After a 4 month hiatus, I think it's time to start blogging again. I've had a great term working for RL Solutions, a company that makes risk and feedback management software for hospitals. It is inevitable that healthcare practitioners will make some mistakes. These incidents can range from very serious(think: adverse drug reactions), or very mild (patient left without checking out). Several studies report around 1 000 000 injuries a year, with anywhere from 45 000 to 90 000 deaths from medical errors (more info here and here). The idea is that health care institutions use software to log their errors, and run reports to learn and find ways to improve patient safety. For example, one study found that there were roughly 10% more medical incidents in the month of July. This so-called July effect seemed to be caused by new hospital staff starting in July.
The specific stuff I worked on was several .NET applications that take this incident information in our system, convert them to something similar to the HL7 CDA, and then send them securely to Patient Safety Organizations(PSOs). These PSOs then do some more powerful data mining and analysis on this data and give more detailed reports to the senders. There's also some more boring legal reasons why hospitals might want to send data to PSOs, but I won't talk about them now (Short story: incidents reported to PSOs can't be used against the hospitals in law).
This term, I had the privilege of reading through more massive spec documents that make little sense. I really wish they were better written. :/ Another new thing this term was using XSLT to do data conversions, and practice writing very thorough automated tests. The term itself was really fun, since this is the first time I got to work with a bunch of co-ops in a "co-op pen". The environment is also mega relaxed and fun, with PMs handing out beers once a week for no reason during work. :) There was also a David's Tea close by where everyone got to know us very well. :P All in all, it was a very fun and educational term.
Other notable things this term include me finishing Doctor Who. It's easily become my favorite show, and I'm disappointed that it took me this long to watch it. I'm currently downloading all the old episodes to see how comparatively awful they are. :P I also finally watched all of Arrested Development. I should have checked out that show much earlier too.
Next term should also be quite busy. I have 4 courses this semester (Testing, Requirements, Security :) , and DB Implementations), as well as part time development work for Karos Health and maybe even REAP too. Hopefully I'm not too busy with all that. :)
Showing posts with label Karos Health. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Karos Health. Show all posts
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Friday, June 24, 2011
Why Agile Development is More Fun
I just read this article claiming that Agile is "boring". I'm not sure how this person got to that conclusion. He also claims that Agile is very rigid and strict, although it's probably one of the most relaxed project management methodologies out there. It's certainly more dynamic and flexible than Waterfall models are.
From the article, it seems that this person works somewhere where they don't have any concept of project management at all. He talks as if he doesn't have deadlines to meet for his organization. Not sure where he's working where he can get away with this. Almost all projects have deadlines. It's very useful for business people to know things like estimates and set deadlines. Pretending they don't exist is no way to professionally develop software. Certainly not a realistic way to grow as an organization.
The writer says that Agile development gets boring after you do it for a couple projects. Not sure where that's coming from. I find that Agile development environments are much more interesting, because there is much less repetition. From iteration to iteration, you could be working on very different projects. Agile allows (and even encourages!) developers to explore other areas of the software and cross-train. You are also much less likely to be pegged as the "Database guy" or "UI guy" in an Agile project. While you might have a lot of experience with UI, your task is really whatever the project needs. If that means moving outside of your domain, so be it.
When I worked at Karos Health we practiced Scrum, a form of Agile, and I found it to be very flexible. While most of the time I was developing UI code, I also participated in all the other sections of the applications. I got to see all the parts of the application.
Also, Agile teams are encouraged to work very closely together. This interaction creates a very interesting working environment where you are constantly learning. This is certainly more interesting than working your way down an ad-hoc todo list by yourself, conversing with other developers only when absolutely necessary.
I suspect that the author has never worked in an Agile company (or at least one that's practicing Agile correctly), because his comments seem to be the opposite of what Agile development encourages.
From the article, it seems that this person works somewhere where they don't have any concept of project management at all. He talks as if he doesn't have deadlines to meet for his organization. Not sure where he's working where he can get away with this. Almost all projects have deadlines. It's very useful for business people to know things like estimates and set deadlines. Pretending they don't exist is no way to professionally develop software. Certainly not a realistic way to grow as an organization.
