t confuse a “Kiwi” for an “Aussie”. For those that don’t know what that is… Kiwi is a friendly term for New Zealand. The two countries (I believe) are further apart than Hawaii and mainland US. And to be honest the rivalry is not as bad as making some off handed idiot remark that Canada is just part of the States.
So I said, “I have to ask. New Zealand?”
His eyes lit up. “Yeah… not many people in the states even know about New Zealand”
I made a comment that the “ay” was broader than what I’d expect out of Australia and than joked, “Come on, never mistake a Kiwi for an Aussie. First rule.” Which gave him a strong chuckle and then he told me how it really wasn’t that bad. He asked me how I knew. Due to it being odd for an American to pick up those things. I talked about having been into accents (which got me at least into the right hemisphere) and how I dated a woman after college who was a huge Split Enz nut.
Okay.. you want to score with a New Zealand’er at least 90% of the time. Mention “Split Enz”. (But you really should actually know about the group) … This is home town pride. No, not everyone from the country loves the band, but they are pretty much an institution, like 007, Doctor Who or Harry Potter is for the Brits.
Effectively we then went on to talk about the band. And once you’re on to music.. you’re engaging a person.
I really wasn’t intending to pull the guy into conversation. I was actually wet and hate waiting for the bus. I probably won’t really talk to him again. Not because I’m avoiding him.. just because there are so many people at this bus, I rarely run into the same people twice.
But it’s interesting to analyze the ability to talk to strangers. Which really seems to be something that I firmly believe should be taught in school. It’s helpful, it’s socially beneficial… and hell if you’re going to ever go into sales… it should be instinctive.
Oh.. that startup? Folded within 3 years.
It’s a bad thing when your devs are better at sales than your sales folk.
Waves…
Wow, what the hell am I doing up at this hour and not at home?
Well, I had one of those rare bugs dumped on my plate that while not really difficuly, is time consuming.
It also would be a really good thing if it were done by a meeting at 11 a.m. tomorrow.
Believe it or not… I don’t have to be here. I want to be here. I know with just a few extra hours I can get this thing done and in under the wire… I think.
Well, I understand about 95% of the bug. The question is whether the last 5% will take 10 minutes, 2 hours, or have me scrambling.
So… For the first time at this job; I decided to put in my requisite all night session.
I’m online and doing lots of little fixes for this bug. Meaning… 2-4 lines of code… build for 10 minutes…
leather, wince, re-beat.
Translation: If you’re on late night tonight… Feel free to IM. (AIM best, see my profile)…
Otherwise… it’s me, the code, and Irene Cara singing about Fame
Last week shimmeringjemmy made a post about how we are planning to transition aiden_freeman from going down for the night in our bed to going down in his own.
She commented about how I’d be taking a week off. The original version of her post (which was up for about 10 minutes) went on to explain that I was taking a week off because my product was shipping. I asked her to edit that sentence because we really hadn’t actually shipped anything.
The team I’ve been on has been working on Microsoft Office for Mac (the 12th version, known as Office 2008) for about 4 years. The past 6-9 months have been very grueling as we hammered thru final features and a lot of bugs. In the past year I personally have gotten up close and personal with one of the 4 major applications to a degree I’d ever have believed before taking the job.
As of this morning, the word went out to the public. We have released the product to our manufacturers. This means the final data has been signed off and we have been able to burn the same data to more than one disc internally. Getting to RTM isn’t the longest phase by far but it is assuring that we can deliver the best version of the software that we have spent months/years getting to.
By (I Guess) company tradition a hand crank siren was brought into our RTM gathering yesterday afternoon. Several members of the team took turn sounding out (loudly) that “The data has left the building”
I hope that my Mac using friends and colleagues (and the people I don’t know) get as much out of using this new version, as I got out of developing and learning it. Without being accused of “Drinking the water”… Office 2008 for Mac really is an amazing product.