Wow.
It was an amazing journey. While I only had two nights in San Francisco, it felt like a lot longer.
Steve was the coolest travelling companion (go those Koalas!). We were the Aussie team, and it was a fantastic time.
I got to play “The PayPal Song” at the big party on Tuesday night. Very cool.
San Francisco is a great city, and I can make that claim from my all-of-2 days in it :)
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]]>I’m at Innovate09 right now.
You want to know the best thing about PayPal?
The new APIs are amazing, and are the tools to a wonderful kingdom of Scrooge McDuck Money Swimming, but that’s not it.
The direction is encouraging, and obviously well thought out, but that’s not it.
It’s not even that they gave us all a netbook yesterday (Wowza!).
The best thing about PayPal, and it’s their best secret too, because you don’t know about it until you meet them.
The best thing is that they notice you. They talk to you.
I’m sitting in the Code Pit coding away, watching a whole bunch of PayPal folk. They’re sitting with developers mulling over code, listening to a new sales pitch from another dude with a great idea, and walking about making conversation, real conversation.
That’s the best thing about PayPal. I’ve talked about it before, and it’s as true now as it was then.
PayPal Notice You.
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]]>So I’ve now landed in a completely different country for the first time in my life!
I’m currently struggling to stay awake, but should be fine. It’s 5pm now, will be having dinner soon.
Innovate 09 starts tomorrow .. CANNOT WAIT!
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]]>Ahhh, it might not be manly, but this song makes me giggle. You’ll know which parts.
It’s less than a week until I’m off to San Francisco to Innovate09 (the PayPal devcon), and this song appeared in my brain yesterday and finished up tonight.
I had a completely different song to begin with. But this just flowed. And was funny. Heh heh. Wiping the Matrix 2 and 3 from history. Gold.
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Of mortal folk, only my Dad influenced me more as a young man than my Grandpa.
Grandpa was a big man. In stature, but also in presence. He was commanding, even as he grew older. The only time I remember him different was at his deathbed.
Grandpa was a soldier. He fought as a Captain in the Royal British Army, his command being with the Gurkha’s in Burma.
Grandpa was one of the most humble men I’ve ever known. Like my Dad. Sure, on the outside they might have been different. But both men meekly walk(ed) under the mighty hand of God, seeking out His glory rather than their own.
Grandpa was awarded an MBE for his actions in the war. He never received it. He was a member of the British army, but he was born and bred here in Australia. After he returned with Grandma and Mum the MBE didn’t find him.
Before and after his time in the military Grandpa worked in China as a Missionary. It was in China that he met Grandma. It was in China that my Mum was born.
Mum has written a blog called “My China Mystery”. It’s her telling of Grandpa and Grandma’s story from the many letters, photos and memories throughout her life.
I cannot read it without a deep emotion welling up in my heart.
Here is history that should be treasured. Here is a story of courage, of humility, of love both romantic and eternal.
Read the prologue, and you will see a child’s experience of a father who went to war and came back changed. It hurts my heart to read this passage. That a child would know these things at such an early age. That Grandpa was a man broken by the war and (I would surmise) the seeming failure of Christian witness in China. Grandpa, Grandma and Mum had to flee China in 1949.
My Grandpa sent me a letter many years ago. I was at the beginning of University, and had begun “preaching on the lawns”. It was an intense time of passion and facing the fear of rebuke and mockery.
His letter told me of how he had stood on soapboxes in Melbourne, preaching the Word of God. It was a handwritten letter that I kept close for many years. Reading it was a window into the world of my Grandpa.
Grandpa was a man. But he was my Grandpa.
I miss him now, and look forward to singing the praise of the King together with him in the fullness of time.
My Mum was invited to Buckingham Palace to posthumously receive Grandpa’s MBE. Mum invited me, as well as Dad and my next Sis, along. So come mid-November I’ll be sitting in the presence of the Queen of England, thinking about Grandpa who’s no longer broken, but sanctified fully and in the presence of the King of all Creation.
