So this week I've started the transition from the only job I've had since graduation to my first full time developer position. My job with MTSI has been awesome, and I've really enjoyed working with such a large group of friends, with flexibility and low stress for a majority of my stay.

What I feel has been missing has been challenge and accountability. While I love the fact that my input carries weight here, I have stagnated in my development by not having someone holding my feet to the fire, reviewing my work with an eye to proper procedures and potential for improvement. I have been able to try my hand at a number of different things, for which I'm grateful, but I'm excited to finally be in the deep end of large(larger) scale development, working with someone who knows way more than me.

My decision was also influenced by a need for uninterrupted time to work. Right now I freeze and tense up every time I hear the overhead paging system kick on, knowing that it's likely to bring me a new interruption.

I will miss my cubicle with a view. I will miss my collection of friends at lunch. I will miss my boss Kevin. The 13th will begin a new phase for me, and I can't wait.

Stack overflow had the first piece of the puzzle, one I'm still putting together one piece at a time. 32 bit to 64 bit conversion is proving to be quite difficult, especially since I was heavily relying on the class we downloaded to enumerate and connect to our HID. It's time spent learning, and working on code, which I always appreciate.

I was also approached today, in regards to one of my least favorite projects of all time. This project was one of our infamous "T&M with a CAP", which if you're not familiar with billable projects, is a nonsensical way of saying "We'll take our cake, eat it, and make you pay for it." Did you finish under your estimate? Great, we pay you less. Did you go over, great, finish the job for free.

I understand the thought process, there's a desire to stop the bleeding of a project gone bad, and to hedge your bets. But that's the problem with the whole "services" business model. You're trusting that the people you hire can get the job done in close to the amount of time they say, and you budget accordingly. But in any undertaking, there is risk, and to force one side to assume all the risk with none of the reward, seems both unfair and unreasonable. With such a past history, I'm not entirely optimistic about our future dealings. To say the least, I'd like to see it in writing, another one of our weaknesses.

In the meantime, Shannon leaves us tomorrow, Shain is the new Shannon. A new era for the Lynx department begins, as the old one fades into the sunset, or some such nonsense. And the training begins anew.

A lot is happening, and yet there's a lot of waiting. Today was more of the same. I confirmed today that the USB panic button software is not working on 64-bit Windows, which is becoming a larger share of our clients with Windows 7, especially since most of our clients skipped Vista altogether.

Late in the day I found a Stackoverflow question that seems to have the exact answer I need, though I didn't bring the USB button home, and really don't wish to work on it all that much tonight. I'm reminded quite frequently just what a great resource Stack Overflow is, and as I hope to be doing significantly more .NET work in the near future, I hope to become more involved in the community of developers.

I played briefly today with adding my laptop to my collection of monitors, making 4. One for the Mac mini, two for my PC desktop, and the display of my MacBook Pro. It's a bit much having to traverse the wide expanse from left to right, and moving my head side to side is hardly desirable. I'd also like to see an increase in screen real estate in the near future, but I feel that's probably much less likely.

Jacob was adorable again tonight, though quite delirious by the time I got home. He's communicating alot more now, even with few full words at his disposal. He clearly understands what we're saying, making discipline finally necessary, and unpleasant. He's a very strong willed boy, as I'm sure most parents describe their kids, but he's so sweet and even obedient most of the time I see him. Makes the crying when I scold him all the harder to take.

I'll post more when the other shoe drops, but until then, I wait.

Ever since having Jacob, I've noticed I'm about a million times more sensitive to all the smarmy moments in movies and shows involving kids. Brooke and I have both noticed this, all the more ridiculous in the case of District 9, where the involved father and son were aliens. All the same, nearly cried. Don't remember being emotional about The Patriot until I saw it on tv again recently. His daughter not wanting to talk to him, then running to him not wanting him to go to war, classic corn. Turned me into a teary mess.

So I take it becoming a father has weakened me, at least in the sense of controlling emotional response to depictions of parent/child interactions and separations, but I find a renewed sense of purpose that I'm unsure how to feel about.

When I'm curious if anything I'm doing has any value or permanence, I think of Jacob. I think of the impact I'll have on him, and that he'll have on others, and it makes me think that somehow all the stuff I do has more meaning than before. I suppose it could just be some built in genetic quirk, but I will say it's been quite calming, and emotionally balancing. I'm not saying I all of a sudden feel like I'm making this big difference in the world, but I do think I worry less about what the point of every day is. That's something I suppose. Thanks Jacob.

Months later, though I love my iPad, I have decided that I certainly can do some real work on the iPad, have had opportunity on a business trip to do so, and also that I most definitely do not want to. So I bought a MacBook Pro, with the full intent of using it primarily for .NET development.

As with many of my stubborn ideas, this one also brings up quite a few questions, such as why on earth would I want to pay a gazillion dollars for an over-priced, under-performing notebook with an operating system incompatible with my primary use? Glad you asked.

I didn't pay a gazillion dollars, I paid $900, thanks to Microcenter's curiously timed clearance sale of $999, and someone kind enough to purchase this one, gently open it and put it back in the box and return it (and suffer a 15% re-stocking fee), allowing me to purchase a perfectly good open box unit for another $100 off.

Second, I wanted a 13 inch laptop because I feel it's more portable and convenient for use on the couch, which is where I'll be using it 80% of the time. This is due to my wife preferring my company, even when I'm off in my own world.

Third, this laptop feels as solid as a lightweight brick. It has a touchpad bigger than my entire iPod touch, which by the way started my love affair with Apple. It has more multi-touch functions than I've seen on any other laptop, with more than enough room for four fingers to actually make it usable, and I do use it. It's clean design and solid feel make it seem just that much more important that I use it to create clean and solid code. I know that sounds retarded, but it's a tiny bit true too.

So, I'm jumping into the world of ASP .NET development, for better or worse. I'm using VMWare Fusion on a 30-day trial, starting off with 2010 Visual Studio Express, and hoping to blog to chart my progress, if nothing else. Off we go.