b : h : l

My youngest son spent this past week at a regional “Operation Purple” (link1, link2, link3) camp. My wife is deploying to the “desert” in the fall for 6 months – so we thought it would go for him to spend some time with kids in similar situations. Being that she is in the Air National Guard he doesn’t get the same exposure to military life as my oldest son did. In general I think Operation Purple is a much needed service, and is good way for kids to, sans parents, open up.

When dropping him off you wouldn’t have noticed that it was a “special” camp – I thought this a bit strange. Almost all of the camp counselors were from Europe. Realizing budgets are what they are, and that fact the camp ultimately is run by the YMCA…totally acceptable, but still a bit weird.

During the week it began to dawn on me a bit…who’s going to be doing the actual “military kid, your mom or dad is going to the middle east to fight a debatable war, risking their life for your – not my – country” counseling. Turns out that there was A representative from the National Military Family Association to coordinate the real objective behind the camp. There are also were representatives from the nearby Air Force base arriving in helos and F-16 cockpit trainers – the typical “recruiting” tools.

So, it gets more weird. The kids were directed to discuss, in groups, their feelings about being in a military family AND the differences for them as compared to civilian families. Keep in mind that there are kids at this camp staring in the 7-8 range – and going to mid-teens. These kids are vulnerable…not only in the sense of dealing with a family situation, but in their social, and cultural learning. As part of the discussion/therapy session there were tasked to capture the ideas in brainstorming style on a stand-up marker board. The results of this session was available for parents to see. I’m not sure if I was more concerned about the content in general, or the parents that belly-laughed (from most likely dependent wives) at an “idea” that said “military families make more money”. I quickly noticed a few common themes amongst the older groups: cheaper gas, less racism, on-base shopping is cheaper, school friends think we’re strange, move alot, deployments cause divorces, and base housing is safer. The younger kids definitely see things differently. Here’s some of their thoughts: mom relies on me more, i have to do more chores, we travel (probably can read this as move too) more, and my friends parents are divorced.

During the closing ceremonies there was a brief presentation with pictures and a discussion about the program. The NMHA representative reiterated the lesson that was given to the kids. It goes like this: “say what I see, say what I think, and say what I feel”. Based on what was being said by the kids…what is really needed is more honest military parents that give the kids opportunity to “say” what they see, think and feel. Kids are smart…and they learn from what parents say, everything parents say. But, I think it is clear that kids learn just as much from what parents don’t say, that only gets reinforced by their opinions (they do have them) and their friend environment.

I’m definitely not the lead candidate for the best parent ever…but, their are some things that just strike me as awkward or weird in other kids, which I know is a result of parenting (or lack thereof). To my point now. Yes, I know I’ve rambled quite a long time already. Our country is fragile, and getting more so with ridiculously bad politics at all levels, questionable education systems, mismanaged resources, blah, blah, blah. Our future is in our youths’ hands. If we, parents, can’t remove the fog of ignorance which is being poured on to our kids we’re doomed. Do we really think camps run by slightly-older kids with funny accents are going to help reduce some of burden we’re forced to put on our kids, let alone the unnecessary burden of ignorance, uncertainty, and lies? I just can’t help but think it is weird that military families are just as at risk as civilian families, to succumbing to the weirdness of our State. Even when my wife was Active Duty some 7 years ago and we were stationed overseas it was not like this.

I only hope that the impending changes offer an opportunity for us to get back on track.

[Please don’t take away from this that I don’t appreciate the effort of NMFA. I do, and I appreciate all of the exchange counselors. If this camp were not Operation Purple, I’d have nothing to write about. So, in hindsight I’m glad he went, and we’ll give him the opportunity to go again if he chooses to.]

So, I’ve been “offline” for a bit. Had a short break in the academic dimension, money issues in the corporate dimension, and general techno-depression (where I just don’t give a shnizzle about any of it) – all of which removed any desire to be at the ole puter.

Not much has changed accept I’m back at it – for my last graduate class evar.

