With the introduction of a new train station, the ride now take a slightly less time (not significantly) and is less complicated.

My day today route today is like this:

• Home to bus station by car, my wife drops me off when she drops the kids
• Bus to the train station, if not properly times, the wait here can be up to 30min
• Train to Tel Aviv
• Switching trains in Tel Aviv, usually waiting more then 30min, sometimes close to an hour
• Train to Netanya
• Walk to the office, there is also a bus that is aligned the trian times, using it takes the same time, but will be good for bad weather.

And the ride back:

• Walk to the train station
• Train to Tel Aviv
• Switching trains at Tel Aviv, usually the wait is about 20min
• Train to the airport
• Bus from the airport to Shoham
• Walk from the bus stop Home

It takes a lot of my day to day time.

And it gives me a lot of free time, time to read, to write, to think.

Time that when I look back - was needed but I never know how to take it for myself. Time i am not sure i want to give away again, despite it taking time from the family and from work.

I need to find a better balance in my life, and this time to myself is a part of it.

fist time I got a glimpse of what others visiting the site actually see.

And I have a lot of work in how it is organized and visualized.

For starters - apparently not everyone understand where a post ends and a new one begins - this is especially true for posts that are long and contain multiple headers.

Secondly my division to categories is far from being visible to the visitor - something I already started to work on.

But the bottom line is that I think I will need help with the visual design and artwork in order to make it better.

we started civilization in a very local way

no immediate communication past what we could walk, long distance communication was rumors and stories passing from person to person, changing each time.

Then we developed writing. Now long distance communication can be letters and books and later newspapers and print. Communication became more stable, open to interpretation based mostly on cultural differences of geography or time.

Transportation also improved, now local communication became what a horse can ride in a day, and later what a train can reach.

Electronics introduced radio, and then television. As tools to update, educate and brainwash the masses fast. This came with the rise of larger groups of people joined together around common things.

Then came the digital age, that we are in the middle of, where communication can be instant, world wide. Local news can be that an old and respected elder died in one corner of the world, while we live in a different part of the world. Communication is instant, cross all boundaries, one world, one local village.

What will happen next?

Cryogenics?

That will allow a person to freeze his life to be able to participate in his great-great-grand-children’s first birth? That you can go to sleep until a cure for your illness has been found and then continue on as usual? Can a marriage be maintained is one partner decided to freeze itself for 10 years? or 5? or even just one year? What if the other partner choose not to join the freeze?

Space exploration?

The vast distances where the fastest communication we can conceive today, will take hours inside our solar system, and years outside of it. How we will split up back into separate villages once we spread out to space, just from the sheer size of it.

What if we join the two together?

Space ships that travel distances with groups of frozen people on board, destined to wake up on their distant target. With delegations from one culture in Cryogenics traveling for years to some distant planet, only to reach it and discover that by the time they arrive, a different delegation from another culture traveled faster and established a settlement with different rules and beliefs?

There is a certain order things have to be done.

Not due to real constraints, but due to legal thinking.

You have an agreement. Agreement naturally means both sides have to do something for the other side.

And when the other side does not uphold his end of the bargain you basically have several options:

• Blow the whole agreement
• Ignore it and stay quiet
• Do it yourself and demand compensation

The last option is the trickiest one, it is based on three steps.

• The first step, do it yourself, is easy, just do it.
• The second step, getting the compensation is usually easy as well, you can always do less from your side of the agreement.
• The last part is the hard part, making the other side to accept the compensation.

If the other side does not accept the compensation it can lead to him starting the cycle again, but from the other side, leading to a blow up. It can lead to legal arguments.

On some occasions the other side sees your argument, but on others - you have to make him see it.

The first crucial step is to make the issue visible.

Communicate what the other sided should do and didn’t do. Set time-frame for fixing it, and notify that you will do it, and what the compensation will be if you do beforehand.

As part of playing around with the blog, i decided to make it slightly easier to use.

SparkleShare

I have configured my SparkleShare to make it easier to edit pots, by allowing it to handle the sync into GitHub.

Oddly enough the windows version of SparkleShare 1.4 does not support sync with a github repository. Instead I used version 1.6 for linux so this did not slow me down much.

Disqus

I have also added Disqus to the post pages

I lost my 1+1 to not being gentle enough with it. I dumped it in the toilet, it fell countless of times, but i think the end came when i closed the car door on it. It was all accidental, but i doubt any other phone would have survived any better. In the end it lasted for a year.

And after only one year of a relatively expensive phone, i wend back to the decision that caused me to buy ZTE Blade III as a phone i used before. I decided not to invest a lot of money on a phone that will probably not last another year.

In the search for a new phone, along with my desire to know all, and explore strange things. I eventually decided on LG F0X.

The most decent spec FireFox OS phone i could find. Price was hald that of the ZTE u sed in the past, and from that a large chunk was the delivery charges.

It arrived yesterday, and the experiement started.

Physical

In terms of dimentions it is a 4” phone. Not as large as the 5”, but large enough to have a usable screen.

Weight is rather small, lighter then the Sony Experia Z that i used as temp phone until it arrived.

The buttons are not extending outside the box enough for my taste, and the volume buttons could have been wider.

Camera

Decent enough for its spec, with easy to use UI. I have yet to test it under different lighting conditions, but i am not holding my breath.

Battery

This is the most painful topic. It takes forever to charge, and with my wifi use, it loses it very fast.

OS

This is the real question. How is FireFox OS compared to the other mobile OS out there.

The short version - FireFox OS feel is like Android 2. It gets the job done, but leave a lot to be desired.

As a smartphone it can do all the basic things:

• Phone conversations, SMS & Contacts
• Email, browsing
• App market

All are present and accounted for, but all lack compared to modern Android & iOS

Bottom line

The phone is usable, but the feeling right now is that it will not be easy to tweak it for my taste, and usage.

I’ll give it more time for now.

Yesterday we took the slow weekend to start playing D&D as a family.

The idea was that this is something we could all do together. Each working in his own style, and enjoy.

I haven’t played for a while, and it showed.

I decided to go by the book this time, to get it organized and to be able to maintain continuity.

So i made sure we had a rule book in Hebrew at hand (I want the kids to be able to read it on their own). And decided on a ready made adventure to kick us off with.

We prepared the characters (Always a long and painful process.) We got a nice combination. And as soon as the characters were in a good enough shape - it was time to start playing.

And here i made the fatal mistake. I strictly by the rules, instead of bending them to suit the people and the situation (as a good GM would do.)

The result was a large blow up from the kids that their patience was over extended. And the fun dissipated from the air very fast.

I plan to try again, and continue it. I just plan to remember to be more attentive to my audience this time around.

I am working on a task I thought have passed from the world: Converting “goto” code to functional programming. And I am doing it in modern Javascript code.

This was covered by articles over 20 years ago, see http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?tp=&arnumber=126773&url=http%3A%2F%2Fieeexplore.ieee.org%2Fxpls%2Fabs_all.jsp%3Farnumber%3D126773

The basics are the normal loops, conditionals, break and continue.

Conversion rules

• If you have a goto that jumps forward can be replaced by a simple if on the code it jumps over.

• A goto that jump backwards is converted to loop. either a do-while loop, or an infinite loop.

• Several jumps forward with overlapping skipped code can be made using flags, each goto condition will set the appropriate flags, and the code execution will depend on the flags.

• Multiple jumps backward can be replaced by a single infinite loop, and appropriate flags.

In general, it is best to understand what the code tries to do. There is usually a better way then just make it work with the new tools.

Readability

I am a firm believer of making code readable.

Readable code helps everyone, including the person who wrote it, to get into the code. Makes it easier to understand the logic, easier to fix bugs when you need to, and easier to re-factor if necessary.

There are basically two approaches:

• Make it readable to everyone - by making it as simple as possible and as close as possible to English.
• Make it follow a project convention.

You can see that the first option is a specific case of the second. Only the convention is very low level, with the attempt to target as many people as possible.

Up until now I always practiced the first option. Both in the companies i worked for and in my personal projects. And was confident that this is the correct route to go by. Right now i am in a company where i need to learn the convention used by the company. And this forced me to rethink my approach.

When I look at large projects, they all develop their own convention. Even if the developers strive to keep the code readable to everyone. The introduction of library functions, utilities, custom markup tags… all generates a new convention, one that is project specific. Anyone who try to get into a large project, have to understand enough of those project specific building blocks in order to be productive.

