Engineering Adventure

Monday, August 23, 2010

Cupcake Smackdown 2.0 Wrapup Video

Friday, June 4, 2010

HTC EVO 4G vs. Motorola Droid: Cellphone Smackdown

Since I received both Verizon's Motorola Droid and Sprint's HTC EVO 4G phone at the GoogleIO conference, why not compare the two phones?

EVO:

Larger and more sensitive screen (4.3 inches)Notification light is always on when the phone is plugged in (it does not flash for notifications when charging)

Sometimes challenging to find the button to wake phone without looking

4G drains the battery rapidly
3G battery consumption seems typical
I've noticed more issues with crashing apps
Soft keyboard has arrows for cursor positioning
Can get special characters and numbers with a long touch on soft keyboard
Two cameras, 8 megapixel with flash, and 1.3 megapixel forward facing
Integrated kickstand (landscape orientation only)
Sense UI
Red trim around the rear camera and kickstand
Fast data connectivity and CPU
Available WiFi tethering app

Droid:

Notification light not shared with charging light
Hardware button for camera shutter release
Less precise screen
Positioning the cursor in text is challenging unless you use the D-pad on the keyboard
Easier to find button to wake phone without looking
It's easy to accidentally press the volume buttons when plugging the phone in
Slightly thicker than the EVO
More narrow screen than an iPhone (3.7 inches diagonal), making the portrait soft keyboard narrow
One camera: 5 megapixel with flash
Standard Android UI
Physical keyboard, although the keys are nearly flush to the surface of the keyboard
Directional pad by the keyboard
Gold tone on the rear speaker and camera button (which flakes off the button)
Slower than the EVO
No WiFi tethering app

Both:

Have capacitive touch buttons for home, menu, back, and search, although the order is different on the two
Use the same thin USB connector for charging and connectivity

The EVO definitely has exceeded the Droid in wow-factor and technology. On the other hand, there are a few areas where the Droid wins in the physical design department. The notification light is separate from the charger light on the Droid, and the wake/lock/power button is easier to find due to the positioning of the protruding headphone jack next to it. The lock button on the EVO doesn't protrude much, and there aren't any good landmarks to find it by touch.

Don't think the Droid wins on everything in the ergonomics department, the EVO still has a more ergonomic soft keyboard, and a more accurate and precise touch screen. Also, I'd rather use the EVO soft keyboard than the Droid hardware keyboard any day. Sorry to the physical keyboard snobs!

The free service on my Droid recently ended, and I admit I'm a little sad even though I still have free service on the EVO. I think that the way the Droid slides open and the hint of gold mesh on the back reminds me of the communicators from the Original Star Trek series. Dorky, yes, but also nice. I think I'll get over it, the EVO is pretty killer.

Win: EVO 4G

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Get a Hobby

Chris McCann wrote a nice piece calling for startup company founders to get a hobby. I love it!

I enjoyed that Chris responded to his need for a hobby by adopting 30 of them. And then he made a list and started checking them off. Why start with the notion of having one hobby when you can try lots of them?

Beyond relaxation and clarity, hobbies also are opportunities to get passionate about something you might turn into a business. Maybe you can use your expertise in one field (like computer engineering) to solve a problem in another (scuba diving). Instant startup idea. By trying 30 different hobbies, an entrepreneur gets exposure to 30 different potential target markets.

I also believe that building a diverse portfolio of non-occupational experience helps with creativity. Different hobbies require different kinds of thought. Windsurfing requires the surfer to have a mental model of where the wind is coming from, how the board will react to changes in weight, and how the sail will react to changes in position. Mountain biking requires continuous planning for and reaction to the approaching terrain. The more exposure to different problem solving skills, the more your brain stretches, and your reserves of confidence build to help you get through tough patches in life.

I'd like to try more hobbies, but I'm not doing too bad in my checklist of things I've tried so far:

windsurfing
surfing
western horseback riding
hang gliding
photography
writing
cooking (I tried it, didn't say I was good)
violin playing
piano
crossfit
reading
concerts
music festivals
shooting
archery
boating
sailing
rowing
canoeing
swimming
hiking
caving (the touristy kind)
exploring new cities
brewing beer
making furniture
flash mobs
being an extra in a film
standup paddleboarding
behind the scenes tours at Disney World
juggling
indoor rock climbing

The hobbies I'd like to get some experience in:

scuba diving
flying planes
kiteboarding
wakeboarding
snow boarding
motorcycling
mountain climbing
whitewater rafting
hot air ballooning
space exploration
urban exploration
yoga
zip lines
dinosaur bone hunting
driving a tower crane
touring in a sleeper car
unicycling
unicycling offroad
stilt walking
outdoor rock climbing

What am I missing?

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Falling Organizations and People versus Ideas

Jeff Atwood caught my attention on twitter a few days ago:

Pixar's cofounder on execution vs. ideas http://is.gd/5JldA

The co-founder was Dr. Ed Catmull, one of the original developers of Pixar's Renderman technology, and a software pioneer in 3d animation. You can read about Catmull in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Catmull.

