The Pittsburgh Look: STYLE: ULTRAVIOLET Fashion Show Features Top PGH Designers

The Pittsburgh Look: STYLE: ULTRAVIOLET Fashion Show Features Top PGH Designers

Evergreen but still topical: MVC vs. MVP

Evergreen but still topical: MVC vs. MVP

Management 101: Writing letter of recommendation

Today, I finished putting together a packet for Ethan. Ethan is a sergeant, or E-5. Sergeant (abbreviated SGT) is the first rank in the ranks of Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO). About a week ago, I read about this process called Battlefield Promotion. It's a promotion for enlisted soldiers SGT or below to get promoted to the next higher rank if they are performing duties that are above their rank. It only applies to soldiers in the war. It wasn't until CPT F told me about it few days ago that I started seriously thinking about nominating Ethan for SSG, which is a rank above SGT. The process required filling out two forms and a letter of recommendation. I have never written a letter of recommendation for someone before. Although this was my first time, it was not that hard for two reasons: one, not only is Ethan already doing jobs that are above his rank, but also he is doing them very well; two, I was excited thinking that a letter I write could help promote someone. The letter, after few revisions, turned out to be fine. I am having CPT F review it tomorrow before submitting the whole packet. I am really hoping that Ethan gets it. I think he will.

Management 101: First Time Manager

My first few weeks as a first time manager, managing 5 soldiers and civilian contractors, to be honest, have been very tough. I didn't know what I was doing. As time went by, I think I got used to the position of OIC*. And surprisingly, it turned out to be more fun that I expected. I do not mean fun as having entertainment fun...but fun as "there are many issues with successfully managing your team and coming up with ideas and carrying out those ideas to solve inter-personnel issues can be very challenging and exciting at the same time" fun. There are 5 people under my leadership and I noticed that they all have unique personalities that require different levels of attention, guidance, and direction. They are:

Ron - New member to join our team. Good mannered, outgoing guy who is very pleasant to work with. I am glad that Ron joined our team. Ron gets jobs done even if they require staying late until 1am. He learns fast and learns from his mistakes. His optimisim and positive attitude sometimes surprise me.

Matt - Matt is the most senior guy in our team. He is the oldest and has the most experience out of us all. However, Matt has some room for improvement with his analytical skills. Matt will get the job done, but at the same time, needs a close oversight and guidance.

Bert - Now, Bert is a character. I have been having issues with Bert since the beginning. Simply put, Bert is lazy and will barely get the job done to get by. I will talk about Bert more in the next posts...

Frank - Frank has been in the army over 20 years. It was very hard to pull Frank out of his comfort zone to be part of the team. In my first few weeks, my focus was to have Frank up to speed, on par with rest of the team. It required team's time and effort in making that happen. I will talk more about this in my next post.

Ethan - Very bright, high-speed guy who doesn't require much guidance or direction. But from time to time, Ethan seems to be in his own world....like daydreaming or something.

I will be managing these guys for next 9 months. This may be a turning point for me to grow as a manager, and leader. I realized that, as a manager, it is easy for me to be in MY comfort zone where I am tasking everyone in the team while I'm not doing anything. Few days ago, I've read an article in the New York Times where it talks about becoming a successful CEO. The author of the article argues that to be an effective CEO, all you need to do is following:

• Set direction and milestones (resisting the tempting distraction of juicy diversification). The ability to clearly say, "No, we are not doing that," is very important.
• Allocate resources (both financial and human, starting with your time).
• Hire and fire the top team (we have devoted a separate chapter to hiring an A-Team because this is much harder to say than do).

(* OIC stands for Officer In Charge and is equivalent to a small team manager in corporate environment.)

Peachpie Radio

As some of you may know, I've been running this online radio station for few years. It's unique in a way that you are listening to a radio that plays listeners' requests and everything is automated. We have a big collection of Korean albums, ranging from 90's to today's. The site is at http://www.peachpie.net/. For past few years, I've gotten many positive emails and comments about the service and I just wanted to compile them into a single list. So following are the comments from listeners:

Guest (ip:*30.137 on 04/29/2009 10:30am): "fantastic find for me. please continue broadcasting, I'm loving the playlist."

