Walls come tumbling down

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October 2002

October 29th 2002 19:30CST

During the course of today, I've written a test plan, started doing my 2003 budget (how do top down budgets ever work?), produced some artwork for use in marketing materials, discussed database usage, talked about licensing strategies and deployment and then I finished up the day with a visit to our tradeshow partners Star Exhibits who have just opened a new office (and cool it is too) in Brooklyn Park or Brooklyn Center (whichever is the further North). Tomorrow morning, I get to go to a seminar on lead-free solder (yawn).

All of this reminds me of the previous start-up companies that I've worked for whereby everyone does everything, which is fine since I've never been happier than when I'm run off my feet doing multiple jobs. Except I feel I have little control over the outcome of my efforts at the moment. In a start-up company, you don't get time to analyze your decisions; you make them, you implement and hell yes, you might be wrong, but at least you didn't waste your time deliberating. Decide, act, succeed or get over it and learn for next time. In a public company, there's process, there's management by commitee; not the stuff that makes businesses. What makes businesses is being non risk-averse, being insightful, quick, dynamic, unafraid and responsive.

One of the most fundamentally misunderstood concepts in corporate America (and I now have two acquisitions under my belt) is that of responsiveness. You are always going to experience problems that you haven't envisaged; it doesn't matter that you have problems, it matters how you respond to them. In corporate America, responsiveness and customer-service are generally seen as reaction. There is a great big shiny massive difference between the two. Recognizing the difference is key to any success.

The point of all this rambling is that when the chips (and markets) are down, you need to operate like a start-up company. I'm trying within the guidelines I have; I just hope that everyone else undertsands the modus operandi here and how important it is.

</sermon>

October 27th 2002 18:10CST

I just spent half an hour blogging (read bitching) about the clocks going back and how it heralds the start of the longest season that we get in Minnesota. After proof-reading it, I deleted it. Lordy, I can be a whinging git. Yes, I could live somewhere where it breaks freezng during most days, but the fact is that I don't and I should just live with it and quit my bitching.

I've spent some time trying to find a decent HTML editor for Linux today. All I want is something that allows me to do style sheets and iframes without me having to buy a book on HTML. There's nothing. While Netscape 7 for Linux is a vast improvement in its browsing capability, the Composer module is brain-dead. What I really want is something like Dreamweaver for Linux but it doesn't exist or if it does, I can't find it.

I have an urge to change the whole layout of my blog and use a template and I would were MoveableType more friendly. I can see the appeal of it, but I can't bring myself to waste hours learning how to use it as it will be of little use in anything else I ever do. Maybe I'll just ask Natzoid about templates - she seems to understand them.

Anyway, frightening fact of the day: if you do a google for andy yates, I come up number one. Eek. It used to be that if you googled for my name, on about page 63 you would find me on some industry conference speaker list. So much for anonymous blogging. I really should have hosted this on blogspot rather than my domain. Natzoid, as usual, had the right idea.

Next frightening fact: next Sunday evening, our hippy midwife is descending on the house. This probably means no blogging as of about next Thursday. Cleaning etc.

October 26th 2002 12:45CDT

For the first thirty years of my life, I marveled at how over-confident Americans are (OK so maybe the first ten years don't count) and was, to be honest, quite disgusted by the phenomena. After having lived here for nearly four years, I think I understand it and I think it's a good thing (apart from the ages of 9 until 21). It stems from the education system here.

I took Sam to the local middle school for her basketball team photo this morning and had an entertaining (sic) half hour reading the various posters in the halls and watching school kids interact while Sam queued for her picture. The notice boards are full of reinforcing messages about the capacity that lies within children, the happiness that knowledge brings and a plethora of self-congratulatory messages about how unique and different each child is. To add to that, there are anger management posters and instructions in respect and ownership.

What these messages (together with the teaching methods) achieve in children is to knock that childish shyness out of them and foster a sound self-belief. The results are pretty awful in the average American teenager but are very positive by the time these kids have crossed the line into adulthood. Of course, this approach can backfire (when combined with a very self-absorbed and domestic media) which produces the stereo-typical American much ridiculed by the rest of the world.

