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<channel>
	<title>Einsteinium.us</title>
	<link>http://einsteinium.us</link>
	<description>The Life of Unstable Elements</description>
	<pubDate>Tue, 24 Apr 2018 03:43:09 +0000</pubDate>
	<language>en-US</language>
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	<wp:author><wp:author_id>1</wp:author_id><wp:author_login><![CDATA[JustinSa]]></wp:author_login><wp:author_email><![CDATA[justinsa@live.ca]]></wp:author_email><wp:author_display_name><![CDATA[J-1000]]></wp:author_display_name><wp:author_first_name><![CDATA[Justin]]></wp:author_first_name><wp:author_last_name><![CDATA[Saunders]]></wp:author_last_name></wp:author>


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		<title>Michael William Saunders</title>
		<link>http://einsteinium.us/2011/12/michael-william-saunders/</link>
		<pubDate>Fri, 09 Dec 2011 02:44:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[JustinSa]]></dc:creator>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://einsteinium.us/?p=15</guid>
		<description></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[My father, Michael William Saunders, born on August 10<sup>th</sup>, 1948 and passed away on December 3<sup>rd</sup>, 2011 at the age of 63. He is survived by his wife: <a title="Facebook: Linda Knight" href="https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=543791676" target="_blank">Linda Marie Pauline Knight</a> (<em>nee</em> St. Cyr), her three children: <a title="Facebook: Nathanael Knight" href="https://www.facebook.com/nathanael.knight" target="_blank">Nathanael Knight</a>, <a title="Facebook: Emily C. Knight" href="https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=501526703" target="_blank">Emily Chantal Knight</a>, and <a title="Facebook: Jesse Knight" href="https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=509909375" target="_blank">Jesse Knight</a>, and Michael's two children: <a title="Facebook: Jessica R. Saunders" href="https://www.facebook.com/jessisrad" target="_blank">Jessica Richards Saunders</a> and <a title="Facebook: Justin W. Saunders" href="https://www.facebook.com/jsaundea" target="_blank">Justin Wallace Saunders</a>. He was the proprietor of M. W. Saunders Engineering Ltd. based out of North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He was a good father and a great <a title="Wikipedia: Fire Protection Engineering" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_protection_engineering" target="_blank">Fire Protection Engineer</a>.

In the end, <a title="Wikipedia: Atherosclerosis" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atherosclerosis" target="_blank">Atherosclerosis</a> led to a <a title="Wikipedia: Myocardial Infarction" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myocardial_infarction" target="_blank">Myocardial Infarction</a>, ending my father's life. He will be missed and his memory and dreams honored by his family.]]></content:encoded>
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		<wp:post_date><![CDATA[2011-12-08 18:44:15]]></wp:post_date>
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		<title>Eulogy for Michael W. Saunders</title>
		<link>http://einsteinium.us/2011/12/eulogy-for-michael-w-saunders/</link>
		<pubDate>Sat, 17 Dec 2011 05:52:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[JustinSa]]></dc:creator>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://einsteinium.us/?p=23</guid>
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		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<strong>By Ryan Pavey on December 15, 2011</strong>

<em>Mike was a great mentor and friend. Being a talented engineer, I know Mike often fielded requests to lend his time and expertise. I feel very fortunate to have been the benefactor of his generosity and as a good friend, I will miss the conversations we shared in his backyard, office, or at his cabin in Baker.</em>

<em>The first few times I met with Mike it was clear he was a talented engineer and possessed a powerful intellect and strength of character. It did not take long before it also became clear that Mike would be a great friend. In particular, I enjoyed sitting with Mike in his backyard over a beer, listening intently as he took me with him on journeys back in time and space to his childhood in Quebec, his university days attending <a title="McGill University" href="http://www.mcgill.ca" target="_blank">McGill</a> and <a title="McMaster University" href="http://www.mcmaster.ca" target="_blank">McMaster</a>, and then moving across the country and living on the West Coast. As I listened to him bring such colour and life to his past I would think how much fun it would have been to be one of Mike's friends not only in this chapter of his life but also from his youth, his fraternity years at university and from <a title="Quadra Island, British Columbia, Canada" href="http://www.quadraisland.ca" target="_blank">Quadra Island</a>.</em>

<em>I feel extremely fortunate to have benefited from Mike's generosity of his time with me. I only wish that I could have had more time to spend with my friend and mentor.</em>

<em>Ryan Pavey</em>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Irish Interviews</title>
		<link>http://einsteinium.us/2011/12/irish-interviews/</link>
		<pubDate>Sat, 17 Dec 2011 17:31:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[JustinSa]]></dc:creator>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://einsteinium.us/?p=29</guid>
		<description></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[My girlfriend in 2007 (now my wife: Evelyn G. Salazar) had convinced me that moving to Ireland with Microsoft was the right thing to do. Despite my concerns about the tragic weather mixing with her warm climate upbringing (which would prove fatal to living there in the end), we proceeded full speed ahead. Evelyn unearthed the below e-mail that I sent to my family and friends on Friday, November 9<sup>th</sup>, 2007 after our day of interviewing.

