OK - so we officially are coe complete as of today. WHat that means it entirely up to how well the code was written and how hard it will be to figure out what went wrong. Given that a) we have built the first-ever mobile processor emulator (BTW - NOT the main invention, just a sidebar) and b) it took 6 weeks to fix the code-complete UI, I am excited and concerned all at once.
That said, we did use a more intelligent approach to this part as it is core to our value proposition and hopefully the modular nature of the code will make it easier to debug. So tomorrow I will either be VERY HAPPY...or looking for new work...
Monday, December 28, 2009
Thursday, December 24, 2009
My Rant
I am watching the health care fiasco and I have to admit that I am growing increasingly outraged at the "taxing the wealthy" garbage everybody is spewing. Now, do not get me wrong, I have a permanent grudge against Republicans given there incessant destruction of the environment, but these Democrats are ridiculous.
First, nobody is "taxing the wealthy" - they are taxing the people, like me, who are actually starting to make real money. The truly wealthy receive no hits - and will most likely get yet another tax break if things continue as is. Since they run the country, nobody really talks about THAT.
Me, on the other hand, I get severely punished and for what?!? I literally used to live in a car, I was so poor for so long that hunger was a constant companion and eating was not a "when" thing but an "if" thing. I remember eating a cup of rice every 3 days because I could afford nothing else, taking "showers" using the construction site garden hose and drinking large volumes of water right before bed so my hunger pangs would ease enough for sleep. I remember rejoicing when I landed a McDonald's job at night - not for the money (they barely paid anything) but because the job came with a free meal each night. And I remember the first night at McDonald's when I tried, but failed, to eat an entire cheeseburger because my stomach was too small.
But I persevered - I worked (and work) nights, weekends, holidays. I put in 18 hour days, 7 days a week and while most people are playing on the weekend, I am working. I pulled myself through college and dozens of menial jobs and now I am finally starting to make it. I do not see most people working anywhere nearly as hard as me and yet the Democrats want me to pay to make everybody's lives easier - this is ridiculous.
I am frustrated and angry that I am being punished for overcoming the odds and making something of myself. I never got ANYTHING from the government and, in fact, when I needed help I was discriminated against. That's right - I had the senior Financial Aid director at my college tell me flat out that while I definitely deserved aid given my financial situation the fact that I was Caucasian meant I would never receive a dime. Nobody has taken me under their wing or given me a break - I have scraped and clawed for everything I have and now I have to pay for other people to screw off - seriously?!?
See, I am finally getting close to the point where I can actually create profitable businesses and hire people and if you think for a minute I am staying in a country that punishes my success to do so, you are gravely mistaken. As soon as I can, I am out of here and away from such a bizarre world as the harder you work, the more you get punished.
Think I am alone?!? Think again. I seem to have a history of thinking the same things that most people in my position think - are there a ton of us "upper middle class" income people that are fed up with being screwed over by a government that wages class warfare and punishes those that are trying the hardest to succeed.
Where is our fair representation, why do we have to bear this burden???
First, nobody is "taxing the wealthy" - they are taxing the people, like me, who are actually starting to make real money. The truly wealthy receive no hits - and will most likely get yet another tax break if things continue as is. Since they run the country, nobody really talks about THAT.
Me, on the other hand, I get severely punished and for what?!? I literally used to live in a car, I was so poor for so long that hunger was a constant companion and eating was not a "when" thing but an "if" thing. I remember eating a cup of rice every 3 days because I could afford nothing else, taking "showers" using the construction site garden hose and drinking large volumes of water right before bed so my hunger pangs would ease enough for sleep. I remember rejoicing when I landed a McDonald's job at night - not for the money (they barely paid anything) but because the job came with a free meal each night. And I remember the first night at McDonald's when I tried, but failed, to eat an entire cheeseburger because my stomach was too small.
But I persevered - I worked (and work) nights, weekends, holidays. I put in 18 hour days, 7 days a week and while most people are playing on the weekend, I am working. I pulled myself through college and dozens of menial jobs and now I am finally starting to make it. I do not see most people working anywhere nearly as hard as me and yet the Democrats want me to pay to make everybody's lives easier - this is ridiculous.
I am frustrated and angry that I am being punished for overcoming the odds and making something of myself. I never got ANYTHING from the government and, in fact, when I needed help I was discriminated against. That's right - I had the senior Financial Aid director at my college tell me flat out that while I definitely deserved aid given my financial situation the fact that I was Caucasian meant I would never receive a dime. Nobody has taken me under their wing or given me a break - I have scraped and clawed for everything I have and now I have to pay for other people to screw off - seriously?!?
See, I am finally getting close to the point where I can actually create profitable businesses and hire people and if you think for a minute I am staying in a country that punishes my success to do so, you are gravely mistaken. As soon as I can, I am out of here and away from such a bizarre world as the harder you work, the more you get punished.
