Chris Garty's Weblog : Personal

Ultimate Ears: The best earphones in the world

chrisgarty — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 18:20:00 GMT

I splashed out a little a couple of weeks ago and ordered some Ultimate Ears UE-5c's. They arrived on Friday and they are nothing short of brilliant.

Imagine sitting in a sound booth with really good sound isolation and really nice dual-driver speakers. Now imagine getting that experience in the convenience of some earphones. The only downside is that you can't wear them running or walking around town since they block out so much noise you won't hearing the honking horn of an approaching car ;) (Actually, because of their custom fit, they're great for running... and you can hear a little external noise from cars)

I have sent a picture of them to my picture blog (you can get directly to the picture here).

If you appreciate high quality sound reproduction and you can afford it, then you need to get some of these. They really are the best sound isolating earphones you can get. Standard fit models like the Shure E series can't touch the custom fitted comfort and sound quality of Ultimate Ears.

Update:

I just got back from Christmas with my family in New Zealand and a few of my friends asked how "the best earphones in the world" performed on the plane. Well, I can happily report that the Ultimate Ears were brilliant and made the 48 hours of travel (Fargo - Auckland return) MUCH more enjoyable and restful.

Before I left I had to pick up a simple Radioshack 'volume control for headphones' because (1) the lowest volume on the iPod was still too loud for sleeping to (yes, they are that good) and (2) I wanted to make sure that I could quickly mute any extra loud 'announcements' that came over the in-flight entertainment system.

Once on the plane I put in my UE-5c's and I entered a wonderland. The sound isolating properties drastically reduced the plane's engine noise as well as almost completely elimating any cabin sounds, and the high quality sound from the dual drivers in each ear effortlessly piped through Amy Lee's (Evanescence) beautiful voice. On the LA-Auckland leg I slept for 5 hours straight (an on-plane record for me) with the Ultimate Ears in and the music on super low. The comfort of the custom fitting allows them to be worn indefinitely without the soreness associated with standard 'one size fits all' earphones as I found out when I wore them for most of the 11 hour flight to NZ. They are super comfortable. The low profile (another characteristic you won't find with many headphones/earphones) also allows you to lie on your side with your ear against a pillow (like I did on one of the legs when I had a spare seat next to me).

If you spend a lot of time on planes or work in a noisy environment or just want super high quality sound from earphones that eliminate the noise of the world then these really are worth every penny. Get them here.

My New Obsession: The Humble Weather Report

chrisgarty — Wed, 08 Dec 2004 21:38:00 GMT

Ever since I got to Fargo I have been fascinated by the weather. I have never lived in a place where I had anything more than an overnight frost, even in the dead of winter. I find it funny that even though it has snowed a couple of times already, everyone keeps telling me that it is still only 'cool' and not 'cold'. Well, as of next week, it'll be permanently below freezing... and continuing to get 'cooler'.

He emerges from his prolonged silence to say...

chrisgarty — Wed, 08 Dec 2004 19:20:00 GMT

It snowed! I'm told that the snow has arrived super late this year, so I have been lucky to catch some excellent weather.

I never would have guessed how hazardous a 9 minute commute (yes, door to door) could become. Black ice is something that must be experienced to be believed. Remember the last time you slipped in the shower? Imagine driving on a surface that is like that in the worst possible places... like on the approach to a stop sign, or on your sloped driveway... welcome to the slip-n-slide commute!

And in work-related news...

Talking (and blogging) about Microsoft stuff with non-Microsoft people is an interesting exercise. While I am really enthusiastic about the things I am doing and involved in, I can't talk about them openly. There are things here and there that I can talk about, like general thoughts about ORM or SOA, but I have kept very quiet till now to make sure I don't step anywhere near 'the line' ;). I'm determined to be a bit more vocal and work on some personal projects in the next couple of weeks before I head off to NZ for Christmas.

Fargo, North Dakota: I have arrived!

chrisgarty — Mon, 25 Oct 2004 16:30:00 GMT

I left Melbourne on the 10th and spent a week in Chicago and New York before arriving in Fargo on the 17th. The time in Chicago and New York was great. The buildings in Chicago were much bigger than I had anticipated and the subway in New York (I had been to NY before, but hadn't ridden the subway) was a lot safer than I had been led to believe :). The highlight had to be going to Madison Square Garden with my friend Kamil to watch the NY Knicks beat the San Antonio Spurs and sitting just 14 rows away from the court!

