Where the lines are drawn ... part 2

This a continuation of my previous post about the types of people you'll meet as a software developer in the corporate environment, .

The Software Lead

The software lead is a veteran coder who will most likely be the person you'll interact with the most. He/She normally falls into certain categories and sometimes all three, which basically they'll be your go to person for any information regarding the project your working on, some how they know where it all is regardless if it falls on their expertise. Some times their absolutely brilliant, basically they're an expert at some thing that worth a lot of money to the company, if they're sociable pick their brains you'll learn a lot. The last category is the "company man/woman" basically the this means that they've been at the company way longer that most and know the inns and outs of the system. You may wonder why the hell they aren't higher up in the food chain but most of the time they have their reasons and you should probably just respect that. Most of the time the software lead has a part in every part of the development process and knows the ins and outs to the business, they're great to learn from. However, what you just read is a very rosy description sometimes you get the bad end of the stick all of the above can still apply but that doesn't mean that they're going to be nice. Also remember that most geniuses tend to have big egos so be warned.

The Project Manager

This is a selfless job that probably has the biggest mix bag of characters. Basically you could have anything in the range of a sniveling corporate tool from a human shield who gets the job done without putting his/her group on the sacrificial alter. Most of the time this person will be responsible for making sure your project gets done on time, under budget, and most importantly works well enough to rake in the cash. So basically they're responsible for pulling off the miracle of all miracles. If they're good they'll fight the good fight with you otherwise they might just do nothing and drag the project down, it really varies.

Believe it or not there is more, check back for the next post

Myths about Software Engineering

I was browsing around Tweako today saw a decent article on the Top Ten Myths about Software Engineering, its a decent read, I can't say I agree with the article entirely but it brings up some good points. Check out the who article here.

For those of you who just want to see the list:

1. Software Engineering is the same as Software Development
2. Software Engineering has no formal basis - It is an art rather than a science
3. Software Engineering is a well-established field
4. Software Engineering involves more testing, requirements analysis, and documentation
5. Practicing UML, MDA, Aspect Oriented Programming, eXtreme Programming etc. makes one a Software Engineer
6. A Software Engineer is he who handles both technical and managerial issues in software development
7. Software Engineers are much too different from Computer Scientists
8. SWEBOK represents the state-of-the-art in Software Engineering
9. Software Engineering is "engineering"
10. Software Engineering is not "engineering"

Where the lines are drawn...part 1

If you're lucky the first real programming job you get will involve just that programming. However, for the rest of us, it is more likely you'll have to learn how to play the corporate cubicle culture game.Just so you know I'm not just making this stuff up I've spent about 10 months as a full time entry level developer and know what its like to go from a code monkey to a player in the game. I'll get more into what the hell all of that means later. I've also spent more than a year and a half, working as an intern, so I've seen this from a lot of angles. So let's go over the basic view of the general types of coders/developers/other that you should encounter in your travels in the software development world.

The Intern(s)
If you were able to make it through the unusual circumstances that allowed to be brought on as an intern in a major corporation. Congrats you're through the hard part. These people normally get in through various methods but usually are due to one of two reasons they know someone or they're really good at pitching themselves. Sorry to disappoint, this is on position where you're skill level is actually secondary. So the quality of an intern varies greatly, the actual staff knows this, which means for your first couple of assignments you'll be under the eye. The nice thing about this position is that you get to take part in the process without really being accountable for anything. If you are trying to get that job offer, this the the best place to start, if you can impress people here you're almost guaranteed a cubicle spot. I could talk a bit more about how getting an internship makes the post degree job search that much easier but enough has been said about the subject, so I'll just let it go at that.

