BBC started airing a very good documentary about the internet a few weeks ago called The Virtual Revolution.  I finally watched the first episode just the other night.  It’s amazing how much has happened in such a small time.

Google was incorporated in 1998 (went public in 2004).  Youtube started in 2005.  Twitter in 2006.  The World Wide Web was created in 1990 with the first web server being created by Tim Berners-Lee in that year.

It was a fantastic documentary and it really makes you think. 

We are still very much in the beginning of all of this.  There are still things to be done that no one has thought of yet.  We still haven’t reaped much of the benefits that the improvements in communication channels will have lent to science and medicine and as much as the internet has changed all of our lives, I’m sure it’s nothing compared to what’s to come.

I routinely chat with people in China and India (and back home in the States) while visiting offices here in the UK. In high school, these places all seemed so far away.

This twenty years of the internet will one-day seem like just a blip to us.  One day years in the future, people will talk about how the newspapers and music industries cried foul before they found their own way.  We will talk about the quaint days of waiting for our favourite TV programs to be aired.  Soon, we will look back on Twitter and Facebook the same way we look back on the old newsgroups (it was all so crude!).

The other day I found myself falling into the trap of thinking that everything had been invented already.  Surely, there are no new opportunities out there because they’ve all been invented.  Or, someone is already working on them.  But the truth is that we’ve hardly scratched the surface. 

There are still things that aren’t quite right in technology.  Still loads to do.  For example, as much as webcam chat is fantastic and a nice novelty, it’s still too complicated to get “ordinary” people to use it. 

As much as things change, we still think in old terms.  Artists still come out with Albums, even though we can buy and download only the tracks we want.  Why do we need the album grouping?  We still have business people who think they need to fly thousands of miles to have a meeting in another office, because we haven’t found a method of communication that is better an 8 hour flight.  Too many of us still get up in the morning and drive or take a train to an office building to do work that could easily be done at home.  When we get to grips with some of these new realities, we will start thinking differently and even more innovation will come.

I was reading the xkcd comic strip (if you haven’t read it, you’re missing out—http://xkcd.com), and saw this this strip:

2003 wasn’t that long ago. Or maybe my age is just catching up with me.

“Superman. good morning. I saw your email about taking Christmas eve off and I’m fine with that.”

“Now I know you are eager to go out and capture Lex Luthor and save the world again, but I need you to put down on paper everything you are planning to do over the next few days in order to catch him. I know you don’t like drawing up project plans, but you know what they say–failing to plan is planning to fail.”

“I really don’t want an incident like the last time you saved the world. Sure you did a great job, no one’s saying you didn’t, but you completely deviated from the plan and didn’t even consult me on your final solution. There were times when I didn’t even know where you were. You made me and the company look bad.”

“You may have all these super powers, but I have leadership skills. I’ve been in this industry for years and I know how the game is played. The truth is, whether you like it or not, you need me. You’d be lost without me.”

Superman spends the next few hours drawing up his project plan.

“It says here you need three days to find and capture Luthor. Is it really going to take you that long? What if you walked out the building now and he is standing across the street, wouldn’t you be able to do it in two days then? Well, let’s just put down two days on the plan then.”

“I can see you’re frustrated Superman. But you aren’t the only one with responsibilities around here. I was up till midnight last night doing budgeting for the next year. It’s very important work.”

“What was that? I’m sorry, do you have over ten years management experience? Do you have an MBA? Are you six sigma certified? Well, let’s leave thinking up to me, huh?”

“Oh, Lois Lane from the Daily Planet wanted to interview you about the train wreck you stopped last week. I told her I would meet with her instead. You are far too busy be spending time talking to reporters. Don’t worry, I won’t take all the credit–I’ll tell her it was a team effort.”

Despite the extra half-hour traveling, I’m really enjoying the new location in London I’m spending most of my days in. I’ve come to know Canary Wharf and West London pretty well–but now I get to learn my way around the City a bit more.

Here’s a picture I took with my phone the other day. This was taken a about 100ft from the new office.

Most of my work is on the south side of London Bridge, but I frequently go into the City to visit the other office.

No showers, so the lunch time run is not on, but a very nice place to work.

So today I started my new contract with a consulting firm. Funny thing, first days. You try not to seem a nuisance when all of your PC accounts and privileges are set up. It seems like a nice place and I’m looking forward to working on the cool project I’m assigned to.

The offices are located near London Bridge, close to the London Dungeon. It’s a nice area of London I haven’t really visited much.

I was doing really well with posting more regularly, but I got bogged down in loads of work recently.

Learning WPF is really a lot of fun. I’ve done the Microsoft learning courses and have started through Charles Petzold’s gigantic book on the subject (called Applications=Code+Markup). I’m really convinced that WPF will make a huge change in the way we use software in the future.

