Heard about this stuff. May have to try a can.

1. Watching Scrubs/Seinfeld/Bugs Bunny
2. Watching my kids at events (band, soccer, swimming, basketball, etc)
3. Date with my wife
4. Sitting at Starbucks people watching and listening to music
5. Coding an application

Number 5 is the focus of this post.  I am a computer programmer by education.  To be honest, it wasn’t my first career choice.  My first love was with medicine, chemistry, anatomy..all those things that lead to a career in the field of medicine.  However, due to financial constraints, I had no more than 4 years of college to get in, get my degree, and get out into the work force.  Any extended amount of education just wasn’t in the cards.

No big deal.  One must adapt to survive.  Thus, with some help from a nice guidance counselor, I found my way down the path of computer science.  I did well in college, enjoying the challenges of solving problems using technology and usually some twisted logic from my brain.  Had some awesome professors that helped keep me interested and enthused.

Once out of college, I landed a pretty nice job in a smaller city, but in corporate America.  NOT the place I envisioned….but again, one must adapt to survive.  At the time, like now, jobs were scarce.  25 years later, I am still there (fodder for another post).

Fast forward those 25 years.  Computers have changed a lot, but the problems they need to solve remain.  I have changed a lot too….but I still love finding ways to help people solve their problems by leaning on technology.  However, when you have been with a company for 25 years, their expectations for you “mature”….at least they do where I’m at.

You are not supposed to solve those problems….you are supposed to “coordinate”.  Let others do the heavy lifting.  To me, this means, let others roll up their sleeves and do the rewarding stuff.

With this in mind, I am trying to tweak my career.  Add a technical spice back into it.  Get back into some sort of current flow of technology.  Yea, I know.  CP/M really isn’t used anymore.

Soooooo……I am in search of the most logical pool to dip my toe into, keeping in mind that this effort cannot cost me more $$$ or be something I must dedicate continuous hours to learning.  I must be able to lay it down for days, then pick it right back up and continue on.

My thoughts:

1. Ruby and Rails.  Free, current, straightforward, lots of online tutorials, seems to be pretty cool stuff.
2. Python and maybe Django.  May of the same pluses as RoR.
3. Objective C/Cocoa.  I use a Mac and thoroughly enjoy it.  However, my last time using C was likely not long after it was created.  Not sure it is a sweet walk in the park to learn in the manner I have in front of me.  The upcoming Mac store has me intrigued.  But I think this one is best left for those who have more time than me.

Am I missing anything?  Am I simply being a crybaby?

BTW: Every time I end a post with questions, I think back to Harvey Korman in Blazing Saddles. As he formulates a plan to get rid of Rock Ridge he asks the camera where he could find a man to drive everyone away.  Then says, “why am I asking you?”

BTW2: If you search Google for Harvey Korman Blazing Saddles and go in about 4 pages, you get lots of nasty stuff.  Go figure.

Looking back, I did a poor job with my list from last year.  This year is going to be different…….

1. Drop another 15 lbs.
2. Be much more relaxed at home.  Enjoying the company of my wife and kids more.  I was way too tense in 2010.
3. Drink more water.
4. Try 5 new teas.
5. Do a better job helping the kids with their homework.
6. Attend at least 3 events my wife wants to go to that is outside my comfort zone.
7. Write a complete application with Ruby and Rails, using jQuery as well.
8. Average three days a week of exercise….of some form.
9. Go fishing this year
10. Do one home improvement project without complaining…regardless of how much I hate that stuff.
11. Upgrade my phone.

I like this blog.  I like the WordPress UI around it.  I always have thoughts or frustrations or something I can share.  So why do I post so infrequently?

1. Damn you, Twitter
2. Wife and 5 kids
3. Laziness
4. Recent house purchase
5. My frequent alien abductions
6. Other

Regardless of why, I need to think about trying to be more focused on possibly posting here more often.

In the mean time….if my oddness interests you, check me out at any of the following

• twitter.com/bwmson
• facebook.com/bwmson
• flickr.com/bwmson
• about.me/bwmson

I anticipate a semi-drunken post New Years eve……something you surely do not want to miss.

