Pete Gordon's Musings

Electronic Cigarette and Open Source?

2010-09-04T05:22:00.000-07:00

Oh my goodness! I just saw a banner add for Electronic Cigarette, the geek in me became curious... so I found this video about it on youtube.com... posted by... http://www.youtube.com/user/isgodreligious

I may freak'in be crazy, but it got me thinking about an open source e-cigarette and as always on the Internet we are never alone in our ideas.

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/general-e-smoking-discussion/3625-open-source-e-cig-project-8.html
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/diy-e-liquid/33710-open-source-liquid.html

Wish I had time to play with the idea (fyi--I don't smoke! Just a geek that thinks building one of these with an ATMEL AVR processor or MicroChip PIC and publishing the BOM (bill of materials) and schematics would be very very cool. Maybe I could find some time, since it is so closely related to Health Care and the FDA (see the other videos posted at http://www.youtube.com/user/isgodreligious which show the FDA discussions on Electronic Cigarettes. Maybe I should push this Blog Post over to http://blog.healthgeek.org).

See other Open Source Hardware hack projects and sites...

Hack A Day
Make
Ada Fruit
OpenEEG
OpenECG
And don't forget the MakerBot, RepRap and Fab@Home

Open Source Hardware Hacks are on a huge rise, if you are interested at all ping me.

HDGraph and WinDirStat

2009-10-07T04:03:00.000-07:00

There are many free disk drive space management and scanning tools out there in the Internet available to use.

I have used HDGraph (www.hdgraph.com) for a while to show disk space; I liked the circular graph it displays. I have some vague memories of some showing me a tool, and I think it was Space Monger, but it never did appeal to me as compared to HDGraph. This morning, I decided to look for other alternatives and compare HDGraph. I downloaded WinDirStat and found that it had advantages right away. Please note, you'll need to look beyond the unattractive yet informative WinDirStat website, and consider the tool on the value it delivers. Also, please note, this is but my simple review of the two products, and I am very appreciate of all of the people involved with building and making available these great tools!

1. WinDirStat shows all the directories being processed/read and allows you to navigate the file system and see the sizes while it is processing other directories.

2. The TreeMap in WinDirStat allows you to see large files versus small files that there are many of very quickly.

If you are looking to manage your disk space, and have difficulty keeping enough space free, I would recommend WinDirStat or the many alternatives for other platforms.

Best wishes!
Pete Gordon

Killing Innovation and Reforming Health Care

2009-09-17T04:41:00.000-07:00

I just read this morning, that the Health Care proposal coming out of the finance committee; contains a $40 billion dollar tax on the Medical Device industry. So, I dug in deeper. Turns out it is $4 billion dollars a year for the next 10 years, it is on all medical device manufacturers with revenues over $5 million dollars and it is to be based on "relative market share".

Some background, the medical device industry in the U.S. is just less than $100 billion; that means this is a greater than 4% tax on some of the most innovative companies in the United States. Will already having a high barrier to entry through the FDA 510k process and the device registration fees required by the FDA; is this really the smartest tax to apply to our economy--or, as David Auth, a Medical Device inventor and pioneer, states, "Our government rewards dummies and punishes geniuses".

Some references for more context and reference:
New health propsoal is industry's favorite so far. -- AP, Yahoo News
Finance Committee Proposal -- Max Baucus, Senate Finance Committee
Medical Device Pioneer David Auth Seethes Over $40 Billion Industry Tax Idea, FDA Delays

Market Size References [1] and [2] and FDA Annual Device Registration Fee Reference [3] and to even create a device for the market FDA 510k Fee [4] and don't forget the 10's and 100's and of thousands and even millions of dollars to create FDA approved products [5]

Medical Device Manufacturers Association

Fiber Optics in Health Care and Pulse Oximetry

2009-09-01T12:17:00.000-07:00

Photonics textiles eyed for pulse oximetry

I have been fascinated by the idea of using fiber optics in Medical Devices for the past couple months. I have a fascination with technology innovations that use Light. So, this blog will likely be diverse in it's discussion of technology, but don't be surprised if there is a bias towards, BioPhotonics. (Yesterday, I did ask a friend of mine who is in med school to contribute to this blog also, so that should bring diversity to this blog also--smile). Even with my Light fascination I haven't yet taken the plunge, committing time, and tried one of the training kits I found a couple months ago.

I stumbled on this today, and it involves Pulse Oximetry (which is close to my heart--figuratively--smile).

The immediate question when I showed someone else, was "how do you clean it?". Interesting, I am wondering, and am fascinated by the potential. I often see nocturnal oximetry studies that the finger probe falls off of the patient. And, for no other reason, than this looks cool and includes fiber optics and pulse oximetry, I hope this succeeds!

Meeting Martha (15 yr old) and her family

2009-04-27T03:58:00.000-07:00

Whoops, this was too be posted on http://hearthecryhiv.blogspot.com/... I guess it can be at both. The problems of having two blogger accounts.