There’s been some interesting things happening in my techie-world. I just can’t seem to get any motivation going to care. Lot’s of good discussions around Groovy, JRuby and virtual machines in general. Functional Programming seems to be the snowball that is sucking people up for no good reason. Open source hardware, smaller and smaller processors, and almost the dead quiet before the tornado in the networking world. Apple still is going nuts though I am already tired of the continued iPhone hype. Maybe I’m just jealous because I am stuck with a 1st-gen’er. I really wish there would be some big news from today’s MacWorld Keynote about OS X or their other platforms (non-iPhone). Still waiting for that.

I still subscribe to Linux Journal magazine – but, am not really sure why. The content is lame…and is second rate to most of the blogs I read anyway. There’s nothing new in that space…especially from the OS perspective. Reading it this morning kind of took me back to somewhere around ‘93 when I first saw Linux running on a friends Packard Bell PC. It was kind of funny … I was supposed to be getting a demo of this awesome Windows alternative called OS/2 (which is now completely dead). I got so hooked on the story of Linux that I could’ve cared less about OS/2. I’d seen some UNIX before this – and pretty much favored DOS over Win3.X at the time. Slackware (the Linux distro) was cool, not because of the software itself, but rather the culture. I’m not sure what happened, but it really feels like that culture is gone, replaced by ego-driven twerps with zero appreciation. Kind of like yoga’s americanized incarnation (downward facing dog instead of Adho Mukha Svanasana). I kind of get the same old-skool Linux feel from the Ruby (not Rails) community, which is cool. The difference for me between then and now, is that I really could care less if anyone jumps on the Ruby bandwagon. Back then, I was a religious zealot about Linux – preaching to anyone who’d listen (and even those who didn’t want to hear it). Maybe it is just a funk…but, I’m kind of just tired. In the early 2000 I was beating the IPv6 drum only to have my head constantly bashed against a wall by corporate idiots. At some point I think I’ve just subconsciously realized that it will all unfold however it damn well pleases and there’s no point in me caring one way or the other (I’m really just along for the ride). I suppose the sooner I consciously accept this the better off I will be.

Then, there is the whole “human” angle…like I should be trying to save the race or something. Like where ever I put my energy should be for the greater good (or something). All this green crap, the election politics, fuel prices, my rapidly thinning scalp coverage, blah, blah, blah. It really is rather depressing. Oh wait, I’m not supposed to care about the number of hairs listing from the top o’ my head…green, green is good. Damn, green is bad. Green means we’ve already screwed up and attempting to care. Then I read O’Reilly’s latest blog post and return to proud American mode. Sorry…can’t…help…myself…ahhhhhhhh…the…madness. It’s The Happening.

I watched Discovery’s deal on NASA (leaving Earth…) last night. Really frickin’ cool. We pretty much suck as a country these days. I wish we could have a Kennedy lead us to the Moon right about now. Just looking forward would be nice. These tiddly little mission to Mars with a robot just aren’t doing it either. Don’t get me wrong on understand the relevance of the Phoenix missions – but without human life on the line it isn’t the same. Those guys working Mercury, Gemini and Apollo (my Dad included) were the bomb. No computers to solve the problems…just smart people working it out. That’s effin’ amazing. Anyway…that was then, this is now. Tomorrow we’ll still be worrying about $5/gallon gas.

So. What was I saying? Techno-depression…that overwhelming feeling that it is simply impossible to feel like you are doing anything relevant, let alone worthy. I can’t seem to latch on to any one thing long enough to feel like I’ve made my mark. The ‘master of nothing’ syndrome in full effect. I’m basically in information overload…damn you Google Reader! Add in a mix of ‘mobile me’ and it is all over. I just spent a week at the ocean (in and out of the water). It was all I could do to not open Google Reader from my iPhone. Fear of the 600 new feeds I’d have to wade through was killing me. I’m an addict for sure. Is there an Informatics Anonymous?

Actually, I’m doing pretty good now. High of 104 degrees today. Back at work, the routine is definitely soothing. Performance evaluation this morning. Kids are doing well, one is visiting Zion the other I have no clue what he’s up to. All I know is that every time I get near him he closes his computer, phone, etc. as fast as possible. Is that a sign? Went and saw the Indy Jones movie last night. I’m definitely getting old…but somehow guys like Harrison Ford and Clint Eastwood don’t – and not in the Barry Bonds sort of way (not older, and not bigger at the same time). The movie was OK. Definitely in line with the others. Weird that Lucas et al. progress from religious relics to alien encounters…or maybe progress is the wrong verb.

