Working with people in complex or complicated environments is hard

I’ve been stupid almost throughout my entire early life – also sometimes when it comes to agile software development. There, I have said it.

I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and working with very skilled and intelligent people in interesting projects. For most of my life, I have been preoccupied with solving technical problems, and thinking about ways for healing the world through good engineering, logic, reason and rational thinking. However, I’ve come to learn, and realize, that in the end, merely solving technical problems is not enough, nor necessarily the smart thing to do. Technical problems can be mere symptoms of human challenges, and by treating those challenges with the proper care, one can make perceived technical challenges disappear, or make them less relevant.

While I can be proud of being proficient in understanding and solving technical problems derived from business needs, I feel like I’m just dabbling and taking baby steps in the long journey of becoming a better person, and understanding and working with other people. Modern management science, as well as agile software development practices, are aiming at the same goal – sometimes with similar ideas, sometimes with different perspectives. Though management bestseller books and flavor of the month software development fads make dealing with complex reality sound easy, it is everything but. Unfortunately, saying that can preclude you from selling snake oil, books or consultation.

Agile development methods can be a great framework for providing context, mindset, common language and focus for software development work, but that’s it. Beyond that, you need a wide set of skills which touch on the fields of psychology, sociology, complexity theory and philosophy. No process model, stand up meeting or work in progress measurement method makes any difference, if you don’t know how to handle the other aspects of working with people in complex or complicated environments.

The sad truth is that you can still drown, even though you followed the process to a Tee.

There are no silver bullets or process models that save your ass.

Working with people in complex or complicated environments is hard.

Get used to it.

Reinstall OS X

Eventually I decided that there was something wrong with my OS X and it would be easier to do complete reinstall rather than try to debug what is wrong with Firefox and what causes the general sluggishness on my system. What surprised me was that in the end it did not take that much time to get my system back up and running with all the necessary software installed and registered. Naturally it helped a lot that I had proper backups of my Macheist application bundles etc. – so installation was straight forward procedure, just downloading newest versions of software that had already been updated few times.

Outcome?

Born again Macbook. Truly born again machine, much more responsive, snappier and lots of free hard drive space. So even though it took a day, it was well worth it.

At the same time though I had to curse at Adobe for making brain dead decisions in their software. Apple has supported already for sometime case sensitive HFS filesystem, but it seems that Creative Suite is still – even in 2010 – unable to work on systems with case sensitive system disk. And naturally I had made the mistake of reformatting my drive first as case sensitive. Thankfully with the help of Carbon Copy Cloner I managed in few hours to transfer everything to an external drive, reboot from it, reformat system drive and use Carbon Copy Cloner again to transfer everything back to newly formatted case insensitive system disk.

I had previously already set my mind on purchasing a new MacBookPro, mut now I can postpone that decision for a year or so.

Firefox 3.6 woes on OS X

Firefox 3.6 is here and oh great, it is great! Except that most of the extensions crash my Firefox, so I am unable to do almost anything extra I used to in the older version.

I’ve tested now numerous times and for example Delicious bookmarks crashes Firefox, when I install it and Firefox tries to restart itself. Crash report gets only a number sequence like “1264176171″ nothing more. After I start Firefox in safe mode and disable the plugin, everything works again.

New version of Firefox seems to much faster and better citizen on my mac, so I hope these problems get fixed either in the plugin or in the firefox soon. Untill that I’ll have to use two versions of Firefox on my machine.

jQuery support in Netbeans javascript editor

It seems that the world is better place every day. I have hated javascript development, but this might do it much more fun again.

Review: Restaurant Rantakartanontie, new year’s eve menu

I’ve frequented for some time in this eloquent and cozy design restaurant, conveniently located in middle class neighborhood of Puotila in Helsinki. Though Puotila is not well known for it’s restaurants ( except Puotila pizza kebab and famous beer- and whiskey restaurant Pikkulintu ), this newcomer in restaurant scene in definitely worthwhile visit. Unfortunately making a reservation is next to impossible, as it is by invitation only. For this new year’s eve I was fortunate enough to get an invitation and hence this review.

As you enter premises you are immediately greeted with a smile, swanky decor and lounge music – which should get you in the right mood for perfect evening. As you wait for first course mandatory drinks are served, which were on this occasion interesting choice: Austrian sparkling wine Brut Excellent.

Naturally nicely equipped bar was open at the same time, so you could get also ciders, beer or other drinks to keep you entertained, while waiting.

