December 2005 Archives

I just realized that I didn't blog about the recent Go Daddy holiday celebration. It took place on December 15th at the Camelback Inn, where, sadly, my last three or four annual company parties have been—though I was able to compare the events because of it.

We got to the party about a half hour before it was slated to begin and were given two tickets each for drinks. Since we were so early, there was hardly anyone there and the waiters outnumbered the employees for awhile. That was good for me because that meant that I was offered hors d'oeuvres constantly. They were quite delicious little appetizers and I never refused one of them.

Once seated, we were served a quite-tasty seafood Waldorf salad as an appetizer. Dinner consisted of chicken, tender steak, creamy mashed potatoes, and butter-slathered vegetables. There wasn't nearly enough of it, but it was a savory. Dessert was a simple crème brûlée with blueberries. The food was top-notch and quite an improvement over past events, which were great to begin with.

The highlight of the evening—at least for me since I didn't win squat—was Bob's rousing speech. He ran through the accomplishments of the last year in quick (and often deprecating) fashion. Any employee who had witnessed the quarterly speeches had heard this list several times, but the employee's guest hadn't and Bob's delivery made it entertaining. Bob then ran through a hilarious and farcical presentation of ten possible commercials for the next Super Bowl. The crowd was in stitches. Having sat through about eight or nine presidential speeches at company dinners where you wanted to shove bits of roll into your ears to make the dreary blather stop, this speech went quickly and hit home.

The most exciting part of the evening was the door prize giveaway. I had heard from my co-worker that plasma televisions were bestowed and I was salivating at the prospect. Little did I know that the prize level was going to be ratcheted up. Bob drew names from the whole of the company and gave away:

• Two 42" plasma TVs
• Two 23" plasma televisions
• Two Bose stereo systems
• Two digital cameras (I didn't catch the details)
• One digital camcorder (again, didn't catch the brand)
• Four iPod Nanos
• One 60GB iPod Video
• Two $500 Costco gift certificates
• Two $500 Westcor gift certificates
• Two $500 Best Buy gift certificates
• Two flat screen monitors (19", I think)
• One HP laptop
• One portable DVD player
• Twenty $100 American Express gift cards
• Forty people got $500 in cash with taxes paid
• Ten people got $1,000 in cash with taxes paid
• Four people got $2,500 in cash with taxes paid
• Two people got $5,000 in cash with taxes paid
• One person got $10,000 in cash with taxes paid

Those are some serious door prizes and the excitement in the room was palpable. All in all, the event was memorable though not at all unusual by Go Daddy standards. It was truly Go Daddy-esque in the best sense of the word.

[The views expressed on this website/weblog are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of Go Daddy Software, Inc.]

My prayers—such as they are—have been answered. I'm getting a Mac for my desk for testing purposes. All you Mac Quick Blog users are going to get some support and be elevated to first-class status (well, if you're on Mac OS X and running Safari or OmniWeb). I would've preferred one of the bitchin' new Quads but what are you gonna do?

[The views expressed on this website/weblog are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of Go Daddy Software, Inc.]

Uggh, my Bloglines queue is up to 5,191 items unread. I was caught up before I hit crunch time working on Quick Blog but now I'm beginning to think it's hopeless. I could spend an entire weekend catching up, but it's just not worth it. *sigh*

I tried importing my archives on Friday after we launched, but there was something wrong with the handling of line breaks. It's not a tough fix, so they'll be in there soon. It feels neat to be writing this entry in a tool I helped develop. Really, really neat.

[UPDATE (12/22/2005): Archives are back. The links are all different, but at least they're here.]

Bo Thompson, Dave Levitt, John Paxton and I are proud to announce the birth of a new blogging service: Quick Blog! There were so many people involved over the last six months that made the tool better and better.

The Creative team took my rough contours of an interface and turned them into something that looks mighty professional. The QA team put in lots of time testing and retesting the app and I think the app is far better for it. There were times, I'll admit, that I felt like if I read another bug report I was going to lose it but I was consoled by the fact that they're not a malicious bunch. The management at Go Daddy was always good about making suggestions and keeping us on our toes.

When I sometimes get despondent about how far we have to go to fulfill my goal of being the best blogging tool out there, I am reminded that we have come far in a very short while and that I just need to have patience.

The blog is currently available free with new domain purchases and renewals and only with the ad you see up top. I can assure you, gentle reader, that we've got a paid version in the works that is going to rock and roll.

Hopefully this weekend is uneventful because I'm the one on call.

[The views expressed on this website/weblog are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of Go Daddy Software, Inc.]

Ooooo, we've fixed all of the little environmental bugs that cropped up as all the components warmed up in production. Just waiting on the call to turn this mutha out. Go Quick Blog, it's your birthday!

[NOTE: The views expressed on this website/weblog are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of Go Daddy Software, Inc.]

