Welcome Gregory Fine

After much searching and much patience, I’ve finally found one of the two developers that I’m looking to hire for my team at Healthscreen. Gregory Fine will be joining our team on sept 13th and I’m really excited about having him join. Welcome Gregory to the Healthscreen family.

With one position secured, I’m still on the look out for another developer. Anyone interested should send me their resume or checkout the job postings on Healthscreen.com website.

Does the internet forget? I know I do.

My old university roommate and classmate, Mr. Alexis Bose, recently contacted me looking for a list of our former addresses for work purposes. After some reflection, I basically had most of the events in my mind straight. The exact apartment numbers mind you, I have no idea of. But this got me wondering about how much of my past I could piece together with google, since, the web is supposed to mean the end of forgetting.

What I learned is that the web doesn’t forget but it doesn’t put things together for you either. That is, while it might be out there somewhere, putting together a complete social history based on the various disparate information sources is not a sure thing. It sort of reminds me of that episode in the Office where Michael, trying to cover up a rumour he started decides to bury it with a ton of other rumours. The truth is out there but it’s getting buried every day in more and more information.

So does the internet help you remember? Sort of. Am I worried that other people might be able to steal my identity based on all the information out there? Not without a lot of work.

Famous last words possibly? For sure.

G20 – why bother at all

The G20 – whatever it was – is over as far as toronto is concerned. The protesters are gone. The clean up has begun. The only thing left to do is start the litigation process against god knows how many police officers, institutions or other general parties. In short, “lets sue somebody”.

This is all fine by me really. Knock yourself out. Lawyers are always in the mood for litigation and i’m sure there’s no lack of material to keep them busy. And when they get bored of that I’ve got a small matter of an oil spill to discuss next. It shouldn’t take much time.

What does seem to matter to me about the G20 however is what little ever gets done from it. In this round, all the discussion focussed on how to pull the plug on the corpse which is the global economy. Stephen Harper wants to shed his Keynesian robes to reveal to the world that, indeed, the emperor has no clothes. He’s desperate for it and I don’t know why. What’s stranger than that though, is how protesters didn’t seem to have anything to say at all about the topic of discussion. They really didn’t. They had lots of signs that said great, insightful things like “People before profit” but nothing about the nature of what was actually being discussed. Which, I suppose, based on the success of these meetings might just be the smartest approach; why get all upset about something that’s bound to fail anyway.

But then again, why not at least try and point out why deficit cutting at this point in time might be a horrible idea.

The G20 meetings and the counter balance of protesters is downright silly. Like watching to deaf politicians yell at each other; neither one of them having even the slightest clue what the other one is saying. It’s pointless beyond reason.

And don’t talk to me about making your voice heard or having an impact on the global discussions. There is no discussion. That’s the point.

So, if this is the case. If you’re not going to be able to interrupt the sessions violently – one billion dollars better at least get you 2 days worth of isolated time to chat – and you’re not going to even bother commenting on whatever it is the G20 is protesting about, then you really aught to rethink your protesting strategy here.

My suggestion is to stop protesting at these events all together. Cold turkey.

Get off the G20 cycles. Next time there is one of these “meeting of the minds”, ignore it. Hold you’re own cycle and have it in different locations around the world. Hold your own discussions. If indeed the G20 events are fruitless, all the more reasons to wave them away with the back of your hand. Stop protesting. Stop rioting. Stop wasting time and get on with at least some sensible dialogue on what matters to people. And maybe, just maybe, something useful will come out of these things.

As it stands now, there’s no reason, good or bad, to bother. There really isn’t.

I Was Wrong

A recent interview I had went well with one exception. When asked to give an example of a mistake the candidate had previously made, he was completely unable to identify one. Not one. I’m almost certain, if I looked back over the past 24 hours since the interview that I would be able to identify at least a couple mistakes I’ve made. And that’s just in the past 24 hours. He couldn’t give me one over an eight year career.

This is ludicrous.

I suppose you could say it was a combination of nerves and false memory. Maybe, in the pressure of the interview, he was simply unable to identify a particular moment. Maybe it was simply that he was such a miraculous candidate that indeed he had never, ever committed a mistake. Unlikely, but possible.

However, a more likely explanation is simply this he is too proud to admit his mistakes.

If indeed this is the truth, it is a real shame.

Self reflection is a very important part of a person. It can help you evolve emotionally (reflecting on how you may have hurt a friend), professionally (seeking out professional advice where you may need assistance) and socially (a proud man is a bore to talk to). An inability to identify your own failings, over an entire career would indicate to me that you have completely missed out on every opportunity to make significant improvement. Without the ability to identify or admit to your own failings, you run the same risk of a driver that would run that not only never checks his blind spot but doesn’t even admit they exist; One day, you’re going to get yourself in a real fowl up of a crash.

Other social problems come out very quickly when you are talking to someone that never admits mistakes; they’re never wrong. They’re stubborn, sometimes beyond value. They close down on their point like a crocodile biting down its jaws on its prey. They twist and turn, each time more and more certain of their position and less and less willing to listen to others. They can, although not always, be rude to others that offer opposing views. When you have no intention of changing your perspective, listening to another person’s point of view is not only useless, it’s irritating. They often become short tempered since, really, why should I waste time listening to someone that is clearly wrong.

