A new look, a new platform…

So I finally made the jump to a “real” blog. As a resident geek, this has taken me forever to do. I thought about rolling my own (doesn’t everyone?), I though about staying on blogger, and I decided to go with MoveableType. That is until I went through the install on my Vista 64 box. PERL? CGI? I run Apache on here and if you can believe it, Perl and Mysql don’t play nice on Vista 64.

Well, that meant WordPress and I’m VERY happy with my new clothes. Although old permalinks aren’t going to be perfect, they should at least get you to the right month, and it isn’t as though I’m that prolific.

So, tell me what you think?

Posted in Geek.

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By Anonymous – January 19, 2009

Writing code, thinking about the next small idea…

Is it possible to find a few small ideas to work on in between the big ideas? Can I keep my brain interested in the small ideas? This blog is a small idea. Maybe someday, if I keep writing, it will have actual traffic.

As friends and family know (ok, also the two people who follow this blog), I’ve been actually writing code for 7 months now. I haven’t been building infrastructure or fixing business strategy, or even really selling. Instead, I’ve been building a pretty big software product. Give it another few months and hopefully I’ll have a satisfied client on my hands.

Along the way though, I am beginning to work on a few small projects that over time might develop into a sideline or two. Basically, I am enjoying the peace of working from home, cooking more, and flying around the country a lot less too. My goal is to find myself a few things that can contribute to a decent extra income without a huge time requirement on my part. Maybe this internet thing isn’t so bad after all!

I promise not to do this by becoming someone who writes about how to make money blogging for a living, for a living. Get that? This blog will NOT be about how to make money blogging. Nor Twittering!!!

Still, if you want to know what I’m up to on a more regular basis, check out my twitter feed !

Posted in Business, Small Ideas.

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By Anonymous – January 15, 2009

Hard work is a good thing…

Have you heard of the “Four Hour Work Week”? It is a book that tells you how to only work 4 hours a week and be successful.

My first response on hearing about it from a friend was, “But I like what I do!”

OK, I’m pretty sure I didn’t say it as succinctly as that, but I did think it. I also believe in a good strong protestant work ethic (We have to get something from them, right?) and I would feel really guilty if I were only working 4 hours a week. In the end, I voted with my pocket book and didn’t buy the book.

Penelope Trunk, has even more to say! 5 Time management tricks I learned from years of hating Tim Ferriss. Now that is open and transparent!

BTW – She is a huge proponent of one of my favorite HR rules. Transparent Salaries! If you are ashamed of how much you are paying yourself and others, then DON’T.

Posted in Business.

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By Anonymous – January 8, 2009

Making bread, writing custom code and who are you hanging out with?

Those three topics seem pretty disparate, but hang out with ME here a moment. I promise, we’ll get there.

A few years ago, we found an amazing local pizza joint, Apizza Scholls, and I started to think about pizza in a whole new way. More importantly, the crust. Over time, we’ve revisited the idea of home baked pizza and I think we might even get somewhere in the not so distant future, but the point of this ramble is that I had some extra pizza dough and I made a loaf of bread with it.

Not only was it good, it was easy. Fast forward a few months and you find me with a bread recipe from the NY Times. Suffice it to say that laterally 10 minutes of work and I had an amazing loaf of bread. It went with dinner, and we made sandwiches with it the next day. The hardest part was actually driving out to get the instant yeast! Tomorrow we’ll try it with whole wheat flour.

Now how am I going to work custom code in here? Well this is simple. When you ask people about making bread there is an assumption that it has to be hard work. There is an assumption that you can’t do it at home, at least not well. Custom code can be that way too.

The industry will tell you that it is expensive and “locks you in”. As if that is different than off the shelf software. Well maybe not, but where are you getting your information? Simpler. Who are you hanging out with? If you are a CIO/CFO are you hanging out with in the technology world? Are you playing golf with people who have custom systems? Or are you hanging out with the sales guy from SAP and his friends?

Maybe custom software is a bit like bread. Maybe we should be giving it another look. Just maybe we should all pay attention to who we hang out with. Either way, I’ll be munching on fresh warm bread.

(Oh, and I consider SAP to be a development environment, sold as off the shelf software.)

Posted in Business, Food.

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By Anonymous – January 7, 2009

Product recommendations…

Sometimes it seems that the web is a very basic thing revolving around entertainment, news and product recommendation systems. In fact, as a someone who is known to get along with things that click, beep and make electronic noises (yep, I’m a geek), I get asked to recommend products all the time.

There is a simple site now that has very high level categories with recommendations. I like it a lot. But, it isn’t all the way there yet. I guess maybe I’ll have to build a better Kallow.

For now though, with a single suggestion in each category, tell me what you think of Kallow.

Posted in Geek.

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By Anonymous – January 5, 2009

Reflecting on half a year of writing code…

It has been awhile since I just wrote code. In fact, I don’t actually remember the last time that was my job, day in and day out. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve written lots of code, but it hasn’t been my job, or at least not my sole job. As a CIO, I was expressly told NOT to write code or role up my sleeves. As a practice manager, it was a sign that I hadn’t put the right team in place. As a hobby? Ok, as a hobby its been fine.

Seven months ago I quit my job. Six and a half months ago I started on a project for a friends company. Basically, I’m building a business process automation tool that allows complex and interdependent business processes to be mapped, and then automated with a focus on data management and statistical analysis.

Long story short? I get up, write python and javascript, test it, refactor it and generally do it again the next day.

I absolutely love a few things about my job:
1) NO Politics at all.
2) Pay is decent.
3) Working from home is amazing.

You know what I don’t like?
1) No Politics.
2) Pay is decent.
3) Working from home.

Nothing surprising there I suppose. Just a few random thoughts to begin the year.

PS – The dog LOVES that I work at home!!!

Posted in Business, Family, Personal.

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By Anonymous – January 2, 2009

More snow photos – In black and white…

What did we do before we had snow in Portland? For that matter, what will we do when it is gone? I guess we’ll all edit our photos for effect.

From 2008 Winter Snow – BW

Posted in Photos, Snow.

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By Anonymous – December 22, 2008

24 hours in… Going strong!

In the past, I’ve been known to put in a few hours, here and there. Work through the night, struggle through. In the last week or so, Sridevi has been putting in the hours on her project, and last night, when I went to bed she was still coding. This morning when I got up, there she was, still coding! We were made for each other! She even greeted me with Christmas cheer and a smile.

Customer service is the most important thing that your business can provide and attitude is half of customer service. A cheerful smile after way too many hours carries huge weight. The customers know when you have been putting in the extra effort. They also truly appreciate the extra value of that smile. Of course you also have to deliver the results!

This is someone who makes me proud!