So I was making great velocity on my sprint burndown chart……. and then WHAM! I hit a brick wall.

This piece of code USED to work in the old dev environment …why not now?

I chased down a lot of code dead ends before deciding it was a server config issue.

Of course, the config change that I have for tomcat didn’t solve the problem….so now I am TRULY clueless.

No biggie, it’s only be 3 days of utter non production…..nothing to sweat over…..right??????

So I was having a conversation with the CEO of “the start up”.

We have an open and honest line of communication.

But there was something he said that really cheesed me off. He was talking about his experience with 3 other “tech” start ups including the one where we met.

“In all cases, the company failed because Engineering failed to deliver”, he said.

I hopped on him like rice on sushi….. “I don’t know about your other companies, but I know for a FACT that engineering didn’t fail under my watch. Sales and marketing could not make up their mind. Adding features, removing features, changing the target audience, changing strategies. HOW do you expect a delivery if you don’t even know WHAT you want delivered!!!”

And there in a nutshell is the problem of every tech person in a tech company. If the company fails, it doesn’t matter what the other contributory reasons are…. it’s YOUR fault!

They need to pay me triple of what I am making now…………………………….

……………….OK so maybe it’s not so bad…I’m updating this a day later…. After having an a day to consider points brought up…I’m getting some agreement and support.

This thing just might work out

1. That huge blank space on either side of the mouse pad. Try finding a wrist rest for it.
2. The screen, designed in such a way that you can’t lay it totally flat. Why would you want to lay it totally flat? Ever try to work in bed laying down with the Mac resting on your bent knees? You can’t. The screen will keep closing on you due to the weight of the stupid stainless steel case. That’s probably the reason you can’t lay it flat, cause it would just fall down the other way.
3. That stupid stainless steel case. It stains, it scuffs, it adds a lot of unnecessary weight.
4. Other mac users. Whenever I see some tool sitting on the subway, typing away at their laptop…it’s always a Mac. NOTHING is that important that you gotta squeeze into that last seat and ignore the grandmother while writing the next great novel.

Why did I get it?

1. I needed the experience working with Macs.
2. Current Android Dev tools only work on Mac.
3. Apple SDK will probably work better on Mac.
4. I hope to some day have time to do some more music writing and recording. Multimedia work is the ONLY place that a Mac is superior to a PC IMHO.

So I’m gearing up to get going on some code I need to tame….and then the phone rings…..strange call ID … VOIP …. over seas vendor maybe?

Instead of concentrating on work…. I answer it. It’s an ex-bandmate (EBM) of mine. We’ve been talking recently after one of our OTHER bandmates managed to die rather suddenly of un-natural somewhat self-inflicted causes.

So the living EBM has certainly become a better person than me. He USED to be a rather violent, self-centered drunkard. Fortunately, he has gained wisdom in his travels. I’m glad, I always saw that potential in him. So he made it back for the funeral from out of town. Through a snow storm and everything.

I couldn’t be bothered. Funerals are for the living and dead EBM had already cost me enough in life.

Truth be told, I’m still totally heart broken, and I don’t trust myself as to how I would act or what I would say if I ever saw dead EBM’s parents.

I advised my mom to not take the trip or expense to attend the funeral for my dad. He’s dead and why subject herself to the other stuff of dealing with the new wife and all the gossip? Better to light a candle and say a pray where you are for all the good it will do.

So yeah, I stayed away from the funeral figuring it would be better for family if they didn’t have some angry, blubbering idiot going on about how angry I was that dead EBM was such a freaking idiot for killing himself and how could that stupid asshole waste such talent. He was Mozart to my Salieri, and now even more so.

He was the brother I never had, and more than my best friend….he was my bandmate.

I’ll missing him and hate him every day from now on.

Even in death distracting me from what I am suppose to be doing…. damn you buddy…I wish you were here right now so I could throw a speaker at your head.

This “golb” (grievances on lists boring) is centered loosely around my experiences doing a tech start up.

As such you start with an “alpha”…..then move along to a “beta” product…. right about the time you get to “beta”…. people in the marking department ask… “is it soup yet?” .. meaning… ok …it’s “done” …we can sell it right? …. HAH!

Additionally, like most tech fields… mobile is awash in acronyms… SMS … GPRS…. WAP…. XHTML….J2ME….S60….K800…Z520…N95…M-O-U-S-E.

And so there you have it… Alpha….Beta….Soup!

“Hello, world” …. auto generated by the install program that created this blog for me…but tech imitates life imitates art…..errrr….or something like that.

“Hello, world” …. A simple program most developers use to first test a new environment unfamiliar to them.

Even though I am a tech person, I resist most of what I consider “fads”. “mySpace”, “faceBook” …. don’t get ‘em….. don’t got ‘em….. ok .. I admit I am on LinkedIn… but that’s USEFUL!

So now I join the 21st century and get a “blog” … do I have to call it that? ….. let’s call it a “boring list of grievances”…. or “blog” for short … d’oh!

Anyways, I have a feeling I’ll be using this spot over the next several months to chat to myself if no one else about my experience doing a start up company.

Not totally my first experience, but my first one at the true ground level where if the tech fails there ain’t no one but me to blame. So that makes me the CTO …. lol. I started out as tech lead, then Director of Engineering, and then CTO …..gotta love start ups…I asked the CEO if I could be “Grand Arch Poobah, Ruler of the Known Universe” but he said it wouldn’t fit on a business card.

Getting pressure now to get the tech rolling. Under funded and over loaded….is there any other way in a start up?

More to come…..hopefully.