It has been roughly 6 months since I left Dassault Systemes or should I say Dassault left me. I was very excited when I left and felt it was time to move on with my career. I learned alot about myself and where I want to go not only in career but in my life.
I was approached and continue to be approached for many projects. Some dealing with hardware and some dealing with software. I am still acting CTO for a chain of nutritional centers. I take care of all the technical needs which are hardware issues for the most part.
I was involved in various software projects from video editing to the auto part rebuilder industry. Along the way I learned some tools of the trade. I learned to read technical blogs like I read the morning paper. I learned to network. To always carry my business card. I learned that I love learning about new technology. I learned that I have so much to learn..
There are many personal lessons I learned as well.
I am coaching the Covina national little league Braves. I started my own adult basketball team with my friends that has become a year around affair. I also play basketball Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 5:30am with a bunch of old guys at the gym and I really look forward to it. I learned that I enjoyed spending time with my family, my extended family and my friends much more then I remembered.
Along the way I also interviewed quite a bit. I am looking for team lead or a management position and truth be told I may have talked my way out of some developer positions. However, I remember driving home from downtown LA or El Segundo after an interview and asking myself how I ever drove from Covina to Woodland Hills everyday for 5 years?
How would I ever make the 4:30 practice for my little slugger? How would I ever make the 6:30 basketball game in Alhambra?
In the end I learned that I want a job that supports everything I leaned in the last six months.
What to do? Find the perfect job or find the perfect office for my business….
USC welcomed Lane Kiffin as the new head coach of USC yesterday. If he wasn’t coming with that all-star staff I would be very disappointed. However, with Coach O, Monte Kiffin, possibly Chow and Davis…WOW how can you be against it? I would say that a veteran offensive coordinator will be very important. I do not think that play calling will be an issue if Kiffin is the one calling the plays. Rather it is the lack of experience in big games and a young coach tendencies not to break tendencies and thus becoming predictable to experienced defensive coordinators. Young Kiffin still needs to grow in this area.
In terms of recruiting, often times when Kiffin was here he was regarded as the second best closer next to Pete. All this talk about recruiting violations is a little bit premature.I do not remember any allegations against USC or Kiffin in particular while at USC in terms of recruiting. My take is that Kiffin needed to make a splash in the SEC because he was regarded as young coach in a tough conference. He went over board to show that he was more than able to complete in what regarded as the best football conference in college football. He went overboard…granted. Somehow I do not see that being an issue in the Pac X. If anything I feel that this signals that USC is pretty confident that the NCAA will not come down hard on the program in terms of violations.
The thing that I find interesting is that Chow and Davis are even considering coming back and being under Kiffin. I heard that Kiffin and his style and appointment to OC directly led to Chow and Davis walking away. I heard they could not work under a brat like Kiffin….The more and more we found out about Pete the more it seems Pete had more to do with it than Kiffin.
In the end I think it is a great hire as a whole.This would be a top tier staff. If Chow, Davis and Dat come in to round out the staff I would call this a HOME RUN by USC.
Although it is not official yet all signs point to Coach Carroll leaving my Trojans for the Seattle Seahawks. Alot of trojan fans and alumni are upset and disappointed. I for one… am not. Pete Carroll will go down as the greatest USC coach in history. He had an amazing run and it was awesome to be a trojan during the Pete Carroll era. However, I felt that Pete got bored and started to look for challenges and many times to the demise of the team. After USC dominated 2004 he cleaned house in the coaching staff and wanted to prove he could do it with rookies coaches. After that successful run he decided he wanted to do it with even a weaker staff and an 18 year old at quarterback. For the first half of the season it looked like he was going to pull it off. Does Barkley start given an open competition for the QB position? Does anyone from the current staff stay with a new coach? The answer to both is most likely no. Yet it looked like Pete was not going to change anything for next year. So other than the timing in regards to recruiting I think the parting is good for both parties. USC was beginning to slide and Pete was too bored to do anything to prevent it. USC got everything out of Pete and Pete got everything out of USC. I just hope he never coaches at another college and I really hope he NEVER coaches against USC. Thanks for the memories Pete. The Trojan family wishes you the best of luck.