Sadness. But joy entwines it, and brings us through.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:1-2
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]]>In preparation for recording the PayPal Song I’m writing :), I decided to record Super-Powered Geek.
This was a song I wrote for Barcamp Sydney 2009. It’s on YouTube already, but this is my “home” edition.
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Yesterday I girded my loins and decided to walk a bit of the way home. I surprised myself by walking over halfway (Don’t forget I had a knee ligament thingy reconstruction a few weeks back). I didn’t push it, cause I’ve been informed by the excellent folk who hook me up to ancient and mad-scientist-looking electrical discharge machines that if you push too hard it swells and swelling is bad for healing.
So. I took the bus. Knee was fine, not much swelling. Icepacked it, but didn’t feel overly sore.
Today I thought I’d try again, but didn’t even think about stopping. Just that I was walking home. 5 kms. Not much by any standard, except that of a tubby man coming off reconstructive surgery (love how that sounds).
Did it, reading a Harry Dresden book on my iPhone, without much trouble at all. The legs are a little muscular-sore, but that’s to be expected (and looked forward to by me I might add, finally, some indication of physical exercise, ha).
So the point of this post is three-fold.
- Perhaps it’s the whisper of summer in the air, but I feel motivated to start getting content on the blog regularly in preparation for the upcoming trips.
- Little. By. Little. Sometimes my frustration at being unable to exercise leaks out. But it’s far better to be slowly getting better with the future hope of exercise than to be broken without the possibility again.
- I do love a good yarn. Or at least a yarn I’m telling :)
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Phew. We (the Beautiful One, Barbarian Kid Hordes, and me) returned last night from four days in the beautiful town of Eden.
Apart from going on an amazing Whale-Watching ocean tour thingy, the main event was the Clarion Aussie Devcon 2009. I’ll be putting up my thoughts on Clarion Folk (along with some mini interviews I did on the iPhone).
Now is the next step in my winter of crazy non-discontent!
This time two weeks from now I’ll be on a plane to San Francisco!
“You lie.” I hear you say. But no, it’s true.
PayPal Australia (Jonathan is Captain Awesome) are sending Steve and myself across as representatives from the Australian PayPal Development community.
This. Is. Going. To. Be. HUGE!
- I’ve never been overseas. And here I was thinking the Queen visit was going to be my maiden voyage from the sunburnt country.
- The idea that PayPal would find enough in me, in what I do, to send me that-a-way.
- The possibilities inherent in going to the States, to the first ever PayPal Devcon (Innovate), to meeting stupid amounts of other developers.
- Being able to bring along my guitar (and a PayPal song, awww yeah).
It’s fair to say that this has been / will be so far the biggest, most momentous year of my vocational life.
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]]>Not long back a decent-sized envelope arrived in the mail.
Contained within were lots of paper, including a Certificate to signify I was now a certified PayPal developer.
Sure, I look very handsome next to the Certificate. And sure, I do google myself regularly.
And alternatively “sure”, any company can send out pieces of paper.
What is quite obvious (and the below is an example) is this:
PayPal is rushing forward into battle, hearts beating to a far better and more awesome drum, wielding more than plastic swords and papier-mâché battle axes.
Last night I was invited to a very trendy place down within the ultra-chic surroundings of Darling Harbour.
Not only did I get to meet up with Scott again after the Sydney Dev Day; Not only did I meet new folk; Not only was there the company of the most handsome and friendly Australia PayPal faces (Jonathan and Spiro, you know who I’m talking about), but:
I got to sit next to and go all “I’ve got this utterly unique earth-shattering idea that of course is awesome” to This Guy. Osama is the freaking Vice President of All-Things-Awesome at PayPal. He’s so cool that he pretended to like my many and varied stories about what I digested that morning and why the world would be a better place if desktop systems came back in vogue (ahem). 