Well, lunch is over. Back to work. Peace in.

Having worked in the DoD space now for the better part of my career I’ve seen this happen more than once. ;) And, every time I can’t help but wonder who’s getting fired. Or, which side of the fence is really responsible? I’d likely presume that it is a combination of both the acquisition process’ complexity and priorities, spreading that across both the customer and contractor’s plates.

However, let’s just put this into perspective for a second. Let’s say I’m a small service business that provides a consulting product to a handful of other small businesses. For “whatever” the reason one of my customers is behind in making payment on a follow-up contract that continues the previous contract’s work. I have some basic choices as a business operator. I can either (A) continue the work in good faith because I value the customer and their end product, or (B) stop working until payment is made, attempting to force action on my customer’s part. Sure, there are a ton of variables that would impact this decision (e.g. the customer’s history, the impact of stoppage on their deliverables, the performance hit a stoppage would have on our ability to spin back up, etc.). All of these dynamics would and should be considered.

But, just for a second consider this variable. What if the customer’s end-product, once delivered, could save lives? Should the work stoppage route even be an option? (And where IS the accountability?)

Fortunately, I have plenty of important work to get done…like CBTs and performance evaluations.

Strangest place…this kid show on Nickelodeon called iCarly.

This episode

I tried searching for it…but, pretty sure it was it with a green pear on the backside. But, the thing was in a shiny black case, not metal.

Recruiting is a growing problem for the branches of the Military. If the state of the “battle” continues on it’s current path – it will prove to be somewhat insurmountable.

The real problem lies with the “skillz” needed by our soldiers, airmen, seaman (and Marines), as well as coasties. Where the military has typically “trained” to reach the required performance – the cost to do so is growing beyond the ability to recover the investment within four years.

Obviously I’m really only addressing the problem as it relates to “technical” skillsets…like Math and Science. For example…I’m a high school student excelling in Mathematics and Science (possibly Computer Science). I have the choice of either attending a four year school, graduating, getting a job making 65K/year; attending a four year school, graduating, getting commissioned as an officer and making ~32K/year; or enlisting and earning ~17K/for the first year. Here’s the real problem. It would take almost 8 years from the military route’s pay to double…assuming “good” behavior. If I were an exceptional professional I could double my pay within 5 – easily.

Air Force’s Cyber Command recruiting commercial does an excruciatingly painful job at trying to be cool to this crowd. The first problem with this…is that it shows “operators” clicking on a touch screen. Operators are literally just that. What it doesn’t address is the intelligence that is really required…the engineering mindset (social or technical).

Also, operators don’t develop the systems (really no one serving does) – federal contractors do. The “touch screen” technology as well as the command and control applications are an example of such a case. The military branches are also competing with the folks that actually engineer the stuff. However, having served in the Air Force I know there is a lot more to operating and maintaining – thus the fairly lengthy technical schooling session plus constant on-the-job training. And, back to my original assertion that from an investment perspective this may be an insurmountable problem.

This Air Force commercial is a little better – but, notice that the guy is a captain. The majority of the people in the video are not. The reality is that our Air Force’s “network” war is being fought by high-school graduates.

Navy Seal Recruiting Commercial But, let’s be real – we all know that these are just commercials and don’t truly represent like this one

Ok, seriously. Here’s the wiki entry on Air Force’s recently established Cyber Command:

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

This is serious stuff; seriously technical stuff, requiring massive innovation to stay in the lead. Basically, what is happening is that the Air Force and Navy are recruiting against the likes of Google, Microsoft, Cisco and Garmin. I’m sure that these guys aren’t even aware. But, I’m equally sure that the Air Force and Navy are.

Patriotism aside I can’t arrive at any logical solution that would lead me to the military – especially based on the pay potential. The “funding” for school doesn’t cover the difference in salary over the first four years either. My oldest son is already talking about going to the Air Force Academy. Fortunately, I am a patriot and so is my wife who is a Captain in the Air National Guard. But, we are the minority for sure.

