Hempology

When people ask if I'm a big reader I usually say not, because typically I assume they mean novels and stories and just I don't read many of those. However, there are two topics on which I read constantly. One is of course technology, primarily software tech. If you know me, you know I'm a computer geek so that's no surprise. The other is the Bible and books about it. I am committed to its central character and find the topic totally engrossing. So I do read quite a lot, just not necessarily what I assume most people mean when they ask.

Scott Hanselman blogged that he now reads more than ever because of the Amazon Kindle. When you read, do you use an e-book reader? I didn't for a long time. For one thing I've found the Kindle to be lacking when it comes to technical books. My wife has one and she loves it for reading her books, but when I've tried to use it with technical books it just doesn't work. It’s hard to pin down why, exactly, but I think the screen size is a factor and the lack of color can be a problem depending on the material. It turns out that since I do most of my technical reading during the day anyway, I end up just reading while I'm on the computer working. The computer screen doesn't seem to bother me - I still absorb the material all the same. But it isn’t the same as curling up on the couch with a book. And that brings me to my second category of reading.

I tried a few times to read the Bible on our Kindle. It didn’t work. One of the big challenges with e-Ink screens is slow refresh rates, and the Kindle, though it has improved with each iteration, is still pretty slow to update the image. That’s not a big deal when reading a book front to back, but when I read the Bible I’m flipping constantly back and forth. That type of reading is not front to back, it’s almost haphazard at times and I need to be able to move quickly from book to book, chapter to chapter, and verse to verse. The Kindle just simply cannot do that. And then there were iPhones.

As strange as it seems, I found it much easier to read the bible on the iPhone than on Kindle. There’s an impressive platform called YouVersion (by LifeChurch.tv) which has made multiple translations available for free, so not only can I flip around between books but I can also flip between translations without losing my place. That’s pretty amazing, but the screen is really too small to read for any length of time, so I still resorted mostly to the DTBs (dead tree books.)

Recently I took a new job with a startup out of California named Subtext. Their mission, in their words, is to put community in the pages of your book. I knew it was a great idea and after getting some background on the company, I couldn’t pass it up. Since their product is an iPad app, working there meant I needed an iPad, so I bought one. And I have to say, having been an iPhone user for almost two years prior to getting an iPad, it’s not really much different. For the most part, I’m happy to do everything on my iPhone that I would do on the iPad – except for one: reading.

When I opened YouVersion’s Bible app on the iPad, it totally stole the show. It’s only been a few weeks and I’ve found that I rarely use a printed Bible anymore. It’s either on the computer or on the iPad or in a pinch, on the iPhone.

Today, I bought Steve Jobs’ biography by Walter Isaacson. Largely because I wanted to read it, but I’ve wanted to read a lot of books I didn’t buy. This one I bought because I want to experience it in Subtext. For me, this is the future of reading. This will get people to read more than they would have otherwise. This changes the game.

I’ve droned on long enough about my history with e-books so I won’t bore you with my take on the app. Fortunately, others have done a better job describing it than I could have anyway. So take a minute and check out Gizmodo’s review of Subtext and if you don’t already have one, pick up an iPad and download Subtext for free. It really is a new way to read.

Make no mistake; you are being watched. Surely you knew this already. Remember your last trip to a store? Were there not cameras in the sky? Walmart is an example of a store that makes no bones about putting you on video. In their parking lots. Inside stores. Even watching you key your PIN number at checkout. When you shop at Walmart (and most anywhere else) you are being watched. The thing is, you have a choice – you can choose to shop somewhere that doesn’t use video surveillance. Or not shop at all; pay someone to shop for you. I can imagine a hundred ways to avoid being monitored, but you will give up convenience and it will almost certainly be more expensive.

The same is true on the web.

The Wall Street Journal ran a series recently about online privacy. Using various tactics to cast FUD they paint a dim picture of the web as a cesspool of amoral, greedy data hounds. It’s true, of course; in as much as man-kind is a cesspool of amoral, greedy hounds, but it’s not more true on the web than it is in the brick-and-mortar world. Though it is, perhaps, easier and cheaper to enact these monitoring techniques in the digital world than it is in the physical world. Certainly gathered digital data is easier to analyze.

