Friday September 29, 2006

Thats why...

they call it a vacation.

No email, no internet. Just enough signal for my cell phone to get voicemail. Smile. I'll be back in a couple weeks. Ready to battle the demons of going open source even.

Maybe.

[evil laugh]

( Sep 29 2006, 08:37:40 AM PDT ) Permalink

Thursday September 28, 2006

Over designed?

Or under designed?

We have had a dishwasher saga going on. For TWO months. It goes like this...

Dishwasher dies. Measure hole in cabinets. Find new dishwasher. Order it. Schedule install. Installer can't fit the dishwasher into said hole in cabinet. The hole is too narrow. Dishwasher goes back to appliance store. Grrr.

We then have numerous consultations with contractor types. Cabinet to the left has space on the left so move it over? Nope. Cabinet is screwed and glued and has a very long run of counter on top. So take the wall of the cabinet off and router out more space? Nope. The drawer can't be adjusted like that. Order a different sized dishwasher. Grrr.

I was not at home when the installer came out, so I head to the appliance store to see for myself what the issue is. Turns out to be rubber gaskets doohickeys on either side of the dishwasher. Part hard plastic and part soft, these two parts run up either side to seal the space between the dishwasher and cabinet to keep steam out of the cabinet space. They are the ONLY part of the dishwasher that requires a 24" opening.

Some things just beg for reality adjustments. Or strenuous application of a sharp instruments.

The installer was scheduled to return. I was ready this time. Had several different blades to choose from. I explained my plan of attack. Having attempted to install the dishwasher once already, he was not keen to take it back yet again so he was game.

I sawed, sliced, and whittled plastic while he wired up and plumbed the beast. He had to help me in the end as that plastic was hard. But we managed to remove enough of the hard plastic while leaving the soft plastic to seal the sides. Had to slice off a bit by the hinges to remove parts that rubbed.  He told me he had never in his 7 years of installing had to make modifications like that before. Between us, we did a good job too.

Never get between a determined mom and her dishwasher.

[evil laugh]

Tuesday September 26, 2006

techno foo Set up a Technorati Profile. Can't decide if thats a good, bad, or ugly thing to do. [evil laugh] ( Sep 26 2006, 09:54:14 PM PDT ) Permalink Comments [2]

A toy for the wicked?

Ok, maybe not the wicked. Smirk. Its really hard to be annoying when someone hands you a little white box with a little white Mac Book in it. Fully loaded.

Wednesday September 20, 2006

Keys?

Who needs those stinking keys?

You know - the keys on your phone's keypad? I mean you don't really need them to work do you?

Apparently not on MY phone. Sigh. Yup. I killed off another one. They are sending yet another SE w600i replacement unit. First the camera and now this.

It was sort of a chuckle. First the 1 key died, then the 3 and 4 key. I call the warranty folks. They tell me to pop the battery out. Then power up again. Then the * key stopped working. And the 7 and 8 key. The poor fellow just sighed and filled out his form.

I am starting to think Sony Ericcson doesn't do proper drop testing on their units. Perhaps I should offer to run some tests for them?

[evil laugh]

( Sep 20 2006, 10:11:27 AM PDT ) Permalink

Monday September 18, 2006

There are days...

...and then there are days.

I have little patience for being frustrated, especially when other people create a frustrating situation and then refuse to amend their ways. And then continue their behavior ad naseum.

The kind of situation that hits the frustration button square on is behaviors around information hoarding, CYA, and control. You know, those power things that people do because they think it matters. (It doesn't but this is no time for a post on the philosophy of life.) Those behaviors where people exclude other people and refuse to be open in their work and communication style.

I found myself in one of those frustrating situations today. It was infuriating but not perhaps for the reasons you might suppose. Oh I was likely annoyed due to many of those reasons, but the one that really got me was not the one I started out angry about. What really annoyed me was the amount of time wasted by these folks.

Presentations get shown with inaccurate representations. Implications get passed on that start from incorrect assumptions. Folks end up off track and have to work to get back on track. Excuses get made when missing information is pointed out. All because someone doesn't want to be inclusive. All this in organizations that don't have enough time or people as it is.

