Evan's Thots

Sneak peak: KCIBR racer jersey

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 14:21:15 -0700

One of my fun side projects is participating on the board of the KCIBR. It's a fun road relay that runs from Haines Jct, Yukon to Haines, Alaska. http://kcibr.org

This year is the 20th annivesary so we had a custom Sugoi jersey designed up that racers will be able to purchase when they register for the race. All this will also be on the KCIBR website soon, but this is too awesome to wait!

The jersey is currently slated to be the Sugoi Event Cycling Jersey (CJ47U/F)- made of FinoTech. Whoosh!

Here is a sneak peak of the design.

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[Updated] Is this permitted in the App Store?

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 09:00:00 -0800

Updated: In the 4.1 release they have removed the requirement to enter your phone number; it can be skipped. Still I worry about my use of this application. If your business model requires that you sell my information to keep operating perhaps you need to charge more for your service.

A while ago I purchased a little utility app called SmartSync (not linked for reasons below) They just released a new version, 4.0.

I like this app. It pulls Facebook pictures, birthdays and addresses that my friends on Facebook have made public and puts it into my contacts on my iPhone. Super handy and I like seeing smiling faces in my contacts and I like getting birthday reminders outside of Facebook. Apparently they are also working on some LinkedIn and Twitter integrations as well.

The issues I have are the following:
- the new 4.0 requires that you agree to Terms of Use and a Privacy Policy that basically says the developer can/will sell your information
- you CANNOT use the new application unless you enter your phone number which will send an SMS text - and likely receive one - no way on earth I am going to test this.
- this will cost me another buck or so as I don't have texts included in my mobile contract AND the company is based out of Israel
- they will retain the phone number that you enter - hello telemarketing!
- there is NO mention of any of these changes or requirements in the iTunes Store where you purchase the app ($0.99)

So, I guess what I want to know is how this is allowed AFTER I have purchased the app?

I am going to have to see if I still have a backup of the previous version on my Time Machine because I am not going to use 4.0 until the company fixes the above.

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Specializing in General

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 09:44:39 -0800

I have long been a believer in being a generalist in my career in IT. I believe I should be able to speak to almost any point but then leave the details to the expert - delegation at its finest - when it is not in my particular speciality. I do have some specializations but I don't have the deep focus in one particular area of study. Currently, I am developing a deep focus on business analysis but there are so many specializations within the BA role that the fractal nature of this problem reoccurs.

I bring this up is because I saw this post in my RSS feed - http://tynerblain.com/blog/2012/02/01/specializing-generalist .

From an HR perspective, I was taught about “T-Shaped People” – people who have breadth and depth of skills.

Specialists are “I-Shaped People” – people who have depth of expertise, without breadth

Generalists are “Minus-Shaped People” – people who have a breadth of skills, but no depth of expertise.

Specializing Generalists are “T-Shaped People” – people who have depth of expertise in one area, combined with a breadth of skills across many areas.

I like this notion of "T-shaped" people. I have been lucky to work with some and they are awesome colleagues and mentors. A "T-shaped" person may not solve your problem but provides a sounding board that allows you to have an informed conversation.

These "T-shaped" people are the ones that my current employer, Yukon Gov't, should focus on hiring; the reality of a small organization with broad responsibilities requires resources on staff that can back-fill other roles and work collaboratively when larger projects get spun up.

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How many hats can a BA effectively wear?

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 17:00:35 -0800

I have been with the Yukon Government for close to 3 years now. At the end of my current term I will have served in this position for the longest period of time since I was a dishwasher at age 13. A benefit of term in the same role and organization is some insight into what I can/should/will do for an organization.

I am officially called a business analyst. I have business cards with that title that I drop into fishbowls to get free lunches.

It's a nebulous title and the associated job responsibilities are equally hard to nail down. What I do depends on the project. If the project needs test plans, test cases and acceptance testing; then I am a testing BA. If the project wants to go to RFP or contract out development then I write business requirements documents and use cases; the requirements manager BA. If the project needs models then I am a modelling BA. I can also do strategic planning, business process review, gap analysis, change management, user interaction etc, etc, etc. There is a bucket of skills I can, personally, bring to a project. The BA Book of Knowledge (BABOK) is full of methods and techniques of many other skills that a BA can bring to the table.

