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    September 13

    Sun to sell Windows Server boxes

    I thought I would share this one if you haven't heard the news yourself.
     
     
    The best part of the article for me was the graphic! Tongue out
     
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    September 11

    Told you so...

    I saw this article come through the news and was compelled to share. Several years ago I was fortunate enough to have a true developer as a mentor; someone that taught me, not only how to code, but how to work with people to envision their solutions. This meant understanding budget, timelines, resources, legal aspects, technology and then delivering it! Oh my God! What? Someone that can push more then one red button! “Impossible,” you say? Nope, it is true. That is what I remember from great developers that I have met. Today we bring these people to boredom in their roles. They have no mentors, no ownership and little direction.
     
    The best development shops I have worked in don’t question people on how well they know the “technology”. The first thing they want to see is how well you can communicate, how much business you understand and then if you can put puzzle pieces together. Let’s face it, 5 seconds on Google and you can pretty much find any code snippet you need. What you can’t fix is stupid (thanks Ron White)! Having an interviewee regurgitate what the stack and heap are, what polymorphic coding means or how to iterate a binary tree means little to me. I am not saying it isn’t necessary to have been through the fundamentals, but if you are smart AND willing you can pick up just about anything quickly.
     
    Another importance that was slammed down my throat and I am EXTREMELY thankful for it was the need to keep reading and learning. I like to know what the person does on their spare time. If they have been in the industry for less then a few years I think it is important that he/she has pet projects. Most work environments don’t allow you the time to learn the new technologies on their bill. This is a huge fault on the business side but until they wise up a bit it is necessary to promote doing this on your own time. Don’t believe me that this is a business issue? Think Google is a good company? Then see how they feel about it. Please find the fact that they support a 20% personal work time in the second article.
     
     
    Secondly, it means that there are a lot of hiring managers out there that don’t know what a good developer is, as they haven’t had a chance to meet one. Mentorship is nearly impossible to find in a corporate work environment. This leaves graduates to dive into the fire head on. We don’t promote internships in this field like we should; rather we import H1Bs that leave us high and dry whenever they can. Often making project delivery more difficult because they will leave you; an intern, for the most part, has to complete their time with you. It is just up to you to get a good one. Yes, YOU can help mold someone. Are you up to the challenge? Do you have enough of a grasp on your life to help positively affect another’s?
     
    The piece of paper does have its place, I guess, but technology moves too quickly to believe that this degree has given someone much of anything in terms of coding. I would rather have a person coming out of college with a business, marketing or art major. If they are really interested in development and programming, I would love to journey down that road with them in discovery of this amazing world. Along the way, I am sure I will learn new and exciting things as well! Who knows, maybe the art major will come up with the next evolution of User Interfaces (UI) or the business major will see how ridiculous it is that someone working in Cognos or Informatica has a bill rate of $100/hr when it should be $30/hr. I would be grateful to have a great marketing major on my team to help communicate to business how amazing the application really is as they are doing coding examples on the fly in an executive meeting.
     

    Programming Grads Meet a Skills Gap in the Real World
    http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2178319,00.asp?kc=EWKNLBOE090807STR1 

    11:05 AM | Add a comment | Permalink | Blog it | Work
    August 14

    MSBuild ItemGroup Collection and Directories

    While working on a project trying to get all the directories, even empty ones, and files into an ItemGroup collection I found out that this is not currently done in MSBuild 2.0.50727.42. I posted a question up at the following location and found out this is harder to do then one would think. Due to a deadline I was not able to wait for a response but the ones that came back were excellent (http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=466062&SiteID=1). I especially like the one from Sayed Ibrahim Hashimi.
    8:49 PM | Add a comment | Permalink | Blog it | Work

    WIXML Up and Running

    It has taken way to long to get this posted up for use in the community. I am hoping that this WiXML will get a fairly large following (http://www.codeplex.com/WiXML). I know that packaging and releasing a product are usually the last things that a developer has on his or her mind as they come to completion of their application. However, this is usually the most troublesome and frustrating part.

    There are many things that WiXML doesn't do at the moment. There are a few that it should do as soon as possible. However, with my current work-load I am not sure how soon that will be. One of the most important would be the management of component GUIDs for patching and upgrades (http://blogs.msdn.com/robmen/archive/2003/10/18/56497.aspx). Another quick fix would be to allow for custom processors and some examples and documentation. All of this is easy, just time consuming.
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    Do you love your job?

    How many of you enjoy your jobs? Good for you if you say "I do!" However, you are part of the dying breed in America these days. The relatively young executives in a lot of large companies would like everyone to believe they are doing their best to make work environments better. That is great news! But there are a few things I have learned so far in life though. One, talk is cheap. Two, put your money where your mouth is.

    I have not seen their talk actually being applied. No, really, I don't see work environments getting better, I don't see people getting happier with their companies and I don't see people staying at companies as long as they had in the past. Below I have included a link to a good archive from the PBS Nightly Business Report backs up my statements.Commentary: A Profile of the American Workforce

    Am I saying that Americans have the right to slack off at work? Absolutely not! So what is my solution? I can't honestly tell you what my solution is. But I can tell I am slightly nervous as to direction we are heading now. Some people say we are at the pinnacle of a society. Others will say we are in the midst of a correction. Still more will say that America has its problems but is the best country in the World to live in. I cannot confirm nor deny any of these statements. I have not lived in every country and I don't take other peoples statements at face value.

    What I have seen is what is described in yet another article from the Night Business Report (Reeling Retirees Back To Work). We are losing our top decision makers, creators and scientists. We are focusing on people that have gone through our education system and gotten all their degrees rather then how much success they have achieved. Funny at it might be but the country was not built only by people with degrees if they were lucky enough to be educated at all. A lot of our top leaders and founders of companies where educated by the school of life. It is ironic that, short of creating the next ING, Thomson or Microsoft, you will be hard pressed to reach a top level leadership position.

    Is there a correlation between the increased amount of education and the depreciating level of quality leaders? Will we replace our top engineers and scientists in the next 10 years? Will we just outsource our intelligence to India, China, Germany or other countries instead of fixing the problem with education here? Will we improve job satisfaction and pay? Will we value the people that "do" more then we value the people that say they can but don't?

    Answers to the questions above would be assumptions or best guesses. However, thinking about these questions and asking more is a healthy exercise. Let's all remember that "too many cooks spoil the soup."

    8:45 PM | Add a comment | Permalink | Blog it | Work