Monthly Archives: December 2006

ea_spouse : Follow Up

Posted on by

I received an email from Erin Hoffman ( aka ea_spouse ) who filled me in on what has happened since she originally penned the article that I discussed a few blog posts ago. I’ve quoted a bit of the email below:

Your blog post was very thoughtful, thank you very much for sharing that as well. As we move forward it is critical that positive work environments get a spotlight shown on them as much as the negative ones, so your account of your workplace is very important in displaying to the rest of the world that breaking the backs of developers isn’t necessary for business or product delivery.

I think Erin is right in that although there are many really negative stories out there, there are also positive ones and its important for people to also present those as examples of how you can run a software business without breaking the backs of the developers charged with building products and services

Erin made public her identity last April, and since then has worked with others to set-up a quality of life focused organisation called http://www.gamewatch.org. I have nothing but the utmost respect and admiration for Erin and what she has accomplished so everyone, please, if you have a moment do take the time to visit the site and their forums at http://www.gamewatch.org/phpBB2/

Movie: Ghost Dog

Posted on by


Ghost Dog:The Way of the Samurai

Had a fun evening last night, one of my colleagues popped over for an evening of eating Pizza and watching old kung fu movies. We decided to watch the first episode of Monkey ( i’m one of the sad gits who has the complete series on DVD) anyway she and I got all philosophical as we laughed our heads off watching the exploits the Great Sage, Equal of Heaven!. However before she left, my friend lent me her copy of this incredible film that I’d never heard of called Ghost Dog. I got round to watching it this morning when I got back from the gym, and I have to admitt I was completely engrossed.

The movie Ghost Dog revolves around its title character, an African-American mafia hit man who has taken the spiritual and philosophical posture of a samurai, and his attempts to reconcile his beliefs with those of his employers. Ghost Dog (Forrest Whitaker) devotedly carries out assassinations for his retainer Louie (John Tormey), a mafia foot soldier who once saved his life. However when the daughter of a mafia don witnesses Ghost Dog executing a foot soldier, the local Don orders his execution. The film basically follows Ghost Dog as he attempts to survive, this ordeal is extremely complex as he attempts to adhere to the strict samurai code.

Ghost Dog attains high levels of spirituality by practicing martial arts and reading the Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai, an 18th century book that established the philosophy of the samurai – which I’ve mentioned previously on this blog since its a book I’ve been reading and re-reading for a number of years. In fact the movie is littered with quotes from the Hagakure which are presented intermittently on the screen throughout the film. Perhaps thats one of the reasons I was so engrossed by this movie.

Forrest Whittaker is excellent in the title role, this isnt a big budget special effects laden movie, nor is it overly violent. It’s one of those movies that revolves entirely around the characters.

I think its excellent! and I thoroughly recommend it 😉

"… Why cant a woman be more like a man?"

Posted on by

I can’t figure out women! What I did discover late this evening is that any proficiency in the martial arts affords one the unique ability to be able to put both ones feet in ones mouth at the same time! Anyway I’ve decided to come to grips with my inability to grasp how their minds work by trying to compare them to something familiar yet equally frustrating to deal with … and I didn’t have to look far … Pointers! Interestingly if replace the word pointer for woman … it all starts to make sense!

I suppose watching My Fair Lady when I got home didnt help … but I did laugh my head off when it got to this song …