The challenge arises when you must decide which of the above tasks need to be completed. I am but a single resource and the above can easily describe a small team. How many hats is it reasonable to wear on a project? All of the above deliverables are important to the ultimate success of a project but ultimately it's the final working product in the hands of the client that matters more than a checklist of completed documents. Ultimately the constraints of time, cost, quality and scope force decisions. Compound this with multiple projects running concurrently and the mind bends.

In my current reality I believe you must, at a minimum, have the business requirements documented, the user interaction designed and a documented test plan.

Even as I look at that list I am doubting my certainty of just those deliverables - my mind is spinning with exceptions! Too many roles, too many possibilities, so little time!

Do you have a minimum list? Are you struggling with too many hats?

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Customer Service Redux

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 09:34:00 -0800

You remember WAAAY back in March of last year when Netflix applied a 3% credit to my account for an outage that I didn't even notice. Here's the link: http://blog.justwerks.com/attention-yukon-this-is-how-customer-service

Big customer service win. I have remained a customer even though I don't watch all that much Netflix these days.

Today I can demonstrate the polar opposite.

Today NWTel caused an outage through the application of a software update that did not work. See the below image generated from their Twitter feed.

(updated: images seem to not be working right now)

Tweet 1: https://twitter.com/#!/northwestel/status/157503757905702913
Tweet 2: https://twitter.com/#!/northwestel/status/157506940505817089

Note the "We apologize for this inconvenience" line.
Note the total lack of acknowledgement of their responsibility in causing this outage.
Note the total lack of a credit applied to the monthly bills of the customers affected by this outage.

I appreciate what NWTel offers the North for telecommunications but it has a long way to go before I will say I LIKE what they offer as a service provider.

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Moose stew

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 21:57:50 -0800

In response to Boris' request for a recipe here is how I made the stew.
Local carrots,potatoes and some grocery turnips and onions. Chop them up to desired size.
I used a bunch of spices but mostly paprika.
Quickly brown the onions in butter, use lots moose is very lean, and then add moose meat - we had a shoulder roast and some steaks to use. I am not a huge fan of moose steak so using it in a stew is no shame. Very lightly brown the moose - it gets tough when you over cook it.
Add veggie stock in water to top up the pot and add your chopped veggies. Let it cook for about an hour.
Eat with fresh biscuits and red wine!
Yummy!

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Another Week in Sayulita

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 18:53:00 -0700

Another week, another bunch of sun, fun and food. We are now comfortable with buying food off the local trucks that drive around Sayulita selling seafood, vegetables, or cooking gas. There is room to negotiate but it feels wrong given how inexpensive and good the food is. Case in point - I purchased 1kg of fresh jumbo shrimp for 150pesos - just over 12$ CAN. And they were HUGE!

I also have a bit of a crush on the local taco lady - 10p for a taco - although it has just risen to 12p for the tourist season. 20% price increases! I am going to Occupy Sayulita! Or just pay up the extra 20c.

I took up the property manager of Casa Namaste on his offer of surf lessons. I got schooled by
massive 1ft waves for about 90mins at which point I had to go home, eat, put kids to bed and then collapse in a useless heap from exhaustion. Combined with getting absolutely schooled on some massive waves (5-6ft) on Carachita's beach a day earlier made me fully aware of my newbie status in the ocean.

Both the dudes have zero fear, awareness or sense near the ocean. N barrels straight toward the water while D prefers to lie down in the surf wash and play with the sand completely oblivious to the fact it could drown him. We are going to build on this experience with swimming lessons when we get home. It's 100% awesome that they love the water; now we just have to build in clear thinking and water skills.