Scott Guthrie posted some code that can be put in your Global file's Application_End event handler that will log the reason for the event's firing to the event log. That is some sweet .NET; it reminds me that I need to learn as much as I can about reflection.

The inevitable delay in deployment has occurred. I guess too many ducks had to be in a row and a couple strayed. Tomorrow afternoon is the new target for when those ducks get back in line.

We were shooting for today so that tomorrow's holiday party wouldn't be filled with trepidation and the potential interruption. That's how the cookie crumbles. One of the guys in the deployment meeting said that it wouldn't be a holiday party without a deployment immediately preceding it. That got a knowing chuckle.

So tomorrow afternoon look for an entry announcing Quick Blog!

[NOTE: The views expressed on this website/weblog are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of Go Daddy Software, Inc.]

Tomorrow's the big day (barring anything really nasty) when we release version 1.0 of Quick Blog. I can't wait! It's been a roller coaster of deadlines for months and we're finally at the end. But this end is really just another beginning because we've got a metric ass-ton of stuff planned and we're going to be releasing fast and furiously.

[NOTE: The views expressed on this website/weblog are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of Go Daddy Software, Inc.]

Visit to the Googleplex: how does anyone get any work done in that environment?!?! {via}

Go Daddy came in at number 14 on the Best Places to Work in the Valley. Bob Parsons gave the keynote speech at the reception announcing the list and ran through the top ten things he thought made for a great working environment:

1. It is a fun place to work.
2. Company represents something in which they believe.
3. It's a two way street. The company will be there for the employee when they need it.
4. Know the management and have access to them.
5. Employees get training when they need it and are empowered by management.
6. They can believe in the company. The company is reputable.
7. Surrounded by capable productive people.
8. Employees can make a difference and are recognized for their contributions.
9. Company is successful.
10. Fair wages and fringe benefits.

I can honestly say that Go Daddy deserves to be higher than number 14 on the list, but maybe those other 13 are actually better places to work. I don't really know. (I do know who doesn't deserve their spot at number 19. I know exactly how they got it and it pissed me off when I was there.)

Taking Bob at his word, I'll assess his "Top Ten Traits that Make a Great Place to Work."

1. Fun: it is a fun place to work, but not in a forced, lip service kind of way. There's no fad philosophies with stuffed fish or pickles around here.
2. Inspiring: I love that we build all our own stuff. I love that we started the whole inexpensive domain movement. I'm glad that we offer such a wide range of products that offer tremendous value. I'm glad that we have high aspirations.
3. Reciprocity: Go Daddy doesn't just take you for granted. You work extra hours: they feed you. You need some time off: done. You need a more flexible schedule: you got it. I haven't had any occasion to need something exceptional, but I feel comfortable that I could ask for and get it if I truly needed it.
4. Know thy management: I've spoken with Bob several times since I've been here. I talk to my boss and my boss's boss every day and they take my opinions seriously. I can call anyone in the company if need be and titles really aren't a big deal here. There aren't the hardened channels of communication I've seen elsewhere.
5. Training: I haven't had occasion to require it, but I know of several people who have and I know our official policy. Once the blog is released, I may have time to look into what's out there. Mostly, I know that if I needed it I would get it. I always had the training I needed at my last job, but I know others didn't and he bitched and moaned about it all the time.
6. Reputation: our brand is finally catching on so that it doesn't seem like one of those dot-coms with a weird name that went down in flames. Go Daddy's become something of a brand as it's expanded in a big way into hosting and other industries. There are some grumblings out there, but overall it's one of the big players and people in the know use it.
7. Co-Workers: I had forgotten what it was like to have co-workers that were capable, productive, and not into politics. Dave is a coding machine and though I completely (and vehemently) disagree with him about his Hungarian notation I respect his abilities. I'm glad he's on the team. Bo's been a great lead and I have learned so much in the short time I've been here. Mike's code was a dramatic illustration in abstraction and heavily influenced a lot of my early development on Quick Blog. I could go on and on about all of the smart people I've met around here, but I think you'd get my point. It's amazing what being discerning in your hiring practices and not tolerating dreck can do for the work environment. I'll leave it at that.
8. Recognition: I have wielded a tremendous influence on the blog's direction and style. I really couldn't have asked for a better assignment. I worked my butt off to get things done and I have received accolades from management at every step. I've felt appreciated. That goes a long way. I can't wait to see what financial recognition entails. Heh.
9. Proven Track Record: Go Daddy has doubled in size and revenue in the last year. And Bob's explicitly stated his revenue targets for the future in several company meetings. Come on, wouldn't you rather be in a massively-growing company than a stagnant one?
10. Compensation: I feel like I'm being adequately paid, but I'm not going to go there. The fringe benefits are incredible. Go Daddy gets vendors to sell food here for lunches so you don't have to fight traffic and then they pay for half of what the vendors charge. And then they round down to the nearest dollar. That means I'm eating Samurai Sam's teriyaki chicken bowl (all white meat) for $1. Can't beat that! Oh, well, I guess you could. It seems like not a month goes by without some new fringe benefit. Just last week, they announced a used monitor sale where we can buy CRTs for $10 as they're swapped out for LCDs. It's a little thing, but it's nice.

