Yesterday I returned from an amazing trip. I was in Iasi, Romania for the third time to work with and visit my Romanian colleagues and as usual they made sure that I was not only comfortable and productive but that I really enjoyed myself.
Thank you all for welcoming me to the office and for taking me out for lunch, dinner, drinks and around the city.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Monday, June 23, 2008
Always in beta
As Wassim says, we're always in beta. He is very fond of making broad all encompassing statements and although in this case he was talking about PowerSQL and DB Optimizer and the work we do at Embarcadero, I feel this is true in life.
As we go through our days, weeks and years, it is very rare that we're able and ready for all the challenges that we're going to face. This isn't to say that we don't succeed, only that things rarely go exactly as planned and that life being what it is tends to hand out it's fair share of surprises.
Beta means many things to many people. If you're a rock climber, getting good beta about a climb essentially means tips on how to get up the wall or cliff. In software, it means that a particular program is almost finished but not quite. Generally when software goes beta, a limited group of people are asked to use the software and evaluate it. I there are any problems, they can be addressed before it's sold or released to the public.
Two products that I am working on have just gone beta and are designed to help you rise to the challenges in your life and succeed. DB Opimizer 1.0 is a lean, mean tuning and profiling machine. PowerSQL 1.1 is the next iteration of our SQL development IDE that is targeted at application developers. Both have some wildly innovation features and an easy UI that is sure to delight. Check them out.
As we go through our days, weeks and years, it is very rare that we're able and ready for all the challenges that we're going to face. This isn't to say that we don't succeed, only that things rarely go exactly as planned and that life being what it is tends to hand out it's fair share of surprises.
Beta means many things to many people. If you're a rock climber, getting good beta about a climb essentially means tips on how to get up the wall or cliff. In software, it means that a particular program is almost finished but not quite. Generally when software goes beta, a limited group of people are asked to use the software and evaluate it. I there are any problems, they can be addressed before it's sold or released to the public.
Two products that I am working on have just gone beta and are designed to help you rise to the challenges in your life and succeed. DB Opimizer 1.0 is a lean, mean tuning and profiling machine. PowerSQL 1.1 is the next iteration of our SQL development IDE that is targeted at application developers. Both have some wildly innovation features and an easy UI that is sure to delight. Check them out.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Success
What does it take to be successful? In life? At work? In your dreams? Is there one answer or many?
There's a Facebook application called compare people and it gives people all kinds of superficial ways to compare different people: how is hotter, who is more popular, who is better looking. It also gives you the opportunity to compare people based on who is a better friend, who is nicer, who is more thoughtful and who you'd rather be stuck on a deserted island with.
So what makes you a good friend or a good person? What makes you a good employee? A valued employee? What makes for a successful business?
As a friend, I know that it's important to listen. It's not always easy and often times I'd rather give opinions but I really believe that listening is what is key no matter how good your advice is. If it's great advice for the wrong situation, it's useless.
In business, we're constantly trying to create amazing and useful products. Ideally customers buy our products because we solve a problem for them, we make their lives easier and we help their lives. This is especially true if you're in the business of creating new products (which we are at Embarcadero). I was reading an article by Joel Spolsky and he brought up a simple point that really resonated with me. Simply put: listen! If you want to be a good friend, listen to your friends. If you want to be a good manager, listen to your employees. If you want to produce good products, listen to your customers, sales staff and developers. In life, if there's ever a time where you don't know what to do, go find someone you respect, talk to them and then start listening.
Good things are bound to happen.
There's a Facebook application called compare people and it gives people all kinds of superficial ways to compare different people: how is hotter, who is more popular, who is better looking. It also gives you the opportunity to compare people based on who is a better friend, who is nicer, who is more thoughtful and who you'd rather be stuck on a deserted island with.
So what makes you a good friend or a good person? What makes you a good employee? A valued employee? What makes for a successful business?
As a friend, I know that it's important to listen. It's not always easy and often times I'd rather give opinions but I really believe that listening is what is key no matter how good your advice is. If it's great advice for the wrong situation, it's useless.
In business, we're constantly trying to create amazing and useful products. Ideally customers buy our products because we solve a problem for them, we make their lives easier and we help their lives. This is especially true if you're in the business of creating new products (which we are at Embarcadero). I was reading an article by Joel Spolsky and he brought up a simple point that really resonated with me. Simply put: listen! If you want to be a good friend, listen to your friends. If you want to be a good manager, listen to your employees. If you want to produce good products, listen to your customers, sales staff and developers. In life, if there's ever a time where you don't know what to do, go find someone you respect, talk to them and then start listening.
Good things are bound to happen.
Saturday, March 08, 2008
Apki Lambi Umar Ke Liye
Apparently this means Cheers in Hindi!