HIGGINS
What in all of heaven could’ve promted her to go,
After such a triumph as the ball?
What could’ve depressed her;
What could’ve possessed her?
I cannot understand the wretch at all.
Women are irrational, that’s all there is to that!
There heads are full of cotton, hay, and rags!
They’re nothing but exasperating, irritating,
vacillating, calculating, agitating,
Maddening and infuriating hags!
[To Pickering]
Pickering, why can’t a woman be more like a man?
PICKERING
Hmm?
HIGGINS
Yes…
Why can’t a woman be more like a man?
Men are so honest, so thoroughly square;
Eternally noble, historic’ly fair;
Who, when you win, will always give your back a pat.
Well, why can’t a woman be like that?
Why does ev’ryone do what the others do?
Can’t a woman learn to use her head?
Why do they do ev’rything their mothers do?
Why don’t they grow up- well, like their father instead?
Why can’t a woman take after a man?
Men are so pleasant, so easy to please;
Whenever you are with them, you’re always at ease.
Would you be slighted if I didn’t speak for hours?
PICKERING
Of course not!
HIGGINS
Would you be livid if I had a drink or two?
PICKERING
Nonsense.
HIGGINS
Would you be wounded if I never sent you flowers?
PICKERING
Never.
HIGGINS
Well, why can’t a woman be like you?
One man in a million may shout a bit.
Now and then there’s one with slight defects;
One, perhaps, whose truthfulness you doubt a bit.
But by and large we are a marvelous sex!
Why can’t a woman take after like a man?
Cause men are so friendly, good natured and kind.
A better companion you never will find.
If I were hours late for dinner, would you bellow?
PICKERING
Of course not!
HIGGINS
If I forgot your silly birthday, would you fuss?
PICKERING
Nonsense.
HIGGINS
Would you complain if I took out another fellow?
PICKERING
Never.
HIGGINS
Well, why can’t a woman be like us?
[To Mrs. Pearce]
Mrs. Pearce, you’re a woman…
Why can’t a woman be more like a man?
Men are so decent, such regular chaps.
Ready to help you through any mishaps.
Ready to buck you up whenever you are glum.
Why can’t a woman be a chum?
Why is thinking something women never do?
Why is logic never even tried?
Straight’ning up their hair is all they ever do.
Why don’t they straighten up the mess that’s inside?
Why can’t a woman behave like a man?
If I was a woman who’d been to a ball,
Been hailed as a princess by one and by all;
Would I start weeping like a bathtub overflowing?
And carry on as if my home were in a tree?
Would I run off and never tell me where I’m going?
Why can’t a woman be like me?

… ok ok I’m sorry … all this vitriol aside … I hope I figure them out one day! It just ain’t today …

Code reviews at Google with Mondrian

Posted on by

Another excellent Tech Talk. Our development group at Talis has been experimenting with different ways to carry out code reviews and I think its safe to say were still trying to find what works best for us.

I think this tech talk is very relevant not just to the discussions were having internally, but to any organisation that is serious about wanting to ensure that they are developing great, maintainable software.

ea_spouse : profit at the cost of human dignity

Posted on by

My copy of The Best Software Writing I – selected and introduced by Joel Spolsky arrived the day before yesterday. I finally managed to start reading it last night after getting back from a truly magical evening at the Chinese State Circus. The book is a collection of essays/posts on online blogs that Spolsky has brought together as examples of simple goodle writing that engages the reader and captivates them. Spolsky introduces each essay with his own take on the subject matter. The essay I chose to read first was entitled EA – The Human Story. Anyone who knows me, knows I play several online games (most FPS ones), and I have a great interest in the gaming industry in terms of the products and technologies that they produce.

It’s safe to say that I was not expecting to be moved quite as much as I was by this account, which you can read online in its entirety over at http://ea-spouse.livejournal.com/. Before I go any further I will say this, I believe that ANYONE working in the software industry or in human resources, in fact everyone should read the essay.

It’s written by the spouse of an Electronic Arts employee who wrote this under the anonymous moniker ea_spouse, she chose to remain anonymous because in her own words she has “no illusions about what the consequences would be for my family if I was explicit“. Her account dramatically made the world aware of the shocking sweatshop-like labor practises at EA. It’s important to point out that this account was originally written in 2004 and since it was first published the controversy it generated has led to class action law suits against EA, as well a shedding light on what appears to be a commen trend within the gaming industry.

She describes what her family has to endure as her spouse is forced to work in excess of 85 hours a week for months on end, or in her own words:

Every step of the way, the project remained on schedule. Crunching neither accelerated this nor slowed it down; its effect on the actual product was not measurable. The extended hours were deliberate and planned; the management knew what they were doing as they did it. The love of my life comes home late at night complaining of a headache that will not go away and a chronically upset stomach, and my happy supportive smile is running out

It’s a heart wrenching expose that both captivates and evokes an extremely emotional response in you as you read it. As she laments the forced hours without any overtime or compensation, or even time off for employees you cant help but feel sickened. I had to put the book down and walk away for a moment when she wrote:

“If they don’t like it, they can work someplace else.” Put up or shut up and leave: this is the core of EA’s Human Resources policy. The concept of ethics or compassion or even intelligence with regard to getting the most out of one’s workforce never enters the equation:

Like anyone in the software industry you accept that you do have to work long hours sometimes as deadlines begin to loom, most of the developers that I have known dont mind this, but commonsense alone should tell us that this should always be the exception – never the norm. Ultimately it’s un-sustainable. We’re all human beings, we have lives outside of our work, other interests to persue, other dreams to achieve. ea_spouse ends her account with this …

…when you keep our husbands and wives and children in the office for ninety hours a week, sending them home exhausted and numb and frustrated with their lives, it’s not just them you’re hurting, but everyone around them, everyone who loves them? When you make your profit calculations and your cost analyses, you know that a great measure of that cost is being paid in raw human dignity, right?

Before joining Talis I used to work for an organisation, where I did clock up close to 70 hours a week for sustained periods. Of course no-one actually forces you, your just left to wander if you want the stigma of being labelled not a team player. I can only comment from my own perspective but I have no doubt that much of the apathy, cynicism and even contempt I had for the industry was a product of just how soul destroying it is to wake up, go to work, come home, sleep for a little and then wake up and go to work again. Your depressed, your constantly tired, your irratable, you become less and less attentive … to the point where you dont even sense someone running up behind you with a lead bar!

But what doesnt kill you, generally makes you stronger … at least thats something I try to believe. As I Read ea_spouse’s account, and thought about my own experiences as a developer working extended hours for sustained periods, I was immediatly able to contrast that with what things are like now.

For me Talis is a very different kind of environment to work in as a developer. I dont know whether its because we’ve embraced agile methodologies that are based around the principle of sustainable iterations of work, or whether its because the people I work with and work for genuinley care about the wellbeing of every member of the team. Or as I suspect its probably a combination of both. Our iterations in Skywalk are weekly, the small team on average completes around 15 units of work per week (our velocity – dont ask me to define what our units represent … I always quote my estimates in donuts! 😉 ), but I recall how our programme lead reacted a few months ago when the team over a couple of iterations averaged twice to three times that figure.

Our programme lead on skywalk, Ian Davis, is probably one of the finest programme mangers I have ever worked with. Probably because he doesnt think of himself as a programme manager. He’s extremely goal driven and yet a humanist who puts the well being of his team before anything else. As a team leader he’s a pragmatist, but it’s his charm and his passion that has helped bring together bunch of talented geeks and focused them into a team in every sense of the word. Anyway a few months back our velocity shot up, we were coming to the end of the development on a research prototype we call, Cenote, we wanted to have the piece up and running so Paul could show off some of our achievements at a conference in Canada. There wasnt a real requirement for the prototype to be made available, it was always a nice to have. But the team wanted to showcase its work, we take a great deal of pride in what we do. Ian was on vacation and in his absence we simply plowed on got it all done and delivered. When he came back and checked our velocity, he was appreciative yet told us that he didnt want us to make a habit of that because it wasnt sustainable. He then planned our next iteration to be around half our normal average velocity on the grounds that he wanted to make sure we all got a bit of rest. I’d never known a programme manager to react like that … or for a company to let him.

Google Patent Search service launched

Posted on by

Google has launched a patents search service at http://www.google.com/patents which as a service looks quite interesting.

On a slightly a related subject ZDNET reports that U.S Patent Office awarded a Design Patent to Google that covers “the ornamental design for a graphical user interface” of Googl’e search results page. Google are not patenting “searching” but that the specific visual look of their search page.

Some critics are pointing out that the awarding of this patent is more evidence that the granting of software patents is spiralling out of control. This whole issue is currently being debated by the Supreme Court.

Do you wrestle with dreams?

Posted on by

I remember hearing someone once say that all life can be broken into moments of transition that lead to moments of revelation. That someone was a fictional character in the show Babylon 5 which I watched years ago. Yet it’s always been there in the back of my mind like a spectre I’m constantly contending with wanting to know if these transitions I’m go through will ever lead to any kind of a revelation. But its also one of those thing you hear from time to time that makes you sit and say wow thats so true yet it transcends you ability to articulate why , that you’ve come across some great truth but its somehow just outside your grasp or ability to fully internalise.

