Subject: Technicalities Resent-From: nystaff@agency.com Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1999 10:19:12 -0500 From: "Mitch Golden" To: "Staff (New York)" Technicalities Nov 18, 1999 *) If we promise not to talk about ODBC drivers can we come to your party? OK, so last year we were the only department not to be featured in Marie Claire. Honestly, it wasn't our fault - we'd had our hair done two days before and so we were ready for the party in only 10 minutes. Is that a reason to give us the cold shoulder? We'd still love to be invited, really. We promise to be be on our best behavior. Not a syllable about Linux, we swear. We know we're not as cool as Creative, but c'mon, we just wanna hang out with the rest of you guys. Is it just me? This week I found out that "some oversight" meant that no one in the Tech Department got an invitation to the AGENCY.COM Christmas Party. "Oh. I think that was because we needed more space to invite the clients." We'd love to come, but we were busy that night anyway. *) London calling... Have you ever worked 40 straight hours? Neither have I. Even when I was young and energetic I couldn't do it. Now, forget about it. If I try to focus on that screen, I start to fade drastically about 6 AM, and then the next day is a total waste. Not much of a win. Ralph Seaman and Olivia Wu just launched the London Destinations site for British Airways. They are the counterexample. If you gotta get it done, sometimes you just need to be in that cube for 40 hours straight. Can't argue: the site launched on time. That's just the macho stuff. Actually, what I like about it is that Ralph and Olivia did it all using Enterprise Java Beans and BEA Weblogic. That was the result of a long term process. Ralph and Phaedra Divras were instrumental in picking the application server, and the project specs were developed after careful consideration. Even though there are other ways to do this sort of project - some of which are easier in the short run - as delivered it is a state-of-the-art, maintainable system. *) Cough, cough! On Monday, did anyone notice Tom Clarke shoving his way past the firefighters back into the building while the alarms were going off? "Sprint are waiting for their data!" he told me, as he vanished into the smoke. "I have to put it live tonight." Tom and Laurence Hill have really been working on the Sprint ION project. I am not someone who is easily impressed by dedication, but I have seen it here. "Laurence", I said, "I didn't see you in both days this weekend." "I was working from home", was his reply. This week another phase of the project is launching. What amused me most was how Laurence coordinated it all. One of our developers is working from London, so naturally that meant getting in to the office early. One of the clients was in Hawaii, and, well, you can guess what that implied. As usual, can't dispute success. *) Band seeks groupies... As I write this, both Tom and Ralph are on the road. We wanna hire people in the Chicago office, and they are out there on a recruiting fest. When the company needs role models whom does it call on? The AGENCY.COM band, of which, as these notes have pointed out before, half the members are fully fledged geeks. *) Self promotion Devin Fallsbeary, and Inky Catterwall, and Y.K. and Tew are making the scene, on the recently launched Boyds Collection site, at http://www.boydscollectibles.com/ For those who haven't heard, The Boyds Collection is a line of stuffed bears, as well as collectible dolls and resin figurine items, and their site just launched. The team that did it is one of which I am a member, and I can't express what a joy it has all been. A really great crew, from every discipline. The Boyds products are all stored in a database, and all of them can be changed without any coding. Any functional page you see on the live site - search, categories, items - was coded by Eugenia Antipas. It Eugenia's first executable code on a public-facing site. She and I both did the administrative system in the back end. E-commerce and other features will arrive in December. Stop by my office if you want to say hello to Bud Buzzby. *) Energize! What was so great about the transporter in Star Trek was always how slow and unreliable it was. I mean what century is it supposed to be, 2500? Really, after how many years of work, and it still takes two folks to operate the thing, and half the time it doesn't work. "Ion disturbance" according to Scotty. Come on! Our clients wouldn't stand for that. Have people noticed Ritesh Patel beaming aboard? No, he's not here full time yet, but soon, as soon as they figure out how to move those three sliders, he'll be here. Right now Ritesh is in Orlando, at the meeting of all the VPs of Technology. Just call me Commodore Matt Decker!