Andrew, Craig and I met Martha, a 15 yr old that cares for a large family in a compound outside of N'Dola.

Child headed households are one of the most significant problems that come with HIV/AIDS and poverty.

The challenge is food and school/education. And, how do you establish trust and make a real difference--not just take pictures, and just go away?

--Posted by Pete

Memex and the beginning of the Internet (Tower of Babel)

2009-04-23T20:01:00.000-07:00

I stumbled on this article "As We May Think" written in 1945 and credited with the beginning ideas about hypertext and the Internet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_hypertext_technology

It is amazing... here are some of my favorite quotes. The concluding remarks are the best part...

Science has provided the swiftest communication between individuals; it has provided a record of ideas and has enabled man to manipulate and to make extracts from that record so that knowledge evolves and endures throughout the life of a race rather than that of an individual.

There is a growing mountain of research. But there is increased evidence that we are being bogged down today as specialization extends. The investigator is staggered by the findings and conclusions of thousands of other workers—conclusions which he cannot find time to grasp, much less to remember, as they appear. Yet specialization becomes increasingly necessary for progress, and the effort to bridge between disciplines is correspondingly superficial.

A record if it is to be useful to science, must be continuously extended, it must be stored, and above all it must be consulted

This is a much larger matter than merely the extraction of data for the purposes of scientific research; it involves the entire process by which man profits by his inheritance of acquired knowledge.

The human mind...operates by association.

Selection by association, rather than indexing, may yet be mechanized.

Presumably man's spirit should be elevated if he can better review his shady past and analyze more completely and objectively his present problems. He has built a civilization so complex that he needs to mechanize his records more fully if he is to push his experiment to its logical conclusion and not merely become bogged down part way there by overtaxing his limited memory. His excursions may be more enjoyable if he can reacquire the privilege of forgetting the manifold things he does not need to have immediately at hand, with some assurance that he can find them again if they prove important.

Remember this was in 1945; amazing; and we have only scratched the surface of the empowerment that comes with the existence of the memex/Internet. Man's spirit with definitely "be elevated" as he "analyze[s] more completely and objectively".

Open Source and Technology Choices

2009-03-14T19:00:00.001-07:00

I have been reading about HealthCare IT; since it is the industry I have been focused on the past year or more (critsys.net, apneicare.com, sleepcareinc.com). Let me start off by saying I love the Open Source community--it amazes me, fascinates me and stirs up idealism that I so wish to realize and I am very grateful to all that contribute to Open Source (see earlier interview I did with KDE News site, now archived). I have been following VistA and more specifically OpenVistA or WorldVistA as an open source Health Care EMR, so tonight as I was reading I found that Larry Augstin is on the board of MedSphere which has this technology stack that is kind of frightening (MUMPS, GtK, C#, etc.). For those that don't check out the wikipedia link on Larry, or recognize the name, he founded SourceForge and is an Open Source genius! But, what was that, he is also on the boards of Compiere (I did an install many years ago as a test, Java, thick-client, Oracle database, and I thought it had a lot of potential until I went through the install, and looked more closely at the User Interface); and not only Compiere, but Hyperic--Andy Danser and I were just evaluating Hyperic for IT monitoring and it didn't make our short list compared to Nagios and/or SpiceWorks (maybe we will have to revisit Hyperic, especially since I have a sales/followup person contacting me, and not only Hyperic but JBoss has Larry Augstin on the board. I'll mention it again, "he is an open source genius!". But, I was hoping Compiere, JBoss, and most recently Hyperic would work for my needs--but in my experience they seemed to be too far away from my needs, more technology complicated to use, distracting from my specific goals and needs. I would love to find opportunity to work with them to improve them, but it is a contanst delima of having to first get over the initial need/goal and then being able to contribute to help improve. I remeber submitting a patch to Tomcat back in like 2003 for the JSP Taglib code and it was fun, but I was already getting value from Tomcat, and it was easy to work with because I was already in the mix of it. Seems like Compiere, JBoss, Hyperic, MedSphere haven't been able to pull me into the mix as of yet. And, it makes me wonder how many more people are like me and can't get over the open source hump to be pulled into the project. Maybe MedSphere will be the one that pulls me in, I do belive in Open Source Health Care IT--it is a great choice--if they wrap the legacy code (MUMPS) with standard web services maybe it can take off and I can get some immediate value from it--first thing, I would like to see is a Overview Guide... maybe I can come up with one... I haven't even come close to digest all that I need to that is already out there... seems very scattered, not centralized or clear. Hopefully, I can help at some point but often times I am scattered and unclear also!

http://vistapedia.net

Just some random thoughts today about Open Source, Software/System Design, and adoption. Really needs a few cups of coffee or a couple beers to talk through fully.

As always, love to hear comments and thoughts.

Best wishes!