1. I backed off my work, letting others take some of the load.
2. Watched my wife return to the work force (she spent 15 years working at home watching over our wonderful kids)
3. Started letting some tasks at work fall to the side….essentially making myself a bit of an underachiever

So, was this approach a success?  Not totally.  In some ways it helped, in others it has made life more difficult.  Which all seems to prove there is no perfect life.  Life is made up of goods and bads.  The challenge isn’t so much to eliminate the bads as it is to first recognize, then accent, emphasize the goods.  The goods are there….they just get concealed by the bads.

From a life’s perspective, I am greatly blessed.  Healthy family with kids who seem to be of a good nature.

From a career perspective, I have had a solid, stable job with the same company for 25 years.  In these times, I am very, very fortunately to say that my job seems to continue to be stable.  I still have frustrations with the work, and often feel like I am being squeezed as dry as possible by the company.  But that is as much me complaining as it is them doing.

Where does all this leave me?  I continue to look for that balance of work/enjoyment at my place of employment.  I refuse to spend more time there without enjoying it to some degree.  At home, I need to shut this damn computer and iPhone, and Blackberry OFF more.  My dad and mom tried to run their own business, which inevitably impacted the entire family.  However, we went fishing, we went on picnics, we went hiking, and NEVER did work stick its ugly little head in….and that is how it is supposed to be.

Just another of life’s lessons they continue to teach me….even from the far reaches of time.

Of course, to the user who is being asked to do more by their leadership, a little app that may automate some goofy time consuming task they do frequently is important.  It could help them get a better year end review….it could help them get all their work done for the day so they can go home with a little less stress.  Who says that isn’t important?

So, why bring this up?  Well, over the last few days I have been in several meetings which are also attended by technical people directly responsible for work on “the critical business apps”.  That, in itself is not the problem.  The problem is when these people decide to snicker, laugh, and make degrading comments about the applications the end users are writing. 

They talk about how those simplistic approaches (used by the end users) are a joke.

Give me a freakin break.  Yes, the users typically leverage much leaner technologies than the enterprise efforts.  Yes, they usually wear the hats of requirements gatherer, UI designer, coder, tester, and implementer.  Yes, their style would not hold up on a multi-year massive project.  But guess what…..they never said it would. 

As I sat in a meeting the other day and listened to one of these experts rail on one of the end user applications, I was striken with the technical arrogance/insecurity this “techie” had.  Have the experts elevated themselves so far from the ground-floor details that they are no longer in touch with the true goal in all our work???  Aren’t we all simply trying to help our company be more successful? 

Who the hell cares if someone in Ad Services used Access to create a tool instead of a Java or C++ n-tier solution.  Should we not praise the person for their ingenuity and desire to help make things more efficient? 

Yes, there is always the risk that the app will grow beyond what the developer or the tool can handle.  And, yes, they will likely come to IT for help.  So what?  Doing business is a risk.  Being successful requires risk taking.  The person/people who started the company understood this. 

Unfortunately, I think those of us who are now removed from those risk takers are too content to spend a large portion of our time debating the merits of one technology over another.   We should be reaching out to the end users….the ones who are doing that day-to-day work that keeps the company’s wheels on….and understanding their position better.  Understand what they are trying to accomplish.

And most of all, try to reach back into your past, and remember when solving problems was a source of personal reward.  Remember the thrill of innovation.

I had every intention of experimenting with various Linux desktop distros….seeing how far they had evolved, how user-friendly they really are, and how practical it would be to use it as my primary OS.

Unfortunately, my limited free time has not permitted me to take the necessary time to do this.  So, this idea is shelved…..for now.  I will come back, down the road.

So, I hope to start blogging back here (maybe as soon as this weekend). 

Now, for a contradiction….I love playing with new software.  I love trying out stuff.  As a result, I frequently load software onto my PC that is  less than “production”.  For someone who doesn’t like the computer to be unreliable or a headache, this would seem to be a goofy thing to do.  Yes, it is.

