Tom’s Graphic Design Journal

Ok so in my random readings I found out about this project management/work flow idea/model called Scrum. I thought cool, maybe someone devised an easy to understand and efficient way of working in a team (especially with developers). This could be super useful for what I do all day long!

The short of it? Nope. After reading trusty wikipedia, I've learned that "Scrum" is the single most retarded system that someone could invent!

First off the whole word comes from Rugy. Ok fine. Good...Because it sounded pretty fucking fowl to me and nasty. More importantly it is an absolute waste of time and resources. The model involves way too many people (perhaps it could involve less) and way too many steps. I'm sure like everything else out there the entire system is devised to employ more people and spread around money. Why? God only knows why. It is really necessary to have a sales person sell a client a product then have that client's project manager consult with the sales company's project manager to then consult with the design firm's project manager to then hand off to a designer to work on and go back and forth through the chain several times? In the end the final project becomes devoid of any design skill or even fails to do what it was sold to do? No of course not, but guess what? That shit happens every day.

I really love this analogy they have made for the roles in the "Scrum." Chickens and pigs. The pigs are the developers. Wow. Gee. Thanks. The chickens are those interested in the project but really irrelevant (um...so why are they there?) because (get this) IF it fails, they are not a pig. Meaning they had no commitment. Meaning they are still ok. Oh......so I get it. Blame the poor developers. Blame the people who can actually DO the work. Sure fire them if shit goes down wrong. They're replaceable right?

Give me a break! Sometimes you just don't find talented developers walking around on the street you know. What can you find? Some bullshit assistant or person that can use Word and Excel to be one of thse so called chickens...and they should be cheap. Whereas a developer should be more expenisve.

Maybe not. Who knows...But boy this world is really screwed upside down isn't it? Of course the actual product owner is also on the pig team...but we all know his/her job is perfectly safe! Unless it's some larger operation maybe...MAYBE. So what do they call these people who can use Word and Excel? "Consulting Experts." Maybe...just maybe they took a basic course somewhere in software development. Maybe they have some minor insight besides using Word and Excel that makes then an "expert" right? Otherwise they would just be a normal consultant.

Give me a break. How many meetings and how many people are involved? Guess it depends. What a complete waste of time. People. Staying on top of your projects is as easy as one person overseeing and knowing what's up. Then using a collabrotive device (even a printed sheet of paper each day) like basecamp or trac. Then prioritizing. Delagating. Assigning. Knowing your team. Working well with your team. It's as simple as that. Maybe...Just maybe on larger projects this might make sense or some variation of it. Maybe you need a consultant. Sure. Why not? I have my reservations because most so called consultants are a complete load of ass...But I can understand on some very serious and very large project...But this whole Scrum system? Stupidity. Waste. Judge for yourself, read it on wikipedia. We just all have to learn how to see through this corporate bull shit and red tape. It's really just hurting the working class and those who actually have the skill to do something. It lets those who don't know shit hide more easily.

I use both a Mac and a PC equally...perhaps a Mac more than a PC these days. I work on a Mac during the day and I own a Windows PC. I LOVE Windows but I know it has its quirks. I also like (not love) Mac OS X but it also has its quirks.

I understand there's different operating systems and different applications that compete with each other. Most people carry some feud over the whole Mac/PC thing. Guess what? It's the same hardware underneath. The operating systems are even getting closer together.

Anyway, my point is standards. Working in the internet industry this gets me all the time. We're not talking about what's better -- we're just talking about compatibility.

Everyone yells at Microsoft for not following standards with Internet Explorer. M$ is the devil yada yada. Well what about Apple?! The m4v format! They purposely changed the mp4 over to this format to discourage Windows Media Player from viewing their video files! That's absolutely horrible.

So now I have to install iTunes to watch some podcasts? BS. Complete and utter BS. I've tried ffdshow and many other codecs with no luck. Maybe there is a way to play the files under WMP, but I haven't found it yet (and renaming the file to mp4 didn't work).

While we're on the subject of iTunes...let me express how much I dislike that player too. It's ok, but one thing pisses me off about it. That's the cover flow feature. It's really slick, I love it, but you need to have an account with the iTunes store for the iTunes player to automatically download cover art! Also absurd! Furthermore, you MUST put in a credit card too. I don't want to buy anything from the iTunes store. Screw that, and I'm not giving them my credit card.

Windows Media Player actually downloads cover art automatically (no signing up to things required) and also allows you to paste the cover art right in the player on the album! Super cool feature that Apple is now too greedy to give. So yay Microsoft being smart. That doesn't happen often I must admit.

Final point. Microsoft is being smart again with Windows Media Center. Apple TV? hahahahaha, that's nothing in comparison. Why watch videos from just YouTube, your podcasts, and local media library? With WMC you can do all that and more. Oh and it's free with Windows vs another piece of hardware with an additional cost. Well I suppose the $30 remote with receiver is another piece of hardware you'd want...but it's 10 times cheaper than the Apple TV.

Sigh. Ok venting complete. 

After a long while, I've completed a web site that was started a while ago for then Ergogenic, now E Technology Systems. Some name changes and such held this one up for a little bit. The site uses my CMS software I put together over a year ago...Wow, I've learned a lot since then. I'm capable of making a much more efficient system now and am actually in the process of doing so.

Speaking of making better CMS' and web apps, I'm working on a media blog and I'm using CakePHP to build it. This is going to change how we blog. Trust me, it will. I'm no stranger to content management systems at this point in my life. I've tried dozens and always look at new ones. I've worked on small sites, personal sites, and very large sites in terms of traffic and size. My boss brought my attention to a pretty slick looking media blog today...Think Swedish - Propod media blog. Think Swedish? Or Propod? I'm confused.

I like it and while it has some features I've thought of, I didn't make any decisions based off it and didn't know it existed, though will most likely take a deeper look and compare more to really polish off features in my blog. I haven't heard of it before today...Maybe it needs even better advertising. Opensourcecms.com maybe? If it gets open sourced? I hope it will. I don't know anyone making the next YouTube off a blog app. Blogger was pretty popular, but something tells me the market just isn't there. I don't know, I'll plug it. It's quite cool. Will give it a better look for some ideas but, from what I can tell, what I'm working on is a bit larger/more flexible and more importantly targeted at a different audience.

Simple, but larger. I understand simplicity is key for usability. One thing my media blog will aim at is accessibility (God knows that's hard with media on the web - so to a degree), scalability, and extendability. It will ultimately be released open source (most likely, still researching licensing options). One brief look into Propod, I'm not quite sure it's ideal for SEO. I know search engines are starting to hit Flash more, but there's a limit.

I'm not going to give away any details now unfortunately, but I will preface it for the world (that is the small one that may see this).

More on it all later. I also promise not to put any cheesy dramatic photographs of myself anywhere on my site now or in the future. I'm not a model. I'm a designer. I'm a developer. I'm an artist. I usually stand on the other side of the camera taking those photos

Just putting up this download link for those that were looking for the "Gothic Angel" theme I put together for Windows Mobile devices running rlToday.

You'll need to set your Windows Mobile color scheme to something dark or modify your registry to get jet black I believe...I just used some software that allows you to easily change some advanced/"hidden" settings.

Enjoy.