I have been a huge fan of dot net rocks (DNR) now for a long time. Carl and Richard do a great job as the hosts and both the audio quality and the discussion on their regular podcasts is the best in the software industry.

Listening to DNR on the commute to work or while at the gym is a great way to get a few extra 'cycles' in each day. At the end of the week you can easily pickup an extra 5-8 hours of education which would not be possible if you had to allocate time to sit down and read or watch a video/screen cast.      

Big thanks goes to Carl and Richard for a great podcast. :)

I picked up a recent talk from Kathy Sierra on the IT conversations network, titled Kathy Sierra - How  to Kick Ass. On the first listening, it didn't agree with me and I found the presentation a bit scattered and difficult to follow. However when I listened to it a second time I really enjoyed Kathy's talk. I don't know a lot about Kathy's work however I have followed her on twitter and certainly enjoy many of Kathy's tweets. Kathy discussed a number of observations from her research on what makes people, effective high performers. Here are some of my takeaways:

• The most important thing you can do to improve your brain is more exercise. I completely agree with this point and I think it is especially true for cardio.   
• The most distinguishing behaviour of effective high performers is lots and lots of practice.
• I recall reading a study sometime ago that concluded that the only significant difference between a chess beginner and a chess grandmaster was 10,000 hours of practice and that anybody could become a chess master with 10,000 hours of practice.
• One of the US baseball batting stars would apparently hit balls in a batting cage from sun up to sun down, until his hands bleed. Now that's what I call practice! 
• Visualisation does work to improve performance. However when using visualisation, you must visualise yourself doing the task from what you would see rather than how you would look. E.g. when riding a horse you would see the horses ears, not the image of yourself on the horse.
• When you watch somebody performing a task, you will have a far greater learning experience if you have attempted the task before.
• Apparently stage fright is a natural biological response to looking into the eyes of other predators.

So do more exercise, read more and practice more and you will be great! :)

PS: Sometime ago I came across the The art of Learning, by Josh Waitzkin. Josh has a very interesting history.   

Had a interesting experience this morning that I felt deserved capturing. Some background first. I work in the Sydney CBD, we have a small office on Pitt street. One of the inflictions of being an engineer is a keen eye for defects. This morning in an effort to change my routine I thought I would buy my coffee from a cafe that has recently changed hands. After all how bad could it be? Well, I was soon to find out! This cafe was in the past styled as a French cafe, (I assume it had French owners). French food and accents could be heard and it was a brief glimpse of Paris in the middle of Sydney.

So I entered this morning to experience the new ownership and immediately alarm bells went off. When you enter a small business and really observe what is going on around you, the level of quality in the execution becomes immediately apparent. It was after a short period of time obvious to me that I had walked into a disaster zone and a small business that was limping to a slow death. Here is a summary of my observations:  

• The large menu was written on a chalk board high against the roof in something resembling chicken scratch. It was just too hard to read - please don't make me think.
• The largest discernable marking was an exclamation point following the statement "cold drinks to the left!" which I took to mean that the question pissed the staff off. Fine but please fix the design rather than the yell instructions to confused customers! 
• The shelves had very little stock on them and what was there looked like it had been there for some time. Stock levels correlate directly to turn over.  
• The barrister upon executing my order, sweeped his finger across the group handle to remove the excess grinds and then wiped his hand on his pants. The excess grinds gathered in a heap around the base of the grinder. So... fingers other than mine, have been in my coffee.... hmmm interesting.   
• I saw my cup lined up, yet the espresso from another cup was shared between a collection of cups, mine included. WTF! This was a fundamental mistake. The promise of espresso is that it arrives fresh into your cup straight from the espresso machine and into your cup alone!
• The staff were rushed, hurried and appeared agitated, even though they were only managing a small number of orders. This only added to creating a negative impression. Customers really want to feel that you are in control.

All in all it was a very negative experience, and as expected, the end result reflected the execution of the process that created it - crappy! 

I tipped the horrible concoction out and returned to my regular cafe and was then simply amazed by the contrast.

• There was a large queue, 15+, the previous cafe had 3. Natural selection in the wild!
• Despite the increased production level the staff were pleasant, chatty and seemed completely in control.
• The coffee was perfectly executed.
• There were papers for me to read while I waited. 