I'm planning a trip to India in May. Back in the day I worked with a guy named Vish who is still in India. Maybe I'll get to see him. Unfortunately I'm going to miss the World Sodoku Championship that is taking place in Goa, I was hoping to check it out since I know the gentleman who is representing Canada at this auspicious event - Good luck Mike!
I'm planning a trip to India in May. Back in the day I worked with a guy named Vish who is still in India. Maybe I'll get to see him. Unfortunately I'm going to miss the World Sodoku Championship that is taking place in Goa, I was hoping to check it out since I know the gentleman who is representing Canada at this auspicious event - Good luck Mike!
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
the price of promotion...
The way it is...
Recently a number of my colleagues have started work blogs. Topics range from advice, events, fixes, work-a-rounds and discussing and promoting products. Ir seems like a win-win situation. The company gets some free marketing and advertising. The blogger can get some information out there in a non marketing way. The reader and (potential) customer has the opportunity to develop a connection with someone who works on the project.
The world turns...
I can see how this would work in an open source project. Major contributors have their names out there and are publicly recognized and acknowledged by that particular community. However, I work at Embarcadero, and we're a private company. We don't publish any code, associate people with products or even make public our employees - unless you're a part of the executive team.
So, working in a private company, no one outside of the project group will understand my contribution and those outside the company won't even know to associated me with the project. All of this seems to boil down to an unread and lonely blog.
Whee, it's free!
So apart from the potential cathartic experience of writing for an unknown public, what is the point of me blogging versus writing in a journal? My quest: How to get noticed?
Without doing any research or putting any thought into a plan, here are my ideas:
1. Get people with popular blogs to link to mine
2. Write really interesting and/or useful things
3. Post pictures rather then just write
4. Send my blog to everyone I know
And now for something completely different...
In case you're interested, the product I've been working on for the last few years is called PowerSQL. It features a very powerful SQL editor. I promise you, this is not just another pretty editor. it's useful too. We're a dev shop that focuses on writing useful applications that help you work with and manage databases. This means we're constantly writing, running and executing queries. With PowerSQL, we're able to do it all better and faster then ever before with such helpful features as real time SQL validation, content assist and a customizable formatter.
All good software developers should eat their own dog food and at Embarcadero, we're no exception. While PowerSQL is just about to release, work is already underway on a couple more amazing products that are going to revolutionize your dev environment. PowerSQL will help you write those queries and work with the database.
Recently a number of my colleagues have started work blogs. Topics range from advice, events, fixes, work-a-rounds and discussing and promoting products. Ir seems like a win-win situation. The company gets some free marketing and advertising. The blogger can get some information out there in a non marketing way. The reader and (potential) customer has the opportunity to develop a connection with someone who works on the project.
The world turns...
I can see how this would work in an open source project. Major contributors have their names out there and are publicly recognized and acknowledged by that particular community. However, I work at Embarcadero, and we're a private company. We don't publish any code, associate people with products or even make public our employees - unless you're a part of the executive team.
So, working in a private company, no one outside of the project group will understand my contribution and those outside the company won't even know to associated me with the project. All of this seems to boil down to an unread and lonely blog.
Whee, it's free!
So apart from the potential cathartic experience of writing for an unknown public, what is the point of me blogging versus writing in a journal? My quest: How to get noticed?
Without doing any research or putting any thought into a plan, here are my ideas:
1. Get people with popular blogs to link to mine
2. Write really interesting and/or useful things
3. Post pictures rather then just write
4. Send my blog to everyone I know
And now for something completely different...
In case you're interested, the product I've been working on for the last few years is called PowerSQL. It features a very powerful SQL editor. I promise you, this is not just another pretty editor. it's useful too. We're a dev shop that focuses on writing useful applications that help you work with and manage databases. This means we're constantly writing, running and executing queries. With PowerSQL, we're able to do it all better and faster then ever before with such helpful features as real time SQL validation, content assist and a customizable formatter.
All good software developers should eat their own dog food and at Embarcadero, we're no exception. While PowerSQL is just about to release, work is already underway on a couple more amazing products that are going to revolutionize your dev environment. PowerSQL will help you write those queries and work with the database.
Friday, February 15, 2008
What have you done in the last few years?
I'm sure all kinds of people have great answers to this question. For me, the work related answer is I helped create PowerSQL. Who would have thought that this is something I'd be proud and excited about? Strangely enough, I really didn't but here we have it, it's out there and I'm pumped. Turns out that all my hard work isn't for nothing. Props to all those who helped this product get out there! Check out PowerSQL...
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
It's talk like a pirate day today as well as the first day of archery
Yep, beginner lessons 2006. This officially marks 10 years of archery. Don't forget to talk like a pirate.
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