We took a slow bus into PV to go walk on the Malecon. It was quite cool for a change and the bus ride was the roller coaster fun that I expeceted it to be. I don't know how the drivers coax those busses to go that fast around corners that tight but somehow they do. We enjoyed the trip but decided to take a taxi on the way back, more on this later. Walking around PV was very eye-opening. I much prefer the laid back attitude and pace of Sayulita. The hard sell is everywhere but they do know how to take"no gracias" if said firmly. We took pictures of many of the statues on the Malecon (the point of our trip to PV) and then bargained a taxi home with the hope of getting some A/C and a speedy return to Sayulita. Well, we must have bargained too hard because we definitely got a speedy return! Our ex-race car taxi driver was usually about 5cm from the car ahead of him and pulled more illegal driving maneuvers than you usually experience in a lifetime, never mind 45mins. We almost were at the point of offering more money to make him slow down so we could get home alive.

Finally, life is all good here. We have a rhythm that is going well and the weather just can't be beat now that it is finally a few degrees cooler. Until next time.

Hasta luego!

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Sayulita Week One

Sun, 23 Oct 2011 19:46:00 -0700

Week 1 in Sayulita.

We have now been in Sayulita for one week. Our casa, Casa Namaste, has been very excellent.
It is located about 2 blocks from the zocola of town and is clean, breezy, has filtered
water and a great property manager who can also teach you to surf.

It has been hot, smoking hot. I have been melting daily. It's been a struggle to stay
hydrated enough in this heat. Then I saw the stories and postings from people back
home about how they are covered in snow. I now have a new perspective that says
"whatever" to the heat.

The kids have been mostly great at adapting to the heat - N is doing much better than
D. D eats even less air than he usually does and refuses drinks. He gets better with
a bit of cooling/bribing/showering but it's still a struggle to keep him fed and watered.
N has already had a bout of stomach something - but it was quick 12hrs - he is back
to eating everything put in front of him. Both boys are doing great at waking us up way
before we want to but on the plus side I get to see the sun rise before it begins to
bake the countryside.

Beaches here are amazing. The water is this bluish tub of water that you just walk into
with zero hesitation. Surreal. I have never experienced water like this before. Even
in Cuba the water was chilly in places. The onda is awesome on the beach. Our favourite
beach so far is Playa Los Muertos. Small beach, small kid friendly surf, and very few
peddlers.

I have ventured out onto the street to buy some food a few times and never been disappointed.
There is one 10peso taco stand that serves up amazing food. There may be some consequences
from this - but it is so damn tasty I will suffer. The kids are on non-street food. Too
much potential risk there. We cook for them at home.

R and I have been taking Spanish lessons from the iPad - Etonces Beuno. It's $45 on the App Store, it's kinda aimed at a younger market, but it teaches you the language quite well. So far!

Next posts will talk about travel options, food options and other random bits. With pictures (maybe - our internet is brutal)

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Sayulita - 5 days late

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 17:29:00 -0700

We are finally in Sayulita.

We were supposed to be here on the 11th but that morphed into the 16th due to Hurricane Jova and some hastily rebooked flights. Alaska Airlines, the only airline that cancelled flights due to the hurricane, couldn't get us to Puerto Vallarta before Oct 22nd so we switched to American Airlines - saved $300 and over-nighted in Dallas - and arrived on the 16th. Happy happy.

And we finally have interweb. God, I was going into withdrawal here. I almost stole the iPhone out of the hands of Israel - the property manager of Casa Namaste- just so I could look at the internet again.

Sayulita - it's hot here. I mean damn hot. And muggy. When you think that letting the A/C run to get the bedrooms down to 26 is a reasonably cool temperature then you know what I am talking about. I am taking 3 cold showers a day. Thankfully our casa has filtered water so I don't have to worry if I forget where I am and drink the stuff coming out of the tap.

We are about a 5 minute walk to the beach from our Casa. The ocean is a giant salt water bath. I don't think I have ever experienced ocean water this warm - it's glorious.

The family is adapting to the 2hr time zone difference and we are adapting the kids to a slightly shifted schedule that takes advantage of the 8a to 8p daylight.

More will come. Pictures as well. Like I say, we just got internet up and going.

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My time with her iPad

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 21:12:30 -0700

I recently purchased an early present (anniversary/b-day/pre-I'm-sorry-for-something) for the lovely wife.

