CBC’s “The Hour” and Cisco Systems are currently running a contest called ‘One Million Acts of Green’, where ordinary Canadians are asked to perform and resister their ‘green’ acts.  Changes to daily habits, transportation, renovations and etc. are then assigned a weight of greenhouse gas saved, calculated by GreenNexxus.  You can sign-up schools, your office, your family or just yourself.

For some reason, I am strangely suspicious about the intention of this contest.  I am not arguing the validity of the ‘green’ acts themselves, which I applauded wholeheartedly, just the motivation behind the contest.  Call me cynical, but I suspect one of two things: David Suzuki is the shadow dictator of CBC or this is some promotional/marketing campaign for Cisco.

It is not a new revelation that the Green Industry is big business.  Virtually ever corporation now has some ‘green’ division or marketing insignia to reflect their ‘global responsibility’.  Some of these companies make a sincere effort to increase efficiencies or reduce waste; however, it is apparent that the act of going ‘green’ has become more of a marketing tool then actual business practice.

Regardless, the “One Million Acts of Green” contest from CBC should be recognize as an important initiative to create awareness about how changing your daily routine can affect the world you live in.  Consumers should continue to be vigilant and research each company’s ‘green’ acts in order to support genuine claims rather then reward clever advertising.

"Interviews with the Intern" is a semi-regular feature where intern Christian Benson interviews the staff of Smibs Inc.

Christian: Hi Chris.  Sit down, it’s time for your monthly review.

Chris: So you’re doing my reviews now?  Big step for an intern.

What is your role here at Smibs?

I am a computer programming intern.  My job here is to take everything Forrest makes and try and break it. I test all of the Smibs software and work out any potential kinks.

What are some of your thoughts about the software products at Smibs?

I think the software is really cool.  It’s definitely cutting-edge stuff and I think that the market is really under-served for this type of thing.  Personally, an application like Doorbell has so many uses for a student and a young guy like me to keep me organized and on top of a lot my schedule.  At the same time, a small business can use this software in so many other ways. Our users are already giving us great feedback and support, which makes me proud that I am a part of this.

Here’s a question: You are a rowdy frat boy.

That wasn’t a question, that was an accusation.  If it’s a crime to enjoy a few beverages here and there, then I am guilty.

Do you want to discuss your fraternity?

Do I have a choice?

If you were the interviewer, you’d have a choice.  Why don’t you talk in general terms about your fraternity?

Fine.  I am a part of the Zeta Psi, Mu Theta Chapter.  The fraternity has been a part of the university (University of Alberta) since 1930.  We are like most fraternities, we give members the opportunity to be a part of a brotherhood of people and establish life long relationships.

You are still in school, right?

Unfortunately, yes.  I am in my third year of my software engineering degree at the University of Alberta.  Right now I am on a work term, but I plan on returning to school after Christmas.

In my last interview (Forrest) I heard probably the worst joke ever.  Do you have a better programming joke then Forrest’s?

That one was pretty bad.  I don’t have any good programming jokes, but I have plenty of filthy jokes.

Why is programming culture so misunderstood?

I think people conceive programmers as quiet, nerdy guys without girlfriends.  I think they are shocked when most of us turn out to be fun loving, sociable people.  It’s like anything, some people take their jobs too seriously and they become one-dimensional.  For the most part, programmers are just normal guys who have a passion for computer culture.  There is a myth that there are some women programmers too.

You are known as an office prankster.  What is the best prank you have pulled here at the office, besides destroying my coffee cup?

Yah, I have been know to pull a few pranks here or there. The best would have to be when I glued Forrest’s hand to his mouse. (Laughing) He’s losing his hair because of me.

What are some of your hobbies?

Well besides being awesome all the time, I enjoy the occasional wine tasting and walk in the park, like any other respectable frat boy.

Thanks for the interview Chris, I feel like I really got to know you.

Ha, no problem Christian. Us interns have to look out for one another.

I stumbled across a pretty good blog post last week (designer-daily) discussing the merits of listening to music while you work.  I don’t mean to prolong the debate, but I absolutely insist on listening to music when in my office.  Of course I use headphones, to avoid any unintentional jackassery that would aggravate any of my fellow workers at the Smibs office.  I find listening to music allows me to focus on the tasks in front of me; often at a quicker pace without the distractions of office white noise or the arguments of the street people outside that populate our residence in the colorful Strathcona district of Edmonton.