<em>The day went for 6.5 hours of interviewing, solid. My first interview was with an HR representative. My second interview was with a developer named Sami Vaaraniemi. My third interview was with two developers named Rich Ko and Aristides Garces. My fourth interview was with the AsAps (As Appropriates) Dan Teodosiu and Dan Stevenson. My fifth interview was with Ben Childers. My sixth interview was with Dan Teodosiu, again. Altogether, my scheduled interviews were technically over at 2:30, but the day ended at 6:00, since they just kept introducing me to people on the team.</em>

<em>Following the lengthy interview, Evelyn and I were invited to Dim Sum on Sunday morning, but I had to decline due to leaving on a jet plane and not knowing when I would be back again. Instead, we are meeting Aris and Rich downtown tomorrow evening for Guinness and dinner.</em>

<em>Best quotes from the interviews were: "We are excited about you." "The guys started planning to meet up with you in Downtown earlier in the day." Needless to say, I will likely be receiving a hire decision in the near future and then I will need to haggle a level bump and a good starting salary.</em>

<em>And you might be wondering about how Evy did. Excellent! Phenomenal! She believes she definitely got the Senior Test role after the Hiring Manager told her that he remembers how awesome she was to work with in Office 12. So not only am I confident I have procurred my first career in Ireland, but so has Evy! Woohoo!</em>

<em>Dublin is super awesome and very expensive. Take all the prices you pay for things in the US/Canada and then just put the Euro symbol in front of that! Then look at the real estate prices. A 1000 Sq Ft town house in Ballsbridge was being advertised for 1,500,000 euros. I won't be getting in to real estate while I live here...</em>]]></content:encoded>
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		<wp:post_id>29</wp:post_id>
		<wp:post_date><![CDATA[2011-12-17 09:31:27]]></wp:post_date>
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		<title>Preamble to a Daughter</title>
		<link>http://einsteinium.us/2011/12/preamble-to-a-daughter/</link>
		<pubDate>Sun, 01 Jan 2012 05:21:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[JustinSa]]></dc:creator>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://einsteinium.us/?p=32</guid>
		<description></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[I wrote down a few words to share with my future daughter (full-term on January 4<sup>th</sup>, 2012) while on a flight home on October 3<sup>rd</sup>, 2011.

<em>To my little baby girl, the best accomplishment of my life. When I first learned about your mother being pregnant I was ecstatic to know that I was going to have a little one to nurture and carry-on our family traditions. When I learned that you were a girl, I was so very excited at the prospects; as was your aunt, who dreamed of you being the first particle physicist in our family of scientists and scholars. What I want for you is to be a great woman in this world, to understand your strengths and weaknesses, follow your dreams and love, and do whatever it is that inspires you the most. I will do my best, my absolute most, to protect you when you need it, let you run and leap as high as you can, and proivde you with all the advantages I can give to you. I am so thrilled to feel your little kicks in your mother's belly and I can't wait to hold you in the flesh in just a few months.</em>

<em>As you will learn, life is both full of blessings and tribulations. Your mother and I will do everything we can to make your life rich with blessings and shy on tribulations. We will help you understand the world and succeed in it.</em>

<em>I love you,</em>

<em>Daddy 10/03/2011</em>]]></content:encoded>
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		<wp:post_id>32</wp:post_id>
		<wp:post_date><![CDATA[2011-12-31 21:21:04]]></wp:post_date>
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		<title>Ancestry by ConnectMyDNA</title>
		<link>http://einsteinium.us/2012/01/ancestry-by-connectmydna/</link>
		<pubDate>Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:35:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[JustinSa]]></dc:creator>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://einsteinium.us/?p=38</guid>
		<description></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<a title="Homerun Deals" href="http://www.homerun.com" target="_blank">Homerun</a> had an offer I couldn't refuse: $19.99 for a Gene Ring™ from <a title="ConnectMyDNA Gene Sequencing Service" href="http://www.connectmydna.com" target="_blank">ConnectMyDNA</a>. I bought two, one for me and one for my wife, so we could provide our daughter with further information on where her good looks may have originated.

[caption id="attachment_40" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Exhibit A: My Gene Ring(tm)"]<a href="http://einsteinium.us/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Gene-Ring.png"><img class="size-medium wp-image-40" title="Gene Ring(tm)" src="http://einsteinium.us/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Gene-Ring-300x300.png" alt="My Gene Ring(tm)" width="300" height="300" /></a>[/caption]

The most entertaining part of this service is not the fancy Gene Ring™ artwork, but the information it provides geographically about where your genes appear to match most closely. My top 10 genetic matches:
<ol>
	<li><a title="Wikipedia: Tunisia" href="http://www.wikipedia.org/tunisia" target="_blank">Tunisia</a></li>
	<li><a title="Wikipedia: Slovenia" href="http://www.wikipedia.org/Slovenia" target="_blank">Slovenia</a></li>
	<li><a title="Wikipedia: Iraq" href="http://www.wikipedia.org/Iraq" target="_blank">Iraq</a></li>
	<li><a title="Wikipedia: Malaysia" href="http://www.wikipedia.org/Malaysia" target="_blank">Malaysia</a></li>
	<li><a title="Wikipedia: Ireland" href="http://www.wikipedia.org/Ireland" target="_blank">Ireland</a></li>
	<li><a title="Wikipedia: Qatar" href="http://www.wikipedia.org/Qatar" target="_blank">Qatar</a></li>
	<li><a title="Wikipedia: Belgium" href="http://www.wikipedia.org/Belgium" target="_blank">Belgium</a></li>
	<li><a title="Wikipedia: Greece" href="http://www.wikipedia.org/Greece" target="_blank">Greece</a></li>
	<li><a title="Wikipedia: India" href="http://www.wikipedia.org/India" target="_blank">India</a></li>
	<li><a title="Wikipedia: Afghanistan" href="http://www.wikipedia.org/Afghanistan" target="_blank">Afghanistan</a></li>
</ol>
What does this mean, you might ask? I am EMEAA (Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asian)... otherwise known as Canadian and American.]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>The Baptism Invitation</title>
		<link>http://einsteinium.us/2012/02/the-baptism-invitation/</link>
		<pubDate>Sun, 19 Feb 2012 04:48:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[JustinSa]]></dc:creator>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://einsteinium.us/?p=45</guid>
		<description></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[Dear family and friends,

We would like to celebrate with you the baptism of little Viviana Sofia on Sunday, February 19th, 2012. The baptism will be held at St. Francis Catholic Church at 1:30pm at <em>(censored)</em>.

My mom will be making a traditional Venezuelan lunch at our place following the church ceremony (around 3:00pm). Our address is <em>(censored)</em>.

We look forward to sharing this special day with you. Please <strong>RSVP</strong> to <em>(censored)</em> or call us at <em>(censored)</em>.

Evelyn, Justin, and Mami]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>2.5 Years of Travel</title>
		<link>http://einsteinium.us/2012/02/years-of-travel/</link>
		<pubDate>Sun, 19 Feb 2012 05:35:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[JustinSa]]></dc:creator>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://einsteinium.us/?p=58</guid>
		<description></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[On September 6<sup>th</sup>, 2010, Evy and I sat down as we were preparing to leave Ireland for the last time and listed every city or town we had visited while we lived in Ireland. And by visit I mean actually got out of the car and spent some time looking around at the very least.
<ol>
	<li>Edinburgh, Scotland</li>
	<li>Glasgow, Scotland</li>
	<li>Paris, France</li>
	<li>Metz, France</li>
	<li><a title="Wikipedia: Ouvrage Schoenenbourg, Ligne Maginot, France" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouvrage_Schoenenbourg" target="_blank">Ouvrage Schoenenbourg</a>, France</li>
	<li>Reims, France</li>
	<li>Strasbourgh, France</li>
	<li>Madrid, Spain</li>
	<li>Malaga, Spain</li>
	<li>Marbella, Spain</li>
	<li>Munich, Germany</li>
	<li>Frieburg, Germany</li>
	<li>Cologne, Germany</li>
	<li>Dusseldorf, Germany</li>
	<li>Neuvonschweinnstein, Germany</li>
	<li>Rotterdam ub der Tauber, Germany</li>
	<li>Hiedelberg, Germany</li>
	<li>Prague, Czech Republic</li>
	<li>Krakow, Poland</li>
	<li>Wroclaw, Poland</li>
	<li>Florence, Italy</li>
	<li>Venice, Italy</li>
	<li>London, England</li>
	<li>Belfast, Northern Ireland</li>
	<li>Giants Causeway, Northern Ireland</li>
	<li>Letterkenny, Northen Ireland</li>
	<li>London-Derry, Northern Ireland</li>
	<li>Dublin, Ireland</li>
	<li>Kilkenny, Ireland</li>
	<li>Galway, Ireland</li>
	<li>Athlone, Ireland</li>
	<li>Cork, Ireland</li>
	<li>Blarney, Ireland</li>
	<li>Killarney, Ireland</li>
	<li>Connomaragh, Ireland</li>
	<li>Doolin, Ireland</li>
	<li>Wicklow, Ireland</li>
	<li>Wexford, Ireland</li>
	<li>Istanbul, Turkey</li>
	<li>Yalova, Turkey</li>
	<li>Ismer, Turkey</li>
	<li>Antalya, Turkey</li>
	<li>Pamukala, Turkey</li>
	<li>Athens, Greece</li>
	<li>Mykonos, Greece</li>
	<li>Naxos, Greece</li>
	<li>Santorini, Greece</li>
	<li>Faro, Portugal</li>
	<li>Carvoeiro, Portugal</li>
	<li>Bern, Switzerland</li>
	<li>Bruge, Belgium</li>
	<li>Gent, Belgium</li>
	<li>Brussels, Belgium</li>
	<li>Oosterend, Belgium</li>
	<li>Rotterdam, Netherlands</li>
	<li>Amsterdam, Netherlands</li>
	<li>Oslo, Norway</li>
	<li>Dubai, United Arab Emirates</li>
	<li>Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates</li>
</ol>
In addition to this Evelyn did some travel with friends that I was not an accomplice to.
<ol>
	<li>Reykjavik, Iceland</li>
	<li>Ekyviki, Iceland</li>
	<li>Stockholm, Sweden</li>
	<li>Antigua, Guatemala</li>
	<li>Rio Grande, Guatemala</li>
	<li>Pacaya, Guatemala</li>
	<li>Belize City, Belize</li>
	<li>Key Caulker, Belize</li>
</ol>
Needless to say, we traveled a bit in Europe, but what else are you going to do with 25 vacation days a year. There is so much more to see though. One day we will return and continue our exploration of the countryside. I still have a dream to retire in a villa in Tuscany, Italy.]]></content:encoded>
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		<wp:post_date><![CDATA[2012-02-18 21:35:30]]></wp:post_date>
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		<title>Adios Microsoft Chapter</title>
		<link>http://einsteinium.us/2012/03/adios-microsoft-chapter/</link>
		<pubDate>Fri, 16 Mar 2012 16:40:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[JustinSa]]></dc:creator>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://einsteinium.us/?p=87</guid>
		<description></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[Time to say goodbye to working at Microsoft for this engineer.

Everyone receiving this is someone I either had the opportunity to work with (and found the experience pleasurable) or hung out with, even briefly, at Microsoft and left a positive impression on me. Every one of you has helped me learn and improve whether you are cognizant of your contribution or not and I thank you.
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://einsteinium.us/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/gorilla.jpg"><img class="aligncenter  wp-image-89" title="gorilla" src="http://einsteinium.us/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/gorilla.jpg" alt="male silverback gorilla" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Figure 1: Microsoft as a 500 lb Silverback Gorilla (a fine specimen indeed)</p>
In my 6.5 years at Microsoft I have worked on 4 teams in 3 locations with 9 managers; I had a great time always. I have also worked with 3 different build systems, 2 different source control systems, and several programming languages. I am a big fan of Microsoft and the technologies we produce (I can still say 'we' today). I espouse the virtues of working at such a great company and have always been proud of being a Microserf (orMicrosoftie depending on your politics). Microsoft <strong>is</strong> a great place to work. Warren Buffet recently said: “It’s a terrible mistake to get pessimistic on America. It has not worked since 1776, and it’s not going to work now.” One could read that second part a couple of ways, but for clarity to those who are pessimistic, he means the pessimists have been wrong since 1776 and will continue to be so. I’ll say the same thing about Microsoft. It’s a terrible mistake to get pessimistic on Microsoft. It has not worked since 1975, and it’s not going to work now. I’m not talking about share prices, I’m talking about the ability of Microsoft to succeed as a business and keep its lead. Despite its flaws. Despite its decentralized resources. Despite most in the open-source community evangelizing it as the bastion of capitalism and evil in computing. Microsoft works and will continue to thrive as the 500 pound alpha silverback gorilla of software it is. Microsoft is here to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OImKPh6N_Lw" target="_blank">chew bubblegum and kick ass</a>, believe it. I do.