I’ve also taken on a contract (starting next week). I’ll be working for a London consultancy building MIS applications for another investment bank. I’ll give more details later (just in case it falls through at the last second).

I wasn’t looking for a project, but a friend called me about this one and it really took my fancy. I must be getting geekier–I wasn’t interested until he told me about the technologies they’re using. My CV wasn’t even up to date. I’m very excited about it.

So, in addition to the offshoring projects–I’m back into London to do some coding myself.

I’m very late with this.
I left my last contract over a week and half ago and haven’t posted anything to say thank you (if someone should happen upon this site again).
Thanks to everyone and the leaving you and the great present. I’m using that while running through the countryside.
Not much time has past since I’ve left, but it feels like forever. My first week on this project was really long. I’m really putting a lot of time into setting up my PC, the new Overpass site, some flowcharts, etc.
I’m finally getting over the “Oh shit!” stage. Now, I’m focused on getting this thing off the ground.
I’ll try to post more on this site and I will definitely change the way this site looks.
I shall talk to you all later.
Eric

I’m about to make a broad generalisation– there are two types of developers in the world. In all of the places I’ve worked, I noticed this dichotomy–I suppose it exists in all industries. There are the run-of-the-mill developers who code for the infrastructure at their disposal and there are the genuine players in the industry.

I’ve become more and more aware of this as I look around organisations and to see a few developers who only know the platform they are allowed to code for, between nine to five, every day. They live for their outside interests. A nice car. A happy family life. Maybe some night classes.

Then there are the genuine players in IT. Talk about any new technology or bleeding edge coding style and they will know of it and maybe even dabbled a bit while not in the office. They read, or better yet, write blogs about better ways of doing things. They look forward to the end of the day so they can go home and really code something remarkable.

I know a lot of Java players and Microsoft players. I’ve worked along side people who will code a giant if statement around a block of dated code just to avoid looking seriously at it. And I’ve also worked along side people who can fill you with excitement about a new browsers, an updated .Net version, or even better quality Source Control Management.

A person on the cutting edge knows about Flickr, Ajax, .Net 2.0, etc. The majority of developers know about the servers they officially support.

Last month I met up with some friends from Barcap. Within 5 minutes the discussion turned to .Net 2005 and how it’s better than 1.1 but still has a lot of bugs. Then, we eventually talked about women (we are men after all).

I’ve known people who have taking holidays to learn a new technology shut up in a spare room of their house. I’ve known developers who devour Wrox books and offer knowledgeable critiques of them.

Then there are the developers who swear they can’t learn a new language unless they have a project to work on and swear that computer books are too dry. They copy any code they need from the web and modify it to fit they’re needs (often leaving a dangling variable somewhere).

A pointless rant, I know. I want to be more of a player and sometimes stray from the path. I admire those who say, “I am a developer. This is my industry,” with head held high.

I once blew a job interview because I told the interviewer that I get bored easily. Well, actually, I answered his question.

After telling the guy about all of my accomplishments, about my optimism for the future, and the work I do on my own to keep my skills sharp, He asked me the question. I told him how I keep up on various areas of study. I told him how I wake up at 4am every morning to read or develop my technical skills. He was impressed with my enthusiasm. Then he asked me, “Do you get bored easily?”

I didn’t know the right answer. I couldn’t bring myself to say no. I do get bored easily. When I told him yes, I knew it was over. After interviewing for an hour, I threw it out because I couldn’t answer the question right.

“My concern is that we don’t always work on new and exciting things here. I’m concerned that you would find the more tedious aspects of meeting with clients and discussing the same thing over and over again to lose your interest.” I backpedaled as much as possible after that, but it was no use. I found out later that I wasn’t hired because I might get bored easily.

It was one of those moments when you know the right answer as soon as you leave. How could I get bored easily when I spent an entire year learning Mandarin? How can I get bored easily when I sat through hour after hour in history lectures when I’d been up all night working in a motel.

The place I was working at the time I had been at for two and a half years. Still, I missed the question.

This was nearly three years ago. When I look back at that interview, despite the awful feeling I had driving home afterwards, I’m glad I said what I did. I do get bored easily. We should all get bored easily.

When the world moves as fast as it does, some are going to cling to the quo and others are going to move forward falling all the time.

Which would you rather be?

Originally Posted 05-Sep-05

There are times at work when I marvel at how many people do nothing but go from meeting to meeting. We have people in our company (where I’m contracting, I mean) who set up meetings, attend meetings, make comments at meetings, go back to their desks and draw up minutes no one will ever read (and possibly a flow chart that is too complicated for anyone) and then go on to the next meeting.

I was in a meeting last week with 9 people. As the meeting progressed, I realised I was the only person with any technical skills. I came away with every action point. It’s nice to know I keep 8 people in jobs.

It has been an incredibly busy day. It’s been mad.

Did you ever have the feeling that you have so many things on your head was going to explode?

It felt great.