tyler

NAB, Move and Microsoft

Mon Apr 21st 09:53:55 2008 *

Schedules this year made it impossible for me to get to NAB in Vegas for the show. I wish I'd been able to see the demo of us integrating overlays with Silverlight.

Well beet.tv managed to do a short piece on the integration and you can watch it now if you'd like.

Cool stuff!

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All things Development

Fri Mar 28th 07:48:13 2008 *

Have you noticed we're getting older? I'm amazed at how I can see a measurable curve in the technical questions I receive from the gang these days. Many of you are now a few years into a Computer Science degree. Others have left code altogether. Whatever you're doing these days I hope you'll still consider this community to ask your questions.

I'm starting a new category named InTheTrench. I plan to post commentary I have about the process of developing software and integrating systems. I'll also keep track of questions asked of me through various mediums (with the permission of the asker) for the benefit of the community.

There are a wealth of resources available on the net, but don't discount the fine folks here at Blogotomy. We don't bite, anymore.

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Move Networks and Microsoft Partner

Wed Mar 5th 19:01:49 2008 *

So what does the Move Networks & Microsoft Partnership announcement mean to me?

Sounds like some sort of essay for a history report or something.

Frankly I don't know. This is one of those things that you hear random rumors about, or you hear fragmented information about in the halls. It sounds strategic at the time, but it's the bits and pieces you have to ignore because it wouldn't do you any good to speculate. It could get you fired to discuss outside the hallowed halls of Move Corporate. You could get excited and be really let down when it never comes to fruition.

That being said... the percentage of rumor to announcement is exponentially greater than previous startups I've worked with. It's great when certain factions of management don't feel the need to lie to the employees. Management at Move Networks is strong. Being an employee does not make me a biased opinion either. I wouldn't say anything if the opposite were true, unless I was 5+ years from having been laid off from the company.

I'm off to give Silverlight some more attention. I have a feeling I'll get to play with it quite a bit in the coming months.

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Hell Week

Fri Feb 29th 15:55:53 2008 *

It's been quite a while since I've posted about a Hell Week. While this was definitely one of them, I'm feeling like I've accomplished a lot of things this week and that's always a good feeling. Especially after a week that included 2 "until 3am" sessions. Those take a greater toll on me than they used to. Especially when I try and get started the next day at the same time.

This week in general has been a big week for us. We're getting ready to stream Oprah's book club web events starting Monday. A lot of hard work has gone into this event. I hope it doesn't bring the entire net to its knees. We estimate a lot of traffic. More on that next week after the first event happens.

While I've still got a handful of loose ends to clean up, I found out that I've gained a little extra time on my estimates. That's usually a good feeling going into a weekend. I'm going to try and continue to increase that lead so I can call my portion code complete as soon as possible.

Another project I work on has been awaiting QA resources to give it some attention. Well those resources have been hired, so I'm going to have the typical installation support issues to deal with there. It should be pretty straight forward stuff. I'm really excited about getting this deployed because if it does well I'm guessing it will define my job at Move for the rest of the year. I can't even imagine coming in week to week and knowing exactly what I'll be working on. It would be a nice change.

Move is growing by leaps and bounds. It's starting to feel like a bigger company. I know less than 5000 folks isn't big at all, but we are feeling a fair amount of chaotic growing pains. More process is thrown into the works, which makes my day to day job slightly more monotonous. For example, there are more developers that I don't interact with frequently, so I'm creating more and more verbose documentation to avoid steady flows of email and other interruptions.

I'm keeping my head down. I've been here for a long time now... relatively speaking, and I hope to be around for some time to come. I take responsibility for my tasks and execute them to the best of my ability. Strong opinions don't get you very far when you're in the trenches like I am. Production does... so off to produce I return.

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APEX (APX?) Alarm a Fraud?

Fri Feb 22nd 15:23:00 2008 *

I follow Robert Merrill on Twitter and enjoy reading his posts. When I saw him Twitter about APEX (APX?) Alarm, I was quite interested as I know some folks that have and / or are thinking about selling for them.

Robert's experience with them is making me think I should suggest that they seek employment elsewhere.

Why is this place the land of the quick buck? It's no wonder there are so many bankruptcy's in this state.

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Adventures in the Snow

Thu Feb 14th 01:10:36 2008 *

I left work about 3:45pm to run an errand on my way home. On the way I decided to take a back road and the snow began to fly. There is one section of my favorite back road trail that can get hairy, and sure enough... it wasn't anything I wanted to attempt in the snow. I barely managed to turn around, but did manage to get back to the freeway.

The freeway was a mess. It took me till 4:30pm to get to my local gas station/convenience store. I grabbed a 24oz. Rockstar Punched and hung out with many many other folks for a couple of hours. All within about a mile of home. A few of my neighbors started showing up as the evening commute started. The authorities finally shutdown the road up to my house so it seemed we were going to be stuck all night. Well one of our neighbors had a 4x4 so we piled in there for a quick ride home. This was at around 6:30pm.

It ends up the road was still closed, and we were forced to get back on the freeway and head south. We had been informed that Ryan(the neighbor driving the 4x4)'s daughter was on a school bus that wasn't able to get the kids home. We decided to work our way over to the elementary school where the kids were expected to return. We finally got to the school at around 7:30-8:00pm.

Well it wasn't just 1 bus, it was 3 buses that were in varied distances from the school. Within about 30 minutes one bus showed up and several parents were relieved to be reunited with their kids. The school had been in contact with the other 2 buses and they were just slowly trying to make their way back. After a couple of additional hours folks started bringing food and bedding to the school. I was thinking to myself that this was going to be one long night. A couple of different news crews even came to the school. I was hit with a swarm of text messages as friends and relatives saw my ugliness on the local news. I didn't interview or anything, I was just in the background.

Well finally we received word that one bus had pulled over to a church that had been turned into a shelter for stuck travelers. Here in Utah there is a church on every corner thanks to the Mormon Church. The other bus was indeed stuck and not moving. The local police department stepped in though and shuttled the kids back to the school.

By now there were a fair amount of folks from my neighborhood at the school to rescue their kids. A few of us with 4x4 vehicles decided to caravan back to our neighborhood. I finally came through my garage door around 11:30 pm. My car is still stuck up the street, I'm sure amongst several other vehicles, but luckily I'm home and the family is all safe.

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MoveNetworks: John at AlwaysOn

Thu Jan 31st 04:41:52 2008 *

Our CEO, John Edwards, gave a presentation about us at the AlwaysOn NYC conference this week. Check out the video. Sorry it looks so bad, but it's Flash, not our stuff.

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AppleMacOSX: Apple to buy Move Networks?

Mon Jan 28th 13:42:16 2008 *

Okay, this is pure speculation, but how I LOVE articles like this.

Read Got Cash?, specifically the 2nd paragraph in the Apple section.

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AppleMacOSX: Undraggable Windows that Need Repositioning

Sat Jan 26th 09:39:50 2008 *

Before Leopard

Enter Spaces

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Blogotomy: Blogotomy gets iPhone and iPod Touch Homescreen Icon

Wed Jan 23rd 10:35:33 2008 *

iPhone and iPod Touch users rejoice!

I've created a homescreen icon for Blogotomy. It may just be worthy of one of those Monkey doohicky awards, but we won't know until next year.

Give it a whirl if you've got the right device. Just add Blogotomy from Safari to your homescreen and you'll see the icon.

Happy mobile surfing!

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