So it’s that time of year again. Time for me to look back at my music charts over the last year, thanks to the awesome last.fm, and see how my listening habits and music tastes have changed (or not). And that also means its time for me to dedicate an entire blog post that only a few will find interesting. But in the words of Ruby Rod, “WHO CARES!”

There were no real themes in 2010. In 2009 I spent a lot of time getting songs I remembered from when I was back in school (you can see my post on my Top 10 of 2009 here), so lots of Hip-Hop and Rap (with some Goa thrown in for good measure). In 2010, the biggest change, overall, was The Glitch Mob. I’ve been a fan of theirs for a long time, but it was somewhat hit and miss for me. I like songs such as Beyond Monday and some of the individual tracks from Boreta (Bubblin’ in the Cut), edIT (The Sirens, More Lazers, etc.), Ooah (Tubstomper, Hacksaw, etc.), and Kraddy (primarily Steppin’ Razor) (and yes, I know Kraddy isn’t in TGM now), not to mention the various solid remixes from both The Glitch Mob as a group and as individuals. But all that changed when they dropped the single Drive It Like You Stole It.

In an easy descriptor, Drive It Like You Stole It is a perfect electronica song. It’s sweeping, still has a hard beat, melodic and ambient at the same times, and just comes together amazingly well. There are times when I was writing code or doing other stuff and I would just have that song on a loop for virtually the entire day without ever getting tired of it (I have evidence of this).

Likewise, another song came up that is pretty damn close to Drive It Like You Stole it, for me at least. And that is Transmissions from Moon III by Random Rab. Its much more melodic and instrumental/ambient in a sense, and more varied (with a longer playtime as well), but it just sweeps through such a good sound. And its one of those sneaky songs that gets better the more one hears it.

So those two songs I felt were worth mentioning directly, as they were my best finds this past year and songs I’ve gotten friends addicted to as well. And with that, let’s get onto the charting madness you’ve come here to not read.

WAIT! Ok, one more “worth mentioning” song. Even though it didn’t break into the Top 10 anywhere for me this year (I only got it in November ’10 I think), you should still check out The Hop by Radio Citizen feat. Bajka. Really cool song.

Now. Charts. Go.

My Top 10 Songs of 2010

1. The Glitch Mob – Drive it like you stole it
   As I mentioned before, this song is amazing. I can make no higher recommendation at this point. Go get it. Or at least go listen to it and then decide. Its worth it. Or just go get it. Because you should go get it. Now do it.
2. Random Rab – Transmissions from Moon III (From the Soundtrack to Iris)
   Really cool song. Smooth, flowing, ambient, chill, but still with a beat. This was a completely random find, I can’t even remember for sure how I stumbled on it, but I’m glad I did.
3. Shawn Lee’s Ping Pong Orchestra – Kiss the Sky
   Shazam for the win. I think this song was in a trailer or commercial, or something along those random lines, and I was able to identify it thanks to Shazam being a perfect app to always have in your pocket. Good sound, somewhat different, not my normal style but I like the layers in the song.
4. Kid Cudi – Day ‘N’ Nite (Crookers Remix)
   I’ve had this track for a few years (thanks to my friend Ben cluing me into Kid Cudi and this remix a while back), and its a great song. Didn’t realize I listened to it so much in 2010 though. Oh, by the way, don’t waste your time with the non-remix version. The Crookers Remix blows every other version of the song away, including the original.

   Soundtrack 2 My Life, also by Kid Cudi, is also worth checking out while you’re at it.

5. Vaishiyas – Who You Are
   More Goa. I found Vaishiyas in 2009 where it also ranked highly for me, so it was still going strong in 2010 too.
6. Secta Chameleon – Push Along (feat. MC Manic)[Groove Diggerz Remix]
   Secta Chameleon is pretty damn good on certain songs, though not as well known in the US it seems. Worth checking out, good breakbeat style.
7. Placebo – Running Up That Hill (2007 Digital Remaster)
   Another song found from a movie trailer (Daybreakers. It sucked. Don’t see it. Ever. If I could negative rate it on IMDB I would.) thanks to the incredibly useful Shazam app. Not an amazing song, but it goes with certain moods and carries along well. Frankly I’m surprised this ranked so high.
8. Eminem – Business
   Eminem sucks. Get over it. Move on with your life. But every once in a while he can stop being a caricature of himself long enough to squeeze out something worth listening to.
9. RZA – Fatal
   I’ve had this song for a while (it’s from the Blade: Trinity soundtrack) and I’ve always liked it, I guess I just liked it a lot more in 2010 than earlier.
10. The Glitch Mob – Between Two Points (feat. Swan)
    The other song from the single before the Drink The Sea album came out. Much more of a chill/downtempo song, and still good. Perhaps not the best song if you want something to get the crowd going, but enjoyable nonetheless.

