Software, Fitness, and Gaming – Jesse Warden

Blog

  • Fixing a Company by Working There?

    My mom used to work for a Delta subsidary, and after 9/11, she took a voluntary serverence. It was for the better, for her, in hindsight.

    I worked for IBM in a 40 cube office that sat 3 contractors; the other 37 were layed off. After completing my contract early, I moved on.

    I’ve wondered if my mom made a quantifiable difference while working there? Did the company improve from her positive attitude when helping various people over the phone and on sales visits? Could she make an impact? Does it matter?

    I learned, when working for such a big company that actually consisted of many smaller companies that, there are so many facets and individuals, you cannot personify “IBM” onto everything you see while working there. Some of these inter-companies were run by a plethora of different individuals, from various backgrounds and on varying payscales. Some don’t really “represent” IBM, nor do all really know what IBM truly stands for.

    A brand that irks me causes me to dislike the brand, regardless if there are positive faces within (positive faces based on faith in me believing there probably are good people behind the evil brand).

    My tenure at IBM helps temper this since I can see beyond a brand’s many extensions, each with their own agendas. While I think some initiatives by Google are wrong, I think some are great as well. I put a face to Google, and judge it by it’s acts. I’m sure, like IBM, as I got to know people within it, my attitude and perceptions would change.

    Does that potentially affect wanting to affect change at a company by working there? Not really the wanting, but the possibility of doing so?

    There are companies I really don’t like, mainly because they are applicable to my needs and desires. Case in point, Real Media. I think their video codec is of low quality, their player is invasive, has been for years with no appearence of change, and overall bloated software with the intent to make them money, with that intent negatively affecting what the software is really supposed to do; allow you to watch video on the internet.

    I feel I have a positive attitude, dig change, and want to do damn good work. If I went to work at Real, could I affect positive change? Could I make their player better? Would I care after I got to know people there? Would this positively affect my outcome? I’m a Flex & Flash Developer, not a C++ coder versed in video architectures, so probably not. Could I improve their player? Yeah, I bet I could. I’d ask my wife the IA what’s wrong, research & survey customers/users about their current perceptions and expectations, and think about ways in which to expand RealPlayer’s usefulness.

    Is that what I really want to happen though? No. I want their video codec not to suck, and for their company not to portray themselves as an unethical, greedy company. I guess improving their player’s experience and usefulness is a start, but it doesn’t fix the core problem; bad codec and bad leadership. So, unless I learn C++ and/or get put in charge, could I really make a positive change, and if so, would it matter?

    I know it’s really about my goals, and if I accomplish them since that is one way to recognize personal accomplishment. For me, though, that’s small potatoes; I want the big stuff.

    Smaller companies are really a moot point for this entry, so I’m talking specifically about bigger companies.

    If there is a facet of a company I do not like, but I am not qualified to fix, could I still fix it by working there? How would that change as I got to know people there? Would those relationships help affect positive change?

  • Undead Commands: Member Vars on Activation Objects

    Using some ARP commands to help manage some Flashcom connection complexity. I’ve stuck the NetConnection on the Model (aka Cairngorm ModelLocator). Inside the command, I utilize a Delegate to point to a callback in the Command.

    Model.nc.onStatus = Delegate.create(this, onNCStatus);

    About 5 commands later, I was seeing a trace from that onStatus. Since commands are created as local variables in the CommandRegistry or CommandTemplate, they die after they are done since there are no more references to them once they call their callback function. This doesn’t necessarely mean garbage collection cleans it, but it does ensure it should eventually.

    However, I forgot my Delegate function was creating a longer lasting link by mapping the NetConnection sitting as a static variable on the Model Singleton class. Since Model.nc wasn’t going anywhere since no one ever deletes him, the Command that held the callback function for it’s onStatus never left either. If I got an error message, I’d get a trace a few commands later, and was like, “WTF…?”.

