Plans from last week:

Work

• [X] Frontend design on new subscription pages – still in progress (MM)
• [X] Taxes (CC)
• Switched from Amazon to SendGrid for transactional mails (MM)
• Verified backup scripts – tracked a problem with JungleDisk down to a failing post-backup script due to an expired license (Amino, MM)
• Changed WYSIWYG editor in the control panel, integrated it with the old media browser (MM)
• Tried to solve a nasty proxying problem (MM)
• Fixed bugs in main CSS and converted it to LESS (MM)
• RSS and gallery troubleshooting (WR)
• Small task on oDesk for fun

Relationships

• Went fishing with Birgit

Life

• [X] Updated servers and CMS
• Played with TeamViewer, set it up for unattended access
• Wrote more personal diary entries again
• Used my fakir mat again
• Bought an insane amount of sweets at a cash&carry (engros) shop
• Put a few old items up for sale on QXL (local eBay competitor)

Plans for next week:

Work

• Taxes (CC)
• Finish frontend design for subscription pages (MM)

Relationships

• Family bookkeeping
• Lots of doctor’s appointments with the kids

Life

• Get used to a regular rhythm again, now that the kids are back from their holidays
• Update servers and CMS

Location:Rabygatan,Malmö Municipality,Sweden

Plans from last week:

Work

• [X] Worked at the office every day to introduce and answer questions from new developer (MM)
• [X] Retagged site for new DFP account (MM)
• [X] Fixed huge SEO problem (MM)
• [X] Fixed VIP subscription problem (MM)
• Flighted rotating product ads (MM)
• Fixed aggregated article list problem (MM)
• Researched the new EU cookie directive (MM)
• Updated sites to WordPress 3.1.1 (CC, MM, Amino)
• Reorganized source code in version control (CC)
• [-] Taxes (CC)

Relationships

• [X] Shared pictures more often
• [X] Went to kids birthday party with Mathias
• Rescheduled kids’ doctor’s appointments
• Called my mom
• Played Little Big Planet 1 with Birgit
• Ate at Burger King with kids (a mistake not to repeat)
• Drew a map of bus stops for Birgit
• [-] Family bookkeeping

Life

• [X] Continued moving own blogs to Drupal – didn’t have a lot of non-worktime though, so didn’t finish
• [X] Some blogging
• [X] Updated servers and CMS
• Researched and ordered surveillance cam
• Read a lot more RSS feeds and blog articles, thanks to increased travel time

Plans for next week:

Work

• Taxes (CC)
• Teach new developer more about Redpitt (MM)
• Meeting with old acquaintance about possible project (CC)

Relationships

• Family bookkeeping
• Call my mom
• Accompany kids on the way to their granny in Denmark

Life

• Finish moving first personal blog to Drupal 7
• Participate in a research study
• Update servers and CMS

I just read a report from Skype (via Mashable) that finds 62% of all surveyed companies already use remote workers, i.e. employees working from home (“WFH”) some or all of their time.

While this is presumably a US based survey I guess the situation here in Scandinavia is comparable, and I believe this is a trend that will continue over the next years and decades. In my opinion the trend to work remotely, which became a possibility thanks to technology such as Skype and the Internet in general, goes hand in hand with two other trends in the industry: specialization and loose groups of people working together on a project basis rather than a company basis.

Let me give an example of what I mean by an increase in specialization. When I first studied software development at a business college in Denmark, we were taught Java initially and like many of my “classmates” I chose .NET as a secondary class (back then, this framework was the new kid on the block). Upon graduation I felt I had some rudimentary skills in these major frameworks but nothing really ready for production use. The first job I applied for was at a small but great software company that had plans to switch to .NET, but mostly still worked with older technologies (VB6 and Classic ASP). Two facts amaze me today: how broad the spectrum covered by my classes was, and that I got the job.