My Top 10 Albums of 2010

1. The Glitch Mob – Drive It Like You Stole It – Single
   The single had both Drive It Like You Stole it and Between Two Points (feat. Swan). Both are worth it, and both are from the Drink The Sea album, though I didn’t think the album was as overall consistent.
2. Zen Mechanics – Holy Cities
   More goa/psy-trance. Zen Mechanics does some pretty good stuff, and if you’re into trance or electronica you should check them out.
3. The Crystal Method – Vegas
   Still one of the best electronica albums, and made the West Coast style of breakbeat a dominant sound. Virtually every song is amazing, almost 14 years (HOLY CRAP!) later.
4. Massive Attack – Heligoland (Deluxe Version)
   It was great to see Massive Attack get something new out after such a long dry spell, though this album wasn’t all that great to me. Then again, they have a wide ranging sound and style, and not all of it suits my preferences, but that’s just me. The various versions of Paradise Circus are worth checking out, as is the Tim Goldsworthy Remix version of Pray For Rain (which isn’t as easy to find).
5. UNKLE – Self Defence (Never Never Land Reconstructed and Bonus Beats)
   This album still keeps sneaking in with all the remixes. Just go listen to it and decide for yourself, although the version with the remixes and bonus beats was limited edition and MP3s aren’t as easy to find today (let’s just ignore the obvious elephant in the room that those assholes at RIAA want to kill and then perform necrophilia on).
6. Massive Attack – Mezzanine
   Still an album with some great songs, overall, from way back (it was released in 1998, not 2006 like Amazon claims). It grows on you the more you listen to it.
7. Various Artists – London (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
   Not quite sure how this album broke into the Top 10. The Crystal Method produced it and did most of the work and it featured some good artists, but it wasn’t that great overall. Oh, wait, I know why: it all has to do with 2 songs: Restless by Evil Nine (feat. Toastie Taylor and Hyper) and Vice by The Crystal Method.
8. Ice Cube – Lethal Injection
   Album from back in my freshman year of High School (I think, maybe Jr. High). How can you go wrong with classics like Down For Whatever, You Know How We Do It, Bop Gun and Ghetto Bird?
9. Frenessy – Lost Sound Digital
   Another album/artist I found in 2009 (this album was my #3 overall album last year) that is still holding on strong. Really good goa/psy-trance sound.
10. Mimosa – Flux For Life
    And yet another album/artist I found in 2009 that is still holding on strong. Even better goa sound.

My Top 10 Artists of 2010

1. The Crystal Method
   Never surprising to see TCM up high in my charts, so many good songs, but never quite able to match the original Vegas album that was also perfect. Although Drown in the Now is one of my favorites too, and its more recent.
2. Massive Attack
   Somewhat surprised to see Massive Attack up this high, I don’t have that many of their songs, though with the more recent release of their surprise new album Heligoland I can understand why it would go up the charts. Although nothing on Heligoland comes close to Angel.
3. The Glitch Mob
   I think I’ve talked about The Glitch Mob enough in this post, so if you aren’t checking them out by now, then there’s no hope for you and you make dingos eat babies.
4. 2Pac
   Pac is always awesome, and I have so many of his songs that 2Pac is a consistent presence at the top of most of my charts.
5. Ice Cube
   I’ve always liked a fair amount of Ice Cube’s stuff, but not nearly as consistently as 2pac.
6. Zen Mechanics
7. Mimosa
8. Eminem
9. Vaishiyas
10. UNKLE

P.S. The Glitch Mob should have done the Tron: Legacy soundtrack instead of Daft Punk. At least then it wouldn’t have sucked. Besides, the sound and style of Glitch Mob goes far more with the Tron atmosphere and visuals than those helmetted Lite-Brite freaks who made an underwhelming and weak soundtrack.

Related posts:

1. My Top 10 Music Artists, Albums and Songs from 2009
2. My Top 10 Music Artists, Albums and Songs from 2008

I know what you are thinking, we don’t need any more quotes from Hackers or Real Genius. Well, point in fact, you’re just completely wrong about that. But that’s not what this is about. #TechMovieQuotes is something my good frozen northerner Canadian friend Scott Morgan and I came up with earlier today, and its all about taking funny or popular quotes from movies, that we as the technorati of the technical world, find amusing, and then mashing it up with some weird inside humor that only people who breath code would get.

Okay, it’s just funny, is that an easier description? Go check it out and join in the fray: #TechMovieQuotes on Twitter.

Some of my favorites so far include:

sowrey What is best in code? To crush your defects, to see them deployed before you, and hear the lamentations of your managers. #TechMovieQuotes

joshrhoades #TechMovieQuotes Fuck off with your error handlers and string green stripe comment blocks, I say never be code complete, I say stop being QA approved, I say let… lets evolve, let the defects fall where they may.

FlashMorgan This R2 unit has a bad iterator. #TechMovieQuotes

FlashMorganThey’re singleton-serving friends. #TechMovieQuotes

andrewportner You had me at “Hello, World.”#TechMovieQuotes

tonylukasavage And I don’t like anyone touching my code. Any of you touch my code and ill kill ya #TechMovieQuotes

So today the webernets (not the alleged word “blogosphere”…if you use that word, you are a moron) have been re-posting the story about having Flash installed on a laptop can reduce the battery life by up to 33%. Really? You mean something I have installed, that by its very nature requires power to run, uses my battery? SHOCKING.

Anything that requires graphics processing will eat through your battery. If you don’t know this, you shouldn’t have a computer. This is such a blind and one-sided argument, seemingly being pushed by all the Steve Jobs sycophants and repeaters, that it begs the intelligence of the people reposting and swallowing this statement.

If you don’t have Flash installed, you can still eat through your battery just as fast or to varying degrees. How?

