Dave - Blog

Three Sizes Too Small

Saturday, December 10, 2011 8:00:00 AM

In Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the Grinch slithers into Whoville on Christmas Eve in an attempt to steal Christmas from the Whos. He takes their decorations, their presents and all the food for the Great Christmas Feast. He stuffs it all into sacks and takes it to the top of a great mountain, where he plans to destroy it all.

This past Friday evening, a different Grinch decided to shows their head. For you see, we had out outdoor Christmas decorations stolen.

In the end, Seuss' Grinch has a great epiphany and realizes the true meaning of Christmas. His heart, which we are told is "three sizes to small" grows to become its rightly size. Upon which, the Grinch returns everything he took, and is welcomed by the Whos as their special guest for the Great Christmas Feast.

The truly sad part about the Grinch who visited us on December 9th is that they'll probably never have such an epiphany. They'll feel no remorse for what they've done. Yes, the truly sad part is that they're hearts really are "three sizes too small."

Circling Back Around

Tuesday, November 22, 2011 3:48:00 PM

Right about now... I'm kicking myself.

For the past four weeks, I've been working through the Oxford Program trying to figure out what I should be doing ... career-wise anyway. It's the "what should I do when I grow up" kind of stuff. So, I've been completing the steps of the program: doing assessments. having coaching sessions and doing some serious soul-searching. And after all that, I'm beginning to think I started out on the right path in college, but got side-tracked along the way.

Back then, I declared my major to be Urban and Regional Studies. After all... I was good at all the SimCity games. The games themselves even said so; suggesting I make a career of it. Plus, I loved building my Lego cities. So, why not? I seemed to be good at it.

About three years on, I changed majors to Computer Science. I told everyone it was because I didn't like the legal aspects. I didn't want to know why I could tear-down this building to put up another one. I just wanted to design. But, if I'm being completely honest, I was also scared I wouldn't have a job once I graduated. That's always nice to have. :-) So, I made the switch.

Now looking back, I'm doubting my decision and kicking myself.

It's not that Computer Science was a bad choice. I did and still do have an interest in technology. But, the work I'm doing now is leaving me dissatisfied with work. Thus, why I'm doing The Oxford Program.

So, what do I do now? Honestly, I'm not sure. I'm only about half-way through the program. Hopefully, I'll get some answers.

HDC 10 - Day Three

Friday, September 10, 2010 6:00:00 PM

Today was the final day of HDC 10. Tomorrow, it's back to good ole Milwaukee. No matter how good, or exciting a trip was, it's always good to go home.

As for the events of this last day... I'm not sure I could have picked a more diverse selection of sessions:

  • Key Note 3: HTML5, jQuery and the Open Web
  • Game Designing with Microsoft Surface
  • Deep Drive with Windows Phone 7
  • Developing for Android
  • Architectiral Rennovation
  • Key Note 4: Innovation in the Open Web

Of these sessions, I found the Android and Microsoft Surface sessions to be the most interesting.

Although, I've never developed for or used the Microsoft Surface, I thought it might be something different. One of the reasons I like coming to HDC is that it gives me a chance to see what other's are doing, even beyond the Microsoft stack where I usually work. The Microsoft Surface sessions was one of those sessions for me. It's still a Microsoft product, but it's a very different Microsoft product. No other product, that I'm aware of, is massive multi-touch, multi-user and has object recognition. All these features bring there own challenges and oppurtunities, which the session highlighted.

Then the Android session... It was fast-paced, as he covered a lot in the 45 minutes alloted. However, after seeing just this little bit, I reaaly like the Android platform. I really want to learn more.

HDC 10 - Day Two

Thursday, September 09, 2010 6:00:00 PM

Today was the first of two days full of 45 minute sessions. A great way to get exposure to a lot of topics. However, not a great way to get any depth of information. I like to think of these two days as "idea seed" planting days. By that I mean, these sessions plant seeds that maybe will come to life at a later date.

