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My long awaited Apple PowerMac G5 arrived today. This is a holy-cow fast machine that runs circles around any computer that I've ever owned. Additionally, it's probably the most attractive computer I've owned.

Apple replaced the defective Dual Processor G4 that I bought in Febuary with the Dual Processor G5, which I must say was rather nice of them. The folks at the Apple Store at South Coast Plaza were especially helpful and friendly through the whole process.

Anyway, I'm very happy with my new toy and am glad the wait is finally over.

Posted by Chris Henry at 3:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I believe in Software Engineering triangle. The physics of software development. Briefly, what this means is that you have a triangle. One side of the triangle is Features. Another is Time. The last is resources, or people. The three sides must be connected to form a triangle. Many times, however, people attempt to fix all three sides of the triangle, usually like this: too many features, not enough time, not enough resources. It's just impossible to succeed in that scenario.

I believe that lack of information is the root of most corporate unrest. I believe that not telling employees what's going on will encourage them to speculate and will give credence to theorys that are generally crazier than what's really going on.

I believe that software engineers can be asked to work hard, and even to work harder. I believe that you can't ask them to work faster. Would you ask the guy building your house to hammer faster?

I believe that people will work late when you ask them too. I believe that they will tell you to jump off a bridge if you expect them to work late. Most people, like telephone customer service agents, don't get paid enough to take abuse from the company's management, the company's employees, AND their own team.

I believe that you can get a lot more done by asking nicely and working with someone to solve the problem than you can by being rude, inconsiderate, and/or hostile. Remember, we're all on the same team here.

I believe that a manager should be the person that stands between the people they manage and the rest of the world who wants to take their time, and distract their efforts to get work done. If you want loyalty from the people you manage, you need to first be loyal to them.

I believe that a manager should reward employees with things that are meaningful to that employee. If one employee values time with his/her family, then a bonus day off might be a good reward. If another employee is saving for a new car or other item, cash might reward. If another employee enjoys fine wine, perhaps a gift certificate to a good local restaurant is a good reward. The key here is that the manager needs to know the people he or she manages.

I believe that a manager shouldn't play favorites. Ever.

I believe that a good manager can keep a team together though some very tough times.

I believe that I'm not really sure what spawned this rant.

Posted by Chris Henry at 10:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Got an email out of the blue tonight from an old teaching buddy from when I worked at QuickStart. He's originally from the South and at one point we had a long conversation about MoonPies. Primarily it started something like:

David: "There's nothing better than a MoonPie."
Chris: "What's a MoonPie?"
Karen (David's lovely wife): You've never heard of a MoonPie? You've not lived until you've eaten a MoonPie!" (Be sure to do David and Karen's voices in a Southern drawl)

and so on, and was eventually followed up by a box of MoonPies showing up in my mailbox.

Anyway, apparently David ran across an article about Moon Pies today, so he sent it to me, and I'm sharing it with you: The Heavenly Appeal of MoonPies.

If you happen to need an outstanding trainer on any Microsoft server technology, be sure to look up David Gibbs. He's better than an RC Cola and a MoonPie.

Posted by Chris Henry at 10:55 PM | Permalink

While I was in drug-induced la-la land after my nose surgery, I watched all 300 (or so) hours of extra material that comes with The Fellowship of the Ring Extended Edition. There's two whole DVDs worth of material for you to watch. Also, recently we watched the HBO series Project Greenlight.

What, you might ask, do The Fellowship of the Ring and Project Greenlight have in common? Very little, actually, but one difference really struck me.

The Lord of the Rings (LOTR) movies were in pre-production for two or three years before they started shooting film. Additionally, the basis for the movie has been in print for over 50 years and the principles involved with bringing the production to film were very familiar with the source material prior to working on the project.

Contrast that to the Project Greenlight movie, The Battle of Shaker Heights, which is a new script written by a very talented writer, then directed by two directors. This project had something like six weeks of pre-production. The Directors knew the script, but I don't think they had more than a superficial understanding of the meaning and thought behind the script.