The writer says that Agile development gets boring after you do it for a couple projects. Not sure where that's coming from. I find that Agile development environments are much more interesting, because there is much less repetition. From iteration to iteration, you could be working on very different projects. Agile allows (and even encourages!) developers to explore other areas of the software and cross-train. You are also much less likely to be pegged as the "Database guy" or "UI guy" in an Agile project. While you might have a lot of experience with UI, your task is really whatever the project needs. If that means moving outside of your domain, so be it.
When I worked at Karos Health we practiced Scrum, a form of Agile, and I found it to be very flexible. While most of the time I was developing UI code, I also participated in all the other sections of the applications. I got to see all the parts of the application.
Also, Agile teams are encouraged to work very closely together. This interaction creates a very interesting working environment where you are constantly learning. This is certainly more interesting than working your way down an ad-hoc todo list by yourself, conversing with other developers only when absolutely necessary.
I suspect that the author has never worked in an Agile company (or at least one that's practicing Agile correctly), because his comments seem to be the opposite of what Agile development encourages.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
EHR Usability
I just read this article that talks about usability with EHRs. The writer says that EHR systems are too difficult for non-technical physicians to pick up and use on a daily basis. He claims that a lot of older physicians aren't using EHR systems because they don't know how to use computers well enough. He also claims that the government shouldn't force EHR systems on physicians.
While I agree that usability should be a huge concern for software developers, I think that the writer is a little extreme in thinking that the software is too hard to use. There's isn't much you can do at the software level if your user isn't comfortable with a mouse. At Karos Health, we put a lot of effort in creating easy to use software that would be intuitive for all users, with some good feedback from a lot of people. It's clear that there are plenty of physicians that have no problem with using software
We can't just let doctors do things the "stupid" way just because they don't want to learn something new. If they didn't learn new things we wouldn't have any medical imaging and we'd still be using whiskey as an anesthesia agent. Clearly this isn't the case.
So the question is should we allow physicians do things one way, when there is a better way? Especially if the better solution can reduce serious errors. There are other reasons why some doctors might not want to use EHRs, but should a learning curve be one of them?
I don't think so. I think it's very important for physicians to keep up with the times. Systems like EHRs are allowing physicians to do things that were once very difficult or impossible. They save lots of time and money, which ultimately leads to better service. The cost of an EHR is quickly made up when you consider the money you save by not hiring someone to collate paper charts and dealing with rooms full of paper files. It's also provides more security and helps reduce errors.
I agree with mandating use of EHRs, but I also think that software designers need to think more closely about usability, especially for less technical users.
While I agree that usability should be a huge concern for software developers, I think that the writer is a little extreme in thinking that the software is too hard to use. There's isn't much you can do at the software level if your user isn't comfortable with a mouse. At Karos Health, we put a lot of effort in creating easy to use software that would be intuitive for all users, with some good feedback from a lot of people. It's clear that there are plenty of physicians that have no problem with using software
We can't just let doctors do things the "stupid" way just because they don't want to learn something new. If they didn't learn new things we wouldn't have any medical imaging and we'd still be using whiskey as an anesthesia agent. Clearly this isn't the case.
So the question is should we allow physicians do things one way, when there is a better way? Especially if the better solution can reduce serious errors. There are other reasons why some doctors might not want to use EHRs, but should a learning curve be one of them?
I don't think so. I think it's very important for physicians to keep up with the times. Systems like EHRs are allowing physicians to do things that were once very difficult or impossible. They save lots of time and money, which ultimately leads to better service. The cost of an EHR is quickly made up when you consider the money you save by not hiring someone to collate paper charts and dealing with rooms full of paper files. It's also provides more security and helps reduce errors.
I agree with mandating use of EHRs, but I also think that software designers need to think more closely about usability, especially for less technical users.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Spring!
Yesterday was my last day at Karos Health. It was an excellent term with amazing people, and innovative software and technology. I'll definitely miss working there. They gave me a remote controlled helicopter as a parting gift.
How cool is that!
