Build Breaker!

One of the most noticeable features of the team room I work in is the traffic light which reports the status of our Continuous Integration builds. We really like it when the light is green. However, what happens when one of the builds is broken and the light is red? You can immediately tell there is a problem, but don't have any visual cue that anyone is working to fix it.

At past jobs, I've seen a highly-visible token of some sort used for this purpose, developers working on a critical fix would put something on their desk to indicate that someone is working on the problem.

On Monday, our scrum master presented the team with the best token I've seen to date; I'll let the picture of it speak for itself.

Congratulations, Phil - for being the first bearer of our stylish build-break hat!

Pair Programming - when your pair is 20 miles away?

I am working at home today, my furnace broke last night and I am waiting for a plumber to get the part he needs to fix it. However, our team is in the middle of a sprint and I need to get work done on a number of tasks I was planning on doing with another member of the team in a pair programming exercise.  What's a 21st century developer to do? Enable himself with collaboration tools!

This morning, we set up a online meeting, and shared one of our screens.  I was fortunate enough to have a VOIP headset, so I was comfortably able to be on a long phone call without having to take my hands off the keyboard.

Much to my surprise, this arrangement worked out better than I could have ever imagined. We have both been working away on our task without any loss of productivity - actually even having a minor productivity gain when we needed to run the same test in another development environment to compare the results of our changes versus the baseline and all I had to do was click a button to share my screen -  allowing us to work on another system without having to move.

I am amazed that technologies such as Remote Desktop Connection, VPNs, and IP telephony have matured to a point that allows me to pair program with someone in another office almost better than if I was sitting next to him. These tools certainly help out in cases like this, when someone is forced to stay at home unexpectedly.

More Adventures in Home Owning

I come home tonight and the furnace isn't working. I troubleshoot: you know, make sure the switches are on, water level in the boiler isn’t too low, etc.  Everything seems ok, but it appears that there is no power going to the electric low water cutoff. So I call the oil company and tell them what I did.

On the phone, he has me put a multimeter on the leads of the high-pressure controller, one at a time. I tell him the readings, and he tells me, "you see that curly pipe coming out of the bottom of it?  Hit it with your hand as hard as you can." Furnace turns on. He says "I'll be by in the morning to blow out the gunk." 

Why didn't I learn a trade?  If I had a time machine, I would go back and give 20 year old Ian a slap and tell him to become a plumber.

No Global Warming… Really?

I still can’t believe I’m seeing this on my desktop gadget:

It’s freakin’ JANUARY!!!  When did I move to North Carolina?

Who would have thought Massachusetts was a battleground state?

Now I know what my friends in New Hampshire go through every four years.  The campaign ads are everywhere, even seeping into work emails.  For example:

 

To: DevTeam

Subject: Voting today

So I will be late for this morning’s standup. (“Scott Brown made me late for the standup.”)

 

So, my fellow Bay Staters, whatever your political leanings are, go out and vote today! Who knows when your vote could actually make a difference again?

Yes, Virginia, there is a Central Intelligence Agency

Can you believe it?  The CIA has a page for kids. At least it hasn’t been updated since 2007.

For those of us who made it to the office today…

It was a messy, snowy, good old-fashioned New England commute this morning. The kind your dad wouldn’t have thought twice about going into work in, but somehow everyone today can send a ‘working from home’ email and stay home.

Fred (who drove to the office from New Hampshire) and I were kicking around the idea of sending this message, but decided against it.

From: Ian Goodsell

To: Software Team

Subject: Working from the office today

Since I chose to live and work in Massachusetts and know how to drive in the snow, I’ll be working in my cube today. If you need anything, you can reach me in my office.

The Twelve Bugs of Christmas

I can’t take credit for this, one of my teammates passed it around today. He didn’t know where he got it from, either.  If anyone knows, please leave a comment!

So without further ado…

The Twelve Bugs of Christmas

For the first bug of Christmas, my manager said to me
See if they can do it again.

For the second bug of Christmas, my manager said to me
Ask them how they did it and
See if they can do it again.

For the third bug of Christmas, my manager said to me
Try to reproduce it
Ask them how they did it and
See if they can do it again.

For the fourth bug of Christmas, my manager said to me
Run with the debugger
Try to reproduce it
Ask them how they did it and
See if they can do it again.

For the fifth bug of Christmas, my manager said to me
Ask for a dump
Run with the debugger
Try to reproduce it
Ask them how they did it and
See if they can do it again.

For the sixth bug of Christmas, my manager said to me
Reinstall the software
Ask for a dump
Run with the debugger
Try to reproduce it
Ask them how they did it and
See if they can do it again.

For the seventh bug of Christmas, my manager said to me
Say they need an upgrade
Reinstall the software
Ask for a dump
Run with the debugger
Try to reproduce it
Ask them how they did it and
See if they can do it again.

For the eighth bug of Christmas, my manager said to me
Find a way around it
Say they need an upgrade
Reinstall the software
Ask for a dump
Run with the debugger
Try to reproduce it
Ask them how they did it and
See if they can do it again.

For the ninth bug of Christmas, my manager said to me
Blame it on the hardware
Find a way around it
Say they need an upgrade
Reinstall the software
Ask for a dump
Run with the debugger
Try to reproduce it
Ask them how they did it and
See if they can do it again.

For the tenth bug of Christmas, my manager said to me
Change the documentation
Blame it on the hardware
Find a way around it
Say they need an upgrade
Reinstall the software
Ask for a dump
Run with the debugger
Try to reproduce it
Ask them how they did it and
See if they can do it again.

For the eleventh bug of Christmas, my manager said to me
Say it's not supported
Change the documentation
Blame it on the hardware
Find a way around it
Say they need an upgrade
Reinstall the software
Ask for a dump
Run with the debugger
Try to reproduce it
Ask them how they did it and
See if they can do it again.

For the twelfth bug of Christmas, my manager said to me
Tell them it's a feature
Say it's not supported
Change the documentation
Blame it on the hardware
Find a way around it
Say they need an upgrade
Reinstall the software
Ask for a dump
Run with the debugger
Try to reproduce it
Ask them how they did it and
See if they can do it again.