Oh yeah, we're hiring and we don't just hire anybody.

[NOTE: The views expressed on this website/weblog are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of Go Daddy Software, Inc.]

Yahoo Buys del.icio.us: sweet mama pajama! Yahoo is buying everyone. Congrats, Joshua and crew!

I checked out Slashdot.org this morning and saw Go Daddy in one of the main stories. Awesome! Err, not so much.

I know some people on the shared hosting team and I'd have to say that, if it's our problem, it will be fixed soon—if it hasn't been already.

[UPDATE: On the other hand, plenty of people in the Apple Discussion thread on this subject are having the same problem but on different hosts.]

[UPDATE 2: In talking with some of my coworkers, the problem is that Safari is following the relevant spec exactly while the other browsers are forgiving. Interesting.]

[NOTE: The views expressed on this website/weblog are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of Go Daddy Software, Inc.]

The 37Signals crew recently advised against worrying about scalability when designing web applications. It's the latest in their series of thought pieces on the theme of everything-you-know-about-development-is-wrong-because-of-Rails. They kind of qualified it by saying that their advice applies to new companies. Their point is that you can waste a lot of time preparing a web application for an onslaught that might never come.

Today, Dare Obasanjo, a member of the MSN Spaces team, weighed in about his experiences with that application. He argues that they had to contend with scalability issues from the onset. (I think it might have actually just been an excuse to trumpet MSN Spaces statistics since he's talking past the 37signals piece.)

Quick Blog, Go Daddy's upcoming blog product that I'm working on, is going to be operating on an MSN Spaces scale from the onset, so I feel fairly qualified to speak on this issue. I would agree with Dare that premature optimization is generally a bad thing when engaged in at the application level. Whether you use a foreach or a plain old for loop isn't going to make a difference even though the latter is better performing. I've worked with heavy-duty applications and my experience has been that bottlenecks rarely occur at the ASP.NET level.

But an early decision about whether to use stored procedures or inline SQL is going to have considerable impact in the future. And I truly believe that you should design your basic architecture so that it doesn't preclude optimization for performance later on. If you do things right, scalability becomes a matter of throwing more servers at your traffic. If you don't, then you're facing a lot of redevelopment and refactoring in the midst of problems. That's a situation you don't want to be in because the pressure makes you do stupid things.

My personal opinion is to know your application's weak spots, the parts that you think could pose a problem if it became popular. That way, you'll be able to reduce the amount of analysis you need to do when things start 503ing. If you've load tested and done some rudimentary profiling, the potential problems should be pretty obvious.

[NOTE: The views expressed on this website/weblog are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of Go Daddy Software, Inc.]

I was always on the fence about wallpaper. I had seen a lot of horrid uses of it, but I'd also seen some great walls that were great because of it. I am now solidly in the "hate wallpaper" camp.

We've been trying to take down some lovely pink wallpaper in my daughters' room since it was peeling in places. Apparently, those were the only places in the entire room where the wallpaper has not become one with the drywall. It has been a war of attrition and we're losing pretty badly.

The lesson: make sure that you only buy wallpaper that will come off the wall like gauze bandages with the application of Dif. Oh, and I learned that wallpaper, like Benjamin Franklin, is the devil.

This list of tips compiled from TweakUI is simply amazing! I never would have thought to drag a folder to the screen edge (though, truth be told, I'm not sure how useful it is even with auto-hide on).

Oh and if you don't subscribe to Coding Horror, then shame on you!*

* Shame offer not extended to Linux or Mac users.

Blogging Styles and Traffic Stats: as a blogging engine producer, this is very fascinating stuff to me. The comments are just as worthwhile also. My product isn't in the wild yet, so it's still fairly theoretical.

These pictures sure speak to me:





{via}

I just found out that the idiot who made my life a living hell at my last job is leaving. Apparently, he had been interviewing and trying to get another job for the last two months. It's funny to me because he was supposed to be in it for the long haul but his loyalty lasted all of four months before he got the itch to leave. We spent longer trying to find someone for the position he eventually took than he spent in it.

He was certainly a better investment from the credit union's perspective than I was. :-)

I had a vasectomy today and, as a public service, I've written it up over at my other blog. Executive overview: shot hurt like hell, rest was no big deal, recovery's been primo.

[UPDATE (12/2/2005): To John's girlfriend, it was actually "Hellacious pain, living nightmare and I'll never play the piano again."]