The LOTR movies are winning Oscars. The Project Greenlight movie is a trainwreck.

Too often in Software development, we don't spend the time getting to know the problems we're trying to solve, the reason that the problems exist, the real needs of the customer, or even the goals of the project before diving right into design sessions. Designing software without a complete understanding of the problem seems to be the way things are done these days. Of course, by the time the project is finished (assuming it gets finished), the design is so badly out of date and wrong that it's not even relevent.

In the LOTR movies, the directors and writers made script changes on a daily basis, and communicated those changes to the cast and crew each morning. On Project Greenlight, the directors and writer made script changes on a daily basis also, but the communication of those changes was frequently verbal or non-existent, with conflicting directions being given to cast and crew. Additionally, since so little planning went into the Greenlight movie, changes to the script resulted in a dramatic shift in direction for the movie.

Sound like any Software projects you've been on? Sure does to me. It's not a bad thing to better understand the project as work progresses, but not communicating that understanding and those changes to the rest of the team constitutes a gross failure of responsibility.

The analogy of LOTR vs. Greenlight, of course, breaks down in a number of key areas, the biggest being budget. I'm sure the Greenlight folks would've loved to have spent more time in pre-production, but there just wasn't a budget available to do that.

On a general level though, I think that lack of planning remains one of the biggest problems in software development.

Posted by Chris Henry at 3:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The ability to blow one's nose seems like it should be an inalienable right set forth in the constitution, but it turns out that it's not. It's also one of those things that you don't really miss until you can't do it and are spending inordinate amounts of time wiping ooze from your nostrils.

So, I went and saw the doctor this morning and he's cleared me to blow my nose. I'm so happy. He also said that my nose is healing nicely.

Now all I need is my G5.

Posted by Chris Henry at 2:20 PM | Permalink

So, a coworker of mine sent out an email to the people I work with yesterday telling them all that I was alive and well after my surgery. I thought (and still do) that it would've been tremendously funny to use this photo instead of the one of me looking like a pissed off hitler who just had his mustache forceably removed.

Her repsonse was: "you are so on drugs. there is nothing funny about this. only weird. you freak."

Here's the photo:

I stand by my previous, anestesia induced judgement that i would've indeed be funny to send that out to everyone.

However, in her defense, the note she did send out with the photo of me was funny:

From: Dana J. Robinson
Subject: chris henry is sooo nosey

Just thought I'd report to everyone that Chris is alive and well after his Hollywood nose job and will be actively pursuing freelance work as a nostril model just as soon as the swelling subsides. If you know of any nasal spray companies looking for active nostril models, keep Chris and his handsome new schnoz in mind. However, please direct any such requests to me while Chris convalesces in peace.

Anyway, that's all for now.

Posted by Chris Henry at 2:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Well, thing seem to have gone well this morning. I went to sleep in one place and woke in another. They had to stick me a couple of times to get the IV in right, but that's about the worst part.

Coming out of general anestesia is an interesting experience. My throat was SUPER dry and scratchy and is still raw. Right now I can't really talk, which is something of a novelty that I'm sure those around me will enjoy and take advantage of.

Here's a self-photo that I just took so the world can see that I've not got my nose in a sling. I've had my ass in a sling pretty often, but it's a first for my nose.

I think I'm going to go sleep some more now.

Posted by Chris Henry at 5:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

So tomorrow (or rather - later today) I'm going in to get a repair on the deviated septum in my nose. This little guy has basically blocked one side of my nose about 90% and essentially turned me in to a mouthbreather. Nobody wants to be a mouthbreather. Turns out that I might be able to smell things too.

Posted by Chris Henry at 12:23 AM | Permalink

Out with the old. The old site was very 1998 with the frontpage themes and all. The new site is based on a software called MoveableType which is classified as a blogging software, but is really a content management system.

I'm excited about the new site and hope to bring some cool features to it as time goes by.

Posted by Chris Henry at 11:54 PM | Permalink