I got to swap manly football stories with This Guy. Naveed hasn’t been at PayPal long, but you wouldn’t know it. He’s one switched-on dude, and puts you at ease the moment you start talking. Also, he likes rugby. Jonathan AND Naveed. If I worked for PayPal that would be 3, count em, 3 people who were rugby nuts. Nice.
It’s quite clear that the unveiling of the new Development Environment at Innovate09 is a BIG DEAL.
It’s also quite clear that what the PayPal guys will be unveiling is an even BIGGER DEAL. All of the PayPal folk tonight were excited to talk about what is coming up, even though they couldn’t tell us everything.
Nothing was let slip, except that it will be HUGE.
A lot of what they are doing is out there now, in beta. Developers have already started making some fantastic stuff, like TwitPay, and it’s just (or not even) the beginning!
What’s exciting about hanging out with the PayPal crowd that I’ve met is that their enthusiasm is infectious. It’s real, and your own imaginative synapses start to fire.
So, I’d like to pass on some THANKYOUS:
- Thankyou Jonathan, for the invitation, the organising, the time spent away from your burgeoning family :), and for being real good people.
- Osama and Naveed for finding energy after such an exhaustive couple of weeks, for asking us what we think should be the future, and for not showing any disappointment at the fact that only half a dozen folk turned up.
- And Spiro, for being ultra-cool AND ultra-geek. Leading the way man.
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]]>The year is 2009 AD. Development is entirely occupied by the Text File Environment. Well, not entirely … One small village of indomitable Coders still holders out against the invaders.
(Paraphrased from that most excellent of stories, the Asterix series)
I work with Binary files. That’s right. And I’m okay with that.
However, as with that small village of indomitable Gauls, it’s a big world of text-editing coders out there.
If you fire up SVN or CVS or VSS (three letters seems to be the norm), they are built around having many developers working on text files and who want to merge and branch and slice and dice. Fancy stuff.
Source Control with Binary Files just doesn’t work the same, inherently.
“Yeah yeah” You say. “Stop boring me and being lame. We all know that.”
Actually, I had head knowledge of this truth for a long time, but until the last week when it was tested, I truly did not _know_.
We have a small development team, but it’s larger than one. There are three of us who work with a development tool that creates binary files. Sure, there are source files that are text, but we don’t work IN them, usually.
Circumstances changed over the past couple of months, so that we had to implement a serious (not just copy and paste backups, which I do with great gusto, having retentive folder structures and the whole kit) source control solution.
Having used Tortoise SVN for a couple of years for myself, I put my hand up to implement that.
It worked, until the “multi” part of multi-developer kicked in.
It failed big time.
Why?
Because of two reasons:
- I didn’t know Tortoise SVN well enough. All my limited experience had been single-user. We needed a solution that would work multi.
- I did not ask the right questions. Yes, SVN can handle what we need (explanation of that coming). But I didn’t ask the right questions when doing some research into it to find out HOW to get SVN to work.
The big problem was that, out of the box, Tortoise SVN doesn’t stop you from committing files other people are working in.
Yes, it allows you to lock a file. And yes, you can make it work this way. But this requires more knowledge and understanding than I had at the time.
So we turned to Visual Source Safe (the VSS from above).
Out of the box, after a nice MS wizard, we populated the repo and assigned our working folders. It makes all the files in the repo read-only. Which means our “app” files are read-only. Which means we’d actually have to make the decision to “UN” read-only them before we could get around the problem. And that step is one big wall in the way of accidental code loss.
What’s my point?
If you develop with binary files, in a multi-developer environment, make sure your Source Control implementation stops you working on a file unless you’ve checked it out.
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Over the past couple of days I’ve put myself through installing the Windows 7 RC.
Apart from one grossly stupid moment of my own doing, it’s been a fantastic experience.
If there was a single word I could give about Windows 7, it would be:
Polish.
