This Developer's Life

This week it's just Scott and me - Scott gets to go off to Disneyland with his wife and 2 boys, and I get to hang out with my girls for a week as their mom goes on a retreat in California.

Music

The tracks for this week are used under Creative Commons from Magnatunes:

* Nine Inch Nails [http://ghosts.nin.com/main/home] - Ghosts

* General Fuzz [http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/general-fuzz/id359064275] - A Spy in the House of Love

* General Fuzz [http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/general-fuzz/id359064275] - Walking Home

* John Williams [http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/days-end/id257797507?i=257798416] - Days End

* Melissa Polinar [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szrhsPmQT3s] - Perfectly Distracted. You can see more of Melissa at http://www.melissapolinar.com. [http://www.melissapolinar.com/]

* Rildrim [http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/linber/id399882981?i=399883232] - Linber

* OGMA [http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/jasmines-song/id390524288?i=390524381] -Jasmine's Song

The following tracks were used sparingly, but are not Creative Commons. If you like them - please buy them:

Hapa [http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/justins-lullabye/id18241285?i=18241279] - Justin's Lullabye

Hapa [http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/justins-lullabye/id18241285?i=18241279] - Ka Uluwehi O Ke Kai

In this episode Scott and I talk to technical folks who have moved on up to Management - and what it means to them.

* Mark Freedman [http://markfreedman.com/] shares his story about clawing his way out of a successful career as a manager at a rather large, growing company. A good job, lots of respect, and he hates it.

* Bertrand LeRoy [https://weblogs.asp.net/bleroy] talks about charting his own path right at Microsoft after graduating with a PhD in Physics and how he maintains a career right down in the middle of manager and coder.

* Todd Baesen talks about moving from Chemical Engineer to Nuclear Engineer on the USS Enterprise (literally), and then to senior management at a big engineering firm in the SF Bay Area.

Music

The tracks for this week are used under Creative Commons from Magnatunes:

* Daniel Estrem [http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/colors-of-spain/id370502116]- Asturias (Leyenda) no. 1 from Cantos de Espana

* Harlan Williams [http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-glass-desert/id319950002] - Beneath the Iron Heel of Pagan Rome

* Williamson [http://magnatune.com/artists/williamson] - a please goodbye from whore

* Urban Response [http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/a-origem-da-natureza-urbana/id364641300] - Hunter Gatherer

* DJ Cary [http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/electromelange/id267136559] -Termoli

* Fischerspooner [http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/entertainment/id354557016] - Danse en France

* Jaydiohead [http://www.maxtannone.com/projects/jaydiohead/] - December Backdrifts

* Tool [https://www.amazon.com/10-000-Days-Tool/dp/B000EULJLU] - Rosetta Stoned

* General Fuzz [http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/general-fuzz/id359064275] - Beatdown

* Nine Inch Nails [http://ghosts.nin.com/main/home] - Ghosts

* Jaydiohead [http://www.maxtannone.com/projects/jaydiohead/] - Life There

In this episode Scott and I talk to 2 people with fairly different stories, about what motivates them

Scott talks to Brad Wilson [http://bradwilson.typepad.com/], Senior Developer on the Microsoft ASP.NET MVC team about what motivates him to get out of bed and come to work every day at a high-intensity company, surrounded by brilliant people.

Rob talks to Rob Sullivan [http://datachomp.com/], a database administrator at a large company, about what motivates him to make developer's lives miserable in order to keep his job.

Music

The tracks for this week are used under Creative Commons from Magnatunes:

* Urban Response [http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/a-origem-da-natureza-urbana/id364641300] - Hip Hop Nai Hai de Morrer

* General Fuzz [http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/soulful-filling/id336046371] - Lay it Down

* Urban Response [http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/a-origem-da-natureza-urbana/id364641300] - Resistencia Nunca Morre

* iNTROSPEKT [http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/ideology/id257905422] - Government Road

* Harlan Williams [http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-glass-desert/id319950002] - Gregory IX

* DJ Cary [http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/sonic-chill/id336070757] - Overflight

* Brad Sucks [http://www.bradsucks.net/] - Dirtbag

The following tracks are commercial tracks, used sparingly (30 seconds or so) under Fair Use:

Metric [http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/old-world-underground-where/id312119046] - Love is a Place

In this episode Scott and I talk to 3 developers who have pulled off some pretty audacious maneuvers.

* John Resig [http://ejohn.org/], Creator of jQuery, decided to write yet another javascript framework when there were already quite a few to choose from. Not only did he succeed, he changed web development forever.

* Alex Payne [http://al3x.net/], former API Developer Lead at Twitter, talks about the (somewhat insane) move to leave Twitter, and (somewhat more insane) choice to 'reinvent banking' with BankSimple [http://banksimple.com/].

* Miguel de Icaza [http://tirania.org/blog/], founder of the GNOME project and creator of Mono talks about creating a clone of the .NET framework - all because he didn't like what else was out there at the time for Linux.

In this episode Scott and I discuss "what you need to know as a software developer". How many layers of abstraction do you need to understand? How many geek trading cards should you have in your collection? To find out more, we talked to 3 prominent, living-history developers.

* Ward Cunningham [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ward_Cunningham] - creator of the Wiki and major figure in Agile/XP programming

* Charles Petzold [http://www.charlespetzold.com/] - author of many books about Windows and prominent speaker

* Dan Bricklin [http://danbricklin.com/history/saimiddle.htm] - 'Superman' according to Scott. Creator of the spreadsheet and all around amazing guy.