On the other hand, right now I have to face one of the steepest learning curves i have ever had to climb due to this project specific convention that I have to get used to.

In my case the major thing i have to get used to is condensed code. No spacing, no unnecessary characters, no comments, no empty lines. And did i say it before: no spaces. even between sections of code that have different roles.

Comparing apples and oranges

When you compare the two approaches you get the following table:

Lets look at each factor.

Audience

For projects that target wide audience. Educational projects, open source project, the wider the audience who can read the code, the better. For closed in house projects, the company really care only that the people inside the company will be able to easily get into the code, so it becomes a non-issue for them. Unless they have plans to open the code up in the future.

Learning curve

This is a clear cut. In every project, people change and new people need to come in. The steeper the learning curve is, the harder it is to get new people into it.

Code size

This is another clear cut. Smaller code means less bugs, and less to read and understand.

Conclusion

The bottom line is that whatever you will go by, you will make a compromise. Just make the right compromise for the project you are working on.

New job

Started a new job yesterday. I am back in the position of learning from scratch.

This new company has a strong emphasis on the organizational culture:

• How to write the code
• How to get a task
• How to work on it
• How to report it
• How to email
• How to communicate

And more…

I can tell from the tools and the code base that the company has roots deep into the C/C++ Eco system, despite the work itself being in JavaScript. This means different tools and mindset then in most other JavaScript places I encountered.

Something I’ll have to get used too.

Commute time

But the mind boggling thing to me is the commute time.

2.5 hours for each direction. 5 hours a day. Half a day goes for every workday.

Yes I know it before I took the job, but knowing is not the same as feeling. Yesterday was the first day in a long while where I haven’t seen any of my kids awake at all. I left before they woke up, and came back after they already fall asleep. Why this morning I left only after I saw them leaving for their day.

Transportation

I rolled out a car since for it will be Russian Roulette with almost fully loaded gun.

I know I will fall asleep on the wheel. The only questions are when it will happen, and how badly I’ll be hurt.

This leaves public transportation, that is less then friendly.

Current rout

• Home to bus station - same as with my previous work, mostly by car when my wife drop off the kids.

• Bus to the train station - same as with the previous work. Sadly the bus usually arrive just as the train leaves so I have to wait for the next one.

• Train to a more central station,where I’ll wait for the train that will get me to work

• Train to train station closest to work

• bus or shuttle to work

And the ride home is the same in reverse.

I just realized I forgot to measure the times for each segment. I’ll do it in the next few days and report it.

Mitigations

There are mitigating factors.

I can start the work on the train. Most days there is enough space to work. I have the laptop with everything I need on it. I just need to organize it, something I plan to do this week.

This should give about 90 min of offline work in each direction.

Future

I plan to improve the first and last parts by moving back to the bike.

A new train station is planned closer to my work that will eliminate one step from this route.

The real mitigator is, working from home. I do not plan on working totally from home, history thought me thus is problematic for me, but a few days a week will be great.

Rewrite

I am rewriting this post, more annoyed then I was when I first wrote it, since I lost it over network issue along the way. Mobile is not a good enough tool, yet.

I decided to revive the separation between posts and ideas in their different stages.

The first step was defining the seeds and half-baked categories, this I just did.

The next step will be to make it more visible, and remove the seeds from the main page.

That question keeps nagging me when I want to decide whether to publish the post on not.

On the original passing-thoughts website I had sections.

• seeds - section for raw ideas, single lines and other stuff that was definitely not worth publishing, but perhaps with work might be something more in the future. This was visible only to me.

• passing-thoughts - section for more structured items. Things that I already wanted some outside feedback on them. But only from the small and close to me group that was allowed to view it.

• formed-thoughts - sections open to the public where things I felt were mature enough went up for display.

Now with this new form, I am lacking this second section. I might add it in the future.

For now, I decided to bring even that second category to the public eye. Perhaps someone will like it. I just hope the quality price will not be too high.

I been saying goodbye for a while now. I am referring to goodbye from my work place.

It started when I started to look around for other options. I know there are other options out there, in theory, but to actually see the opportunities created a mind shift.

Why settle for what I have now when I can have more?

Then began a slow process of letting go. Letting go of responsibilities to others that were more eager to take it. Letting go of fights, that I know I was right in them, but were not worth the fight. Letting go about caring for the code under my fingers, since I already know my time there was limited.