One thing that I have to point out also, is the fact that at this restaurant – dinner has never been just about food. It has always been holistic, full, entertaining experience – including also sights for sore eyes. Visually pleasing table setting and color coordinated decor just add up to positive aesthetic experience.

As dinner started with drinks and appetizer shots, we soon were served with the first course.

Smoked reindeer-cheesesoup and baquette gave no surprises and served as a great starter, giving enough energy to socialize and drink some more, while waiting for the main course.

As we reflected the major events of the past decade, the main course also got some poignant and deeper meanings. Oven baked potatoes are very traditional – even old school – entry in the collections finnish cuisine. However during the public relationship crisis of our beloved prime minister this innocent potato-dish was thrown into limelight and our collective psyche. For almost two years it was impossible anything similar without having awkward thought of prime minister having sex after sauna. But like always, as time passes by people learn to forget.

And so it was. This new year’s eve there was no memories of Matti Vanhanen.

Delicious. We missed you so much.

For the first dessert we had something we have never tried before: fruit salad, ice cream and melted chocolate. Looks interesting, tastes delicious.

Second dessert was cheese, fruit, vegetable and cracker platter…

… with a few glasses of Bernard Massaud.

So.

All and all the experience was great and for the price and convenience this place is definitely on of the top spots in Helsinki. Without any doubts I will frequent here also in the future.

Hopefully during 2010 there are many new opportunities for new people to experience this exclusive restaurant, a true hidden gem inside Helsinki.

Monster.fi – listing old job adverts? Monster.fi näyttää hauissa työpaikkoja, joiden haku jo sulkeutunut

We all know Monster.com and/or it’s local sites. As I have been browsing the market at Finland looking for additional or future interesting projects, I noticed a peculiar feature – which could be a problem either on Monster’s code or on how employers use the system.

When you do searches for jobs, the system seems to show also jobs that have been expired – the the deadline for applications has closed. Though it is not a big deal, it is a little bit annoying and makes you ask why: Why wouldn’t the system have expiration date for advert? Why wouldn’t future employer use that field correctly?

Surely someone thinks that extra visibility is great for any company on a site like monster.fi.

Surely it is better to show 2484 jobs as open, rather than 43 – which actually are.

Sure.

It is also annoying.

American TV-executives and Steve Jobs – listen up! Mikael Junger from Finnish broadcasting company wants to transform scandinavian tv!

You got to like this guy. When he was appointed to be the director of our beloved but oldschool national broadcasting company YLE, I actually thought that he is just another politician who wastes taxpayers money into nonsense and eventually drives YLE to the ground — leaving Finland with only commercial channels without any guts to try something different. And for some time to the outside he behaved like my predictions, but lately something has changed.

Here is a guy who is – without a question – a smart guy and capable of doing great work in the background and in the cabinets, suddenly throwing himself into the limelight, stirring the pot and not being afraid of making a fool out of himself in the process. There has been some “oops!” and “aaahs!” in the process, but he has shown eagerness to look things sideways and ask questions aloud. And no matter how much I think that he is behaving like a person following Harward Business Review articles on “Transformative leadership 101″ or being coached by Seth Godin, I still like it.

But back to the point. Why should you or anyone care about Mikael Junger?

Because he is finally asking important questions and throwing out ideas that could set positive examples and vision for the future of TV around the world. Don’t believe me? Just follow his tweets.

http://twitter.com/MikaelJungner

Here are couple selections:

Turhauttavaa, kun iMacin 27″ huikealle näyttölle vaikea löytää HD-sisältöä netistä. Ei toimi Hulut tai iTunesit Suomessa. Biafra? Albania?

Sort of translation: Frustrating to not be able to get HD content from the web to iMac 27″’s amazing display. No Hulu nor iTunes in Finland. Is Finland Biafra or Albania?

I mean, that is spot on and I’ve already bitched and moaned about similar issues myself, hating the fact in terms of media distribution we are still a third world country even though entertainment and media is global business and in the real time world ideas, memes and media travels with the speed of network packet.

Or how about this:

Vasta vajaa 2 % suomalaisista on kuulemma hankkinut laajakaistayhteyden (100M/10M). Osuutta voisi kasvattaa vaikka seuraavasti:

1) Joku ministeri käy USA:ssa ja pyytää Hulua ja iTunesia lokalisoitavaksi Suomeen. Suosutuu, koska jenkit on hulluna ministereihin ;D

2) Joku isänmaallinen kulttuurialan säätiö tekstittää noiden ohjelmat suomeksi…

3) Ihmisten kiinnostus kasvaa ja laajakaistayhteyksiä hankitaan ainakin edelläkävijäkoteihin (5%?)

