There goes the social calendar

While we have been working long hours and weekends for the last few weeks, we've told our families that we're cutting back to just work and limited sleep, and when that is done we move to SF for a week to host JavaOne. The final push is on! The joke within our review group is that family time is now restricted to going home to walk the dog and eat dinner with our families. No dessert. Content creation is starting to taper in some areas, and reviews seem to be taking an increasing portion of my time. As I always do at this point in a big project, I have a healthy respect for women in the last weeks of their pregnancy. I'm ready to just ship this thing. I know in essence what the conference is going to be, it is going to rock, and now it is time to just start it. I want to push but the doctor (or producers in this case) says no. 7 days, 10 hours, and 31 minutes until the show starts. We all leave for SF this weekend! Our CommunityOne conference starts on Monday (the day before JavaOne starts), and with practice schedules, etc. we all start working in SF on Saturday or Sunday. Back to work to the reviews. We're debating where to put a cool demo that just got cut from my keynote due to time considerations, but all the other keynotes are full too. Horse trading has started on the conference call!

Oh I wish this was true

Was driving to work today and saw a "Re-elect Gore '08" bumper sticker. I wonder how much better the world and the US would be if this were only true. I wonder if we'd actually be fighting global warming instead of fighting the endless war in Iraq. I wonder if people around the world would respect the US instead of mocking us? Al would be so much better than the remaining three presidential candidates. I generally disdain politics, but this election seems so important and I really feel like the right candidate is on the sidelines.

Dancing with the Stars

I think I've gained twenty pounds since I took my new job. Stress and long hours definitely are the slayer of good habits around eating and exercise. After JavaOne I think I'm going to take the Mark Cuban route and join "Dancing with the Stars". In my case it will be "Exercising with the Common Folk", but I need to get back into old routines about daily, varied workouts, meditation, and better (and less) food selection. 12 days, 10 hours, 25 minutes, and 44 seconds until JavaOne starts.