    So, now, I just clean it up via:

    Model.nc.onStatus = null;

    Whenever my command is done.

    This is the 2nd time in 2 weeks I’ve gotten bitten by member references in local variables that co-chill on the Activation object to make them live like member variables; meaning, they don’t necessarely die at the end of their current function like you’d think they would.

    When sharing data between 2 SWF’s, 1 of the objects in an array was referencing the loaded SWF; even though there weren’t any security restrictions because of same domain, this wreaked havoc on my code not getting values it was expecting; it’d get an array, but all the objects in it were undefined.

    So, I just made true, deep copies manually. Sucked, but again, reason #35 billion squared for an Object.deepClone() intrinsic method.

  • How To Prevent Getting Screwed by Alienware

    Really only 3 things to do, although, not easy.

    • Upon receival of your order, ensure ALL items on the packing slip are included. Missing a Windows XP CD? You have 14 days to tell them, or tough $hI0t.
    • If anything doesn’t even remotely work perfect within the first 30 days, return it to get a refund. If you don’t, you won’t like the next item.
    • Keep calling until the problem is resolved.

    That last one sounds pretty brief, and it is. It requires more explanation.

    Alienware’s support system is pretty simple. Support on the other line MUST determine the problem with your laptop remotely. That means minutes to hours on the phone, with you phsyically following the directions from the support person on the other end. Rebooting, tweaking the bios, etc.

    There is no “I want to FedEx this laptop to you guys”. You either deal with them on the phone to determine/resolve the problem, or your computer will remain broke, period. It’s black and white.

    Once they find the problem, they’ll send you a replacement part, have you physically ship the system in to them to fix it, or if you ordered a special plan, they’ll send someone on site.

    Again, NONE of those 3 things will ever happen unless you resolve it on the phone. My wife made 2 calls, and got cut off the first time.

    I made 3, after getting cut off the 2nd, but dammit, I resolved that mofo!

    Our personal experience: 2 months, 3 phone calls, and 7 hours worth of phone calls later, we found out what’s wrong with her majesty’s Area-51 (7700) laptop. 1 of the RAID drives went bad apparently. They are shipping a new replacement drive, and I have to ship them the defective one to remove an $80 charge on my credit card. I managed to sweet talk the guy on the other end to send me a Windows XP CD to install Windows since my copy here for another computer doesn’t work. We never got ours in the shipment (see list item 1).

    If my putting the hard drive in doesn’t fix it, it’s off to the phones for another 3 hour remote-hardware debugging session.

    If you buy an Alienware, be aware they assume you’ll either fix any hardware or software problems yourself, otherwise, you HAVE to deal with their support staff. Their support staff that I talked to are nice and patient mind you, I as a full-time contractor, however, don’t have time for that crap. Time is money for me, and support calls cost me more money than Alienware.

    After reading Ray’s on going battles with Dell support, apparently the competition isn’t any better. Anyone know of a computer company’s support options that DON’T suck; mainly, I can just send them the computer and let them fix it? Until I give up my career in software and start learning hardware, I don’t have time to make support calls.

    ???

  • Macromedia Flash 8 Credits – JXL Cameo Part Deux

    Reading LordAlex’s posting, and was like, “Wow, I wonder who else is in there that I know?”. That way, at parties, I can be like, “Yeah, I know him… he’s pretty cool. I know him too, he owns me on Halo. I know her, I know that dude…” since at parties you typically open the Help > About dialogue in Flash 8 over a brewsky.

    Low and behold, I’m in there! I had the same feeling I had at MXDU 2003 while on stage with the rest of the developers from around the world answering audience questions, begging the question, “W…t…f.. am I doing up here?” Pretty damn cool, your welcome Macromedia, I strive to ensure the world knows Flash rocks and they should use & love it too.

    I of course return with a “And, thank you, Macromedia!” for Flash. I got a phat career because of your product and get to wake up everday doing what I love and getting paid bling for it. You all rock!