I’ve been quiet! I’ve been busy!

I haven’t blogged for quite a while.  And that’s not a bad thing.

It’s been a couple months now since I left my position at West, and I haven’t said a word about it since then.  There’s no real reason why except I’ve been super busy.  Busy with a handful of really awesome things.

I’ve had the chance to work on some really neat projects lately, and I’m really looking forward to continuing it.  Leaving the corporate world is certainly up on my “best things I’ve ever done” list, right up there with moving to Omaha, the city that’s allowing me to do it.

Though the most exciting thing, hands down, is going forward with a project, lovingly dubbed Mysterious Dottie,  that has been my baby since early last year.

The team hard at work

Since the early days of its development I’ve stayed quiet about the idea and the execution.  While developing it alone I put in a lot of time, and still was dark about it to all but a few.

Though now I’ve teamed up with Timothy Kephart who’s offering to supercharge the project.  It’s grown in scope, cost, and people involved.  I’ve dropped the initial development in order to start over with a team of people, in addition to me, who are building this to be an amazing product.

This is nothing short of a kick ass opportunity to see my baby come to life, though at the same time I’m extremely defensive of it.  I’m the first to attempt to stomp out scope creep, “cooks in the kitchen” syndrome, and any kind of bastardization of my product.  Even though it’s no longer mine.

I’ve never worked with a team in development before.  Everything I’ve ever done has been mine from start to finish.  This is mostly because I’ve never really had a corporate development job where you’re building products as a team under project managers.  I feel myself going back and forth from wondering “am I leading this team?” or am I “just a developer” or ” I’m an asshole”.  Asshole, of course, being the title of my role who gets upset when my initial vision is going in a direction that I don’t see it make sense in going.  (As a joke I say they’re going to turn it into a 3D gaming platform).

So I’m learning a lot.  I’m learning to pick my battles and fight for things I’m passionate about.  But I’m also learning I’m possibly a little too touchy when it comes to what I’m passionate about.

I’m lucky that I really respect everyone on this team.  They’re all stupid smart in their own specialties and holy crap I’m excited.  It’s what I’ve dreamed of, but at the same time I’m trying my best to adjust.  I really think this is one of the most important things I’ve ever had a chance to be a part of, and I’m so very proud of it.  I can’t wait to show it off to the world.  I just hope everyone involved are still friends with me by the time we’re done :)

Oh, and if anyone from team dottie asks… I never wrote this post.  You didn’t see anything.  *wink*

The Windows 7 Launch Party

I meant to put this together weeks ago, but I guess things got in the way.  But Windows 7 is released only once in a lifetime, so I couldn’t just forget about it.

Earlier this month @shinyhat threw a Microsoft sanctioned Windows 7 launch party and he invited me along for the ride.  It had all of the stuff that Microsoft sent him.  Posters, streamers, playing cards, poker chips, a puzzle, and even a Microsoft trivia game.

It was just as Windowstastic as I could ever expect.  From the logo colored front windows to the custom “7″ on the wall the guy really went all out.  We even had 7-layer dip.

It was mostly a group of Apple fans there, so we discussed failed Zune installs, Windows blue screens, and other typical Microsoft faire.  Best Windows party ever.

Some day you can tell your kids you knew someone who went to a real Windows 7 launch party.  Note the cameo by @programmerman as well.  Enjoy.

If you want to see a higher definition version, clicky here.

Weekly Song Recommendation: Bang! Bang! Eche! – 4 to the Floor

Bang! Bang! Eche!

This week I feature a song by dance rock band Bang! Bang! Eche! called 4 to the Floor.

I always explain to people when going to a show that I don’t like missing the opening act.  Just like I don’t like missing the previews before a feature film, that preview could be for my next favorite movie, and that band I’m missing that I’ve never heard of could be my next favorite band.  A lot of people subscribe to the “if i’ve never heard of them, I don’t want to hear them” theory of concert going, but I’m just the opposite.  If i’ve never heard of them that’s more of a reason to hear them.  Maybe I’m missing something!

I recently saw Har Mar Superstar tear it up at The Waiting Room here in Omaha, and opening for him was Bang! Bang! Eche!  A band from New Zealand that I never had heard of previously.

They fit in the same genre of dance rock as VHS or Beta, CSS, and slightly less like a more organic Faint or LCD Soundsystem.  Personally I love this stuff.  Anything that makes a crowd dance is great in my book and this album delivers.  Plus it’s free.  So go download it from their web site.

Like other music I’m partial to it’s synth heavy with a prominent bass line and driving drums.  The vocals are energetic with just the right amount of effects.  It was nice to see him use a Kaos Pad live when performing as well to recreate those effects.  That’s rare and I really dig that.  There’s no reason just because you’re performing live that vocals should be raw and boring.  They should be just as screwed up as you intended them to be.  Though the group I was with wasn’t too impressed with them, saying the vocalist yelled too much, I dug the performance and the music.  But I understand it’s not for everyone.  It’s a highly effects driven, energy filled band.  It can be mistaken for distorted noise.