Pete Gordon

me@petegordon.com

Twitter Community -- How I use Twitter; love and hate.

2009-01-23T03:10:00.001-08:00

So, Twitter is an amazing micro-blogging, social phenomena the idea that peoples thoughts would be streaming on to the Internet in a way that is searchable and with an open API is amazing. (Think single consciousness of mankind)

Bahá'í Faith
Quran -- Mankind Oneness
Bible -- Mankind Oneness (Please pay special attention to this one, considering the Internet--smile).

So, this morning; I was communicating with someone I met through odesk about doing some programming work with me through email. I saw they had experience with TestComplete, so I read about it; and did a little question/research of it compared to Selenium (especially for Silverlight). Anyway, I did a search on twitter for TestComplete and boom, JonKruger's tweet popped up. So, I sent him a reply tweet asking if he got any responses and what he knows. A couple notes: 1) Jon lives in the same cityI live in (Columbus, Ohio); we have met once or twice; and I see him several times a year (and a lot more if you count codemash.org--smile) he works at QSI with a very good friend of mine (SteveHorn). 2) I am not following Jon on Twitter, I just randomaly found him by doing a search for "TestCompete" amongst the millions of users using search.twitter.com. I think this experience is a good example of showing the power of twitter for an individual to jump into the mankind consciousness that is the Internet; and for it to return connections to you locally.

Now a little bit of disappointment, I have not figured out the following/friend thing yet. I am an open networker in the sense I agree with Tim Sanders book, Love is the Killer App. I must always give away my network, knowledge and compassion; but I can't really "follow" even 33 people on twitter; let alone the thousands and tens of thousands some people follow. So, I started using TweetDeck some, and I follow only four people closely, and others I categorized by interest and commonality (is that the definition of different communities?). What's even more interesting is most of my closest friends are not even on twitter (my wife, my children--except for the photo of me with them--a little young for twitter--smile, and even most work colleagues). So, I am still trying to figure it out; how do I do, who do I follow--and am I really following them--or am I just lucky to read something they post sometimes before it scrolls on by in the other tweets I get.

I met someone the other day, I introduced myself to him in Panera (because I overheard him talking about Drupal with someone else, and the opportunity came up to strike up a conversation). The interesting part was once he handed me his business card, I recognized the company from the Columbus Tech Life community and then after we said good-bye and I went to send him my contact information by email I realized he was following me on twitter already (but I wasn't following him at the time). I think the best use of social software and twitter is when the use of the internet intersects with real world.

It is fascinating and engaging to think about social software and how it is useful and it intersects with real life, and at the same time a little scary--there are many thoughts out there from me in blog and twitter--that people could research to speak to my personal side and potentially manipulate conversations. There is no way for me to remember all that I have put out into the internet (blog, twitter, linkedin, facebook); that could be used to manipulate (or better sounding--direct) a conversation and decision.

I don't understand how it (Internet, social software, community) all works, and where it is going, but I am trying to figure it out, if anyone else is reading this, and you are trying to figure it out also, leave a comment and let me know your thoughts.

Best wishes!
Pete Gordon

Invest locally; better yet Invest in yourself!

2009-01-04T12:57:00.000-08:00

So, I was watching one of those meaningless "money" talk shows on CNN. Although, I liked listening to Robert Reich on the show say "prepare for the worst, hope for the best".

I started thinking, maybe I should put some money into Columbus, Ohio Fortune 500 companies (Large Cap Stocks); or maybe in the State of Ohio fortune 500 companies So I looked at this list on USA today, to find the Central Ohio Fortune 500 companies from 2004....

Cardinal Health
Nationwide Mutual Insurance
American Electric Power
Limited Brands
Big Lots

Then I found that of these Fortune 500 companies in Central Ohio; Nationwide Mutual Insurance is no longer a public company (NFS, as of January 1st, 2009). That made me immediately think why invest in "public" companies, seeing that Nationwide just took their $2.4 billion subsidiary private. Which made me think, why are companies public. Well, the basics are that a company goes public to raise capital it could not raise in a private market, and it is often an exit strategy for the founders and original investors of a company. Wait a minute if that is the reason to go public than why would I spend so much time looking to invest in public companies, wouldn't it be more valuable to invest in private companies that I have transparancy into; or, even better, to invest in myself and my own work/companies/businesses.

Hmm, lots to think about.

With all of that said, if you are looking for a small investor or worker in your ideas and/or are interested in becoming a small investor, worker in my ideas; drop me an email, and let's talk about working and investing together.

Best Wishes!
Pete Gordon

2009.....

2009-01-01T00:14:00.000-08:00

10 Goals for 2009... (in no particularly special order)

More International Exposure. Visit Africa and Amsterdam. This should be a definite; because we have already been planning it for hearthecry.org. Take a course in Mandarin Chinese http://www.columbus-occs.org. Deepen my international relationships, in my field of expertise (sofware, hardware, technology, health care) and outside of my field of expertise.