Bringing and keeping "startupians" in the big house

The battle to be the RIA platform of choice for developers, operators, and partners is heating up. Adobe is there, Microsoft is entering, and Java (my team) is there as well with Java FX and other technologies and solutions we'll be announcing at JavaOne and beyond. One of my most immediate opportunities is staffing. I need a small cadre of bad-ass folks to join my team as we go to RIA war. And I mean bad-ass folks. Hungry, wicked smart, motivated both by guerilla warfare and protracted campaigns. I've already got a great team on the ground, both in my group and in other supporting organizations, but we need more people like them and we need them now. Because of my background, I immediately think of recruiting "startup types". Now I've done my fair share of recruiting wicked smart people from larger companies, but it's great to get a healthy mix of backgrounds, degrees, and battle scars into your team. So how do I get "startupians" to join a larger company like Sun? I did it, was I insane? Clearly not, or so me thinks. This led to a lunch discussion with my wife, who is also a manager, on recruiting, and almost more importantly, retaining startup types in a large company. How do you retain insanely talented people who are used to working huge hours but receive a reasonable chunk of the proceeds (via options, etc.) for their labor? Especially if they now are in a larger organization where ownership and its rewards can't (by the laws of financial physics) be the metric of success? I came up with four rules to motivate people to come to and stay at a larger company. It's a starting point based on a few hours of thought. This topic got me motivated, and I'll probably get feedback from my friends who read this that will re-shape this post. These rules have probably been written in at least twelve thousand management books, but since I'm working so hard right now I don't have time to stop and read those books ;-) Rule #1: Burn as bright as they do You can't expect others to do what you won't do. If you want hunger, passion, and insane productivity, the candidate has to see it in you and your team. "A" people hire "A" people, and we all know an "A" person when we talk to them. I came to Sun frankly because my direct managers are the letter before "A". They are that fracking good. I knew they worked as hard as I do, are at least as smart as I was (in some cases way smarter (or was that smart-ass!)), and most importantly, they would teach me new tricks. A candidate coming to my team has to see my passion, and when they interview (with) my team, they should see the same characteristics that they believe they possess in the people around them. Startup is a word. Passion is tangible. Rule #2: Be the shock and awe More of a retention technique, but once word gets around that you exhibit this, it becomes a recruiting tool ;-) Nothing strikes the fear of Yahweh/God/Allah into enemy troops more than when a USAF B-52 on station decides to drop 70,000 pounds of ordnance on their position. You see the contrail of the plane above you, you know it is coming, but there is nothing you can do. You are f**ked. If you are busting your tail at work, acting with the passion and hunger of a motivated employee, and you run into a wall you can't get around, it is a really demotivating. You know what the right course of action is and verified that with others, but an organizational, personnel, or resource issue prevents you from moving at the speed of business. You're stuck and you don't know what to do. But if you have the right manager, you call for shock and awe. This is not a privilege to be abused, but used sparingly and with intent, it is incredibly motivating knowing that you work for someone who can rain 70,000 pounds of organizational firepower onto your problem, effectively eliminating it. Passionate, hungry employees don't like being stalled. They are like sharks; swim or die. Recruit and retain by letting your people know they will always have a clear path to their goals. Shock and awe in advanced form is where you clear the path for the employee and they don't know how you did it. No visible blast. The problem just goes away. ;-) Rule #3: Give them your land Feudal kings had a great tool in their arsenal. Land. Nothing creates loyalties faster than giving someone a destiny, save maybe a royal marriage (which was really about land anyway)?! The amazing thing about startups, especially early stage ones, is that when you are hired to perform a function, you own that function. And most of the associated functions within a six mile radius of the thing you were actually hired to do! You have the room and authority to strategize, execute, and deliver. Responsibility is a great recruiting tool. Hungry, passionate people want responsibility. They want the noose around their neck. Swim or die. Responsibility itself doesn't respond only to the word startup. Again, startup is just a word. If you hire fewer but smarter people to work for you, they by default have more responsibility (e.g. land) to own and grow into. Give your responsibility and authority to your directs and their directs, and let them feel the motivation and responsibility associated with big roles. Rule #4: Treat them like rock stars I'd rather pay ten people 150% of market rate who perform at 150% than pay fifteen people performing at 100% (or less). Personal preference. People pay to see rock stars, not sucky American Idol wanna-be's. And in return, rock stars get treated like, well, rock stars. Passionate employees should never think about their comp. As a recruit, you negotiate for a good rate, then should have faith that your comp will grow as you prove that your vito was not just a piece of paper with laser-burnt ink on it. High performers (HiPo) know they are paid better than everyone in the building, and know that if they want more, they have to keep their game at 150% and take it to the next level. Comp is another word that shouldn't respond to the word startup. Startups use options. Big companies can use cash, bonuses, and other perks. Nothing says you are star, as an example, more than it being said to everyone by your boss. It's another perk of "A" people hiring "A" people. "A" people like being told they are "A", and level set their performance by the calibre of people around them. An "A" is an "A" when you compete with other "A" types to get it. When you work until 2am for weeks straight to nail a project when others were blissfully sleeping under their down comforters, you'd like a little something extra to recognize your hunger and passion. Again, recruiting and retaining is much easier when people just know they are being taken care of without having to stop (e.g. die) to deal with it. Another way to say it: Rock stars can toil under a big label or a small indie outfit, either way they want to feel like a rock star if all they sing are Top 10 hits! As I start to recruit for and expand my team here, I've got to make sure all four laws of recruiting and retention are in full effect...