The biggest reason Microsoft continues to kick ass is because of people like you. We make Microsoft amazing because we want to deliver the best solutions in a pursuit for personal excellence. But then why am I leaving you might ask? Because I want to have responsibility in the success or failure of a business, not a feature or application. With a few other associates from my past I am pursuing that objective. I’m optimistic on my own abilities to motivate and deliver results, we’ll see if my optimism meets the good graces of fortune or the cold slap of failure. I’m cheering for a fortune. Please don’t cheer for a cold slap.

Some parting thoughts on the values I have developed because of working at Microsoft with great engineers and leaders.

<strong>Don’t Stop Believing</strong>

Some products suck. Some products are amazing. Some products are amazing and horribly marketed. Some horrible products are amazingly marketed. Microsoft has all of these, but it also has brilliant people working on all of these. They never stopped believing in what they are doing (and hopefully when they do they pack up and move on to the next show). You have to believe in what you are delivering and take the time to nurture it through the rough times. Believe in what you are working on or get out and let someone else on the bus who has the faith.

<strong>Refactor + Refactor + Refactor</strong>

Every iteration of a product should be an opportunity to improve an existing piece of the product. Languages evolve. The technologies they are built on evolve. The people working on them learn (they might spontaneously evolve as well). Refactoring is the application of learning to an existing solution. I never met a piece of code that didn’t need some touch ups; some dramatically more so than others. Be deliberate in the changes you make, but bloody well make changes. A team that is only adding functionality or fixing bugs without refactoring opportunistically is wasting time and probably overlooking bugs. The old adage of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is merely recognition that you just don’t know the scenario to break it. Rest assured the customer will find it. Rest assured you <em>may</em> have to fix it - depending on the mood of the PM.

<strong>Do { }</strong>

The Garage taught me one important lesson: <strong>do</strong>. The Garage is for doers not talkers. Talkers love to pontificate on what to do and how to do it, but they never get down to doing it. Doers get ‘er done. They might not get ‘er done perfect on the first go, but this is why you refactor, refactor, refactor. The work output of a doer is software. The work output of a talker is another meeting. Be a doer. <strong>Do</strong>.

<strong>SoftwareCompany = BuildSoftware &amp;&amp; UseSoftware</strong>

Software companies must build and use software. If your day is spent on things that are not about building software then it isn’t useful to the business. Meetings that don’t result in a software product are pointless. Software that isn’t used is pointless. A meeting about meetings is pointless. Using humans to automate instead of software is pointless. Building something from scratch that already exists because it doesn’t have all the features you want when you also have access to the code is pointless. If we had less walled gardens at Microsoft we’d be extending existing software more with the features needed and improving it for everyone in the company; this is called “open source” outside of Microsoft, it’s called CodeBox in Microsoft, <strong>contribute</strong>.

<strong>Humans != Computers</strong>

Humans are indeterminate. Computers are determinate. Use computers. If we use humans like computers then we aren’t building software, we’ve built meatware. Meatware is indeterminate. Computers are still determinate. Use computers. Also note that meetings about meatware are pointless, even when everyone pretends it is about building software.

And with that, I bid you all a fond farewell, prosperous careers, and the hope that we will cross paths again.

Please drop me a line if you are in the Bay Area, want to grab lunch sometime, or have a mud run you need another participant for.

Adios muchachos,

Justin Saunders, X-SDE II]]></content:encoded>
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		<wp:post_id>87</wp:post_id>
		<wp:post_date><![CDATA[2012-03-16 08:40:31]]></wp:post_date>
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		<title>CodePlex.com</title>
		<link>http://einsteinium.us/2012/04/codeplex-com/</link>
		<pubDate>Tue, 10 Apr 2012 23:40:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[JustinSa]]></dc:creator>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://einsteinium.us/?p=100</guid>
		<description></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[I heart CodePlex. I also like GitHub because it too is fantastic, but CodePlex is a little more near and dear due to its .NET persuasion. Today I posted my first open-source project on CodePlex: <a href="http://databasebuilder.codeplex.com/">http://databasebuilder.codeplex.com</a>.

The Database Builder has been in my toolbox since 2008 when I needed a way to build a SQL Server database and all I was using was Visual Studio Express. I have a passion for build tools and armed with said passion I envisioned a small command-line utility that would integrate as a target in a CSProj file to assemble a database. What I ended up with was a fairly flexible little tool that performs expression replacement on the SQL scripts during runtime and makes calls to the SqlCmd.exe to accomplish the needed tasks.

You might be asking yourself, SqlCmd.exe? Why not use the SqlClient in .NET? Because I have no idea how you would run a SQL script through a SqlClient - I am fairly certain it doesn't support that. But SqlCmd.exe surely does and it works like a charm. Now, before anyone says, but why not use a Database Project in Visual Studio, well... because that doesn't allow for dynamic expression replacement (<em>e.g.</em>, Database Name, ASP.NET Assembly Path, etc.) in the SQL scripts based on configuration or command-line arguments; did I mention I was using Visual Studio 2005 Express?