Organize and Automate my business more. Business filings, taxes, structure must get automated this year. So that everything is submitted on-time, and the process flows! This may mean, I get a new accountant--if they don't get with the 21st century! And, I am thinking my daughter is now old enough at eight that she can maybe start doing some minor paperwork, scanning and emailing. That just occurred to me; and that would be great; maybe I can hire her as my assistant, perfect!

Do Video on the Internet. I am going to use video to communicate with others this year. I have neglected it, and don't have a good video camera. Kinda funny, since I have a software portable usability lab that uses Apple iSight cameras (iSights are now no longer available). But, I am thinking about maybe video taping interviews with Film/Television Producers, Building Architects, General Contractors, Professional Engineers; and then maybe getting them transcribed; and using them as resources for publishing an industry comparison for the software industry compared to other industries (Steve and I had talked about it; see earlier blog entry). The bottom line, there is a lot of value in communicating with video and I am going to do more of it this year.

Repeatable Sales Model. Repeatable Sales for Critical Systems; selling Health Care Managed IT Services and increasing Critical Systems revenue by 100%, with 2-5 new clients.

Time with family. Have a wonderful vacation, with my family. And, take Blake and Rachel to school at least once a week.

Lose 10 pounds. And exercise consistently. (wii fit, recumbant bike, and treadmill)

Dress more professionally. I'm still a little uncertain on this one; I love my t-shirt and jeans.

Spend time daily in worship and prayer. I'm pretty good at this, but some days and then some weeks--it slips away from me and that is when things fall apart.

Give more away. I'm really thinking of time and software here, but it is true across every area of life. I want to give more away in open source, like codeplex.com/edf. I want to have a couple open source projects that I am committed to, and see them grow in momentum and value. I want to see open source succeed in a sustainable business model, they are not mutually exclusive. It makes me thinking of communities of needs, creating mutually beneficial software and making it open source. Open Source Polysomnography software anyone?

Listen more and talk less. Enough said.

Software Executive Producer

2008-12-29T09:04:00.000-08:00

So, why doesn't the software industry have the concept of the "Producer"; like the Recording and Film industry? We have taken our concepts from traditional construction and architecture, for terms like Developer, Architect, Project Manager; rather than from more creative industries like Film and Recording, for Producer and Director. Maybe it is time to blend the industries. Macromedia tried to do this a long time ago with their product, now Adobe Director.

Steve Horn sent me this blog posting about a Chief Engineer; http://blog.scottbellware.com/2008/12/chief-engineer.html.

Reminded me of the discussions Steve and I have had in the past about publishing interviews with people in different fields (architects, general contractors, videography/film, television producer, etc.) about their roles and how those roles might relate to roles in the Software Development Life-cycle (Software Product Development).

I remember; I was talking to a client a year or two ago about the need for developing some Flash code. And, when I suggested a couple people to do the work; I said, "that is why there are so many names in the credits of movies"; because if you want "A+" quality work--you need people that are "A+" in each specific area. Just more evidence supporting the need for a Software Executive Producer.

I changed my twitter description to include Software Producer.

Direct Email Business Introductions...

2008-12-09T04:59:00.001-08:00

Twitter wasn't long enough for this experience.

So, I just got an email that I was about to respond to from an individual requesting a brief phone call; it was a business introduction; and it was very specific and sent to my apneicare.com email address. I realized after a moment that, oh, they probably got my email from a conference this past summer that I had given my name and email to for networking. Crap! That is why for usersfirst; I have two emails I give out--one for lists (petemail) and one for direct contact--so I can recognize the difference. I need to do that with apneicare.com also.

Here's some advice for email introductions, especially those requesting a phone call, please specify how you got someone's name in addition to why they might be interested in talking with you.

I'm still learning this Internet thing after 12 years of developing for it! I don't ever see it stopping--the learning this Internet thing--that is!

Pete Gordon

Financial Collapse?

2008-09-21T18:46:00.001-07:00

Wow! What a day... keeping up with the financial markets and the craziness this week.

So here is my assessment, of Paulson and Bernanke's Plan (oh and that guy that McCain would fire)... (if you have time--I highly recommend following the links--please don't take my assessment as anything other than my $0.02...I think this is what is going to play out over the next couple weeks)

1. Treasury assess that there is a crisis, T-Bills fall below zero, credit markets freeze, and Treasury, Fed, SEC start pushing through Bill to make thing "right".
2. Once bill passes...Fed prints the money
3. Treasury/Fed reverse auction and buys lowest selling mortgages with the money, or does whatever the Treasury sees fit to do with it.
4. Wall street gets flush with cash from selling mortgages to US Government, more liquidity occurs in the market.
5. 3mo T-Bill rate stays above zero and Banks continue to lend to one another, and companies that are carrying too much debt live to see another day
6. Wall Street makes killer bonuses in 2010...again.
7. US Government saddled with the mortgages, and we'll see if China or Japan wants to buy some.
8. Spin the Wheel of Fortune

Notice I didn't touch on the consumer, or the homeowner...why?.you may ask...because that is secondary to the proposal...this seems to me to be all about Washington and Wall St. Not that it is a bad thing, but it does seem a little rushed. The panic that occurred Wednesday that pushed the T-Bill into negative territory did not last long... people are irrational but they learn from mistakes (sometimes). I do think there is a real concern of stagflation in this market. But, what do I know. I'm just a software guy. At the same time... I see real opportunities globally utilizing the Internet (who doesn't!).