I’ve gotten a few tips together in this experience.
Tips
- Get an External Hard Drive (and BE PATIENT).
- I picked up a Terabyte one from JBs. While the copying of files can be stupidly slow (especially if you’re using Vista), it’s worth it. I’ve got a lot of potential and actual money on my Development Laptop (DevTop, just because).
- DO NOT DELETE FILES UNTIL 10 DAYS LATER!
- I lost my 8G music collection because I was too quick to delete folders without waiting to see what I’d forgotten _about_ said folder.
- Makes me cry on the inside AND outside.
- Also, I’m not sure about plugging my iPhone in. It’ll Synch, which is bad. It’s currently got my latest music on it. The music that doesn’t exist anywhere else.
- Be courageous.
- Especially if you’re running Vista, and you’re a Developer, MAKE THE LEAP.
- The Windows 7 installer makes some really intelligent decisions, the best by far being to back up NOT ONLY your Vista (or other) Windows folder, but all of the “windows” folders throughout the system. Users, Documents, etc etc. Very handy.
- While Installing, make a list of essential programs you remember.
- I found it a good experience to go from memory. Why?
- Because it removes the clutter. Only install what you remember using a lot. The other stuff will come.
- I found it a good experience to go from memory. Why?
My Important List
- Adobe Reader
- AV (I chose Avira, but there’s others .. AVG, Kaspersky, Nod32 – Thanks Steve! ..)
- Axialis IconWorkshop
- Chrome Apps
- Gmail
- Firefox
- FileZilla
- Google Chrome
- Google Desktop
- Gtalk
- iTunes
- Notepad++
- Oldaer
- Paint.NET
- Picasa
- Skype
- SnagIt
- Windows Live Writer
That’s what I’ve got so far.
And there you have it. Tonight will be my first foray into some serious development, using Clarion 6. Have had a few gotchas implementing that as well. Being that Clarion 6 is a 16-bit IDE doesn’t help so much :)
Windows 7 .. Tip of the hat and kudos to the team!
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]]>And in my dream,
Jonathan “Hank Azaria” Kelly (I’ve got a middle name quotes thing going at the moment) walked over and gave me a big handshake and a hearty greeting, saying that he loved my previous blog post and thought that PayPal could definitely support my burgeoning story-telling career by forking out a few hundred thousand as a gift to me so that ..
Ahem.
This week, on Monday 20th July 2009, the Sydney PayPal Developer Day was held.
Scott has done an excellent writeup over on his blog, so for actual pertinent information, you should leave my blog right away and head over to his.
I went along to the Developer Day for a number of reasons. In fact, I created new reasons while I was there.
1. PayPal approached me (I mono-toned about this earlier)
2. It’s the first time they’ve done something like this in Australia
3. I don’t get to go to many external events (although this is changing)
4. Free stuff (become a PayPal Certified Developer)
5. Technical interest, due to having projects that will need Payment functionality
The last one was what spurred my actual brain, and the questions asked.
Really, it all boiled down to two things for me:
a) Could I stick PayPal in a Desktop system?
Answer:
No, not in a classical sense. You have to open a browser, else the mystical Elves of Style and Branding will smite thee with powerful forces of smiting.
b) What is PayPal’s own wisdom on implementing it’s functionality in web systems?
Answer:
This was answered very well throughout the talks. There are three methods, although for small to medium developers, really only one (I’ll give you a hint, it was the second one). Oh wait, you don’t know what I’m talking about?
There were three main options talked about for implementing PayPal.
Website Payments Standard (simple html buttons like “Buy Now”)
Express Checkout (cart system)
And Payment Gateways, in two flavours, Payflow Link and Payflow Pro.
The general wisdom seemed to be that for most small-medium business solutions, go with Express Checkout.
Thoughts
I think the PayPal team would have learnt a bit (maybe that’s presumptuous?) from the day. I guess it depends on the audience, but it took a while for the questions to actually start, for the creative juices to kick into gear.