They were a couple sessions that peaked my interest more than I originally thought they might: Not Only SQL and Building Sites with the Microsoft Orchard Project. I decided to go to them mostly out of a desire to keep abreast of what's happening in the development community, not so much because I really had any intent on using the technologies. But after having gone to these sessions, I'm interested in learning more. I have or will be downloading some of the applications, and plan to see what I can learn.

Other sessions from today include:

  • Getting Started with Windows Phone Development
  • Deconstructing the Natural User Interface: UX Design in the NUI Revolution
  • For Linq to XML to Sharepoint to Windows Phone
  • Key Note 1: The Future of Microsoft's Web Development Stack
  • Key Note 2: Developing for Android with Flash

HDC 10 - Day One

Wednesday, September 08, 2010 6:00:00 PM

During day one at HDC 10, I attended two 4 hour classes:

Capturing Innovation: Great Ideas, Prototyping and Problem-Solving w/ Sara Summers

This was originally supposed to be a class on XNA Studio Development, but that instructor had to pull out for personal reasons. I was a little disappointed, as I was really looking forward to it. However, after reading the description for Sara's class -- which replaced the original one-- and browsing Sara's website, I thought, at the very least, it would be something different. Heck, it might even be fun.

Good choice on my part... We had a lot of fun, and developed a business plan for selling ice/snow landscaping as a service. Well, that's the idea that my group worked on. We all started out by writing our best and worst ideas for a new business. Then, our good ideas were thrown away, and we had to work with four of the worst ideas (one for each group), and develop a business plan for it. We used various methods for generating ideas and solving problems. Almost, all of them involved some sort of activity were we created something.

One thing I took away from this class was a re-confirmation of ideas that I've read before; specifically in The Myth of the Paperless Office. Basically, we think with our hands. Or rather, our hands are an aid to us as we carry out various mental activities. Being able to physically touch an idea aids us in understanding it. If that idea happens to be the articulation of a problem, being able to touch it helps us to come-up with creative solutions.

Modern .NET Development Practices and Principles w/ Jason Bock

So, this was basically a class on using Inversion of Control (IoC) / Dependency Injection (DI), Unit Testing and Mocking. Jason did a good job of describing what they are, and how one would implement them. None of this was new to me. I've heard about all three of these before. Also, you wouldn't need to convince me these are good practices. Where I've alway run into problems is in the actual doing.

When, I sit down to write a program... usually it'll just be a simple personal project. My mind blanks. I understand the ideas behind all these practices, but having never really done any of these before... with the exception of unit testing ...the implementation of them escapes me. Where do I begin? What do I create first? What order should things be created in? All these questions flood before me, while I stare at the screen.

So, I was hoping that being part of a hands-on class, that I'd actually be able to begin to get past this problem. Well, it wasn't as hands-on as I was hoping. Now, I did learn some things. I was exposed to some new tools, got some good references... I just didn't get what I was hoping for.

HDC 10 - Before the Magic Begins...

Wednesday, September 08, 2010 7:00:00 AM

So, Tuesday was a travel day for my 2nd annual trip to the Heartland Developer Conference.

I got up at about 5AM to make a 8:50 AM flight. Got to get to the airport 2 hours before hand. I'm not sure why, as I usually end up waiting. But, better safe than sorry, I guess.

This trip makes the first time that I've gotten a full-body scan at the security check-point. It went pretty smoothly. But, I don't want to know what a full-body scan of me looks like. Sometimes, it truely is better not knowing!

I arrived in Omaha, NE about 10:30 AM, so I had some time to kill on Tuesday. I decided I'd take a trip to the Omaha Zoo. From what I could find on the web, it seemed like an impressive place. It was. I spend roughly 4 hours there, and snapped over 100 photos.

After the zoo, I headed over to the hotel / conference site, checked-in to my room and spent the rest of the time chillin'.