One last point, I think this may be a great political move for Paulson. I think it could give legs to his blueprint for regulatory reform, which I think looks pretty good from the Insurance after just reading the exec summary.

Everybody calm down, and be honest with one another, and get along, and all will be fine!

I'm surprised there was uptick in companies with no debt.

Twitter, Social Software, and the Internet

2008-07-25T16:33:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I stepped into Twitter this week. I am kind of overwhelmed, I think it is "blog ADD". But, I am still considering it (how it works, its usefulness, everything). I think it is actually better than blogging for me (maybe I suffer from ADD). It is immediate, limited to 140 characters of text, "easily" accessible from my blackberry (compared to blogger).

Found that BarackObama was on Twitter... here and has ~50,000 followers. That is a strong indicator to the election I believe (note: I am not taking any sides as of yet--and may never take sides in this election--although I did promise my dad if Barak wins I would read his book the Audacity of Hope, that my dad got me). I am just amazed at the following, 2,000,000+ , and the idea of sharing such short thoughts and musings with other people that are (or are not) like minded. I read about ChaCha, and they do human responses to questions, and are doing it on twitter. I sent them a question about restaurants in Pickerington, Ohio... waiting for a response now... will see how well it works. They pay their guides about $0.20 a question, amazing. Some of the public questions/answers I read were not that good, but one about the alcohol level of Leffe was excellent. The question was "how strong is Leffe", and I didn't even know what Leffe was until I read the question and did some research on it.

Twitter is definitely an amazing application of social technology and search. I love the trending charts they have... http://blog.twitter.com/search/label/stats ... Reminds me of Google Trends, but this is stuff people are communicating to others rather than just searching for. I guess it is the difference between asking a question of the Internet, or making a statement to it (the mind of the Internet).

Much to think about.

How did you get started in software development?

2008-06-11T05:29:00.000-07:00

Steve Horn tagged me to answer some questions about my history with programming. So, here we go, a lot about me and my history in programming; more than anyone should probably care to know.

How old were you when you first started programming?

I guess it was when I was 11 or so in 1984.

How did you get started in programming?

My mom was doing graduate studies in Boston, and had purchased a Commodore 64. We would buy these books with pages and pages of BASIC code to type in and save off to tape . I did that for a while (oh, later, I had upgraded to a disk drive) and then few years later got an Amiga 500. A couple friends had one also, they were getting into CLI, Machine Language Assembly, BBSs, and Phreaking. I dabbled a very little in that, but I was more drawn to the graphic design and animation power of the Amiga. So I played with that and did a few things on my own, and for school projects, and what not. I remember thinking CompuServe and independnet BBSs were kinda cool, but a pain to use.

What was your first language?

BASIC

What was the first real program you wrote?

I don't know if I have ever written a "real" program. Or, is it that they all have been, "real". I can't find any reference to this one river rapids game that I typed-in on the Commodore 64, and I don't remember the exact name. I didn't do much programming on my own, I felt it took too long. Until I got into the work force in 1997 and worked with David Robertson (amazing programmer) and others to get Intranet to the mainframe connectivity using IBM CICS/TCPIP technology and our own C CGI and then later Java Servlets after I found IBM's Redbook that no one seemed to want to talk about in 1998. They all wanted to sell CICS Connector middleware. Or maybe the first "real" program was the MSDS application I wrote at AEP in Cold Fusion and Oracle then migrated it to ASP and Oracle, and worked with someone else to do the VB TWAIN Scanning of the documents.

What languages have you used since you started programming?

