Thursday, May 14, 2009

CFUnited Speaker Questionnaire

Recently CFUnited sent out a speaker questionnaire. Since this whole thing was too long to twitter, I thought I'd share it with you, gentle reader, here on my weblog page.

1. Have you spoken at CFUnited in the past? What would you tell someone who hasn't been to CFUnited before?

I have never, even once, spoken at CFUnited. Last year I was sworn to silence. I would tell someone, it's okay - you can get through this.

2. Why should people attend your session(s)?

People should attend my session if they want to learn about what's new in Flex 4, or how they can use Flex to build some sweet UI's onto the hearty back-ends they're used to building in CF.

3. Do you have any projects in the works that you will be revealing at CFUnited?

[mysterious]If I did, I most certainly wouldn't reveal them on the internet. You'll just have to come and see for yourself.[/mysterious]

4. Besides your topic, what other sessions are you looking forward to?

I'm looking forward to Jun's session and David Tucker's session. They both know a lot about a lot of things, and I like learning things from people who know them.

5. What are some of the hot topics you'd like to see at RoundTable discussions?

I'd really enjoy listening to two gentlemen (or ladies) diplomatically argue the merits of the multi-party system of government favored in Europe compared to our rather intransigent tradition of only two.

6. Where can people find you at CFUnited? (At the bar, networking, working, in your room, etc.)

I will most likely be in the pool, trying to see how long I can hold my breath.

7. What's the latest news with you? Has anything changed since last CFUnited?

Well, Liz, I'm glad you asked. Last week we watched our friends' dog. It's a pretty nice dog, so it went well, generally, but it yipped a lot at night, and I'm a light sleeper, so that was a little rough. You know what, why don't we just catch up at the conference?

8. What is unique about CFUnited?

It's the last great bastion of hope for a dying world in need of a hero. There are a few mediocre bastions around, but you won't find any other great ones. Especially not around WADC.

9. When you are not working what do you like to do in your free time?

When I'm not working, I like reading, playing video games, and occasionally playing sports in my free time. When I'm working, I prefer to spend my free time playing scrabble over a nice glass of 2% milk.

10. How do you feel about Law and Order?

It is my firm belief that there are too many crime dramas on evening television, but of those crime dramas, Law and Order is pretty good, I guess.

Monday, May 4, 2009

New offices - EUI Upstairs!

Back in the summer of 2006, we (EffectiveUI) purchased a really big warehouse in down town Denver and moved in. In the early days we didn't have bathrooms or lights or conference rooms, and it was a real shack. That was quickly rectified, but as our numbers were still small we only built out the bottom floor of the building.

Since then we've grown considerably and our space started to constrain us - we couldn't physically fit enough desks in the office to house our Denver crew. Late last year we got serious about finishing the upstairs of the office, and today is the glorious day in which we've finally moved upstairs. Our design, development and PM teams moved upstairs, while account management and sales (the noisy people) stayed on the ground floor. It's nice and quiet up here. :)

Here are a few pictures, for anyone interested. It's still got a good industrial feel but is far nicer and more workable than the raw warehouse was.

The view from my desk of our "developer pit" area:


This is the designer "pit", separated by a half wall for us developers. The wall is there to make sense of the difference in floor height - not to keep them out (or us in (I think.))


Front couches upstairs - a good place to take phone calls. :)


The front stair case leading up to our new digs, with some of the art we're going to hang on the walls soon. I think Todd Hebenstreit made that one. All of the art we're using to decorate upstairs was done by EUI employees. I spray painted a smiley face myself, but it's not here. :)


View of the pits from the staircase:



We made Andy McIntosh sit with the designers to help him appreciate Flex Builder more: