Google Docs Issues

So, we're using Gmail/Google Apps at my new job. The doc feature makes collaboration a breeze. It has issues though.

1. There is no lossless way to backup documents. This shouldn't be a problem because Google shouldn't lose stuff. However, some of us were using our personal gmail accounts until the new system was available. If you only had a few docs, it's easy to share the docs between accounts and make a copy in the new account. You lose all revision history in the new doc.

If you have lots of documents, this is difficult to do. There's a download tool that will allow you download the docs in a specific collection, but only in a different format. Formatting is lost. So, it's not lossless.

2. There are only a few specific styles and you can't add any new ones. You can change the pre-defined ones, but that's of limited use. In previous versions, you had the opportunity to change styles via the html input capability, but that's gone now.

3. No ability to reference another doc and stitch multiple docs together at export to pdf time.

4. No image caption capability. This isn't a big deal. Insert a 1 cell table and put text at the bottom.

Because the range of formatting options are limited, it would be really nice if GoogleDocs provided a basic DocBook or even LaTex export capability. It would make it easier to integrate the documents into CM repository. It would also allow you to create your own formatting and combine documents as needed.

The strength of GoogleDocs is it's online collaboration capability. You don't to pass around word documents and worry about who has what revision. I don't know if Sharepoint makes this easier now. Probably not since it's just a storage location.

Switching to XFCE for F15

I've begun the process of upgrading my home machines to Fedora 15. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to switch to XFCE. The new Gnome 3 Shell is pretty horrendous on my wife's D820 laptop. The opensource nouveau drivers aren't good enough to run it. It's not only the lack of speed but how they seem to have gone out of their way to make it not easy to use. The one thing that sticks out is the lack of a shutdown button. If you want to shutdown the computer, you have to hold down the ALT key while hovering over the suspend or log out and hit shutdown. Here's a bug report for the lack of shutdown and resulting conversation.

I've not tried my work laptop yet. While it's docked it will crash when I try to suspend using the Nvidia closed driver. I'll try the nouveau driver under F15 eventually. If it fails like it did under F14, the suspend only button is totally unsatisfactory.

Prior to release, the buzz was that Gnome 3 was going to avoid the problems that accompanied the transition to KDE 4. It looks like the transition to Gnome 3 will be just as bad. I imagine that XFCE's user base will grow immensely now.

Fedora 15 is the most disappointed that I've been in a while with Fedora.

Updating machines to F14

I've updated most of the machines in the house to F14. I purchased a 500GB 2.5" hard drive and used that for a new F14 64bit install for my desktop machine. The virtualization stuff seems to be working better. When I get the new work laptop, I'll use F14 on it.

Jira/Confluence vs Trac

I've used Trac in the past for projects. For my current project we have Jira and Confluence. Jira and Confluence are nice. However, trying to manage tasking for sprints is a pain. With Trac it was easy to create tickets representing tasking. Those tickets could be assigned to a milestone. There doesn't seem to be an analog Jira.

Confluence is a wiki, but integration with Jira is limited. Trac tickets can be referenced within it's internal wiki. When a ticket is closed it's displayed with a line through it. There are Jira macros for Confluence but it's not a nice as what trac offers. There's even an eclipse plugin for Trac to make it easier to deal with tasking.

We're going to examine the Greenhopper add on for Jira. Maybe it will make things better.

Put Your Name on a Patent?

Considering all of the bad press that software patents have been getting, would you take pride in having your name on a software patent? They're pretty much a joke. The only reason you'd want one is so you can sue your competitors when they start competing. Look at MS and Apple. Google is starting to eat their lunch in the smart phone market. Their only option is to sue.

Marilla Walking

Marilla is finally taking her first steps. She's taken a few small half steps over the past couple of weeks. Today she actually started walking to people. Our babysitter's daughters had her walking between them today. Tonight she's walked to me and Lee Ann.

Training Your Leaders

I found this article on training managers at tech companies on slashdot. It's interesting in that new companies don't really have a culture of management. The founders may still be running the company. Since they're techies, they are probably young.

This may be a little different from other people starting small business, but I don't know. If you're starting a small business (non-tech related), it seems to me that you may or may not have all of that knowledge either. You'll probably hire an accountant to keep the books and make sure that you get your taxes paid on time. An attorney will probably need to be engaged, especially if the company will be incorporated. There are lots of books and local programs that will help the new small business owner learn things that they probably don't already know. So it seems like this may be a common issue.

The issue with tech companies especially the very large one is that they seem to grow very quickly. Other small business may not have this problem. Tech companies seem to grow into huge behemoths almost over night. If a business has this problem, it's probably prudent to hire someone that can help manage the company while not interfering with founder's vision.

The same author had another article aboutold techies. It paints a pretty discouraging picture for those of us that are aging and doing tech. It's almost an either or proposition. You can do tech related things, not focus on growing tech skills while picking management capability. Or, you must focus solely on tech skills picking up enough to do tech lead/team mgmt perhaps even enough for product management. The skills that you need as a someone that wants to maintain technical path are project level budgeting, hiring, and a focus on improving your capabilities.

You might ask why someone would want to remain on a technical path. My answer is better job security. Highly skilled technical people with update to skills and excellent background may have an easier time finding jobs than middle managers. Middle managers seem to be a dime a dozen. It seems to be the first to go at companies especially large ones.

Another issue is that at places like government contractors, getting into management position is harder due to competition with those that may have MBA and have started at the organization on a management track. This is especially true for those contractors that are Department of Defense (DoD) related.

The problem with DoD companies is that they'll be hiring most of their management from the either recently released/retired officers. Those individuals have plenty of experience managing people. (Probably not so much with EEO types of things though.) Middle mgmt will more than likely be ex military. This is especially true if they're expected to do business development/bring in contracts. They'll know the lingo and have contacts that are needed to form those connections.

Moving above middle mgmt in the above type of organization probably means that you'll need to have been a flag officer. Admirals and Generals are flag officers. It will be tough moving up. Perhaps those Generals/Admirals are worth it. I'm skeptical.

Former members of congress or high ranking government officials also take up those positions. Don't forget that Dick Cheney used to be Chairman and CEO at Halliburton. He certainly brought home the bacon once he became VP. (Yeah it's a snarky low blow.)

All in all, learning the soft skills of management/leadership is important. Even highly skilled individuals maintaining a technical path will need to lead teams of people. (Linus Torvalds is an example.) Just like your tech skills, you can't count on the company providing the training. You'll have to do your own reading or take classes for those things that can be taught. Leading and dealing with people will need to be learned on the job. Try to find a mentor that can help.