4) Maikkari, Sanomat ja YLE joutuvat vastaamaan omalla vastaavalla kansallisella palvelulla

5) Positiivinen kierre on valmis, uusia yrityksiä, uusia työpaikkoja, uusia kulutustottumuksia, uusia innovaatioita

Sort of translation: “I hear only 2% of finnish households have broadband connections (10/100M). That amount could be grown for example in following way:

1) Some minister / secretary of the state goes to US and asks Hulu and iTunes to be localised for Finland. Americans agree as they love government officials.

2) Some patriotic cultural organization produces subtitles to each and every show ( Don’t know whether he was thinking about teenagers already providing subtitles for pirated movies online .. )

3) Demand for broadband grows, atleast in first mover homes

4) Finnish media companies need to respond with equal national service to the competition

5) Positive cycle is ready, producing new companies, new jobs, innovations and eventually world peace”

End of my very liberal translation.

Never mind the impracticalities or effects on local advertising scene. You got to appreciate the balls on that guy. He knows how stagnated the world is and to truly change something, you need to break out conventional rules and set your bar higher. And what would be better bar than facing the fact that world has changed and in the internet we could – totally – cut out the middle man, also in TV.

So please! Someone on the other side of Atlantic – please take on Mikael at his words and cook up something together – fast, before he is fired. Pretty please and sugar on top!

I want to watch great shows when they are fresh and I don’t mind watching commercials, I actually like to watch – from time to time – American commercials and admire the visual language and sense of consumerism they have. So leave the original ads in place and sell additional ad space for local advertisers. Tech savvy users will be using some kind of AdBlock / Tivo type of system anyway. And don’t worry, we will still buy your advertisers products and love the brands we have grown to like and have attached our memories to.

So, just as an reminder. Contact Mikael Junger.

“Listening to Limbaugh and Sean Hannity to relax” … from living under social straitjacket to personal freedom and individuality.. and onwards!

As I was reading christmas issue of The Economist few things got my eye. First of all there was a great piece about progress and human aspirations. It really touched my nerves as I have had to wonder what are those things that really matter and reconcile my beliefs and ideas on what the world is, will be and what matters. As someone who hasn’t had that classical education it is nice to be reminded how similar thoughts wiser men have had centuries ago and how they have made their own reconciliations. ( Read the article: http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15108593)

However much more emotional and stronger thought came from reading “A Ponzi scheme that works” ( http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15108634 ), not because of the article as a whole – but for description of Mr Lee, Korean-American immigrant who likes to listen right-wing pundits to relax.

For example, he never liked the way his neighbours in Korea stuck their noses into each other’s business. Everyone knew how you were doing in school. You could not get a good job without connections. There was constant social pressure not to lose face. When Mr Lee went back to visit, he remembers slipping into the old straitjacket. He wanted to pop out to the corner shop, but realised he would have to put on a smart shirt and trousers, despite the intense humidity. What would the neighbours think if they saw him in shorts and flip-flops? In America, no one cares.

If you were to live in Finland in small town or village, you could experience similar social straitjackets where everyone you see knows you and knows your things. You have your freedom to do whatever you want, but rest assured – everyone will know what you do. In the city almost no one cares about what you do, read, subscribe to or wear. You are individual and the old safety nets of the ‘community’ are replaced with safety structures provided by the state and corporate entities. One can choose his or her own communities and social networks, instead of being forced to belong into one. At the same time though – living in the city forces one to live under and conform into a set of rules and laws that make it possible to live together in peace within such small areas. You have your individualism, but at the same time you are part of larger community – though your membership in it is almost anonymous.

From time to time, late at night – I play and entertain myself with thoughts about societies in the future and what are the next steps on our journey to there.

What are the pillars and principles of societies that provide sustainable living, transcendent experiences and meaningful life to human beings in the future?

And what can we do to achieve them sooner.

Christmas and new year – time to look for new shiny things!