When I think back to my childhood and education, I cannot remember any such reinforcement. The first time I remember having to present in front a group of my peers was at University at the age of about 19. It was recorded for critique after the fact. At the time, I was a serious, introverted, drunkard goth and I stood at the front of the lecture theater visibly shaking while discussing some kind of Gaussian quadrature. Reviewing the video, I looked like Count Dracula clothed in black with the overhead projector's light ensuring that I was actually whiter than my usual Gothic palor. The critique was that I needed to present with more confidence. Fantastic. We never repeated the exercise. Lessons learned: 0.

So now I wonder why I get so nervous and fraught when presenting, public speaking or even simply sitting in a meeting with colleagues. There's no rational reason for it. As one our salesmen commented "I could understand it if you didn't understand what you are talking about but there aren't many people who are better at this kind of thing than you" which is probably a large overstatement of my abilities but you get the idea.

I must confess that I am getting better at it as time goes by but I fear that the panic will never disappear. I've said before that I have been to numerous courses on presenting with confidence. None of these things worked. Only time and practice have helped me get to the point where I am not completely breathless when asked to stand up in a group of five or more people. I always tread the fine line of asserting and denying, petrified I'm going to make an idiot out of myself or come to a stupid or inappropriate conclusion.

I wonder whether had I had the kind of upbringing that American kids get, I wouldn't be so phased by the horror of public speaking. And I also wonder whether my conscience and embarassment at the fairly public circumstances behind my divorce hamper my self-confidence.

Anyway, I'm glad that Sam, the Z-meister and Nick will have the chance to avoid the paralysis by attending schools that build confidence. And having recognized the value, I will help them to build it, but also ensure that they are also well-grounded in reality and humility. Greenwich Mean Time will be at the center of a map of the world, and they will know India is on a map. They will understand the offside rule in real football and hopefully be better people for it. :)

October 23rd 2002 21:30CDT

So, by 2030, Minnesota will have undergone a 27% increase in its population (according to a report on NPR). That translates to a wopping 6.2 million inhabitants in an area that would comfortably house the whole of the UK. Amazing.

So what is the state government going to do about this increase? Open a new power station. This station will provide energy to 40,000 homes by utilizing 500,000 tons of turkey droppings a year. I'm serious. Apparently, after consultation with such authorities on turkey muck as the UK (I barely saw a turkey in England and we only eat them once a year) and probably Wisconsin (I can't remember who the others were), the powers that be are going to OK this power station as its emissions will be lower than conventional power plants. Well done guys - Ken Pentel will be proud (sic).

In other news, I have been handed the responsibility of co-ordinating a trade show. That scares the daylights out of me. I've been wanting a return to marketing for a while, but my marketing I meant product management. After our last cut-backs it became apparent that there were no product management roles for me, but I could do marcomms. Laugh? I nearly took it seriously. And now I have to take it seriously. It's time I owned up to the fact that I'm a sad techie geek who could possibly do product marketing but never marcomms. I don't have the eye for the beautifully designed brochure (or blog for that matter) but I am creative (OK, so you wouldn't think so from this blog effort), so long as I can hand it off to someone a little more arty than I who can clean it up.

Anyway, the moral of this is be very careful what you wish for - you too may end up with the smell of slowly roasted turkey turds wafting gently around your home. Oh, and the question is, if anyone feels like helping me create a check-list of what to panic about, I'd be more than happy to spend some of my very limited budget in getting some help! Let's start the bidding at say $100? And while I'm thinking about it, anyone want to hire me to be a general geeky software product manager that doesn't involve industrial machinery? The resume's over at yatescentral.

Temperatures topped in the 30s today. Lows tonight will be in the 20s. I'm off to bed to watch Law and Order with a nice glass of red. If it gets too cold, Natzoid and I can always throw an extra dog on the bed.

October 21st 2002 07:30CDT

I have just lost a whole weekend and a lot of sleep attempting to achieve two things; install moveable type with MySQL support on my Linux box (success after numerous RPM searches) and install a sound card (still in failure as the ALSA modules are built with a misnamed kernel). I don't know whether or not I like moveable type as yet.

