More New Beginnings

I pre-ordered John Mayer's Battle Studies last week and got it Tuesday (release day). To make the order more fulfilling, I got a book I've been meaning to buy for some time now: Joel Spolsky's Joel on Software: And on Diverse and Occasionally Related Matters That Will Prove of Interest to Software Developers, Designers, and Managers, and to Those Who, Whether by Good Fortune or Ill Luck, Work with Them in Some Capacity, a great guide to running a software company.

I had seen the book every once-in-awhile when shopping in the programming sections of bookstores, but never really realized what it was. At the time of discovery, I would not have read it - the book is full of software project management and all that garbage related to schedules, estimates, supervision, etc.

After all the research I performed during my undergraduate studies, however, I have a renewed interest in software projects. Having learned what I did about software design (I have a degree in Information Technology with a concentration in Software Systems Engineering) I like the higher-level design and also like to code when I know what's going on. I discovered early on that coding directly from an idea in my head really results in wasting time and cognition. Even my little JavaScript project that generates MD5 and SHA1 hashes from strings took hours because I didn't have an end result in mind. That single page should have taken about 30 minutes to set up, but I admit that I was simply playing with DOM manipulation and just happened to think of something to do with it.

I have always supported design-before-build practices, and now that I have finished school I have an appreciation for the same principles applied to fabricating software.  The whole management thing is interesting now; I haven't had the chance yet to "manage" formally, as long as you don't count the "Team Leader" position I had at the auto parts store just after high school.  I supervised two people.  Ten years later, I haven't done it since.

The most super-cool thing about creating a software company is creating something that changes the way people do things.  Writing computer programs that many people use is the most powerful thing I can think of within my ability range.  When I write a little ditty that saves someone 45 minutes of manually editing an Excel spreadsheet, the user shares that with someone else, and it goes down the line.  I alone am able to save my current organization literally hours of time every week, with just a few lines of code.  I want to do that for the public, and I want to have at least some impact on how people use computers - whether they realize they're using a computer or not.

My main development focus at this point is on Android applications (sorry, iPhone users) because the platform is so open and I can do anything within the limits of the device.  I have to get it right the first time, though; the majority of folks who to post reviews about apps are not nice when they don't like the app, and don't seem to give much constructive feedback.  There's a lot to learn about the Android platform and the market, but there's even more to learn about customers.

I'm off to run five miles now, in an effort to get ready for yet another one of my ideas: joining the FBI.  Is that random enough for you?

Directions Please

I used to have a floppy disk I used to keep ideas on. I wrote on the disk: "Ideas for my Engineering Career." I think I might have it here somewhere, but today I couldn't find it to add something to. Also, I no longer have a floppy drive.

I thought of something yesterday that might help a group of people in a certain way (the ambiguity is intentional). I just wrote a quick summary out in my Maker's Notebook instead of typing something. The project has been named Furious Plutonium (more ambiguity there. You're welcome.) Now here's the dilemma:

How will I ever remember to build a prototype or perform further work on the project? I need to conduct more research, but after that I have to get to building and tuning. I am scared now that it will fall into my personal /dev/null, where all my other projects have gone with the exception of those I completed within a number of hours one can count on a single hand.

I've been saying for years that I need a proper workshop - I have nowhere to build anything, and no tools either. Time is a rare commodity these days as well.

Blog posts are supposed to come to some conclusion or provide some kind of solution to the stated problem. I have no solutions, because I can't pinpoint the problems. This post is getting off-topic, so I'll quit.

2009 Winterfest 5K

The Winterfest 5K in Valdosta will benefit Toys for Tots. The registration form was just released, and you can click here to get it.

Keep in mind that if you're crazy as I am there's another race that day in Tifton at 2:00pm, and you can finish that in time to get to the Winterfest at 4:30. Contact the Tifton Kiwanis Club for more information on that race.

30:33. Record Time.

I'm no track star, but yesterday I ran the fastest 5K of my life thus far. Either it was a good lung day or it was the 15 miles I ran in the previous ten days. The running seems to help, so I'll be running for the next four days, take Friday off, and see what happens at the 5K for Missions on the 21st. Today I'll just bask in my own glory.

Blazer Corps 5K

The form is here if you want it. I'll be running and I expect to get a much better time than I do on average. From my previous six 5K races, I'm averaging somewhere around 33 minutes. That's horrible, given that I need a much faster pace to join the FBI. I'm running every day until the 14th, so I'll see where that gets me.