What I like in my new workplace

I was slightly surprised with my new workplace. And it was not only my colleges (very open and helpful), but also the spirit of this company and environment.

Also I found very interesting things in conference rooms:
Do your whiteboards have memories? I guess - no (I have not seen such whiteboards in Russia, for example). You can draw something on board and then print it (just press a button and information from the whiteboard will be transferred on paper). When you print something off the whiteboard it stays in the memory and can be printed out again. But don't forget to wipe out all information from the whiteboard when meeting ends (at first it is not suitable for next meeting if attendants see your information, and also your information may contain some confidential things :) ).

And also I was impressed by universal printer-scanner-copier devices in office: they not only scan your documents, but also can send scanned materials by email. (Maybe I'm a caveman and my astonishment is silly, but such technical gadgets help me a lot).

So, in whole it is a very good place to work!

A few new pictures from Wellington

Here is a short collections of new Wellington pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lysunkin/AFewPicturesFromWelly#

Some shortcuts for a better life in NZ

Someone (one of my friends maybe) told me that prices in NZ is much higher then for example in the USA.

Possibly that my friend did not know about possible shortcuts ("pricecuts") :)

So, I was walking down the streets of Wellington and found very interesting market on Willis/Vivian crossing. Such prices just amazed me: some goods (oranges, other fruits and vegetables) were 3 times cheaper then in supermarkets. For instance: a kilo of oranges had a price of $0.99 (it is about 57 American cents or 16 Russian rubles).

Later on Vivian street I saw "Dick Smith Electronics" where I found very attractive prices on electronic gadgets (for example: $99 for a Logitec cordless mouse + 2.1 speakers - such things have the same price in the USA and 2 times more expensive in Russia).

I think the cost if living is not high here, I'm sure, definitely.

P.S. Also it's usual to have lunch by $10 or even less (10 bucks will be a reasonable price for something for lunch in "Great India" or "JJ Murphy's"). So it's cheaper then if I take the same amount of food in Moscow or even in smaller Russian cities (like Saratov).

First look at New Zealand

I've put my photos from the "first look" on Wellington, New Zealand (I took a walk thought Wellington and made a few photos)

http://picasaweb.google.com/lysunkin/FirstLookAtWellingtonNewZealand#

I'm in New Zealand (my dream came true)

Hooray!

This Monday I came to New Zealand: Auckland first and Wellington then.
That was a long trip from Moscow (thru Tokyo) - I was more then 20 hours in flight (about 10 hours for a trip from Moscow to Tokyo, more then 10 hours for a trip from Tokyo to Auckland, and about 1 hour for a flight from Auckland to Wellington).

And finally: I'm here! I cannot express all my feelings: almost is fresh and bright here.
I did not expect that the air of New Zealand is so intoxicating for me (in a good meaning of this word :) ). I've seen a lot of pictures of NZ and thought that all these photos were transformed in Photoshop like application to look more attractive. All these pictures were very close to original. It's a so clear, bright land.

I'll make a few my own photos and then put them here (or put a few links to my photos).

Cheers!

Most influencing books

Here is a list of books which are influenced me a lot:

1. "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen R. Covey.
   
2. "How to get control of your time and your life" by Alan Lakein
   
3. "Eat That Frog!" by Brian Tracy
   
4. "Getting Things Done" by David Allen
   
5. "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho (sure, I know that this is a fiction novel, but I like it anyway)
   

I'm going to enumerate and shortly describe the list of books which I've read during this year

I'm going to enumerate and shortly describe the list of books which I've read during this year.
I'll do this ASAP (possibly even today).

I spent the whole year in improvement activity and optimization of my way of living and functioning - I even completely changed some of my habbits. All this happened bacause of books I've read.

As Russian writer Maxim Gorky said: "I am obliged to books for all the good in me" :)
So am I...

Changed my Blog appearance

I've decided to change my blog appearance (color scheme, etc.) because not everything in my life so gloomy (previous schema was in dark colors).
Everything is great and positive!

Cheers!

I want to explain my reasons of leaving EPAM with more details :

1) My new employer offered me slightly higher salary (+ the same amount of money while I'm in a business trip)

2) Soon I'll be in a very interesting business trip (starting from the midst of November)

3) They offered me a bigger project (a small part of a huge project) with new technologies and the ability to "grow fast" (if I'm smart and well organized).

4) And also we developed a smooth process of integrating me into their business process and this new project.

So, I'm sure that were sufficient reasons to leave.

My last official day in EPAM Saratov

Today was my official last day in Saratov branch of EPAM Systems.
(sure, I'll be visiting this office because I still need to transfer my knowledge of some project, but nevertheless: today was my last day here).