Should you worry about tracking cookies and beacons? Today, I say not. If you want something to worry about, then it may be a good option since there are actual, effective steps you can take to stop them. However, as I said before, doing so may make your web surfing less convenient and potentially cost you more. And again I say, it’s not worth worrying about – at least not today.

Don’t get me wrong. There are miscreants lurking about, collecting data about you as you roam around the web. Someone does know that you recently priced Shop-Vacs, added a hunting rifle to your wish list, and bought a lace teddy. And as a result, you may be falsely categorized as a cross dressing adult male. But other than possibly serving up some ads that are of absolutely no interest to you, your life will not be impacted; primarily because they have no idea who you are. These tracking services have no business incentive to identify you as a person. Where they primarily benefit is in aggregating you along with other people who share similar interests and selling you (via a unique identifier associated with your browser, not with you) to advertisers or using information about your interests to customize the pages you see on their website when you visit. Amazon already does this, and does it well! The only difference is, with Amazon you have to be logged in first before they know what to show you. Cross-domain tracking is about enabling that experience without forcing people to self-identify.

I do think there is some risk. My answer about whether or not you should worry about being tacked online had a caveat: “Today.” For the time being, I have not seen or heard of any cases where these tracking services are identifying and/or selling information about individual people. They are simply aggregating data and identifying individual browsers. However, that does not preclude the possibility that in the future they may resort to capturing key strokes and using that to associate everything they know about your browser with information like your name, address, phone number – anything you may type into your browser outside of a secure (SSL) session.

When I recently decided to accept a position at Webtrends, I had to consider these issues for myself at length. What I found, and have continued to find since, is a commitment to ethical, deliberate tracking of “on domain” activity. Any data they collect on behalf of customers is kept strictly confidential and is served only to those customers. They do not mix or associate data collected for different customers – not even for internal use. Contrast this with a company like Flurry which claims ownership of and publicly shares data collected by its customers.

I feel good about Webtrends’ approach to online privacy while providing a valuable service to companies who have a fiduciary responsibility to improve the value they get from their online presence. And I really enjoy the convenience of the web, and will continue to use it, especially since I can’t stand shopping at Walmart.

"the climate of contradiction that Toyota uses to stimulate creativity and problem solving" (bellware)

Aside from being a reasonable tagline for my personality, that line alone has convinced me that I need to do a lot of reading about what people are calling, Lean Software Development.

Sorry for the ultra-short post .. I'm too busy reading to do much writing.

I don't make New Year's Resolutions. At least, I never have in the past. Literally, not ever. As a youngster I remember Lent being a big deal in the Roman Catholic church our family attended and my catechism teacher either forced or encouraged (don't remember) us to come up with something important to us that we would voluntarily deny ourselves for the 40 days leading up to Easter. I'm fairly certain I committed to (and quickly forgot about) giving up either M&Ms or Pepsi. I don't believe the tradition of Lent is biblically-based and I'm comfortable with letting it pass as a non-event in my life. However, I don't have a problem with the idea of Lent; self-denial can be a very effective means of refocusing our priorities and creating a very present and real reminder of what it means to suffer (though I'm not sure giving up M&Ms qualifies as real suffering.) What about that, then? Why do I need to know what it means to suffer? Let's start by asking a rich guy.

Years ago I read an interview with Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle, where he said that he believed very few people achieve great success that haven't come out of a difficult childhood. I can't cite the source but a quick search will confirm that Mr Ellison is very forthcoming about his own impoverished early years and the impact he believes it had on his success. It seems to me that his statement isn't historically accurate, but then again the information available about the childhoods of some of the world's most accomplished people is sparse at best. Nonetheless, I think I can get behind the idea from a different perspective - that is, very few people accomplish great things that aren't willing to suffer for it.

I don't like to suffer. Intellectually I'm aware of suffering. Certainly I've witnessed the suffering of others both from afar and first hand. But me personally, I don't like to suffer. My childhood wasn't difficult. We weren't a wealthy family but always had plenty of food (and M&Ms) to eat and never went without at Christmas or Birthdays. My parents have been married longer than I've been alive and we've always had access to loving extended family. School was easy enough that for the most part I received good marks with minimal effort and since we never moved, I never had to deal with the stress of losing or making whole new sets of friends. It was about as far from a difficult childhood as one can probably imagine. I didn't complain much, either. I loved my comfortable life and I never wanted to grow up.

