It looks like Google is taking its voice service (formerly Grand Central) up a notch with its latest product release. It has released an application for its Android mobile operating system and the Blackberry platform. The new application will effectively replace the native dialer on your Android phone so your calls are routed through the Google Voice service… making Google your new phone company.

I am eagerly awaiting to see how the incumbent wireless carriers react to this news. I for one can not wait to escape the shackles of my current wireless provider’s draconian contract. All hail Google… please continue to not be evil!

In a recent post on O’Reilly Radar, Tim O’Reilly shares his perspective on Obama’s Health Plan.

After reading it I feel much better about the plan. Not that I didn’t already support it; it’s just that he uses percentages to drive home how realistic this plan is in terms of funding dollars. In terms of what we as Americans spend in a year for health care now, the proposed funding is insignificant. We stand to profit immensely if it succeeds.

I was reading up on LLVM recently and stumbled upon a well thought-out statement by David Chisnall regarding how programming is more of a craft than an art. I could not agree more.

I think of programming as more of a craft than an art; the programmer is the modern equivalent of a blacksmith or a clockmaker. As with these crafts, it is possible to get the job done badly. Anyone can make a door hinge, or a mechanical clock, but a door hinge that opens smoothly and never squeaks or sticks, or a clock that keeps good time is much harder. In both cases, it requires an in-depth understanding of the materials you are working with.

Back in 2008, GigaOm ran a contest to see what its readers were optimistic about in 2008. I was featured as an honorable mention with my prediction that "Vonage will be relegated to the pages of history as Google’s Grandcentral ambitions are realized. Millions of people will flock to their service to obtain one phone number to rule them all". We didn’t see my prediction come true in 2008, but 2009 looks to be the year it will though!

I have always enjoyed (or rather, taken for granted) the fact that my name was quite unique. However, while searching for my name on Google today I encountered another person that shares my name. I was a bit appalled at first, but it was bound to happen at some point.

Ultimately, I don’t think it will matter much as I have a definite advantage at the moment as all results (but that one) are related to me specifically. I’m taking the proper actions now to secure my advantage as well by claiming my identity at all of the lame "identity" sites that litter my search results such as: zoominfo, naymz, and congoo.

I haven’t touched this site in almost two years.  I know; It’s pathetic.

I’ve had so much happen that I could have shared, but was just too lazy to get around to it.  My third child, Cooper, was born just after I moved to Raleigh in July 2008.  I didn’t realize it then, but he was the missing piece in my life.  He’s coming up on two years old in August and he is a spitting image of me at that age… right down to the tantrums he throws.

With the move to Raleigh brought a need to rely on our friends as we no longer had any family close by to help out in a pinch.  Today, I’m glad to say, we have several friends that have stepped up and become our extended family.  We have awesome neighbors that look out for us and are willing to take care of our pets when we going on vacation (more on that below)… and vice versa.  My wife has made many friends as a result of joining a Mom’s Club when we first moved down.  The women in that club have helped us out on many occasions and I’m very happy we have met them and their families.

Our kids have done well down here; that was the most important item on our “Do we move?” checklist.  Along with better career potential for myself and my wife, Michelle, we wanted our kids to have more opportunities as well.  This area of North Carolina has many great colleges/universities to choose from and the tuition of most of them is much more affordable than the options available back in Pennsylvania.  The weather hasn’t hurt either… you have to love the fact that almost everyday brings beautiful blue skies as opposed to a constant barrage of overcast skies.  In the end we hope our kids will be able to make a life here so they don’t feel the need to move away when they grow up like we had to… leaving our entire family was a very difficult thing to do.

Aliyah, Abygail, and Cooper

Abygail (our oldest child) has done exceptionally well; she acclimated to the huge increase in students at her middle school very well and has really started to turn into a well-rounded young lady.  She plays softball, volunteers at our church, and tutors other kids in her grade.  She has even made me feel out-of-touch technically on more than one occasion when she has shown ME how to use a feature within my cellphone.