In other news, I'm quite excited to start my next semester. It'll be my first Spring school semester, and I hear the campus is awesome this time of year. I'll try to enjoy as much of it as I can with Real-Time. :P I will be taking:
- Software Design & Architecture
- History of Mathematics
- Real-Time Programming
- Distributed Systems
Should be a fun semester. :) I found out that one of my co-workers taught my
Distributed Prof. :P
I also have REAP next semester, which should help me meet my excitement quota for
the semester.
In other news, the Ignite Waterloo for Spring has been announce. I went to the one in Winter,
and it was excellent! I highly recommend that you check it out, if you get the chance.
How cool is that!
In other news, I'm quite excited to start my next semester. It'll be my first Spring school semester, and I hear the campus is awesome this time of year. I'll try to enjoy as much of it as I can with Real-Time. :P I will be taking:
- Software Design & Architecture
- History of Mathematics
- Real-Time Programming
- Distributed Systems
Should be a fun semester. :) I found out that one of my co-workers taught my
Distributed Prof. :P
I also have REAP next semester, which should help me meet my excitement quota for
the semester.
In other news, the Ignite Waterloo for Spring has been announce. I went to the one in Winter,
and it was excellent! I highly recommend that you check it out, if you get the chance.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
How I spend my 9-5
For the last two weeks at work, I've been working on a new team, developing an application called Rialto Consult. For those of you that are curious, you can read about it here.
Basically, the application allows physicians in one physical location to create radiology orders at a different location. One typical use case could be something like this: Hospital A runs a 24/7 radiology reading service. Hospital B, C, ... , Z have 24/7 emergency response departments, but unfortunately they don't have any radiologists on site overnight. So while these hospitals can capture radiology images, they do not have anyone to read them. Thankfully, Hospital A wants to offer their radiology reading service to these other hospitals. Right now, the workflow goes something like this: Someone comes into Hospital B at 2AM with some emergency. The hospital decides that they need some images taken and read. Once the hospital captures the images, they will fax an order over to Hospital A. Assuming Hospital A gets the order without any problems (fax machines suck), their radiologists will start reading the images. Often, having access to previous images ("relevant priors") is very useful, so the radiologist calls Hospital B and requests some images. These are sent over. Once the radiologist has enough information, they'll read the images and write(or more likely, dictate) a report summarizing their findings. That report gets faxed back to Hosptial A, where they decided what to do next. The whole process is complex, unreliable, and slow.
Now with Rialto Consult, the workflow becomes much more seamless. In many ways, the experience is indistinguishable from both parties being in the same physical building, even if they're in different cities (or even countries!). Essentially Consult offers a shared worklist. Both hospitals see the same worklist of radiology orders and their states in the workflow. When Hospital B wants a read done, they simply create an order in the system. That order is automatically sent electronically to Hospital A, along with a summary of the patient's history (including those very useful relevant prior images). Hospital A can then view the images, see the patient's medical history, and get relevant prior images. The radiologist can do all this from their workstation without having to call anyone. The radiologist's report is also automatically transfered to the original hospital, where they are notified of the results immediately. The entire process is much simpler, more reliable, and more cost effective.
The software is very cool and solves a real problem in the industry. The specific section I've been working has to do with audit records. When anyone does anything with the system or your patient information, an audit record is generated. There might be as many as 40 audit records generated for one patient to go through the workflow I described above, so you can imagine that there are literally millions of these records to deal with. I was working on a system to store and display these records in an intelligent way.
Okay. Maybe I should actually work on that work report now instead of randomly blogging. :P
Basically, the application allows physicians in one physical location to create radiology orders at a different location. One typical use case could be something like this: Hospital A runs a 24/7 radiology reading service. Hospital B, C, ... , Z have 24/7 emergency response departments, but unfortunately they don't have any radiologists on site overnight. So while these hospitals can capture radiology images, they do not have anyone to read them. Thankfully, Hospital A wants to offer their radiology reading service to these other hospitals. Right now, the workflow goes something like this: Someone comes into Hospital B at 2AM with some emergency. The hospital decides that they need some images taken and read. Once the hospital captures the images, they will fax an order over to Hospital A. Assuming Hospital A gets the order without any problems (fax machines suck), their radiologists will start reading the images. Often, having access to previous images ("relevant priors") is very useful, so the radiologist calls Hospital B and requests some images. These are sent over. Once the radiologist has enough information, they'll read the images and write(or more likely, dictate) a report summarizing their findings. That report gets faxed back to Hosptial A, where they decided what to do next. The whole process is complex, unreliable, and slow.