Something happened to me the other day, one of my colleagues was giving a presentation on why the company was carrying out Emtional Intelligence tests on members of our senior management team. During the course of presentation she asked us to think of two words that summed up what was important to us. My two words were challenge and contentment. She commented on the strange duality in my choice but we didnt go into why I chose those words. Which is a good thing because it was an instinctive choice and I’m not sure I would have been able to articulate why at the time wthout sounding like an idiot.

I guess I wouldnt be saying all this unless something had happened to make me confront that choice … which is exactly what happened last night. I’ve had an obsession with reading philosophical and bigoraphical texts that I suppose most people would class as ancient. I started off years ago with the ancient greeks … Aristotle, Socrates, Plutarch, Xenephon. But just as the wisdom of ancient greece is available to us through the written word, so to is the wisdom of other cultures. My current obsession is with japanese authors. The two authors I’ve been reading most recently are Yamamoto Tsunemoto, and Miyamoto Masashi. I was reading Miyamoto’s The Book of Five Rings and was contrasting it with Yamamoto’s Hagakure. The books, although they focus on the teachings of Samurai contain a wealth of knowledge that, like Sun Tzu’s Art of War, apply to far more than the limited sphere people often think they do.

A number of years ago a Scientologist asked me to fill in a questionnaire and she asked me the same question my colleague did, I vivdly recall giving the same answer. Except this lady really pushed me on why. Challenge is easier to articulate its really about me knowing that I need to be challenged in what im doing, not just at work but in most aspects of my life. If I dont feel that im being challenged the I often become bored and easily distracted and I tend to loose the sense that im either achieving something or that im growing as a person.

Contentment now that’s damn difficult to explain to a scientologist. It boils down to the fact that I just want to be happy about who I am. Of course when I told this lady that she kept pressing me on “dont you want a big house….dont you want a fast sports car, dont you want … blah blah blah”. My answer was no. I recall saying to her “all i want is to wake up each morning, look at myself in the mirror and now that I’m happy to be me, to know that I’m not ashamed of anything I’ve done, and to know that I have no regrets about what I have done or have not done“.

Ironically I couldnt have been more than nineteen years old when I said that, call it the naivety of youth. Somewhere between then and about eighteen months ago I totally lost sight of those ideals. Pain, grief combined with complacency and apathy has a way of doing that to a person. Until one day you dont have any choice but to confront who you are … in my case it happened on the way to work one morning a rather unsavoury gentleman decided he wanted my wallet so he smashed a lead bar on my head. It took me two months to recover, learning to use your eyes again is not fun, and thats a long time to do nothing but lye down and think.

When your laid up in hospital you have a lot of time to think, you become introspective, or well I did. I remember this little ditty playing in my head during that period … like a form of self torture I guess …

Do you wrestle with dreams?
Do you contend with shadows?
Do you move in a kind of sleep?
Time has slipped away.
Your life is stolen.
You tarried with trifles.
Victim of your folly.

You think about all the things that might have happened, all the things you wish you had done. I guess it was then I realised I didnt like the person I’d become, and it was time for change. So I made a number of changes in my life, for one thing I got a new job in an environment that I knew I’d be happy in, and that I could grow in and find some contentment I guess. I promised myself that I’d become the person I once was.

Then yesterday I read this Yamamoto’s text:

If by setting one’s heart right every morning, and every evening, one is able to live as though one’s body is already dead, he gains freedom in the Way. His whole life will be without blame, and he will succeed in his calling.

I dont know what enlightenment feels like, and this could all just be altruistic crap, but this transition that I’ve gone through over the last two years finally led to the simple revelation that I’d come full circle again, im finally content again with who I am.

Outsourcing developers abroad … Do people still really think its a good idea?

Posted on by

Had an interesting evening went to the gym and ran into an old friend I’ve not seen in a few years. We sparred for a bit (its a guy thing … guess we wanted to see which of us had improved the most since our last … encounter … it was me of course not that I’m insanely competitive … honest!)

