Personal Update ..
General, MBA, VinepixI have been so busy that blogging has not been happening much. A couple of quick updates -
SMU PMBA Progress
First, my MBA at SMU is going well. The part-time program is structured to fit well with the busy life of a working professional, but its still a lot to chew on! Last night I wrapped up a presentation skills class, but I still have another few weeks of Decision Analysis and Financial Accounting II before spring break.
Like other schools, SMU divides up each semester into two modules. So you have four classes per semester, although you only take two at a time. The first semester I took these classes -
Financial Accounting I - This is a great intro but a lot of work. For anybody else taking this class my advice is to do all the problems. If you power through it - and I know its like 6-8 hours a week of work - you will know the material and do well. Its so important to get a strong foundation for future classes.
Managerial Ecoomics - A great class for getting the 10,000 foot view of economics in business. Again, do the problems. This class is a lot of work but not as much as Financial Accounting (at least it wasn't for me).
Managerial Statistics - I didn't care for how this class was taught. It was basically a big Excel class with a little theory sprinkled in. Unfortunately I don't feel like I learned that much - but I also think that is partially my fault .. this class made me realize that its not enough to focus on what is in the syllabus, and what the professor covers in class - you have to go beyond what is covered in order to really understand the material sometimes.
Organizational Behavior - This is the class I have enjoyed the most so far. Great instructor who made the class engaging and fun, but even more, there's so many topics covered in the class that crystallized behaviors or problems I'd seen in the past in the workplace. The materials and methods covered in the course are going to benefit me for the rest of my life.
Okay, enough about SMU ... like I said, great program, I have a great group of peers to work with, and am enjoying it all around.
New Job @ Gartner
What else is going on? Well, I started a new job a few weeks ago. Until recently I was working at the Fed in Dallas, doing web development on some interesting internal projects. I have no idea how much I can say about them, so I won't go into detail! Anyway, I had a great team and a great boss and the Dallas Fed was a great place to work.
Having said all that, working at the Fed I was getting broader and deeper with my technical knowledge (not a bad thing) but I was not really able to fill some of the holes in my resume - the "skills portfolio" was incomplete. I did not get to do a lot of strategizing about technology, communicating about technology, presenting, etc. While I could pursue some of this in my "free time" (I don't really have any right now), my core job did not involve expanding my skills into non-technical areas.
As of 1/19, I started at Gartner as a Senior Research Analyst, covering Web & Cloud Application Development. Basically, this means that I get paid to have a defensible opinion ;)
All jest aside, Gartner is very serious about putting out the finest research possible in the area of technology. We try to help our clients get the right technology-related insight to make the best possible technology decisions, every day. (Yes that was taken almost verbatim from the marketing literature, but its the truth.)
I feel like I have stepped into a think tank surrounded by geniuses. I'm on the phone a lot with my peers and these folks are all so smart, I'm just glad I have them fooled!
Yesterday I gave a short presentation on IT decision making and Gartner for my presentation skills class, so I will cover the points here - they make a good case for why Gartner is so important:
- technology is complicated and getting more so (you know this if you are visiting this blog, technology work is not getting any easier, just more and more complex)
- technology is important and getting more so (again, there's not a soul in any company today that can do their job without the tech working right - globally, we'll spend more than 3.3 trillion on tech this year!)
- technology decision making is really difficult because of the high visibility/importance and high complexity attached. Most IT decision makers are pinned down by short-term tactical problems, and are not in a good position to make the high-level strategic decisions that they're really supposed to make. Gartner is the partner in that situation that can help navigate the waters.
I had a hard time leaving the Fed because of the "total value equation" for me there - great benefits, great people to work with, and a great boss. However, the opportunity to join an organization like Gartner was too good to pass up. I am surrounded by smart people who are dedicated to helping our clients make better choices about tech. I get paid to research and debate about tech, and ultimately once my research has been vetted, to help clients use it profitably. I really believe in the product Gartner is selling, and I hope I can help carry on the tradition.
VinePix Project
Okay, enough about SMU and Gartner .. I am also working on a project in my "free time" (cough) called VinePix. VinePix is a social networking site for wine lovers. We have a pretty rough beta going right now with a few users, but its open to whoever would like to participate, so feel free to join. http://www.vinepix.com
The idea behind VinePix is that we wanted a simple way to keep track of wines we've enjoyed, and be able to share them with friends. Once you set up a VinePix account, you can use your handheld phone to send in pictures of wines that you're drinking, via email. You can tag them with keywords and rate them - do it when you send them in, or come back later on and add your tags and ratings. Your friends on the site can comment on the wines, and you can explore wines by tag.