Now with Rialto Consult, the workflow becomes much more seamless. In many ways, the experience is indistinguishable from both parties being in the same physical building, even if they're in different cities (or even countries!). Essentially Consult offers a shared worklist. Both hospitals see the same worklist of radiology orders and their states in the workflow. When Hospital B wants a read done, they simply create an order in the system. That order is automatically sent electronically to Hospital A, along with a summary of the patient's history (including those very useful relevant prior images). Hospital A can then view the images, see the patient's medical history, and get relevant prior images. The radiologist can do all this from their workstation without having to call anyone. The radiologist's report is also automatically transfered to the original hospital, where they are notified of the results immediately. The entire process is much simpler, more reliable, and more cost effective.
The software is very cool and solves a real problem in the industry. The specific section I've been working has to do with audit records. When anyone does anything with the system or your patient information, an audit record is generated. There might be as many as 40 audit records generated for one patient to go through the workflow I described above, so you can imagine that there are literally millions of these records to deal with. I was working on a system to store and display these records in an intelligent way.
Okay. Maybe I should actually work on that work report now instead of randomly blogging. :P
Friday, April 15, 2011
Life Dilemma #8
Today was FedEx day at work. Basically, It's a free day (24 hours) to work on whatever you want. The motto is "Deliver Overnight", hence the name. I started by playing with SmartGWT, a very comprehensive GWT framework. Check out their showcase. It's pretty impressive. Has anyone ever used it before? I'd love to hear your thoughts. At some point I took a break from SmartGWT and helped a colleague work on the software the validates the software licenses. That was a very interesting and different project. I feel sorry for the compiler that had to compile the code I produced. There was some effort to obfuscate the code. It was a fun project, but I feel dirty for violating every coding practice I've ever learned. :P
This last week got me thinking about what I want to do next co-op term. Working at Karos Health has been an amazing opportunity. I enjoy working with all my co-workers, and I have a lot of fun at work. The people are all very passionate and skilled at what they do, so it's a real pleasure to work with them. There's a lot of support for professional development. For one, everyone at the company seems immensely talented, so just working with everyone on a daily basis provides a lot of opportunity for learning. On top of that, the company invests a lot in professional development in the form of lunch and learns, book clubs, and trips to various UX and Agile P2P meetings. The actual software that we build is also very cool. We are coming out with products that don't exist in the market yet! It's very exciting stuff.
The dilemma is whether or not I want to go back there for my next co-op term. I think co-op is really awesome because you get a chance to work for up to 6 different organizations, all with different people, using different tools, and in different business markets. This is an incredible learning opportunity. I thought that I would learn more if I were to work somewhere else, but now I'm not so sure. I'll certainly get a chance to work with a brand new group of people, but I don't know if it's worth leaving such a fun job behind. If I do go back to Karos, I would like to work on server-side code. If I do that, I would be able to work with a (slightly) different group of people in the company, and use different tools. I guess I'll have to think about this a lot more in the upcoming months. I guess this isn't really a bad dilemma to have.
In other news, I got an offer for a UW REAP position today. I am very excited to work on that project next semester. It will be an incredibly busy semester with Real-Time, but it should be one of the most interesting semesters so far. I'm excited (and scared).
This last week got me thinking about what I want to do next co-op term. Working at Karos Health has been an amazing opportunity. I enjoy working with all my co-workers, and I have a lot of fun at work. The people are all very passionate and skilled at what they do, so it's a real pleasure to work with them. There's a lot of support for professional development. For one, everyone at the company seems immensely talented, so just working with everyone on a daily basis provides a lot of opportunity for learning. On top of that, the company invests a lot in professional development in the form of lunch and learns, book clubs, and trips to various UX and Agile P2P meetings. The actual software that we build is also very cool. We are coming out with products that don't exist in the market yet! It's very exciting stuff.