It snowed on Saturday night an throughout Sunday; a light inoffensive snow, but snow none the less. Just as we skipped Spring, so we have skipped Autumn.

Now to work. In the snow. In the cold. In October. In the latest Tundra. Ack.

October 17th 2002 20:45EDT

For those of you who love electronic gadgets, let me tell you a little bit about how they are made. In the past, manufacturers designed and built their own products. Building circuit boards (that go into virtually everything nowadays) is a tough job and it really is very easy to produce things that simply don't work and can't be fixed (so you have to throw them away).

The process of assembling a circuit board goes along the lines of screen printing some paste on to little pads where components will be, putting the components on the pads and then passing them through an oven where the paste melts into solder and voila, you have a circuit board. All of this used to be done by people who put parts into holes and then the boards were put over a big wave of liquid solder. Now it is mostly done by very complex and very expensive machines. The problem with machines is that when they run out of components, they can't wander off and get some so people are employed to make sure the machines keep going. Another problem with machines is that they only do what you tell them to, so if you give them the wrong part, they will happily do their job with the wrong part (read dead cell-phone). And yet another is if they do it, but not quite well enough (dropped cell phone calls are not always due to your network).

So people are employed in this soul-less process, to change reels of components, to check they are right, to inspect and test the boards, to assemble the final product etc etc. You get the drift; this is the 21st century equivalent of being a cotton spinner or factory worker. They are paid peanuts and their days must be mind-numbing. They are expected to know about polarity, contamination, what a good solder fillet looks like, how to fix one of these incredibly complex machines and what do they get for this? About minimum wage.

Worse still, their livelihoods are moving away from them. When surface mount was originally employed in the West, that is where the jobs were for these people. The old poking components into holes left Western shores for those with cheaper than minimum wage labor. After years of understanding this whole process, the surface mount industry started moving from the people who designed and built the boards to people who designed them and then outsourced the production to contract manufacturers. These guys were based in the West too, but they quickly realized that labor was cheaper in Mexico and then that it was even cheaper in China. Which is where virtually all consumer gadgets are now built.

The reason (as always) for this move from our shores to other countries is our demand for cheaper and cheaper electronics. To put that into perspective, the reason that you can buy a DVD player for $80 from Best-Buy is because these contract manufacturers recognized that they could sell things cheaper by making things cheaper (duh!) and moving that production process to cheap labor markets. It won't be long before the Chinese are too expensive and Africa becomes the next port of call in the manufacturing sector.

But where does it all end? Mars? Pluto? We, in the West demand things at ridiculous prices. We, in the West see service as our market and use the goods that manufacturers produce as marketing material (when did *you* last pay full list price for a cell phone?). We want it cheaper and we want it better. And we get it, all because some contract manufacturer closes a plant in the US or Europe and moves it to Asia.

I have very mixed feelings about it. Although I still hate wandering into production floors in the US or Europe where the workers are paid minimum wage, I also hate seeing them being marched out of the building when something is moved to China costing them their jobs. It's surreal looking onto these vast expanses and looking at all these fascinating people with real lives and passions, as they act like automatons. In fact, I have very little human empathy with them when I walk in...they look like drones getting on with a job. It's only when you talk to them it registers that these are real people living real lives and that no-one in their company cares a shit about them (and they probably don't even know that). Tomorrow, they could be out of a job as it moves East.

When I finally start my own company, I promise now that anyone who works for me will not be on minimum wage, no matter what they do. I promise to be ethical. I promise that 'maximization of shareholder value' will develop a new meaning and will encompass 'maximization of employee participation'. I promise I will never, ever, ever move anything outside of the US and the UK, no matter how many savings could be had. I will never sacrifice quality. I will never be unfair.

The price for that will be that you, as a consumer, will have to pay a little more. Having spent 5 years in this industry and seeing the injustices, as of today, I pledge my allegiance to those poor souls who work on US production lines for minimum wage, and are thankful for their awful jobs. I promise I will look to see where any item is made; if it isn't made in the US or Europe, it ain't entering my house.