Sigh. Depressing. So what does one do about such things?

Snicker. Chuckle. Having a creative mind is fun. Ever wonder where all those phrases like "whack him with a 2x4" or "cut him off at the knees" come from? Now extrapolate.

[evil laugh]

( Sep 18 2006, 09:57:19 PM PDT ) Permalink

Thursday September 14, 2006

Media phone lust.

Nokia n95

I have had the joy - or pain? - of playing with a Nokia n95 for the last several days. The first phase of the playing was a review of the UE, then I just played with it. Took it home and used it. I love media phones and am a big moblogger of photos and such so this phone is one I have been waiting to evaluate for a while.

The case that comes with the beast is a complete "Kodak Brownie" camera retro design. Its gorgeous - all the details are wonderful. The little metal button to close it; the wavy pattern on the inside. The brown is dead on. I checked it against my Brownie camera at home. The n95 case does have hard plastic sides which stiffen the case to better protect the phone.

Alas, the case is not perfect. The hard plastic is a tad too thick to really use the phone as a camara. Its hard to press the buttons. But the real kicker was the unlock issue. I locked the phone, put it in its case, and tossed it into my purse with everything else. Just like I do with any cell phone.

The phone unlocked itself and called my husband 15 times. Needless to say my husband was annoyed. I tried putting the phone in the little pocket for cell phones in my purse. Same thing. The beautiful stiff brown case is perfectly designed to rock back and forth on the buttons and unlock them. Grrrr!

So, I took the case off. I put the phone in the purse that way. It still unlocked but not as frequently and it only called my husband twice. Better.

I put the phone in the pocket of my jeans. The phone slides in two directions. Nice smooth slides. One way to open the keypad, the other to open the music control buttons. Everytime you move the phone, it slides open. And unlocks. I checked the beast out and tried to figure out if it had a physical lock so it can't slide. Doesn't appear to have anything. Grrrr!

The beast does take great pictures. This one is from the Fitzgerald Marine Preserve tide pools. This one is scaled; the full resolution version is here.

It takes great movies too. None of the tests I did were youtube-able however. You will just have to imagine videos of a dancing 5 year old maniac.

The phone has the latest and greatest Series 60 user interface. I can read my work email, enter appts, SMS/MMS to my hearts content, the contacts application is fully featured. You have to have a memory card to USB it up to a mac to download big files. Bluetooth works great but slow for movies.

Make sure you buy one for your country if you want to plug into a TV. The one I had is a PAL version and I did plug it into a TV and you could tell it just worked - complete with rolling image on my NTSC TV.

The battery life is about what you might expect. Charge it everyday if you plan on playing with all those cool features. I did not play with the GPS as my SIM card from Cingular would not cooperate. But taking pictures and then downloading them all day meant the battery was not going to last more than one day, maybe a day and a half, on one charge.

I love the feature set on this phone but I am really going to have to think about the physical issues around this unlock issue before buying one. I love my husband but even he doesn't want to hear from me 15 times a day!

[evil laugh]

( Sep 14 2006, 11:10:14 AM PDT ) Permalink

Wednesday September 13, 2006

Current Project State:

Head Exploding.

The conversation goes sort of like this:

Management type walks by. "How's it going?"

You answer, "My head's exploding."

Them, "How come?"

Me, "I just put together a rough work list of all the stuff we have to do for the next release. There is no way we have enough people to do half of it."

Them, "Ok, so how many people do you need?"

The conversation continues a bit. I wander off to mull over how to scope, define, and tackle said work list. Head exploding appears to be a normal phase in the course of coming up to speed on a new project.

Then I realize - there must be a management training module called "How to Handle Employees under going Head Explosion". Right?

[evil laugh]

( Sep 13 2006, 12:48:05 PM PDT ) Permalink Comments [1]

Tuesday September 05, 2006

Why OSS communites are...

like letting a 4 1/2 year paint the way she wants to.

