Category: work

03/17/10 07:35 - ID#51209

Aaargh

Work is crazy. In the next two weeks lots to do but we launch the app we've been developing March 29th! Security audits, data integrity checks, integration stuff. Blah blah blah.

But soon -- very soon -- it will help decide which kids get into, or not into, colleges. Kinda scary to hold so many futures in my hands. This is pretty much the biggest thing I've ever done professionally.

One downside, it's making me look old and grumpy:

But I can live with that :)

I also got a really nice annual review, I'm pretty down on myself usually but feel awesome for a few days after something like that going well.

Back to work...

Permalink: Aaargh.html
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Category: work

11/19/09 04:24 - ID#50345

New Application

Coming along...

Sidebar / tabbed panes:

Docs & History:

Applicant notes:

So many little things to do before launch in a couple months, but I'm really excited at how well this is turning out.

Permalink: New_Application.html
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Category: work

12/05/08 10:51 - ID#46969

Ordering an SSL Cert and Pointing DNS

Ordering an SSL cert and getting DNS set up for the new servers is taking like 2 weeks for some reason.

>.<

Permalink: Ordering_an_SSL_Cert_and_Pointing_DNS.html
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Category: work

11/11/08 12:44 - ID#46646

More Work

Servers have been ordered. Clustering and failover designed. Weeks and months of testing and automation. Probably a hundred hours of work total. Super excited, I've been prepping this stuff for 6 months now and it's going to see the light of day.

We're going for paired mirrors to start, then splitting out each VM container type into their own tiered clusters as we need to add capacity and can judge bottlenecks.

I know no one cares about this but me, but it's my journal so, what the hell :)

Permalink: More_Work.html
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Category: work

10/29/08 10:38 - ID#46405

Official!

My new position is actually a position, instead of some de-facto thing! I clarified that I have the authority to back up my responsibilities, and my Projects Manager title will be made public to everyone next week when my boss gets back from vacation. Happy day :)

Permalink: Official_.html
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Category: work

10/20/08 09:49 - ID#46219

Pair Programming Starts Tomorrow

More work stuff - I need to fill my daily journal quota!

We've got our automated testing down pretty well at work, so on to the next step. We start pair programming every single day in the afternoons tomorrow. It will be interesting to see how this goes, if we can make a habit of it. It's the best way to learn.

(

- pair programming )

We aren't going to do it full time, as the linked page suggests, but even part time should be very, very useful. I've learned to hate silo-style development. Everyone on a team should share ownership of every single line of code. There should not be anywhere that a developer fears to tread.

It's a little bit scary to work so closely with someone, the times that I've paired in the past - you have to fumble around and show your inadequacies, but it's worth it when you teach each other new things and hash out designs before they're halfway done. Code is easy to change as you're speaking about it and hard to change later.

The alternative - well, it is very nice to work alone and polish your work before you show it to other people, but it's just not as communicative in the end. I totally go off in the weeds when working alone.

We're going to rotate the pairs - most of the time it will be one Ruby expert paired with one former Fox Pro programmer who is learning Ruby, but is a domain expert in the software. It should be a good match. Everyone will work with everyone though, just to make sure we can all talk together.

Code reviews are coming, probably next month, too.

So the arc looks like -

Phase I - automated test suite: TDD and feature stories.

Phase II - pair programming.

Phase III - weekly team code reviews.

I love my job so much. I love love love it.

Permalink: Pair_Programming_Starts_Tomorrow.html
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Category: work

10/18/08 08:04 - ID#46182

Pseudo-Promotion

I am now the head of Rails development at my work, so I'm coordinating 6 developers. Three new to Rails, and two who are new to the company, and myself. It's actually pretty awesome to be running the projects. I get to be the face of our development team to all the executives and our parent company in Boston.

It's not really a promotion in the sense of title change, more of a coordinator role (still spend 80% of my own time writing code), but it's going to be nice when I have my yearly review next April to be able to claim credit for how nice things are going.

The best part of the job? Saying no to stupid things before they are forced upon us.

We're digging into a ground-up rewrite of one of our core products, an evaluation tool for Physical Therapy students. It's going much smoother then I had anticipated, although two of the guys we thought we'd have had on the project months ago are only now able to lay down Visual Studio and Fox Pro and join us.

There are two other ongoing projects too, so 3 things to keep tabs on and moving forward, plus all the training. Training devs is nice - another way to shape the company culture and make sure that we're doing things the same way. They really like Ruby over Fox Pro - big surprise :)

Thank God for the ADD drugs. I'd be hanging myself otherwise.

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Category: work

10/02/08 07:43 - ID#45886

First!

I like being the first one in at work. No interruptions, a nice start to the morning.

That's all :)

Permalink: First_.html
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Category: work

09/05/08 03:37 - ID#45588

UB Faculty/Staff LOL!

Finally, finally, took the time to go get my UB Card (need to be prepared for buying CS4 when it comes out in October). Bad hair day, for sure, with the wind. Hard to read, but I am technically in the staff category at UB.

The company I work for is just somewhat related to UB, I am not actually teaching or anything crazy.

I am eligible for staff parking on campus though :)