Aliyah is going to start Kindergarten in July and excited to meet new people while upset she is leaving many of her preschool friends.  She is so very much like me in regards to her wacky sense of humor: her stories are outlandish and every bit as realistic to her as mine were to me at that age.  I hope she never loses that… my imagination is still quite vivid so I think she will be safe there.

Cooper is quite the little tough guy; he studies me intently all day and loves to copy my every move.  It is painfully clear I have some bad habits when it comes to how I play with him as he doesn’t understand that it’s okay to hit me when play but not okay to hit everyone else.  He has my temper as well; I used to throw myself and bang my head at that age when I was frustrated and he seems to have inherited that trait as well.  He talks so much… it is amazing!  I don’t remember Aliyah talking quite so much at this age, but it’s been long enough now that I could be mistaken.

I would have to say the one drawback to living down here is how we tend to spend our “vacations”.  We didn’t take many when we lived in Pennsylvania, but when we did we tended to enjoy them more.  Now we “vacation” up north by bouncing around from night to night with different family members (e.g. most nights we stay at my father-in-law’s house).  In short, we love seeing family, but we almost always feel we need another “vacation” to recover from the one we just experienced.  We never have enough time to see everyone we want to and we almost always get at least one guilt trip from a friend or relative about how we didn’t get to see them (or spend enought time with them).

I love my job as well.  While I don’t enjoy the politics involved sometimes, the technical aspect is interesting and I am always working on something new.  The particular aspect of the company I work within (e.g. Implemenation Services for the Warehouse Management System) is quite broad in scope and I learn something new about it everyday.  I enjoy working with like minded people that truly understand the engineering requirements for delivering a large, complex software product.

To further reinforce my early point, I just received an email from Schneider National. They wanted to inform me they are hiring and I would be a great fit in their professional driving team. What a joke!

I just logged in last night to polish my resume by restricting my desired locations even further and to place “RALEIGH AREA ONLY!” into my resumes title. This apparently doesn’t work either.

I can not stomach Monster… and I am going to remove my account (if at all possible).

Update: I called their 800 number after digging through their FAQ for about 5 minutes. I was connected to someone I could barely understand, but the process was semi-painless and I am now no longer a member of Monster.

I, like many, have relied heavily upon job boards such as CareerBuilder, Monster, and Dice as well as many smaller niche boards to find employment positions. I have clearly specified I am only interested in opportunities in the Raleigh area and permanent (non-contract) positions. Yet, I receive emails everyday for jobs all over the country (and in Canada) and receive calls for the same positions much of the time. Why can’t these big sites get it right?

I suspect they have lost touch with their user-base and are now catering to large recruiters. Monster seems to be the worst offender. They tend to provide my name to recruiters all over the country even though I am only interested in Raleigh and will not accept a contracted position. Their tactics waste my time and provide no real value to the recruiters in my opinion. I have been called so many times now that I will not talk to the person calling unless that can pronounce my name reasonably well and I can understand what they are saying. I am no bigot nor am I racist, but if I can not understand the recruiter there is a very good chance I will have communication issues with a large segment of the staff at the company they represent. If the company can not afford to hire people with exceptional adequate communication skills they probably can not afford to hire me either.

Update: I am an open-minded, easy-going person so please do not let my rant scare you away. I was merely attempting to broadcast my discontent for the major job boards and the underwhelming recruiting practices of many consulting companies.

I have been looking for a new job for a couple of months. My family and I want to move to the Raleigh, North Carolina area. I have had lots of calls and emails; with several phone interviews. I am very close to accepting a position… I am down to three candidates. The latest company I have interviewed with by phone is flying me down to have a face-to-face before we continue negotiations this Friday.

Update: I accepted a Senior Software Engineer position at RedPrairie. I work out of the Cary, NC office in the Implementation Services department. I work directly with their customers to define how the Warehouse Management software package will be configured (and potentially enhanced) to meet their individual business needs.

Here is a picture of my youngest daughter, Aliyah, at Easter time. She is absolutely adorable. She had a blast trying to find the eggs, but was only able to get 1 before the older kids snatched them all up.