Chris Bowen's Blog : Miscellany

Tech Telecommuters - What's Your "Third Place"?

cbowen — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 22:05:32 GMT

Adventures in Telecommuting

At Microsoft, I'm classified as a "mobile" employee. That's code for "work where you can be productive". Much of the time, that means home, and sometimes our Waltham, MA office where we have shared space you can grab as needed. Many times, though, it's a "third place" (I'll get to that in a moment.)

As great as working from home can be, as the weather warms and summer approaches, there's a new source of urgency to be somewhere else...

...school vacation.

I absolutely adore my daughters (a phrase you just know will be followed by the word "however"), however, the reality is that the summer months are challenging for the work-from-home types, especially those that need to code and/or read a lot, without having to arbiter weighty disputes involving shouts of "nuh-uh!" and "did too!"

Not Work, Not Home... The Third Place

The term "third place" was coined to reflect places that people go outside of home (first place) and work (second place).

My home office is usually pretty good, and I can escape to the back porch (where I am right now) which is nice, but school vacation or not, there are times I simply need a change of venue.

So what's my "third place"? Well, there isn't just one...

The Coffee Shop

The big daddy of all the choices. Scorned by some, but thoroughly enjoyed by many others. Count me in the latte(r) camp.

I'm hardly alone in this. Here's someone's Starbuckian Handbook. Sage advice indeed.

Contrary to tip #1 in the "handbook", I tend to alternate between the selection of Starbucks and Panera Breads in our area, so I don't wear out my welcome at any one.

Generally, the coffee shops work for what I need.

The Library

"Did he just say 'the library'? How old fashioned!"

In my college years, I was a library person. Many of my peers just couldn't stand being there, but I found it allowed me to truly focus. No distractions, no loud espresso machines, no toe-tapping music looping in the background. Just blissful peace with the faint sounds of pages being turned and the occasional politely hushed conversation.

The library works for telecommuters, too. I'm sure one of your area towns has an adequately "workable" library. Also, college/university libraries are getting the message too, adding amenities to make an extended work session more comfortable.

Sure, they don't always have the latest computing technology books, but if that's what you need, then perhaps the next place is more your style...

The Big Bookstores

An interesting hybrid between a library and a coffee shop (the big bookstores generally also have a cafe these days). I find it an especially nice place to go if I'm in research mode. People are usually a little more clued in to library etiquette, versus coffeehouse chatter and cellphone barking.

Research is especially good at these places since I can usually grab a few different books/magazines on a topic and plow through them (over an appropriately large coffee beverage of course.)

Hotels

I haven't tried this one yet, but a friend suggested it as a possibility. And why not? Many hotels have carefully crafted, welcoming environments that are comfortable and quiet.

As long as you're patronizing their coffee/snack area and/or restaurant, there would seem little problem with hanging around for a little while to catch up on things.

It could be a nice alternative to the mainstream coffee houses.

Coworking

CNN has been running a special work at home feature, with stories about telecommuting. Once concept that piqued my interest was of "coworking", where fellow telecommuting developers (or other professions) gather in a common place for work. There's a coworking wiki, with information on area groups.

Missing the social interaction of work, but don't miss the dreaded "quick questions" that often tag along for the ride? Coworking might be for you.

Some Assistance Required

So why did I write this? I'd enjoy hearing your feedback. Have you encountered any places that could serve as a home away from your home away from the office? Any places that sound good, but in reality should just be avoided?

Believe me, I really want to know.

Hmm, is that the kids I hear?

-Chris

Tips from My Technical Presentations

cbowen — Tue, 27 May 2008 21:18:55 GMT

My role involves spending a good deal of time with technical audiences. Recently, I've been getting reactions like this - "I enjoyed your presentation! I have an odd question - how did you zoom in like that?" or "How did you set those colors in Visual Studio?"

So, I'm posting some tips so I can direct people here for more information.

1) Use ZoomIt for Screen Zooming

It's never a good thing to feature content on your screen that the audience can't see. It's frustrating for them, and hinders conveying the very message you're trying to present.

Fortunately, there's a very easy answer. For areas where you can't already have proper font sizes and colors (see below), use ZoomIt, a free tool from TechNet!

Read my post on ZoomIt for details.

ZoomIt is just great. Obviously, you can zoom, but you can also draw lines, boxes, ellipses and text anywhere on the screen. It also has a break timer you can use to quickly count down that break between your sessions.

2) Change the Default "Highlight" Color in Visual Studio

The default blue highlight for selected text in Visual Studio looks fine on a computer, but when projecting, selecting text can actually make it harder to read - it's likely that nobody past the first few rows can read what you've just selected.

To fix this, go to Tools->Options->Environment->Fonts And Colors, then in the "display items" list, choose "Selected Text" and change the background color to bright yellow or green (think highlighter) and the text to black.

3) Use a Code Color/Font Scheme That's Easy to View

This is clearly subjective, but I've found that changing the fonts and colors from the default results in code that's easier on the eyes. Many people have told me they prefer this, nobody has said they had trouble with it.

I've uploaded the settings file for my colors and fonts to SkyDrive (see the above code picture for a preview.) You can easily apply them to your own Visual Studio settings using "Tools->Import and Export Settings". I'd recommend you back up your current settings using the Export option before trying this out.

I use the Consolas font in Visual Studio, which you can download here.

Also, check out Scott Hanselman's great post on alternate Visual Studio themes.

4) Create Quick-Change Font Size Macros

In Visual Studio, it's easy to create your own keybindings to IDE features. I've added CTRL-SHIFT-[+/-] to mine which quickly increments or decrements the editor font size.

