if business is like hockey, a good team knows how to get the puck out of the corner!

Last week I posted my impression of doing business in Canada,  and that to be in business you have to want to run fast and want it bad.

Another article along those lines from Pat DiPietro the fact that we may not play to win, we like being liked! and then he goes to explain that when we play and compete in hockey we're a totally different beast, we play to win, we do what it takes to win. So his answer, imagery is "Let's do business like we play hockey. Play to win, expect to win". I like the image.

Business is no picnic, and it's not about being liked, alright I get that. It's also very much about knowing what to say, how much to push, what to ask, and not being afraid to take a chance. So to use the hockey analogy, you have to have the guts to go get the puck in the corners.

I think other cultures like the US are much better at going in the corners to get the puck. I think it's about being decisive, it's clarity over certainty. If I want to be certain, it will take time, and I will probably miss my window. Clarity is about everyone on the team having clear marching orders, and executing. Ok but what if I make the wrong decision, and we're all marching the wrong way - well let's change the decision fast, so being able to revisit and having the robust dialog that goes with it. And this is another thing that the US I think do best, anyway from my experience in the valley, they don't mind being wrong as much, and changing their mind.

Outsourcing Humour part II!

As a follow on to my first post on outsourcing humour. You need people that are versed in more than just code, or pop corn!

From the Science-is-cool dep: basic concepts in science

Here is a blog(evolving thoughts), I got to read over the weekend that I think is pretty cool, and I should share. The concept is simple, it's a list of basic concepts in science, from biology, to math, including the hotly debated subject among our American friends subject, the evolution. So if you want like me a refresh on concepts I've learned already too long ago, like standard deviation or just plain learn about why spiders aren't insects this is the source for you.

 

Oh btw I got this link from GeekDad(wired).

Canada Needs to Realize The Technology Business is a Race | StartupNorth

Read this post from StartupNorth, running a business is no picnic and starting on even less so. Whatever the market, whatever the business - it's a competition.

It's about outmanoeuvring, being smart, and being able to run fast! I like Donovan Bailey's quote the day before the race against Johnson in Toronto back in 1997, he was bragging about how he was going to leave him in the dust - it went like this - "what he[Johnson] is my butt getting smaller and smaller"

Yes you loose some, but to go back to my top 10 - I make sure I learn and move on, cause tomorrow is another race!

Outsourcing Humour

Here is a tongue in cheek cartoon as to what we have heard on what is going on some projects in Product Development Outsourcing.  Sometimes you need exactly what you ask for ... but not at all what you need! The moral of the story : A partner who can can finish your sentences and read between the lines doing more than just code is what one needs!

Good Programmers = success

From Slashdot again - an interesting topic - how to recognize good programmers. While I strongly agree with most of the conclusions, in particular, passion as in how many side projects, or programming someone is doing just for fun, or investigation, or analysis of what is going on in the industry.

• I'd like to also point out that during an interview getting someone to dig and explain his/her work (the so what?, and how so?, how did you do it?) will help  assess if this person understands what work he/she has done. One pattern I've found over the years is, how easily senior guys can answer the technical questions you ask them, they've been there done that. If one doesn't corroborate those answers with the person hands on experience and understanding of it - the risk are high that you're hiring process is letting in the wrong people.
• The candidate MUST be doing 80% of the talking during the interview, otherwise you are speaking too much!
• Don't hesitate to interrupt if an answer is not going where you want - you only have so much time.
• But you have to be willing to tolerate silence, so that what you hear from the candidate comes from the candidate, and not the answers you want to hear.
• Assess the people fit - the performance of your team is highly dependant on how well the team gels, hiring people that will fit in your culture is key. So when talking about past experience listen in carefully how the candidate speaks of his past bosses, colleagues?
• The people doing the interviews must be a good representation of what you're looking for. They will know what to look for, with much better ease.
• Remember the saying as well "A programmers hire A type programmers, B programmers hire B programmers, and C programmers have no idea who they hire"

From there you're done with Step one of Demarco's description of a manager's job (If my memory serves me well!)

• Hire the right people
• match the right people to the right jobs
• make sure the team gels!

Is Java Damaging to students?

From a slashdot story, I went on to read an interesting essay. The author argues that Java doesn't teach the proper fundamentals or all the fundamentals for the next generation of Comp scientists and engineers.

"We have seen how this choice has weakened the formation of our students, as reflected in their performance in systems and architecture courses. As founders of a company that specializes in Ada programming tools for mission-critical systems, we find it harder to recruit qualified applicants who have the right foundational skills."