Think I am alone?!? Think again. I seem to have a history of thinking the same things that most people in my position think - are there a ton of us "upper middle class" income people that are fed up with being screwed over by a government that wages class warfare and punishes those that are trying the hardest to succeed.
Where is our fair representation, why do we have to bear this burden???
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Issues with Google
So I am generally a huge fan of Google but I have to admit that actually finding somebody there to talk with about my invention is unbelievably frustrating.
I know, I know 90% of the startup world ends with "...and sell it to Google". In this case, however just imagine it - the next version of Droid comes out and it can literally play any application from any other device. Is there an iPhone you like - no problem. How about a Blackberry, Palm or any other platform app? Got it covered.
We literally have the ability to expand Droid into a truly universal application platform and this is the Ideal Time to get them involved...we have a prototype...it would take us 3 to 6 months to finish everything and Google significantly less time...and I Cannot Find Any Way To Talk To Google!!!
Sure I am trying the VC route, and the "who do I possibly know" route and every other route I can imagine - nothing is working. The VC route - as you can read - keep throwing up hurtles that are meaningless to Google. This technology can literally be baked into Droid but only once Google opens up access to us (or takes the technology for themselves) - until then everything we build is pretty much throw away code on the playback side.
It is so frustrating to literally see how your revolutionary technology can really make a huge impact and yet to be unable to do anything about it...
I know, I know 90% of the startup world ends with "...and sell it to Google". In this case, however just imagine it - the next version of Droid comes out and it can literally play any application from any other device. Is there an iPhone you like - no problem. How about a Blackberry, Palm or any other platform app? Got it covered.
We literally have the ability to expand Droid into a truly universal application platform and this is the Ideal Time to get them involved...we have a prototype...it would take us 3 to 6 months to finish everything and Google significantly less time...and I Cannot Find Any Way To Talk To Google!!!
Sure I am trying the VC route, and the "who do I possibly know" route and every other route I can imagine - nothing is working. The VC route - as you can read - keep throwing up hurtles that are meaningless to Google. This technology can literally be baked into Droid but only once Google opens up access to us (or takes the technology for themselves) - until then everything we build is pretty much throw away code on the playback side.
It is so frustrating to literally see how your revolutionary technology can really make a huge impact and yet to be unable to do anything about it...
Monday, November 30, 2009
To Be Fair...
So I have been complaining about this proof of concept code but I think it is only fair to state that what it is doing is actually very cool. Mr DT wrote the first ever (as far as I know) Mobile Virtual Processor and the system runs FAST. I wish it were simpler but that might just be ignorance shining.
I spent the past few hours looking for a way to rearchitect things and I really just cannot see how things could be less complex. Who would have known - the Complexinator was actually needed after all...maybe I should patent the Complexinator - I would LOVE to have that conversation with the PTO...
"So you are patenting the ability to make things complex"
"Jes"
"Ummm...is this for a government project?"
"Could be"
"Done!"
Seriously - hats off to Mr. DT - he rocks but this program is COMPLEX!!!
I spent the past few hours looking for a way to rearchitect things and I really just cannot see how things could be less complex. Who would have known - the Complexinator was actually needed after all...maybe I should patent the Complexinator - I would LOVE to have that conversation with the PTO...
"So you are patenting the ability to make things complex"
"Jes"
"Ummm...is this for a government project?"
"Could be"
"Done!"
Seriously - hats off to Mr. DT - he rocks but this program is COMPLEX!!!
The Complexinator
Back when I worked at the Department of State, I created an imaginary machine called The Complexinator. This machine could take in anything - a problem, a program, an idea, etc... - as long and whatever was being passed in was simple and understandable. The Complexinator would then churn and chug...typically emitting clouds of noxious smoke...and then return to you an extremely complex morass of indecipherable results - thus your input was Complexinated using the process of Complexination.
The purpose, of course, was to teach more novice developers and business analysts the value of keeping things simple...
Little did I know that Mr. DT got a hold of my Complexinator behind my back, increased the Complexination process by a magnitude of absurdity, and used it on our proof of concept.
Never have I seen such a pit of intertwined, over-engineered, simply frustrating code as I see when I look at what was built. I will admit that I am a hack - I typically only write code sufficient to complete a given task and I never try to write "reusable code" or code frameworks. To me they are simply wastes of time as everything changes too much to make those approaches worth the effort.
Mr. DT somehow started to created a framework several times, stopped, started on another framework, etc... And then he left them all in the solution and is using bits and pieces from each.