Anyway afterwards we went to to grab a bite to eat and catch up on what we’ve both been up to. We both work in the IT industry and love development but we tend to have differing views on a lot of things ( Listen J were not starting the Java vs .NET argument on my blog if you do I’ll really kick your ….). Anyway J and I both used to work for the same company and the senior management of that organisation has recently announced that its going to outsource the development of some its long term projects overseas to India, citing that engineering talent over there is cheap and thus far more cost effective … but they intend to run the projects from over here. As a result my friend, like many of his colleagues are obviously worried about their futures and whether the company will want to retain their services as developers for much longer. Anyway this kind of got me thinking …

I’m not going to pay credence to any of those boorish, tired and lamentable arguments about how its morally wrong to take UK jobs and hand them to people overseas. The fact is we live in a global economy and we have to accept that we need to remain competitive in that economy. Besides I believe that kind of xenophobia generally tends to cloud the issue and overshadow far more important reasons as to why outsourcing is a bad idea for our industry.

I remember towards the tail end of the 90’s when venture capitalists where really pushing the idea of outsourcing development to places like China and India it’s cheaper, more cost effective and will help the organisations overall operational effectiveness. I’m of the opinion that this was generally because they looked at other industries where that model worked really well, I guess what they thought was if Matel can manufacture toys abroad cheaper, why cant we get software written abroad cheaper, right? Lots of large firms bought into this thinking Oracle and Hewlett Packard are just two examples of companies that followed this trend … only to slowly distance themselves after encountering the problems I touch upon below.

The problem though, is that writing code isn’t something you can translate into an assembly line. What I think the people pushing this type of outsourcing failed to comprehend, and seemingly still dont understand is that farming out development overseas doesn’t lead to innovation. The idea that you get a a large group of programmers together and they’ll just produce cool code – doesn’t work! I remember at university I did an elective in post-war Japanese history (wish I could tell you that I did this cos it was interesting but the truth was the lecturer was the hottest chick I’d ever …*off daydreaming*), anyway one of the things we were taught was that the japanese rebuilt their economy around their manufacturing industry, using automated methods of production and rigourous quality control. Through all of this they actually revolutionised manufacturing industry globally the effects of which are still being seen today.

Towards the end of the seventies and into the eighties Japanese companies tried to set up software factories where they basically got a shed load of developers together and tried to apply their tried and tested manufacturing experience to writing software … they failed miserably and learnt that putting loads of developers together doesn’t create innovative software. The reason is that writing software isn’t something that translates into a purely mechanical activity – like making a toy or a car. So none of their tried and tested rules applied.

Someone famously once said every line of code is a design decision, I’m struggling to remember who it was [insert clever guys name here]. But that single statement embodies for me what the real problem is with outsourcing projects abroad. You loose sight of the decisions that the developers are making as they piece together the product from your requirements. Farming out to developers overseas successfully means you have to pay meticulous attention to the details of what is being produced, and that’s damn difficult when you factor in communication problems, cultural differences and attitudes, and like it or not glaringly obvious fact that this model makes it difficult to be flexible or be able to react quickly to changes in your market place.

The problem with Second-Life is … it just sucks!

Posted on by

Ok, here’s my take on it. If I had to sum second-life up in a sentence it would be “Its just IRC with crappy avatars”. Far too many people think that its a game that you “play”. But it isn’t, its a virtual world that tries to provide real world metaphors so that users can be part of virtual communities, set up virtual businesses, make money, or simply lounge around try to look cool. There’s nothing wrong with that … but it just isnt compelling. Please spare me all that disingenuous crap that there’s 2 million registered users so that means it must be really popular! Hell … I registered for a free hotmail account once … I cant remember the last time I actually used it … 😉

For ages I’ve been refusing to sign up for an account on the grounds, rather facetiously, that I have a real-life, and I dont want to waste it away in an environment I knew I would loose interest in. But the other day I decided I’d give it a try. It took me about two hours to realise I didn’t like the clunky interface and crappy graphics, and further two hours to realise I actually hated the fact that it wasnt really a game.

My ulterior motive for signing up was to see how I could use the scripting engine to create some real world physics simulations, and i’m not sure what engine they are using its supposed to Havok2, but it doesnt feel like Havok at all.

As for the real world metaphor …. it still sucks, and I think its given far more credit than it deserves.