Summary Programming Languages List:
BASIC
Pascal
COBOL
VBScript/JScript
Java
T-SQL and PL/SQL
C#
VB
Javascript
Objective-C
C

Detailed "Programming Lanagues" List:
BASIC (Junior High School)
Pascal (College)
COBOL (College)
Cold Fusion (is it really a programming language?) (1st Job)
PL/SQL (ORACLE's SQL) (1st Job)
Java Servlets/Applets (1st Job)
ASP (VBScript and JScript) (1st and 2nd Job)
J2EE JSP/Servlets/EJB/custom MVC like Struts (2nd Job)
T-SQL (Microsoft's SQL) (2nd Job)
C# (2nd and 3rd job)
VB.NET (3rd job)
Java and MySQL exposure using SQLYog (3rd job)
Objecive-C (My own crap)
C (My own crap)
Javascript (all jobs, "The sleeping giant of the Internet")
HTML (all jobs)

1st Job = AEP
2nd Job = fourthchannel
3rd Job = doing the start-up company consulting thing in central Ohio (movepoint, aircraftlogs, apneicare)
"my own crap" = VisualMark User Experience Lab

Have not and likely will not touch... PHP, Perl, Ruby, F#, Lisp, etc. I love talking to people about them, and I think they are great, but I don't have the time to really get into them. May play with Python, since it is supposedly one of only three production supported languages at Google (Python, C++, Java). And, TRAC and this Google Calendar Gantt Timeline thing looks so cool; two more reasons to get into Python.

If you knew then what you know now, would you have started programming?
Definitely. I sometimes look back and wish I would have gotten deeper earlier on. You know, into Assembly and what not... but it seems I just don't have the patience. I'd rather build something and see results more immediate. I remember when I interviewed out of college in 1997, I told them I would be happy to do some COBOL for a year or two (thankfully--I didn't have too), but in a few years I was going to be working in "Interactive Television". So, I was "lucky" and "blessed" to be able to get in on the Internet/Intranet technologies right away in 1997 in my career. The Internet is now the center of everything I do. I don't really care too much about programming languages--for me--the Internet--and all of its messy technologies--is "EVERYTHING".

If there is one thing you learned along the way that you would tell new developers, what would it be?

Focus on People not machines, and in focusing on people, be Honest and full of Integrity in everything you say and do, don't be hesitate to talk about what you don't know and are willing to learn, and always look forward to learning from everyone around you.

What's the most fun you've ever had ... programming?

The Mainframe to the Intranet using CICS TCPIP was a blast, the MSDS stuff was a blast, fourthchannel was a crazy roller coaster and a ton of fun. All of them were great because of the technology, the users and the people I worked with! But I'd have to say that the most fun I have is whenever I see the excitement on a user/customer/clients face about how the Internet and software can be used to simplify and better their lives.

Dependency...

2008-05-31T06:20:00.000-07:00

So, I stumbled on Haley House (http://www.haleyhouse.org/) through a news article on USA Today about lasermonks.com (http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/2008-05-31-lasermonks_N.htm?csp=34). And, watched the video trailer about Haley House. about 4 minutes into it... a woman that does farming for homless people (Noon Day Farm) connected with Haley House said.... "dependency is profitable". That statement really struck me, as containing a powerful truth within it. Just look at credit cards, mortgages, materialism, consumerism, and the definitions of "needs" (obviously the definitions of "needs" varies between economies, cultures, individuals) and you will that dependency is profitable. I need clean water, electricity, natural gas, indoor plumbing, cell phone, I need broadband Internet, I need my home/house. Now granted even as I mention these, I guess I don't need them--but they sure are nice. There is a dependency ratio that is used in macro economics for things like social security, maybe we need an individual dependency ratio for items or categories of items.

Oh well, thought the quote, "dependency is profitable" was very intriguing and contains truth. Although, I don't believe you can legislate or force away dependency....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dependency_theory
You can only educate, share, enlighten, and support Independence. Thus the value of Free Markets over Dependency Theory.

Here is the full quote from the video...
"It is a complete challenge to the entire system of this country to be self-sufficient. This country only cultivates dependency, because dependency is profitable."

After re-reading the full quote, it is almost insulting. This country DOES NOT only cultivate dependency. But, this country has cultivated dependency--and for that it is wrong! Here is a ethical/moral question for you... "Is it ever moral to cultivate dependence?" "Can you not be evil by cultivating dependence?"

I immediately think of my children... they are solely dependent upon my wife and I (and our family, community to a lesser degree). While I would never say I wish to cultivate dependence in them, I work to cultivate independence...but I also work to cultivate obedience, discipline, love, caring. Final thought, be very careful with the idea of "cultivating dependency". I believe it is a huge insult and ethically wrong to "cultivate dependence".

This leads me to another question of words, I had someone tell me once that in establishing business it was all about "leverage". Is "leverage" dependence? Wo... this is getting into free will and self-interest compared to selfless and altruism. Great topic to discuss over a glass of wine.

Got to love words!

Reading, Software, Selling and Life

2008-05-22T05:13:00.000-07:00

Finished "Why does software costs so much" a week ago or so... very good... very informative! Creating teams, collaboration, communication is the most important thing on software projects--not metrics to control developers. Finished Predictably Irrational about the same time. Behavorial Economists is a fascinating role... check out his blog post Medicine: A Lesson In Efficient Markets good stuff about HealthCare and Markets. Still Reading Undercover Economist.