When I write code and there is a bug, I immediately know where that issue originates - I might not know how to fix the problem but it usually does not take very long. This project? It can take DAYS just to figure out where an issue originates and fixing one issue typically results in a series of systemic bugs that can take weeks to resolve. Case in point, we have been trying to get images to paint on a screen for 3 weeks. Most of the issues have been resolved now - total UI bug count - 4. Total systemic issues from those 4 fixes - endless.
If I had been Really Smart, I would have also developer the Decomplexinator to decomplexinate this mess...oh well...time to dive back down the rabbit hole...
The purpose, of course, was to teach more novice developers and business analysts the value of keeping things simple...
Little did I know that Mr. DT got a hold of my Complexinator behind my back, increased the Complexination process by a magnitude of absurdity, and used it on our proof of concept.
Never have I seen such a pit of intertwined, over-engineered, simply frustrating code as I see when I look at what was built. I will admit that I am a hack - I typically only write code sufficient to complete a given task and I never try to write "reusable code" or code frameworks. To me they are simply wastes of time as everything changes too much to make those approaches worth the effort.
Mr. DT somehow started to created a framework several times, stopped, started on another framework, etc... And then he left them all in the solution and is using bits and pieces from each.
When I write code and there is a bug, I immediately know where that issue originates - I might not know how to fix the problem but it usually does not take very long. This project? It can take DAYS just to figure out where an issue originates and fixing one issue typically results in a series of systemic bugs that can take weeks to resolve. Case in point, we have been trying to get images to paint on a screen for 3 weeks. Most of the issues have been resolved now - total UI bug count - 4. Total systemic issues from those 4 fixes - endless.
If I had been Really Smart, I would have also developer the Decomplexinator to decomplexinate this mess...oh well...time to dive back down the rabbit hole...
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Exploratory Development
So the problem with building something new it that is it...well...new. Last Monday we thought we were easily going to make our deadline as all we had left to do was to debug our UI and then write some code to connect our recording to our mobile engine.
As of today, we are STILL debugging the UI and have yet to even touch, much less debug, the connection code. The part of this proof-of-concept that we touted as inventive has long since been completed. However, in order to run things, we also had a to build a generic processor emulator - that runs on a mobile device. Turns out nobody has ever done that before and it turns out that it is an incredibly complex morass to work through.
So Mr. ST (Sure Thing - our main investor) has told us to show him a working demo and then he will set up a meeting. Probably fair given that I have NO IDEA when we will be finished. Of course, accordingly to Mr. DT (Deep Technologist - the main developer), we will definitely be ready tomorrow. Of course he has been saying that every day since last Monday...
This is painful...
As of today, we are STILL debugging the UI and have yet to even touch, much less debug, the connection code. The part of this proof-of-concept that we touted as inventive has long since been completed. However, in order to run things, we also had a to build a generic processor emulator - that runs on a mobile device. Turns out nobody has ever done that before and it turns out that it is an incredibly complex morass to work through.
So Mr. ST (Sure Thing - our main investor) has told us to show him a working demo and then he will set up a meeting. Probably fair given that I have NO IDEA when we will be finished. Of course, accordingly to Mr. DT (Deep Technologist - the main developer), we will definitely be ready tomorrow. Of course he has been saying that every day since last Monday...
This is painful...
Monday, November 23, 2009
Slow Burn
So today was supposed to be The Day - we were going to walk into our meeting against the "experts" and show them who is really in charge in this town...
Of course my trusty developer - Mr. DT - let me know at the last second that LO AND BEHOLD there was more work to be done...a LOT more work. In fact we are STILL looking at weeks of work today - forget about being ready for any meeting.
Thus, even though I am a deep .NET guy, I have been programming furiously in J2ME since Wednesday, pulling all-nighters and generally trying to salvage this mission. Ever heard of "crash-and-burn" - well this burning is taking its time and really letting me feel the pain.
Of course we are close to getting something out today and if that happens then our investor, Mr. ST, will stick around for another week before running away for good. Pretty impressive if you think about it - this guy barely knows me, due to Mr. DT all I have ever delivered is vaporware and a LOT of Spin Talk and yet he is STILL sticking it out...at least for now.
Burn baby, burn...
Of course my trusty developer - Mr. DT - let me know at the last second that LO AND BEHOLD there was more work to be done...a LOT more work. In fact we are STILL looking at weeks of work today - forget about being ready for any meeting.
Thus, even though I am a deep .NET guy, I have been programming furiously in J2ME since Wednesday, pulling all-nighters and generally trying to salvage this mission. Ever heard of "crash-and-burn" - well this burning is taking its time and really letting me feel the pain.
Of course we are close to getting something out today and if that happens then our investor, Mr. ST, will stick around for another week before running away for good. Pretty impressive if you think about it - this guy barely knows me, due to Mr. DT all I have ever delivered is vaporware and a LOT of Spin Talk and yet he is STILL sticking it out...at least for now.
Burn baby, burn...
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