January 2008 Photos are up!

I have posted photos from January. Included are:

Tyler's Birthday Party



The Utah Auto Expo



Sledding

January 2008

Caselle After One Week

Update: See Caselle after 8 months

Many people have been asking me about my new job at Caselle. I usually say, "Well, it's only been a week and I haven't quit yet so not too bad." I figure most people are asking just to be polite, but in case you're really interested, here are some of my thoughts now that I've had a full week on the job.

First, the new job is as a Senior Software Engineer at Caselle. They, well I guess we, write software for local governments. My title is a bump in title from my previous jobs which is nice. Right now I'm getting to know the code, both the good and the bad. I think the idea is to kinda do a rotation type experience for me where I learn from different people different aspects of the code base to quickly get up to speed on each of them so that I can help others on all of them. I've started on reports and finished up the code for my first report today (and tracked down a reported bug on somebody else's as well :) ). Not the most fascinating code I've ever written or stepped through, but it's been interesting to see how the base report generator code is set up. It's fairly sophisticated as there are dozens of reports across dozens of packages that it must handle.

Second, the commute. This is definitely a more intense commute for the car as the majority of it is on I-15 at 65 mph plus. So intense in fact that the purple car died as I got off I-15 last night on my way home. Apparently the fuel pump gave out after one too many near empty tanks. So we got that fixed today and have the purple car back for the Monday commute. We'll see how long it can hold up. It's only 20-30 minutes (depending on the traffic) which isn't too bad but it's significantly longer than my formerly 5-10 minute commute to Footnote or 15-20 to Aradyme, both not on I-15. The most traffic in the morning is getting onto I-15 from PG Blvd and then on the way back getting onto I-15 in Spanish Fork and then I-15 always slows right at the 1600 N exit in Orem until the PG exit. I tried taking Geneva off 1600 N but it seems to take longer to get off and then I have to make a bunch of left turns which slows things down so I think I'm going to stick it out on I-15 in general. Overall not too bad but it'd be nicer in a new car... but until the purple car gives out...

Third, the hours. One of the somewhat unique aspects of Caselle in terms of workplace environment is that they allow their employees to take a 9/80 work schedule. For those unfamiliar with it, basically you work 80 hours over 9 days (about 9 hour days) and then get the 10th day off, in my case a Friday. This basically means that half of Caselle is at home every Friday. My Friday is next week so I'll get a 4 day weekend :) It seems that some of the developers don't really take their Friday (several that according to the schedule should have been home were there today) which concerns me a little, but I'm determined to make it work out since that was one of the payoffs for Jennifer of me working father away.

So I've been getting in around 8am and leaving around 5:30pm with a 30 minute-ish lunch. Caselle does track hours a lot more closely than any place else that I've worked which concerns me a little bit, but hopefully it will not be overly big brother-ish.

Fourth, the company itself. Well, it's unique among the companies that I've worked for recently in that it's almost 30 years old whereas the other companies I've worked for have been very young. Additionally many of the developers have spent most if not all of their professional careers at Caselle either because they started right out of college, started while in college and haven't finished or they've just worked there a really long time. I'm excited to get to know each of the developers better and find our their strengths. The other major portion of the company is the support staff which consists of a lot of long time employees as well. Since I've been there a week I don't have a whole lot to say yet, but the people that I've met and talked to have been nice and, like I said at the start, I haven't quit yet! I'm sure I'll post more as my time there continues.

So that's a short summary of my job thus far. Nothing spectacular or groundbreaking and I don't know if I want to spend my entire career there, but hopefully it will work out that I can spend a good turn there and make some significant contributions.

Parking lot of the future... today

Check out this cool video from Popular Mechanics on an automated "parking garage" in NYC. Watch out for one of these in your neighborhood soon!

http://www.engadget.com/2007/03/06/robotic-parking-garage-in-action/