Much Ado About Nothing

Kindle or eee pc?

2009-06-26T13:19:34Z

I travel. A lot. And I like to read books. But books are f'n heavy and eat up your luggage weight allowance. I seem to travel a lot to places that don't write books in English. And I'm not that interested in the kind of books available at airports.

So I was thinking of a Kindle. But they seem to run almost $500 bucks. And down the street I can pick up an Asus eee pc for $500-600.

Anyone recommend going either way? Kindles seem nice and readable. But the eee pc's are much more flexible.

China's full employment

2009-06-26T06:24:52Z

There are many many differences between China and the US. But there's one that I notice all the time that I find pretty amusing.

Unlike in the US where stores seem to try and keep the number of employees to the bare minimum for any shift, in China it seems that every place has way more people than needed all the time.

For example, I just went to a small desert place that held myself, five employees, and enough empty seats for about 2 other people.

On the other hand, the service is always great.

For example, I've been to a few places that I've never had to even touch the tea pot and yet my tea cup was never more than 1/2 empty.

It is odd having five people staring at you the whole time you're enjoying your desert.

Um, I'd tell you what I had but I can't cause I don't know and there's nothing like it back in Boston. It was good though!

Ni Hao!

2009-04-02T11:09:28Z

Apparently I go to the bubble tea shop enough that I now get extra bubbles!

I like to confuse the hotel lobby staff by sometimes answering my wake up call in English and sometimes in Chinese.

I saw my first wild bird today. It's odd being in a city with no squirrels or pigeons.

I've signed myself on for a nine hour bus ride with the IP docketing team to the mountains somewhere north west of here. Should be an adventure. I heard the water tastes great! Or was that, that the water will kill you. I can't remember which.

They have Ya Dudes in Hong Kong too. And of course they are all British rugby fans.

I think they are building a farm in the hotel lobby.

None of my client team members have ever been to a bar or club. Ever.

I really need a haircut. I was thinking of going for one at 2am, but it'll probably be too crowded.

I am really digging the new album (something in Chinese) by (some Chinese name). Some pretty catchy tunes.

Bah, back to work.

Fast n Furious

2009-03-10T03:59:07Z

Driver #2 was particularly proud today after getting me back from the client site in 10 minutes. This is for a drive that normally takes 30-45 minutes. And this wasn't due to lack of traffic either.

Nothing like riding down a dotted line at 120 km/h, passing cars, blinking lights, and spamming the horn.

A few first impressions

2009-02-15T07:00:05Z

After arriving last night, I got to spend a few hours walking around getting to know my neighborhood. Here are a few first impressions.

You can read about how large Shenzhen is, but until you actually see it, it doesn't really mean anything.

I saw my first non-chinese person at breakfast this morning. Haven't seen one since.

Despite what anyone might have said, no one here speaks English.

No, the shoes do not come in my size.

This city does not sleep. Commerce never stops here.

Walked for hours, didn't find a single club or bar. Hotel has a karioke bar though.

Don't order a bloody mary in a country that doesn't grow tomatos. Same goes for coffee apparently.

I've never seen so many cell-phone stores in my life.

To prove that they only serve the freshest, some restaurants allow you to pick your own live fish strait from the tanks. At some places you can also pick your own duck, goose, rabbit, pigeon, (unknown bird), and my favorite, one of three different types of snakes. I am so going back there.

This place is amazing in so many different ways.

Working Man

2009-02-03T19:40:06Z

Apparently no one at my company (except myself for some reason) was aware of the Chinese working week schedule. I just had to explain why the client was insisting on a two hour lunch break.

China has a six day work week (unless, like my client did this past month, the company declares Sundays working days as well). A work day consists of six hours, then a two hour lunch/sleep, followed by another six hours.

Needless to say my company failed to factor in any of this when they wrote up the meeting schedule for the next eleven weeks.

Signed!

2009-01-26T14:15:27Z

The client signed!

Kickoff will be Feb 16th in Shenzen!

I'm the happiest tech-lead evah!

Waltz with Bashir

2009-01-20T20:52:39Z

Would anyone be up for seeing Waltz with Bashir tomorrow after work?

The King is dead. Long live the King.

2009-01-16T20:16:27Z

For the first time in my career I've decided to opt out of my companies 401k.

I am still unsure if we will see inflation or deflation. There are strong indicators that things could move either way.

So until then, cash is king.

Carrots and Schedules

2009-01-13T16:11:23Z

Well my company sure likes to dangle this carrot in front of me a lot.