After staying one night in Fargo at my temporary accomodation, arriving at work for the first time and getting my New Employee Orientation (NEO) out of the way, it was off to Seattle for a meeting of all the MBF PMs. It was a great way to start the week and I learnt a lot about the team, the product and the development process the team is using. The distributed (Fargo, Copenhagen and Redmond) nature of the team is fairly unique for Microsoft and the team has developed some excellent processes for dealing with the challenges and making the most of the advantages that this structure has provided.

I'm just getting settled in and finding my way around the internal Microsoft network. I'm currently swimming in a sea of Microsoft mailing lists and intranet pages. If I have subscribed to too many high-traffic lists I could drown in a flood of mail on Monday, but it is a risk I'm willing to take :).

All in all, it has been a great first week. The product looks great. There is still work to be done before we are ready to release, so we have to make sure we don't get people too excited too early. That, and the likelihood of me getting things wrong is very high at the moment, so I'll just learn the ropes for a couple of weeks and then maybe I'll be able to safely have open conversations again ;).

MBF: Will we see you before 2007?

chrisgarty — Thu, 07 Oct 2004 01:31:00 GMT

A recent article from eWeek has quoted Microsoft Developer Division Executive Soma Somasegar about timelines related to Longhorn. MBF got a mention as well:

Somasegar also acknowledged that the MBF (Microsoft Business Framework), which is tied to WinFS functionality, will likely be delayed until 2007 but that Microsoft is looking to speed its delivery.

"We're also starting to look at whether there is a way to accelerate the delivery of MBF, and the teams are working through plans," he said. "If we continue with the dependency on WinFS, it'll be in 2007, whenever WinFS ships."

MBF's visibility has been increasing lately and so it should be... the release of MBF will be a huge event for business application developers. I hope I'll be able to blog a little about the features of MBF in the near future.

On a more personal note: I start in Fargo on the 18th of October! :)

MBF and WinFS: A view of the world I am entering

chrisgarty — Wed, 22 Sep 2004 21:43:00 GMT

Tim Brookins is an Architect on the MBF team (and he is based in Fargo). When I got impatient waiting for a reply about the position in the MBF team, an email to Tim was the thing that sparked it all off ;).

I just read a post from Tim (two days old) that explains the tie between MBF and WinFS and answers a few questions people might have about the scope of the MBF effort.

I'm sure after reading that, you can understand why I'm really excited about getting over there and getting into it!

A Big Change: I’m Joining Microsoft

chrisgarty — Wed, 22 Sep 2004 00:59:00 GMT

I don’t have a firm start date or travel plan yet (I have my final visa interview on Friday), but I have accepted a position with Microsoft Business Solutions in Fargo, North Dakota to be a Program Manager (PM) in the Microsoft Business Framework (MBF - my previous mention of it, announcement, presentation) team. I expect to fly out sometime between the 9th and 19th of October and start in Fargo between the 25th of October and the 1st of November.

I had mentioned MBF and described it (based on some correct and incorrect knowledge pulled from around the web) previously (May 11). Here is what I wrote:

“[MBF] is an exciting area of technology for Microsoft since it touches so many 'hot' areas: Microsoft's business application development (Green), service oriented architecture (Indigo), object relational persistence (ObjectSpaces), lightweight process support (in-process Biztalk process engine), and model driven architecture (Whitehorse) to name a few.”

And so now I'm going to be involved in building this framework and getting it into the hands of developers and customers around the world!.

How did you find out about this position?

I really love my current position at iP3, but about 8 months ago (March 2004) I sat down and had a think about other things that I would really enjoy working on. Sometime later I went onto the careers site and submitted my resume. I originally applied for a different position as a Software Development Engineering Lead, but I had mentioned in my initial communications with the Microsoft technical recruiter that a program manager position was something that interested me in the medium- to long-term and the guys in the MBF team decided I would be better suited to a PM position right now.

Do you get to write code?

I have heard that Program Manager’s write code as examples for SDE’s (developers) and to test out the products. In my case, MBF is a framework for developers so I probably will be writing a bunch of code.

Do you get to work with the community?

I hope so, but I’m unsure. Hopefully I'll be able to put my presentation skills to work and hopefully I be able to post information regularly on my site about my experiences and about the product as it nears release.

Do you get to influence product direction?

I'll have a lot to catch up on and they are all very smart people, but I sure hope I can put a little piece of me in there.

Why the MBF team? What products other than MBF will you be involved with?