I don’t think this is a winnable war for either the Air Force or the Navy unless they throw the right incentives. Pay is a good starting point…though I don’t see this as the ultimate solution. I’ll throw this last idea out there as a parting shot. What if the Air Force offered college grads with direct job placement into the top federal contractors (guaranteed) and possibly with commercial companies like those mentioned above – after their commission and duty time is served? This is a positive for all stakeholders. The Air Force ensures that there needs flow in to the contractors. The contractors ensure they get personnel that understands the problems. And, the individual gets a job that allows them to take advantage of all their knowledge, skills and abilities.

It seems to me that the there’s still a great void in the tech industry. FOSS is establishing itself with clout in all sectors including the Departement of Defense. So, why is Open Source hardware so far behind? The easy answer is that it isn’t so easy. ;) To play with and contribute to a hardware design is considerably more complex than with software. Plus, most organizations see hardware as the value added. It is a shame really…but, understood.

In my experience as a Defense contractor there is a huge amount of waste in the redevelopment of computing architectures because of form-factor or resource constraints. For operational environment reasons, devices and general electronics are constantly reproduced because access to design artifacts aren’t available. Granted, general purpose electronics and processors aren’t as pervasive as the same in the software world. But, they should be. At minimum the hardware should be designed with standard connectors and interfaces – so as to be made “modular”.

The guys at BUG Labs are doing just this. But, more importantly they’ve identified the relationship between the hardware and the software – and even at a higher level. The idea that hardware can be somewhat generic and integrated at the lowest level, then integrated at a middle-level via a software development kit to create any number of high-level applications that take advantage of the permutation of hardware is really incredible. Really, this is component-based engineering as it should be.

Here’s a very basic (abstract) use case for how the DoD, or more specifically, how contractors could take advantage of this BUG architecture:

Consider an unmanned air frame, and let’s assume that it could accommodate a modular hardware suite to include sensor A, B, or C; effector X or Y, and radio R or S. Consider a mission profile of “find, fix, kill, and verify”. Potentially this could be accommodated by the right combination of hardware. But, let’s not stop there. One more consideration…imagine that with the right payloads the mission tasking could be extended to a 10-hour operational window by distributing the payloads to multiple airframes (decreasing the payload weight allowing for the extended flight time).

Let’s walk thru a few steps:

1. Maintenance crew “installs” the hardware modules on to the vehicles. Sensor A and C on vehicle 1. Effector X on vehicle 2. Both vehicles are equipped with radio R. Status lights indicate the correct local operations and POST passes.

2. Crew chief connects (wifi or wired) the two vehicles to the OPS network.

3. Mission planner sees the vehicles as “available” and begin linking the assets to mission requirements. By drag-n-drop functions the planners use the MP suite to create the local software configurations for each vehicle, then combines the capabilities to meet the “find, fix, kill and verify” profile as a “cell” capability. Test suites, models and simulations are run to verify actual system characteristics.

4. Mission planner generates the appropriate interface control documentation (ICD) for the cell (as well as security profile) with the click of a button. The ICD is used to request data from the cell, or command the cell from remote systems.

5. Mission planner registers the cell capability via the ICD with up-chain systems such as C2.

[In my example, sensor A is used to “find and fix” the target. Effector X is used to “kill”. Sensor C is used to verify the kill. Radios are used to communicate air-to-air and air-to-ground.]

All of the software/operational integration is done automagically. Obviously hidden in the magic are loads of interface standards, definitions, and registration/discovery processes. The key is that they are all available…and mechanisms for completing my scenario all exist. The BUG Labs is doing is based on open standards and specifications such as OSGi, Java is already Open. It would seem to make sense to leverage this capability, expanding it to meet the more advanced needs of a Defense environment. 80% of the problem has already been solved. The same scenario could be applied to logistics problems, uniform issue and load-outs, etc. Net-centricity goes beyond the connectivity…automation and optimization are ripe for the taking.

First…I had a good time. The Bug Labs guys are a welcomed addition…not the typical ego-driven Open Source rockstars that seem to be taking over these kinds of events. I attended their BUG+SV which was fun (even without wifi – how strange is that, Palo Alto and no wifi?).

The event itself is a bit too robotic…maybe that is what happens when a company like IBM runs/orchestrates an event. I know IBM didn’t literally run it – but…

Speaking of rockstars there were some big ones. Erich Gamma is pushing Jazz. Ok, really there were only a few deserving of the dub. Quite a few who thought they were though. The guy that presented after me (have no clue who he is) walked around the whole week like people were asking for his autograph.