Try it out sometime if you need to build a clean database or update an existing database and need a script runner for the execution. Send me feedback on CodePlex if you have recommendations to extend it.]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Distributed Development</title>
		<link>http://einsteinium.us/2012/05/distributed-development/</link>
		<pubDate>Tue, 22 May 2012 18:24:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[JustinSa]]></dc:creator>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://einsteinium.us/?p=107</guid>
		<description></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[I recently left Microsoft to fend for myself in a geographically distributed start-up environment. We have people working from:
<ul>
	<li>Victoria, British Columbia, Canada</li>
	<li>Redmond, Washington, USA</li>
	<li>San Francisco, California, USA</li>
	<li>London, England, United Kingdom</li>
	<li>Paris, France</li>
	<li>Bucharest, Romania</li>
	<li>Doha, Qatar</li>
	<li>Dubai, United Arab Emirates</li>
	<li>Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates</li>
</ul>
Over the past few months I have had to adapt to a change in work culture and how to improve collaboration with people I have never met in-person.

A friend asked me the other day: <em>do you have any best practices for remote work - whether it be tools, services, or processes?</em> I do... and so I share them here.
<h2>Hire Talent</h2>
Hire <strong>only</strong> excellent people. This isn't specific to remote work, but it is acutely important in a distributed work environment. Offices create inherent pressure to produce because they typically remove personal distractions and create focused (barring co-worker interruptions) environments. Distributed work environments on the other hand are loaded with personal distractions. The people you hire have to be self-motivated and self-governing to be able to work remotely. My business interviews and hires over <a title="Skype" href="http://www.skype.com" target="_blank">Skype</a> in combination with <a title="Join.me: Free Group Screen Sharing" href="http://join.me" target="_blank">Join.me</a> (a free screen sharing service) and we have a minimum of 3 interviews with 3 different interviewers spread out over multiple days or weeks, as needed. We will terminate the interview process immediately if the candidate does not look promising at any point.
<h2>Software Tools = Organization + Data Sharing</h2>
<div>Use collaboration tools as a primary means of keeping information organized and sharing data. We use the following services:</div>
<div></div>
<div>
<ol>
	<li><a title="Google Apps" href="http://apps.google.com" target="_blank">Google Apps</a> (email)</li>
	<li>Google Apps Wikis (developer, project management, and human resources sites)</li>
	<li><a title="Basecamp: Project Management" href="https://basecamp.com" target="_blank">Basecamp</a> (task / requirements management)</li>
	<li>Source Control (we are half on Subversion and half on Git). We will be transitioning fully to Git as it is so much better than Subversion for branching. <a title="Github: Hosted Git" href="http://www.github.com" target="_blank">Github</a> comes with issue tracking included in its offering along with a comprehensive service API.</li>
	<li>Document Collaboration / Sharing (<a title="Dropbox" href="http://www.dropbox.com" target="_blank">Dropbox</a>, <a title="Live SkyDrive" href="http://skydrive.live.com" target="_blank">SkyDrive</a>, Google Apps)</li>
	<li><a title="Microsoft Skype" href="http://www.skype.com" target="_blank">Skype</a> (IM, phone calls, and screen sharing)</li>
	<li><a title="Join.me" href="http://join.me" target="_blank">Join.me</a> (group screen sharing at zero cost and way better than Skype)</li>
</ol>
<h2>Development Methodology: Agile</h2>
<div>Daily stand-ups keep people pushing forward without lapses in communication or effort. Poor performance shows up immediately. Sprints are either 1 week or 2 weeks in duration. No more. We tried 4 weeks and it was too long to properly estimate workloads. 1 or 2 weeks is much better. Send out a daily status mail with notes from stand-up; conveniently,  because you are meeting via your computer, you can write this during the stand-up and send it immediately afterwards with ease.</div>
<div></div>
<h2>Test</h2>
<div>Devs should test what they write either using automation or manually. Great developers like to verify what they write either through integration testing or actually writing some test automation. Don't go overboard with tests as many are useless verifications of either extreme edge cases or known behaviors in the code that don't offer much ROI for automated testing.</div>
<div></div>
<h2>ASP.NET MVC</h2>
<div>Use ASP.NET MVC for web applications and services. ASP.NET MVC is now an open source project being developed by Microsoft on Codeplex - Codeplex supports Git repositories.</div>
<div></div>
<h2>Static Analysis</h2>
<div>Enable StyleCop and FxCop. Remote developers are more transient and having tight coding guidelines makes maintenance significantly better. It also reduces bugs in some pretty significant areas that are subtle.</div>
<div></div>
<h2>NuGet = .NET Package Management</h2>
<div>Consume Nuget.org projects integrated in to MSBuild and save having to check-in all binaries to a Public directory. Nuget is awesome. Way awesome. Microsoft needs to stop re-inventing things that are being developed rapidly in the open source .NET community.</div>
<div></div>
<h2>Daily = Video, Voice or Chat (IM)</h2>
<div>Have very short (no more than 15 minutes), daily calls or chats with anyone you need to work with on a project. Chat (instant messaging) is so powerful and convenient for everyone.</div>
<div></div>
<h2>Timezones and Commitment</h2>
<div>You work on the West Coast of North America and your colleague works in Eastern Europe or the Middle East. The overlap in your standard work day is probably not significant. You work around this by working odd hours. Late night or early morning are great times to work. Remove the mindset that the work day is 9 to 5 and consider the work day simply being contributing time over the course of a day to deliver goals. Manage your time effectively and you will find taking a few hours in the afternoon for personal errands is actually quite practical and lets you be more productive, not less.</div>
<div></div>
<h2>Minimize Distractions, Maximize Productivity</h2>
<div>Meetings are sometimes productive and valuable. But often they could have been handled over email with more clarity. Always have someone in a meeting designated as the secretary who then sends out the notes afterwards. This isn't remote specific, just a really good practice to have. People quickly forget action items and who had what to do. Don't leave it to professionalism that everyone takes notes during the meeting. It is better to have one person take notes, since they are transcribing not really listening, than everyone.</div>
<div></div>
<h2>Whiteboards + Smart Phone = Collaboration</h2>
<div>Buy a whiteboard. Draw out ideas on the whiteboard. Take pictures with smart phone. Email to coworkers. It is amazing how effective this is.</div>
</div>]]></content:encoded>
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		<wp:post_id>107</wp:post_id>
		<wp:post_date><![CDATA[2012-05-22 10:24:11]]></wp:post_date>
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		<title>Tribulations in ASP.NET MVC 3</title>
		<link>http://einsteinium.us/2012/06/tribulations-in-asp-net-mvc-3/</link>
		<pubDate>Tue, 12 Jun 2012 06:53:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[JustinSa]]></dc:creator>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://einsteinium.us/?p=112</guid>
		<description></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[I've found a very interesting issue with the ASP.NET MVC 3 handling of IList&lt;CustomObject&gt; objects in the <a title="ASP.NET MVC 3 ValueProviderResult" href="http://aspnet.codeplex.com/SourceControl/changeset/view/77537#288021" target="_blank">ValueProviderResult</a> class. This issue doesn't appear for any .NET Framework type (e.g, IList) but only on collections of custom objects (e.g., IList&lt;CustomObject&gt; or CustomObject[]).