• Turning on your computer
• Using your computer
• Running a screensaver
• Seeing how much battery you have left
• Watching DVDs
• Having multiple background apps running
• Polling for WiFi access
• Multi-tasking
• Animated GIFs
• Video/Digital Darkroom editing
• CSS effects (especially transitions, alphas, etc.)
• Watching videos
• HTML5 video, in case you were wondering or have Steve Job’s head up your ass, will also eat through your battery

You know what else you can do to save power? Not use your computer. Not wash your clothes. Read by candlelight, or even better, learn Braille! NO LIGHTS! TAKE THAT!

Do you see where I am going with this?

This is a non-issue. If you want to use Flash, Flash requires certain things to run. It’s like bitching about the fact that you need a computer instead of an abacus to run Flash. Did you know you can save $700-2500 (depending on machine) if you don’t buy a computer? This is like accusing your cat, who you want to watch go flying through the air chasing a fake toy, for having to eat. Like blaming cars for roads. Like blaming the human reproductive cycle for Kathy Griffin.

Your computer will use power to do what you ask it to do. If you don’t ask it to do things with Flash, it won’t use power for that. Got it? Also, 2+2 = 4. This isn’t news. This isn’t worth repeating. And it’s just shocking to see the masses of sheep jumping on the bandwagon.

Related posts:

1. So You Hate Flash

And you all thought Batman was some yuppie bastard driving around in a hummer with roid rage.

Nope. He’s a cat. And he will crush his enemies and hear the lamentations of their women.

Unless there’s catnip.

Related posts:

1. Introducing Our New Meme: Tech Movie Quotes

The practice of storefronts asking for one’s zip code when one buys something (especially clothing retailers) has been around for some time, but it seems a more and more common practice now. The thing about this is that it serves me, as the customer/consumer, virtually no purpose whatsoever. One could argue that it eventually may have some benefit, as the company can use this geographic information for any number of things such as adding a new store in a more local area, though most of those potential uses have little to do with my benefit as a customer compared to all the other analytic information that can be gained from this practice. But what’s worse is that the zip code one provides is often used to correlate that to a credit card that was ran in a close time frame, to get one’s full address with only implied permission instead of direct permission.

In short, asking me for my zip code pisses me off when I am buying things. Its a waste of my time, and will probably get me catalogs sent to my address that I don’t want. And due to that, I’ve been pondering various ways to mess with these people, all in the hopes that some analytics geek will be going through this data and notice odd spikes, and then dig into them just to meet my little trap. Then this little analytics dweeb will meet with shock and terror, as the data is bad, woe to the earth! Then they’ll have to take a sabbatical where they go back home and don’t leave their mother’s basement for six months and urinate into jars. Or so I secretly hope.

However, even without the mental issues this may or may not cause those needing to use this data, it blocks the primary purpose of retailers gathering this information: being able to associate it to my identity, credit cards, or transactions and then use that in ways I did not approve (since providing this information is implying consent).

Regardless of how it plays out, the potential for such a life-shattering event for these aforementioned dweebs or the undermining of a system built on implied consent and trickery, all of it becomes much more likely if more of us play the game. So here we are…

Originally I though of replying to this annoying question with zip codes in England, or Sri Lanka, or some such foreign locale. In my original plan, the frontrunner was to give the zip code for Prypiat, which is the relatively infamous abandoned city near Chernobyl in the “Zone of Alienation” (and it was an awesome level in Call Of Duty 4, “All Ghillied Up”). Just the fact that Prypiat is in a place called the Zone of Alienation made it a good contender for my intended and nefarious use.

Alas, those kooky Russians have themselves a strange postal code system (the postal code for St. Petersburg is 190000), and for ease of the trap I needed a US zip code as many of these POS systems are pretty dumbed down terminals, and even those not so dumbed down systems are often configured specifically for US needs. By replying with non-U.S. zip or postal codes it could cause this annoying interaction to become even more annoying by taking even longer, or worse, defaulting to one’s real zip code. And that defeats the entire purpose.

So I needed to find some strange U.S. postal codes to use, and after brainstorming with a friend of mine who has gone on many infamous adventures with me and is of like-mind in this regard, we’ve stumbled onto the following:

• 56912 – Returned government parcels from the District of Columbia are sent to ZIP codes beginning with “569″, so that returned parcels are security checked at a remote facility (this was put into place after the 2001 anthrax attacks). This could be good, though those Nazis at the Department of Homeland Security may get pissy about it…which is both a good and bad thing about using this zip code.
• 94974 – This is the zip code for mail sent to inmates at San Quentin State Prison.
• 94133 – The zip code for Alcatraz.
• 41042 – Sugartit, Kentucky. I think that one speaks for itself, don’t you?
• 17534 – Intercourse, Pennsylvania. Again, fairly self explanatory.
• 89044 – The zip code for Area 51.
• H0HOH0 – The zip code for Santa Claus (say it out loud, you’ll understand). What? I can be jolly.
• 92328 – Death Valley, California.

I think I’m either going with San Quentin (since I’m in California as well, though not a resident of San Quentin) or Sugartit, Kentucky for now. Though if a purchase process at a particular store is notably more annoying, the anthrax zip code may get pulled out (though, then again, if it is that annoying…why give them money?).