The best presentation I attended was Marcel Offerman and Karl Paul’s tutorial on Building Secure OSGi Applications. Fortunately, there is effort on that front – because it was a huge void just even a year ago.

My slides are up at Slideshare – with a few edits. I actually dropped in a pretty sketchy picture depicting the IRS – which I pulled out for the masses. I think it went fairly well. I’d actually overheard a few folks standing in the hallway considering coming in – but, were thinking that my presentation would be a sales pitch. I suppose part of that is due to the abstract. However, I think too many presentations came out that way…commercials.

So, I prefaced my talks with my objective of telling a story…with a few provocative facts thrown in. I think overall it was accepted well. Based on the green(+1)/red(-1) bucket distribution it was a bit more popular than not. I do believe there were a few who were hoping to hear how OSGi is being used across the DoD with spectacular success and when I stated the contrary just got in the groove of shaking their head – over nodding in approval. But, that’s how it goes. There were also a few folks with the DoD as the organization printed on their badge. I’m not exactly sure if that meant that worked for the DoD itself or a contractor. This is a good sign though…their attendance proves things are changing.

There was one question at the end that I struggled to answer. “How do you make the business case to Accenture to have people contribute to Open Source”. My answer was that it is not a “business” problem, but a cultural one. I know that might be hard to swallow – but, the reality is that most development organizations – let alone one’s in the DoD space – just aren’t filled with people who’d be comfortable with submitting a patch, or even posting to a mailing list. The current culture is one where everyone is used to having paid support and if it isn’t there then someone made a bad decision. Even though I made the case that consummation of Open Source is a “standard” practice these days – that doesn’t translate to the consuming at a developmental level. Using Linux doesn’t imply that the user is going to be willing to commit anything…quite the contrary. All that said, while working at Raytheon I did have to make the business case – and I did it successfully by buying a support contract with an Open Source parent. It took some time before other developers were comfortable with the notion of fixing the problems themselves then giving the fixes to the support company. It was even longer before anyone was comfortable with contributing back directly to the community. But, was that was done – we were able to make the case to the “software” organization that this should be recognized as an expected practice, based on the fact that it reduced the time for the fix to turn around in to the next release of the consumed Open Source project (dependency problems being a critical part of consuming OSS). The argument was made that the cost of supporting a community was far less that the license and maintenance costs for a proprietary solution. Once you are to numbers, it is really that simple – getting to the numbers is the hard part, and that was my point in response to the original question. BTW, from the other side of the fence the Open Source projects don’t appear to care either way…they keep moving and fix what they deem necessary.

Also, getting “psychological” support from a few key OSGi folks was really nice. It appears that the OSGi community in general (beyond Eclipse) seems to really care about the problem domains of their users. I hope to follow up on those fronts in the near future.

It was also pretty exciting to see what’s happening with ServiceMix, Apache’s leading ESB effort – which is now built out from OSGi (Felix). [Thanks Oisin for your time.] I was disappointed in the Swordfish effort – at least what was presented. I was hoping there’d be more momentum – we’ll have to wait and see if there ever will be a critical mass there. The Sopera guys were nice and I do believe that they have the right objective. Something that I’d not really considered until very recently was the decisions being made on which Foundation to jump in bed with: Eclipse or Apache. Sopera is obviously working within the Eclipse Foundation…because there is a hole in the offering. I’m just not sure there is really a market for an Eclipse-based ESB. I could be wrong though.

I ran in to a few folks that resulted in great conversations. I talked with the SourceForge guy – and it was interesting to get his take on things – versus what you hear from the guys at CollabNet. I’m not really sure SourceForge is healthy – but, they keep chugging (good for them).

That’s it for now. Ping me if you have any questions, or comments.

Oh yeh, there was one missing organization. Sun.

I’m trying to figure out why there’s a couple of Microsoft guys sitting next to me at the hotel bar, here at EclipseCon. I would ask them…but, after hearing their completely lame discussion about dual-monitor workstations there’s no way I’m striking up a conversation.

Amazing. Even the smelly elephant gets invited to the party.

Catchy title, eh?