Comparing this to today’s software world, I believe the game has already changed tremendously in the 7 years since I graduated. Yesterday, I came across a job ad by a company looking for someone with experience in Pylons and PHP. Now, PHP is a major language of course, but Pylons is only one among many Python web frameworks. The same day, on some other blog, a 20 year-old web developer considered whether he should specialize on WordPress or Drupal development (two content management systems written in PHP). All this might show nothing except that me and my class mates weren’t very ambitious back then, of course, but to me stuff like this becomes a sign of a trend towards more specialization among developers. If I’m right, then these are certainly exciting times, but on the other hand the trend also worries me. While I’d like to drill down into and become an expert on certain technologies, I also enjoy having basic knowledge about a multitude of technologies and thus, many tools to choose from depending on the task at hand. If all you have is a hammer, everything becomes a nail, and this approach sounds futile to solving the many tasks at today’s agile startups. Except of course if…

…the practice of having all (development) jobs in a small company solved by (the same set of) employees also was on the decline, which I believe it is. I’ve never worked for an enterprise so I can’t compare to large workplaces at all, but at all the small companies I’ve worked for development job requirements were – at least to some extent – designed for the skills of the staff. One database exchanged for another because 1-2 people had experience using or administering it, workarounds for not-so-optimum programming languages because other projects already used them and so on This might sound logical, but I’m afraid that if companies continue to follow this pattern they’ll be outsmarted by companies hiring groups of specialists for each individual project, who’ll enjoy a faster time-to-market.

Enough predictions from me for today…

Plans from last week:

Work

• [X] Last preparations for new employee (order hardware etc.) (MM)
• [X] Consolidated to-do lists in FogBugz (MM)
• [X] Set up local development environment for CMS sources (MM)
• [X] Moved two servers to new environment (MM)
• [X] Declared EU taxes (CC)
• [X] Invoiced customers (CC)
• Licensed PHPStorm and BeyondCompare Pro (CC)
• Fixed a Javascript bug due to IE9 RTM (MM)
• Deployed DNSSEC for 17 domains (CC)

Relationships

• [X] Brought the kids to the train for the weekend with their dad

Life

• [X] Backed up PS3
• Backed up DVDs
• Wrote a small motivational app that displays daily work hours statistics
• Translated a web app for a personal site
• Learned more about SEO
• Moved my e-book library into the cloud

Plans for next week:

Work

• Welcome new employee (MM)
• Improve SEO (MM)
• Improve VIP subscriptions (MM)
• Get to know CMS source code better (MM)

Relationships

• Family finances
• Go to the doctor with kid

Life

I’m an avid reader of LifeHacker and recently tried out the Linux Mint distribution after reading this post.

While I don’t use Linux on the desktop, I run a couple of servers on Ubuntu and other distributions. My interest in Linux on the desktop roots in friends and relatives sometimes asking me for advice on cheap/free operating systems for older boxes and laptops, which is why I try to keep a little informed on developments in this area as well.

Linux Mint presents itself as a more user-friendly variant of the well-known Ubuntu distribution of Linux. My first impression of the website was utter astonishment – I’ve never before seen so many paid ads on the website of any other open-source project.

The real shocker however came when I booted the latest version (Linux Mint 10) up in a virtual machine and tried surfing the web using Linux Mint’s included Firefox browser. Any and all searches done through the search field are directed to a Google Custom Search Engine, which makes the project money from clicks on ads.

Now, I am quite sure there is nothing illegal in this approach to funding the project, but I find this highly unethical for a popular open-source project. First of all, a Custom Search Engine allows them to filter out certain searches, bordering censorship. More important to me is the question “If somebody modifies one application to make money, what else did they change in the system?”.

Notwithstanding the arguable improvements for newbie Linux users in Linux Mint, to me this approach is piggy-bagging on the success and effort of the Ubuntu developers in order to raise money for unknown causes, so I will continue recommending official Ubuntu versions to friends and relatives looking for a free operating system.

Plans from last week:

Work

• [X] Automate processing 2 new forms; auto-upgrade users membership status (MM)
• [X] Declare EU taxes (CC)
• [-] Fix design for expert blogs (MM)
• [-] Declare delayed taxes (CC)
• Updated list of active backup jobs for all servers (Amino)
• Created a small mail sending script (MM)
• Extracted lists of leads manually due to the CMS still failing (MM)
• Attended job interview with a new developer (MM)
• Wrote a background script to update link lists for user blogs (MM)
• Design changes for expert blogs (MM)
• Contacted Google support to get VAT number updated in time for apps renewal (CC)
• Created a one-page Pyramid app to serve as a proxy to FogBugz’ XML API (CC, MM)
• Migrated web and DB servers from Debian Lenny to Ubuntu 10.04 (CC)
• Set up more monitoring for physical and cloud servers (CC, MM)
• Set up backup for PostgreSQL server (CC)
• Invoiced customers (CC)