The Entry Level Software Engineer/Developer (Code Monkey/Grunt)
This varies on the company, but from what I've experienced and what I've heard about other peoples experiences, but in general you walk into the position with little to no idea what you're getting yourself into.Before I get into the cliches of the job here is a brief description of the other cast of characters. Most of the time you're going to be apart of a software group that always has the following people the manager (Systems level) meaning they may not know much about software but they may know engineering well enough to fight the good fights for you. The software leads whether your aware of it or not these people are your actual bosses (if they're good they'll be your first line of defense when dealing with other groups and higher ups), you'll probably report to them often. The veterans, these guys (sorry to be sexist here but most of the time it will be a male) have normally been through a couple of different big projects. They'll probably be your mentors so to speak, they won't hold your hand since more often than not they've got a lot on their plate and they're just there to make sure you don't run out screaming the first few weeks. Normally they will have a lot of good project knowledge and will know their specialties like the back of their hands. However, this is normally where they stop, most of the time they won't be up on the latest and greatest APIs but then again they probably don't need them. The rest of the team is the everything in between, I'd get into more detail but even I'm starting to glaze over the thought so I'll spare you. Your job will be pretty straightforward otherwise, code to specification, verify and test code, follow process, write reports (haven't come across the TPS report yet) this also means you'll probably be kind of bored of it after the first month or so. However, you'll almost always be working with a group, meaning you probably won't get your own projects (which is where all the fun is) unless they've got some major confidence in your abilities.

This post is getting a bit long and I've got some friends waiting at the bar for me, so I'll continue this tomorrow.

The day that turned into a week

Well, today I'm a bit burned out so not nifty little programming tips so today, I'll do another music post. The following is a performance of "I Feel Fantastic" by Jonathan Coulton. Basically, it kind of pokes fun at how there is pretty much a pill for everything and if there isn't ... there soon might be. In any case its a cool little song, I wish I steak tastes better pill.

Red vs Blue E95

New episode of Red vs Blue came out earlier this week, but I've been a bit swamped and off my game, thats my excuse and I'm sticking to it

It's Coda sounds like soda

Today I seem to keep coming across a little application for OS X, called Coda. It's basically an HTML/CSS editor that show you changes as you code the site, it's sweet. I've only been able to play with it a little bit but I think this may become a must have for all of you old school guys who design by code and hate having to switch back and forth. Check out some screen shots at the developers page here.

All hail coffee making robot overlord

Today feels like a random day and I just can't not post about this, coffee machine that reads your thoughts and makes coffee. Actually it learns your habits, but I like to think it probes my mind and goes, "are you serious that's like your 12th cup!" However, it puts me in a predicament of having a judgmental coffee machine but stick it to a Roomba and I won't care. Check out the Gizmodo post here.

Ten ways to use Twitter productively?

I didn't think it was possible, but someone put together a list of things you can do on Twitter that are mildly productive. I personally like the first person story idea, except I'm still a pretty bad writer(like you couldn't tell already) and I'm mind numbingly boring. Aside from those few things, I could be a Twitter star and publish author...that fills the crazy though quota for the day. Check out the link here.

Debugging in multi-threaded hell

If you've never developed a multi-threaded application or never thought you'd need to write one, you should really read on. Todays post relates to debugging multi-threaded applications and what can go wrong. The problem with multi-threaded applications is that they're order of magnitudes more complicated than single threaded applications. Check out the whole article at Dr Dobb's site, here.

Halo 3 Video Leak Zanzibar

A day of lists

I find myself, looking at more and more lists, mainly because its a pretty efficient way to view information. However, I'm pretty sure the main reason is that I'm just too lazy to go and read about 20 or so individual list items. Hence todays post is themed so random lists that I like, in no particular order:

• 15 Web Dev Tools for the Beginner
• 7 Free Windows Network Monitoring Tools
• Top 100 Blogs according to Feed Burner
• Top 10 Free Mac Applications (Lifehacker)
• Top 10 Firefox Extensions (Lifehacker)
• List of Education Sites

Um... quick play something

Well today I seem to be in a dry spell when it comes to putting pretty much any coherent thought together. So instead I'll put up a random post of an acoustic performance of "Lips like Morphine" by Kill Hannah. They're one of my new favorite bands, with obvious influences from the Smashing Pumpkins and The Cure. I normally don't do the band review thing but I needed to post something. So enjoy!

