Blog

December 29, 2015

Greg Thomas

Keeping Up-to-Date

Near the end of every interview I always ask this question, there is some sort of a preamble to it… “We work in a changing industry…” “There are so many new technologies…” How do you do it?  How do you stay current and relevant? Many think it is a trick question, i.e., I am waiting for you to say one specific blog and then I will go “aha Hire them!” – not the case.  There is no one magazine, one blog or book that is going to make you stand out from the rest of the crowd.  Conversely, I have

December 27, 2015

Greg Thomas

The Trust Factor in Version Control

Ever look at the emails in your inbox that are suffixed with; _v1, _1.1, _gt, _EditedByGT, etc, etc and wonder Why are we still doing this? We have all these incredible tools for version control and yet we continue to add these suffixes to the end of most of our documents?  Is it because… We don’t trust Version Control. Or rather, we only trust it when we are in control of the implementation?  When we are able to purposefully define that I am setting this as a new version?  Or is that we are worried that people will not recognize

December 24, 2015

Greg Thomas

Understanding the One on One

In any training there is always that one amazing point that you take from it that blows your mind… Why have I not been doing this for years? It was right in front of me all along. That makes total and complete sense. For me, this was years ago when I had just become a Software Manager and the suggestion that I have One on One meetings with my team every month to see how things were going. Shocking… But there it was, the replacement for quarterly reviews that would across as a surprise, the time to have each member of

December 23, 2015

Greg Thomas

Netflix and the Avengers

The Avengers was released to theatres on April 11, 2012. It wasn’t until sometime in 2013/2014 it was available on Canadian Netflix. The Avengers: Age of Ultron was released to theatres on May 1, 2015. I just watched (again) on December 19, 2015 on Canadian Netflix. It’s not on HBO (which costs $26/CDN a month). It’s on PayPerView (which costs $5.99 to rent). It’s on XBOX Live (which costs $5.99 to rent – if it is HD). You can call it improved legal agreements, contract negotiations, trying to have something in place to compete with theatrical releases but you cannot discount

December 22, 2015

Greg Thomas

The Results of Experiments

No man on the moon or building my own rocket for these experiments.  In the past, when I have tried these experiments they have always been some big things, but this time it wasn’t, they were small and focussed.  And perhaps that was the point, do what can be done with what you have? So what did I do? I did something that is always in all of our heads, something we always feel we need to get off our chest and say and I said it.  You might think this easy and simple, but the hardest speaking engagements are not