Keith Harris (ip:*198.23 on 04/21/2009 11:44 pm): "Hey everyone. I donated to PeachPie couple days ago. It's definitely a good service and it's free so we should all help out since there's so much work put into it. It's worth a couple bucks if you listen to it as much as I do. PeachPie Forever!"

Guest (ip:*.177.172 on 03/15/2009 1:57 pm): "Thank you for peachpie radio. Wonderful Radio Station witha vast library of Korean Jams. This is my favorite online station cause it's got brand spanking new songs as well as songs I listened to years ago. Love the variety. Please keep up the good work!"

nees (ip:*.198.128 on 03/15/2009 1:58 pm): "and yes, I also thank everyone behind Peachpie Radio, its amazing, with wide variety!! Thank you!"

Guest (e-amil on 03/03/2009 11:46 pm) : "hi! first of all, thank you so much for making peachpie radio. i listen to it all the time..."

a fan (ip:*.80.205 on 02/19/2009 7:41 pm): "i love this site and i love the radio! big thx for it!"

Guest (e-amil on 02/19/2009 5:24 pm): "I don't want to complain! I just want to thank you guys for making such a great Radio station. I love the music streamed here and being able to request songs makes it epic! Thanks a lot! Greetings from Germany :) "

Lisa Atolia (ip:*.12.202 on 02/06/2009 9:07 pm): "all the way from Singapore! To peachpie, 만세!!!"

David Rhee (thru e-mail on 01/08/2008 4:15 pm): "Thanks for the radio station. Your playlist rocks. I listen it to it all the time."

George Song (thru e-mail on 12/30/2006 12:06 am): "Hello!My name is George Song and I am a Korean-American living in New York City. I came across your site through Shoutcast.com and I think your concept is great. "

Stay a Tech Savvy IT Consultant, Part 1

Being a seasoned IT consultant means you are expected to know many technologies that are out there today. You are also expected to be an expert in few of them. Working with Microsoft technologies for past 6-7 years, I found it overwhelming with number of new technologies they are coming out with and trying to keep myself up-to-date with them. I've always been struggling to find out what would be the best way to keep myself up-to-date and how I should go about mastering new technologies. I've sought advice from many seasoned developers. But what worked for them many not necessarily work for me. So I put down few points to help other IT consultants stay tech savvy and in the long run, become a great consultant.

So first thing first. What technologies are out there today? What are the purposes? How do they solve our business needs? There are number of ways to keep yourself in the loop. You can subscribe to magazines like MSDN Magazine (online is free), CoDe Magazine, asp.netPRO, or SQL Server Magazine. There are podcasts that you can listen to while driving or commuting to and from work. DotNetRocks is a great podcast show that will keep you informed of latest Microsoft technologies with interviews from many known figures in the community. You can also attend local .NET usergroups. How about attending MSDN Developer's Conference (PDC)? You can find out if there is one coming up near your town from MDC Website.

You can read blogs by some of the known people in the community. I enjoy reading Scott Guthrie's blog, Scott Mitchell's blog, and Rick Strahl's Weblog to name just a few. Just subscribe to their RSS and have the content emailed to your Outlook as new contents get published.

How about online communites? There are number of great communities out there for learning .NET. Starting with ASP.NET Site and MSDN Code Gallery, you can get very good tips and tutorials about .NET from 4 Guys From Rolla, 15 Seconds, Code Project, DotNetJunkies, ASP Alliance, and ASPFree. Believe me, there are more great communities, but those are what I came up with at the moment. As I come across other ones, I will add them here.

So for the first part of the article, I listed some methods and sources that will help you become a top-notch IT consultant. Above all, you should have the curiosity and desire to learn a new technology. If you happen to drive a lot, podcast is your friend. In part 2, I will talk about how to best master a technology.

blind date

i'm meeting up with this girl who was introduced to me through an old friend of mine. we've been talking on the phone for about a week and are finally meeting up today. the funny thing is she asked me last night what pants i am going to be wearing today. that really cracked me up. i can't stop thinking about it...