Crystal recently became (very) upset with me because I suggested that it was possible she wasn't losing weight as fast she thought she ought to be losing it because she wasn't committed enough to the cause. That was the closest I think I've ever been to sleeping on the couch involuntarily. She told her trainer about the conversation and he said, "Isn't this the husband who loses weight without dieting or working out? He doesn't understand." I can't deny it. He's right. Intellectually I think I understand, but the sad truth is I've rarely had to sacrifice much to get what I want. How can I possibly know what it means to suffer for a cause ... to suffer at all ... if I've never personally truly suffered?

But wouldn't a person have to be crazy to wish suffering upon himself? To voluntarily submit their mind, body, and/or spirit to torment and torture? Subconsciously I'm fairly certain that's how I think. And I'm now convinced it is wrong thinking. It's selfish. It's cowardly. It's a direct result of my fallen nature.

Jesus suffered. Oh how he suffered. You don't even have to believe he is God or that he rose from the dead to know that he lived a tortured life and died one of the most gruesome, horrific deaths imaginable. His death was dealt by professionals who used crucifixion as a warning to others about what could be their fate should they choose to stand up against Roman authority. Ironically, Jesus never broke any Roman laws, at least none that I know of. Nonetheless, there is no doubt even from purely historical record that Jesus of Nazareth suffered greatly for his cause.

The New Testament is filled with stories of how Jesus' followers suffered as well. Run out of town. Imprisoned. Stoned to death. All manner of cruelty inflicted on those who claimed Jesus to be God. They suffered for their cause.

Admittedly, that could also be said for any martyr, so I need to be careful to point out that martyrdom is not my point. I don't think one has to die in order to be committed. If God called me to physically die for him then I hope with all my heart that I would choose to willingly do so, but that call is statistically unlikely - and it's not the point. The point is that Jesus, and his apostles, they accomplished something great. And they only accomplished it because they were willing to suffer.

Where my viewpoint differs from that attributed to Mr. Ellison earlier is in the need to actually suffer in order to achieve. I believe all that is really necessary is a willingness to suffer. Although the metaphor brakes down quickly, I see it like the risk/reward proposition of casino gambling. Take Blackjack for example. I know that on any given deal I have something approaching 50% odds to win or lose. As a result, I also know that in order to beat the house over time I have to bet small when I lose and bet big when I win. The larger the bet I make, the higher the risk of losing a lot of money but at the same time, the higher the reward if I win. If I'm preparing my bet before a deal and I feel very confident (for whatever crazy reason) that I'm going to win, I have to weigh my desire for the big reward against my willingness to accept the consequences - to suffer - if I lose. So far I've never bet more than my hourly pay rate on a single hand. I already said why... I don't like to suffer.

Last Sunday I was half listening and half lost in thought during a wonderful sermon by our senior pastor. It wasn't online when I last checked, but when it is it will be here and it is titled "The Light of the World." If I remember correctly it had almost nothing to do with suffering. I think God was speaking to me during that sermon. Otherwise, I have no explanation for why I went into that room the same as I do every week yet came out feeling utterly convicted about something that wasn't the subject of the sermon and had hardly received a second thought from me before that day.

During that sermon I resolved to ask God to make me willing to suffer. Actually if I remember accurately I simply resolved to suffer, but in hindsight I know that's something I need to leave in God's hands. Suffering intentionally just to prove that I'm willing would be for my benefit, not for God's, and that's not the point. I wrote it down, on the Communication Card they insert into the bulletin each week. I wrote it down so I wouldn't forget. Then I committed to writing it down in a public place where my friends and family (and perfect strangers) could see it and hold me accountable for it - and pray for me. This is important to me. God made this important to me.

So this year I am going to have a New Year's Resolution. The first one ever in my life. This year, I will resolve to be willing to suffer. I don't think I can do it on my own, though. I think Mr. Ellison knew that only people who have truly suffered in the past can willingly accept suffering in the future - at least on their own power. That's why I'm asking God to make me willing. I can't do it alone, but with God all things are possible.

My mother has been telling me this for as long as I can remember, but now Microsoft has joined the ranks of those who believe that I am "certifiable". How do I know? Well, like most of my posts, it's a painfully long story.

