I want no monuments

This Tuesday I began a new adventure: I’m technical director in the business company my sister has founded. The company relies on a software done years ago by another company, now partnering with us.

These very first days were not very happy.
First of all, I didn’t write a single line of code. Gosh, terrible!
Second, the whole app is a mix of VB6 and VB.NET, glued together in (yet another) data driven app where the (fluscking) db has MUCH more power that it deserves. It costs a lot to extend (because of the Microsoft licenses… naah really, don’t tell me!! I can’t believe that! … ) and is generally slow.
Third, the current team members are a bit aged and they probably fear a loss of control by using technologies they don’t know.

Quite hard to find a breach where I can place a Glassfish/JBoss/Tomcat instance. If you have advice about it, I’ll really appreciate.

In the meanwhile, my friends at Reply are struggling to get ready for the new demo. Even if I’m officially out until April, I’ll join them next week.

Last, this evening I’ve met Reply local boss, in order to find a way for the JUG Torino to use their meeting room. And they are happy to have the pleasure to host us: so they will, probably next month.

So, why fresh air? Well

• I’ll try to hire some new and skilled developers as soon as possible (read: as soon as I have the money to do that)
• We are working on expading the “JUG way” on software
• While my friends at Reply are struggling, they know all they have to do is keep on doing TDD as we did since we began working on the project (read: refactoring/fixing)

So definitely some new things are going to happen in the next weeks/months and my “Italian Silicon Valley” dream, day by day, is getting more real.
Just a dream anyway. I’m not in a hurry: I’m having fun.

Today was my last day in Concept. After 1 year and a half, my very first java experience, I’ve stopped being part of the staff.
I hope I’ve done well, but I’m quite sure I’ve chosen the right way. Not really because I’ve brought (learned and taught) Echo2.
Because I’ve had the opportunity to learn and share a lot of things, things that made the company switch to AJAX and TDD.

After almost 6 years spent in Milan, tomorrow I’ll go back home, Turin, where I have a couple of things to do.

First, a flat. I’ll sleep in my parents’ house for some weeks but I need to get a flat.
Second, a new job. Something that could allow me to start being a one-man-company. I want to keep on working together with Concept, I want to closely follow some open source projects I’m interested in and I need a job for a living. Want, want, need. Uhmm… :/
Third, helping my friends switch to GNU/Linux.
Fourth, getting a life. It’s been quite hard since today. Things have to change.

Wish me luck, something new is going to start here.

Non conosco Guido Serra di persona: c’è stato un periodo in cui andavo a caccia di opinioni diverse (in effetti lo faccio ancora), per estendere i punti di vista. Come vedevo il blog di qualcuno ci davo una letta. E quello di Guido mi era piaciuto.

Guido sta lasciando (o hai già lasciato?) Milano per tornare a casa sua, da dove era partito. Più o meno quello che sto facendo io, tornando a Torino (che difficilmente considero una metropoli).

Penso quindi di indovinare il motivo della sua domanda, domanda che mi pongo anche io e la cui mancanza di una risposta mi ha sinora trattenuto dal diventare un professionista.

Di recente sono rientrato in contatto con un mio amico, Marco Meinardi, scoprendo la sua neonata azienda, Neagen, ma soprattutto la sua sede, l’Environment Park di Torino.

Al di là della quotidiana esperienza alto atesina (che, soprattutto dopo aver visto lo speech di Maurizio Napolitano all’OpenDay, mi tengo in tasca come possibilità), forse l’Environment Park e l’incubatore di imprese del Poli possono essere una risposta alla sua domanda.

L’assunzione è il vero costo che nessuno vuole assumersi.

Non sono parole mie. Per quello che ho visto finora, sono vere. E non c’è governo che tenga.

After a brief period of skills sharing, I finally resigned from my job in Ogilvy, an advertising company.

My last day is just finished, now a short week of relax and study then I’ll move to Concept, a very small but interesting reality of the italian IT panorama.

See you the 16 of August!

Something like 2 years ago, I changed my job and I was hired by an advertising company (will omit all names).

As I’ve always done, I try every day to learn something new and to share this fresh knowledge (could be a programming technique or a tool) with my colleagues and my tech chief. Goals are improving company base knowledge, improving software development and management quality and (why not?) improving my career. This lead some of them doing the same: they taught me many different things.

But not every colleague likes my behaviour.

Someone even plays me when I do that.

Of course I understand I’m speaking the wrong way: probably they think I do not really know what I’m talking about; probably they do not like the topics; probably they don’t have time; probably they don’t trust me as much as I think (or I should say “hope”?); and (let me say that, as I’m too proud of myself) probably they fear I could really change something.

Until now, I’ve spoken even if not asked to: I’ve just learnt something, I teach you what I’ve learnt.

But this friday, I was played for the last time, and the relationship between me and my tech chief is broken and un-recoverable.

I decided to speak only if ASKED, and I hope I won’t hurt somebody anymore.

Anyway, this is not the job I want, and I will leave them as soon as possible.

I hope I’ll find again a team who really likes to share its knowledge, as I share it every day and as I see others sharing it on mailing lists and usergroups.

Wire your mind to a p2p network.