However, all the undermining aside, keep this closely in mind: just because somebody asks you something, does not mean you have to answer it. Salespeople are asking for zip codes and now email addresses, without disclosing their privacy policies or how this information is going to be used (more often than not in ways you would not approve of). So stop giving this information up without even asking simple questions as to why they need it and what they are going to do with it. Don’t be a sheep. Especially when privacy is going to be the single biggest issue of this social network, technology, and consumerism dominated 21st century.

Related posts:

1. 10 Things Movies have Taught me
2. Things You Need To Know in Technical Interviews

I have been thinking about writing a follow-up to my post on Eight Reasons why Most Technical Interviews Suck, more from the perspective of the person being interviewed, as the two different perspectives are crucial for both the employer and the job-seeker to understand.

However, I saw a post (via LifeHacker) on Shiyan Koh’s blog: 5 Questions to Ask before Taking a Job, and it covers some pretty good and salient points, many of which I would echo. And there are some things I would add to it.

The main points in Shiyan Koh’s post are to meet the people one will be working with/for, knowing whether or not one can learn from those people, are they invested in one’s own growth and opportunities, does one feel good about working with them and trust them, and how focused are they on value creation?

The latter point is more nuanced, and the post goes on in detail about that (head over there to read it, don’t just glance through my minimal summary), and all the points are relevant and good things to think about and get answers to, though there are some additional things I would add.

Are you Excited about this Job?

Doing a job, just plugging away at a keyboard, is surviving, not excelling. Times are hard, yes, and maybe that is what is required at a certain point in time, but optimally any job seeker (and any employee I would look for) needs to be excited and passionate about what they would be doing there. And its not just a matter of working on a platform or language that one passionate and excited about, and neither is it just about working on a product, brand, or at a company one is excited and passionate about. It’s both of those things, and more.

Realistically, there’s nothing technically wrong with doing a job just because one can. However, it’s like looking at pictures of Paris instead of going to Paris, experiencing it, feeling it, being a part of it. In my experience, the best people to hire are the ones who are excited and passionate about what they would be hired to do, and the place where they will do it. They will provide feedback, push ideas and concepts forward, bring fresh perspectives, bring energy to the group, etc. Working at a specific job just because one can do that job isn’t all that bad in and of itself, but it cuts out so much more of the capabilities, and ultimately (in my estimation) ins’t a good way to spend one’s days. After all, people tend to spend more time at their jobs working on those things than they do with their own family and loved ones…it might as well be something that one has a passion about, and likes to do.

Is the Company Focused on Work/Life Balance?

This point is huge for me, and many others I know and work with. I come from a background of startups and the dotcom, then onto corporate behemoth Fortune 100 and 500 companies. None of those environments are typically good at keeping work/life balance as a priority, and many of them will pay it lip service on the one hand while forcing it on the other. I’ve worked 80 hour weeks for the past 7 years (I’m scared to see the average prior to those 7 years). There were 1-2 years in there, combined, where it was more like 100 hour weeks (one week I even hit over 118 hours). Why? Because I was excited and passionate about what I was doing, and I was extremely good at it. It was a self-reinforcing addiction. And I did not have leadership or environments that cared how much I was working, just that I was getting a hell of a lot done.

Working those kinds of hours is so negatively impactful on virtually every level. One loses touch with family, one is tired all the time, one’s brain is always in work mode, it becomes a habit that is hard to break, one doesn’t have time for a life, little things make one more cranky, etc. etc. Not to mention all the opportunities that are lost to the organization in this work mode (new innovations, methodologies, processes, etc.). It, quite literally, affects everything, not just one’s mental or physical health. And it makes time pass by so quickly, so deceptively quickly, that years later one may realize just what has changed in one’s life while one was busy. And it may be too late in some cases.

Besides, working more hours doesn’t directly equate into getting more done, and there’s plenty of evidence that says working more hours leads to more negative health impacts and inefficiencies (See: Why Crunch Mode Doesn’t Work – It’s the Single Most Expensive Way there is to Get work Done, and Overtime Doesn’t Always Pay, to name only a few).

So when I moved into management I was determined to not promote the same kinds of tendencies or expectations. I made it a point that the people who reported to me worked to live, and didn’t live to work. Especially since I look for people who are passionate and dedicated, which are traits that can easily lead to excessive work hours, and are thus easily abused by those who don’t have work/life balance as a priority.

Of course, there will always be times when more work is required, a launch or deadline is looming, etc. But these should be the exception, not the rule. These times should be balanced. And those who go above and beyond in those circumstances should be recognized and rewarded for it, as if they are not this is a very subtle cue that working insane hours is the expectation (though a manager should also be careful to not go too far with the recognition of working crazy hours, as that in and of itself can become the impetus for that manager’s reports to work even more hours to try and gain similar recognition). As with this overall point, things need to be balanced.

Any job-seeker should make sure to understand what the regular work hours are, what its like when a launch or deadline is looming, and how often do the hours go beyond normal work hours.

Is the Team Diverse?

Diversity is absolutely crucial to a strong team. I don’t just mean ethnicity or cultural backgrounds, I mean skillsets, technical backgrounds, and capabilities. In my experience, interviewing for a team where every person is virtually cookie cutter, all doing the same thing, is usually not a good sign. There are times when it works or is logical based on the work being done, but more often than not it tends to mean there is no other expertise to leverage, there is no drive for pushing the capabilities and knowledge of those on the team forward, and that they are doing the same tasks over and over. In the worst case scenarios, I’ve seen it equate into dictatorial middle management, rife with micro-managers who view the people who report to them as people they can lord over and be smarter than. In those extreme cases, it couldn’t be more wrong.