The dilemma is whether or not I want to go back there for my next co-op term. I think co-op is really awesome because you get a chance to work for up to 6 different organizations, all with different people, using different tools, and in different business markets. This is an incredible learning opportunity. I thought that I would learn more if I were to work somewhere else, but now I'm not so sure. I'll certainly get a chance to work with a brand new group of people, but I don't know if it's worth leaving such a fun job behind. If I do go back to Karos, I would like to work on server-side code. If I do that, I would be able to work with a (slightly) different group of people in the company, and use different tools. I guess I'll have to think about this a lot more in the upcoming months. I guess this isn't really a bad dilemma to have.
In other news, I got an offer for a UW REAP position today. I am very excited to work on that project next semester. It will be an incredibly busy semester with Real-Time, but it should be one of the most interesting semesters so far. I'm excited (and scared).
Thursday, April 7, 2011
New Projects At Work
I haven't been posting as often as I usually do, mostly because I've been extra busy at work. I started working on a different project this week with my team. It's very exciting, since this is a production application that will be used by real institutions very very soon. The previous project I was working on was a research project, so obviously the quality and usability requirements are very different. I can't say things like "We'll deal with that later" anymore. :P Not too mention it has to play nice with other vendors. Let me tell you. This is not an easy thing to accomplish. The standards that exist are not as useful as I would expect.
I also need to start working on that silly work term report soon. I'm writing it on RESTful API design. I've worked on half a dozen of these APIs this work term, so I think it should be fairly straightforward to write. Hopefully it won't be too painful.
I also need to start working on that silly work term report soon. I'm writing it on RESTful API design. I've worked on half a dozen of these APIs this work term, so I think it should be fairly straightforward to write. Hopefully it won't be too painful.
Friday, April 1, 2011
A Lot To Learn
Today at Karos Health, we had a retrospection with Declan Whelan, an Agile coach in the Waterloo area. I thought that it was very interesting. I came out feeling like I still have so much to learn about this industry. I pretty much feel this way every couple months. :P It's a weird feeling. I think I'll come out of university feeling much stupider than I felt when I came in. I guess having an awareness of what you need to learn is pretty important though.
So here's a list of things I would like to work on; my personal improvement backlog. :P Priority to be determined.
- Test Driven Development. I feel like won't really understand it until I actually spend a few weeks doing that. I am still unconvinced of it's benefits, but I think the best way to really decide its effectiveness is to actually practice it.
- Pair Programming. I've already done a little bit of this at work and for school projects, but I think the cross-training that it provides is really useful, and I'd love to try it for longer periods of time.
- Language Expertise. I still want to learn some language really really well. I think C# is a good candidate for this. It's still my favorite language.
- Technical Expertise. There's just so many technical things I don't know about. How do you do secure network communication? How can you ensure high availability? How can you efficiently do *? What standard libraries exist for doing *? I would like to know so much more about these topics.
- Agile. All my agile knowledge comes from many different informal sources. I think I should try to learn it more formally by reading through a book, or taking a course or something. There are a lot of fundamental things that I'm still trying to figure out, and I think that formal training would be very useful.
- Healthcare. There's so much to learn about the being a developer for the healthcare industry. There's various protocols: HL7, DICOM, and frameworks for working with them like XDS. I know very little about how these protocols work. I know even less about the interoperability problems that arise from having many different protocols.
This list is a little overwhelming. I don't know where to start. Instead of doing a "breadth-first search" into these topics like I have in the past, I'd like to dive into one of them and get to know them very very well. Too bad I'll have Real-Time next semester. :/ I guess I'll make time after that. :/
So here's a list of things I would like to work on; my personal improvement backlog. :P Priority to be determined.
- Test Driven Development. I feel like won't really understand it until I actually spend a few weeks doing that. I am still unconvinced of it's benefits, but I think the best way to really decide its effectiveness is to actually practice it.
- Pair Programming. I've already done a little bit of this at work and for school projects, but I think the cross-training that it provides is really useful, and I'd love to try it for longer periods of time.
