Rob Villeneuve = “programmer & web developer”;

August Long Weekend, originally uploaded by Viller.

Rebecca and I split on a new Digital SLR. With our modest budget we picked up a Nikon D60 with a 50mm lens. We spent the next 3 days taking hundreds of pictures… so much fun. I really like the lighting on this one of Nic during his pie eating competition at the cottage.

About a month ago a friend of mine named Peter Childs wrote an insightful blog post called Learning to Code, in which Peter describes what it is like to jump into a developer’s shoes. Peter has plenty of experience working with software developers, but this is the first time that he has coded a website all by himself. He is not limited by ideas or expectations, in fact he has plenty of both. So for Peter, a simple word press & theme just wont do. He envisions web 2.0 with all the fixins & media. He has been adapting and coding his ideas for a few months, and Peter has found out that with code, the devil is in the details.

My favorite part of his post is the end where Peter states,

“Oh! And to all those programmers that I antagonized by asking “how hard can it be” when some business pressure meant a 90 degree turn in code – I apologize. I now know software happens at the level of details not concepts.”

I have worked on a few projects with Peter, and he should rest assured that he is not the only one to have suggested a 90 degree turn in code. Also, Peter should know that his revelation will offer coders insight on how our non-coding coworkers view software development. I now know to simply remind my requirement suppliers that the details are not as flexible as the concepts.

However; The point of Peter’s post is a little broader than the coder/business dynamic. Peter has shared some new found respect, and I feel that I have had an experience in which I can do the same. For the past few days I have been dedicated full time on web app QA and managing our bug system. It has been a race to the finish line, and the other developers are working very hard to deliver top quality which I must somehow measure. I realize how challenging it is to be the QA gatekeeper for a team of developers. Every feature and change requires me to race to complete a number of feature and regression tests. [And don't forget about cross browser testing.] This task takes great patience, attention span and a tedious amount of concentration. Furthermore, it doesn’t take very long to realize that programmers will loose their appreciation. It starts off warm and fuzzy as you save their behinds, but after sending a bug back for the fourth time the programmers no longer feel like sharing the love.

So, in the spirit of Peter’s post… To all those QA tester’s to whom I have passed incomplete features or have forced to regression test immediately before a deadline - I apologize. I now know that the assurance of quality stems from meticulous attention to detail and a rigourous amount of searching, testing, and reporting. You have saved my butt on more than one occasion, and the nature of software QA means that only you and I will every know about the bugs we killed immediately before release.

Being a computer scientist / computer geek I have a craving to visualize data. I construct models, graphs, maps, and charts to gain a logical understanding of information. Bringing these visualizations into real life is simple, but it is challenging to design a composition which is creative, beautiful, artistic, fun and informative. Excel charts don’t cut it.

The RaceDV videos we developed are a form of data visualization which are informative and fun, but they only begin to scratch the surface. I have since found that there is a thriving community of creative thinkers, artists, programmers, mathematicians, and statisticians who are redefining the data visualization landscape.

Now what does this have to do with Radiohead? Today I came across a very inspiring project called Visualizing Radiohead by Robert Hodgin at flight404 which he submitted to a Radiohead video contest. His blog post explains how he encoded the audio information of the song Weird Fishes into an animation. This entire video is an experiment in programming and data visualization and did not require editing or post processing.

Weird Fishes: Arpeggi from flight404 on Vimeo.

If you want to see some more data visualization projects, check out the site Visual Complexity.

I can’t wait to try some experiments of my own.

Just upgraded my blog from SubText to Wordpress 2.5. So far I am impressed. Good thing because I will be working with Wordpress at 76design and it would not be cool if I hated it already.

Most of you know that my work at deleted theory is collection of side projects which feed my need to build web apps, explore technologies, and to help out my friends.

A few weeks ago I jumped at the opportunity to work full time with a company I really admire called 76design. Located a few short blocks away from my apartment in downtown Ottawa, 76design is talented design & web development agency with a nose for clean designs and a passion for social web applications. With their sister company Thornley Fallis, a full-service communications and public relations agency, a symbiotic relationship has formed where teams from both companies integrate on a variety of projects.

I am only a couple of weeks in but I can already see great potential, and already there are exciting projects coming down the pipe. Looks like I am going to have to hit the ground running, but I always welcome fun and exciting challenges.

Now if you will excuse me, I have some new programming languages to learn.

It is time for some spring cleaning, and switching hosting providers gave me a chance for a fresh start. No more lingering databases, websites or DNS entries… I get a chance to upgrade all the third party services to the latest version, re-configure my backups and making sure everything is working neatly and properly. Should be good for another few months at least.