So the diversity of the team is crucial, and just as crucial is the diversity present in that team’s manager and their approaches (and, ultimately, executive leadership). If the manager’s background is not in something related to what the team is working on, that’s a pretty strong warning sign. If the manager tends to say things that reinforce the idea of there being only one way to do things and no divergence, that’s a pretty strong warning sign. Conversely, if the manager says things that tend towards welcoming new ideas, pushing new processes and methodologies, asking for critical feedback, being open to brainstorming and collaboration, etc. those tend to be groups that are managed much better, much more diverse, nimble, capable, and a place where one can grow their skillsets, both technical and non-technical.

Can you Grow at this Job/Company?

This is similar to Shiyan Koh’s point about a company being invested in the growth of the individual, and is such a crucial area that it bears repeating and more detail.

Improving one’s abilities is great, becoming better as a tech lead, or knowing the ins and outs of SDLC or OOP, learning Design Patterns, those are all great. Yet those are all, ultimately, more narrowly focused, often to the role at hand. Realistically, however, they are only one part of the equation. To truly grow, one has to be exposed to different things, concepts that are new or unfamiliar, tools and platforms that question one’s preconceptions, new types of projects or roles. There is an adage that any company is going to want its employees to learn and improve on things that help that company’s bottom line, and unfortunately that definition tends to be interpreted of the more narrow variety as opposed to growth that is diverse and not in a narrowed interpretation of a specific job’s duties.

Everyone has latent abilities and interests. I’ve had software engineers, flash engineers, and web developers who were interested in more middleware engineering, or how project management works, or any number of things that were not directly related to what that team or individual worked on day to day. However, I recognized that my employees learning these additional things increased their own skillsets, lets them flex different muscles, exposed them to new paradigms and thought processes, but also increased the knowledge, diversity and potential opinions and feedback that can be garnered from those employees. In short, while it wasn’t always directly applicable at first blush, the increased knowledge of any one individual was directly applicable in the collective knowledge of a team, its capabilities, understanding the “big picture,” and the happiness of a company’s employees.

Granted, that is my management style, and every person is different, but at the very least one should be able to know if a job will allow for additional training or knowledge, the room to expand and grow in different directions. And, much more to the point, one should know if the position is meant to do that one task or set of tasks and nothing else. If one is expected to simply do what one can already do, if there isn’t a focus or even possibility of growing in different directions that arise naturally and organically through one’s career, if the people who lead that team do not see the benefit of the people on that team understanding the bigger picture and being exposed to different things, then it could be argued that the position in question is far more limiting than others still out there, and has a much sooner expiration date than other positions would naturally have.

As a job-seeker, don’t accept jobs where one gets the sense or hint of stagnation or repetition. Those jobs will quickly tire, and quickly drain an employee of their energy and drive.

Never Make Assumptions

I really can’t stress this one enough, it is absolutely vital to a good interview and being able to make an informed decision as a job-seeker. Every company has their own quirks, their own definitions, their own ideas…many of them even have their own language or ways of describing things that are not common or industry standard at all. Not all of those will be the same as one’s own past employment experience. A Web Development team at one company may not be even remotely close to a Web Development team at another company. They could be doing more creative work, more design-focused, they may not have any focus on Front End Engineering. And, if the similarities are assumed, a Web Development team that hires Front End Engineers is the same as a Web Development team that hires designers, when they are quite clearly not the same. Assumptions would make them appear the same in this example.

Besides the potential pitfalls of those more extreme examples of how making assumptions in the interview process can be fatal, assumptions also sidestep key questions and answers in that a job-seeker may not ask any number of questions because they assumed commonalities, similarities, or that things were the same as a past job because it was referred to in the same way during an interview. Things like “Our process lets us do this kind of work more easily.” One may assume what that process is, for any number of reasons. Instead of making the assumption, ask what the process is. Understand it.

This also has the added benefit of coming off as a stronger candidate in the interview, who was more interactive and asked more questions. Never making assumptions and asking questions is always a better way to go about an interview (and countless other interactions in life). So don’t assume. Ask and understand.

In summary, there are countless other points one has to consider before deciding a job is right for them, and some things are only quantifiable or measurable for that individual (how far of a drive is it, benefits, perks, pay rate, culture, etc.), while others are more objective in commonalities, such as those listed above.

Overall, always know what you are getting into, think about things that have been pain points for you in your past experience, and ask questions to help you see if any place you are interviewing at has those tendencies. And I can’t stress this enough: never make assumptions in interviews, even down to the point of assuming one company’s definition of a development or tech team is what you think it is…they aren’t always the same. Know what you are getting into.

Remember what G.I. Joe said: “Beach Head, I wanna talk to you about your deodorant.” (And you thought it would be about knowing being half the battle.)

Related posts:

1. Eight Reasons Why Most Technical Interviews Suck
2. 10 Things Movies have Taught me
3. Stop Asking me for my Zip Code When I Buy Things

Being in the internet industry (or outside of it, as well), its likely you’ve either heard people say they hate Flash often enough, or you yourself say it. But have you ever stopped to wonder at the hypocrisy and complete bias shown by this statement?