Catalina

Just got back from a wedding on Catalina Island! My family left Wednesday morning for the wonderful, whacky world of SoCal, where at least 70% of what they show on "The Real Housewives of Orange County" is true. As a longtime NorCal guy, the SoCal thing is cool but weird. They're Californians, but they are so different. Fashion, politics, attitude, consumerism, etc. We stayed with our close friends the Regiers who live just south of Irvine. They migrated from Alameda so they've got the NorCal spirit in them, and we'd love them no matter where they live. It was great to see their family and get our kids all together for a brief night of catching up and driving all over Irvine looking for the pizza joint we called the order into! Thanks to the fabulous AT&T mobile network, I only dropped my critical teleconference with my boss and her engineering counterpart about ten times during a two hour call driving down I-5. We can put a man on the moon, cure cancer, and invent extreme sports by the bushel, but we can't get a mobile call to stay connected across 200 miles of flat nothingness? "The most bars" is a relative measure... Thursday morning we drove down to Dana Point and took the ferry to Catalina Island. We looked like gypsies carrying everything we owned in no less than 12 bags. Welcome to life with a 20 month old. Catalina is a small island about 40 miles off the SoCal coast, once owned by the Wrigley family. Yeah, must have been nice to been around when islands only cost ~ $2M ;-) Catalina rocks! Seems like the place SoCal folks go to relax. Plenty of good food, bars, and things to do. It's really amazing to be on a remote island that is part of LA County. Seems like you are far away but just down the street from where you live. Another funny thing is that everyone drives around in golf carts, as there is a 10 year wait to bring new cars onto the island. I'd love to see this practice brought to the mainland! I ended up mooching wireless off an open access point near my cottage, so I was actually quite productive work-wise while I was down there. Amazing what you can do with a Mac Book Pro and an iPhone these days! I lowered my email queue from 200 down to 30, so all you folks who sent stuff to me then got a response weeks later, you now know what happened! Fighting work fires also seems oddly easier when you are not in the office. Mental note, stay away from office on a regular basis! I think this validates another one of Tim Ferriss's axioms. We did get in plenty of sight seeing while there, and we watched the movie "21" at the historic Casino building on the island. Its the big one at the top right of the picture above. As perspective, the island cost ~$2M and the buildings, including the Casino, cost ~$3.5M back in the 20s. Wow, this was probably one of the three coolest theaters I've ever seen a movie in. Real organist playing before the movie! Scenic as heck; amazing art deco style that has been well maintained! We hiked to the Wrigley Memorial Saturday before the wedding, and I bought my buddy Mark Williamson a cool souvenir! The wedding was a blast. It was held at the Catalina Country Club, and I saw plenty of friends I hadn't caught up with in years. Can't wait to see everyone again at Ben's annual BBQ in the summer! Congrats to Ben and Nicole, BTW! You are going to have a great life together. Today we caught the early ferry back to Dana Point, then barreled north back to NorCal. Oh yes, and we stopped at In-N-Out going down and back. Double double goodness. Feels great to be back in NorCal! Went to the gym and worked out while watching the Sharks lose tonight. Now I don't feel so good :( Work/life balance. Sanity relies on work/life balance. Little trips like this balance out the 70+ hour work weeks that proceed JavaOne. Now I'm ready for the final push!

Amen

Startups can't afford slackers! This is one of the first things I look for in the founding team I'm contemplating an investment in, and would stop me from joining a startup in two seconds flat. I've seen first hand what slackers do to a great idea, and it isn't pretty... On the flip-side, if your first set of sevens (first seven hire on average seven each, extends outwards as a rule of management) kick ass, you've got a fighting chance if the idea is sound.

Cool email tool

I get a ton of email on my Sun email account, so I'm always looking for a better tool to sort mail. I use Thunderbird for work email (legacy of having to use Lightning for calendaring at one point, no longer), and I found this cool extension that I'll have to start testing!
Seek 1.0 extension to Mozilla Thunderbird from David Huynh on Vimeo.

Oh, I want one of these!

Oh yes, RED technology for prosumers!! I want one. Since my kids are kids only once, I'd better film them with the best technology available? I love justification ;-)

Squaw!

Great team shot from our offsite in Tahoe last week. For the record, we skied for exactly 0 hours and 0 minutes. Work, work, we did ;-)

Doing my green thing

I've been renovating Casa Klein over the last year, slowly moving from room to room installing hardwood floors, recessed lighting, and in general moving the rooms into the 21st century style wise. Welcome to the pleasures associated with owning a 1960's house. I find the physical labor cathartic after working in an office all week.

I love electrical work, but I hate installing recessed lighting. I'll tear open a wall with pleasure and do limited time in the attic, but you've got to have skill and patience in the attic to get recessed cans in. I've got a killer electrician who does this work for me. He put standard bulbs in all the new recessed lighting, and I noticed how much my electrical bills have gone up over time even though we haven't made any other significant changes to the house or changed our electrical consumption patterns. We know about those patterns and our big electrical consumption items due to a school project Gabi did on the topic!

