You know who you are.

• On the Mac, configuration is the smallest part of the user experience.
• On Windows, configuration is the largest part of the user experience.
• On Linux, configuration is the user experience.

They seem like such a strange thing in today’s networked world, but only 14 years ago key disks were very important!

Job Title

Software Provocateur

Job Description

In my title as Software Provocateur, I have many roles: Customer Service Representative, Revolutionary, and Engineer. I view my activities as completely holistic and integrated: I am “all in” when it comes to software.

First and foremost, I am Customer Service Representative. Software is the ultimate expression of digitized human interaction; the human element comes first. Without customers, there is no business. It is thus my business to keep customers happy.

Secondly, I am Revolutionary. As we take the first few steps into the bright light of the Brave New Digital World that exists past the Industrial Revolution, we are each required to activate our domain. It takes a Revolutionary to ensure that success.

Lastly, I am Engineer. The primitive digital raw materials we possess today require precision and exactness of execution; careful and effective engineering is an implied and unspoken assumption.

In particular, I specialize in Student Information Interoperability: I have succeeded when student information appears in a computer, as if by magic.

Recently on Reddit I saw an article entitled “Who’s using Ada?”. Of course it made me immediately think of my good friend Dr. Juei Chang, who is the only person I know actually smart enough to write programs in Ada.

Bravo, Ada! Bravo, Dr. Chang!

In September 2007 my colleague Matt Sainson and I visited the campus of Google for a special Engineering Open House. It was a rare look inside the Googleplex, and I took as many pictures of the event as I could.

One of the best parts was viewing the Google Engineering Philosophy, repeated here:

The Google Engineering Philosophy

1. All developers work out of a ~single source depot; shared infrastructure!
2. A developer can fix bugs anywhere in the source tree.
3. Building a product takes 3 commands ("get, config, make")
4. Uniform coding style guidelines across company
5. Code reviews mandatory for all checkins
6. Pervasive unit testing, written by developers
7. Unit tests run continuously, email sent on failure
8. Powerful tools, shared company-wide
9. Rapid project cycles; developers change projects often; 20% time
10. Peer-driven review process; flat management structure
11. Transparency into projects, code, process, ideas, etc.
12. Dozens of offices around world => hire best people regardless of location

Another great part of the evening was the real-time search display in the lobby:

This display shows real-time search statistics coded by geographic region, natural language, and user density. In this view, red indicates English and yellow indicates Spanish. The height and intensity of the lines (which look like plasma) indicate the number of searches. The globe rotates periodically, which makes for an absolutely mesmerizing view.

I’m certain that I’m one of the last to notice the Google Maps Leprechaun this week. It’s very cute, and worth noting.

Normally Google Maps has a bland person icon for the Street View feature. You drag the person icon around the map, and it indicates which direction you’re looking.

This week, however, there’s one of the wee people in its place. He stands on a clover, is dressed all in green, and has a little red beard and hat. When you move it, it flies on a little swooshy rainbow.

This is part of what makes Google great: the delight of discovery of this otherwise unnecessary feature is the tip of the iceberg. Their ability to modify their application just for a holiday and their willingness to do it — that’s amazing.

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day to you, too, Google!

I’ve been a fairly regular member of the Sacramento Java User Group since 2004. I decided to take a few pictures at the March 2008 meeting, where Tim Schafer presented on Wicket. It was, as always, a lively time.