I learned to be humble in two separate doses; one while I was in junior high school and the second in university course on structures (the mechanical kind, not the software kind).

The first lesson was easy to accept as it was delivered at the hands of my elder in the form of a hockey coach over the period of an entire hockey season. Game in and game out I was proven to have one flaw or the other. With the encouragement of my coach, I swallowed my pride and continued to put my inadequacies on display until finally, at the end of the year, they had nearly all been erased.

The second lesson was much harder as it was administered by a fellow classmate – Derek Snider whom i name personally only to express my immense gratitude towards – in a course on structures. In the given situation, I was convinced, beyond reasonable doubt that the proper course of action for a project we were jointly working on together required us to move in exactly the opposite direction that Derek would have us go in. He was proposing what looked like, based on the evidence of the rest of the entire class, to be a radical and ludicrous idea. I was positive of my position and discussed it thoroughly with Derek. To his credit, he stuck by his position. Frustrated, I relented and we proceeded as Derek’s spreadsheet of calculations indicated we should, radically predicting results for our project that were significantly more successful than anything any of our other classmates dreamed possible. At the moment of judgment – it was literally a moment since the project involved building a paper bridge and then, over the period of about a minute, loading it with a force until its breaking point was found – Derek was proven wildly correct. His ideas were not only correct, but intensely accurate. His calculations were dead on. I’m not certain how, but I managed to keep the report from that project and, subconsciously I think, still keep it as a reminder of the value of humility. As it became obvious over the course of the project, I was wrong and was able to accept, grudgingly, that I could be wrong, dead wrong, in the face of my peers.

This second lesson drove humility deep into my heart and was an invaluable lesson. It makes me open to the possibility that, no matter how dead certain i can be of an idea, i must leave open the possibility that I am wrong. As a consequence, I now listen more intensely to others. I value the opportunity to be wrong.

So, next time you go to an interview and can’t answer the question of “What mistakes did you make in your last job?”, stop and think, honestly not only about the question, but also how honest are you being with yourself. The answer may be more valuable to you than it is to the person asking it.

Punished by Rewards

Every once in a while, i’ll come across another article or video explaining the basic premise of “Punished By Rewards” – that is, that rewards are a punishment that are controlling mechanisms and don’t lead to the results you would hope for when giving them.  If you haven’t read the book “Punished By Rewards“, I can not encourage you enough.  Go read it.  It is the single most important book you can EVER READ.  I’m dead serious.  It is that important.

If you can’t read the book, at least watch the above video and then consider the inevitable conclusion and how you should immediately re-evaluate EVERYTHING you do.  How you interact with your co-workers, your children, your boss.  Everything.

What I think you’ll come up with is the same as I have: incentives are a great way to kill someones interest and have little value whatsoever for the most part.

I’m refactoring and I didn’t even know it

Recently, I have been going through a number of interviews with potential candidates for a developer position we’re trying to fill at my employer, Healthscreen. As part of our hiring process, we typically do an online test and follow up with a phone screen 30 minute interview. The phone screen is very much intended to act as a simple cheap opportunity to see how well people can mentally walk through some challenges. It’s also designed to find any major gaps in people’s general tool kit.

I won’t lie. It’s basically lifted from Steve Yegge’s top 5 essential interview questions with a few modifications.

The one modification that I added was a general question of refactoring. The results have been less than stellar on this point which is surprising. Ask a developer what refactoring is and you’re almost certainly going to get the right answer. Ask them about specific refactoring techniques however and you’ll almost certainly get a blank stare. A typical line of questioning would go something like the following:

Me: “Could you define the term refactoring.”
Them: “It’s when you re-write some code to make it easier to use while still maintaining the same functionality”
Me: “Great. Could you tell me then what I would mean if I asked you to do a ‘pull up method refactor’?”
Them: “No”

This basically tells me two things:
1. They’ve never actually read the authoritative book on refactoring
2. They’ve either never seen a modern IDE with its built in refactoring tools or they’ve seen it but never bothered to figure out what it does.

Either of these two points is a shame since the book is a wonderful tool to help any developer improve their code and also, acts as a great manual for any modern IDE. Developers that haven’t read Fowler’s refactoring book are, like Yegge says, going to work without any pants on. If you know what the term refactoring means but haven’t read the book, do yourself a favour and go out and read it. It’s not important that you be able to recite each one word by word, but when some very powerful tools at your disposal go lacking because you just don’t have any idea what they mean, you’re doing yourself a disservice.

Also, if you get an interview with me, you’ll save yourself the embarrassment of having me point out that you’re not wearing any pants.

Shut your Facebook

I’ve decided to close my Facebook page. The reasons are pretty simple. I don’t find it very useful or interesting anymore. I haven’t used it much (ok, not at all) in the past number of months. Which wouldn’t be enough to really get me to close the book but Facebook’s recent attempts to pry data ownership rights from their users virtual hands is enough to make me call foul.