To understand my take on this this check this out: The current stats on www.secondlife.com are:

Total Residents: 1.9250,245
Logged In the Last 60 Days: 789,400
Online Now: 8,661
US$ Spent Last 24h : $652,969
LindeX Activity Last 24h: $135,163

Here’s goes – To begin with 2 Million registered users doesnt equate to 2 million active users. I’ve been trying to find out if the 789,400 users logged in the last 60 days, is the number of unique residents who have been active, or is it, as I suspect, the number of times anyone has logged in. Why do I suspect that? Well for arguments sake lets say each person logs in maybe twice a day ( assuming they have a real life ) that means in 60 days an individual would log in 120 times therefore 789,400 / 120 = 6579 (which I’ve rounded up). This isnt too far off the number of users currently online. Is that because like any game you tend to have a hard core group of users plus a bunch of casual users? Lets be generous lets say that the ballpark is really more like 12,000 active users. Even with that its not an enormous community. You can contrast this with other MMORPG like World of Warcraft which surpassed 5 Million registered users in December 2005! And theres a hell of a lot more than 12,000 people online in that virtual world at any one point in time than your ever likely to see in Second Life. Yes I know the press are raving that Second Life might actually exceed WoW’s number of registerd users … but trust me SL has a long way to catch up!

Whats is impressive about SL is that approx 12,000 active users somehow managed to spend $652,969 in Second Life in 24 hours. Which roughly equates to $55 per user in a 24 hour period. So what are these people spending their money on? I have a theory about that too. To begin with you can buy real world goods in Second Life, i.e. a Dell PC, boooks through Amazon etc. Which is what drives up the real $US figure, and thats really cool … its like IRC with crappy avatars but you have a shopping interface 😉

The Linden transactions for virtual goods on the other hand are a different matter. Firstly the actual reported Linden figures can be easily influenced if people know how to as reported by Reuters, to date this isnt a defect Linden Labs have managed to resolve, at least not to my knowledge, and they’ve not been commenting on it.

Secondly the types of businesses that are making profits in SL kind of fall into the gold-rush model. Back when Gold Miners used to descend on a midwest town with hopes of striking it rich, generally the only people who made any money where those who were selling Pots, Pans, Shovels, and supplies to the miners. Its much the same with Second Life. Avatar Designer and Virtual Real estate developers are making a profit selling Virtual wares. There is one additional group thats making a lot of money too, and thats the sex industry – and yes it has found its way into Second Life. You can trade you Linden’s for virtual pole dances, the services of a virtual escort or just buy images! I guess the notion that Pornography Drives Technology is still true even today. Personally I dont see the attraction certainly not with the graphics engine SL uses eeek … pixelated porn …*shudder* … maybe I’m just old fashioned but what’s wrong with going out with real women?

Recently Second Life has become a bit of a gimmick for real world companies many of which have set up a Virtual prescence in Second Life in an attempt to make themselves look cool, and its been successful in that it has generated a lot of media attention. Hey even Talis have a Virtual Office in there … (were still trying to convince our CEO that our real offices should have Pool tables and jacuzzi’s too – but hes not buying into it! C’mon Dave you know you want to 😉 )

Unfortunatly these gimmicks have a tendency to backfire Sun was berated recently for holding a developers Q&A session about the release of Open Source Java in Second Life. Dell also fell foul of this, and so have others.

As a game Second Life is just boring after your first twenty minutes flying around like superman dishing out your card to anyone with an avatar that looks like a hot chick – erm … but they might not be. Note to self: Dont put any real details into SL profile!

As metaphor for the real world Second Life isn’t compelling enough, at leasnt not for me. I’m not interested in buying virtual real estate, or setting up shop in there. If I want to buy from Dell or Amazon its a shed load quicker through a browser or using a phone than it is endlessly flying around and teleporting trying to find their virtual outlets, and trying to interact with the clunky UI. Which means you cant be task oriented in there you actually have to want to turn buying goods into an adventure to be attracted to SL as a metaphor for getting real world activities done and I just don’t buy into that. I guess that’s why they only have 12,000 out of 2 million users active?

Anyway I’m off to battle the forces of darkness in World of Warcraft!