The project is using Json.NET serialization for deserialization from the client to the ASP.NET value provider. That part is working correctly to convert all of the JSON data in to a hierarchy of Expando objects if need be. The DefaultModelBinder works perfectly fine for any scenario involving a custom type that is not expected in a collection and it works for any .NET Framework type whether it be in a collection or not.

So, down to the nitty gritty.

Simple custom object type:
<pre><code>[TypeConverter(typeof(SimpleObjectTypeConverter))] public class SimpleObject { public string Something { get; set; } } </code></pre>
Complex object type:
<pre><code>public class ComplexObject </code>{ public IList&lt;SimpleObject&gt; Things { get; set; } }</pre>
Controller action with a model:
<pre><code>public ActionResult Do(ComplexObject complex){}</code></pre>
SimpleObject Type Converter:
<pre><code>namespace Problem.Statement
{
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Dynamic;
using System.Globalization;
using System.Linq;

public class SimpleObjectTypeConverter : ExpandableObjectConverter
{
    public override bool CanConvertFrom(ITypeDescriptorContext context, Type sourceType)
    {
        return sourceType == typeof(ExpandoObject);
    }

    public override object ConvertFrom(ITypeDescriptorContext context, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture, object value)
    {
        ExpandoObject expando = value as ExpandoObject;
        if (expando == null) { throw new ArgumentException("value must be an expando", "value"); }
        IDictionary dictionary = expando.ToDictionary&lt;KeyValuePair&lt;string, object&gt;, string, object&gt;(k =&gt; k.Key, v =&gt; v.Value);
        return new SimpleObject() { Name = dictionary.ContainsKey("Something") ? dictionary["Something"] as string : null };
    }
}
}</code></pre>
Now, assuming you have setup your JsonValueProvider to convert to Expando objects then things are golden for causing this strange scenario to take shape. You make a call to Do:
<pre><code>http://{server}/Do {"Things":[{"Something":"string1"},{"Something":"string2"}]}</code></pre>
The above call will result in an exception being generated because it can't find a converter for going from an IList
<pre><code>// array conversion results in four cases, as below Array valueAsArray = value as Array;
if (destinationType.IsArray)
{
    Type destinationElementType = destinationType.GetElementType();
    if (valueAsArray != null)
    {
        // case 1: both destination + source type are arrays, so convert each element
        IList converted = Array.CreateInstance(destinationElementType, valueAsArray.Length);
        for (int i = 0; i &lt; valueAsArray.Length; i++) { converted[i] = ConvertSimpleType(culture, valueAsArray.GetValue(i), destinationElementType); }
        return converted;
    } else {
        // case 2: destination type is array but source is single element, so wrap element in array + convert object
        element = ConvertSimpleType(culture, value, destinationElementType);
        IList converted = Array.CreateInstance(destinationElementType, 1);
        converted[0] = element;
        return converted;
    }
}</code></pre>
Now, with respect to the above code, if you modify the SimpleObjectTypeConverter to handle Conversion from an
<pre><code>IList&lt;object&gt;</code></pre>
as well then you can get a little further to really understand what is going horribly awry. For whatever reason that first statement:
<pre><code>Array valueAsArray = value as Array;</code></pre>
is evaluating to
<pre><code>null</code></pre>
for an IList&lt;object&gt; type. And because of this the conditional ends up at
<pre><code>// case 2....</code></pre>
And the wheels just fell off the bus. It turns out the ValueProviderResult is failing to recognize the IList as an array and hence is picking the wrong logic flow.

I've tried using SimpleObject[] as the property type and that does not help the situation because it isn't the property type that is problematic, it is this combination of the JSON deserialization converting to Expandos, which can result in an IList&lt;Expando&gt; and then that is failing to be recognized as an Array. Just to reiterate, there is no problem when using a base-type (e.g., string, int, long, byte) in this way, only a custom object type that contains an array of a custom object type.]]></content:encoded>
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		<wp:post_date><![CDATA[2012-06-11 22:53:28]]></wp:post_date>
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			<wp:comment_id>43</wp:comment_id>
			<wp:comment_author><![CDATA[Resolving Tribulations in ASP.NET MVC 3 | The Life of Unstable Elements]]></wp:comment_author>
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			<wp:comment_author_IP><![CDATA[50.63.99.1]]></wp:comment_author_IP>
			<wp:comment_date><![CDATA[2012-06-12 12:59:55]]></wp:comment_date>
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		<title>Resolving Tribulations in ASP.NET MVC 3</title>
		<link>http://einsteinium.us/2012/06/resolving-tribulations-in-asp-net-mvc-3/</link>
		<pubDate>Tue, 12 Jun 2012 20:59:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[JustinSa]]></dc:creator>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://einsteinium.us/?p=118</guid>
		<description></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[In regards to my <a title="Tribulations in ASP.NET MVC 3" href="http://einsteinium.us/2012/06/tribulations-in-asp-net-mvc-3/">previous post</a>, I have found an elegant solution; or at least I think it is elegant. In my ASP.NET application I am using a custom <code>JsonNetValueProviderFactory</code> to perform the JSON deserialization to <code>IDictionary&lt;string, object&gt;</code> types. This factory uses Json.NET to make the magic happen using the <code>ExpandoObjectConverter</code> (another part of Json.NET).