So if you like fun dance-rock, go grab this first EP for free.  The second album, Sonic Death Cuntttt is on iTunes and is just as good as the self-titled EP.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Gabe’s tools of the trade

This isn’t the first time I’ve made a post like this.  In fact I used to make a yearly recap of all the tools, software, hardware, etc that made me productive that year.  For whatever reason I didn’t this past year.  Not sure why.  Guess I was busy hanging out with you or something.

Inspired by Andy Peter’s Barcamp Omaha talk I thought I’d share some  non-obvious things I use to do things on a daily basis.  I like to share.  Do you?  Have a cookie.

Apps for Mac OS X

My Dock at some random point in time

ImageWell

I use ImageWell almost daily.  It’s a simple graphic capture and upload tool.  You configure a couple FTP/webdav/drive locations and you can capture selections or the whole of your screen.  Or take an image file and just drop it onto the icon.   Hit “Send” and it uploads it to that location and puts the URL of the file in your clipboard to paste wherever.  In fact that’s how I captured my dock that’s shown above.  You can do some simple editing such as crop, watermark, some little filters as well.  It’s so stupid easy that I couldn’t imagine not having it.  I have mine configured for my mobileMe and Flickr accounts.

Dropbox

I just actually recently started using Dropbox.  It’s really simple way to have a folder sync’ed with all your other machines, and even your iPhone.  For me this includes documents and code.  I really like developing on my desktop, but when I’m at a coffee shop and want to pick up where I left off with my MacBook Pro the code is sitting right there.  I’m also planning on migrating my iTunes library (the data file, not the actual music) to my Dropbox so every machine has an up to date version.  I’ll let you know how that works out.

TextMate

If you code on a mac, and it’s not an Xcode project, TextMate is the editor to use.  At least that’s what I’ve found.  I really love it.

X-Chat Aqua

As an avid IRC’er I’ve tried every IRC client on pretty much every platform.  Windows, OS X, *nix GUI and console, iPhone, Palm OS, BeOS, you name it.  The client I keep coming to is the free X-Chat.  It’s simple and highly scriptable.  On my mac it’s how I keep in touch with my IRC friends around the world on a daily basis.

Transmit

If you do work on the internet you need a good FTP client.  Transmit is my favorite.  I pair it with TextMate when editing files live on a server.  Double click, edit in TextMate, save, Transmit sends the updated file back up automatically.  That’s how life is supposed to work, folks.

Evernote

I use this constantly as a cloud-based location for any snips of text that I ever need.  Addresses, phone numbers, code, things grabbed from web sites, anything.  I just drag and drop from Safari right into Evernote on the dock and lo and behold it’s right there on my iPhone when I need it.  This is especially great when I’m going somewhere and I need an address.  I just drag it from Google to Evernote, and then open it up on on my iPhone later when I need it in the car.  It’s free, but there’s a paid pro version as well.  I paid for it because it’s just that cool.  I didn’t get it at first, but now that I do… I’m glad.

Things

I’m a bit of a poser here.  I have Things, and I sometimes use Things.  I’m currently trying to force myself to put everything in Things and stop relying on short term memory when it comes to prioritization and execution.  I think Things will become more useful coming up here in the short term, and I’ll let you know how it goes.  Personally I think the reason why I haven’t been able to go 100% Things is the fact I’m forced to a Windows desktop most of the time because of my current job.  Sure, I have my iPhone.  But I find it hard reaching for my iPhone to do things when I’m already at a keyboard.  I have the iPhone and OS X Desktop versions.  They sync, and they’re easy to use.

iPhone Apps

My iPhone

Check out my list of installed iPhone apps, Games, Used Daily, and obscure recommendations too.

Tweetie

Who would have thought that a Twitter client would be a “tool”, but for me it is.  Often times a tool for destroying productivity, but more often than not it allows me to connect with people and get things done in a way a couple years ago I’d never be able to.  I also use the OS X version of Tweetie as my desktop client, but I don’t really recommend that over anything else.  Where on the iPhone Tweetie version 2 is the champ.

Scrobbld

It’ll scrobble (post to Last.FM) a song in real-time from your iPhone.  Makes sense.  You have a device playing music that’s on the internet, why shouldn’t it be able to submit the song while you listen to it?  Requires jailbreak.

Remote

Stupid, but I use it a ton.  Say I was laying in bed and I wanted the song “Semiotic Love” by “Blaqk Audio” to start playing in my livingroom via the AppleTV, my bedroom via Airport Express, or any other mix of devices.  I could do that, and it would look something like this:

IntelliScreen

Makes your iPhone lock screen a dashboard of unread email, new text messages, your calendar, news and more.  It’s a jailbreak app that takes some resources and in the past has been kind of flakey.  It works better on my 3GS than it did on my 3G.  Given its faults, I still really like it.

elert

Gives a Growl-like popup when new email comes in.  Simple, but I really like it.  If i’m on my iPhone and a new email comes in I can know what the content of that message is without leaving what app I’m in.  This should be built in iPhone functionality, personally.