This process of letting go fueled by every, less than perfect, incident that working has, only my mind was already spotting the bad over the good. So every argument, every email helped fuel my good bye.

Then came the offers. Over time the offers became better, mostly due to filtering bad offers earlier. The better the offer the more tempting it is and it is harder to say no to them.

And when the right offer came along, it took only one more incident to seal the deal.

Thus started the visible goodbye.

Formal notification, tasks to complete, knowledge to pass on. The informal notification to people I have been working with, taking personal stuff home, returning company stuff back etc… The closure meetings with the managers. A goodbye celebration, with speech that I had no idea what to say in. The formal goodbye checklist, with all its stops.

And still to the last hour, I am a part of the team. I check my mail and think what to respond for the company, for the team. I find how I can pass one more bit of info I neglected to mention earlier.

The one action that made the symbolic cut was: removing the company account from my phone. No more work emails, chat conversations. No more direct links.

And yet I felt the need to write this post.

Goodbye and thank you

Especially for the team. You have been important to me, and I know you will grow.

I am looking forward to meet you all in the future.

For any one who does not know, I am about to switch job.

Nothing out of the ordinary.

I have been at the current place for two years. Trying to do my work as best I could. Made progress both at work and personal.

The big question I have been asked is “Why?”

And the truth is, I have yet to give a full answer to that, even to myself.

I am leaving a job where:

• I am told by everyone that I am appreciated - Flattering for sure.
• I enjoy the people I work with - No soul mates, but I can talk to and enjoy it.
• The office environment is great - with toys directed to my taste.
• The commute distance is fairly small - 30min in each direction usually, and it can get up to 90min on rare occasions.
• The company product makes business sense to me, and I think the company will succeed even more than it does now. It does have sides I do not like, and they grow over time.
• The development process in the company and the team is in a constant improvement process.

And I switch to a new job where:

• I will have to prove myself all over again.
• I will work with new people, those I met makes great first impression, but I bet there will be people I will like less then others.
• The office environment looks comparable, and there is the prospect of doing the work from home over time (this also has downside since history show me I perform better at the office rather than at home)
• The commute time is about to be tripped, and I just heard over the radio it will get harder due to construction work in the railway.
• The product has its issues, but is more to my liking, but I do not know first hand how it is being developed, yet.
• The development process I have been presented with looks great, and more structured, but I will have to learn it.

So why do it?

The HR person I talked to points the finger at how HR companies behave.

As soon as they get a negative answer that is less strong than “get lost!” they start to smell the blood in the water and circle the candidate with offers until one of them sticks.

The description fits the behavior I saw, but does not fit my situation. I did started this cycle of offers, but I terminated it before I got the offer I eventually went for, and that one did not came through an HR company.

When I talked to my current boss (and to others) I talked about the things I did not like at work: management decisions I did not like, development decisions I disagree with, product directions not to my taste. All those are excuses and not reasons. They are all true, but none of them was enough to cause me to leave my work earlier and they were true a month ago just the same.

So why? Was there a good reason?

I am not sure. I know it was boiling in me for a while, and took time to happen. All those small things did nag me at the back of my head, but recently it got to the point that the decision to leave was already done, the question was when and where to. When the proper offer came along, it only took one more incident of discomfort to push make it the answer to both questions.

Timing is everything 😉

Writing was alway easier for me than talking, at least on some topics. I remember a friend that saw I was not able to talk, who took me to a keyboard and we chatted over a text document about my pain at the time.

Passing thoughts was originally born on my STCO & chronx.com time, and was hosted at zipnav.free.fr (long time dead) and served me as a communication platform with the world. It lasted until life became too busy for me to handle it, and died of neglect.

That period was the most fruit-full in my life in terms of writing. Some of that work also got to new stage and one event got published in a book.

I plan to bring back most of the public content from back then into this blog as well, will take a while.

Over those years I have managed to accumulate: life, family (wife, 3 kids and a dog) and pass between 4 different jobs.

The urge to write never really left me, and i wrote to the drawer here and there. I watched my grandmother bring to life 2 books (3rd on the way) was happy for her, but felt i am missing out.

So I am bringing it back online as a static blog, with the intention of filling it back with content over time.