I try to avoid listening to my overplayed iPod and I definitely hate listening to web radios, so I started to search around for a decent online music source on the net and I happened upon a site called www.grooveshark.com.  After dicking around on the site for a few minutes, I produced a pretty comprehensive play list. Without hesitation, I can say that Grooveshark is the most useful and complete music application on the web.  I can’t say enough about the Gainesville, Florida start-up.  The website is easy to navigate and the library of music is pretty extensive.  There are a couple of cool features too, like the ability to create, save and share play lists with an online community. They have also seemingly avoided most of the controversy associated with traditional music sharing and P2P sites (aka: copywrite laws).  Grooveshark is a good example for internet start-ups about having both a solid initial premise and then properly implementing it.

There is some definite room for improvement however.  Searching can provide mixed results and I would love to see a more image based interface as opposed to the text heavy search results.  These are minor issues with what I find to be a very useful web based application.  If you like listening to music while you work, make sure to check out Grooveshark.

1) Programmer Jargon-

Defined: Jargon essentially is words and phrases associated to a certain group.  Programmer Jargon essentially is complete gibberish associated to programmers.  The language of programmers has existed since the invention of computers, or since two nerds began to speak binary to each other (probably in the basement belonging to said nerd’s parents).

Crime:  I understand talking in trade jargon to other people within the same industry.  It’s a way to communicate intimately about a subject without drawing out every acronym or common phrase.  What I don’t understand is talking programming jargon to the common man in an attempt to convey a message.  Communication is two parts: the speaker verbalizing the intent and the receiver understanding the meaning.

Verdict:  If the person you are communicating with doesn’t understand the message, re-evaluate what you are saying.  Programmers need to realize most people think Ruby is a precious gemstone, clouds are in the sky and C++ is a delicious orange drink from Sunkist. 

2) Emoticons- 

Defined:  Emoticons are emotional icons that display the feelings of the writer to the reader in the form of a facial expression image.  They first became popular through the use on instant messaging, and soon began to infest emails and web copy. 

Crime:  Is subtlety dead? Emoticons are the most obtuse form of signifying the mood or tone of a message. It is almost insulting to see an emoticon at the end of an email, as if the writer has so little faith in your cognitive and interpretation abilities that they are forced to put a smiley face to spare you from any potential misunderstanding. I have even seen an emoticon to vial criticism. “You are doing a terrible job :)”   

Verdict:  Emoticons confuse and insult the intended meaning of a message.  Too many people rely on them to impart the emotional context of their message, which I deem lazy and offensive to written word.

3) Strategically removed vowels-

Defined:  In all languages, vowels form the nucleus or peak of syllables.  On the Internet, vowels are meaningless and can be dropped to create “funky” or “original” company names.

Crime: I could beat around the bush, but I am talking about Flickr.  Arguably, they are the largest and most successful in a new trend of vowel dropping start-ups.  Of course, there are others and I fear that more are on the way.  I can’t dispute Flickr success, but vowels aren’t something you can remove willy-nilly without drawing some ire.

Verdict:  How about keeping the words intact?  I know it’s “alternative” and “gnarly” to change the spelling of your company, but would Flickr really been unsuccessfully with the ‘e’?  Hey, you could always borrow a vowel from Kijiji.

4) Pre-Teen Garbage-

Defined:  A language that consists of abbreviated words and acronyms that populate the common speak on the Internet, mostly the written work of young people.

Crime:  If kids want to write like idiots, fine.  I am not their English professors, and I don’t have to sort through “lqtms” or “rotfl” in their essays.  I can’t understand the acceptance, use and study of the ‘language’ by legitimate and accredited professionals.  Nothing says “I am desperately seeking the approval from my angst ridden 15 year old” like employing this garbage.

Verdict:  Leave it to the kids.  Hopefully one day they will wake up and realize that professionals don’t respond to company emails with “lmao”.

5) Onomatopoeia Start-ups-

Defined:  Onomatopoeia is the verbal representation of a noise found in nature, such as “Snap”, “Crackle” and “Pop”, all of which are probably the names of Internet start-ups.

Crime:  There isn’t so much a crime in this as there is a lack of originality. I understand vowel ridden funny sounding names, like Google and Wikipedia (and Smibs).  The problem I have is names like MOO, Slurp and Zooomr.  Inspiration for your company’s name should come further then immediately outside your window.

Verdict:  I guess Google’s success may have started the trend, but I can’t accept that onomatopoeias are now also becoming verbs.  Leave them where they belong, in the mouths of barnyard animals.

"Interviews with the Intern" is a semi-regular feature where intern Christian Benson interviews the staff of Smibs Inc.

Christian: Hey Forrest, do you have time for a lengthy hard-hitting interview?

Forrest: Actually Christian, I am extremely busy at the moment.

Great.  Let’s start with your role here at Smibs.

Ummm… okay.  I’m the lead developer at Smibs, which means I handle everything from installing printer drivers to building SmibsNet and Doorbell. If something in the office works, then I probably had something to do with it. If it doesn’t then it must be user error.