The new tentative schedule is early Feb. Stay on site for 11 weeks, come back for 2 week, then leave again and stay on site for 10 more weeks. Followed by 2-3 weeks vacation in the area.

Client site would be located @ Shenzhen, out side of Hong Kong and near Guangzhou.

Random facts; HK has a population of 7m, Guangzhou 12m. Compared to NYC's 7.3m and LA's 3.5m. Shenzhen has a population of 9m.

Big Time Fun Party!

2008-12-11T18:23:05Z

This is your friendly neighborhood reminder that

Mike and Matt's Christmas Holiday Extravaganza
Big Time Fun Time Party

is coming up on Friday Dec 19th!

Please come on by anytime after 8. Bring a friend, bring some booze, have a good time.

Featured at this party, for those who are here in time to have some (yes, have some), will be

Punch by Fred Yarm

If you need directions or have any questions, please contact me or call at 617-529-4267.
I look forward to seeing everyone soon!!!

(hehe, thanks for writing this up Matt)

Why the heck not

2008-12-05T21:35:39Z

I've never been to any of the nights at Diva but apparently they have a night every first friday. I can't think of a better reason why not to do somethign than not having done it yet, so I'm thinking of going and grabbing a cocktail there tonight. Anyone want to come out and join me?

... also, it means I don't have drive. Which would involve tears.

Available for a limited time only!

2008-12-05T16:56:57Z

It looks like I'll be leaving for Hong Kong on January 5th.

Really hoping this trip comes off. If it happens, I won't be around for quite awhile.

I for one welcome my new Chinese overlords.

Dec 19th - House Party

2008-12-05T16:54:07Z

December 19th Matt & I will be hosting a party. If you are reading this, you should be there!

So... don't suppose I could get a ride.

2008-12-01T19:49:02Z

So, don't suppose I could get a ride home from Ceremony tonight?

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/53816599@N00/3074554419/" title="mikecar2 by mikespe, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3219/3074554419_b905d389b2.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="mikecar2" /></a>

First time to the sun

2008-11-13T18:31:12Z

For the first time in my life I'm heading to somewhere "sunny" on a trip. I'll be heading to San Diego on work for a few days next week. I'm very much looking forward to kicking back on the beach after work with whatever the hell locals drink on beaches there. I just hope I don't combust.

In other work news, contract negotiations are coming along well with China, and it looks like I'll be able to head over there sometime next year. It'll still take awhile to complete negotiations and anything might happen, but so far it looks good.

For the past few weeks things have been pretty quiet in the office for me (well, by that, I mean a lot quieter than normal). But, now that folks found out I'll be out on site for a few days and not available, suddenly everyone in the company is stopping by asking me to solve this or that before I head out. Of course I'm loving it in my own strange twisted way.

Crap, time to start my next marathon session of non-stop meetings.

PSA - Cambridge rolls wrong, so bring your voter postcard as proof

2008-11-04T15:19:04Z

So apparently the Cambridge polling stations were given the 2004 election roll. So if you have recently moved to Cambridge, or have registered since 2004, you should bring the postcard that was mailed to you with your ward information as proof. Otherwise you will be turned away or given a provisional ballot.

I was lucky to have my card on me but many other people in line with me were not.

My Prediction for Tuesday; Half of everyone will be dissapointed

2008-11-03T20:58:05Z

I'm going to have to predict a McCain victory for tomorrow.

My reasons for this prediction are:

I'm rather cynical and my opinion of my fellow human beings is pretty low. I believe that when given a choice between an intelligent, long term beneficial choice and defenestration, Americans will choose defenestration every time.

Old people vote, young people are f'n useless. McCain's campaign of red scare communism might sound ridiculous to anyone under 30 but those people don't actually vote. Old white racists in Ohio who hate 'em reds vote. The voter registration numbers are meaningless. Register 100 old people and 100 of them will vote. Register 100 kids out of college and you'll be lucky if 4 of them actually vote.

Apparently my friends dont vote. I did an informal pole and I think half of the people I know don't even know if they are registered. And some of them are the most vocal "I'll move to canada" types. Kinda proves my second point of young people are f'n useless.

Tomorrow I'm going to work from home so I can vote and watch the news and hope for the best. Though part of me wonders about what a Palin presidency might be like purely out of morbid curiosity. I mean, I wonder how bad she really could be.

Finally! Now I can get some sleep...

2008-06-12T21:13:36Z

Well, I just FTP'd the final production run of my client's data. After nine months of work, the final deliverable has been, well, delivered.