One thing that might have helped is having (I understand there were legal reasons why not) the slides printed for everyone, so that questions could be written down on the pertinent slide, helping with context.
But that said, pens and pads were provided, and I still wrote my questions down, even though I kind of got lost :) Specially once I got onto the wireless and started tweeting a bit. Twitter. Diet Coke of time-management wastage. WoW being the Coke.
PayPal should be commended for taking this initiative in the Australian Developer community.
A hearty KUDOS to you!
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]]>It’s as big a leap in technology as I’ve experienced.
Perhaps I’m a little late to the party, but as of a few days ago my tech world has been forever changed.
What is this that you speak of? I hear you think across the interwebs.
iPhone.
It’ll change things. And if it doesn’t, then that’s sad.
The ability to do many tasks remotely. Apps that because of the smallness, the restrictions, the perceptions, actually work better on an iPhone than my pc.
Examples?
I’ve used Facebook more in the last couple of days than ever before. And that’s a big deal. I don’t like Facebook. But the iPhone has caused a deep shift within my patterns of tech discipline.
I discovered a time keeping app which is perfect for my contract work. It keeps tracks of my hours while I work on my laptop.
Even the seamless compact methods of Google use (Email, Reader,Talk) is fast growing on me.
I leave you with some of the photos my 5 year old took this afternoon. Oh, and this post was sent from my little tool of awesomeness (iPhone).
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Increasingly I find myself building and advising on web systems as opposed to desktop.
This doesn’t diminish the importance of Desktop development in my books, it just reflects the (not passing) trend of business on the web. It makes sense. And really, it’s all just Development.
A big part of business is making money.
That was some wisdom I dropped on you right there wasn’t it. Don’t clap just yet, the talk isn’t over. Heh heh.
PayPal have been around for quite a while. They are, well, big. Chances are if you’ve bought something online you’ve interacted with Paypal. And if you’ve used them, chances are they’ve helped your business make money.
But regardless of their pedigree, regardless of their massive sway and power, regardless of the fact that chocolate + vanilla icecream is just awesome .. There is a simple reason why I’m writing this post.
PayPal noticed me.
This is a very important point. Not because of me, substitute other names in there. What’s important is that they have gotten smart about today’s web.
In preparing for Barcamp I noticed a Twitter account for PayPal. Strangely, it wasn’t spouting corporate shillage-speak. Whoever sat behind that Twitter Account was actually interacting with people.
And they talked to me. Before Barcamp (where I fooled everyone into thinking I could sing). And afterwards.
They invited me along to their Australian Developer Days, and I said yes. Signed up today, applied for leave, and had an excellent email conversation with them.
Let me tell you why this is important, although you might’ve already guessed.
PayPal is no longer faceless. They talked to me like a real person. Possibly laughed at me singing a song. Looked at my blog, made reference to a completely different post that needed some searching to find.
This is good PR, good people skills. This wins people over. At the very least, it’s won me over.
I’m going to the Developer Day mostly as a Developer keen to see what other folk are doing, and to talk about implementation of payment gateways, coding of them, that kind of thing.
One thing I’m interested to find out more about is their API, and using it from a Desktop system, as opposed to a web site/service/system.
But also, I’m going along with the expectation of furthering the relationship I’ve already begun online. Saying g’day, shaking hands, laughing about something or other.
Kudos to PayPal. Thumbs up Sirs + Dames.
So to you humble reader, if you are a Developer, or interested in becoming a Developer, you should look deep within yourself and assign yourself a number based on your .. Urg, wait, that’s Homer spouting out.
The PayPal Developer Days 2009 are being hosted in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth. The Sydney day is the 20th of July (2009) and the others follow on from there.
Let’s not forget a big huge and massive reason why you, as a fellow Developer, should be attending:
The Developer Days are FREE*! Absolutely without reservation free to attend. No fees.