Relationships

• [X] Help Birgit with MacBook Pro ticket
• [-] Update/work with family bookkeeping
• Planned summer vacation
• Helped Birgit with DNS configuration, computer warranty and software installations

Life

• [-] Migrate 1 personal blog to Drupal 7
• Improved my knowledge of Python by reading source code and trying lots of stuff I read about
• Got better at using Mercurial, even for small/personal projects

Plans for next week:

Work

• Fix design for expert blogs (MM)
• Declare delayed taxes (CC)

Relationships

• Update/work with family bookkeeping
• Company party at the casino

Life

• Migrate 1 personal blog to Drupal 7

Plans from last week:

Work

• [X] Assisted with server move (Amino)
• [X] Evaluated offer for new servers and accepted a custom configuration (MM)
• [X] Installed updates to all servers and CMS sites under own administration (CC)
• [X] Extracted lots of lead data (MM)
• Deployed an update to notification service with bugfix and new feature (MM)
• General administration of backup jobs (Amino)
• Upgraded sites to WordPress 3.0.5 (Amino, MM)
• Researched several too early escalated error reports (MM)
• Initiated installation of more RAM in web server (MM)
• Fixed some small errors on website (MM)
• Configured firewall for PostgreSQL server (CC)

Relationships

• Helped Birgit with DNS administration
• Ordered train tickets for kids
• Finished building new bed for kid

Life

• Received and paid office supplies
• Migrated file collection from SFTP to Jungle Disk
• Cleaned bathroom, threw out old drugs and hygiene items
• Replaced avast! Home with Microsoft Security Essentials
• Repaired door to children’s room
• Bought new crickets for spider

Plans for next week:

Work

• Automate processing 2 new forms; auto-upgrade users membership status (MM)
• Fix design for expert blogs (MM)
• Declare EU taxes (CC)
• Declare delayed taxes (CC)

Relationships

• Help Birgit with MacBook Pro ticket
• Update/work with family bookkeeping

Life

• Migrate 1 personal blog to Drupal 7

Plans from last week:
Work

• [X] Developed content for right side of templates (MM)
• [X] Inserted new content, search function and changed order in right side of templates (MM)
• [X] Evaluated offer for new servers (MM)
• [X] Finalized specs and accepted offer for development of new newsletter type (MM)
• [X] Began work on user data extraction script (MM)
• [X] Finished migration to Google Apps (MM)
• Troubleshooting of Pinq leads (MM)
• Processed lots of error reports (MM)
• Server reconfiguration and other work to troubleshoot performance problems (MM)
• Extracted lots of lead data (MM)
• Installed a Mercurial server (MM)
• Set up a new web server for troubleshooting purposes (MM)
• Installed updates to all servers and CMS sites under own administration (CC)
• Bought a PyCharm license and started using it on small projects – converting from Komodo IDE (CC, MM)

Relationships

• Continued trying to improve my social networking by double-sharing family pictures and other content on Flickr, Facebook, Diigo, Amplify and other sites

Life

• Went to the doctor with Trine
• Routine test of smoke detectors
• Booked dentist appointments for all kids

No, the date’s no mistake – due to a post about week beginnings by Sacha Chua (who also inspired me to write these weekly reviews in the first place) I am now ending my weeks on Fridays.

Plans from last week:

Work

• [X] Weekly server maintenance/controlled update (CC)
• [X] Declare VAT (CC)
• [X] Invoice customers (CC)
• [X] Develop a replacement notifications service (MM)
• [-] Connect CSE with AdSense (MM)
• [-] Order banners (MM)
• [-] Declare company taxes (CC)
• [-] Communicate with Redpitt (MM)
• [-] Fix error message on barnloeshed.htm (MM)
• [-] Change news rotation feature (MM)
• [-] Fix share links (MM)
• Partner campaign lists (MM)
• Bought some WP themes (CC)

Relationships

• [-] Verify children’s bank accounts have been created
• [-] Finish calculation of family accounting since Aug 12, 2010
• Met up with some old friends in Copenhagen
• Booked bowling
• Helped a friend cancel his mobile broadband plan

