Tuesday, September 07, 2010
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| I knew the daily updates would get old… if they weren’t getting tired for others, they got tired for me. But, today is a week… an odd week though… with a 3-day holiday in it. I’m hoping that’s why I haven’t gotten returns on almost anything yet. That’s not to say I haven’t. There are a couple really nice folks I’m talking to, and I worked all day yesterday and will some today… so that’s good. |  |
I’m still waiting for the ‘email in about 20 minutes’ from the lady last Tuesday morning about 10. I’m used to bombing phone interviews, but not usually the one with the HR person :)
It was a good week for training. I got on the outside of lots of stuff, and it feels good, things came together and I understood it. Can I ‘parrot’ it back … probably not, but I know the concepts… plus found out I do ‘Agile’… that was one off the bucket list without any time spent!
I still have the fallback of going back and working the job I left only for the raging ego-maniac I left it with rather than the guys I worked for the last 5 years, but I want to wait until the last possible moment on that one.
And it’s a somewhat busy week too…
Tuesday: 8-9AM PDT, SilverlightShow webcast on OOB with Elevated Trust
Wednesday: 9-10AM PDT, MVP Award Program Web Chat
Saturday: 8AM-8PM? – Windows Phone 7 Unleashed at Gangplank in Chandler
So I’m looking at the blog list, getting ready to jump into some more work, I’ve got email, IM, Twitter, and my cell phone alive…
Sunday, September 05, 2010
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Saturday means the lawn, so I’ll go wake the neighborhood up about 7 maybe.
Meanwhile I’ll see what I can look at as far as training material for an hour and get a jump on the day.
Lots of interruptions, but got some good solid MVVM done via a post by Jag Raheel where he links out to a bunch of other posts to make his points in the article… all good stuff! | |
Everyone reads different stuff into different books… what works for me might not work for you… I always tell someone to go to Borders or someplace and pull down all the books on the subject they can find, then browse until one ‘talks to you’.
Well, Jag’s article talked to me this morning… things started snapping into place and I actually understood the what and why. I Iike the simple program that gets expanded on and explained.
That plus last night’s unlikely find – near the end of Chapter 3 in Victor Gaudioso’s “Foundation Expression Blend 4 with Silverlight” is a section titled “A Simple OOP Project” … he brings together lots of things that a beginner might have problem with, but a ‘seasoned’ developer stuck in last year’s technology would find useful, particularly pulled together in one section.
Another watershed moment was when I finally looked up the term ‘Agile’ since I’d been asked if I (knew/used/?) Agile methodology … well.. How do you like me now? I been doin’ that shit all my life… it just took some weenie to wrap a name and “M e t h o d o l o g y” around it… dang… do people really think someone could get this old writing code without knowing most of this crap… how was I supposed to know they gave it a name.. :) … boy, I need to think of all the crap I do while writing software and figure out which ones they haven’t attached names… maybe write a book or an eBook about it and get famous with a new ‘methodology’ … Idshakemyheadbutithurts… so I’m checking that of my bucketlist… one down!
So Far
4 units(hours?) of training today: 3 of ViewModel/MVVM and 1 of MEF
SC #941 went out and I only forgot one post on the way… I’ll start with that one today.
Saturday, September 04, 2010
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Another butt-kicking, and before 6:30 AM to be exact.
I (obviously) like to write… well, maybe not so much that an editor is going to be reviewing my work, but if I’m doing my own editing, I can go on and on. So my solution to ‘Status Reports’ is to start the weekly report on Monday, and keep it open as a draft, typing in thoughts, problems, solutions… more of a journal than Status. Then at quitting-time on Friday, I send my boss and me both a copy. | |
Since I’m my own boss for now – hey, a plus – see below, I’m really not doing a Status Report, but I find having such things around keeps me focused. So how I do that is:
- Spreadsheet of all the things I want to try to get onboard – like a ‘bucket list’ for being out of work – I mark off units of learning by chapter or hour or training video or something, and try to keep on track
- I started this series of posts, and I start a new one in the morning, and add onto it during the day, then send it out the first thing in the morning… cuz it’s already written.