We need to wake up to reality and understand that the decreasing cost of electronics is not some fantastic market pressure; it costs us real jobs. And in time it will cost China as things move from there to less expensive labor markets. And then we will hit a bottom. Where can we go? We should just pay the price of what it costs to produce electronics here with all the associated margins. That way the game remains on a level playing field.

The rich are getting richer. The poor are getting poorer. The divide is getting bigger. Please vote with your conscience and let us all protect our people (and then in turn, we will be protecting other people in avoiding their exploitation).

I apologize for stealing other peoples' tag lines but really "we are all in this together". And Natzoid's sign off:

Genuinely and Altruistically.

October 13th 2002 15:45CDT

I have been used. I feel dirty.

I checked my visitor statistics this morning and found there were quite a few referers that were from, let us say, dodgy sites. Interestingly all of these visits came from the same IP address but from several different referer sites. "Hmmm" thought I, "why on earth would dodgygeezers.com link to my site?" So I went to the least offensive sounding site and sure enough, there wasn't a link to my site. Curiouser and curiouser. I called in Natzoid and explained. She, of course, got it immediately. Some bright spark somewhere thought he could get a bit of free publicity for various 'adult entertainment' sites by having my site list them as the last five referers (like I get that many visits - right).

I use the HTTP referer variable to log which link brought you here so this guy must have somehow managed to spoof that variable in his browser or bot (I'm sure it's possible but haven't thought about how you would do it). Thankfully, rather than use the free sites to log my activity, I log my own so it was a simple exercise to just delete those particular visits from the database and thus cleanse my referer list of adverts.

In an economic climate where the only e-commerce businesses still making money are what I will call pron sites (deliberate spelling mistake), I should surely be able to charge whomever it was for ad-space. Come to think of it, Mr Spoofer, if you come back to read this, drop me an email and I could put up a banner ad for you for quite the discounted rate. I can guarantee you a visitor rate of say two people a day (me and the missus) and maybe even four and if you get any traffic through from my site, let me know...I could use some blackmail money - I'll know exactly who it was!

October 12th 2002 04:45CDT

We've attended two basketball matches this week. I must confess, I was not looking forward to watching nine year old girls fumbling around on a basketball court. I had it all mapped out; girl A gets ball and runs with it (and I mean runs as the ref would overlook the travel rule) until she's within a theoretical shooting range, launches it with all her might towards the basket and the ball gets to within about 2 feet of the height of the basket and falls to earth whence girl B retrieves it and the antics are repeated at the other end of the court. Repeat ad nauseum.

Reality was nothing like my projection. Both games have been really good, well disciplined, tactical and high scoring (with plenty of breaks, which I couldn't understand as the local school's 4th grade basketball matches are hardly prime time viewing). Not only have the games been good, but I've been able to indulge in my favorite pastime, that of people watching while simultaneously scanning for fantastically subtle ironies (or maybe not so subtle).

The American suburban parent (ASP) is quite the phenomenon. Hot on the heels of last week's mandatory trip to the country for some poor kids, I today witnessed the basketball mums and dads. To say that they are obsessive is an understatement. The two teams kicked off (or whatever they do in basketball - I don't know the rules) and within seconds, the gray team was two points up. So far so good for coach Mum. However a couple of seconds later, Sammy came blazing through for The Sting to put the score level. The gray team fell apart for about, oh, maybe twenty seconds before Mum called a time-out. There was a mass huddle as Mum gave them the what for. Coach Dad sat behind me screaming instructions, barking orders and swearing blind that his nerves couldn't cope with the a whole season of this twice a week.

Spectator Mum who sat behind me on my other side decided to explain to me that her young daughter was in basketball to develop some team skills as she has always been focussed on karate.