First she chooses 6 poster paint colors. Then I squirt out some of each color into the painting plate which has 6 little "scoops" to hold paint. I lay out a big piece of paper on the kitchen floor - large area with hardwood floor - for easy cleanup. She gets out brushes and sponges. I fill up the water container.

Then she starts painting whatever she wants to paint. Usually a spiral emerges in one place. Maybe some dots or a face or a rainbow. Glitter paint gets used to make circles, squares, or triangles. She usually works away quite happily, humming and singing to herself, for about 30 or so minutes.

Somewhere in here she usually asks, "Can I mix colors together?"

Then she starts painting her toes. Not toe-nail polish style either - the whole toe. (Note: if you are a neat freak parent, STOP now. You won't like what comes next.) Soon all toes are painted in various colors. And most of both feet as well.

Somewhere in here I get asked, "What happens when you mix ALL the colors together?"

Then hands get painted and printed onto the paper several times in various manners. Then the arms get painted.

Somewhere in here she comes over to me and asks for help removing her painting t-shirt, which I do.

Then she proceeds to paint her belly button. Its a bit more of an effort as she has to lean over and get "all those innie parts". Since she has paint on her hands, arms, legs, and feet by this point, the brush gets a bit slippery.

Then she announces she is done and I have to "come look!" She is very proud of what she has created - both on the paper and her. I admire profusely. Then she announces she is done and its bathtime. I run a tub - twice, mind you to clear the water - and she happily scrubs herself clean still singing. All the while leaving a beautiful glitter ring in the tub.

Meanwhile, I hang up another wonderfully creative piece of art on my walls.

Good OSS communities should create an environment where everyone feels comfortable painting whatever they want. Sometimes creative, innovative projects will get created and sometimes all you get is a beautiful glitter ring. And thats ok.

[evil laugh]

( Sep 05 2006, 01:19:24 PM PDT ) Permalink

Thursday August 31, 2006

Fantasy >> Reality.

Reality = Logistics.

Hmmm. We are going to open source stuff. Implies we do product development in the open. Means there has to be a community web site. The site has to support all the folks who will be part of the community: handset/stack developers, content developers, service providers.... (I am likely forgetting someone important here!).... and us.

Oh and there needs to be folks to design the site and produce it and get it out there in a very short time. Who is going to work on that? Aaaacccckkk! Noooo, not me.

[evil laugh]

Expect lots more amusement value in the coming days....

( Aug 31 2006, 11:34:18 AM PDT ) Permalink

Tuesday August 29, 2006

There are days...

and then there are days.

I wake up crackling with energy. The sun is shining. Its time to go. I turn the key in the porsche and the engine roars. Its makes me smile.... you know that sort of evil smirk of a smile?

Back out and cruise politely (mostly) down El Camino. Head into the left turn lane for 237 and the light turns yellow just as I get to the end of the lane, so I stop. Of course stop - that puts me into prime take-off position.

The light turns green... and I am off! Take the corner at speed never letting off the gas pedal and maintaining the correct line throughout the turn.

Beings I am in front of the pack, take advantage and accelerate to cruising altitude rapidly.Stay to the left until the best possible opening and then zip over and head for the 101 off-ramp.

* Now the fun begins. Keeping the car in 3rd gear as I come around the curve, I look for openings and there is one. The universe shines upon me! Cars are clumping up ahead. Truck coming up behind. Accelerate while moving across the lanes. Give the truck driver something to curse about? Who me? Never.

Continue on down 101 keeping the car in 3rd gear with that absolutely gutteral roar which also keeps the RPMs in the appropriate power range for quick darts, dodges, and zooms.

Some days life just gives you wonderful little presents.

[evil laugh]

( Aug 29 2006, 12:44:12 PM PDT ) Permalink

Monday August 28, 2006

Bandaids...

are getting ripped off!

Such a good sound to hear. Screaming, you say? Nope. People starting to get it. OSS here we come.

There is this ripple effect moving through the org. Its been slow at first. A few drops. Now more movement. More folks started to pay attention and starting to say Oh, if we do that, then that means we have to.... (insert scream here).