I recently ran a booth at my son’s high school career day, covering Software Engineering and Computer Science. A couple of quick observations.

The military guys (recruiters) were by far the most trafficked booths. This is ironic in a couple of ways. First, out of all the career fields these guys will get the least amount of students (at least especially from my son’s school). Second, I believe the reason for the “interest” is that these students think the military is “cool” – at least from the “impress your friends” perspective. Even when I was in high school I wouldn’t have been caught dead having talked to a recruiter. The irony there is that I enlisted in the USAF halfway through my freshman year of college.

So, the deal was that each student had to stop at least 5 booths, and ask some generic questions like: what’s the average starting salary, what’s the college requirement, what’s the biggest advantage, and what’s the biggest disadvantage? The first two are pretty easy. A salary.com search will reveal the expected salary for a given locale. The majority of the career field options require a Bachelors degree (those that don’t have one are definitely the minority).

The biggest advantage and disadvantage are a little tougher to answer, at least with a straight face. I think the greatest advantage to a career in Computer Science or Software Engineering is that computing is pretty ubiquitous and still spreading like a California wildfire. Even with the outsourcing “issues” abound – there’s still a lot of work to be done – here or abroad by Americans. I’ll leave it at that…there are obviously a lot of advantages but the fact that, as a career field, software isn’t going away.

The greatest disadvantage that I dropped on the interested students was the difficulties in staying current. Unlike some professions where you actually learn the trade in the first two years after college and it never changes, technology is brutally difficult to track. I think this is a challenge that many can’t overcome.

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Here’s a few more thoughts on the concept of CS or SE as a career.

If you are lazy and unmotivated, or even socially inept you can still make a great living in this career field. Just get hired by a large business, and you can coast the rest of your life in mediocrity (it sure would beat working hard a Taco Bell).

If you are the opposite, and highly motivated the challenges and problems that need solving are incredibility dynamic and interesting. The software world is rapidly evolving and the potential for making a lot of money are pretty good – assuming that you can pick up and master a technology.

Culturally, the software world has a much younger field to it. Probably due to the majority of old school developers/engineers getting sucked in to managerial roles. There are great communities full of individuals and organizations who are willing to help you solve those problems and enlighten you on becoming better, and better at whatever you are doing. There are definitely pockets of ego, but that is everywhere and is relatively easy to avoid.

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More to come on this topic in the near future.

As part of my ongoing research under the rVooz project I keep coming back to the origin of the name: rendezvous. Given the hype around geo data – see Where2.0 for validation on the “hype” part – I think there’s some good to be taken away even with the “big brother” risk. What about an application the links individuals (who know nothing about eachother a priori) based on their current geo-location, relative to say a square block or something. The outcome could be something like a rideshare opportunity. The link could be made real via TXT/SMS, IM, or even VoIP, assuming the “user” has authorized the connection.

Granted this may not have any meat anywhere but really densely-populated areas…but, maybe it would serve as a survey to find out if ridesharing is even feasible.

Web services such as Motionbased.com are doing a very good job of collecting geo data related to training or sport activities…this same data could be used for more of a “social networking” concept too. As GPS devices slim and become a bit more ubiquitous via cellphones and navigation systems I feel the opportunities are ripe for more proactive use. What if you tracked your daily drive to work, including timing and found that there were 10 other people that matched your schedule within 10 minutes. Would you consider ridesharing? What if the link was made for you, by registering you and your data via a new web service?

What if this kind of capability was added to an already existing web service, or social networking website? Or, even as an Open Source desktop application?

Ok, so I just finished watching Eben Moglen go “off” the deep end – on Tim O’Reilly.

(Not sure how I missed that. Thanks Brian for pointer.)

This, in a round-about way has prompted me to update me…and my stance on Google and Open Source. Really, it is just a retrofitting of my opinions ten years ago. I only partly agree with Eben Moglen on his policy positions. The commercialization of Open Source is the reason that he had that platform to flap his jaws. So, it is a two-way street. But, he’s absolutely right about the current media attention. “Marketization” of technologies (ala O’Reilly’s conference) is creating a strange landscape focusing on the wrong problems. Open Source isn’t about how a company can make money. Open Source is about freedom (including the freedom to make changes to source code and do whatever you want with ‘em). Not saying this is right, just that it it is what it is…

I’d lost that in the past few years.