Boxcar

It supports push notifications for Tweets, Facebook updates and anything that can be sent to an email address.  I use it for all three.  Next time you hang out with me and notice my phone beeping and buzzing every minute or so… this is the app to blame for that.  When someone sends a tweet to @gabek I get a push notification via Boxcar.  When someone replies to a Facebook status update, I get a notification via Boxcar as well.  And I have a Boxcar email address that I have as a part of my paging notifications for work.

Web services

Freshbooks

Due to Andy Peters’ recommendation I use Freshbooks for time tracking, creating estimates, and invoicing for any client work.  Quality product and there’s even an iPhone app that ties into it.  With my new venture into Life 2.0 I need some help as far as the “paperwork” goes, it’s not my forte.  This product does that for me, and I thank it wholeheartedly.  I mean otherwise… a spreadsheet?  Quickbooks?  Man… I don’t even want to think about it.  Don’t quote me on this if some day I have to end up using Quickbooks.

Brizzly

My web Twitter client of choice.

Choices, decisions and fear: Part 2.

I’m a fan of transparency.  I like to know what people are up to, and I think there are people that like to know what I’m up to as well.  This includes the background and emotions behind major life decisions.  So here’s my story.

If you’re reading this you already know it’s been a rough couple months as far as my career path goes.  I knew I needed to move elsewhere, but I didn’t know in what capacity.

I didn’t know if I was unhappy with the company, unhappy with my role, unhappy with my direction, unhappy with those I worked with… I just didn’t know.  What I did know was that I was unhappy and I saw no chance of that changing without a major overhaul in my “professional” life.

So I took a step back and looked at the world around me, specifically those who inhabit it.

I looked at what others do, not particularly career wise.  But what their life consists of.  I looked at the tweets people made and took note when I said “I wish my life could have what they’re doing right now.”

This consisted of things like “I wish I could go to South By Southwest next year” or “I wish when AIM has breakfasts I could attend” or “I want more time to spend on projects that I care about, personally and professionally.”

Having a list of what’s important to me right now and in the short term made me realize that in order to pull off a big change, it requires big changes.  None of what I want out of life can happen as long as I’m working for a large corporation where I’m nothing more than a number.  Where taking a day off in order to take part in something much larger than a 8-5 is frowned upon.

So a lot of thought and discussion went into what I did today.  I put in my notice to leave West Corporation.

In the words of Gary Vaynerchuk “Don’t come up and say ‘I quit my job!!!’ and expect me to be happy for you.  Don’t you have bills or anything?”  And yeah, I kind of have to not be homeless and keep my car and stuff.  So it turns out working is a requirement.  Details.

In comes multiple discussions with Rahul Gupta’s Dispatch This.  He came to me personally saying he wanted to bring me on as a developer for his product.  We met a few times and now I’m hired to work there in a part-time capacity.

It’s a huge win to know I have guaranteed income coming in, if only part-time.  But I do have to make up for the rest.  Luckily it turns out there’s some really neat people in Omaha who need stuff done and would like me to work on them on it.

This includes joining up with the Contemporary Analysis team to grow their budding IT branch to include web hosting, development, and further expanding their options to clients as a one stop shop for products provided by CA.

All of this is really exciting for me.  It gives me the opportunity to work on a handful of products both on the Dispatch This side, where they have a steady client base, and on the “i have this great idea, work with me on it” type stuff elsewhere in the community.

But to be honest I’m scared shitless.

Do I know what the steps are to make this bohemian technology lifestyle work?  Absolutely not.  Is it possible that I fail?  Absolutely.  Is it worth the risk?  To me, yes.  Others (parents) think i’m an idiot to give up everything I’ve worked so hard for in cube-land.  But I don’t see it as that at all.  I’m happy to give up my cube, my required office hours, my high stress/low productivity environment.  Giving up my lack of pride in return for some real excitement with what I do with my time is a pretty ok tradeoff for me.

In all seriousness I’m giving up a good salary, benefits, and a “you know what you’re doing today, how much money you’ll get every couple weeks, and the fact you don’t have to worry about that.”

But I’m in a place where I think the risk is worth it.  I may fall on my face in complete failure.  But a failure story is still a story.  I’m certainly not making any stories where I’m at now.

Thanks for the support everyone.  I never would have done anything like this without all the ass kicking from people like Rahul Gupta, Brian Smith, Dusty Davidson, Steph Monge, Tim Kephart and so many others.

I’m cautiously optimistic that things will work out.  But please wish me the best.