Archive for the ‘Career’ category

Doing Advanced Distributed Systems Design – A Gift from Santa

February 4th, 2010

It is the second time I have sat through Udi’s Advanced Distributed Systems Design. Unlike repeating a course at University, I was like a 6 year old waiting for Santa Claus to arrive with his presents at Christmas. Not only has the course content been refined in some sections, CQRS (In case you missed it you can watch Udi’s presentation on CQRS here) for instance. Udi’s delivery of the material is such that he always has you yearning for more. The first time i did this course it was as though someone had opened my minds eye. Since then I have made so many changes to my thinking and the way I approach development.

My reasons for attending the course again were simple

  1. Gauge my progression
  2. Hear other peoples thoughts and opinions
  3. Spend more time at the feet of the master
  4. And of course Learn some more

The beauty of this course is that despite the complexity of the architecture and the concepts the delivery makes the comprehension a breeze.  Paul Batum and Rhys Campbell who attended the course have written up their impressions, as has Simon and we all agree that it is worth its weight in gold. So if you have thought about ever doing this course and can make it to one do so, but if your not able to go to one of upcoming courses I would strongly suggest getting in touch with Udi and working other possible solutions with him. Which is why I guess Simon is owed big thanks for setting up this opportunity.

As for NServiceBus and its comparisons to Nuclear Armament, I can only say that once you have used it, there is a realization that there is great power that can be wielded without any effort. Till you can try it for yourself see what twitter has to say about NServiceBus. For me the next dose of sharing some NServiceBus love will be at Day 2 of Doing .net Days on the 27th February 2010 if you have nothing on that Saturday why not send an email to register a seat before they run out

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Who’s on First?

January 30th, 2010

That’s the game I find myself playing with Microsoft software names these days, It’s one thing to go from Indigo and Avalon to WCF and WPF but oh those days of simplicity are a far cry from what we have today. Let’s start with Oslo, what original started as the "updated messaging and workflow technologies in the next version of BizTalk Server and other products" aka Biztalk VNext which was on their SOA site if my memory serves me correct. But what have we today “SQL Server Modeling”.

That’s ok you say we are used to the Microsoft code name to product name shenanigans. Sure but its way more than just changing names and focus or both. This quite often has me having this conversation with myself

Me: What is Microsoft Distributed Caching product? Velocity?

Myself: No that’s the old name now its “Windows Server AppFabric” roses

Me: Ok thanks ill download that but what does AppFabric have to do with Caching? And where is the CTP of that application server that came from the “Olso” group? Dublin.

Myself: Oh you have that already?

Me: No all I have is that “Windows Server AppFabric”

Myself: Yes that’s Dublin.

Me: But I thought that “Windows Server AppFabric” is Velocity

Myself: Yes it is

Me: BUT BUT BUT….

Myself: No Buts It just is.

I hope that this constant cycle of change innovation duplication from Microsoft slows down to a pace that people can keep up with. Maybe even have a sniff of the roses and ensure that it is actually making a difference, and not just causing more noise from Redmond.

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Posted in Career, General

Would you hire a half interested developer?

October 9th, 2009

Jeremy Miller tweeted this today which got me thinking. Jeremy’s comment was that being part of a small team mean that it mattered more. However i think that regardless of the team size or whether your a developer, a salesman, a business owner, you want an employee that will be committed to moving the business forward. A half interested developer will be bad for the entire team regardless of the size. For that matter any person not moving in the same direction of that team is not worth the hire, while just like Jeremy said it might be harsh but its just my opinion.   half interested

Regardless of what the job is you want to find the most motivated individual. Sales people for example are motivated by great commission schemes. Interested Developers are generally motivated by good jobs and a great environment. Finding either a good job or a motivated developer is the hard bit. Simon Segal posted a while back about “Semi Invested Developers” and some ways to better understand the individual during the hiring process. If a developer was to have read his post in preparation for an interview and used some canned answers for those questions and managed to get hired he still shows more interest that one who has not bothered to take that step.

On a personal note I have reduced the number of hours I spent in front a computer since having my daughter (a time and energy vampire), however I have not lost my passion or motivation to better myself, and be a more interested developer. I find my self picking and choosing what tasks/technologies I will devote my attention to much more wisely, a skill that is very hard to acquire.

Just out of curiosity i created this poll to find out what people thought about hiring a half interested person /developer.

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Posted in Career