The Wikipedia article paints Catmull as some sort of intense computer and physics geek, but the video proves that he is also an inspiring leader. If it wasn't for the fact that I just signed up to join a killer startup company, I'd be pulling all-nighters trying to get a job at Pixar.

Here are some of my notes on his lecture:

Review materials daily. Everyone shows their stuff daily. Get over the embarrassment of having incomplete or imperfect stuff.

Reviews help you know when to stop working. When you're done you're done. Don't keep working on stuff that is good enough.

managers hate to be surprised (i.e. to find that a subordinate has worked on something without the manager's knowledge). Catmull says to the managers: "Get over it. it doesn't matter."

"Success hides problems" People put up with issues because overall things are going well, they are on a successful project. "When you're healthy and have resources, you don't need to address problems."

"We shouldn't think it's ok to be doing something which isn't great." - on the (canceled) Toy Story 2 direct to DVD effort.

"If you know the end of the movie before you start, you don't have a movie."

"If you have a good idea and give it to a mediocre group, they'll screw it up. If you give a mediocre idea to a good group, they'll fix it. Or they'll throw it away and come up with something else."

"The goal of 'development' is not to come up with good ideas. It is to come up with groups of people who work well together."

Competitors like to copy the wrong things.

"We have to change the way we do postmortems every single film." Because the next film, the participants will game it.

After each new postmortem, we get a new theory on how to do things. Usually it is 2/3 right and 1/3 wrong.

Pixar originally thought that "the story" was the most important thing. "But then, every studio says the same thing -- even if the story is drivel!" The motto doesn't affect behavior, just like many companies' focus on quality.

Architecture catch phrase: "Build from the inside out". Pixar worked with one architect who said it, but his building was a disaster. This shows the same problem in a different industry: everyone has the same motto but it has no impact on behavior.

"Once one can articulate an important idea into a concise statement, then one can use the statement and not have to have a fear of changing behavior."

"Why do successful companies fail? For that matter, why do golden ages end? I do believe that organizations, human organizations, are inherently unstable. They will fall over, and you have to work to keep them upright. But, they fall slowly. Most people don't notice it. They let the success hide it, and blind them. They don't see it falling over. The falling takes place slow, but the collapse is quick. You have to do constant assessment, you have to look for hard truths."

"...There are two fundamental kinds of crises. One is that you don't like what you see, so you have to make changes. And the fact that you make changes in and of itself isn't a crisis, that's just hard work. What makes it a crisis is that there are a lot of people with vested interests and with positions, and you've got to actually rearrange things and it's people butting up against each other and that's a hard thing to do. It's an emotional thing to do. If you do that then you end up making a better film.

The second kind of crisis is that you release a film, and the audience doesn't like it. Now, at that point it's too late to do anything about it. But the difference between the two crises is that the first one is self-imposed, and that's the important part."

"...We have a lot of fun together, and a lot of laughter, and our job is to keep it going."

Some more teasers to encourage you to watch the video:

"It's not good enough. We know we don't have the time, but we're going to do it anyway."

They re-worked Toy Story 2 on a tight schedule, but it was brutal. Employees were injured. Now they limit the amount of time people can work, hired an ergonomist, teach pilates, offer massages, play soccer, offer yoga instruction, and more. The drop in insurance premiums more than covered cost of new programs.

Catmull read lots of business books to get up to speed early on, but didn't get much out of them. Then he tried a business book summary service and realized that the business books were content-free. Or maybe some books had no content, and for the others maybe there is no way to distill the books in a meaningful way.

Finally, these are the operating principals of Pixar as quoted by Catmull:

constant review
it must be safe for people to tell the truth
communication should not mirror the organizational structure
people and how they function is more important than ideas
do not let success mask problems, do a deep assessment

These ideas shake my bones. Maybe they aren't 100% new, but they're practiced by an incredibly successful and exciting organization. How many organizations can you name that seem to have thought about their culture as much? Neil Davidson: please convince Dr. Catmull to speak at the Business of Software Conference.

Friday, November 6, 2009

Business of Software 2009 Cheat Sheet: Pecha Kucha

I had a little trouble tracking down some of the Pecha Kucha speakers. If you happen to have a good link to share, send it along via comment or email. See you in San Francisco!

JD Brennan
Twitter: @jazzdev

Mark Stephens
Blog: http://pdf.jpedal.org/java-pdf-blog/

Glen Lipka
Twitter: @glenlipka
Blog: http://commadot.com/

Daniel Kuperman
Blog: http://effectivemarketer.com/

Jurgen Appelo
Twitter: @jurgenappelo
Blog: http://www.noop.nl

Adam Ruth
Twitter: @AdamRuth
Blog: http://blog.brisworks.com/

Dave O’Flynn
Twitter: @daveoflynn

Alex Papadimoulis
Twitter: @TheDailyWTF
Blog: http://thedailywtf.com/Authors/Alex_Papadimoulis.aspx