Picked up Spin Selling yesterday, looks to be very intriguing. The story on the end of page 8 and top of page 9... really frustrated me... give me a hint as to the right answer or the solution--not just the problem of how he wasn't succeeding at selling. But the Risk of Mistakes section is great... I love his example of how easy it was to get a $40K sale when there was no risk of others perception on the outcome, and how difficult it was to get a $1500 sale from the same person when there was a risk of perception on the outcome. It confirms for me that sales is all about showing someone how you can help to make them successful, and bring about a successful outcome--in my opinion that is the center of the relationship aspect of selling. Integrity, Trust, the best interest of others. I believe those are the most important aspects of sales and business. I guess that is "Love your neighbor as your self". Which is 50% of the most important aspect of life, in addition to "love God".

Luke 10:27

I also picked up Code Complete, to read with a good business, .net friend (the only person that probably reads this blog--and he really doesn't have too--it is more self-journalling experience--Steve Horn).

We'll see how Code Complete turns out, it seems practicle and focused on Construction--which sounds good.

Price of Oil

2008-05-17T08:13:00.001-07:00

So.... ABC News did a story last night... where they said Bush asked Saudi Arabia to increase oil production to lessen the burden on American pocket books ($125+ per barrel of crude oil).... It was $27/barrel back in 2000 when Bush was running for President. What got me was they said two things... one a quote from Saudi Oil Minister.... Mr. Naimi said. “We supplied, to the tune of an additional 300,000 barrels per day, from 1.4 to 1.7 million barrels per day, for our customers in the U.S. So how much more can we do?”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/17/world/middleeast/17prexy.html

Then they showed an Oil Anlaysts that said it was just a drop in the bucket. I was like, "huh?" that's like 20% increase in production. Turns out... after digging... that that 1.4 is how much oil the US was purchasing from Saudi Arabia and we will now be purchasing 1.7MM... and they produce 9.4M a day. I don't know why the ABC News areticle and the NY Times article above couldn't publish that.... they really didn't look very intelligent saying a 20% increase in production of oil sold to the U.S by Saudia Arabia is not significant, sounds significant to me--until I factor in the goal is to get them to produce enough to lower prices (people say a 1MM increase in production should lower prices about $0.60)... what a fascinating look into supply/demand and the pain people feel, or the gains others feel.

"Bush's national security adviser, said Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi reiterated his pledge to give customers all the oil they want."

One piece I didn't research was the inventory levels. Saudi inventory would be interesting to know... from a quick dirty Google search--I'd guess they don't hold inventory... why bother. Just sell what you produce, and produce what you sell. What about Iraq coming online to produce oil, where is that at? How 'bout these speculators at Goldman Sachs...

http://www.forbes.com/markets/2008/05/16/oil-energy-solar-markets-equity-cx_cg_0516markets39.html

Iraq oil production, could reach 3MM bpd this year...

http://www.iraqoilreport.com/2008/05/08/iraq-industry-minister-iraqi-oil-production-including-from-iraqi-kurdistan-will-3m-bpd-this-year/

Ok.... all that said... this makes my heart break for the world turmoil over oil.

How 'bout this for an answer....

www.teslamotors.com (ok it is expensive!) how bout these links...
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/04/under_3000_the.php
http://www.evalbum.com/1091

We are getting close!

Multi Touch is amazing... and other musings about Hardware interfaces

2008-05-16T19:47:00.000-07:00

I just ran into these examples of Multi Touch large screens being used in the real world... posted on macrumors... being used in CNNs "Situation Room" (or whatever it is called--smile). Amazing! I love the things you can do with that interface.... If you haven't seen the original TED demonstration go here first...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcKqyn-gUbY

CNN examples...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqJm7PK2vhQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vb5g19Nn4Cc

MacRumors post that turned me on to the CNN videos...
http://www.macrumors.com/2008/05/08/jeff-hans-multitouch-screen-hits-mainstream/

Speaking of hardware user interfaces... I am thinking I want a tablet PC for doing screen sketches (wire frames) and software initial design... was first turned on to the idea, when a friend mentioned his 9x12 wacom, then thought maybe I should get a Tablet PC... HP Compaq TC1100... seems like a good used choice... but they are high demand on ebay... price point probably $450... and the need to upgrade the RAM.... and that's for a 3 year old model...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TC1100

Now... maybe an Apple Tablet instead... that would be great.... would trade my PowerBook in for that, in a heartbeat.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/upgrade/4243000.html?page=1

To bad they don't exist.

HealthCare IT... Google and Microsoft

2008-05-12T06:59:00.001-07:00

Microsoft health Common User Interface
http://www.mscui.net/
Incredible Silverlight Health Interface Prototypes
http://www.mscui.net/PatientJourneyDemonstrator/
Who MS is working with UK NHS... http://www.microsoft.com/uk/nhs/

Google's Initiative... which is behind MS's technology focus... there are some talking about the complementary nature of both MS and Google systems and plans.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/google-health-first-look.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTZKNcx9sBA

Blogging about Reading and comments about Software Management

2008-04-30T02:59:00.000-07:00

Ok. So I have a blog, that I never post to. Here's a post, about what I'm reading. I picked up Why Does Software Cost So Much? from the library the other day, and I was just reading it, and thought, "I would like to write some of my thoughts down". So here they are.

