Month: December 2006

MyBlogLog

If you've been here before you'll notice a change in the site. I just made a switch from PostNuke to Drupal for a couple reasons. First, you'll recall I had some real problems with spam comments. I believe Drupal will help me get on top of this problem so I can open comment back up for visitors. The second reason for the change is that Drupal offers much better standards support for things like RSS syndication (you should see an icon in your browser now), trackbacks, Technorati and Digg support, and so on.

It should be pretty apparent that there are still some rough edges to clean up. I'll get to these as soon as I can.  Thanks for your patience!

[edit: this post is out of date, but it's interesting as an archival snapshot]

I was trolling for some help on a particularly infuriating MS Team System problem (more on that later...), and stumbled upon a site by David Findley. David's got some great stuff on this site - here's a short list of useful items that grabbed my eye during a quick sweep.

• Using IronPython for Dynamic Expressions. As an architect, it's always interesting to see unique solutions to ever-present dynamic code problems. This one's pretty slick.
• Suggestions for distributing CTPs as VirtualPC images. As you know, I'm a huge fan of VM's, so anything about virtualization catches my eye. David's got a couple really good points in here, and he also made reference to a VM utility I'd never heard of: Invirtus VM optimizer -- a tool that claims to be able to shrink VM images substantially. These guys also make a VM converter to help with P2V and V2V conversions. Pretty neat.
• Team Explorer available for FREE !?!. Of course, Team Explorer doesn't get you too much without a server, but read David's article, and you'll learn about a code-sharing site that uses Team Explorer to connect developers. Also, very cool.
• My portable thumb drive toolbox as of May 2006. A pretty good list of run-from-a-stick tools.

There's more, of course, but you'll have to go read yourself to see the whole list.

My recommendation: add this feed to your RSS reader, pronto, so you never miss another gem.

Oh, yeah - the problem I was having with Team System? Turns out you can't do unit testing on a build server that only has MS Build installed on it. Team System for Developers or Team System for Testers will do the trick, but of course, those are an arm and a leg for a license. It looks like it's possible to add just the testing capabilities using the Team System install.

I ran into this last week when I tried to get a standalone load test to run on one of our servers, and it turns out it needed all kinds of MS assemblies in order to run. I'll try fixing up our build machine for this and see whether I can get it to go. As so often seems to be the case, I feel like I'm assembling my own setup on the fly, and I'm really not sure what the licensing implications are for this.

I honestly don't understand how MS expects people to use Team System -- do they believe people are going to run their builds on the Team Server? On developers' machines? How else does it make sense that the easiest way to get a full install of build machine files is to install an IDE or Team Server???

Sigh.

David's blog was really good, though. -g-

I just saw an interesting blog called Instigatorblog, where Ben Yoskovitz has asked readers what they learned in 2006. Although I normally consider myself more of a forward-looking person, this question grabbed my attention a little bit because it's been an eventful year for me.

In January, I was still running a development department for a Business Rules Engine company called Resolution EBS. The original meaning of "EBS" has been lost to history, but for purposes of this discussion, we can assume it meant "Energetic But Sunk", because we were rapidly taking on water.

The first thing I learned, then, was what happens to a company when it dies. I'd been through buy-outs and mergers, but I'd never seen a company just close its doors. We wound inexorably toward that end, and in May, the doors closed for the last time.

The next day, I learned how to file for unemployment. Sigh.

Then, I learned how to conduct a job search. A real job search. I attended a couple meetings of a group called 40 Plus, where the 40, by the way, is intended to be the number of hours you expend on your job search every week, but which sadly also corresponded to the ages of the members. I learned a few things there, but concluded that there were probably better places for me to spend my time.

I started to do some serious networking, which turned out to be a lot of work. I scared up a bunch of leads and started chasing them down. Quickly, it became clear that I was working a sales process, and I was doing it with post-it notes all over my desktop. So I set up SugarCRM and started using it for my job search (read more about this in SugarCRM for Job Search Management - Part 1 and Part 2).

Of course, I ended up getting a new job - I'm an Applications Architect for a local consulting firm, and things are going ok. While the sense of adventure is a bit diminished, so is the drama of seeing your employer exist month-to-month, and that's not a bad thing!

Through it all, I've also learned a bit more about social networking. I'd heard of services like LinkedIn and participated on sites like Joel on Software, but hadn't really appreciated how these services can help build communities. Today, I add sites like MyBlogLog to the list, and I also recognize the role of individuals like Ben.

Thanks to all, and here's to a prosperous 2007!

As I scanned my RSS feeds today, I came across one that I found absolutely astonishing.