You are close to releasing your third full-length album in as many years; do you think this new record can finally find an audience willing to listen to your horrible music?

I literally have no idea what you are talking about, but I doubt I would produce ‘horrible’ music.

According to Christy Urban (in my last interview), Smibs has some pretty exciting upcoming news and events.  Do you care to elaborate, or are you calling Christy Urban a liar?

No, of course I’m not.  Let’s just say that people should keep an eye on our blog over the next couple months.

What are some of your past times or hobbies Forrest?

Before I started working here I was really into cars.  I actually shipped an rx-7 turbo convertible over from Japan, and was quite active as an alumnus of my fraternity. Recently, I have become a big fan of napping, snacking, and classical couch appreciation.

I enjoy reading your blog posts about the programming world, although I have very little understanding of programming in general.  I was wondering if you would like to enter ‘The Lightning Round’ with me to clarify some of my programming related questions?

Bit dramatic don’t you think?

What is your favorite programming language?

I believe that any problem can usually be solved with either Ruby or C. Especially since I can insert C code into Ruby. Either I’m optimizing for speed or I’m optimizing for development time. Every algorithm has it’s goal. I don’t like to half ass, with languages in the middle, because you end up making sacrifices on both ends. 

Are there programming gangs?

If you have to ask, you don’t want to know.

Is there a 24-hour iron man style programming event that you are thinking of entering?

It’s called a job.

What is your best programming joke (because I know you have them)?

“Programming is a lot like sex. One mistake and you could have to support it the rest of your life.”  Also sometimes when I’m programming, I like to announce to the room that I just found the last bug.

Those jokes are terribly unfunny.  The lightning round is officially over.

Is the interview almost over?

No. Final question, what general advice could you offer to other startups in the IT industry specifically?

As a startup, you never know what kind of technology and challenges you will face. There is a big focus on hiring people who have years of experience in specific languages. A team of young developers with some fire in their bellies, who aren’t afraid to learn, who aren’t stuck in there ways, will prove more valuable than experience. Not knowing how crazy an idea is can sometimes be the best way to achieve the impossible.   Also, buy a coffee machine

That’s everything from me Forrest.  Do you want to skip out and grab a couple of cool brewskies?

Must be five o’clock somewhere.

“Run with the little guy……. Create some change”

With sales last year of $45 million, it’s hard to call Jones soda the little guy anymore.  From a marketing perspective, I am truly impressed with the continued success of this brand. Through alternative and innovative marketing practices, Jones has managed to capture market share in an industry dominated by long standing multi-national corporations Coke and Pepsi.

Jones focused on something they call “alternative distribution strategy” by placing there products in the hands of trendy consumers in the fashion, tattoo and alternative sport industry.  After establishing this smaller influential group, Jones soda started to distribute to larger chains such as 7-11 and Starbucks.  Having first targeted an unconventional market, Jones was able to form legitimacy and loyalty with the consumers before entering wide distribution.

There is another facet to Jones Soda’s success: product differentiation. Outside of having a ridiculously wide range of unique flavors (30+), Jones Soda’s signature has been the offbeat bottle labels and design.  The labels feature consumer photos, cross product promotions and even followed the recent American presidential race.

Despite what you may now think, I am not on the Jones Soda payroll.  I feel that Jones Soda provides an excellent case study for small businesses in the field of alternative marketing and distribution.  Marketing is essentially about establishing differentiation and competitive advantages, which arguably has lead to the success of Jones Soda despite being in an extremely competitive market.

Screen shot of portfolios being reordered

This solved everything, except for one little nagging issue. While the indicator had to be there for slow connections, the average time for this re-sort was fractions of a second. The moment the new order was saved, the cover would disappear. I wanted our users to be able to get back to work as soon as possible, rather than being slowed down by in-the-way animations. The consequences of this decision were dark flashes over your portfolios when a user would re-sort.

It turns out the solution was to slow things down. After adding some effects it now fades in over a second, and then fades out over a few seconds. While this would seem like two seconds wasted, no one seems to have a problem with this. In fact, we have received great feedback about this effect. Many people ask me if all the portfolio stuff was coded in flash, to which I can answer, “nope, just good old fashion javascript.” Next time I’m faced with  a confusing interface problem, I’m going to ask myself if the action has to be this fast. Maybe the best way to optimize the program is to slow it down.

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What other examples have you seen of software slowing down for the better?

"Interviews with the Intern" is a semi-regular feature where intern Christian Benson interviews the staff of Smibs Inc.

Christian:  Hi Christy.  For anyone that doesn’t know, you and I share an office.  How long did it take before you started to regret that decision?