My desire to try out new things has brought me to trying out Linux desktops.  The idea of a free desktop operating system…one that can be readily downloaded, that has lots of cool software built into it…..one that “just works” when I install it is very interesting.  I know of many situations where an OS like this is perfect. 

With all this in mind, I begin a personal evaluation of the different Linux distros.  A personal review of the operating systems from a user and slightly skilled user’s perspective.  It is NOT a review of them with an agenda in my pocket…or a desire to dupe anyone.  I don’t want to have to know shell commands, or special configuration files to make something work. 

NOTES 

1. For now, I am not going down the Apple path.  That look is definitely down the road….but for now, I will be looking at completely free options.  Ones that can be easily executed on my equipment.
2. I will be testing options in either a virtual machine or as Live CD’s (bootable CDs).  Later on, if I find something I really like, I may set my machine up as a dual boot.
3. I will be looking at the OS as well as software I consider critical (email, internet browser, spreadsheet, CD/DVD player, etc)

So far, I have the following OS’s on my list.  If anyone who reads this has other suggestions, I am very interested in them.  Please post your thoughts.

Linus OS’s I will be trying

• Freespire
• Ubuntu
• MEPIS
• Xandros
• Mandriva
• PCLinuxOS
• OpenSUSE
• Fedora

As I said, there is no hidden agenda to paint something as more than it is….or a desire to pan it because I have a Windows prejudice.  Also, since I have no beef with Microsoft, this is not a desire to hammer at them.  Finally, although I can usually feel pretty comfortable opening up command windows and firing off things, I do not want to do this.  I want this review to be one that is from a true user’s perspective.  I know what it takes to load XP on a standard machine and get going with it….I want to know the same for these.

So, if you are interested, feel free to stop by over the next few weeks and see how this goes.  And feel free to post your thoughts and opinions.

 I Like Microsoft Office 2007!

 There, I said it.  I feel much better now. 

Yes, I know, Microsoft is evil.  Yes, I know Office isn’t a true “development platform”.  Yes, I know all this.  However, because of several serious personality flaws, I like it.  The overriding flaw is….I am horribly lazy.  When I am approached to help someone with a problem, they usually say something like…”Can Excel do this?  I am really good at using Excel.”

I know many who take a comment like this as an insult.  “How dare a non-techie suggest I use an inferior, non-OO tool for app dev.  They will take what I give them.   Office….hmmph!”

I, on the other hand, think it is extremely smart to give someone a solution using a tool they understand and feel comfortable with.  Allows me to help them…and move on.  Cool.  They don’t call me every time they need a new chart, or report, or a mail merge.  Not bad.  Sure, I may miss out on some extra $$$ for these tasks.  But, in the end, people like the idea I deliver apps to them in a way they can use and extend, that they ask me to do more for them.  Really cool.

I have used Office for many, many years.  However, once Microsoft starting dropping VBA into all of the tools (except that damn Outlook) I started seeing some opportunities.  Access, Excel, and Word…with some Outlook automation…can get you pretty far in the world of small-scale apps for small groups or individuals. 

I know….Office apps aren’t scaleable….they can promote poor development practices…yah yah yah.  But, in these situations, those aren’t compelling arguments.  At least not to me or the office clerk who just wants “their Excel” to do something that takes them a couple hours every week.

I just recently installed Office 2007.  Unlike many of the previous version of Office, this one has some compelling reasons to upgrade.  The UI for most of the core apps has undergone a significant facelift (much overdue), and the new default file format is XML…not the old binary format. 

I haven’t tried tweaking the new UI ribbons much yet….but have played around quite a bit with the new XML file format.  Having followed along with some online labs….I have to say the new formats are a tremendous improvement in terms of programatic manipulation.  I know, this is nothing a user should or would see….but this is such a cool improvement for someone developing with the tools.

As I started this post….so I will finish it…. I know Office is expensive.  I know Office is a huge, fat client app.  I know there are “free” alternatives.  But MS Office is the bread and butter of  almost everyone I help.  And I do think it is something Microsoft done well with this version.

Footnotes:  No, I do not work for Microsoft.  No, I have never been paid to post about Microsoft.  Yes, I am a dork.