Many of the other wine sites are difficult to use because they are so complicated. I love wine but I am not a "true" expert so VinePix makes it easier for me to discover new stuff I might like, while sharing with my buddies the great bottle I may have had last week.
Okay, I think that's about enough. Thanks for reading and catching up with me.
Eric
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MAX Redux
GeneralThis was my second MAX. I attended the event in Anaheim in 2005 in the pre-Adobe days, and really enjoyed it (especially the great party at California Experience on Tuesday). Because I was transitioning into consulting work about this time last year, I had to miss MAX 2006 Vegas. I decided early this year that I would not make the same mistake again! So, last Sunday after driving back from a demoralizing time watching Texas get railed by K-State 41-21, it was off to MAX 2007 Chicago style.
Some of you know that I used to work for Unitrin, with several cool cats including well-known blogger Adrian Moreno. I was able to hook up with some of those folks at this year's MAX, which made for a fun time as I was able to catch up with people I don't see every day anymore (sniff). Its weird sometimes how it takes an out-of-town trip to reconnect with people who only live across town .. but I digress.
As Sean mentioned, MAX was really huge this year, in the massive West wing of the McCormick center. This is a great facility and was definitely up to the task of accommodating ~4000 Adobe fanatics. There were a ton of sessions and I had an opportunity to be exposed to some things that I wouldn't otherwise see .. and isn't that the point of going to an event like MAX?
As usual, I can't strongly recommend the ColdFusion sessions as they seem to be targeted at more beginner-level folks. Dave Watts of Fig Leaf did his best to turn a talk about new features of ColdFusion 8 into an "optimizing CF8 applications" presentation, but it didn't work out despite his best efforts. The other CF presentations I went to were generally not much better ..
The most enjoyable session I attended had to do with a CF/Flex app launched by the interactive learning technology team at the Wharton Business School that provides a "fast twitch" trading interface similar to what traders at top Wall Street equity trading firms use. This session was interesting because the presenters did a good job hitting all the business and technology points quickly and succinctly, and also because the topic ties together some of my favorite subjects - technology, finance, and game theory. A common use of the application is to put 40-50 students into a mock "trading room", each with a little bit of information as a hint about future possibilities with a particular equity (or market). Subsequently, trading begins and the students must use their knowledge of future likely market events along with their understanding of trading patterns to develop a profitable trading strategy - and are then graded on it! Wharton has also made this platform available to several other universities, both to enhance the prestige of the Wharton brand and to provide better learning tools to students elsewhere. The developers from Wharton were visibly enthusiastic about what they are doing, which was very cool - it is inspiring to see people love what they do, and something we don't get to see enough of these days.
My second-favorite session was Dave Bowers' presentation on Far Cry Core. I looked into Far Cry as a CMS solution a couple of years ago, but was intimidated by what seemed like a steep learning curve, so I sort of shelfed that effort and never came back. Boy am I missing out! Far Cry is not just a CMS, it is a full-stack application framework providing everything from generated administrative consoles to security model to ORM layer .. really neat stuff. As a seasoned Mach-II pro I am a little hesitant to switch to a "kitchen sink" package like this but seeing what Dave was able to crank out in just a few minutes was truly amazing, and its obvious to me that I need to find some time to invest in this thing. The Far Cry team has put together a 120-page developer course to get new developers up to speed quickly, so I will probably start there.
Finally, the MAX party was a blast this year. The company always seems to pull out the stops and do something unexpected. At this year's party, one huge room at the convention center was converted into a party area, and split into several sections. The featured entertainment included breakdancers on a big graffiti-painted stage, professional skateboarders and freestyle bikers performing stunts on a giant half pipe, and a lounge act that specialized in performing numbers you'd never expect to hear from a lounge band .. hearing the singer belt out classics from Nirvana, Nine Inch Nails and Sir Mix-A-Lot caused waves of laughter in the crowd .. these guys were really good.
I've already decided to attend MAX again next year - its just too good of an opportunity to see some great new technology and visit with people I don't get to see often enough. Hope to see you there!
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First Post!
GeneralHard to believe I've held off creating a blog for this long. Thanks Dave & Ryan for making this so easy.
Eric
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