- OneNote open for absolutely everything… who I’ve written, events I’m scheduled for, etc.
- Windows Live Writer for blogging
That ‘add onto it all day’ thing is what butt-kicked me this morning. I’d come in from turning off the backyard sprinklers, and next up was to push “Day 3”. I thought I did Day 3 as I did Day 2 --- save off the previous one as a draft, and edit it. So when I pushed Day 3, it opened in my browser and looked good, but the title was Day 2 or something, so I go to the admin page, and whoa… Day 2 was replaced with Day 3… WTF… back to Windows Live Writer and I can clearly see “Day 2” in my “recently posted” list … until I click on it and it became Day 3… yikes…
So somehow the ‘save as’ didn’t work and I’d been modifying Day 2 all day yesterday, and how am I going to rebuild Day 2 at GWB??… it took me 1/2 hour to finally find a cache with that in it to restore… whew that’s done….
Back to WLW and open “Day 3”… oh crap… it’s now replaced with Day 2… of course… sigh…
So Day 3 went out nice and fresh and maybe some humor missing, but it went, and now here I am with a “New” post for Day 4… so nomoresaveascrap
Got some emails to answer, then it’s back to Blend I think…
Too much input today, too much email, too many good web links, trouble getting focused
4PM: Figured out the focusing problem… the whole “not working” thing is getting to me… I guess I did really good for 3 days, 4 if you count Monday. Had to take the car in for almost $300 worth of work today… it’s never a good time, but hey, can I get a break over here?
I guess one way to look at it is… I might be out here looking for work, but as soon as that last invoice is paid, Minerva is going to be out roughly $4,000 worth of income a week by me not being at work … yes, that was over the top of what I got paid… so that’s a couple good salaries back at the office… hope it’s as good for them as it is for me.
plusses
- I’m my own boss – see above
- I can use Windows Live Writer – or anydamnthingIplease – since no IT weenie is looking at my PC twice a day (9AM and 3PM) to make sure I’m not running something unapproved.
- I can use OneNote… holy crap… hadn’t even thought of that… have just been cranking it open since I’m home
minuses
- I’m my own boss – I don’t pay well
- I can use Windows Live Writer --- lol … at least it was a minus for about 1/2 hour this morning.. but we’re friends again
- thisdamnheadache is getting Excedrin-resistant
- I may end up needing a new HD for this laptop since it’s now a full-up workstation. Speed is still good, I like the big monitor and resolution is great… maybe I just need to archive stuff to external HD
so far
With the interruptions and problems staying focused, this was the worst day so far at pm;u 3 units of training: 2 units of Blend and 1 of C#.
SC #940 also went out.
Friday, September 03, 2010
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Spent some time getting my butt kicked by SQLServer2008 R2. I had SQLServer2005 on there and never did really care for the install I had going on that, and I have to believe that’s what part of my problem was because I could not connect to anything useful with the new install.
After a failed attempt at a repair, I finally said screwitall and unistalled both, and reinstalled SQLServer2008 R2. Then I could connect in the manner I thought I should | |
So I got the AdventureWare database installed and the one from Chapter 2 of Julia Lerman’s EF book installed and I can see both.. and was able to proceed… geez…
I realized I didn’t have the latest version of Blend onboard… oh be quiet… the one I had worked fine the little I had time to be in it! So that all had to come off and the new go on… if I’d have known I was going to be doing this, I could have prepared ahead of time :)
Some more emails for potential work… some contract, some not… nothing in-my-face positive as of yet, I’m thinking with the holiday weekend coming up things are a little slow … yeah that’s it…
More plusses
- NSFW lyrics, pictures, or email does not apply because I’m NOT at *W*
- Twitter, IM, personal email all open – no net nanny software running to watch/hamper what I do, so contact away… I’m here :)
More Minuses
- Had to send the $850 for COBRA today… I only hope the paperwork they have to do is annoying to them :)
- This one’s bad – had to look at the calendar on my PC to make sure it was really Thursday :(
- Wondering if this goes real long if I’ll keep up the daily… it could get old, we’ll see
So Far
I did 6.5 units of training yesterday: 2 Entity Frameworks, 3 Silverlight, and 1-1/2 Blend, not even taking into account the uninstall/install-arama and sending out emails
Plus I pushed SilverlightCream #939
I checked the wp7dev list at SilverlightCream, and there are now 324 posts tagged out there… that’s a lot of material, and very few have hardware yet… a prolific bunch!