Throughout my career I've had opportunities to work directly and indirectly with a number of very impressive developers and developer managers. Of course, along the way there have also been those who were; well, less impressive. One thing that seemed surprising to me at first was that the possession of a certification did not appear in practice to be a good indicator of whether someone would fit best in the very impressive or less impressive category. That realization was my first clue that perhaps this certification business was just that, business, and had little to do with actual development skill or quality of experience.

Skepticism comes easily to me, so that bit of anecdotal evidence was enough to turn me off of certifications entirely. More recently it began to negatively skew my evaluation of job applicants who have multiple certifications due to suspicion that they spend more time reading and memorizing than they do applying what they've read. That suspicion plays off an assumption that certification exams only do one thing: evaluate how well a person has memorized the study material targeted for the exam. Here's the problem, without having ever studied for or taken one of these exams, that was a pretty big assumption to make.

Enter Tech•Ed. As recently mentioned, I was given the opportunity by my employer to attend this year's Microsoft Tech•Ed Developers conference. All in all it was a very enjoyable and personally beneficial experience. What's interesting for this story is that included in the materials emailed to me in preparation for the conference was a coupon to take a Microsoft Certification exam on site for only $50. Normally those exams will set you back $125 so that's a 60% discount. Definitely a good deal, if you're into that kind of thing.

At first I just archived the message (perhaps there's a future post in me on why I've stopped deleting) and ignored it. A few days later, though, as I was trying to think of things I could do on airplanes and in airports while traveling just about as far across the continental United States as you can travel, I remembered that email. "Hey, I could study for an exam on the plane, then take the exam at the conference." But if I thought those certifications were so silly, why bother taking an exam?

Simple, really. I needed to validate my assumptions. It has never sat right with me that I criticize certifications while knowing that I don't have any first hand experience at trying to earn one. From everything I had heard, the tests were quite difficult - and I believed it. So the only thing I needed to validate was that they don't prove anything beyond your ability to memorize (short-term) the specific subject material on the exam. Beyond that, it also gave me a specific goal for my time on the plane which I knew would be needed or I'd fall into my typical trap of reading valueless articles in whatever magazines I happened to bring along (seriously, when am I ever going to build new storage under my stairs? Our house doesn't even have stairs! Thank you, Popular Mechanics.)

Off to Microsoft.com I went to decide which test I should take. Then off to Buy.com to purchase the study kit. I did study on the plane for a few hours (though I underestimated how challenging that would be) and for a few more hours Monday and Tuesday evening after the conference sessions ended. In total, though, I would guess it was no more than 6 hours studying and some of that was likely through osmosis while my head lay prone on the open book.

The test I took (and passed) was 70-536: Microsoft .NET Framework, Application Development Foundation. It took me a little over an hour, and it was fairly challenging. What does passing that test get me? In day-to-day tangible items: absolutely nothing. In grander terms, it indicates that I'm eligible to pursue a variety of MCTS certifications by taking any number of additional exams (e.g. becoming a "MCTS: .NET Framework 3.5, Windows Presentation Foundation Applications" requires that I also take and pass 70-502.) Since I'm not actually certified without taking more exams, when someone asks me "what do you get for passing the test?" My best answer is, "it means I'm certifiable!"

Now that I've actually gone through the experience of studying (sort of), taking, and passing a Microsoft Certification exam, I feel better about applying my biases toward the program. There were some positive takeaways, though, such as the realization that in preparation for the test I studied a very broad array of topics (within the specific subject matter of the exam.) So although I still believe these certifications only prove a person's ability to memorize (short-term) the study material, at least I know that the material has exposed them to a fairly wide range of information. Whether or not I think they can effectively apply that knowledge in a real world environment, however, will remain strictly on a "show me" basis.

I'm on a break here at TechEd in Orlando. Next session starting soon, so this will be a short post.

I just wanted to let everyone (all zero of you who read this) know that I decided to record my thoughts throughout this conference - and I'm using Twitter to do it.

So, if you like, feel free to follow me.

If you think my blog posts are random then my tweets (that's really what they're called) promise to be even more so... No idea if I'll continue my tweeting after the conference ends, but for the time being it's a fun way for me to communicate without actually having anyone I know around to talk to!

