Code Dependency

Moving to Systems Support

2009-09-03T06:33:00.007-04:00

I'm trying to decide how to split my job functions. Our group was in BIS until this week. Now development is being pulled into marketing and systems work is being moved to the system support group in BIS. Yes, I know that I should have gone with a company that develops software as a principal line of business. I prefer to develop software, but moving to marketing is out of the question. The environment appears very toxic, which may be an understatement.

Provided I can stay on the software side, life shouldn't be too bad. I looks like managing the JBoss and ColdFusion services, along with the databases can provide sufficient work for the foreseeable future. I'm still looking for someone to train on the Subversion and Trac environments. They want to move the Liferay portals in-house, so I have the better part of a year to find something more interesting to do, or move on to someplace that creates software.

What do I do all day?

2009-08-31T22:54:00.004-04:00

The boys wanted to know this weekend, what I do all day?

Most days (Monday - Saturday, Sunday I sleep until 0600) start around 0500. I check the main application server for http://www.meaningfulfunerals.net. ColdFusion seems to work better if the services are rebooted daily, scripted after a month of manual work. Then, check the database server. MicroSoft's SQL Server behaves badly if disk space is exhausted, so I check that and Server 2003 health. Now it's off to check the legacy applications. We have an old JSP/XLST application that needs to be checked manually, and an even older Coldfusion (5 cannot get support anymore) application that still needs to be checked by a human. There's some Liferay portals that fall over at the worst time that need to be manually checked, so they get some attention too.

Now I need to eat breakfast and get an hour of physical training. No credit given at work if I find a problem and correct it before the daily maintenance window ends at 0630. (Technically, we're all supposed to be there before 0800, I try for 0815 since I already have an average of an hour in before 0630.) I have to admit, the 35 minute drive to work is sweet, just enough time for an introduction to the world via NPR.

Most days, arrival at work are uneventful. We acquired a "company" in May that might require some special attention. Some days our marketing group wants something that a marketing group might find desirable, and this "company" finds inconvienent. So I create an estimate for how long it will take to create this feature given that the "company" never even considered that the death care industry would even want this feature. Finally, I may get to write some code that makes the whole thing run a little better.

I have the development bug again.

2009-04-14T03:57:00.003-04:00

I have the urge to create something again. I keep working on a Java Server Faces Portlet, that seems to be in a constant state of requirements change. Then again, when I think of creating something, I think of it as it will look when it's deployed. Lacking the gratification of a deployed application I have started something else on the side. I couldn't sleep tonight so I decided to give Grails a try. I have been messing around with Groovy for the past few months, more for scripting old Java code and testing new APIs.

After a few hours of playing, I think I've found something that will do 80% of what I need for application development. The domain model is simple, but should work for most cases where I only need one database. The GSPs are easy enough to work with, and I did take the time to look as a couple plug-in demos. If they keep maturing, this could become my development environment of choice. It feels like the Grails development team thought about the things that a developer needs to think about and created the tools to address each issue.

A Positive View of Project Managers

2008-11-07T12:19:00.003-05:00

The stackoverflow podcast mentioned this question on the Stack Overflow website. I have had the good fortune to work for several project managers that can keep the work managable and still keep everyone busy. Totophil's answer sums up the skill set, I think I'll add these to my list of questions to ask when interviewing a company.

Perspective

2008-06-03T21:14:00.002-04:00

Today I noticed that the people I work with are employees of a company with roles that require them to perform programmer analyst tasks. I think of myself as a developer that works for a company. I develop software, primarily for a Java platform, using whatever tools make sense for the current task. The people I work with are looking for a set of tools to make their "job" easier. It doesn't seem like a big difference, but it leaves me sitting here wondering why they want to come to work tomorrow.

Communications for the Technical Professional - Day 1

2008-04-28T21:11:00.003-04:00

I've been sent to training in Chicago for a few days. The guy that originally signed up for this quit the company. I have to go so we don't lose the money, which means they have to spend more money to not lose money. The best part is the focus is on how to communicate with your boss, who quit and leaves on Friday. Most of the folks in the class are looking for ways to advance in their current companies, because they don't want to look for a new job.

What I learned today:

1. Off-site training is just a way to avoid the problems at work for a week. I can acquire skills quicker by setting a couple of hours aside each morning and working through the book.
2. Hours of boredom in a class and hotel room are a good time to get the resume updated and pushed to the job sites.
3. I shouldn't be working for a company that isn't working on interesting problems. Life is short, the day is long, I may as well do something that I like.

Java with ColdFusion works.

2008-02-21T20:26:00.002-05:00

I've been using Java for the last eight years, that's what has been paying the bills. Most of this has been server side, moving data between application and database, sending email, validating form submissions. I've seen frameworks come and go. I even remember reading about the release of ColdFusion for the JVM a few years ago. I meant to give it a look, I have seen some nice sites done using the application server.

About four months ago I changed jobs and found myself responsible for a site built almost exclusively in ColdFusion. It was written by a man that wasn't trained as a developer, but runs remarkably well. I've been factoring the site over the last few months, separating the display from all of the database interaction. I really appreciate this application server. I have moved some logic to stored procedures where it made sense, but for that layer that sits between the user interface and the data store, this really simplifies the developer's life. Java, ColdFusion, SQL Stored Procedure and HTML code can peacefully coexist in this environment.

The original intent of building data driven web applications is still preserved in the current server (I'm using MX 7, looking toward updating to MX 8). With all of the other features it's a really compelling way to develop a website.