The problem stems from how the <a title="ASP.NET MVC 3: ValueProviderResult.cs" href="(http://aspnet.codeplex.com/SourceControl/changeset/view/77537#288021)" target="_blank">ValueProviderResult</a> class in ASP.NET MVC 3 (4 continues the tradition) works. The default <code>ValueProviderResult</code> class doesn't know how to properly handle an <code>IList</code> or any <code>IList&lt;object&gt;</code> for that matter and will mistakenly treat it as a single object (not a collection). The result is a nasty exception when your data model is expecting an array or collection of custom object types (e.g., <code>IList&lt;customobject&gt;</code>, <code>CustomObject[]</code>).The easiest solution I have found is to modify the ExpandoObjectConverter.cs to emit <code>Array</code> types instead of <code>IList&lt;object&gt;</code> type collections when it encounters a JSON array and hence it will then play nice with the failings of the ValueProviderResult.cs. I've created a fork and made a Pull Request with the change to James Newton-King, lord almighty of the brilliant Json.NET project.

The change to ExpandoObjectConvert.cs:

<code>
add: using System.Linq;
add: public bool UseArrayTypeForCollections { get; set; }
</code>

modify in <code>private object ReadList(JsonReader reader)</code>:

<code>
// change: return list;
// to:
return UseArrayTypeForCollections ? list.ToArray() : list;
</code>

And that is it. With the above change a custom <code>JsonNetValueProviderFactory</code> can then deserialize with never an issue for the <code>ValueProviderResult</code> class using the <code>ExpandoObjectConverter</code>.]]></content:encoded>
		<excerpt:encoded><![CDATA[]]></excerpt:encoded>
		<wp:post_id>118</wp:post_id>
		<wp:post_date><![CDATA[2012-06-12 12:59:50]]></wp:post_date>
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		<title>My Father&#039;s Wit</title>
		<link>http://einsteinium.us/2012/09/my-fathers-wit/</link>
		<pubDate>Tue, 25 Sep 2012 08:45:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[JustinSa]]></dc:creator>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://einsteinium.us/?p=122</guid>
		<description></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[This came to me via my sister on our father's birthday that he was no longer here to celebrate. It is an example of my father through-and-through.

12/03/2006

Lola did not return home last night. Very stressful. We thought she
was a goner, either cat-napped or coyote food.

Linda went out this morning and found her up a tree just at the back
of the yard. She had been their since yesterday morning we figure.
After a number of tries we got Jesse up the tree to effect the rescue.
He passed me the cat as I was on the ladder. The cat then pissed on me
as I carried her down. Some gratitude.

Now all we have to do is get Jesse down. Just kidding, we got him to jump.

Alls well that ends well.