These people are possessed. Am I a terrible parent for not caring whether Sam wins or not? I mean, I care that her academic work is up to snuff, but I don't care a button about the winning. I am aggravated when Sam proudly states "I know what sixteen plus sixteen is" and I snarl a response along the lines of "Good. You're nine. You should know what sixteen plus sixteen is - come back to me when you start algebra - you should be capable of basic mental arithmetic at nine." but I barely bat an eyelid if one of the girls forgets where she's meant to be. I can't ever see myself shouting at the kids while they play a game, which is after all, for fun. I enjoy the games and I hope Sam's team win but ultimately the result isn't important. Yet the plethora of other parents scream, admonish and sometimes clap when their team scores.

One of those not so subtle ironies is that these 250+ pound parents roll up to watch in their over-sized tracksuits, armed with snack foods and bottles of Pepsi. I can just see my PE teacher's face at school, had he been present to see people taking food and drink into the gym...he would have exploded. I once broke my nose in a soccer game indoors in the gym; the expected blood started to pour and it started to drip on the hall floor. Mr L (we will keep him anonymous as I think he still works there) screamed at me "Yates - don't bleed on the sports hall floor" and whisked me out of the gym in order to get back to the game. I digress but am about to digress a little further...

While listening to NPR on my way home yesterday, I diagnosed myself as bipolar. The doctors described my attitude to life as if they'd known me all my life. I love listening to the chemically well balanced observe us, the masses, the chemically unbalanced and our weird little foibles. I don't know why, but the realization was somewhat of a surprise to me. When I mentioned this to Natzoid, she was amazed that I didn't know. Ho-hum. Anyway, the reason I mention this is that if I am chemically unbalanced and bipolar, yet I can be reasonable about kids sports, what are these ASPs afflicted with? It must be some form of mania. Or maybe I'm just bipolar enough to have not snapped yet. The fact remains though, that I can see the blatant irony in pitching up to your child's basketball match weighing in at twice your recommended body weight, in tracksuit pants and a Budweiser T-shirt, carrying Pepsi and a doughnut. Or maybe they understand the irony and there's something I've missed. Either way, if that is balanced, I don't want to be...

October 6th 2002 19:55CDT

Forts for the boys

I now have the basis of my own little den and I'm pleased as Punch. The walls are yet to be adorned with Manchester United memorabelia and I'm missing the TV and recliner but God is this good. I have my Linux box, my Roland Juno 106 and most of all, a room to myself.

You have to question the reasoning behind its creation though. Either my family hates me and wants me out of the way, or they like me and want to make me happy by giving me my own little space or they want me locked up in here until I finally create a world-changing product and make millions. The most likely is the latter I think given the fact that all my sad techie books are slowly making their way up here.

Whatever the reasoning, it is great. Now, once I get that recliner, I can get down to some serious thinking while watching old cowboy movies in my own fort, and I will get that inspiration and the millions will follow.

We can all dream, and if we don't succeed at least some of us will be comfortable while we do it.

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October 5th 2002 20:55CDT

Today we did the all-American Fall trip out to a farm which must have been within spitting distance of Wisconsin (read East of St Paul). I don't know whether this particular custom is a Midwestern thing or a US thing, but I don't remember any such rite in the UK (but then again I was never a kid anyway). It's a pleasant enough little trip where the kids get to take in the country air, pick pumpkins and eat apples. They get a ride on the trailer behind the tractor and more good old American junk food than you could wave a whole apple tree at.

It's a strange cross-section of demographics that haul their kids in their vans and SUVs out from the City or the suburbs to wring out what's left of the decent weather, do autumnal activities and hit the obligatory petting zoo.

For example, one middle-aged woman had her kids reluctantly posing, lying in the middle of a bunch of pumpkins screaming at them to smile while she took their photograph. The kids didn't want their picture taken and complained that it was too uncomfortable. (I tried it later with the kids on a photo and could have had quite the nap). I had to wonder whether her kids were enjoying it or whether she felt it was an obligatory annual event and that the kids should be there, whether they liked it or not.

Me and the kids checking out the comfort factor of pumpkins. I give it 8/10.

Another contingent was the teenage lout who, for want of anything better to do, paid their $5 and ran through the corn maze. For those of you who have never witnessed one of these things, they are quite the spectacle; a maze cut into a cornfield of 6'-8' high plants. So half the teenagers ran wild in the maze, knocking down plants and intimidating the younger kids with their volume and speed. The kid who drove the tractor was obviously enjoying his prestigious position as the local contingent of young girls hung around him.