Because they are working to raise the level of abstraction that developers work at like never before and MBF will have a huge impact on how businesses build business applications. The MBF team is also involved in a lot of the areas that I have found so interesting for so long including distributed systems, web services and service oriented architecture (Indigo), ERP’s (Green), model driven architecture (Whitehorse), business processes and workflow (BizTalk), and object relational mapping (WinFS/ObjectSpaces).

Why Fargo, North Dakota and not Redmond?

That is where the a large part of the team for MBF is based. The Great Plains company was based in Fargo when Microsoft purchased it and turned it into Microsoft Business Solutions. It seems like a great environment and a great little city. Maybe I’ll get an opportunity to work in Redmond at some time in the future.

Where is Fargo? How big is Fargo?

Here is a map of Fargo (zoom out for a better idea of the location). Here is the Microsoft description of the Fargo office location.

The “I’m going to work at Microsoft” chat usually goes something like this:

Other person: Wow! Congratulations.

Chris: Thanks

Other person: But where/what is Fargo?

Chris: Fargo has about 180,000 people. It is near the border with Canada in the middle. Did you see the movie ‘Fargo’?

Other person: Wow. That’ll be small/cold…

Yes, I know it is going to be a lot colder than anything I have experienced, but hopefully it won’t be too hard to get used to.

With regards to the size (120,000 metro, 180,000 greater Fargo area), Fargo is about the same size as Hamilton (the city I grew up in) so it’ll be like going home :). Minneapolis-St. Paul (3-4 million?) is about three hours drive away, just in case ;).

How long was the interview process?

By the time I get there it will have been about 6 months since I submitted my resume. That is probably pretty fast for an international hire.

How did you prepare for the interview process?

I read “How Would You Move Mount Fuji?”, The Technical Careers at Microsoft weblog by Zoe and Gretchen, Chris Sells’ Interviewing at Microsoft page, and a couple of weblog posts (1, 2, and 3).

Aren’t you the head of R&D for iP3? What is happening to iP3?

I handled a great number of things at iP3. Different people and groups of people are going to pick up many of the responsibilities I had. iP3 has a bright future, and I'm proud to be involved with it. I still have a small shareholding in iP3. I won’t be losing contact and Ahmed has talked to me about assisting with advice during the transition and in the future.

Are you sad to be leaving the Melbourne developer community?

Yes. But I’m not really leaving entirely since I’ll still be on the mailing lists and hopefully I'll be regularly in touch.

You are leaving behind your current job, girlfriend, developer community, soccer club, family, and friends. Are you sure this is going to be worth it?

It is a big change, and I hope it will be worth it. This change feels good and I’m really excited to be helping to ship a product that I think will have a huge effect on business applications development!

Thanks!

This is such a big change for me and such a big move that I feel compelled to say thanks to a bunch of people and include answers to a bunch of questions that I have had from people over the last couple of days (for some) and weeks (for others).

Thanks to all the great people at iP3 for creating such a wonderful work environment over the past three years as we grew and learnt together… Madhu, Hafeez, Phil, Nishi, Bronson, Kestrel, Sachin, Lance, Kevin, Sunny, Joe, Alastair, Pamela, Paul, Nathalie, Kat, Jasmine, Collette, Ron, Mario, Don, Ken, John, Andrew, Chris, Michael. A special thanks to my friend, coach and mentor Ahmed, for guiding me and teaching me over the past four years at iP3 and PwC.

Thanks to .Net (MDNUG and the Stanski list) and agile (VAMSIG and MXPEG) developer communities. The knowledge and experience I have gained and the support I received through the Australian and Melbourne software development communities over the past couple of years has been hugely beneficial. A special thanks to my friends Steve Hayes (MXPEG) and Bill Chesnut (MDNUG) for the opportunities you have given me. A special thanks also to the Microsoft developer and architect evangelists Jason McConnell, Charles Sterling (Chuck), Frank Arrigo, David Sajfar, David Glover, Nigel Watson, Nils, Bill K and many others.

Thanks to my friends (esp. Kamil, Steve, and Hamish) and family and the guys from my soccer club.

And finally, thanks to Kerri (who is staying in Melbourne) for all her love and support throughout the past 4 years and through the changes of the last six months.

And now…

I’ll be making a move sometime around mid-late October, but in the meantime if you have any questions then shoot them my way and I’ll do my best to answer them. I know some will be interested in more personal stuff and some in the technology and recruitment angles so I’ll probably just answer the technology and recruitment questions here and leave the personal material for offline and email.