Well, back to training and checking email…
Thursday, September 02, 2010
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I had to run an errand the morning of Day 1 and returned to find the FedEx paperwork from Minerva.
My benefits ended August 31. I don’t believe I’ve ever worked anywhere that benefits ended the day of… but it also included the COBRA papers and that’s gonna run roughly $850/month starting *now* … a big bite into the reserves to try to extend the money.
Conversation with the HR lady was strained… she was really glad to get off the phone, guess maybe they *do* read my blog – I hope so! |
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Got an unexpected and pleasant email from a remote dev associate offering me a bit of contract money to help do some test code and documentation… woot… real work, not demo work during training or reading.
And a second unexpected and pleasant phone call from another dev associate wanting to throw some work my way… you guys are going to drag me into this whole contract work thing aren’t you?? … at this point, that all looks great to me and “keep the cards and letters coming in”.
Two more queries responded to, and lots more twitter posts… hope possible employers aren’t believing all the hype in the posts, but I really appreciate all the messages, thanks everyone!
Still making sure my phone is working and checking email…
More Plusses
- No problem signing up for the local EF event (with Rob Bagby!) during the afternoon of the 15th – hey look, I’m off that afternoon anyway!… well, if I’m not, that would be cool too :)
More Minuses
- A 3-day weekend doesn’t mean a lot when you’ve had 4-1/2 days of not working leading up to it
So Far
5 units of training yesterday: 2 more UnitTest, 2 Lightswitch, 1 Silverlight, and installed SQLServer2008R2 to get the database setup for Ch2 of Julia Lerman’s EF book.
11 units of training in 2-1/2 days… it’s getting there.
Plus I pushed SC #938, and hit 10,000 entries on my tagged links at WynApse.com
Back to training and checking email…
Wednesday, September 01, 2010
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This is officially my first day of being unemployed.
I was off half of Monday and all of yesterday, but my pay ran through the end of August.
I added the graphic on the right to my blog last night. I had a ‘bar napkin’ on there with a nice glass ring, but Shawn Wildermuth suggested it looked like a condom (in the wrapper). I suppose sized down it did, so I changed to this.
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Monday was nice with all the notes from everyone, and yesterday started off good with a couple phone interviews. Have not gotten emails back, so maybe those didn’t go well or maybe I’m anxious … ya think?
I’ve got a sign I had in my cubicle: “This ain’t my first rodeo” … and yeah this ain’t the first time I’ve been laid off. The 3rd actually. These guys were really good at wanting me to use my PTO (Paid Time Off) for their deficiencies, so I’d decided ahead of time that if they intended for me to use PTO in any manner during the ‘bridge’ to something else, I was going to just take my vacation time and go. And about 10 minutes after telling them that decision I was gone. All I saw was my boss.. no HR exit, no security debrief (I have a clearance), just give him the badge, shake his hand and go. So that’s done.
Plusses
There are some plusses to not working…
- I can wear shorts and TShirts instead of slacks and polo shirts.
- I save about $12 per day in gas alone, so I’m $24 ahead already!
- I can watch training videos and read books to try to be able to answer the questions I’m always asked in interviews
- The refrigerator is close
- The bathroom is close
- “no shoes/no service” does not apply
Minuses
- The whole “you have to work to get paid” thing
- Getting up and getting showered and dressed and then remember you’re not going anywhere
- Purpose
I’m one of those guys that left to my own, I would build up a huge vacation bank. I’ve worked all my life and enjoy what I do, so I’m somewhat out of sorts when I’m not.