* This does not include freedom of time or of your brain activity.
To everyone reading this post who’s not a Developer (Mum, Visitor #2), I heartily apologise for it’s unashamed geek-factor.
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This weekend was one of the most disparately eventful times in my life.
Saturday morning was taken up with a Client meeting. Impressive I hear you say.
Saturday afternoon I moseyed on down to Barcamp Sydney 5. It was a great time. I met folk, attended some seminars/presentations, and gave a talk right at the dying stages of the day that was disjointed, had people packing up all around me, and was cut short.
Narky much? No, not at all! Seriously, read on. This whole thing worked far better than I could have hoped.
I was so filled with unbridled stu-thusiasm that I took my guitar and burst forth in song in front of the entire population gathered for the final segment.
“Super Powered Geek” was a song I wrote in two days. Thursday night I wrote the first verse and chorus, Friday night the second verse.
The live performance was, well, interesting. Totally unexpected. The plan was for the 8th and final point of my talk, A Super Heroes Guide To Development, to be titled “A Little Splash of Crazy”. The point being that we need to, in our development, be willing to inject a bit of the crazy.
However, because it was the end of the day, and let’s be honest, everyone’s pretty beat and tired by that stage, I didn’t have a hope of getting through the talk.
Everybody was heading towards the Big Room, so putting the 8th Point (yes, capitalised, because that’s how I roll) into practice, I begged Ajay (@funkycoda) to let me give my last point to everybody.
Of course, Ajay looked at me like I was crazy and said, “What the? No way I’m letting a big hairy ape-like creature with a leprechaun t-shirt talk to my people?” (paraphrased)
A couple of Chuck Norris round-house kicks to the head and Ajay came around to my point of view. From the Ambulance bed he gave me the thumbs up. At least, I think it was a thumbs up.
So, without further violence I raced into the Big Room, down the front, and proceeded to serenade the crowd of folk with “Super Powered Geek”.
The guitar and my dulcid tones were both out of tune. My strumming was terrible. I missed a couple of lines of the song, and got the rhythm mixed up.
But you know, it didn’t matter. Because when you splash around a little bit of crazy, it’s about throwing together something far more than the sum of it’s parts. It’s about being willing to hold to a singular vision (mine being to tell people to wear their undies on the outside, point #6 in the talk). And it’s about getting out there.
If it wasn’t for me misunderstanding how the “card” system worked for putting your presentation on the timesheet; If it wasn’t for me waiting too long to start my talk; If it wasn’t for throwing caution to the wind, laughing at the fear which rises in the gullet; Then I wouldn’t have been able to enjoy Barcamp as much as I did.
And man alive I REALLY enjoyed it. So many geeks. So much fun.
A special shout out to the Youngin’s I made paper airplanes for. You guys rock!
Anyway, a big THANKYOU to all the Folk at Barcamp Sydney 5. It was great to get to know some of you, great to make a fool out of myself in front of all of you, and great to get some Microsoft paraphernalia for being “Most Entertaining Geek Of The Day” (again, I paraphrase).
Cheers to @halans for putting a recording of the song up on Youtube.
Saturday night my eldest and I went to the Rugby. We had a blast! Although the game wasn’t an exciting try-fest, it was still enjoyable. We nicknamed the France full-back “Softie”, and I’m sure I didn’t embarrass my son by screaming out “IT’S NOT SOCCER!”.
Sunday is a private day for us. I don’t talk about it much. We go to Church, we have fellowship with our friends, and we spend time as a family. But believe me, today (Sunday) had it’s interesting moments. Interesting enough that it will be a long time until I forget what happened at Church today.
So that was my weekend.
Kudos for reading this far.
I’m excited to really commit to attending more conferences like Barcamp. There’s a lot to be excited about in the world of Development (and general Geek-dom), and I’ve got a lot of excitement to transfer.
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