For the sake of full disclosure, I have a rather lengthy background in Flash and virtually all of Adobe’s product offerings. I no longer develop in it professionally, but have managed and ran extremely large Flash-based projects and products. I don’t hate Flash. Flash irritates me at some points, but most of those irritations are due to Adobe or the way some people write half-assed non-abstracted and poorly constructed code. But that doesn’t make me hate Flash.

What seems to make other people hate Flash, in my experience, is the use of Flash. Annoyingly in-your-face ads, being a resource constraint, significant browser bugs and crashes associated to poor implementations, to name only a few. There are plenty of reasons people say they hate Flash, but I have yet to hear of a single reason that is actually due to Flash. Every reason I have heard thus far is actually due to the underlying ways and reasons why that particular flash element was created or used (its buggy, its not optimized, it doesn’t use proper loading techniques to ensure speedy delivery and performance, etc.), or bad browser support. It’s just far easier to say “I hate Flash” than “The guy who wrote this AS code is a jerk, does he even know OOP? And why is this thing loading in 17mb of data on page load? And why isn’t the browser keeping its process cleaner than this? WTF?”

Nope, way easier to say “I hate Flash.”

But those who hate Flash, do they also hate JavaScript? Or HTML? How about cookies, do they hates them? After all, each of these things are used for bad reasons and written horribly, and are far more prevalent to browsing the internet (and I don’t mean that in the sense of Flash penetration, but rather that JavaScript and the like are far more often used for nefarious or malicious purposes, either willfully or accidentally, and their improper use leads to far more performance and stability issues than Flash, generally speaking).

I also wonder if many of the people who say they hate Flash even know what JavaScript or cookies are, or even realize the browser can (and often does) cause most of these perceived issues. I know some people in the tech world who say they hate Flash, people I wouldn’t go so far as calling technologists, but reasonably smart people who should be more informed of the nuances of the environment this Flash thing they hate is running in. None of the reasons they had (so far) are valid, either.

What one has to realize is that “Flash” is now a media term, its a popular term in the common lexicon easily used by people who know almost nothing about computers, browsers, or the internet. Its the same with “OS” and “iOS,” they are just a minor sampling of what have become popular terms that the masses are exposed to, so now some guy who lives in his mom’s basement and still has to use a 40-year old 50lb. rotary phone from Ma Bell because he can’t figure out buttons can talk about Operating Systems.

So Flash is easier to single out, it’s more visible to people and can be pointed to more easily, I get that. But it is blaming the entire technology and platform based on marginal evidence and only sporadic issues, combined with perceived issues that are often due to having mass spyware on a machine, or bad JS/front-end code going on, or memory leaks, or just not really understanding what they are talking about.

Child (popup) windows are annoying, popup and popunder ads piss me off. But I don’t go around saying I hate JavaScript. The blink tag was often used in the most annoying ways, but I didn’t go around saying I hated HTML. Wallpapers and backgrounds, especially back in the geocities-infused “I’m a l337 webmaster!” early days, with lens flares and all the other beginner effects in Photoshop, slow down sites and add huge images to load…didn’t go around saying I hated Photoshop. Tracking cookies can be used for bad stuff, and I hate analytics cookies laying around in a browser (though there is something rewarding in killing them off and blocking them from future setting) without my explicit permission…but I don’t go around saying I hate browsers or the concept of cookies.

What I do hate are things that are used without thought or diligence, bad code, memory leaks, inefficient and lazy code that cause sites to run slow or throw errors or generally kill my browsing experience. Flash doesn’t do that all on its own. Flash is no more guilty of that than any of the other elements or languages used in the browser or the browser itself. Otherwise, Flash doesn’t cause these issues for me until I hit a Flash element that seems to run and trace and profile/load like it was written by a monkey…or someone who works at an ad agency (the two are the same, really, monkeys and people who work at ad agencies… What?).

So what about people on Macs? Isn’t Flash unusable on Macs and causing everything to hang and lag and spawn little teeny tiny demon dwarven mages to wreak havoc upon one’s entire life, running all over the house and peeing in the mayonnaise and kicking the family furry pet right in the gonads just because one looked at a site that uses Flash on a Mac? Nope. Unless that person has no idea how that computer they’re using works or cannot differentiate between what they think Flash is doing that they hate versus what they don’t know that is doing what they hate. Or they’ve been cursed by a witch of some sort. In my experience, teeny tiny demon dwarven mages don’t do that to mayonnaise or pets unless they’ve been ordered to do so by magical incantations (don’t ask how I know that).

I’ve used Macs for years, worked on, built, lead, and maintained Flash heavy sites and platforms, I’ve met with and argued with Adobe multiple times about various uses and plans for Flash, Flex, ActionScript, and more, browsed and used Flash heavy sites (like most of the people on the web), etc. etc. The only problems I’ve had with Flash are related to some pretty annoying slip ups by Adobe, or horrible browser integration (I’m talking about you, Firefox, though IE and Safari have had more than a few moments), or (and this is far more common) Flash elements that are too slow, doing too much, and/or insanely badly written and thus badly performing. The technology, Flash itself, isn’t really to blame there, it’s the people who created and abused that technology by not applying solid design and engineering principles to its creation.