I have seen many small businesses start in the city with a customer service level or offering that is simply not good enough to survive. However they do survive for periods and I imagine are being propped up by the balance sheet rather than profit from revenue.

So in summary sometimes really good design can only be noticed when you expose yourself to really bad design :) 

On a Tuesday night (18 Nov 2008) three user groups gathered in the Atlassian offices in Sydney to hear Dave Thomas discuss his thoughts on the future of cloud computing.  The room was packed (maybe 100+) and certainly a touch humid - yet Dave had the room filled with laughter and the time certainly passed quickly. :)

Essentially Dave was of the opinion that the future in computing is largely in the cloud, which is a viewed held by many but not everyone. The proponents of the cloud often point out:

• Too much complexity in configuring server farms.
• Too much complexity in maintaining hardware and data backups.
• Increasing Internet connectivity.

The cloud skeptics however often rebuttal with:

• Privacy and freedom concerns will push people to maintain their own data on their own servers.
• Hardware costs are shrinking.   
• Internet connectivity will always be problematic/controlled by others (e.g. gov and corp).

Both sides of this argument have some very good points and especially the privacy and ownership concerns of having another corporate owning a company's data is a weighty issue that many executives are just not comfortable with. There are already rumblings internationally about Google's growing omnipotence! 

I will leave the debate about privacy and freedom and focus on the software development aspects discussed by Dave. Some of the key points and take ways were:

• Google - 500,000+ processors
• Relational data queries will be the in demand skills of the future:
  • The apparent litmus test for great SQLer's is being able to complete all of the problems within Joe Celko's "SQL For Smarties" 
  • LINQ will also be a big part of this.
• Everyone within Sales Force is apparently in the same database.
• Relational database battle of 80's/90's was DB vendors versus web services vendors.
• Y2K was such a hug problem because companies had not maintained updates on legacy software platforms - mainly because it is just so hard/risky.
• JavaScript will grow in popularity.
  • More apps will simply exist as Javascript running in a browser. Maybe even a replacement for Visual Studio and Eclipse one day talking to a cloud backend.
• Eclipse apparently 1M+ LOC that are impossible to refactor.  

In summary

The concept of cloud computing brings together a number of large issues and also forces corporate's and individuals to review their values. Privacy, freedom, and Internet connectivity. It is certainly too earlier to call a decisive advantage of the cloud that will enable it to win out over time and therefore I imagine it will instead join the growing ranks of vendor products available on the market - just like the many flavours of ice cream we have.    

A big thanks to Atlassian for providing the venue and the drinks.  :)

References:

• "Cloud Computing With Dave Thomas" at Richards Brain Dump
• Dave Thomas home page
• Sydney ALT.NET meeting notice
• "SQL For Smarties: Advanced SQL Programming" by Joe Celko
• "Joe Celko's Trees and Hierarchies in SQL for Smarties" by Joe Celko 
• Linda (a comp sci model of data and parallel processes)
• JAOO Sydney May 5-8, 2009 (2008 details here)
• Cloud Vendors
  • Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2)
  • Google App Engine
    • Python based
    • Great app monitoring / instrumentation built in.

All Australians will be well aware of the Rudd governments new Fuel Watch initiative. The tender to build the web site was released (AusTender: Current ATM View - RFT2008-03) in late May 2008, the summary is:-

When is Fuel-Watch Coming?

Another interesting point is the urgency of this tender. Generally government IT request for tenders give a few months to prepare proposals with project completion time frames generally over a few years. However, Fuel-Watch is highly political and obviously has the pedal to the metal.

The closing date for proposals is 26 Jun, giving interested parties about 4 weeks to prepare proposals. Fuel Watch is expected to be operational by 15 Dec 2008.

Assuming the government takes about a month to decide (July-ish) then the winner bidder will have about 4 months (Aug-Nov) to develop the web site.

Is it just me or this a very ambitious timeframe!

And One Other Thing - Is This Just Political Mass Media Buzz?

As an aside note to this post, government's all over the world often pick goods linked to their local culture identity and debate them in the local media generally for political purposes. Examples of this are:-

• Fortune magazine has run articles on the rising price of pasta in Italy and how it is a political issue. Australia's drought was even mentioned as a contributing cause to the increased pasta prices.
• France's media often focuses on the rising cost of bread.  

