brentashley

I’m working on a new project. Tomcat/JSP/Servlets/Oracle. There is a need for some synchronous RPC from client to middle layer. I’ve been considering XML-RPC and SOAP, but have decided for a few reasons to use Microsoft’s Remote Scripting with Erik Hatcher’s Java servlet. Time is of the essence, the specifications and tools for the other technologies are not mature, and another criterion that’s new to the game – intellectual property considerations.

It’s 1998. You want to add some new functionality to your commercial web application. You hop on the net, search Altavista, and find a few Perl CGI implementations, a couple of shareware COM objects, some commercial executables and COM objects. You decide which gives the functionality you want and you come to a pricing arrangement with them from zero to hundreds of dollars depending on the licensing, and you include its functionality in your offering, maybe add credits to your help page.

Roll forward to 2001. You want to add some new functionality to your commercial web application. You hop on the net, search Google, and find a few Perl CGI implementations, some COM objects and Java classes, some commercial packages, and a whole raft of projects on SourceForge. This time, though, it’s a minefield of GPLs, LGPLs, BSDs, Mozilla and Apache Public Licenses, homegrown licenses, et al. Using a product may impose upon you perpetual requirements impacting source release, documentation, distribution, splash pages, derivatives… the list goes on.

I’m not likely to convince my clients that they should open-source their heavily invested competitive vertical market solution in order to take advantage of the defacto reference implementation of this technology because it’s covered by the GPL. Time being a consideration, I’m not going to wait until the legal department has had a chance to investigate the implications of ten different types of licenses. So, we find a commercial implementation, build it ourselves, or use another technology that doesn’t burden us with these issues.

Am I naive in thinking that I was much more free (read:unfettered) when I could just buy the damn thing and then use it?

Independent consulting makes for a nomadic life. An adventure here, a campaign there, never a place to hang your hat. While alliances are made, they are usually transient. In the door, assess, recommend, resolve, ride into the sunset.

In a game where it’s all about relationships, the real long-term winning relationships are built in fits and starts, usually in project-oriented chunks. Clients, resources, allies, vendors.

In a heirarchical organization, it is practical and often necessary to make alliances with those around you, to mentor and groom candidates to succeed you so you can grow. As an independent, this is somewhat difficult. You have no staff or colleagues of your own to mould. Alliances with other consultants are useful but seldom take on a heirarchical form – other independent consultants are also in the business to be Batman – nobody wants to be Robin.

I’ve been involved for some time with a networking group (that’s human relationship building, not hubs and routers) that affords me the opportunity to meet other independent consultants. I find it very useful to meet and converse with other folks in the business. It fills some of the voids that set us apart from our “employed” counterparts, and occasionally results in business leads.

There should be similar groups and organizations where you are. Look ’em up. Get involved – just attending meetings and shooting the shit can go a long way. It’s good for you, good for your business.

I got spam today from Lucent.

SPAM!

From LUCENT!!

I would have thought that was WAY beneath them. First thing I did was check their stock chart. Sure, they’ve got over 30 billion market cap, but they must be getting desperate. A sure sign you’re turning the corner from being a market force to fighting for your life is that you’ve resorted to spam.

the word of the day is usurp – thanks Tara. nice to converse with someone in your daily stream of existence who is able leap from esoteric semantics to obtuse cartography in a single bound. when was the last time you discussed the mercatur projection map?

i’m sitting in the chair at Union Station wating for Bruno the barber today reading the Toronto Sun, something i don’t often do, and i burst out laughing, almost causing Bruno to graze this guy’s scalp.

in this article about Ontario members of parliament seeking pay raises into 6 figures, some MP is quoted:

“The risk factor for an MP is very high,” said the Liberal. “We can lose our job every four years.”

boo-fucking-hoo for you, mister hard-done-by MP. give us a break, dipstick. in the real world, you can lose your job every four frickin minutes!

so i’ve got radio userland on my new notebook. i’ve flipped my page. i’m entering this text. i still can’t figure out how to change the heading at the top of the page – aah, save as… that does it!

Wow. A gecko-based browser that is quick, standards compliant, runs javascript (JSRS works with it), and is entirely unencumbered by excessive features. K-meleon, you got my vote. Fan-frickin-tastic.

i was in the dentist’s chair the other week, and during the intervals where i could actually say something intelligible, i was asked what it is i do and responded as usual that i’m a computer nerd. we discussed how it’s great to do what you love and get paid for it. my hygienist says to me “i’m glad you do that and not me – geez, i couldn’t program all day, how tedious!”. this from someone who’s ecstatic that she gets to fumble around in strangers’ mouths all day scraping plaque and inhaling halitosis-breath. it really does take all types to make up the world, doesn’t it.

youngpup calls this fluid nav bar experiment a failure. it’s lessons learned from this type of improvisational ‘failure’ that moves us all forward a notch. i’ll say it again – i’m glad there are people like aaron around to do this creative visual stuff that escapes me.

aaron also reminded me that i’ve been anticipating this Tibet thing for a while. should be interesting. this JDE javascript debugging environment is way neat, too.

thank you, douglas, for your wondrous five-part trilogy, for our friend dirk, and of course, for all the fish.

Being that I live and work lately in the ‘burbs, I was in downtown Toronto today for the first time in a few months. Lovely day, bright, sunny, 25 degrees (that’s 77 fahrenheit). Did quite a bit of walking around.

I’ve gotten used to being in the relatively unpopulated open spaces outside the downtown core, so am quite content with the solitude of walking or driving there.

Interestingly, it occurred to me that while downtown, surrounded by huge amounts of humanity and activity, my aloneness and solitude wasn’t lessened any. That’s not to say it was depressing at all, just that despite the sense that you’re in a large community, you’re all really islands of solitude milling about without mixing.

Petula Clark seemed to like it.