- Language Expertise. I still want to learn some language really really well. I think C# is a good candidate for this. It's still my favorite language.
- Technical Expertise. There's just so many technical things I don't know about. How do you do secure network communication? How can you ensure high availability? How can you efficiently do *? What standard libraries exist for doing *? I would like to know so much more about these topics.
- Agile. All my agile knowledge comes from many different informal sources. I think I should try to learn it more formally by reading through a book, or taking a course or something. There are a lot of fundamental things that I'm still trying to figure out, and I think that formal training would be very useful.
- Healthcare. There's so much to learn about the being a developer for the healthcare industry. There's various protocols: HL7, DICOM, and frameworks for working with them like XDS. I know very little about how these protocols work. I know even less about the interoperability problems that arise from having many different protocols.
This list is a little overwhelming. I don't know where to start. Instead of doing a "breadth-first search" into these topics like I have in the past, I'd like to dive into one of them and get to know them very very well. Too bad I'll have Real-Time next semester. :/ I guess I'll make time after that. :/
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Swarming!
Our project manager at Karos Health shared a link with us the other day about Swarming.
This is the first time I've heard of this technique and it sounds quite interesting. The idea is that you get all the developers to work (swarm) on a single story, instead of having each developer working on a separate story. The goal is to get more stories fully completed. It's better to have 80% of the features 100% done, instead of having 100% of the features 80% done.
I also think having many developers focused on a single story encourages collaboration and teamwork. It forces everyone to work together very closely, and this probably leads to getting the story done faster.
Of course, the story in question needs to be big enough to allow multiple developers to work on it together without stepping on each other's toes. If our J3WAO stories weren't so small, I think it would be interesting to try it there.
This is the first time I've heard of this technique and it sounds quite interesting. The idea is that you get all the developers to work (swarm) on a single story, instead of having each developer working on a separate story. The goal is to get more stories fully completed. It's better to have 80% of the features 100% done, instead of having 100% of the features 80% done.
I also think having many developers focused on a single story encourages collaboration and teamwork. It forces everyone to work together very closely, and this probably leads to getting the story done faster.
Of course, the story in question needs to be big enough to allow multiple developers to work on it together without stepping on each other's toes. If our J3WAO stories weren't so small, I think it would be interesting to try it there.
Friday, January 7, 2011
User Interfaces On The Web
At Karos Health, I've been doing a lot of user interface development for the web. I am learning a lot about designing user friendly interfaces that provide business users with the best user experience. This seems like a very challenging and rewarding problem, and certainly an interesting way to spend my 9-5. There's a lot to consider when designing usable systems, and I'm starting to appreciate all the intricacies of UI design. I am looking forward to the UI course in summer even more now.
I found this article on designing good web forms, and thought it was pretty good. I will have to remember to apply some of these things to my user interfaces for Karos.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Smartphones And Your Health
I've recently seen a few new smartphone apps dedicated to your health. In the past, I've seen things like Runkeeper that help you keep track of your fitness. More recently, I've seen things like this: an iPhone add-on that can measure and monitory your blood pressure. The iHealth dock is even capable of taking that information and sending it directly to your doctor. They have plans to expand to support various other monitors (like glucose monitors).
I think that making these sorts of checks less scary is a great idea. Being able to do this sort of stuff at home, using a device that you are already comfortable with, will certainly lower the anxiety associated with going to a hospital. It can simplify doing these checks, and increase accuracy by preventing things like the white-coat effect.
I'm not sure about this whole "sending data to your doctor" thing, though. I don't think healthcare providers have time to log every single blood pressure reading you take, nor do they really care. Your day-to-day blood pressure fluctuation is not that important. They really care about things like averages. This is something you can do on your own, and then just submit an average to the physician. As I'm learning at Karos Health, healthcare providers already have enough problems organizing all the available data in a secure and accessible way. Having random iPhone data thrown at them is only going to complicate the situation. While self-reporting is generally a good idea, it needs to be implemented very carefully to be effective.
In any case, I would like to see what other ways smartphones can make healthcare more accessible.
