Open Giving: My Efforts to Improve

Open Giving is an open source application I've been helping out with that started at the Iowa Code Camp. It's aim is to serve Habitat for Humanity in managing how they track and allocate resources for home builds. This is my first open source project I've worked on and my experience with working on an actual dev team is extremely limited. So far it's been a big learning experience because I can't just do everything the way i want to do it.

Most of my career I've worked on small enough projects that I was the only dev which has afforded me the luxury of not having to explain why i code the way i do (read: Cowboy Coder). My saving grace has been that I value best practices and try to do things the best way possible. That being said, playing a role on the team is more difficult than being the team. Even though Open Giving is open source software and I can't get fired per se, I still want to try to conform to what the team needs. For example, in the app we're using master pages, linq to sql, an app_code and app_data directories... I think there are even some declarative data sources in there. I typically wouldn't use any of these technologies for various reasons but the rest of the team wanted to... so I've been trying to adapt. Even though I wouldn't choose these technologies I can't help but feel like I'm becoming a better coder because I'm learning them more in depth and because I'm working outside of my comfort zone of control.

My point in all this that i would encourage any developer, especially a silo'd ones, to get involved in an open source project if not to learn a technology, to learn to work with the team in mind.

Testing....


I've officially shaved my head and drank the kool aid! Testing my code with a testing framework has become a valuable part in my development life cycle. I have had to adapt a few caveats to make testing work for my job. For example, I do some small applications that only live for a few months and don't futs with the core of the business data so I typically won't spend time writ ting tests for those. For the larger applications, lifespan of over a year and if they touch business critical data, I've made a point of putting in tests. I haven't seen the giant payoffs yet but I'm hoping soon I'll have one of those moments where I'll realize i just saved the company $XXXXX.

Right now i can see the value in writ ting tests and have been putting them in a practice to hopefully form a good habit but still have a lot of questions about testing in general. What to test, how many tests to write, what not to test, should i use NUnit or MSTest, how to test effectively (only for true and false, for exceptions, etc...). I'm sure it will all come in good time and I'm prepared to keep plugging away until it does.

Thanks Tim Barcz and Chris Sutton for showing me the light!

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The Shack....

I finished The Shack about a month ago and would recommend it to anyone that is relatively mature in their faith.  I loved the imagery the author used because it was just right for his audience.  He was descriptive enough to give me a clear understanding of what was going on but not exhaustive like the left behind series.  The best part of the book for me was how the author depicted the conversations between the various parts of the Godhead.  Going in I thought it would have read cryptically due to all the dogma of Christianity however the book read smoothly and stayed, for the most part, inside the bounds of traditional Christian theology.  I also specifically enjoyed Mack's character and how he didn't just open up and swallow what he was being told like Sophie did in the Davinci Code.  Mack questioned assertions enough to allow the book to get "heady" which i also enjoyed.  If you're looking for a book that you'll literally have a hard time putting down, this one is a good candidate.

How many interests/passions can one person have and enjoy?

The first passion is my faith and that can require as much time as I can give it. I also enjoy woodworking and I’m just now getting a shop that I can actually use to make some decent furniture. I'm also very interested in the programming/database side of the tech world which is great because I actually get paid for it! Then there is my wonderful wife and daughter that could require 100% of my time with no effort at all. Then there is hunting, mountain biking, running, road biking, gaming, lifting weights, EMBA, etc... I could go on and on with other things that I enjoy doing but I think you get the point that there is a lot. The biggest problem with all of these things is that almost all of them require long periods of disciplined focus to be proficient at them… and being proficient at something is what makes them enjoyable. This leads me to two conclusions…. 1. Do I force myself to be content with a lower level of performance/achievement or 2. Do I cut things out until I have few enough interests that I’m able to be proficient at what’s left?

I’m leaning towards option 2.

Microsoft Foldershare...

I've been using it for about a year now and think it's pretty slick. I use it to easily share picture, documents and even .net projects i'm working on through multiple computers. Very handy tool and very easy to show computer newbies how to use it. The reason i'm posting is because I just received an email from Microsoft saying they're going to rename it to "Sync" and give it some new features. I've got mixed feelings about this because it seems like recently that anything new Microsoft does is klunky. I really like the toolMicrosoft so please to futz with it too much!

The next level...

 

 

I had a lunch with David Rousch from CRST trucking at Vito's on 42nd street today. We both work out at the MAC and have been for over a year now. During that time we've developed a pretty good relationship so I felt comfortable asking him to go to lunch with me. I listen to Dave Ramsey quite a bit and he teaches that when you find someone you look up to, to take them to lunch and listen as much as possible to try to soak up as much wisdom as possible... so that's what I did.

 

 

Dave runs the show at CRST, a billion dollar trucking company, and has for many years... The single most interesting take away was how he thinks about things. He told me to think about what career I am in currently and see what is the best I could do in that field. He started off as a CPA so the best he could do was be a CFO of a company. In the I.T. world the best one could do is probably a consultant that works a few days a week but can command substantial compensation for their time. For "Rush", CFO wasn't good enough so he set his goals higher and eventually became the president of CRST. While I was sitting there listening, I couldn't help but notice how no goal seemed too large for him. He was confident for sure but he stressed to me the importance becoming valuable in your current position first before asking the powers that be for a better position.  In other words, do well with what you have then ask for more.

 

Catching up...

Since I started to develop software, I've been in a constant state of trying to catch up. Apparently it's normal and anyone who's any good feels that way.. so I'm left wondering, what do people do with these feelings? Have you ever come to a point where you feel like you "get it" or is that just wishful thinking?

Your thoughts are much appreciated.