The rest of the farm was full of people like us with young kids who were enjoying the annual pilgrimage to the sticks. The kids marvel at farm life like all town kids do and the adults marvel at the beautiful scenery and peer enviously at houses that they could probably afford if they wanted a 2 hour commute each way every day. But for that view and all that land for the kids and pets to run on, it might actually be worth it.

I have friends who have made that sacrifice and moved out to the middle of nowhere and commute a hell of a distance each day. Hell! But can you imagine the ecstasy that you would have experienced when you were a kid if you had woodland, streams and endless fields to explore. You could build dens, watch deer, fish, pond-dip and enjoy all of those things that it is increasingly impossible to do in the ever-expanding suburban sprawl. Even though I'm now a dyed in the wool city dweller, I wasn't when I was a kid and I still hanker for that out of the way, back of beyond home where you're 2 miles from the next house. Now I insist that there's a gas station within a couple of blocks, and a Byerly's. When did it all go wrong? More to the point, can it be corrected so the kids get away from the temptation filled cities and enjoy a rural childhood?

Only Midwesterners know the toil that goes into creating that one day out in the country for the kids. I worked on a farm in my teens and know farming is one of the hardest jobs in the world so I class myself as being one of those in the know on the subject. So me and Midwesterners today celebrate all the hard work that goes on in the country by spending our $50 on pumpkins and apples. And even though this event heralds the start of the Tundra season, it's the one day when I appreciate living in a place with four seasons. Ask me again in a month and all will have changed but at the moment, I'm living in a farm house in Southern Wisconsin with a couple of acres of land, a riding lawn-mower and a big sign over my head that says 'City Kid'. So which way is it to San Diego?

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October 2nd 2002 20:55CDT

What a difference a day makes. This time last night, Natzoid and I were congratulating ourselves on what a great job we have done after Samantha's conference at school (read parents' evening). The report was sterling and she's doing well in everything, very well adjusted (how the hell did that happen?) and wonderfully conciliatory in all her dealings with other kids and adults. She's a born mediator (and I can't remember how to spell that in English or American). So last night, the kids went to bed early without any fuss and Natzoid and I retired to bed for the marathon 'Law and Order' session. The evening was only marginally spoiled when I noticed that AT&T are using a slogan that I had come up with for our new software release. Suffice to say, it was pleasant enough.

Tonight on the other hand has been a symphony of noise. The darling kids that we were so enamored with not 24 hours ago are now raucous hooligans, screaming above each other, refusing to eat certain things, demanding candy with menaces and trying to feed dogs with plastic. The youngest, The Bean, has developed a love of coat-hangers and raw onions (usually separately) and is loving the sound of her own screams. And remind me; we have a third one on the way in about 6 weeks; why?

On a totally different subject, I spoke to a journalist today. 'Big deal' you may say, but it's a fantastic thrill for me. The challenge of articulating, the mental chess game, the preparation, just the joy of ensuring that you don't f*** it up. I'm sure that the US trade press aren't waiting on my every word to trip me up so they can do a great tabloid expose (as they surely would in the UK) but I treat all journalists like they are. They are simultaneously your best friend, your worst foe, very intelligent people and imbeciles. They are alluring and yet they are repulsive. You could trust them with your life and you would count your fingers after you shake hands with them. Is there any better sport? I think not. I bet the guy in question doesn't even know that he made my work-day. He did. I needed it...for reasons that I won't go into, my old job is up for grabs and I really want it back but I fear it may not happen.

The company I work for are currently valued, not only at under book value but at below the amount of cash we have in the bank. Anyone with about $18m to spare who wishes to make about $10m return may want to get on a plane to Minneapolis. Only joking; you can do it from your web browser if you feel like it. Such is the idiocy of the market economy.

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October 2nd 2002 07:40CDT

Apologies for the silence. A combination of a speaking engagement in Chicago and my being remiss on the domain registration has meant more than usual silence. I will work to rectify the situation.

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