As for the next coach…. USC has NEVER been in a better position to attract an Elite coach….NEVER…..I HOPE Fisher and Del Rio are not serious candidates. I doubt that they are. The Titans were the hottest team down the stretch and Del Rio has a 15 million buyout if he is fired. Riley is a great coach no doubt but I hope Mike G remembers what made Pete so great at the beginning. It was his burning desire to succeeded. He wanted it bad. Now….obliviously Pete wanted to prove he was a good coach and exercise some demons but surely Mike can find a young hungry coach….an Urban Meyer before he got to Florida. I kind of like Harbaugh…a young hungry badass coach…who is not afraid to kick your ass and will not apologize for it later….I dig that kind of coach….
I don’t make resolutions but rather I set goals for myself at the start of the year. I do not always achieve them all but this year I am determined to get to as close as 100% as possible. I am making these public so that I can have more accountability….Here we go with the goals for 2010…
Professional:
IEEE CSDP Certification – Took the test in Dec…Find out the results in Feb
Sun Certified Java Programmer
Sun Certified Web Component Developer
Microsoft Certified Professional Developer (MCPD)
Maybe – Microsoft Certified Database Administrator (MCDBA)
ACE ColdFusion -
Ambitious I know but I think definiatly doable. I feel this will certify my “Application Architect” Title
I wanted to get into iPhone development but it was a little hard to even get the environment needed to develop. The biggest issue was the need to develop on a Mac….well in Q1 of 2010..you will be able to develop iPhone apps with flash cs5…recompile the same code and use the resulting swf for the mobile Droid OS..for Blackberry, etc…That is pretty awesome…Check out a tutorial at IPhone App..
You can also build augmented reality apps..This stuff is really cool…again same site for the tutorial AR App
I was going to write a post about the USC season and specifically about Pete stubbornness and favoritism towards certain players. Of course I have been screaming about McKnight and Barkley for as long as I can remember..Then I read these columns and I thought…”These guys have been reading my emails and my blog”
The main problem is the staff….Pete has surrounded himself with yes men. His staff is weak and inexperienced. It has been since the end of the 2004 season..it just got more and more inexperienced…The Trojans play more and more like an NFL team. They play for field position..The empire is defiantly crumbling right now…Empty seats at the last game…empty seats expected at the bowl game….All we need if for recruits to notice…If there are no changes to the staff with experienced coaches…this will be the beginning of the end. Sad really…but what he buildth….He tears down…
P.S
Ucla game…bruins should get over it..Their coach called a timeout after USC took a knee. That means I do not accept a knee and I wish to keep playing…USC did just that.
Fitting that the year USC’s strangle hold on the Rose Bowl in the Pac10 is over…the Pac10 representive will be decided in the state of Oregon….where USC is 0-4 in their last 4 games in Oregon.
In some states it is happening folks. The IEEE reports that the Principles and Practices Exam for software engineering will become available in 2012. Thte states that have requested the exam are Michigan, Missouri, New York, New Mexico, North Carolina, Texas and Virgina. No California yet. Only software engineers offering their services directly to the public would need to be licensed. If you work for a sizable company where the company’s resources can aborb any liability…you will not need to licensed.
Only software projects that affects the health, safety, and welfare of the public would require oversight by a licensed engineer.
With anyone that can write a line code calling themselves a software engineer I welcome licensure for software engineers. I am hoping this starts to filter out programmers from software engineers.
USC welcomed Lane Kiffin as the new head coach of USC yesterday. If he wasn’t coming with that all-star staff I would be very disappointed. However, with Coach O, Monte Kiffin, possibly Chow and Davis…WOW how can you be against it? I would say that a veteran offensive coordinator will be very important. I do not think that play calling will be an issue if Kiffin is the one calling the plays. Rather it is the lack of experience in big games and a young coach tendencies not to break tendencies and thus becoming predictable to experienced defensive coordinators. Young Kiffin still needs to grow in this area.