The last big chunk of the org jumped on the bandwagon last week. Now the rest of the bandaids should get yanked as the balls start gathering speed down to the finish line. (how's that for multiple mixed metaphors!!)

The really fun part is that once you are in, you're in. The implications of that are just too amusing to even list.

[evil laugh]

( Aug 28 2006, 09:58:13 AM PDT ) Permalink

Tuesday August 22, 2006

Open source means closed communities.

Get your attention?

Why do I state that OSS communities are closed communities?

• Because they are designed and created primarily for only one constituency: programmers.
• Programmers are also defined as the "user".
• Without influence one cannot impact an OSS community.
• Influence is gained through contributions.
• Contributions are defined as code putbacks.
• Code putbacks are done by programmers.

The above is a synopsis of the model for a typical open source community. Its a model that promotes a closed community culture. The meritocracy is not open to other skill sets by the nature of how contributions are defined and influence is gained.

Now that I have thoroughly annoyed you with the above statements, I will point out that not all OSS communities follow the above model. As the OSS movement has evolved, contributions have been broadened to include things like documentation or specificiations. Governance policies have been written to broaden what is meant by "user". Module putback requirements have been changed to include testing, user experience, and docs.

However, I seriously wonder if that goes far enough. Rather then focusing primarily on the programmer, what about creating a community that focuses on product teams?

Why do this? Because just broadening some definitions and requirements does not address how other skill sets work within a product team. Documentation has a different work process then user experience design who have a different work process then engineering.

The real challenge is how to create a community that supports participation by many different skill sets in such a way that all parties can contribute and gain influence.

Hmmmmmmm. Does that mean that a QA engineer might just have more influence than a programmer one day?

[evil laugh]

Monday August 21, 2006

Is user experience....

Front-loaded or Bass-ackwards?

User experience design is a misunderstood discipline sometimes. Of course, most folks don't really know what the heck UE is. The definition I like the best is:

"...[the] field concerned with improving the design of anything people experience: a web site, a toy, or a museum. UX is inherently interdisciplinary, synthesizing methods, techniques, and wisdom from many fields, ranging from brand design to ethnography to library science to architecture and more." -UXnet.org

So what does that definition really tell you? The job is not just about icons, themes, or how a list component gets converted into something usable on a handset. Oh I do work on those things but they are not the heart of what user experience design on a handset is all about.

Ever thought about how security on a handset is implemented? About how figuring out policies for how certain applications do or do not get access to certain sets of APIs impact the experience the consumer has when they try to run that application? Solving those kinds of problems are the heart of user experience design.

And thats why that definition appears to scare the snort out of most engineering managers. They start by not understanding what UE is all about. Then they move into freaking out because they start to understand.

If a product really is to be designed with the consumer in mind from day 0, then a UE designer needs to be there too - BEFORE the architecture is drawn on the whiteboard. BEFORE the set of features are written down. Otherwise, you waste a very large amount of time and money creating something that has a much larger chance of failing.

So which works best? Front-loaded or Bass-ackwards? You decide.

[evil laugh]

( Aug 21 2006, 03:05:16 PM PDT ) Permalink

Thursday August 17, 2006

Time to come out of the closet.

No, not that closet.

The JavaME closet. The one I have been living in for the last ten years. Yup, that long.

I am the only one still working on JavaME that was part of the team 10 years ago that moved Java technology back onto consumer devices. James, Herb, Curtis, Samir, and myself were the team that was asked by Jon to go figure out how if it made sense to create a version of Java for consumer devices. After all the origins of Java were from the consumer world, did it make sense to take it back there now that Java was out and on the desktop?

Well, that request has made for some serious fun in the intervening years. There are many stories I may yet tell in the comming days and months.

But the real news is that JavaME going to be open sourced. It feels a bit odd. Sort of like when your mother tells you that you really do have to wear clothes in public.

Aaaawwww Mom, do I have to?

This is going to be fun.....

[evil laugh]

( Aug 17 2006, 03:00:26 PM PDT ) Permalink Comments [2]