Robert Bogue
January 2, 2006
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If you’ve been wondering why my blog has been so quiet over the last 45 days or so, the answer is a bit complex. (but you can continue listening to the crickets chirping in the absence of content here.) I need to take a break from my reading to give my brain a rest… so now’s as good a time as any to explain the pieces of the puzzle that have lead to the relatively low number of posts.
First, and foremost, I’ve entered into a “phase” of reinvestment. That means many things but the short answer is I’m learning new things and relearning old things that I’ve forgotten – or I’m at risk of forgetting.
One of the pieces of this puzzle is the relatively large amount of software that Microsoft’s dropped at my door. I hadn’t really had much of a chance to work with .NET 2.0 or SQL Server 2005 while they were in beta – a side effect of a busy life. So I’m in the process of getting up to speed on them.
Just in case you’re wondering – for me getting up to speed means doing things that are a bit beyond the envelope. I’ve been playing with configuration classes (to support non-file based configuration sources), factory classes, and generics. I’ve not gotten done yet, however, this will be the foundation of the new web site that I’m building. (Don’t ask when it will be done, I don’t know yet.) I’ve also been playing around with master pages and web parts … I’m trying to mesh those into a foundation layer that allows me to control what’s on the page from a database. … and don’t even get me started about the HTTP handler to allow Google to walk around the foundation without getting aggravated by query strings.
Couple that with “Office 12” and Commerce Server Betas. Office 12 contains SharePoint which is one of the things driving a great deal of my work these days. Commerce Server is near and dear to my heart for many reasons not the least of which are that it’s at the core of the new web site I’m putting together and I’m a Commerce Server MVP.
Because I’m preparing to embark on a relatively large software development project, I’m reminding myself how to do things right. That means rereading
Steve McConnell’s Rapid Development book,
Fred Brook’s The Mythical Man-Month, and a few other Software Development Practice books. I’ve read them all before, but I felt like having read them about 10 years ago made it time to reread them. (I highly recommend both of the above books – both are “dated” but they illuminate some core concepts and problems that don’t seem to change.)
I’m also reading
Karl Wiegers’ Software Requirements, Second Edition. I’ve had a few projects recently that somehow managed to skip the requirements phase of development (in whatever lifecycle model you want to call the projects.) So I thought reading it would remind me of what a project with requirements is like. The book is solid, though somewhat repetitive. It’s much like a buffet where you take what you want – though I miss the carefully coordinated entrée and sides. My personal task for the end of the reading process is to try to distill the information into a one page cheat sheet I can laminate to remind me of the core concepts. I find that requirements is the one area where continuous reminders is helpful for me.
When I get done there I get a chance to read some books on Agile development … I’m looking forward to getting a firmer foundation for what Agile is supposed to be – presuming that the two books on the topic that I have can do that.
The second factor for the lack of posts is that I’m doing some infrastructure cleanup tasks. I run my own network infrastructure – I suppose that my MCSE and my former MVP aware for Windows Server-Networking will die hard. There have been nagging little problems with the infrastructure for a while – errors that weren’t causing any real problems but were still getting thrown to the logs. Well, in an effort to get my Pocket Pc Phone edition working with direct server synchronization, I had to clean up more than a few of those errors. (By the way, My
QTek 9100 Windows Mobile 5 [Pocket PC Phone Edition] rocks. The over-the-air sync to Exchange is amazing.)
The third factor is that I’m building an arcade style kiosk for my son. It will house his PC. It will be like the old “Pac-Man” arcade games but slightly wider to accommodate the keyboard, mouse, and joystick. It will have a real coin door which will eventually allow you to turn on and off the PC as well as an overhead light. The coin door itself has been installed, I just haven’t finished the electrical for the switches. Because my son is only 4 (as of January 5th) I’ve also built a seat arrangement that slides in and adjusts up and down so we can get the seat setup at a reasonable height for him.
The net effect of this project is that it’s taking a ton of my time. I’ve begun referring to it as the albatross around my neck. However, I saw the light at the end of the tunnel today as all of the major components have been assembled – I just need to get it in the house and hooked up and I’m going to take a break from the project for a while.
The fourth factor is that my writing schedule has been slowed WAY down. Basically, I’ve temporarily discontinued my regular writing. I expect that I’ll start writing about software development issues again very soon – however, in the mean time that means that even the regular posts linking to my articles have been missing.
The fifth factor is that I’ve been working a ton of hours at the church. I took on leadership of the technical ministry for worship services which means I’m responsible for coordinating sound, lighting, and media. Of course, I’m trying to get everything documented and get a better fundamental understanding of each part so that I can feel effective… This in the middle of the Christmas production and my other duties taking care of the IT needs have been overwhelming.
So that’s it… add in the usual family commitments for Christmas and New Years, a few days of illness, and you end up with some pretty sparse blog postings. However, I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel on most of these things, so hopefully I’ll have more to blog about real soon.