1. I am surpised this book "Why does software cost so much?" was written in 1993; it is extremely relevant today. I enjoy his reference to Mike Hammer, from BPR fame (page 42).

2. Isn't it true that the obvious non-trivial things are most often the most informative.

True Meaniful Productive = Total Dollar Benefit Delivered By Product / Total Dollar Cost of Building Product

(page 43)

This seems to be related to what Joel S. calls Evidence Based Scheduling.... Tom Demarco from the book stated, "...we need to learn that failure to deliver within our estimate is an estimating failure, not a production failure." This is a good point for a distraction. TRAC already has the "Time Management" pieces built in, estimate time to deliver a ticket, and estimated time remaining. These can be populated on check-in comments using the (spent 1h, rem .5h) syntax (I think there is TRAC module that has to be enabled for the integration to work with Time Management). That being the case, I think it would be great to see TRAC working with the Evidence Based Scheduling concepts, where developers could learn there own "developer velocity", which is the estimated time divided by the actual time. It would be great to see changes to TRAC that would produce a developer velocity. It could be open sourced, and maybe hook into a centralized server, so developer velocities across many projects could be collected--that would be very cool! Maybe link it to odesk and rentacoder profiles; but as soon as you do that--then people would likely begin gaming the system--to get there velocities to show something other than reality... like a perfect "1". I suppose no one would want it to be greater than "1", because then you are saying you always estimate too high, and the closer to "0", you always estimate too low. I also wonder if there is a way to calculate the multiple points of time remaining on tickets (a TRAC concept for defect/issues/enhancements/etc.) into the developer estimating accuracy (I'm sure there is).

Here is an interesting post... I just read.... goes over various Metrics... and uses the term devloper velocity, but doesn't seem to define it.
http://geekswithblogs.net/Optikal/archive/2007/02/21/106916.aspx

I definitely think the software industry is getting closer to figuring this stuff out, and the tools are being put in place to assist in accomplishing the goal of increased management/understanding and ultimately productivity of the SDLC or ALM, whatever you want to call it.

It is kinda ironic that I was at a XAML/SilverLight class last week for a few days, and as I was learning about SilverLight/XAML, I felt my productivity go down to zero. Especially, as I was trying to wrap my head around the WPF concepts that have made there way into XAML, where they have very similar meanings to internet and ASP.NET concepts, but different terms are used--I felt my mental model and maybe even my muscle memory wanting to explode.

Oh, yeah, here is what I am currently reading... we'll see how far I get in them.

Start things off... (Portfolio?)

2007-04-05T18:50:00.000-07:00

Here I am again, after a few years of not blogging since my first attempt at a few writings back in 2005. I just picked up the petegordon.com domain name, after being encouraged to do so when reading about the need for a portfolio on IxDA mailing list. Not certain exactly how that is going to apply to Software Architecture, Project Management, and Software Product Development, but I have some ideas--we'll see where I can go with them. Like doing some screen grabs, and putting together some UML diagrams and Use Case Specifications, and some code. We'll see. Right now we'll start here. The thing about Software is that it never seems done, one thing with designs--you have a clear end when the design is accepted and begun to be used. With software it seems that once the product starts to be used (if the product starts to be used) it is just the beginning of the changes and the more work to be done.

Here are the things I am working on right now...

VisualMark Portable User Experience Lab on the Mac
.NET E-Commerce product I am thinking about opensourcing
Ohio Dept. of Jobs and Family - Unemployment Compensation Tax System (ERIC). Independent Validation and Verification under a Battelle contract, focused on J2EE Architecture.
AircraftLogs.com -- Online Electronic Record Keeping for Aircraft Ownership and Maintenance. Very cool .NET technology and business.

And some things I have worked on in the past...
Movepoint -- Software sold as a service for back office functions for the local Moving and Storage Industry. Created by and used heavily by Leaders Moving.
SPS Commerce/fourthchannel Online Ordering -- this was my .com boom and bust roller coaster ride. Tons of fun! Dove deeper into a focused Software Engineering team of 15 or so people doing server side Java (J2EE).
American Electric Power -- My corporate experience before diving into the Internet, but still focused on Intranet development. Employee Self-Service, MSDS Tracking, lots of small and midsize projects from start to end. Kinda like a lone gun, searching out projects to do. Fun stuff! Learned a ton from some amazing people!
c.w. Costello, CBSI, and Covansys -- funny how the world goes around, Covansys is the Integrator on the ODJFS Unemploymnet Compensation Tax project I work on part-time now, although they sold the public sector business to Saber.