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I’ve spent the past few months working with a load of new-to-me technologies to include Flash/Flex/ActionScript, Ruby (and Rails, Ramaze, Merb), XMPP/IM/OpenFire, Javascript/AJAX, OSGi and a few others.. Lot’s of stuff I’d never seen before. I’m really enjoying the exposure to all of the new things…though, I’m beginning to wonder what it is doing to my effectiveness.

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So far so good on the Accenture transition. The only real problem was the hard requirement for Outlook. Before the transition I could use Entourage, or even Apple Mail to get my Exchange mail. Unfortunately Accenture has a whole slew of “stuff” they’ve added to the Exchange mix, forcing me to use VMWare Fusion and Outlook. I do feel a bit disconnected however – more so than before the acquisition. I’ve only met one Accenture person face to face…I’m getting the impression this might be the norm. Not complaining – I’m enjoying my freedom to wake up, and sit at my desk in my boxers – working (at least until I’ve finished my second cup of coffee).

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Starting to get stuff together for the spiel at EclipseCon in March. We have a great story…am hoping people will show up. ; }

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rVooz is coming along. We’ve spent the last sprint/spike looking at an architectural shift. The crux of the problem is how we establish the architecture to meet both SaaS objectives as well as deployable (deliverable turn-key systems) objectives. The end result is that we are looking at a Ruby on Rails web application environment that is both distributable and scalable – over our existing OSGi-framework (felix) model.

As far as clients go we are looking at continuing the Google Maps effort, as well as looking at the potential for an Eclipse plugin (for developers), a Facebook app, and a few others. We’re also beginning to discuss our next Voozer – with opportunities in VoIP and maybe Facebook.

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That’s it…just a minor update. Next version coming soon though.

I’ve got a new ambition: a Tucson software development/engineering symposium. Right now, I’m thinking September or October.

I’ve got some good role model events:

No Fluff Just Stuff and Philly’s Emerging Tech.

So, here’s a few of my thoughts.

• a single day event
• run on Saturday
• start at 8:30
• sessions end at 3
• central to town (u of a?)
• rest of day social/hack sessions
• 15-18, 30 minutes sessions in two tracks
• cover “hot” topics (rails/grails, agile, tdd/bdd, open sourcing, ruby/python, robotics)
• get sponsorship from raytheon, intuit, ventana, arizona center for innovation, ibm, saic, etc.
• limit attendee seats to 200
• cost at ~$100
• all proceeds go to building a computer science/software engineering summer camp for kids.

Any feedback?

So, it is time. Near the end of the last year I decided that we’re done with MX. The bottom line is that it is just not safe, IMHO. I won’t go into the details, but I’m broken – for the rest of my life. Had what happened to me happened to either of my sons they wouldn’t be able to play football, baseball, the drums or whatever it is that they want to do – ever. That’s not something I can live with, and put them on a track or trail. It just isn’t worth it. Yeh, I did my best to keep them safe, and teach them how to be safe. But, the cold reality is that as a rider, you’re never in total control. I know the same holds true for mountain biking, snowboarding, and just about any sport or activity. But, the consequences just aren’t the same and the potential for serious injury is just different in those examples.

So, if you are looking to get in to the sport or just looking to ride in the desert just know the truth. And don’t kid yourself in to believing you can be in control (or thinking you won’t ride over your head). Or worse, that your kid won’t go fast enough to get seriously hurt. And, for the ignorant out there…it isn’t the jumping that is inherently dangerous. It is the speed.

Ok – I’m selling our bikes. ; }

My RM-Z250 is going for $3500. Caiden’s RM65 is going for $1400.

Maybe some day the safety gear will catch up and the sport of MX won’t be filled with so much ignorance. Until then, later.

We'll be there speaking about the Department of Defense and Open Source Software + how we're using OSGi, Eclipse in rVooz.

The project I’m currently working on is attempting to solve an itch. The itch, in this case, has to do with the need to already “know” another user, who you might want to chat (instant message or communicate in general) with.

The definition of rendezvous from dictionary.com:

“an agreement between two or more persons to meet at a certain time and place.”

rVooz is an attempt to provide some tooling to remove the certain time and place, and provide the agreement – the context.

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