So Far
So far I’ve done 4 units of training on Unit Testing, 1 on MVVM, and 1 on EF.
Plus I’ve put out a SC post, checked my email, fed the dog, checked my email, watered the backyard, checked my email… wash, rinse, repeat.
Back to training and checking email…
Sunday, August 29, 2010
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My own very recent personal experience mirrors this blog post:
Silicon Valley’s Dark Secret: It’s All About Age
So what do I do to deal with that? Looking at Vivek’s advice, item number 1 is to move into management … yikes… I firmly believe that if someone thought I had the chops to be a manager it would have happened 20 years ago… nobody wants to make me a boss, trust me :) besides which, I like coding!
Item 2 sucks… and goes totally against the American Dream of continually moving up… expect to earn less?
And Item 3 is even worse… the implication is that you may not even be able to code in later years… how about this quote: “To be writing code for a living when you’re 50, you will need to be a rock-star developer and be able to out-code the new kids on the block.” … so since I’m writing code for a living at age 62 – WTF does *that* mean?
I consider all ‘re-inventions’ to be versions.
You’re sort of in version 1.0 as you go through K-12, since not everyone goes to college, but if I consider V1.0 to be a continuation of education, then mine took a side-step when I played guitar for a living, drove a truck for a living, and spent 3 years in the Army (70-73)… I think those were probably V2.0 and then actually getting back to school and earning a B.S. and M.S. (Electrical Engineering) probably was V1.5, but we branched the codebase on that one.
So V3.0 was finally hitting the working world as a hardware engineer in January of ‘77. I always did software, so switching completely to software in ‘81 was V4.0 That began yet another progression of Assembler, Pascal, C, then Windows and C++, then I broke out of the large company corporate world for the 3rd time in ‘95 and went with smaller companies doing Windows coding, call that V4.5 since it was still part of the progression.
But then one of the common problems happened… I was happy, doing good stuff, being productive, getting accolades and improving my chops, but I was still doing win32 desktop while all the young guys were learning .NET and the web.
Blam… I find myself out of work in 2005, and I have to very quickly churn out Me V5.0 to support .NET web database apps. This version went out fast… no Unit Tests, no QA, just get the version out the door, so although I’m doing the work, my knowledge is only “work deep”.
But I’m feeling pretty good as I’m hitting my stride on that one… I’m doing WPF/E then Silverlight (all on the side), get MVP (4 times so far), but what I’m doing all day is .NET web database code out to Oracle, Oracle Stored Procs, and MS Access still as a hold-over from when Me V5.0 was released.
Blam… now I find myself not out of work, but out of *that* work and I’m sort of at a loss as to what V6.0 is… or is it V5.5? … I’m too young to be V.Retired.
My company has some design documents they expect me to review while waiting for an embedded C contract to open up… them: “do you know C?” me wondering WTF… “…well, I’ve done C# for 5 years although there’s a guy downtown will swear I don’t know it (reference the post last week about my interview). I did C++ for 10 years prior to that, and oh yeah… so 15 years ago I did a stint in C for a couple years, so yeah… I know C” … embedded C… I’ve been doing UI since 1981… now reference the article at the top of the page.
Is that the ‘suck it up’ point? is V6.0 really sucking up the fact that I’m going to maybe finish off this career by strapping on the WABAC machine and writing embedded C? because how long could I really do that before I wouldn’t be able to get a job doing .NET stuff anymore … but that may be rhetoric based on that last interview anyway.
In some respects I feel my blog has taken up space that could have been filled by really learning more, but at the same time, it’s taken on a life of it’s own and is almost like a 2nd job. I don’t want to abandon that and all the readers, yet there’s only so many hours in the day… and speaking of that, I’ll be driving farther now.