After all the weekends, late nights, and occasional 24 hour days, it's finally done. This is such a huge relief, and a great burden lifted off me. Although since I've been working on this project nearly all my waking hours for the past few months, I wonder if I even remember what it's like to have time for myself. I have this feeling that I'm supposed to be doing something, even though it's done.

I'm sure work will find something for me to do with all my new free time though. This weekend the President of the company will be in Asia trying to line up a deal that I would be assigned to lead. Hopefully I'll spend the second half of the year in Asia.

What I've being doing on my summer vacation...

2008-05-27T15:31:01Z

... not taking a vacation apparently.

I've been working flat out on my current project at work for the past few months. Twelve hour days, weekends, it's been a real burn out. It hasn't left a whole lot of extra time to actually have a life. A few weeks more though and the project will be done and I'll be off for Dusseldorf and Luxembourg. I'll start on a new project a few weeks after I get back but I've been told that I'll be pulled off and given the China project if we get that account, which is what I really want.

My review went nicely though. Once again they received a lot of good comments from my clients. Apparently no one else gets feedback from clients like I do, which I find odd. I've now worked on/managed the two most profitable projects my company has ever had. Also good for me.

Somehow in between work I've managed to fit in a little fun. The occasional drink after work, video game, or movie with friends. Crap, mostly I think I've just worked for the past three months. :/ Joined a gym and I'm a little surprised just how much I've been enjoying it. In a year I'm gonna be buff. :P

Hopefully work will calm down, I'll start having a life again, and I can post something more interesting then.

A couple photo sets

2008-04-13T21:51:43Z

Finally got around to putting up a few more photos.

First up, the Easter party.

For the table top gamers out there, one BIG table.

And just a random shot of the B-Side I happen to like a lot.

Interviewing, from the other side of the table

2008-04-07T19:30:54Z

Uhg, I dread interviewing. By that I mean I dread interviewing and phone screening potential employees of our company. For some reason I find it difficult to judge their ability to really do their job. I never really know what to ask them. Recently I did come across a query in our code that would make a great technical question.

So, anyone know whats wrong with this query?

SELECT *
FROM TableAlpha A
LEFT JOIN TableBeta B ON A.fk = B.pk
WHERE B.Field = "Foo"

Ok, off to interview someone who's been in the industry for 25+ years. What the heck will I ask him?!

With power comes responsibility...

2007-12-12T00:51:38Z

... and sometimes being responsible for things can be tough.

Earlier this year I was promoted to Tech Lead and placed in charge of the entire engineering effort of one of our major client projects. This is a great opportunity as it pulls me off the engineering "floor" and puts me strait into the boardrooms. It has, however, been quite the crash course learning experience. While I have the engineering side of things down pat, I'm finding I have a lot to learn about being a manager of people. Like how to manage time for employees who can't manage their own time, how to get incompetent employees to write good code on time when they have no idea what they are doing, or how to get eomployees who dont seem to understand english very well to understand what I am saying.

Or, like today, how to decide whether or not to fire someone. Firing someone is not as easy as one one think. Especially when the employee is a really great person, whom everyone likes, and is trying very very hard and putting in a lot of hours. It's just that he's not, well, a very good software engineer. My project has strict deadlines, big payment milestones, and some complex work. But this decision effects a lot of lives. This is this fellows job I'm deciding. It'll effect his life, his wife's life, probably not in a good way. But if I keep him I risk endangering the project. I have to explain to management why we didn't get paid 250k on friday because someone in engineering missed a milestone. And that effects me, my project manager, my entire team as well. Do I sink the careers of at least four people for one nice fellow? As tech lead, I don't just have a say in what happens, I have the only say. It's my job and the responsibility starts and ends with me.

So today I learned a bit more about managing people, exercised my power, made a decision, and hope like heck I made the right one, because now I'm responsible for it....

I'm in yur cloudz, snowing on yur headz

2007-11-20T16:38:59Z

If you open a new blank page in notepad, you will see exactly the same thing I am seeing out of my office.

Forty four floors up and apparently inside a cloud of snow. I can't see the ground. Wonder what it's like down there.

Housewarming party this Saturday, Nov 10th

2007-11-05T17:04:36Z

I know I'm a little late on this, but my house is throwing a housewarming party this Saturday, Nov 10th.

10 Madison Ave
Cambridge MA
02140

Plenty of parking in our driveway. Right off the bike path between Alewife and Davis square. Post if you need directions.