Recently I had a miniature technical epihphany about the habits of TFS Users versus Subversion Users.  TFS Users, if they experience few issues, almost always check in from the root and check in at that level very frequently.

Subversions Users tend to have varying patterns and have less issues regardless.  Subversion Users I've noticed also tend to put pieces of code in as much as they check in from the root.  This might be because of the other languages, IDEs, and such that can be used against Subversion.

I myself am a root check in & commit person myself.  I like to make sure that everything I've done gets put in.  I also try diligently to break the work down into small enough segments that I can check in frequently.  This way I often have very little problem with Subversion or TFS.

Even though, with TFS, I still wager more conflict with that system that I do Subversion.

Attended PDXUX.NET tonight.  The idea behind the group is primarily UX topics, generally for developers, based primarily but not limited to .NET Technologies.  We broke out into teams tonight and will be working on 2 application paths.  I?m looking forward to it, got a coworker and a few other people I know working on the projects.

So stay tuned, and if you want to jump aboard and get in on the project message me.  We?ll be meeting as a team (all 4-5 of us) to get this project going, and I don?t see any reason why others couldn?t join the effort.

Every time I sit down to work on a project, from the coding side to the project tracking point of view, I always am trying to figure out what would increase my performance.  When I write performance I write in the context of many characteristics;  speed, accuracy, quality, and general overall productivity.  To know how to improve these things one has to know what the problems are with one’s performance.  I sat down recently and started looking at the issues I have and it got me wondering about what issues others might have, so seriously, comment because I know everybody has their negative issues, question is, are you focused enough on improving that you know where your weak points are?

This is the part I hate, but one has to do it to know where or what to fix.  What are my weaknesses?  For starters, I suppose one could call it ADD, ADHD, or OCD.  One or all of the above.  I’ve been said to have ADD as a child, but I ignored that, stayed fidgety, active, and didn’t take my medication.  I don’t approve or trust a lot of the psychological remedies via medications a lot of psychiatrist or doctors prescribe.  Instead I find it better and more useful to have the obsessiveness or attention deficit disorder and figure out a way to deal with it, then lose the abilities that it actually gives me.  These issues, the short attention span and obsessiveness are as much positives as they are negatives, but I have to watch out for the negatives.  I have to know how to work around them and prevent them from slowing project work, the education I seek out.  The major focus, to remedy this is to make sure that I stay on task and focused!

One of my primary ways to deal with my attention deficit while working is to keep one primary master list of to do items.  Every morning I create this list of tasks that need done by end of day.  Agile process helps immensely in this since there are daily stand up meets.  The stand up is a perfect place to discuss what is on the queue for the day.  In addition to this I might have further breakdown of tasks.  Another plus is to have somewhere to enter this information of tasks for project management reasons.  That way it serves a two fold purpose, keeping me in the know about the order of tasks, and keeping project management informed about velocity and other key metrics.

My obsessiveness is handled simply by limiting myself to X amount of time during the day on particular tasks.  This boils down to, what can I find out in one session of work.  What I mean by session is the period between breaks, which amounts to about 2-3 hours.  If I can’t find something out in 2-3 hours, then I need to either take the usable solution that is available with the knowledge gained, or bring in another developer to work through the problem and find the viable solution.

Both of these things help immensely in removing the negatives of my attention deficit and obsessive compulsive tendencies.  The positive side of these issues then help me move above and beyond the duties at hand.

So what are some other problems people have?  Things range from attention deficits, to meeting mismanagement, direct communication issues, and a whole deluge of other things.  In the field of software development fixing these issues is exponentially more important than in many fields.  The minute meetings are misused, communication breaks down even slightly, or people lose focus on the project at hand it often leads to failure.  Thus the process of continual improvement is required on many levels.  So I ask my readers, how have you dealt with your weaknesses?

For my first tech related event of the new year I rode over to the east side via the TriMet #15 to Nemo Design.  Listed via Upcoming one can go check it out if they like.  There is a Demoliscious event every first Wednesday of every couple months (or quarter – I missed the part where frequency was stated).  To check out more browse over to PDX Web Innovators.

Open Lazlow presented by Dave

The Open Lazlow Project is based on standard markup for dialog with ECMA Compliant Javascript.  The javascript is then built into either a *.swf Flash file or a AJAX based HTML Code Markup.  Either way one ends up with a graphically pleasant user interface for building Rich Internet Applications (RIAs).

The project when built is hosted on a Tomcat Server, which I believe Java Servlet Code is what executes at this point to provide the actual application.

There are numerous widgets, or as many would call them, user controls available.  From the famous drop down to the complex standard data grid, the toolset is available.

One thing I did notice is that the framework, once built, is pretty compliant in a browser.  I would assume that it is about 1/3 to 1/2 as fast in IE however, since it executes Javascript so poorly compared to Safari.  I only mention that because Safari was used for the presentation, and it executes Javascript pretty fast (still, neither hold a candle to Google Chrome).

www.metroseeq.net by Kevin

Metroseeq is a search tool for anywhere.  You could be in London, England, Portland, Oregon, or Rapid City, South Dakota and this tool would work.  It utilizes reverse Geocode Lookup against the Google Maps API to find the nearest searched for item around a particular zone, custom travel path and respective zones, or between two stated zones.  A zone being an address, or better yet merely a zip code or physical area like a city such as “New Orleans, LA”.

I really dug this tool and am surprised, knowing Kevin myself, that I had not looked at it more (I’m almost embarrassed, if I got embarrassed).

If you’re ever in a city, I’d definitely give this tool a try.  You might find yourself using it instead of Google itself to find locations near you.  I know I’ll be using it whenever I travel now, as it is kind of a pain to find coffee shops, particular food establishments, and other such places when I travel.

www.foodisms.com by Michael Kelly

Foodisms allow you to search for specific ingredients in Portland, OR and Tuscon, AR.  If you craze a particular ingredient or want to find a place that has something unique like Veal, check this site out.

I did however look up Gumbo, and unfortunately it reminded me that Portland is sorely lacking in Cajun Foods.  No real Gumbo, Etouffee, or Jambalaya.  It did find the last one, but the places that serve it suck – not worth the effort.  You want Jambalaya, you’ll probably have to go all the way to New Orleans.  If New Orleans even has it anymore.

www.sunagocommunity.org – Scott

The Sunago Community Software was built single handedly by Scott on Ruby on Rails.  It is social networking software built primarily for the niche market of non-profits and charity groups.

I must say, for a single person working on it the platform is very feature complete.  There where a few exceptions that where thrown here and there, but overall a very nice software package!

mugasha -  ?  Sorry – missed the name, if you read this entry – lemme know!

Mugasha is a site that finds mostly techno that has come out very recently and lists the songs played in various podcasts.  If you ask me, it’s a pretty nice site, even though I’m no big fan of electronic/techno music.

Overall, in summary, a great night and great presentations of the various demos.  I’d suggest the event to anyone interested in seeing what the tech community is up to here in Portland, or wherever any other Demoliscious takes place.