Friday I walked past the courtyard at my client’s facility and there were a couple guys out there drinking coffee and smoking and talking on a break. I thought it would be nice to have a job like that… one that you knew you could work for 30 years and then pack it in… but then I realized the flaw in that whole concept is that I’m not like that… I want to learn new stuff, and keep learning… and that’s what got me into this whole Revolting Development.
Silverlight, WP7, Lightswitch, MVVM, UnitTesting, and on and on… it’s a never-ending stream of knowledge and information. You either pick one and hope you can ride it for as long as you need, or you keep chasing it all and try to hang on. You pays your dime, you takes your chances… or maybe as B.B. King sings “Nobody loves you but your mama, and she might be jivin’ too” … or maybe it’s too late on a Saturday night at the end of a really crappy 2 week run…
But I do know one sure thing… on Monday morning I’ll be driving about 40 miles to an office I don’t know wherethehellitis… to be doing ihavenoclue… or forhowlongitwilllast… and that worries me.
Monday, August 23, 2010
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I’ve worked at the same client for 5 years. I’ve had a really good relationship with the two managers I interface with regularly. Unfortunately, during this ‘dial-down’ situation we’re in, I find myself around the edges of a manager that within days of my arrival in 2005 proved to be someone I had no respect for.
Unless my company pulls a rabbit out of a hat, Friday will probably be my last day, and I can already see the writing on the wall.
His right-hand ‘man’ mandated that the company PC in my cubicle will be transferred to it’s Monday destination on Wednesday of this week. It’s quieter where I sit, and out of the traffic area associated with his folks, and makes no sense. I’m told that having it over there will ‘ensure that nothing is broken before I leave on Friday’ … in other words somehow having me and the PC over there will make sure I don’t tank the software.
They’re also pushing pretty hard on one of the people replacing me to get the code into their version control system ASAP.
There’s some things that just rub me the wrong way and making assumptions that I will do something unprofessional is one.
I’m also expecting a ‘surprise’ perp-walk out of the building shortly after lunch on Friday rather than wait until quitting time.
When shit like this happens, I always assume that the guy mandating it assumes everyone is just like him.
So I’m going in early tomorrow, and when he and his right-hand man show up, I’m going to suggest we just start the dance then…
What a place…
Saturday, August 21, 2010
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Well... I should have known better than to try to interview for a new job, but it was a Windows Phone gig... and could have been a career-extender.
Not to even think about the crap that's going on at work right now, this would be a sweet deal.
But... I don't interview well. I've proved that to myself and others multiple times. I work on .NET 2.0 web database software connected to Oracle, Oracle Stored Procs, and Microsoft Access 8 or 9 hours a day. The stuff's not tricky by any means, it's mostly a sort-of DBMS to the data populated by other processes.
So, I don't know the tricky shit about C# or .NET. This is 93 webforms a lot of which were there when I inherited the job and I just don't need all that to do this work. So even though I'm programming C#/.NET most of the day, you can play stump-the-band with me quite easily.
However, how many devs interviewing for a Windows Phone gig know how to build a dynamic query in an Oracle Stored Proc, get the results in an output cursor and then manipulate that into a DataSet that you can bind to a control, huh? huh? ... oh well...
So... I got past the phone interview this time, got all the way to a face-to-face with two guys late on a Friday. Both were very nice. The first is quite a good liar (in the nicest way)... he actually had me convinced while I was there that it was ok that I didn't know much. The second one kept saying "no worries" sort of like you'd tell your kid "no worries, just try again 'CAT, CAT' ... what makes the 'Tuh' sound?"
They validated my parking stub, so at least there was that. Sort of like losing the old Space Quest game and getting the screen that says "Thanks for playing, as usual you've been a real pant-load"
If you think about it, and I *did* mention this to them yesterday... at my age, being able to actually get another job is tricky, so I would not put myself at risk of being out of work unless I thought I could produce the work required, and I can.
I suppose the fat lady actually hasn't sung on this yet, but I swear I can hear her clearing the phlem out of her throat as I type...