Guitar Hero Kid

This is an old one, but a good one, here is the video of an 8 year old kid rock'n the hell out of "Psycho Bill Freak Out" on Expert. It goes so crazy as soon as he turns a way from TV and rocks it like a true Guitar Hero. Rock on kid.

Google Fight

While its technically not Friday, here is my Friday post. I saw this quick little Google mashup known as Google Fight. Basically take a head to head match up of a keyword search and see who comes out on top. Its a fun little time waster.

Haloid - Halo Metroid mashup

It's got Halo, Metroid, and ass kicking ... what are the chances that this is bad? Check out the original posting at GameTrailers.com, here

Its was the tubes I swear

Well it didn't take long but it happened, I forgot to make a post yesterday.... I could do the whole tube scapegoat but that's been done to death. So oops my bad

The old school days

Like most kids with a Geocities and/or Angelfire account I at one time thought I knew how to design websites. This delusion of mine came to a quick end and thankfully so did the blink tags. However, on occasion I give site design a shot and a side from some not so pretty designs, I'd say I'm getting better. Now I'm pretty sure I can't do this for a living, but I manage to please myself, except when it comes to page layout. Most of the time I know the layout in my head I'm just terrible at writing the CSS tags to create it. So I may not be next designer of the latest and greatest Web 2.0 (3.0 whatever) site but at least now I should be able to manage a simple multi column layout. Thanks to an article on Digital Web Magazine, I kind of understand how to do this by hand now, check out the article here its a good read if your new to this or need to brush up.

Do you have one of those things?

Last night I failed to sleep at a normal hour, meaning I was up in 4 am trying to convince myself that I was tired and needed to sleep. Apparently I don't listen to myself very much but I didt manage to find a new gaming site (GamesRadar.com) with an interesting article on Video Game Store Clerks. The multi-part piece follows a group of different clerks and there experiences, they talk about the cliches and other rather humorous stories that they've experienced. Check out the full story here.

Run little guy run

Unlike most users I'm a huge fan of the Windows Run box, its a quick an effective way to launch your favorite applications. Here is a list of built in applications that you can launch from the run box. The surprising one to me is the command pbrush, launches Microsoft Paint.

Bring back the Whammy

For all of you who have had trouble with the Whammy Bar one Xbox 360 Guitar Hero 2 Guitar controller (Yes apparently I really like adjectives). There is relief, Activision has a post on their site that basically states that there has been a software patch released that can be downloaded over Xbox Live that should fix the issue. So good rocking to all you Guitar Hero fans. Check out the post here.

The things you can do

I almost forgot to do a post today, shame on me. So here is a cool little video of some on drawing a pretty detailed iPod in MS Paint. Its just cool, obviously the person that did this has got some talent, but it does make you wonder what else paint is capable of.

Leopard get pushed back due to iPhone

I saw this earlier today but figured it to be a rumor but after reading it from the Apple website, I'm slightly saddened that Leopard is getting pushed back to October. However, I have hopes that WWDC will introduce some new features that have yet to come out that still leaves glimmer of hope. Check out the Statement here (I can't seem to find a permenant link)

Those crazy cosplayers dancers

No particular reason to post this other than I got a kick out of it, I originally pulled the link from Boing Boing. Click here for the link.

And I I keep on Twittering

I'm normally not one to easily get wrapped up in these Internet fads but every once in a while I cave. It happened with Facebook and now with Twitter, if you have no idea what I'm talking about, run while you still can because its quite addictive. I'm not convinced that Twitter will have enough to go for the long run, but it does capitalize on its simplistic approach. If you have no idea what Twitter is its like away messages the Web 2.0 way. The idea is simple you you describe what you are doing in 140 characters or less. You may be asking yourself "That's it?" Of course my response would be "umm... sort of", there are obviously other more social aspects to the service such as having friends and/or followers, putting favorite tags on Tweets, and other things of social networking nature. The reason I bring this up is that I saw on Waxy Links a mini-interview with one of the Twitter developers, check it out here. Basically goes over how he joined the Twitter team and how the rapid growth of the community has made him think of the performance of Ruby.