The screenshot at right shows the decrease font macro I've wired up. Go to Tools->Options->Environment->Keyboard, then type "Font" into the Show Commands Containing textbox to find the font-related commands.

Then you can just ask the audience if they can see, quickly bump the font a bit and you're good to go.

5) Have Emergency Backup Plans... and Pictures... and Video

Let's face it, sometimes demos don't work as planned. Pilot error, beta software, phases of the moon - you need a contingency plan. I'll typically run through my demos and take screenshots of the key points, adding them to the end of my presentation deck.

In some cases, you might even consider recording the whole demo, using a tool like Camtasia. Play the video (without sound) and narrate what's happening for the audience. Your audience will appreciate having content rather than watching you flail about, trying to diagnose a problem.

This also applies to websites that you may want to show, should you find yourself without web connectivity. Either save a local copy of the page (in IE, File->Save As->Web Archive, single file (*.mht)) or just take a screenshot.

Hope you find these tips useful. Do you have others?

-Chris

SkyDrive Doubles to 1GB Free Space

cbowen — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 15:53:43 GMT

If you read my blog, you've seen that I've recently been trying the beta of Windows Live SkyDrive internet-based storage service for hosting my session materials.

Cool news - the 500MB free space has now doubled to 1GB. They've also added some other nice features such as RSS updates to watch for file changes and easier ways to add your friends by email address for file/folder access.

There's a SkyDrive team blog if you're interested in keeping an eye on related news.

-Chris

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Whitepaper on Website A/B Testing

cbowen — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 05:57:53 GMT

Dare blogged about an interesting whitepaper from the Microsoft Experimentation Team about the concept of A/B testing and applications for websites.

"Practical Guide to Controlled Experiments on the Web: Listen to your Customers not to the HiPPO"

Note that HiPPO = Highest Paid Person's Opinion.

A/B testing (briefly, the concept of varying one or more settings/behaviors on a site for controlled subsets of users and analyzing resulting behaviors) was used extensively at my last two companies before joining Microsoft, so this was a good read. Section 5, Lessons Learned, is alone very worthwhile.

Recommended reading even if you aren't running a web application since the concepts could be applied to a variety of systems (but the inherent flexibility of websites makes them primary candidates for such testing.) Using A/B testing, you may be surprised to see how seemingly minor changes to a site can lead to major improvements in rates of use, clickthroughs, purchases, etc.

-Chris

Cool Technology at Live Labs

cbowen — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 17:03:50 GMT

If you haven't been to Microsoft Live Labs site before, take some time to review their latest technologies.

PhotoSynth

PhotoSynth is a very cool bit of technology. Here's their description:

Photosynth is an amazing new technology from Microsoft Live Labs that will change forever the way you think about digital photos.

Our software takes a large collection of photos of a place or an object, analyzes them for similarities, and displays them in a reconstructed three-dimensional space.

But to really get a feel for it, you should try it yourself!

Deepfish

From the Deepfish FAQ:

Deepfish is a mobile browsing Technology Preview from Microsoft Live Labs. Deepfish displays content in a view that is closer to the desktop experience. The zoom-able interface and cue map allow you to quickly access the information you care about over the web without ever losing track of where you are.

While you can't download it just yet (the CTP is currently full), there is a video/animation that shows you how it works.

SeaDragon

There's not much to directly review with SeaDragon, but it is the underlying technology used to stream pictures in the PhotoSynth project, so you can get an idea of what it can do by trying PhotoSynth.

Interesting stuff!

-Chris

Going Global

cbowen — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 21:19:34 GMT

I recently received a small package from Wiley. I opened it to find a copy of my book (Professional Visual Studio 2005 Team System.) Only this copy seemed... different. Why is Anaya Multimedia also listed on the cover? Why is "Professional" spelled "Profesional"?

It turns out our friends at Anaya in Madrid have been at work translating the book into a Spanish language edition. Very cool!

Everything from the chapter content, screenshots, and code comments, to the bios and acknowledgements have been translated. Need a chapter on unit testing? Try "Preuebas unitarias con el framework de pruebas unitarias"! Test case management? "Administracion de un caso de prueba".

It's a strange yet interesting thing to see your words when they aren't your words.

Hasta leugo!

-Chris

My Turn for the 5 Things Tagging Meme

cbowen — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 03:54:00 GMT

Okay, I'm the last of Andy Beaulieu's group of 5 tagees to blog five things that people probably didn't know about me. So, to curtail any further guilt (and to replace it with shame?), here we go:

I'm a very big fan of craft beer. I love checking out the latest offerings from Dogfish Head, Avery, AleSmith, Rogue, Stone, etc. In fact, if you're in the Boston area, check out the Extreme Beer Fest. I'll be there on 2/10 and sleeping on 2/11.
My older daughter (age 7) and I are reading through the Harry Potter series together. Of course, when you read in 15-20 minute chunks at bedtime, it takes a while. Halfway through book 4... Go Gryffindor!
Unusual skill that I'm not particularly good at - glassblowing. I have a collection of misshapen cups and random whatchamicallits to prove it.
I started programming as a wee lad in 1979. "101 Basic Games" was one of the first books that sped me on the way. Ah, the fun of Boxing and hunting the Wumpus in full text-based glory.
I can bend my left thumb back so it is parallel with my index finger - pointing the other way. Good for entertaining audiences when my demos fail. Used frequently.

Well there you have it. I'll try to find time later to come back and tag five other people who haven't been tagged yet, but I wanted to get this post up now to complete Andy's group.

-Chris