NINE Questions

Video NINE Questions with Richard Campbell

Chris Williams — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 01:48:33 GMT

While at PDC08, I managed to corner Richard Campbell in the food court and asked him these NINE Questions on video. Enjoy...

Video NINE Questions with Steven "Doc" List

Chris Williams — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 01:18:16 GMT

I met Doc at PDC08, while he was facilitating the Open Spaces with Jason Olson and Alan Stevens. We managed to find a little time to hang out, chat and do these NINE Questions on video. For some reason, Soapbox took a day and a half to process it, but it's finally done.

Video NINE Questions with Kevin Hazzard

Chris Williams — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 18:49:41 GMT

I spent some time chatting with Kevin Hazzard at PDC08 and managed to catch it on video. Enjoy.

Video NINE Questions with Ted Neward

Chris Williams — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 16:34:21 GMT

While hanging out between keynotes at PDC08, I managed to get Ted Neward to sit down and answer NINE Questions. Enjoy.

NINE Questions (the lost episodes) with Theo Moore

Chris Williams — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 19:49:39 GMT

Theo and I have been good friends for years, and he's one of the more interesting (techie or otherwise) people I know, so it was a no-brainer to ask him to do this interview. He responded quickly and of course, I tucked it away and promptly forgot all about it... until now. So without any further delay, I give you this NINE Questions (the lost episodes) interview with Theo Moore:

1. Where are you from?
Boy, that's a hard one to answer. I was raised in Florida, but I suppose the closest I've had to a home is Charleston, SC. Currently I live in Fort Mill, SC and work in Charlotte, NC.

2. Who do you work for / What do you do? / What is your "product?"
I work for EquiFirst, LLC...one of the few mortgage lenders still in business. I am currently the Software Test Automation Lead (by default; I am the only one). I mostly build internal testing apps in .Net, QuickTest Pro or whatever discipline required. It is particularly interesting work since I am not constrained by things like schedules, legacy code, project management, etc. I am basically free to approach any problem space and apply whatever technology is most expedient with the greatest chances of success.

3. How did you end up where you are now?
I got out of the Navy and decided I didn't like working on Nuclear Reactors (seriously), so entered the IT world. I'd been doing "shade tree programming" while I was in the Navy (dBase III and IV apps mostly), so the leap was not a great one. I started working for Blackbaud, LLC in Support (ye gods, I hated that) whilst I established sufficient credibility to get on the Consulting arm as a developer, specializing in database conversions and software customizations. I've moved in and out of the development and qa disciplines throughout my career a a few different employers.

4. You've had a pretty good mix of Dev and QA in your career. Which do you prefer and why?
You know, I don't know that I prefer one or the other, but if I had to pick one, I'd choose QA and for a very odd reason. I approach QA automation as a development project; you'll never be as successful as you'd like to be in automation until you do. So long as you treat it as an extension of manual testing, you'll never get the bang out of it you want. I mean, it's code. Sure, it's VBScript, Java, TSL, or whatever scripting/testing language you use, but it's still code. It has the same challenges and requires the same disciplines (coding standards, reviews, source control, etc.) that any project does. So from a certain perspective, they are very similar....or they are in my approach. I prefer QA automation, however, because I've gone to several locations as "the" automation guy; I get to build the automation presence from the ground up and mold it in my own image. I build the testing framework from the ground up. One of my former employers is still using my framework (with some mods) that I wrote years ago. That's pretty cool, and when hired into a development position, there is often too much legacy code around to make your mark like that.

5. What are some of your other technical interests / areas of expertise?
I don't really have any specific area of expertise as most of my career has been spent across disciplines. I suppose you could say I am very skilled at automation framework design and implementation, though. I am more of the "jack of all trades" developer who learns disciplines as needed. I do love game design and NETCF development, though.

6. What are some of your nontechnical interests?
I am an avid hockey player/fan, would-be guitarist/singer and exercise nut (a recent change). I am a big ol' geek at heart, also. I attended DragonCon this month and have plans to book my room and tickets this week for next year. I play WoW, read books, act as a "half-a**ed philosopher (I am your typical over-analytical thinker), and I am also a gardener (vegetables mostly). And in my spare time....

7. Any thoughts on the recent social networking boom?
You know, a year ago I scoffed at the social networking thing. I originally thought that Twitter, for example, was silly. Now, I am very busy Twitter user. I still don't go to my MySpace or Facebook page very often, but I am on my blog a good bit (http://www.diesmia.com).

I think actually you explained it best once when we were discussing text messaging (which is now my preferred method of communication). People want to know what you're doing, but they don't want to talk about it. The asynchronous conversation is direct and to the point. You can communicate in nice, tidy bites (bytes?) without fully disengaging from whatever else you're doing. I feel connected without feeling tied into a conversation.

8. What's something the world at large probably doesn't know about you?
I am a closet Patsy Cline fan. Seriously, I love her voice and music. 'Course, I can only listen to her for about 15 minutes before I need Paxil to combat the depression.

9. Any tattoos?
I have nine at last count. Got my last one (http://tinyurl.com/675tdl) on my honeymoon. :-) I am sure I am not done. Once you get one, you always refer to your "next tattoo" rather than say "if I get another one".

Video NINE Questions with Jeff McWherter

Chris Williams — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 06:03:43 GMT

This is another in a series of interviews conducted at PDC08. This time we're talking to Jeff McWherter.