Guitar Hero 2 Review

Well after a solid week and a half of living the simulated rock star life, I have one thing to say about Guitar Hero 2, actually thats a lie I have a couple of things to say. So here is a quick run down of what I liked and disliked about Guitar Hero 2:

What I liked:

• This game gets addictive, which means its a lot of fun to play
• Tons of songs leaves you a lot of songs to master
• Fun to play in groups
• You can purchase additional songs on XBOX Live
  
• You get a sweet guitar controller with the game (defects not with standing)
  
• Career mode is good for casual playing, you can pretty much pick it up any time
• Multiplayer looks really cool, but I didn't have an extra guitar to try it out with my friends (I know you can play it with the regular controller but what would be the fun in that)
  

What I disliked:

• The additional songs on Live are expensive
• No multiplayer over Live, yet
  
• Difficulty levels are significantly harder as you progress, there really should be more difficulty levels in between the easy, medium, hard, and expert levels. I think it would help in the natural progression.
• Training mode doesn't give you stats on each section like Career Mode or Quick Play
• The only way to make in game money is playing Career mode, I would have really like a system that rewarded you for having solid quick play performances as well. I think this system would be better since most of the additional items don't really do much else in gameplay except look pretty.
  

This was my first experience with the Guitar Hero franchise and I have to say I'm now a fan. There are many times that feel like you are really are playing along with the band. However, I was really hoping that Red Octane would step up the 360 version and start integrating the Xbox Live component into the game but it looks like we'll just have to wait and see if they get around to integrating it. My overall experience was really positive, this game has been added to my LAN party list and seems to be a hit so far.

Must Buy/Buy/Wait for the bargain bin/Rent/Avoid like the plague?

Personally I would recommend buying this game if you don't always play alone, trust me your hands will thank me later for that. However, with it retailing at 90 dollars US, I'd see if you can play it at a friends or rent it, before dropping the coin. This was close to being a must buy for 360 owners but its a port that brings very little to the table that the original PS2 version didn't already bring.

Red vs Blue E94

In honor of a the Halo Beta announcement I have decided and just discovered that will start posting episodes and links to the popular web series red vs blue for those of you aren't familiar with the series it a short formed web series that utilizes the Halo and Halo 2 game engines. I could try to explain it more but I'm pretty sure I'd just mess it up, the above is a link to the latest episode. I'll post links to the previous seasons at a later time but until then enjoy the head bobbing goodness.

Halo 3 Beta

Today those crazy guys over at Bungie have announced a release date for the Halo 3 Beta, which is May 16. So mark those calendars, get the day off work, and make sure you're ready for a preview of whats to come. This much anticipated multiplayer beta has been creating quite the buzz, in the blog sphere with the promise of new and exciting game play elements, I for one will be looking forward to May. Along with the announcement Bungie has also released new video doc that goes over how Bungie's staff is hoping to improve on the Halo multiplayer experience. The doc shows off a couple of new game elements including the bubble shield which should really create some interesting game experiences. Check out the official announcement at Bungie's site.

Shortcuts are nice

I was checking out Tweako and saw this awesome site posting that has a list of keyboard shortcuts for OS X. I'm a big fan of keyboard shortcuts they save you time and you don't have to deal with all that mouse clicking.

Prototyping is good

As a developer that is in the early stages of my career I have quickly found that prototyping is king. Most of the time your going to be doing things you've never done before. So by making little sample applications "prototyping" the unknown you have a basis on which to start and most importantly you know what works and what doesn't. Trust me the extra time you spend prototyping will save you time in debugging and redeveloping your code.

Showing the Xcode love

I normally only do one post a day but I saw this clip after looking at a digg and couldn't resist. I've been a Windows developers for about 3-5 years depending on what you consider to be real development. In any case I've been a Mac user for 3 of those years, I should mention I'm a Linux user too, long live the multi-plat formers. So I've always been curious about application development for the Mac and this is a simple introduction to creating a quick application.