Christy:  My plan had been to put a nice yoga studio where you desk now sits so…… You don’t exactly provide me with the meditative value I would have got from daily yoga but you are useful in other ways.

You are a strict vegetarian and I am constantly eating baconaters.  Are we the original odd couple?

Uggg what is a baconator… on second thought I don’t want to know.

It’s like a side of bacon and a couple of meat patties; you can buy them at Wendy’s or make them yourself at home.

Great.

Will you fire me if I don’t convert to vegetarianism?

Over the summer our office was half-vegetarian but since hiring yourself and one other employee us veggies have become the minority.

Can you explain what your role with Smibs is?

I do a bit of everything for Smibs, I’m a manager, I work with staff and have a quality control role. I also have a lot of experience with collaborative planning and project management so I think I bring a lot of real life business input to our products. I am easily annoyed with software and I’ve used a lot of the tools out there so I think I provide a lot of useful advice about what works and what doesn’t for a user.

What general advice could you offer start-ups companies?

Do what you know, that is your best chance for success!

That sounds like a cheesy motivational poster.

It’s true though!

Next question, you named your dogs Sputnik and Stalin, are you a Russian sympathizer?

I have Eastern European blood but my dogs are actually named Schmootzie and Brody.

Lets talk about some of your hobbies.

In the last while, my only hobby is work! I do teach dressage riding once a week though which I enjoy immensely, I hope to have my own horse again soon. I also enjoy walking my dogs, photography, bird-watching and reading.

What are some of the things new and exciting things Smibs.com is working on?

That is mostly a secret…(grin). This is actually a very exciting year for Smibs, we are going live with our network in about a month so everyone can search our profiles. We are also working on our second major application, which will follow our Public release of Doorbell, which is currently in Public Beta.

Why do you keep crushing my attempts at unionizing our office, comrade?

I like unions – go ahead!

Thanks for the interview.  I think it went pretty well.

I think you are strange.

“I am sorry all you broken cell phones; I didn’t mean to kill all of you.  I can take my share of the blame though, especially about dropping the Nokia into the toilet.  I don’t know why I thought any of you would last me the entirety of my three-year contract, because you are all pieces of low quality garbage.” – A cell phone requiem

*          *          *

In my current three-year contract, I have accumulated 12 cell phones.  Some were thrown from cars, a couple plunged deep into the toilet bowl and one is probably still riding the Vancouver to Victoria ferry, but for the most part my cell phones simple wore out.  I know I don’t fall into the ‘typical’ cell phone user demographic, but how in the hell is one cell phone suppose to last the life of a long term contract?  I know one thing for certain, I am never again signing another long contract and I assume there are others with similar stories.

Ultimately it affects the cell service providers.  The cell phone producers (Motorola, LG, Samsung, etc.) keep pumping these disgraces into the North American market, effectively tarnishing the reputation of the service providers. These service providers should start exerting their influence back up the distribution chain and demand durable phones instead of highly breakable feature intensive media phones.

It seems like there is room for a lot of improvement in the cell phone market. For whatever reason, the consumer has decided it can live with cracked screens, unchargable batteries and fragile construction. Companies like PayPal, Amazon and Google have revolutionized their industries through the innovation of tried business practices. Certainly, Apple has taken a step in the right direction with the introduction of the iPhone (check out PC World’s stress test) but it’s price and availability make it almost unobtainable for the average consumer. Until one of the cell producers makes a sincere attempt at developing an affordable and reliable phone, I will keep adding to my cell phone graveyard.

Now that I work at Smibs, I use mostly Ruby on Rails. While it is important to stay informed on the newest toys, I don’t think Peter will allow me to re-program all of SmibsNet the moment I find a new shiny language. Needless to say, the Chapters selection of “Rails for Dummies”-esque books stopped being useful very quickly.

This is why I was pleasantly surprised to come across “Advanced Rails” from O’Reilly. Written by Brad Ediger, this book is full of tips and tricks for the non-novice Rails developer. I’ve been working with Ruby on Rails for a while, but this book definitely taught me a thing or two. I enjoyed the earlier chapters, where the author dove into the underbelly of the Rails framework. It has provided great insight into many of the Rails features I was taking for granted. I’m particularly glad I read the performance chapter. The author has had more experience with high volume applications than I have, and he had some great suggestions on how I could optimize SmibsNet to better handle our (hopefully massive) growth.

Bottom line: If you’re an experienced Ruby on Rails developer, and you’re looking for a new resource, I recommend heading to your nearest bookstore and picking up “Advanced Rails”. You may be surprised what you didn’t know.

___________________
What books have you found, that did a great job of going beyond the basics?