This weekend we installed CFL bulbs in the living room and dining room. I still have to remove a dimmer in the dining room to optimize this change, but the net effect was brighter lighting at a fraction of the energy consumption. I'm researching recessed, dimmable CFLs for my man room, as I need the dimming capable for movies and video games! LED lighting would be amazing, but the technology needs to mature some. I'm going to order and install a few LED lights just as a test.

We also completely replaced our pool hardware due to a catastrophic failure a couple of weeks back, and while the failure sucked from an operational perspective, it gave us the chance to install a new energy efficient two stage pump for the pool. We also plumbed the new system for solar heating, which we'll add in the next month or so. Our pool is going to kick ass this summer, and it will be way more energy efficient.

Still want to get my Prius, but I have to wait to see what the tax bill is going to be this year. AMT is evil. Designed to tax the wealthy and now it taxes people it was never intended for. So my Prius waits to see if Uncle Sam is going to screw me for working hard and investing in small companies on the side.

Premium gas is now consistently over $4/gallon here. I love my current car, but it's time to do the right thing given the number of miles I drive for work. Besides, it will cosmically balance out the sports car I really want ;-)

Green but fun, that's my motto!

Staying loose in the home stretch

We shot my iPhone JVM announcement in the Sun video studio. It was fun, but the vibe was too formal for me. I decided my next video would be in the comfort of my office...

We've been shooting short clips of the teams as they make the mad rush for JavaOne. Can't wait to compile them as a memento of this crazy couple of months. Everyone is working their butts off, but it is really fun to be part of the team making JavaOne happen. We're going much more personal this year, and the new stage and keynote is going to rock! Better get back to work on that keynote soon, eh?

Next video will be shot in my new office, and I should have the place tricked out. Will have to shoot it like an episode of Cribs. Still need to get a frig for the drinks and snacks, though mine won't be as large as Param's ice cream capable unit he just installed. I'm going to get a flat panel and a PS3 there for drop-in fragging, plus all sorts of other Java powered toys. I've already hung up my Macintosh Duo poster (first hardware project @ Apple) and my Chicago skyline shot (my homage to the Bungie days). The Dash folks gave me the most amazing signed goodbye poster with images of the hardware predecessor to the Dash Express and Express itself. That's got to go up in the office as well.

I think I said the bottle I held up in the video was whiskey? It's actually a single malt scotch. When I moved into the office, the previous owners left me four bottles of scotch ;-) Whatever is left will be left for the next occupant when I move later this month. Need to move closer to my "twin" Jeet, our Engineering VP and all around good guy!

Big daddy just bought a PS3!

"To know what you make is tasty, you must eat your own dog food."

I'm a huge Xbox 360 guy. I started as a PC gamer and developer, so I understand the roots of the Xbox. Xbox 360 gave Microsoft the lead in the war for the core gamer (yes, yes, casual gaming belongs to Nintendo!) with innovations like Xbox Live, Marketplace, media streaming, Achievements, and amazing games that were first or best for the 360 platform. Achievements alone do it for me. It's all I talk about with my gaming friends. "What was your score on BioShock? Did you get the Achievement for maxing out XXX?"

So why the heck did I buy a PS3 today? Dropped the bling on a blue shirt @ Best Buy! (or did I mean Buy More? LOL!). Because I am humble and I eat my own dog food.

Humble: Yes, I was wrong in picking HD-DVD. I bet on HD-DVD well before I joined Sun, so this humble is lonely humble. I thought the higher production costs for BD discs, the lack of support for adult content (and yes, adult content drives technology), and Sony's history of closed platforms (Beta, Memory Stick, ATRAC, etc.) would lead to Blu-ray's demise. I was wrong. The how is irrelevant; Sony won. My HD-DVD add-on for my 360 and my ~10 HD-DVD movies humbly await a buyout and associated public burning by the appropriate Sony folks.

I eat my own dog food: Java helps power Blu-ray. The Playstation 3 box has the "Java Powered" logo on it! Java (BD-J) helps BD-Live create amazing interactive content for BD discs, and I hope that is just the beginning of the relationship between Java, Playstation 3, and all Blu-ray players. Network enabled devices fueled by amazing Java (FX) content is part of the reason I joined Sun.