So i’m doing what I think is the best thing to do. I’m leaving.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t mind sharing. I use this blog for more than enough public exposure and probably already say too much on twitter. Both very public platforms. But I object to the way Facebook is trying to slip these changes by their users.

Grow up Mark and tell your users the truth.

My email to Bob Rae

Mr Rae,

I am writing to you regarding the issue of MP spending. In an era bailouts (US and others) and cooked books (Greece), all steps governments can take to be more open and transparent are worthwhile if only to regain the trust of those government serves. I urge you to push for transparency and fight for the rights of Canadians to understand and track how their government is spending their money. It’s about more than money; it’s about trust and respect.

Do the right thing and do it now.

Thank you,
-peter Cresswell
resident of Toronto Center

My recent email to the Ministry of the Environment

Dear Minister,

I have recently watched the CBC documentary “The Gospel of Green” and was moved to write to you. You can find the documentary here for your reference and viewing pleasure.

Ontario is a great province with clear challenges: it needs jobs, energy and most importantly, ambition. Currently, it’s lacking in all three.

Watching the documentary, it is clear that a country like Germany is able to take simple but smart steps in the right direction while Ontario stands still. I’m sorry to see this.

I encourage you to do the following:
1. Become ambitious.
2. Become hungry and favour action over words.
3. Become transparent with clear goals posted on your front webpage and track your progress to those goals.

I’m tired of watching Ontario pass up the easy wins – wind power, solar, and other easy solutions -that any high school class could implement with only a modestly motivated teacher. Let’s get serious about getting Ontario’s economy out of the GM bailout gutter, talk to the Germans and get our feet moving.

This is getting embarrassing.

New MacBookPro

I’ve decided to give my wife a used computer for her birthday. Which is another way of saying that I decided i needed a brand new computer and would give her my current MacBook Pro.

Each time I decide on a new laptop, I usually go through the motions of looking at the other vendors before settling on a macbook. This time was no different. I looked at the Sony product line (great screen but something lacking in the overall feel) , Dell (I haven’t bothered with these guys in years now) and even a couple of glances at the HP line (no thanks). A friend of mine has a Lenovo with some pretty solid specs, the most attractive for me being the light weigh, quite and generally attractive design. I was close but couldn’t quite settle on it for a couple of reason.

First, I”m pretty comfortable now in the mac ecosystem. I’ve got a truck load of mac toys (my iPhone being the most important) and I’m pretty happy here. Windows Vista never came close to tempting me out of my shell. Windows 7 comes much closer and I’m sure that i’ll end up buying a copy for my VMs.

Second, it had a finger mouse (one of those silly little nipples + the extra two mouse buttons.) I really hate that stuff and it’s enough to make me pass.

So in the end, not surprisingly, I’m back with a macbook pro.

In the latest version, I’ve gone to town on the specs. ( i usually do that) -8GB RAM
-256GB SSD drive (yes, that’s pricy. Yes, it is gloriously fast and large enough that I don’t feel cramped) -1680×1050 resolution anti glare. Again, awesome.
-i5 processor (note that I “saved” money by not going crazy with the i7 figuring the ssd was so much more important for performance than the i7 would be.)

After a couple of weeks with this bad boy, I’m pretty much in my sweet spot again. The machine is a beast with boot up times around 10-12 seconds and apps that launch like they never shut down (not much of an exaggeration with 8GB of ram caching basically everything I do).

The product is a work of art visually. Apple always cares about how their products look like and the macbook pro is a real gem. It’s smooth single body is delicious to the touch. It really is. The fit and finish of the product is second to none and the overall feel of the product just reeks of Steve Job’s perfectionist trait. It really is a beautiful device.

I’ve gotten use to the keyboard by now which is the “chicklette” style where no keys ever touch each other. More like each key is an island in a sea of aluminium. It’s certainly a much different experience on the keyboard than all previous versions. It’s starting to feel natural now but I’m not certain if it’s a total win yet. We’ll have to see over the long term.

Where there is a massive win is in the trackpad. Apple keep taking something as simple as a pointing device and introducing more genius ideas. The “momentum” concept (borrowed from the iphone where you can flick pages around) feel fantastic. Web browsing and overall use of scrolling screens now feels fresh and fun again. Of course the standard two finger scrolling, three finger swiping and so on are all standard apple fare at this point but they’re always pleasing and not to be overlooked.

At this point, the OS is starting to feel a bit dusty however. Apple has clearly been investing their efforts in the iPhone/iPad OS with little left in the tank for the old OS X. I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple just starts to abandon their entire OS X platform within the next 10 years and adopts the iPhone OS as the standard platform of choice.

Still, it does exactly what it used to do before, only much faster and with a lot more confidence.

The price of the product was not cheap. Apple doesn’t sell to the lower end market. But each time I use and look at the laptop, it literally makes me happy. Like a piece of art, you don’t know why it does it, but you know it does. A few other products do that. Like a porsche 911. I’m not certain why, but it’s just beautiful in someway.

Would i recommend this laptop to everyone? Of course not. Is it the highest, most powerful beast of a machine that I could have gotten for the money? Probably not. Is it exactly what I wanted in the end?

Yes.