Don't kill the messanger

Big news in the open source world, well kind of big new the open source instant message client, formerly known as Gaim has been renamed to Pidigin. See the official website for more details on the change.

I'll be posting a review a of Guitar Hero 2 for the Xbox 360 in the next couple of days, thats assuming I don't get to lazy.

Different approaches

As usual I was doing my web surfing thing, scouring the proverbial cloud, for interesting topics, when I found a cool little guide line for developers. Basically it talks about how the fundamental aspects of being developers are taught to us in kindergarten. It's a cool little read if you're into the whole development world, for the rest of the world... well lets just say its kind of inside baseball. In any case check it out the post here

Those little moments

If you haven't been able to tell I've been struggling to think of good things to write about. I started out trying to make this another coder blog with quick tips and tutorials but in reality its not the only thing I want to write about. So instead I'll just write about anything that suits my fancy, look out its another blogger thats run amok filling the web with more garbage. Which might be true but your still reading aren't you? Don't worry for all of you coders who may have stumbled here, the commentary of being a developer will still be here, just mixed in with the rest of it. So in honor of the reclassification of my blog to something a bit more random, here is a Clip of a live performance of Jonathan Coultons "The Future Soon"

Command And Conquer 3 Preview

Since I have yet to beat this game yet, I'll save the full review until that prestigious moment. However, I can say that the little bit that I have played of Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars and I"m pretty pleased with the results, so here is a quick run down of what I liked and didn't like

Liked

• Fast Pace
• Feels smooth even playing on my older gaming rig
• New race
• I have yet to hit a unit cap, now I haven't filled the screen with units yet but I've come close
• Build your own keyboard shortcuts menu
• Has a recognizable cast for the cut scenes, that is if you've seen Star War, Starship Troopers, Battlestar Galactica, etc ...

Disliked

• Balance between races still needs some tweaking
• Menu navigation - not the most efficient
• Some major shortcut keys are suddenly multi-button shortcut, not cool but can be worked around see above
• Can't change game speed in single player campaign

Guitar Hero 2

I just got Guitar Hero 2 for the Xbox 360.... DUDE! Its a fun game but be warned if you have no hand eye coordination, be prepared to be frustrated, I'll have review later in the week when I have feeling in my hand again.

Wish List

As I sit in a quasi empty class room, I was just thinking about the niceties in life that you just wish were just so. So on that note here is my current wish list for the tech industry ... yes you in the back pay attention, oops I guess I shouldn't have typed that. Well its there now, as I digress so here is a small list of things I would like to happen (in no particular order) that I think are some what reasonable.

• A truly ubiquitous media service, iTunes comes close, its just not it and we can most certainly do better. Ooh I'm gonna get a few emails about that one.
  
• An ultra portable laptop that can last all day (12+ hours) on a charge, with heavy use.. coding, movie watching, etc...
• Fiber to the Curb.... seriously I want my bandwidth, I'm tired of hearing about it just give it to us and we'll shut up about it. At least for a bit.
  
• Lose the DRM, face it your DRM system sucks and we most certainly know how to get around it so stop waisting our time with this crap.

Beta!

Getting beta invites is like winning the lottery except you don't get a big check, you get a game with big bugs... at least you don't have to pay taxes on it. Well I finally got my hands on a Beta for Shadowrun, I'm pretty excited about it since I have high hopes for the game. The initial comments about a complex control scheme has me a bit worried but I'll let you all know in a day or so, when I've had more time with it.

Happy April fools

It's a new month, but not just any month its the 1st of April, meaning all sorts of tomfoolery is happening across the inter-tubes. For the geeks in the crowd, like anyone else would bother to read my ramblings, here are a few site that have some good ones.

ThinkGeek - annual thing ... this time I really wish I could get some of this stuff. Note I don't know where I can find a permanent link to it so go see it NOW!

Dvorak.org/blog - normally I don't just put down the URL but it just sounds right, all you Twit listeners can take a drink now, cheers

Even Google is getting into the act


If you want to read about my current April Fool post check my twitter feed at http://twitter.com/swu