What I use it for:
- to use it to control music (the Remote App is great)
- to read Zinio magazines (I tried Zinio on a laptop and it sucks. It's fantastic on an iPad. I still love paper, but I am cheap and, ahem, eco-conscious.)
- to play some Angry Birds. Wheeee, meh. I want The Incredible Machine for this device.
- a bit of surfing and such, but sadly I can't (as in too cheap to pay for the games using the official app) get Hockey Night in Canada on it

What she uses it for:
- watching TED talks
- watching National Film Board
- toddler books and such
- Boggle
- FB
- books, news, etc

What the 28mth old likes it for:
- anything, he just wants to play with Mummy's iPad. Depending on the kid an iPad is a crazy kid magnet.

What I like
- it's an intensely personal device
- it's quick
- great battery life
- light weight
- very good screen
- the magnet cover thing is just cool
- great consuming device, average for creation

What I dislike
- it's an intensely personal device
- I kinda miss Flash, but not really
- it's useful like bucket of bent spokes when the internet goes down
- that's about it. It's an awesome device with a huge eco-system of applications
- I don't get much time on it when Rach is home!

I will post more thoughts on the intensely personal device aspect soon.

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Where the SDLC actually sits

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 09:55:00 -0700

From http://www.bridging-the-gap.com/

I was reading through an article on how BA's fit into the BPM. But the real kicker of this article is the image they attached to the article (above). For an ex-developer it is really quite eye opening to see where the entire software development lifecycle (SDLC) sits in relation to the business. One box very late in the methodology. A lot of work needs to be completed before a single line is committed to the repository.

Not everything is code and a big chunk of the early work never sees the spotlight.

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blogging is going to make a comeback

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 21:57:43 -0700

I have just setup, in less than 30 minutes, my new blogging platform. Posterous. I think I love this service and I have only been registered for 2 hours now. Maybe less.

Long story. I used to write more. Some good, some bad. But I wrote more.

But then the technical effort required to put a post up on my Drupal based site started to reach the point of frustration. I had to think about menus, sticky on front page, HTML vs PHP code, image attachments, twitter integration, spam management; in short, it became more work than I perceived necessary. I mean, why am I using a CMS that can manage The Economist to post about things I do around the house. Something had to give.

With Posterous I can quickly post to a blog. My messages are AUTO-SAVED by Gmail every 45 nanoseconds (meaning no lost posts!) or 5 keystokes - whichever comes first AND I have integrated with Twitter, have these posts cross-posting to my Drupal blog (probably going to stop that, but I like the idea of owning my own output...) and I can put image attachments in a post without needing to think about file storage locations.

Deep tech warning - I also did some custom DNS record setup with Dreamhost + Posterous so that blog.justwerks.com is the DNS entry for the more pedestrian ewise.posterous.com. SEO goodness and stuff. Zowie!

In short, awesome. I should have done this years ago. I will slowly get into the more advanced features, but I am really just looking forward to having a channel for my creative output that is as simple to use as typing an email...

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Attention Yukon: this is how customer service works

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 21:31:56 -0700

I am now the biggest fan of Netflix evar! I got a notice informing me that there was an outage - I didn't use the service yesterday but a quick search of Twitter indicates the WORLD WAS COMING TO AN END because Netflix was down.
BUT, the kicker is that they gave everyone a 3% credit towards next month.
THE NEXT DAY!

There was no "we value your patronage", no "well, it was out of our control". Just pure admission of service interruption and immediate compensation. No questions.

That my friends, is killer attention to detail and amazing customer service. Certain service oriented organizations should take a long hard look at why this is great and how this has made me a happy user.

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it only took 10 versions of iTunes to get here

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 21:14:46 -0700

I am a bit obsessive about my play counts and last played in iTunes. I have playlists that help me listen to music that I haven't played in a while but listed to a lot in the past. I call it the Lost and Lonely playlist.
But THIS little feature just made my life complete. There is now a checkbox that turns on the setting to enable play count update on remote machines that are using Home Sharing.

About freaking time!

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