I deeply appreciate all my friends here (I've mentioned only a few good people)

In Saratov:

• Alex Guzev (my old friend and team-mate) - for good job which we have done here
• Evgeny Fedotov - for very interesting talks about TDD (Test-Driven Development) and Design Patterns
• Pavel Boykov - for very pragmatic thinking
• Vladimir Pan - for very important criticism of my work
• Ekaterina Ermilova - for a very good advice when I was in trouble

In Mogilev:

• Siarhei Prudnikaw
• Konstantin Talanin
• Andrei Saperski

So let all good people be happy and healthy and all evil ones - go to hell :)

How to manage your managers

Once I worked on a project and constantly was having a problems with tasks and my managers.



The situation was as follows: I was receiving my tasks from several managers and all of them was angry (to say honest they were pissed off :) ) that I was bad in task prioritising and sometimes missed some deadlines. Sure, I tried to say something like that: "It's enough things on my plate". But they were not happy anyway and each time I had to describe all my tasks and what's wrong with one more task in my list.


I think I was not too smart to manage this problem right and eliminate all unnecessary tasks.

So, here is the diagram of management which should be eliminated:


If only I was really smart that time I had proposed this method of management my activity:



But this method requires information about most influential manager (supervisor), which should be identified and used as a leverage to influence on other task submitters. So all would justify their tasks in the eyes of my supervisor before making an asignment.

Or another approach may be used:






As for my organization, a special software system could be used and I was just stupid that tried to work without yells of anger that anyone assigns tasks using email, phone or verbally.

Singleton in C#

Once I've found a Singleton pattern implementation in C#

class Singleton<T> where T : new()
{
    private static readonly T inst = new T();
    public static T Instance
    {
        get { return inst; }
    }
}

I was suprised by the elegance of this code snippet (and also it is thread safe!)

This code could be used as follows:

internal class Singleton<T> where T : new()

{

    private static readonly T inst = new T();

    public static T Instance

    {

        get { return inst; }

    }

}

internal class Single

{

    public Single()

    {

        System.Console.WriteLine("Constructor!");

    }

}

public class Test

{

    public static void Main(string[] args)

    {

        Single sss1 = Singleton<Single>.Instance;

        Single sss2 = Singleton<Single>.Instance;

    }

}

Oracle script for index creation

Once I had a task of creation a lot of indexes for Oracle DB (that DB had no indexes for columns used for table linkage).

I wrote a simple script to automate this task:



So this script built indexes descriptions which could be edited and executed.

Try to teach enyone and you'll be more educated too!

Try to teach enyone and you'll be more educated too!

Currently I'm trying to create a webcast about dotNet 3.5 features (for our internal training). I did not know that this process is so difficult!
So I must polish all my knowledge and be able to explain coplicated things easily (I realised that sometimes I can exaplain complicated things in more complicated way :) )
Also, it's hard to speak without an audience: just sit still and speak to a microfone...

But anyway it was very important experince!
I'm going to create a few webcasts soon, because it will teach me the following stuff:
1) get to know more about the topic you consider in your presentation
2) get more experince in speaking skill
3) gain presentation skills in whole

That is it for now. I'll write about further progress.

Мысли по поводу лидерства

Возникли у меня мысли по поводу лидерства и вот они какие (почему-то возникла аналогия с движением по дороге):

1) есть такие люди, которые хотят быть лидерами и даже официальные должности имеют, но они похожи на мощные полуспортивные автомобили - они включают высокую передачу, быстро отрываются, улетают далеко вперёд, а потом (когда им надоедает ждать где-то за поворотом), возвращаются к основной массе и начинают распаляться и орать дурным голосом, что все "тормозят" и вообще никуда не годятся.

2) другая категория: трактор "Беларусь" - они официально признаны (легитимность имеется), но движутся медленно по дороге, где обгон запрещён и всем приходится плестись за ними и пока такой "лидер" не наберёт нужную скорость, то никакого движения не будет.

я был свидетелем работы обоих типов таких "лидеров" - один уносился вперёд и потом всех ругал за медлительность, а другой плёлся и настойчиво мешал прогрессу группы (например, проводил митинг на 2 часа, на котором ничего так и не решил)

Каков же выход и какой же идеальный лидер должен быть:
это тот, кто даже если и имеет "мощный мотор", то может держать себя на небольшом отдалении от основной группы и задавать общий темп движения, помогая основной группе держать тонус... либо (если он ближе к типу "трактор Беларусь") просто не мешать общему движению и время от времени помогать выбраться участникам группы из ямы (он же - трактор! :) )