Then there’s the Steve Jobs factor. Some people just want to repeat whatever Steve Jobs says and he doesn’t like Flash all that much because it will completely ruin his slavery day App Store for the “iOS” devices, I get it. It’s easier than thinking on their own, for some people. I guess thinking can be hard, being informed about what one accuses is tough. One would have to actually understand what they are saying, and that’s not very American, that doesn’t taste like freedom. Plus Steve is bandied about in the media constantly, and looked up to by quite a few, so some people seem to think if they have the same opinions he does (or merely repeat what he says) then they are, by association and feigned like-mindedness, at Stevie’s level and made of smart. He’s popular these days, his mom thinks he’s special too, and he likes thinking for other people, so why not, right?

But for those who say they hate Flash, just make sure they are informed enough to even know what they are talking about before these accusations or generalizations are leveled, especially those neophytes out there who say they hate Flash. Being opinionated (especially negative opinions, in this country specifically), contrary to popular opinion, does not immediately make one an educated or informed person.

Related posts:

1. You’re An Idiot: Flash Reduces Battery Life by 33%
2. I Hate You, Bandwidth
3. The iPad Sucks

In August 2009 I had the privilege of being able to see an early screening of Waking Sleeping Beauty, a documentary about Walt Disney Animation during the renaissance years from 1984-1994. For those of you who don’t know, the early 80s were a dark time for The Walt Disney Company. There were corporate raiders at the gates, and animation was nearly dying. But that all began to change during the 10-years represented in this film, what some call the golden age: you know, when things like Beauty & the Beast, The Lion King, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit (just to name a few) were made.

The film was still a somewhat rough cut, the sound was not final in some scenes, but it was still a great documentary to watch, especially if you have in any way a fascination with animation or Disney. It was co-directed by Don Hahn, who worked on those movies I mention above, as well as being the author of various artistic books. Don gave us a brief intro and then mostly let the film do the story telling. Which it did quite well. Having a long history going back to my childhood with Disney (like many of you, I imagine), I was fairly excited to see the stories of Animation. I have family who have worked for Disney, my first movie was a Disney movie, my first ride was a Disney ride, my career has its associations to Disney, etc. etc…so there was a fair amount I already knew, and a natural tendency to be interested in this subject matter. And it just so happens there was some footage showing a Castmember Party at Disneyland where Jeffrey Katzenberg and Michael Eisner served hotdogs. And as a kid I just so happened to be one of the people that got served a hot dog by Michael Eisner. And no, I am not on camera. But it was personally amusing and nostalgic to be reminded of that moment.

The great thing about Waking Sleeping Beauty was that it was as if you were in a room full of these icons of Disney Animation and animation at large and just listening to them tell stories. I think this was certainly helped by one of the guiding rules of the documentary, as explained by Don, being that only archival footage would be used for the film. Seeing the people, in their element and in the prime of this story’s timeline, certainly helped that feeling of being in the same room with them. And additionally, having read Disney War, there were many things I could relate to and slot together like puzzle pieces from that book to this documentary.

However, I have to say what made this experience more surreal and unique for me was what happened a few days after seeing it. This early screening was invite only, and I and one of the guys on my team were invited. He couldn’t make it due to being on vacation to visit his family, but I know how much he likes Disney. So I sent Don an email (since he was kind enough to provide his email before the screening, if any of us had feedback) asking if there were any additional screenings, and in the process of writing him that simple email I began to realize that I was talking to someone who helped create so many memories of my childhood, and thus helped shaped my childhood. It then became this very surreal moment of being able to thank one of those people for what they did, for the memories they gave me, the enjoyment of seeing all those Disney masterpieces. And that, in and of itself, was quite humbling to me.

So once again I say, even though I know it wasn’t an individual effort: Don, thank you for making this great documentary, and thank you for your work on all those movies that to this day hold special memories for me and so many countless others.

For the rest of you, you should go see this documentary.

Originally written August, 2009. Posted June, 2010.

Over the last year or two I have heard the phrase and idea of “T-Shirt Sized Estimates” come up more and more often in the software engineering/technology world, typically by people that I would think should never be allowed to talk about software estimation. To me it doesn’t seem to be much of a coincidence that people I have known to be horrible at estimation are often the ones who bring this faux estimation process up, and there are some clear reasons why one should never use this type of estimation.

For background, t-shirt sized estimates seem to follow the rule of asking for a small, medium, large, or extra-large estimate against an effort. And, more often than not, the reason why people ask for this type of estimate is because the required information to make good, well-thought out estimates is not available at the time. So, in what passes for a natural response to these people who couldn’t estimate the number of crayons in a box, t-shirt sized estimates were born and make sense…to them. But they make zero sense.

Because they are lies.

Any estimate that is based on the entire premise of “not enough information” isn’t an estimate. It’s guesswork, it’s a swag. But, more specifically, t-shirt sized estimates are just flat out lies. Of course, in reality, “educated guesses” and “swags” are lies too, but because we’ve come up with descriptive terms and uses for them, they get accepted as some semblance of the truth, and that semblance is one too many people far too often forget is based on guessing, and not estimation. T-shirt sized estimates are even worse, in that their entire premise and reason for use is predicated on a lack of information. In other words, their entire existence is owed to flaws and lack of information. Its like trying to take The Nothing from The Neverending Story and turn it into something…but with no Luck Dragon. So what can you extrapolate from nothing? Lies. Sure, you as the estimator don’t mean to say them as lies, but what other choice do you have based on what you are presented in these situations? And yes, we’ll all refer to them as educated guesses, but lets stop offending educated guesses by lumping them in with uneducated backwater attempts at creative problem solving.

But what becomes worse than the lies that are asked for in t-shirt sized estimates, are the lies this process completely and utterly guarantees.

Think about it. A client or Producer/Project Manager comes to you, without a PRD or spec doc, gives you a vague and (in reality and most likely) completely incorrect overview, then asks you how long it would take to design, build, test, and deploy. Uhhhh…Extra Large? WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN! Nothing. Given that scenario, any engineer will think of all the edge cases, the projects that they’ve been burned on in the past (even those that aren’t related or similar to the task at hand, because how would they know otherwise given no information?), all the unknowns, then realize there are unknowns they don’t know, then sprinkle in all the organizational problems in process and requirements gathering, and how could they not end up with an XL or XXL t-shirt sized estimate? No one who has been in the game long enough will want to underestimate in that scenario, nor would they want to over-promise. All that ends up meaning the only logical conclusion is to explode the estimate based on the lack of information. Or they’ll just pick an answer from the available options. Which means the estimate means complete and utter nothing.

Now let’s add in the other part of why this estimation process is the domain of inept kings in middle-management: this is poison in an organization. Any engineering organization needs good estimates to forecast work and availability, to plan, to assign resources, to balance work load, to reduce insanity, and instill trust and confidence in themselves and other parts of the organization, as well as the ability to improve estimation processes and identify efficiencies over time by having historical data and records to evaluate. Additionally, all engineers need to be able to understand the ramifications, ripple impacts, and inputs they need in order to do their work, not only for their own sanity, but for the overall project, as well as their career growth into senior positions and leadership roles that can teach others the nuances of these types of processes, which leads to overall improvements in the organization. Not to mention the fact that bad estimation, missed dates, are cancerous and an extremely slippery slope. Once others, who rely on the estimates provided by engineers and technology, see enough of those dates slipped, they stop believing any estimate that comes out of that group or team. But, more to the point, over time this erodes their belief in anything this team tells them. It introduces doubt at all levels of interaction. Then, add the timeline of projects to that and eventually the Producers or Project Managers will predict failures (since they stopped believing you) and be right. They added 4 weeks to a plan because they’ve been burned before, or they held off the start of another project because they knew this project would eat resources longer than expected, etc. And then it happened. Now they’ve validated their lack of faith and trust, all while having evidence they can use to justify this lack of trust, to themselves and to others in positions of power, and now they’re off and running. They are justified in not believing you at this point, they’ve saved projects because of not believing you, and now this tendency is going to very easily become part of their culture and one that they are rewarded for (either directly or indirectly), and a cultural facet that will take months, if not years, to chip away at in an effort to prove the best practices of any technology organization. I’ve seen it over and over again in engineering organizations who don’t enforce and teach good estimation processes.

Now, this isn’t all to say that if an organization isn’t doing t-shirt estimates then their estimation process is fine, or that these other issues I touch on can’t happen either way. That’s completely untrue. Good software estimation needs to be a pervasive force in the culture of a high-performance engineering team, and if it isn’t and whether or not it uses t-shirt sized estimates, the very subtle and very poisonous things which t-shirt sized estimates and generally bad software estimation lead to can and will still happen given a long enough timeline (especially in fast-moving shops, or shops with multiple concurrent projects, or shops with shared tech resources, etc.).

Estimation needs to be based on facts, truth, and documented guarantees when those are not present (and I would only say the latter when working with people I’ve come to know and trust over the years and dozens of projects). Lack of information is not an opportunity to pretend the information is there and make things up, but this is exactly why the people who tend to offer up this type of estimation think (incorrectly) that they are coming up with a creative solution to a problem that lets the team keep moving ahead. They are wrong, and so woefully shortsighted that they should never be in a position to force this kind of estimation.

Lack of information is a lack in process… fix the reasons why an estimate is asked for when the required information for the estimate is missing (and make sure you, as a member or leader of an engineering organization, have documented and explained what you or your team need in order to make good estimates), and then estimate properly, with all the rigor and due diligence that goes along with it.

If you just want to make shit up and ensure failure…well, I can think of a few companies where you’d fit right in.

Otherwise, if you’re going to play the game, play to win. There are a multitude of things that lead to and support good estimation, as well as a multitude of things that good estimation lead to and ensure. Everything is connected. Recognize that, think of how things play out and causality, and don’t accept faux attempts at intelligence or problem solving. Instead, push and help grow whatever group or team you are in to be better. And if you aren’t at that level where you can weigh in on good or bad process…get there. Play to win. Or find a different game.

We were able to go to a team outing yesterday to see Alice in Wonderland (which was pretty cool of the company to do), and got to see the latest Tron Legacy trailer, which makes it look even cooler than I originally thought. Also shows more of the soundtrack from Daft Punk, which is sounding better and better with each additional preview, despite my usual distaste for Daft’s kitchenaid blender techno.

Download the HD or larger format videos from program-glitch-esc.

December 17, 2010 can’t come soon enough.