It wasn't astonishing because of the content of the story as much as for the context. The story is about cell phone chargers. The astonishing part is who's showing leadership, and how they're going to get away with it, and why nobody else was able to make this happen before.As I scanned my RSS feeds today, I came across one that I found absolutely astonishing.

It wasn't astonishing because of the content of the story as much as for the context. The story is about cell phone chargers. The astonishing part is who's showing leadership, and how they're going to get away with it, and why nobody else was able to make this happen before.
As I scanned my RSS feeds today, I came across one that I found absolutely astonishing.

It wasn't astonishing because of the content of the story as much as for the context. The story is about cell phone chargers. The astonishing part is who's showing leadership, and how they're going to get away with it, and why nobody else was able to make this happen before.As I scanned my RSS feeds today, I came across one that I found absolutely astonishing.

It wasn't astonishing because of the content of the story as much as for the context. The story is about cell phone chargers. The astonishing part is who's showing leadership, and how they're going to get away with it, and why nobody else was able to make this happen before.

The article (China to Phone Makers: Get Your Chargers Straight) pretty short and to the point. In short, China is mandating that all cell phone switch to a USB connection for their chargers.

Shoot. That was easy, wasn't it?

The really interesting part of the story, in my opinion, is the study in market forces this provides. Consider where this market has been. Proprietary networks, proprietary phones (not to mention locked phones), proprietary accessories and software. The closets of the world are testaments to the fragmentation of this market -- everyone who's old enough to have lived through a few cell phone contracts has a collection of gadgets and accessories, most of which don't fit any phone they still own, but all of which are kept around "just in case".

China comes along and says, "Rubbish. Fix it, or get out of our market."

So how many manufacturers, exactly, do you think are going to punt on the largest market in the world? Is there really any question?

Why didn't this happen earlier, either through market forces or by another country's legislation? Here are some possibilities:

• Self-interest. The cell phone manufacturers and providers probably like the status quo just fine, since these accessories are sold at an obscene markup. Why would they want to change?
• The market is often sadly inefficient at settling such things. VHS vs. Betamax. Competing cellular technologies. WiFi (b / g / n / etc.). HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray.
• Other governments just don't seem to be in the business of legislating things that are this sensible. Ok, I guess that's not fair. Truth be told, I'd rather have a government stand aside and let the market fix things than step in and get it wrong, which would surely happen a fair amount of the time.

When I read this story, I was really reminded of Wal-Mart's recent moves to slash prescription drug costs. Here's another example of a Gorilla making policy stick. Wal-Mart, of course, isn't a government, but they're close enough to make no practical difference. Again, the problem they addressed was one that we as Americans had every reason to expect our government to solve, but they couldn't get the job done. Wal-Mart steps up the plate, and in a very short timeframe, they make a huge difference to millions of consumers directly by serving them, and indirectly by making every other pharmacy deal with this new market force.

Pretty amazing.

Anybody else? How about Microsoft in the early days of PC's? Don't get me wrong - I'm no fan of some of their recent moves, but make no mistake: the PC would never have taken off so quickly without a Gorilla leading the market. Wal-Mart made a market earlier with RFID -- not as dramatic, but certainly no less impactful.

Failures? You bet. Take Sony and Betamax. Probably Sony and Blu-ray. If you don't have enough chips to force the hand, don't go all-in.

Most of us will never be in a position to "make" a market, nor to create a standard by declaring, "I deem it thus!" -- so what are the implications of these dynamics for us little people?

• Recognize when these moves happen. In most cases, this is hard to miss. Wal-Mart making a move on prescription drug prices was big news all over.
• Recognize when someone's trying to force an issue that they can't sustain. This is trickier, but it can keep you from betting on a losing horse.
• Watch for a market that's ripe for someone to make a move like this. Look at health care records today. Quicken's working on a product to open up these records for management and analysis by real people -- will that start the revolution that this industry so badly needs?

Years ago, as I was swearing at the PL-SQL on my monitor, I declared that if I ever understood how Oracle managed to achieve market dominance, I'd know a lot more about how markets worked. This is another one of those moments.

I'm sorry to have to do this, but I'm restricting comments for a bit. I've had problems with someone posting a bunch of spam in comments, and I'm afraid I can't stop it without locking the comments down a bit. If you're for real, send me an email and I'll assign your login comment rights. In the mean time, I'm going to look at switching the site over to Drupal. Among the attractions there is a bayesian comment scrubber that's supposed to combat exactly the kind of crap I'm running into.

For some reason, this just doesn't hold the same charm, does it? (Congratulations anyway!)