In all cases the issue is discussed in the media in the same way. People are interviewed on the street complaining and politicians then release new initiatives to generally monitor prices. Could you imagine the cost of pasta being discussed/debated in Australian media? Sounds absurd, well then, run the same ruler over the petrol debate.

I have recently pursued a path along a number of resources orientated towards design and visualisation, that has brought me to an interesting new resource which is the work of the artist Joseph Kosuth in the mid 1960's.

I started with Mark Miller's podcast with the DNR team on the "Science of Good UI". This then lead onto Edward Tufte's video review on the iphone UI. I then moved onto the Turner To Monet exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia (NGA). After the exhibition I was then draw to the text, "The Illustrated History of Art" and within this discovered Kosuth's work.

Within Kosuth's work is his well know "Chair I and III" (see picture below). Within the "The Illustrated History of Art" there is a quote related to Kosuth's work that states, "...only art can investigate the state of things beyond physics".          

I think Kosuth's work is valid in the context of modern day UI design as he explored the combination of both verbal and visual representations of objects and concepts. His Chair I and III is an example of this in which a picture of a chair is shown alongside an actual chair, along with the dictionary definition of a chair.

I also believe Kosuth's work (circa 1960's) explores concepts associated with modern day software design in which designers attempt to combine requirements that are generally written, into a useful visual object that a user can then interact with. That is, the UI design. 

This post is an attempt to capture a train of thought that I hope might be useful for others interested in creating new design resources. I was especially motivated by the quote ".. only art can investigate the state of things beyond physics", which I think is a compelling thought for engineers (like myself) to open their thinking processes to influences from the art world. When a student leaves their current problem domain and looks for influences from other domains then rich opportunities for innovation are created. 

We recently spent a fantastic week on the island of Saint Martin in the Caribbean. We were attracted to Saint Martin for the fact that it is half French and half Dutch, therefore in theory combining two international trips into one, European and Caribbean. Throw in all the Americans there and you have a real cultural cocktail, which is great for visiting Australians.

Saint Martin is certainly not an island visited by a lot of Australians and therefore we were commonly greeted with "...wow, you've come a long way", which would then follow with "...how long did it take you to get here?".

Getting there did take a long time and it is certainly not a path well travelled by other Australians, hence I hope that this post is perhaps helpful for others who would like to visit Saint Martin departing from Australia.

Forget the Travel Agents Original Quotes

As the trip from Sydney to Saint Martin is not a popular route, you will find travel agents giving you quotes for fights and hotel stays of up to $10,000 per person! And worse still the flights will be on routes with up to 44 hours travel time! Most agents have flights departing Sydney to LA, and then LA to Miami, Miami to some other island.  

After some investigation, we found the best path was to fly Sydney direct to New York (there is a quick LA stop to clear customs), spend some time in New York and then from JFK airport you can connect direct to Saint Martin (SXM) daily with AA. There are about 7 flights a day from JFK to SXM yet there is only 1 direct flight in the morning which takes about 4.5 hours. The other flights have various stop overs with the worst getting up to 12 hours travel time. Likewise flying back from SXM to JFK there is only 1 daily direct flight. Staying in New York also means you are on the same time zone as Saint Martin which means you only have one time zone to adjust to during your trip. Qantas has a daily direct flight to New York from Sydney. The daily AA flights between JFK and SXM however cannot be booked over the Internet by Australians. I don't know why this is the case, but the AA web site wont allow it. However if you have the flight number and details you can take these into a travel agent and they can book them for you. By travelling this path of Sydney-New York-Saint Martin, you will get a shorter travel time with time for a stop over in New York. Flying back to JFK from SXM you will need a one-night stop over before connecting to the Qantas flight back to Sydney. The good news is JFK has heaps of motels near the airport that are great for this.                

Saint Martin is a beautiful Caribbean island paradise, and now that you have arrived you want to enjoy yourself right. 

Saint Martin's Not So Obvious Travel Tips

1. Fly into New York and connect to Saint Martin.

2. Do arrive 3 hours before boarding at the Juliana airport (SXM).

3. Ask the local taxi drivers the price before getting in the car. All taxis trips are fixed price with no meters, so you need to ask up front or risk tourist tax at the other end. 

4. Beware the mosquitoes in the evening. They are certainly not like the mosquitoes here in Australia. They are smaller and quieter, yet manage to pack more of a bite! You wont know that you are being bitten until the next day when you are covered in welts.   