Since I mentioned it above, I may as well say what's going on at work... I'm the only .NET dev that works for my company, servicing this contract at my client's facility. It's a big lumbering government outfit. Their customer for this gig is actually paying the freight, and is a couple of the acronym-named government agencies.
Like all large companies, someone got a wild hair and decided they wanted to do something and ran with it. In this case, the finance department decided to get rid of all contractors. That includes me even though the only thing the company covers for me is a crappy chair, a warm room to sit in, a very nice PC, one crappy monitor, and one very nice monitor.
Someone outside the department I work for mandated that I be gone and gutted the hours out of the purchase order... to the point that I came within 1/2 hour of being gone last Tuesday at 4:30 when I got a 'stay of execution' to continue through the 27th. So I have been training my replacements.. yes that is plural.
5 years ago when I walked into the building, a certain gentleman (and I use the term very loosely) told his devs to not support me when I needed assistance in finding information about Manufacturing data coming from a segment of Oracle that I do not have direct access to.
Karma came full circle, jumped up on his desk, and took a nice warm dump about a week ago because he was the lucky winner that got tagged with supporting this project that not only didn't fail without his support, but has flourished. So they have me talking to 3 of his people... one that studied .NET in school, one that may or may not do the Access work because none of them have Access experience, and one that is to do the database work even though the type of things I've asked them questions on (under the covers) over the years, they haven't known the answers to anyway.
It's bad news for the project and the many people that use it because in my opinion it's going to wither away from lack of support.
And me... on the 30th I show up at the office that I haven't been to since October 26th of 2008, and I know for a fact they have no .NET work ... so I'm thinking the plan is for me to work on some embedded C even though I've been doing user interface work for the last 33-1/2 years. I suppose I might also get tagged to help the guys at the other building review design documents... that would be 'fun'. My boss is an ex military colonel and believes the KFC thing about parts-is-parts, so we're all just pluggable entities... I'm a 'programmer', so hey, assign him there.
Honestly, I have no clue what I'm going to do if I really am assigned one of those two jobs... since I don't interview for shit, I may end up the only Silverlight MVP that's working the door at Wal*Mart.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
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I've worked lots of places in lots of roles: Delivery truck driver, Boilermaker, antenna rigger, Professional Musician, Electronic Technician, Electrical Engineer, and for most of my career: Software Turkey.
I want to say this large company is the most unprofessional place I've ever worked, but then I think about other jobs such as TTI that stiffed us all for 10 months salary -- or had us work 2-1/2 years at 66% however you want to look at it, or maybe NeoPlanet with a cast from a bad sitcom running the show, I could go on, but I digress (as usual).
So maybe this place isn't the *most* unprofessional, but the personnel rank up there.
I'm in a small room off a factory. There are 3 managerial offices, and 36 common-folk of various skill-sets in a variety of single to quad cubicles. No matter where you sit though, because of the layout and location, you've got a hard wall as one wall of your cubicle.
Because of that hard wall, everything echoes. I get off the phone, and the guy in the next cubicle makes a comment in response to my phone conversation... I hate that it can be heard and I hate that they do that!
These people have no problem yelling from cube to cube to carry on running conversations some of which are actually work-related. There's a lady two cubes away that talks so loud I can clearly hear every phone conversation she has... all work-related but still...
Then the one in the next cubicle must have been raised on a farm because there's only one volume setting: LOUD... "HEY MARGE, CAN I GET IN FOR A QUICK APPOINTMENT AFTER WORK TONIGHT?" ... sigh
Also that cube is the 'party cube' so that's where all the candy, cake, donuts, and leftovers sits. Anything MzLoud brings in has to have a verbal recipe associated with it at least 10 times during the day, and of course at volume.
I've had running conversations over the top of my cube from people in the next one on each side.
The weird thing is... the boss sits with an open door closer to this whole fiasco than me.
So I wear a pair of Bose noise-cancelling headphones, and crank up Kenny Burrell, Herb Ellis, Wes Montgomery, or Jimmy Smith to the point I can't hear the racket... what the heck, I already have a hearing loss from playing guitar.