I think that making these sorts of checks less scary is a great idea. Being able to do this sort of stuff at home, using a device that you are already comfortable with, will certainly lower the anxiety associated with going to a hospital. It can simplify doing these checks, and increase accuracy by preventing things like the white-coat effect.
I'm not sure about this whole "sending data to your doctor" thing, though. I don't think healthcare providers have time to log every single blood pressure reading you take, nor do they really care. Your day-to-day blood pressure fluctuation is not that important. They really care about things like averages. This is something you can do on your own, and then just submit an average to the physician. As I'm learning at Karos Health, healthcare providers already have enough problems organizing all the available data in a secure and accessible way. Having random iPhone data thrown at them is only going to complicate the situation. While self-reporting is generally a good idea, it needs to be implemented very carefully to be effective.
In any case, I would like to see what other ways smartphones can make healthcare more accessible.
Monday, January 3, 2011
First Day!
I just finished my first day at Karos Health! It was a lot of fun. I did a lot of reading on all their software and how it works. I also got to participate in a sprint planning meeting. It was certainly a fast introduction into the company and their products! I even got to play planning poker! Very cool! I've always wanted to do that. I will be working on really cool networking software that connects healthcare vendors, though I can't talk about all the details. :P
I got to use Mac's OS X for a decent amount of consecutive time. I've learned that Expose is really, really awesome, although I wouldn't switch to OS X for it. I like Windows more in general, though I wish it had expose.
After work, I got sushi with Dani. She met me outside my office. :) Yummyaki gets our coveted sushi seal of approval!
Now time to do some more research on work stuff, so I'm not completely dumb for tomorrow. :P
I hope your first day of work/school went well (if applicable :P)!
I got to use Mac's OS X for a decent amount of consecutive time. I've learned that Expose is really, really awesome, although I wouldn't switch to OS X for it. I like Windows more in general, though I wish it had expose.
After work, I got sushi with Dani. She met me outside my office. :) Yummyaki gets our coveted sushi seal of approval!
Now time to do some more research on work stuff, so I'm not completely dumb for tomorrow. :P
I hope your first day of work/school went well (if applicable :P)!
Saturday, January 1, 2011
End Of The Open-Source Curse?
Some of you might know that I have a history of bad luck with open source software. Some would say that it hates me. Open source software tends to fail in interesting ways for me. For instance, my last two installations of Ubuntu had lame driver issues. I seem to have a lot of problems with Android, too.
However, yesterday I installed Ubuntu without any problems! I didn't have to do any driver fiddling to get anything to work! I was quite happy. Perhaps my curse with open source software is over. Maybe it doesn't hate me anymore! :) What a way to welcome in the new year!
Speaking of which, happy new year everyone! I had a relaxed new year's party with Dani and Jesse. We enjoyed some wine and watched movies. It was a great night. You should check out Jesse's newly redesigned site. It looks quite pretty! :)
I am excited for all the interesting things this year. First, I have work starting on the 3rd with Karos Health. I am really excited to start working there, although I'm also quite nervous. I have never done web development on this scale before, so I think I will be learning a lot in my first couple weeks. My next school semester also seems pretty exciting. I am taking History of Mathematics with my favorite professor, Steven Furino. I have been looking forward to this class since first year. Yay!
Hopefully you all had a fun new year's party. Stay classy. :)
However, yesterday I installed Ubuntu without any problems! I didn't have to do any driver fiddling to get anything to work! I was quite happy. Perhaps my curse with open source software is over. Maybe it doesn't hate me anymore! :) What a way to welcome in the new year!
Speaking of which, happy new year everyone! I had a relaxed new year's party with Dani and Jesse. We enjoyed some wine and watched movies. It was a great night. You should check out Jesse's newly redesigned site. It looks quite pretty! :)
I am excited for all the interesting things this year. First, I have work starting on the 3rd with Karos Health. I am really excited to start working there, although I'm also quite nervous. I have never done web development on this scale before, so I think I will be learning a lot in my first couple weeks. My next school semester also seems pretty exciting. I am taking History of Mathematics with my favorite professor, Steven Furino. I have been looking forward to this class since first year. Yay!
Hopefully you all had a fun new year's party. Stay classy. :)
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