Chat with Amanda Laucher at PDC08

Chris Williams — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 04:44:44 GMT

While in Los Angeles, I sat down with Amanda Laucher for a quick catchup since our initial NINE Questions interview a while back. In this interview, we talk a little about SoCal Code Camp and PDC08. Enjoy.

Video NINE Questions with Alan Stevens

Chris Williams — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 23:05:47 GMT

While at PDC08, I managed to get a few interviews on video. Alan was the first of those and probably one of the best. Without any further delay, here are NINE Questions with Alan Stevens:

NINE Questions with Kirstin Juhl

Chris Williams — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 15:22:19 GMT

I've known Kirstin pretty much since she came to Magenic, and she's one of the smartest (and most energetic) people I know. Shortly after joining our team, she was off and running and hasn't slowed down yet. Through dogged persistence (and a few emails), I was able to keep up with her long enough to ask her these NINE Questions:

1. Where are you from?
St. Paul/Minneapolis, MN. I had a brief stint in Silicon Valley right at the beginning of the tech bubble – that was cool! Got home-sick though.

2. Who do you work for / What do you do / What is your product? Give me the 10 second pitch...
I am a consultant for Magenic Technologies. I write code. I don’t specialize, but I tend to focus on the middle tier and database design/development because that’s where the fun problems are. And I push processes like Continuous Integration pretty hard.

3. How did you end up doing what you do now?
During my gig in Silicon Valley mentioned above, I was a Chemical Engineer at a fab. At this time Statistical Process Control and Demming were just starting to come into vogue, and I was tasked to implement these concepts on my processes. In order to collect the quantity and frequency of the data I wanted, I soon realized that an automated data collection system was called for. Being in the valley and palling around with other engineers and developers, and remembering how much fun I had at computer camp when I was ten, I decided to roll my own. I purchased VB 3.0 and an Access Database, ordered up several PC cards that I could connect to thermometers, pressure gauges, etc, and away I went. I soon discovered that this way more fun than my day job, so I went back to school in a Masters program, and slowly transitioned from engineer to full time software developer. Now here I am!! And loving every minute.

4. Ok, so you have an engineering background, how does that play into your software development work?
I still have that engineering brain… you can take the girl out of the factory, but you can't take the engineer out of the girl! So I tend to have a laser-like focus on whatever is currently capturing my attention. (As those of you who follow me on twitter know!) I am very detail-oriented, and am a natural problem solver. This makes me a perfect fit for heads-down coding and debugging. I have trouble seeing the larger picture. (I will never be a Project Manager!) I don't only not see the forest for the trees, I pretty much only see the chlorophyll molecules on the leaves on the trees. I also see everything as a process, and therefore I am known as a “Process person”. But only to the point where process adds value. When the process becomes the focus of the effort and solving the business problem a by-product, something’s gone terribly wrong. It drives me nuts when things could be done a better way, and it's not.

5. As a consultant, you've had your share of good and bad projects, what's the most interesting (project / environment / client / whatever) you've run into so far?
I was on a project where the application was a web application that was going to be deployed to sites that lacked a high speed connection. Therefore, some of the most critical requirements were performance-related. Performance was not tested nor addressed until almost 3 years into the project, when it was in user-acceptance testing. The application could not come near to the performance requirements, and furthermore, it was way too late to fix it. Some unfortunate architecture decisions made early on in the project rendered the application “un-fixable” without starting over. The project ended up being canceled. As an engineer, I think that application performance (or any other quality metric) should be treated in the same manner as the metrics in my factory processes were. Following a performance strategy from the beginning of the project could have averted this disaster. Problems could have been found early-on when there was still time to change the application.

6. So what are some of your nontechnical interests? What do you do when you aren't geeking out?
Mostly I am a Mom. I run daily as my mental health plan, and I love to mountain bike. Single-track only though, so because of the time commitments involved in driving to a trail and riding, I don’t get to do it very much.

7. Any thoughts on Twitter? Facebook? Social Networks in general?
I like being able to keep up with people from whom I am separated geographically. The “Twitterverse” as we call it, is an awesome network, social, and technical support group. Whenever I am stuck on something I put it out there, and within minutes will have knowledgeable people anxious to help. This field is so broad that there is no way to keep on even a fraction of what’s new. Having a network of people a click away is a huge asset. Then there is the social aspect. In my everyday “real world” life I don’t have much contact with “my kind”, and Twitter allows me to the ability to “converse” with people who share my experiences, interests, frustrations, and humor is at anytime – day or night.

8. A lot of folks probably know you as the TFS Chick, but what's something most people don't know about Kirstin Juhl?
Umm.. that’s TFS Princess to you! I am a hard-core coder more than a TFS person. I push process because it allows me more time to write better code under less stress. I love data, and therefore I like to focus on application/database performance analysis and tuning as well. I am most interested in looking at the raw data collected in the TFS data store over the life of the project and seeing if there is anything we are missing with our current metrics reports. I am looking for new ways to measure/monitor/control software projects and applications. Why? Because process improvement was my entire first career and I guess I drank the kool-aid, as they say. But before I could generate/analyze the data, I had to learn how to use TFS.

9. Any tattoos?
No. But I do have two piercings…

NINE Questions at PDC

Chris Williams — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 20:39:42 GMT

If you would like to do a NINE Questions interview and you're going to be at PDC (or SoCalCodeCamp) leave a comment on this post and let me know how to get hold of you and we'll set something up.

In addition to the normal 9 written questions, I'll be doing some podcasting and video interviews too.

The three of us (D'Arcy, Amanda & I) will be all over PDC next week so feel free to flag us down and say hi.

Good times ahead!!