Dr. Dobb's Journal - April 2008 - (Page 12)

d04devdiary_p2ds 2/13/08 10:20 AM Page 12 Developer Diaries edited by Michael Swaine Saying No Ben Leslie Employer: Open Kernel Labs Job: Vice President of the engineering department DDJ: What is Open Kernel Labs? BL: It’s a spin-off from Australia’s ICT research body, NICTA. We provide microkernel-based embedded operating system and virtualization technology. DDJ: What’s your job there? BL: I’m responsible for the development of our product, OKL4, as well as the customization and support that we provide to our customers. DDJ: What do you like about your job? BL: The best thing about my job is seeing the ideas and technologies that I worked on as an undergraduate at UNSW being commercialized and used in real products. DDJ: What do you find challenging about your job? BL: The most challenging thing in this job is saying “no.” There is always a steady stream of new ideas to incorporate into our product, and new hardware to port our platform to, but there is never enough time to pursue all of them. DDJ: What have you found that makes your job easier? BL: Having a great team of engineers to work with goes a long way to making my job easier. Jonathan Palley Employer: Idapted Inc. Job: Cofounder and VP Product/Technology DDJ: What’s your job at Idapted? JP: Idapted is an online language learning startup headquartered in Beijing, China. I oversee the development of our products and technology platform. We are a small team, so I also spend a good deal of time coding. DDJ: What do you like about your job? JP: Integration and convergences. Our company is about integrating different fields, business models, and technologies to create an entirely new type of service. One of my key job functions is to find the innovation at the convergences. It is thrilling and I believe one of the futures of innovation. For example, we merge the distributed call center business model in the U.S., the latest research and ideas in language learning, and the recent advances in VoIP and web technology to create a learning service and platform that is entirely novel. Yet, each component is well established. The novelty is how they are brought together. DDJ: What do you find challenging about your job? JP: What I like about the job is also the challenge. Everyone I manage and work with is doing something different. We have so many different moving pieces, different perspectives (both culturally and professionally) that it is a constant challenge to keep things “in sync” and bring out the strengths of each. DDJ: What have you found that makes your job easier? JP: Work on something you are passionate about with people you enjoy working with. DDJ: What do you do when you’re not at work? JP: Improvised Theater. I’m one of the founders of Beijing Improv and I play in performances, lead workshops, and attend rehearsals. Not only is improv fun and very different from my job, but also it really gets to the core of what creativity and human interactions are all about. Improv is not about being “funny” or “quick witted.” Rather, it’s about how you work with other people in a constructive, spontaneous, and creative manner. I find that I never stop learning things from improv that can be applied to both my professional and personal life—while at the same time, I never stop laughing and having fun! Dr. Dobb’s Journal l www.ddj.com l April 2008 Ruby Everyday Nick Plante Employer: Ubikorp Internet Services Job: Freelance software developer and partner in a web application development studio DDJ: What’s your job? NP: I write web applications. The bulk of my work is using Ruby on Rails at the moment. Sometimes, I’m working as part of a larger team, and other times it’s just me, which means I’m often doing everything from project management to architecture, implementation, and testing. DDJ: What do you like about your job? NP: I really enjoy being a generalist. I like working with new technologies and being able to choose the right tools for the task at hand rather than being locked into something inflexible. Working directly with clients is great, because you’re working on something that really matters to someone, and helping them realize their vision. This is particularly true of early stage startups where there’s a lot of great feedback; it’s a very interactive process and never boring. DDJ: What do you find challenging about your job? NP: Being self-employed can be difficult in that you’re involved with everything from business development to customer support, and some days it feels like that takes away from time better spent coding. Also, staying up to date with the latest technology developments can be a full-time job in and of itself. I try to make as much time as possible to cut my teeth on new ideas and contribute to meaningful OSS projects. DDJ: What have you found that makes your job easier? NP: Ruby is great. I’ve never enjoyed writing code so much in my life…The best thing about Ruby is that we have such a smart, passionate community of like-minded hackers. DDJ: What do you do when you’re not working? NP: Good music, good books, independent films, traveling, and dreaming of alpaca ranching. VoIP and the Improv 12 http://www.ddj.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Dr. Dobb's Journal - April 2008

Dr. Dobb's Journal - April 2008 Contents Hmmmm Alia Vox Developer Diaries Dr. Dobb's Excellence in Programming Award Conversations Fast String Search on Multicore Processors The Byzantine Generals Problem Optimizing Math-Intensive Applications with Fixed-Point Arithmetic Random Numbers in a Range Using Generic Programming The Agile Edge Effective Concurrency Swaine's Flames

Dr. Dobb's Journal - April 2008

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