Life

• [X] Relax

Plans for next week:

Work

• Weekly server maintenance/controlled update (CC)
• Connect CSE with AdSense (MM)
• Order banners (MM)
• Declare company taxes (CC)
• Communicate with Redpitt (MM)
• Fix error message on barnloeshed.htm (MM)
• Change news rotation feature (MM)
• Fix share links (MM)
• Look into performance problems (MM)
• Change website theme (CC)

Relationships

• Finish calculation of family accounting since Aug 12, 2010

Life

• Read more about Python programming

Plans from last week:

Work

• Declared personal taxes (CC)
• Weekly server maintenance/controlled update (CC)

Relationships

• Found a date to fetch Birgit’s and the kids’ remaning stuff from Vejen
• Went to the school nurse with Mads
• Sent christmas cards to some relatives
• Called municipality to press for updates about Trine’s kindergarten queue status
• Went to the orthopedic hospital with Mathias
• Shopped christmas presents for/with the Danish kids

Also:

• Contribute to the kindergarten parents’ christmas present
• Drove to Denmark to fetch kids’ train trickets
• Went bowling with the family

Life

• Wash floor
• Ordered insurance for the kids online, chose Skandia who are a bit more expensive, but they were helpful – Länsforsäkringar apparently didn’t want us as customers, their customer service was nonexistent

Also:

• Brought used clothes to the second-hand container
• Bought Tassimo T40 for the kitchen

Legend

• Planned, completed
• Planned, not completed, rescheduled for next week
• Planned, not completed, not rescheduled for next week
• Also items: not planned, but completed

Plans for next week:

Work

• Connect CSE with AdSense (MM)
• Order banners (MM)
• Weekly server maintenance/controlled update (CC)
• Declare VAT (CC)
• Declare company taxes (CC)
• Invoice customers (CC)
• Communicate with Redpitt (MM)
• Develop a replacement notifications service (MM)
• Fix error message on barnloeshed.htm (MM)
• Change news rotation feature (MM)
• Fix share links (MM)

Relationships

• Verify children’s bank accounts have been created
• Finish calculation of family accounting since Aug 12, 2010

Life

• Relax

Legend

• Rescheduled from last week
• All other items are new

Plans from last week:

Work

• Update own servers and websites (CC)
• Implement new design (MM)
• Project management with Redpitt and 1902 (MM)
• News articles slideshow function using WP (MM)
• Declared VAT and EU sales (CC)
• Sent daily work report (MM)
• Declare other taxes (CC)

Also:

• Fix Emediate pop-up through DFP (MM)
• Automatic caching of dynamic content pages (MM)

Relationships

Also:

• Mail correspondance with my Dad
• Baked a home-made pizza with the kids

Life

• Go to the gym daily

Also:

• Checked home servers backup plan
• Deleted old backups from AWS S3
• Fix washing machine

Legend

• Planned, completed
• Planned, not completed, rescheduled for next week
• Planned, not completed, not rescheduled for next week
• Also items: not planned, but completed

Plans for next week:

Work

• Declare other taxes (CC)
• Implement new design (MM)
• Order further mockups for subpages (MM)
• Collect ideas for redesign of this site (CC)

Relationships

Life

• Go to the gym daily
• Fix washing machine
• Deep-clean apartment
• Order new nutritional supplements

Legend

• Rescheduled from last week
• All other items are new

Plans from last week:

Work

• Renew Microsoft subscription (CC)
• Educational meeting with Redpitt (MM)
• Improve SEO (Amino)
• Declare taxes (CC)
• Improve sign-up and partner feature (MM)

Also:

• Brought notebook to repair shop (MM)

Relationships

• Meet B in Copenhagen
• Group meetup in Finland

Life

• Ride bicycle approx. 65 miles
• Write a Wikipedia article

Also:

• Wrote a blog article

Legend

• Planned, completed
• Planned, not completed, rescheduled for next week
• Planned, not completed, not rescheduled for next week
• Also items: not planned, but completed

Plans for next week:

Work

• Improve SEO (Amino)
• Declare taxes (CC)
• Improve sign-up and partner feature (MM)
• Book meeting with Redpitt (MM)
• Send invitational mails (MM)
• Prepare offer for KP project (CC)
• Continue work on VC project (CC)
• First phase of search engine implementation (MM)