The professors have a vested interest in Ada, this is not the language of choice, I mean the popularity of this language doesn't compare to Java or C#. Universities have it tough, or are between a rock in a hard place here. The debate is always to teach skills that match the industry needs, if they stick to teaching lisp and pascal, the industry will also complain.

So how can Universities win this battle? Building specialized programs within larger ones. The fact is that the technology world is becoming broader and broader, and software touches just about everything. So I don't know anymore that in 20years from now we will need as many generalist computer scientists, or engineers.

The reality then maybe that we have healthcare computer scientists, or defense computer scientists and engineers or biology computer specialists. The program would be designed so that the people have a major in computers and and a minor in the specific domain. They would then savvy in the specific platforms/technologies of the domain itself as well as savvy in the vertical itself, so that they can interface with the pure specialist productively. This way if the vertical requires more or something else than Java to be fully productive it would be taught.

 

Universities are already started on this, I know of Healthcare and bio informatics programs in Nova Scotia and Waterloo. With the work I volunteer (ictc, ocri) on the front of raising the awareness of tech possibilities, connecting the real life with the theory side of things is one very important thing to do to entice more kids to enrol. Let's hope it becomes a trend and that many more universities go for that approach.

CEA's take on CES Gizmodo prank: Banned!

As a follow on to a previous post on TV-B-Gone, CES has now banned the individual in question and is discussing the impact of this stunt on Gizmodo itself.

We have been informed of inappropriate behavior on the show floor by a credentialed media attendee from the Web site Gizmodo, owned by Gawker Media. Specifically, the Gizmodo staffer interfered with the exhibitor booth operations of numerous companies, including disrupting at least one press event. The Gizmodo staffer violated the terms of CES media credentials and caused harm to CES exhibitors. This Gizmodo staffer has been identified and will be barred from attending any future CES events. Additional sanctions against Gizmodo and Gawker Media are under discussion

What is most interesting here, the obvious - what's funny to some is not to others, and disturbing one's work is not cool.

The more subtle stuff - On top of that reading from comments (at valleywag)what comes to light for me is the clash and disagreement between bloggers and journalists. Journalist take themselves much more seriously working in more formal corporate environment, assuring us that facts are checked(although you may want to refer to this post for a tongue in cheek fact checking). The bloggers on the other hand are all about access to information, juicy information, new tech etc and reporting what they see for the more or less the fun of it.

What I'm trying to say is you have establishment and anti-establishment forces at work in the web media world and it ain't pretty. No established players like to loose its privileges or it's number one spot. So you can read complaints like "well I can't get a journalist pass at CES and I represent a print magazine, while bloggers of xyz site are getting a pass".

 

I'm most probably over simplifying but in my mind who gets what is about influence, if one represents a reading audience of 1000, and another 1m the choice for CES and conference organizers is easy.

Another post would need to be written as to how you gain influence!!!

TV-B-Gone - or shutting off lots of TVs at CES 08

background - CES 2008, consumer electronic show in Vegas, as you can imagine being a consumer show there are tons of TVs on display. They have walls of TVs everywhere in every booths.

So here comes TV-B-Gone, which allows one to shut tv offs from a distance. The crew at Gizmodo had fun at the expense of people manning the booths - check it out

 

Statistics: CES is huge, there are thousands of companies exhibiting, actually 2700 the last count, and 1.85million sq/ft of exhibits, about the size of 105 football fields.

French Press Falls For Major Facebook Prank

From the crazy-story department, here we have this facebook plugin to elect the next Facebook president. Strike one, then we have this guy on TV saying he has more power than the French president through his millions of contacts in Facebook, strike two, then we have the French press all over it - the guy is a star - bingo! What a crazy world this internet thing is.

A picture of Nathaniel Born Jan 3rd 08

Here is a picture of Nathaniel - who after just over a week of fine tuning and a little nudge finally decided to come out!

Gates Farewell

I had a few good laughs while watching  Bill: This Video Makes Bill Gates Look Cooler Than Steve Jobs. The thing with Gates is that he stands to have even more impact in his second career as head of his foundation as he did in his first one. MS is going to live on, but more and more I look at it as a company like IBM is successful because it has so much inertia, not potential to bring back physic 101 concepts.

#3 is here

In the personal category of posting. I'm happy and proud to announce the arrival of Nathaniel on January 3rd. We had been waiting for him impatiently, especially his mom I must add, since December 25th. He is doing great and he is just perfect! Cheers to Nathaniel and Manon!