So I'm looking forward to buying some discs with BD-Live content and seeing how Java enabled content makes the platform even better. And I'll be checking our taste factor. If our stuff isn't premium grade kibbles, it's time to talk to the guys and gals back in Engineering and Product Marketing. And if it tastes great, it's still off to the labs to see what we can do to make it better. It's all about creating the best platform for connected developers and our consumer partners!!!

And yes, the PS3 is pretty damn slick. Three cables and I was up and running. Integrated power supply, nice touch versus 360. Very quiet, makes my 360 sound like a jet engine in comparison. Integrated WiFi had me connected in less than 2 minutes. And while I love 360's Blades interface, the PS3 interface feels subtle though too deep on both the X and Y axis . I noticed the consistency of the interface with the PSP, which I previously owned. The interface looks crisp @ 1080p. Love the flowing animation behind the interface.

rat hole : Casino Royale in 1080p was smokin! Ladies, you can oogle Daniel Craig all you want, because the men got Eva Green. Something for everyone! Boo-ya!

Anyway, I'm slowing acquiring all the latest Java gear for consumers so I can see how we are really doing. PS3, Livescribe, Kindle, a new phone (any suggestions), etc. We're going to talk to the leading content, consumer, and hardware developers and find out what is right and wrong with Java. And we're going to deliver what these folks want and need to make great solutions. Our dog food must taste great and keep getting better. No gas or bad aftertaste ;-)

rat hole #2: Next BD movie? Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Action, spies, humor, and taking "the spouse/lover's quarrel" to the next level (their battle in their house and the ride in the mini-van are the highlights for Anne and I). Pitt and Jolie have chemistry. Sorry Jennifer :(

Smart people rule!

From the most recent TED conference!

The countdown timer

The JavaOne countdown timer now says 28 days, 32 minutes, and 16 seconds. OMG! I have to admit that I haven't felt this much positive stress in years. Pressure, baby! I just came off an extended pregnancy delivering the Dash Express. The stress in getting that product done was intense, but eerily manageable. We had a great marketing team in place, the product concept was well received by the marketplace, and it was just an exercise in hard work and sleepless nights. It took far longer than we thought, but it was worth the wait. Having watched my wife manage bringing three wonderful kids into the world, I know that after the nine month ordeal, the thing you want most in the world is to rest. While associating a product launch with pregnancy doesn't do pregnancy justice, it is one of the closer things in my own life that I can relate to the process. If product launches could induce nausea and the physical pain associated with childbirth, we'd be close to the same page. So Sun convinces me that while Dash Express rocks the world, Java truly rocks the entire planet. I'm like ok, this sounds like a completely different challenge, and I'm in. They politely mention that Mobile World Congress is coming, and JavaOne is in May, but May seems like an eon away and how hard could managing JavaOne be. It's just another conference, right? I've spoken at too many conferences, and at Apple we worked incredibly hard to get WWDC ready. I can handle this! Whoa, was I in for a shock. I'm really excited about JavaOne and all of the new and innovative things we are doing with the conference this year, but this is like going through another product launch right after finishing one. Two product "pregnancies" in a row! I have to admit that I'm feeling more pressure and stress than I've felt for years. It isn't that "I hate this" or "I hate my job" or "what the f*ck was I thinking when agreed to this!?" but just the I've got a huge job to do and the countdown timer is always working against me. I've been trying to take time and preserve my health and mental sanity through this process, but as many of you know, it's often a losing battle near the end of a project. When you start to dream about the post event vacation in terms of hiding under a rock with no Internet, phones, or people around you, you know the final push has started. Without all the amazing people at Sun who are working on JavaOne, I'd be toast! This time in my life has taught me to respect women and pregnancy, because I can barely handle two back to back launches and somehow women manage pregnancies, kids, and life on a daily basis. Not that men don't accomplish a few things, but damn, multi-tasking and endurance are awesome traits to possess. Anne, you rock! Not sure how you do it, but you rock! Ok, down to 28 days, 8 minutes, and 55 seconds as this post is completed...

Going to PAX 2008!

My buddy Kevin and I are going to PAX 2008 in Seattle!!!

Dash on CNN

Great video on the Dash Express courtesy of CNN. I see Robert in there being demo boy and Paul being the face man! You guys rock!