5. Buy crates of bottled water for your hotel room. The island's water is supplied by a desalination plant, which tastes nothing like Evian. 

6. The Caribbean lonely planet guide is somewhat out of date and seemed to have numerous errors. It is still a helpful guide. 

7. Get plenty of US$1 dollar bills from Australia for tipping. You will find in the US and Saint Martin tipping is expected and if you have nothing but 10 and 20 dollar bills when you need to tip people small amounts ($2-$3 dollars) at places like bars, then your stuck.

8. Do take a taxi tour of the island. It is only about US$30 an hour and well worth it.

9. Do visit the Sunset Beach Bar during the day to see the planes land and then stay still the sun sets.

10. Do eat at the LoLo's at Grand Case. Fantastic huge lobsters on an open BBQ with rich garlic butter. Yum!

11. A lot of people on the French side will take US dollars as a 1:1 swap for Euro, when paying for food and drink.

12. Do eat at the French restaurants along Orient beach.

13. Avoid peak seasons and cyclone season. See Lonely planet guide.

14. Do use trip advisor for getting a hotel in NY. I was really amazed by how good the trip advisor site was. 

15. Don't buy any duty free alcohol before you fly to Saint martin. Saint Martin is tax free. 

16. Take cash with you when you visit the french side, as there is a real shortage of ATM's.

Many people here in Australia and I imagine elsewhere in the world are currently watching in horror as companies collapse or go very close to collapse, initiated by the global credit squeeze combined with heavy gearing.

I was motivated to write this blog post after recently watching a report on the Sunday Business Show about an Australian ASX listed company called MFS.

The MFS stock price went from ~AU$6 to ~AU$1 in the space of 4 weeks!  

An initial response is to blame the founders who were also large shareholders, bad management, greed, asleep at the wheel, etc. However, this response I believe only seems valid in hind sight and I am inclined to believe that the founders were indeed competent at their jobs, both before this disaster and now after it, and perhaps even better off for it.    

If you were the founder of very successful IPO company, with a large paper wealth as a result of your stock holdings, wouldn't you like to turn some of that stock holding into cash by borrowing against it? I think most people would certainly answer yes.

I tried to capture a cause and effect analysis of the situation that occurred to MFS, shown in the diagram below. From this analysis you can quickly see how the control of their company 'got away' from the founders. Some of the visible dynamics are:-

• One cause/effect feed into another, creating a snowball effect.
• The end result cannot be reversed. The echo of this short 4 weeks could persist within the company for many years to come.
• The complicated interactions between founders, lifestyle, shareholders, banks and lawyers.
• Even relatively small debts can have huge impacts on cash flow. 
• A directors sometimes conflicting obligations to shareholders and ASX listing regulations. Information and it's suitability for inclusion in a public announcement can be regarded differently by retail investors compared to large share holders. While both being shareholders of the company, the impact on their respective investments can be effected in opposite ways as a result of the announcement.

Therefore how does a successful founder avoid the above? The answer to this question, which is a common answer to questions about a very complicated issue is, "....well, it depends". I will attempt to discuss an answer in an upcoming post. :)   

Resources:

1. MFS stock price chart
2. Cause and effect diagram

This blog post captures a link to an Australian company called Cleardocs that provides online Australian company secretary documents at a very competitive price.

Of note is the company registration process that they offer for only AU$537.50 (as of 14 Feb 2008). This is only AU$137.50 above the ASIC registration fee of AU$400.

A bit of background on creating an ACN with ASIC

• Typically start up businesses ask their accountant to create the new company for them.
• Costs for this type of service typically ranged between AU$1,200-AU$2000.
  • This price was constructed from AU$800 ASIC fee and then the accountants margin on top.
• In the May 2007 Australian Commonwealth Budget the ASIC fee was reduced to AU$400.

This type of service may be useful if you are creating new company entities for:-

• Holding Intellectual Property as part of a protection or licensing strategy.
• To facilitate joint ventures.
• Re-branding a businesses.
• Starting a new business and looking to reduce up front costs.
• Positioning large contracts and or projects. (In a similar manner to a joint venture).
• Separating large funds for fund management activities. Often linked to this is the use of a unit trust with the new company acting as the trustee of the unit trust.