Relationships

• Post a review of the meetup

Life

• Ride bicycle approx. 65 miles
• Replace balcony flowers
• Review long-term goals

Legend

• Rescheduled from last week
• All other items are new

Plans from last week:

Work

• Learn about Redpitt CMS (MM)
• Small changes to forums (Amino)
• Improve sign-up and partner feature (MM)

Also:

• Meeting about sign-up improvements (MM)
• Troubleshot dead notebook (MM)
• Discontinued shared office space lease (CC)
• Implemented share buttons on some blogs (CC)

Relationships

• Change late summer holiday ticket

Also:

• Showed B & M around Malmö
• Booked hotel room near the airport for next week
• Mailed dad for birthday

Life

Also:

• Upgraded hyggebajer.dk to WP 3.0 and Thesis 1.8 b1
• Canceled membership at apartment rental association
• Rode bicycle approx. 62 miles
• Bought/ordered fans, t-shirts, contact lenses, office supplies and supplements
• Rearranged kitchen devices for easier access/cleaning
• Suggested improvement possibilities to cab companies and gym
• Overall improvements to my health/living routines and discipline

Legend

• Planned, completed
• Planned, not completed, rescheduled for next week
• Planned, not completed, not rescheduled for next week
• Also items: not planned, but completed

Plans for next week:

Work

• Improve sign-up and partner feature (MM)
• Improve SEO (Amino)
• Educational meeting with Redpitt (MM)
• Declare taxes (CC)
• Renew Microsoft subscription (CC)

Relationships

• Meet B in Copenhagen
• Group meetup in Finland

Life

• Ride bicycle approx. 65 miles
• Write a Wikipedia article

Legend

• Rescheduled from last week
• All other items are new

Plans from last week:

Work

• Finished “Ignore user” function (Amino)

Also:

• Helped with a few small tasks (Amino)
• Cleaned my inboxes of old mails (Amino, CC)
• Helped Nico with a little CSS (CC)

Relationships

• Show mom & sister around Malmö, Lund and Ystad

Life

Also:

• Planted Tagetes on balcony

Legend

• Planned, completed
• Planned, not completed, rescheduled for next week
• Planned, not completed, not rescheduled for next week
• Also items: not planned, but completed

Plans for next week:

Work

• Improve sign-up and partner feature (MM)
• Learn about Redpitt CMS (MM)
• Small changes to forums (Amino)

Relationships

• Change late summer holiday ticket

Legend

• Rescheduled from last week
• All other items are new

Okay, so if you have met me in person you know that I’m rather slim, and whether or not you’ve met me I might have told you that I avoid eating sugar. I get questioned A LOT about this, so I’ll try to explain why I do this.

1) It’s a sure-fire way to get acne (pimples) for me. I am about 90% likely to have a lot less clean skin for a couple of days the day after drinking a 16 oz. bottle of coke, for example. I’m not happy with my body to begin with and don’t see any reason to make it worse.

2) It affects my immune system as much as skiing nude. Seriously, I’m not guaranteed to get a cold or individual cold symptoms after eating a piece of chocolate, but I’m much more likely to after going on a sugar binge.

Now, to debunk a few common reactions I get regarding my choice:

1) I am not a closet diabetic. That is the most common assumption I hear – if you are wary of consuming lots of sugar you must be diabetic. As far as I know I’m not and I don’t have reason to believe I am.

2) I happen to like sugar, I mean come on, who doesn’t like sweet foods?

3) I have experienced both effects hundreds if not thousands of times, so yes I’m pretty sure I don’t imagine it. For example, once in a while my craving for sugary foods wins and when that happens I might eat 5 oz. of chocolate or 5 bars on one occasion. When I do, I am more likely than not to end up with cold symptoms after 36 to 48 hours. Also, eating sugar during a cold usually prolongs it for me.

4) I’m not fanatic about this. Once in a while I do drink or eat sugary foods because I like them or for social reasons. Not every day but maybe like once a week or so.

5) I’m not trying to proselytize. My body is not yours, sugar likely doesn’t have these effects on you. If it doesn’t, good for you, go ahead and have that cake. Whether I’m around or not, I probably don’t care what you consume anyway. All I’m asking is that you respect my choice and don’t try to convince me that MY body needs sugar. Thanks for reading.