DAD]]></content:encoded>
		<excerpt:encoded><![CDATA[]]></excerpt:encoded>
		<wp:post_id>122</wp:post_id>
		<wp:post_date><![CDATA[2012-09-25 00:45:04]]></wp:post_date>
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		<title>Silicon Valley Entrepreneur Resources</title>
		<link>http://einsteinium.us/2013/04/silicon-valley-entrepreneur-resources/</link>
		<pubDate>Sun, 21 Apr 2013 20:05:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[JustinSa]]></dc:creator>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://einsteinium.us/?p=128</guid>
		<description></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><b>Venture Labs</b></div>
<div><a href="http://www.vlab.org" target="_blank">http://www.vlab.org</a></div>
<div>Checkout the events, sign-up for something that strikes your fancy, and meet people. Always good to meet people in the South Bay.</div>
<div></div>
<div><b>Startup Grind</b></div>
<div><a href="http://startupgrind.com/silicon-valley" target="_blank">http://startupgrind.com/silicon-valley</a></div>
<div>They host at different venues in the Bay Area and have some pretty interesting characters from the tech scene giving talks.</div>
<div></div>
<div><b>Meetup</b></div>
<div><a href="http://startupgrind.com/silicon-valley" target="_blank">http://www.meetup.com/Startup-Grind</a></div>
<div>Definitely sign-up for meetup.com (the link is for the Startup Grind in particular) and make sure to specify your interests. I've been receiving the weekly newsletter of events that are pretty spot-on for my interests. More networking opportunities abound.</div>
<div></div>
<div><b>Angel List</b></div>
<div><a href="https://angel.co/%0d%0a%0d%0ahttp://www.hackerdojo.com/%0d%0ahttp://events.hackerdojo.com/%0d%0a%0d%0a" target="_blank">https://angel.co</a></div>
<div>I've been using Angel List to meet existing founders who are looking for developers and technical co-founders. A great resource, you just have to be willing to scour through the 700 posts and hit the "Yes" button when you find one that is interesting.</div>
<div></div>
<div><b>Hacker Dojo</b></div>
<div><a href="https://angel.co/%0d%0a%0d%0ahttp://www.hackerdojo.com/%0d%0ahttp://events.hackerdojo.com/%0d%0a%0d%0a" target="_blank">http://www.hackerdojo.com</a></div>
<div><a href="https://angel.co/%0d%0a%0d%0ahttp://www.hackerdojo.com/%0d%0ahttp://events.hackerdojo.com/%0d%0a%0d%0a" target="_blank">http://events.hackerdojo.com</a></div>
<div>This is a sweet, startup / developer workspace. It is located in Mountain View and is super awesome. They have some great events too. You can drop in for free anytime, but membership has some quirky benefits.</div>
<div></div>
<div><b>TechShop</b></div>
<div><a href="http://www.techshop.ws" target="_blank">http://www.techshop.ws</a></div>
<div>This is the playground of inventors who like to build real things - like actual, physical things. If you want to learn building skills, go here. If you want to meet an inventor to build the hardware for your totally awesome idea, also go here. They have MakerBots, lasers, welders, CAD stations, sewing machines, arduino, and everything else that a Maker would be interested in.</div>
&nbsp;]]></content:encoded>
		<excerpt:encoded><![CDATA[]]></excerpt:encoded>
		<wp:post_id>128</wp:post_id>
		<wp:post_date><![CDATA[2013-04-21 12:05:07]]></wp:post_date>
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	<item>
		<title>Anti-Matter Annihilation</title>
		<link>http://einsteinium.us/2014/07/anti-matter-annihilation/</link>
		<pubDate>Thu, 03 Jul 2014 17:41:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[JustinSa]]></dc:creator>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://einsteinium.us/?p=135</guid>
		<description></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[The question was brought up, by me, at my office today about how much anti-matter it would take to blow up the Earth.
<div>I calculated it to be (note the implicit conversion of <em>kg</em> to <em>g</em>):</div>
<div></div>
<div>2.25x10^32 <i>J (required)</i> / 1.6736x10^17 <i>J/kg (anti-matter)</i> = <b>1.344x10^18 </b><b><i>g</i></b><b> anti-matter</b></div>
<div></div>
<div><i>The energy required to destroy the Earth is provided by calculations done by UK graduate students as to the energy needed by the Death Star's primary weapon to destroy the Earth.</i></div>
<div>My assertion that if I was annihilated by anti-matter I would likely cause total annihilation of the Earth is wrong. Very wrong. I am woefully inadequate to annihilate the Earth as it turns out. All of the human population on Earth simultaneously annihilated by anti-matter is also inadequate. I stand humbled by the awesomeness of the Earth to endure explosive force.</div>]]></content:encoded>
		<excerpt:encoded><![CDATA[]]></excerpt:encoded>
		<wp:post_id>135</wp:post_id>
		<wp:post_date><![CDATA[2014-07-03 09:41:16]]></wp:post_date>
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		<title>Strategy for Interviewing Programmers</title>
		<link>http://einsteinium.us/2015/08/strategy-for-interviewing-programmers/</link>
		<pubDate>Mon, 03 Aug 2015 05:54:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[JustinSa]]></dc:creator>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://einsteinium.us/?p=143</guid>
		<description></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[This is a re-post from an answer I provided on Quora to <a href="http://www.quora.com/What-are-the-best-programming-interview-questions-youve-ever-asked-or-been-asked/answer/Justin-Saunders-1">What are the best programming interview questions you've ever asked or been asked?</a>.

My answer echoes and provides an alternative to what William Pietri said.

I also don't care if someone can solve puzzles or aha! questions. They don't tell me much about the person other than they probably studied interview questions or really like brain teasers. What I want to see is if someone knows what the heck they are doing in breaking down a problem and writing code to solve it against an existing code base. I now ask candidates to design a feature and implement it for an open-source project I started under such a pre-tense, but where I was the candidate: http://justinsa.github.io/card-u.... There is no limit on what the candidate can submit. The only two steps I ask is that: (1) they write-up a brief explanation of what they plan to implement so I can provide feedback, and (2) they fork and submit a PR for the final product so myself and others can provide feedback.

Here is what I am trying to understand about the candidate from this question/process:
<ul>
	<li>What do they gravitate to for features? UI? Infrastructure? Test? Static analysis? Tooling? Functionality? The candidate can do anything they want to this project to level it up. People tend to gravitate to an area they enjoy or think will be interesting to learn when given the opportunity.</li>
	<li>What do they develop as code product? They already chose the feature. Now they implement it and get to show-off where they are strong and less strong and weak. How they implement is very telling as to what they believe it means to have a releasable product. Do they test? How do they test? Do they improve existing work to make it easier/faster to develop in the future? Do they architect thoughtfully or just ramrod crap in willy-nilly? Do they re-write everything because they want it just their way? There are so many behaviors that come out of real code product. And again people tend to gravitate to an area they enjoy when given the opportunity and they tend to ignore areas they are less interested in doing.</li>
	<li>How quickly do they go about doing the work and scheduling it into their existing workload? You've got a job (possibly) and you've got life to deal with (definitely), now you've got to want this job enough to carve out a good bit of extracurricular time just to join my company. But what I really learn is are you interested in this company and can you manage your own time effectively to make things happen when given near zero direction and no help.</li>
	<li>How do you communicate? The candidate is writing a brief spec, implementing it, ideally verifying what they implemented, and then doing the back-and-forth with myself and other colleagues during the spec review and code review in order to get their feature and code to my master. This is actually what we do day-to-day, there is no simulation involved here, it is the job. How well does the candidate write an email and communicate their ideas? How do they respond to code review feeedback? Do they resolve disagreement or just implement whatever is asked of them?</li>
</ul>
I only started this about a year ago and I've really liked the outcomes since it has made phone and in-person interviews completely about personality, culture fit and technical conversation without the awkwardness of writing code on a board or with someone over your shoulder.]]></content:encoded>
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		<wp:post_id>143</wp:post_id>
		<wp:post_date><![CDATA[2015-08-02 21:54:50]]></wp:post_date>
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