Most of the music in this podcast is released under Creative Commons, including:

* DJ Cary - Sonic Chiil [http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/sonic-chill/id336070757]

* Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts [http://ghosts.nin.com/main/home]

* John Williams - Dusty Porch [http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/dusty-porch/id257797507]

In addition - super short clips of the following songs were used under Fair Use:

* Kraftwerk - Pocket Calculator [http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/computer-world/id40555789]

* Laurie Anderson - O Superman [http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/big-science/id261604943]

In the first story, I talk to David Heinemeier Hansson [http://loudthinking.com/] creator of Ruby on Rails, [http://rubyonrails.org/] partner at 37Signals [http://37signals.com/] and author of Rework about the inspiration and shepherding of Ruby on Rails.

In the second story, Scott talks to Dan Bricklin [http://danbricklin.com/history/saimiddle.htm] who in the late 70s and early 80s helped to usher in the computer age, as well as a new industry. Dan is the creator of Visicalc - the first spreadsheet program.

Music

* Making me Nervous: Brad Sucks [http://www.bradsucks.net/]

* Nine Inch Nails: Ghosts [http://ghosts.nin.com/main/home]

* Willamson [http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/a-few-things-to-hear-before/id4476329]

* John Williams: Acoustic Country Blues Guitar [http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/acoustic-country-blues-guitar/id16684873]

Please support these artists.

In the first story Scott shares his experience on being 'outted' at a former company, where his name sat beside 7 of the 10 top entries on a list of 'what not to do to code'.

Scott then interviews Cyra Richardson - a program manager at Microsoft with a rather strong opinion about the changes she's seen in the company over the last 20 years.

Finally, I spend some time talking to Giles Bowkett and his various ' 'interesting' interactions with the Ruby community.

image from XKCD [http://xkcd.com/399/]

In this week's This Developer's Life that's what I take a look at, from 3 perspectives:

1. Mike Moore [http://blowmage.com/] (Ruby developer) talks about personal skills for solving problems, including the ability to ask a different question.

2. Javier Lozano [http://lozanotek.com/blog] (Microsoft developer) talks about teams coming together as a 'band of brothers', solving problems that may, or may not, exist.

3. Tamar Cohen (Java developer) shares her story of the unsolvable bug - something she *had to solve* as the exploration of other planets depends on it. She works at NASA, programming planetary rovers.

Scott Hanselman [http://hanselman.com/] finishes things off with a story about what happens when trouble finds you'

Some Notes:

I've been asked by the producers of This American Life to kindly change my logo as well as podcast title. In retrospect it seems rather obvious that I should have thought about this - but the short answer is that I didn't know if anyone would really care about this podcast. I also didn't expect the attention it's getting.

Oops.

I changed the logo - a name change will come soon. Worry not - the RSS will stay intact, as will the iTunes link.

UPDATE - I've remastered the episode and removed some of the music.

Soundtrack:

If you like any of the songs - please support my efforts to stay within 'Fair Use' by buying them' I'd very much appreciate it.

* Mezmerize - Liz Phair [http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/exile-in-guyville-bonus-tracks/id283033231]

* Please Me Like You Want To - Ben Harper [http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/fight-for-your-mind/id17478904]

* Human After All - Daft Punk [http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/human-after-all/id388195039]

* Too Little Too Late - Metric [http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/live-it-out/id81067976]

* NIN Remixes (under Creative Commons) [http://remix.nin.com/]

In the first story I talk to John Sheehan [http://john-sheehan.com/blog/], a developer who's active on Twitter and is establishing himself in the Open Source community.

The second story comes from Scott Hanselman [http://www.hanselman.com/blog/] - one of the biggest names (if not *the* biggest) in the Microsoft community.

Technical Note: You'll notice that the first story's audio isn't ideal. John was using an analog mic that picked up some EM hum that I needed to filter out. I'm committed to spotless audio - but I have to work with what my guests have'

Music

* Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts 18 [http://ghosts.nin.com/main/home]

* White Stripes - Seven Nation Army [http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/elephant/id275230921]

* Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts 12 [http://ghosts.nin.com/main/home]

* Pavement - Grave Architecture [http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/wowee-zowee-sordid-sentinels/id203674837]

* James Brown - Super Bad [http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/20-all-time-greatest-hits/id117181]

* My Fair Lady - You Did It [http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/my-fair-lady/id158862806]

I talk to 2 developers in this episode, and toss in a story from myself at the end:

* The first story comes from Sara J Chipps [http://girldeveloper.com/] a Microsoft developer who lives on the East Coast.

* The second story comes from Oren Eine (Ayende Rahien) [http://ayende.com/] about what life as a prison commander in Israel taught him about his career.

* And finally there's me (Rob) - talking about the "Coyote Contract" that was doomed to fail. So I gnawed off my own reputation to get out of it.

Music

* Air - Sexxy Boy [http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/moon-safari/id381850260]

* Nine Inch Nails - #6 (Ghosts) [http://ghosts.nin.com/main/home]

* Electralane - On Parade [http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-power-out/id7059396]

* Beta Band - Broken Up a Ding Dong [http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-beta-band/id324897122]

* Calexico - Minas de Cobre [http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-black-light/id25515335]

* Fischerspooner - mega c (bonus track) [http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/id57085863]