Actually there is at least one person I know here, a former colleague named Carlos, but amongst the moving mass of 6,000 geeks - it's a little tricky to pick one out. I assure you, though, if I do manage to hook up with he or anyone else, Twitter will let you know.

As discussed previously, my (relatively) new employer is very interested in allowing and helping each of us stay on top of the latest tech and trends in the software industry. So much so that my manager actually sent out an email, unprovoked, in January of this year which included a list of conferences of particular interest and asked which, if any, we would each like to attend. Not being one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I quickly submitted a request to attend Microsoft Tech-Ed North America 2008 Developers (that's a mouth full, I know.)

Since then, permission has been granted; tickets purchased; rooms reserved, and I am on my way in June to spend a week in sunny Orlando, FL. However, as any one who has handled the logistics for booking a week long trip knows, it wasn't quite that easy.

First there was the tedious process of finding and selecting the cheapest flights whose timing and accommodations fit both personal and business requirements. That has become a lot easier to do in recent years with the abundance of quality online reservation sites (I used a combination of Expedia, Travelocity, Delta, and ultimately booked through Orbitz.)

Finding a hotel wasn't any less challenging as I needed to select from the list of hotels which had arranged with conference organizers to provide discounts and shuttle services to/from the events. Not only that, but because I stalled into April on booking a room, most of the closest hotels had already filled up. And of course, being a long-time Hilton Honors member, I wanted to make sure I could cash in on my 5-night stay for points! The Hilton family includes all: Hilton, Conrad, DoubleTree, Embassy Suits, Hampton, Homewood Suites, and Waldorf=Astoria hotels; so that's a pretty wide selection, but it can be surprisingly difficult to find one when I need it. Nonetheless, this time I was not only successful in finding one, but actually a bit excited as I will be staying at the Hilton Garden Inn at SeaWorld! That's right - me, the dolphins, and the killer whales, snoozing together in perfect harmony.

That doesn't seem so bad, right? I only have two flights and a hotel stay. Actually, those flights both have lay overs, so it's actually four flights. Plus each flight and the hotel stay have confirmation numbers of which I need to keep track. I've never been very good with memory recall, so clearly I need to keep all of this information somewhere safe and easily accessible. And that is where TripIt enters the picture.

See it on the left there? That's the picture.

TripIt is absolutely awesome. Partially because of what it does, but much more so because of how incredibly easy it is to use and how well it works. I love software that just works.

Creating a new trip itinerary was as simple as forwarding the email confirmation I received from Orbitz to a special email address: plans@tripit.com. TripIt knows who I am because I previously registered my email address, and simply parses the information provided in the confirmation email to create a new trip and add in all of my flight information including Dates, Times, Locations, Airlines, Flight Numbers, Seat Assignments, and of course, Confirmation Numbers. I did not manually enter one bit of it!

Unfortunately, in this case (because I had to go through the conference's reservation system) I didn't get a typical confirmation email for my hotel booking, so I did have to manually enter my hotel stay details. However, that process was very simple to do via their web site.

TripIt took the liberty of automatically looking up directions from the airport to my hotel (Google Maps) and included that in my itinerary. Had I rented a car I could have also forwarded my confirmation email from Avis (or whatever service used) to get that information into my itinerary as well.

The end result? All of my trip details, at least everything I care to include, recorded and easily accessible in one place. The picture I have above is actually the "Printable Itinerary" which is much more compact than what you see on the normal pages, and is perfect for stuffing in a pocket or carry-on the day before a trip.

If you haven't used TripIt before, I strongly recommend trying it out when planning your next adventure. Certainly it is optimized for arrangements made through online reservation systems, but the manual web interface will allow you to enter just about any type of travel/stay/activity conceivable.

Oh, and I almost left out one of my favorite features. Not only can you add other people as viewers and/or co-travelers on your trip (giving them access to view all the details), but you can also automatically show your TripIt trips on your Google (or other) Calendar as I'm showing off below:

I wasn't sure what to think of TripIt the first time I checked it out. After having used it now for several trips I can say with confidence that it is a perfect fit for someone like me who relies heavily on mechanisms to keep organized and, at the same time, can not stand having to enter the same information in multiple places and keep it all updated.