High Protein Menu

I would just like to express my disdain for phrases like 'Performance Objectives' and 'Action Plans' - these terms make me want to cringe, and unfortunately they seem to be a staple with my current employer, something I find extremely difficult to understand, particularly considering the relatively small, almost startup-esq size of the company.

It is, in fact, something that I had almost grown to expect when joining the corporate world. And, I was happy to expect, and follow this kind of mantra in the right situation -- for example, in a company with a few hundred employees, or even thousands, when managing performance and time is obviously an extremely difficult task for managers across many teams.

In my current position however, the group of people I work with are excellent, very smart, very capable workers, and it seems to me that these formal review processes are somewhat redundant and, perhaps more annoying -- not really a good indicator of what a worker is achieving in any respect.

For example, for a performance review, not only do we get to set our own objectives, but also the source of feedback (usually ourselves, as far as I can tell) - how does this help the company assess the performance of anything, except their ability to manipulate the process to make themselves look good?

The fact is, at a company with 1000 people, I'd be more than happy to take this approach to tasks like this. However, in a small company filled with people I really respect and enjoy working with, it's just... frustrating.

/rant

So, yesterday I delivered my 4 week review presentation here at <a href="http://www.acumentum.com">Acumentum</a>, thanks to some hard work from the team and I over the past few weeks.

If you've read my blog before, you might remember that this is a full time job coming from freelancing in the past - a big leap, but one I am glad I made. Although I definitely have fond memories of freelancing, there is certainly something liberating about not having to work once you leave the office in the afternoon.

There is, however, a big difference between 'not having to work' and 'not working', something I am quickly learning thanks to quite a few late nights getting a hang of XSLT and JSP :)

In other news, I turned 20 last week so I am now officially getting old!

I got up earlier today than I have in a long time, and I felt great! Oh, who am I kidding, I felt horrible, but thankfully I had a kick ass time awaiting me at my new job with Acumentum.

Having never been in a real 'office' environment before, the experience has been stupidly fun for me. Sitting down for the first time at my desk, grabbing a cup of coffee and working on something new is a great feeling, one I'm sure won't wear thin too soon.

I've taken the liberty of educating myself on some new tech lately - primarily because I will have some money to invest in projects for a change. With so many changes in my personal life, it seems like a great time to start diversifying my skillset as well.

The industry? Mobile development. Mobile web development, to be exact. Thanks to a few great blogs about the subject, I am now much more familiar with the state of mobile dev, including something that most web designers will be well versed in - limitations. Yep, the mobile web is at least 5 years behind the current desktop web, and the browser market is much more fragmented.

Thanks to open source libraries like WALL, less technical developers (like myself) are now able to make real write once/deploy anywhere mobile web apps.

I've got a few big ideas that I'll be chipping away at over the next few months as I continue to familiarise myself with the platform, so definitely keep your feed readers refreshing if you're interested in Mobile Dev.

I'm also going to start video blogging again, using the user friendly YouTube. I tested it a little while I was in Lennox Head, and had a good time doing so, and since upgrading my cell phone from the terrible Sony Ericsson k700i to the much more modern Nokia 6280, I now have a decent camera to record with!

So, some exciting weeks ahead. I'll report back when I have more info -- or something to write about.

So, we put MatchTag online yesterday - the first time out of demo mode, although we're still officially in development. MatchTag is ready for the real thing.

This last phase of development has been very exciting, as we began to see the finished app coming into place. Jeremy did an amazing job of implementing all the sweet new functionality you'll see around - a ranking system, bug tracking and new profile functionality.

The best reward however, will be the chance to actually USE MatchTag! Call me strange, but I think it would be really cool to get an RSS feed of possible new activities every day. And the best part is that with MatchTag, it's the technology that's doing the work, not the user.

Automatic geo-ip location detection? Check.
Distance to time calculators & detailed maps? Yep.
Customizable RSS Feeds? You guessed it.

We want MatchTag to be as easy as signup, upload a picture and profile, and you're set to go. An instant day planner at your fingertips.

I'm not kidding - MatchTag features iCal support using it's simple calendar system, complete with daily RSS feeds & the ability to share events with friends, everyone or just yourself.

Take a look at www.matchtag.com.

Once again, things have changed significantly in my life in the past month and as such, I have decided to give up full time freelancing and take up employment permanently in Melbourne. During the past six months I have had an incredible time travelling and meeting new people whilst working, however I feel that now it's the right time for me to settle down for a while.

There is a little sadness that comes with ending my freelance experience, and it's a huge turning point for me personally -- A new city, new faces, and more importantly, a new job. After interviews with a few firms, I was offered a position at Acumentum that fits my new situation perfectly -- great people, good location and best of all, some exciting new projects to work on.

I was considering writing reasons why one might want to leave freelancing, but honestly, if you're enjoying it and getting what you want out of life while doing it, I can't see a reason to stop. Indeed, being a freelance developer in 2006 is probably one of the funniest, active and better paid jobs that a geek can have.

Anyway, on with the show! Of course I will keep blogging, perhaps more actively than before, perhaps not (I really need to start scheduling things in). However, before I finish this post I would like to thank a few friends of mine who I wouldn't have been able to do any of the past year without - Jeremy, Josh, Dave, Mark, Vas, Blaze - I owe you all a beer or three.