It’s that time again in the year, when everyone is rushing around shops and spending more than enough money to buy crap someone else doesn’t need. For this season we finally made and kept the promise of not buying unnecessary presents and only purchased selected few well thought gifts. Naturally it was also the sensible choice as the economic downturn has created huge uncertainties in terms of monetary situation and work in the near future. Though I am quite confident that there is and will be work to be done and money to be earned in the capital area, these uncertainties mean that instead of just slacking off and wasting my time playing Grand Theft Auto I need to catch up on my reading and hone some necessary skills – just in case.

Well. To be honest not for “just in case” as much as for “keeping my brain occupied so that it does not start to think about big questions like religion, getting older, life and pursuit of happiness”.

At the moment on my reading and learning list is:

• catching up on mobile development
• picking up professional development on Flex with Cairgorm framework
• catch up on Python developments
• test drive new improvements and developments on enterprise java

And in little bit more detail:

I’ve been following up from arm’s length different developments on mobile front, but resisted the temptation to start larger projects yet. However now might be a good time to invest some time to do more prototypes and testing. Though iPhone has been the hot topic for a long time, I haven’t been keen on yet learning iPhone development as so far Objective-C has made me gag and iPhone appstore horror stories have made me wonder the sanity and reliability of the platform. So instead of iPhone I’ve had my eye on some other platforms. Testing and reading about development on multiple platforms at the same time is really interesting, as it allows me much more clearly to see the similarities, differences and true benefits of each platform in clear light.

• Android SDK
• J2ME + LWUIT
• Python + PyQT + Qt on Maemo
• Python on S60
• iPhone OS 3

Android has been the most promising and interesting platform, atleast from programmers’ point of view. Documentation and materials seem great and things just feel well thought, instanly making sense to an old java programmer.

J2ME left in early days bad taste in my mouth, but handsets are really good these days and java-applications run fast on modern phones. Lwuit is UI-framework that seems to make mobile UI programming not so painfull, actually very similar to Swing-programming. If you don’t believe, check out the intro: http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/javame/lwuit_intro/

N900 is the thing I lust after and even though it does not make commercial sense yet to develop software for Maemo, I am really keen on trying out Python on Maemo… with PyQt. Python is fun, QT is great framework for applications and Maemo on N900 seems to be just perfect mobile platform to make them work together. However Android SDK with it’s documentation and tools kicks Python on Maemo around the block for now. Getting started and up and running requires little more effort and interest, though so far Maemo community seems to be really helpfull.

Python on S60 is a little bit different breed. But as there are great examples around doing something fast is a snap. And my god it beats doing c++ Symbian development any day.

( http://mobilenin.com/pys60/menu.htm, check out Ensymble for deployment http://code.google.com/p/ensymble/wiki/Welcome )

iPhone development which still requires Objective C and all that jazz makes me gag. But… I can’t say that I have hair on my chest unless I do it.

Picking up professional development on Flex with Cairgorm framework is quite self explanatory. Actionscript reminds of java and Cairgorm brings MVC type of development pattern to Flex / Flash. Though my interests are not to turn into frontend Flash guy in any means, I do want to understand that development better and see where the state of Flex these days rests.

Catching up on Python developments also fits similar category as above. I have had my love and breakups with Python, but still admire how great scripting language it is. Python also evolves and I just recently purchased updated versions of Python Pocket reference and Python Essential Reference to catch up with an old friend.

And last but not least. As I already blogged, enterprise java has got more and more less enterprisy, more agile and more fun. We have been talking with Mikael to do some test projects and I am looking forward that. Mikael has already done tests with dependency injection and new features on JPA, but let’s see what we have time to do together before new projects start.

Sun – Welcome to the internets and time of multimedia

http://blogs.sun.com/theaquarium/entry/initial_report_on_javaee_6

I really like the work people at Sun Microsystems have done on Java, JEE 6 and on products like Glassfish Application Server. However they seem to drop the ball from time to time, when you start to talk about marketing these products and ideas.

Few days ago Sun organized really great online conference focusing on Java EE 6 and Glassfish. Conference was great, presentations were really good and had valuable information. You would think that at this day and age live presentations could be recorded, converted and put online as on demand presentations or as downloadable in a matter of few minutes. But no.

“The most common questions have been: Will the recordings be available? (yes) How soon (hopefully within a couple of weeks) and How do I get them? (will notify people in the GlassFish registration mailing list, and will post at GlassFish Resources)”

Hopefully within a couple of weeks? Please.

Had I known, I would have recorded the stream myself and put it online.

UPDATE:

They are online now. http://www.sun.com/events/javaee6glassfishv3/virtualconference/index.jsp

So it did not take that long after all. Yee!