http://gentle-waterfall-36.heroku.com 2010-03-09T16:36:04-08:00 John Wilger http://gentle-waterfall-36.heroku.com/2010/03/09/time-for-a-reset/ 2010-03-09T16:36:04-08:00 2010-03-09T16:36:04-08:00 John Wilger

<p>Hello, World! (?)</p> <p>I&rsquo;ve had the decision to completely restart my website made for me. The previous incarnation of my site was being generated via a post-commit hook in a git repository that lived on a VM at Slicehost. I decided to shut down that VM and move the website to a system that I didn&rsquo;t have to maintain. Unfortunately, I <em>thought</em> that I had the git repository mirrored on <a href="http://github.com/jwilger">my GitHub account</a>, but apparently not. I&rsquo;m sure I could come up with usable backups if I put forth enough effort, but let&rsquo;s be honest: thanks largely to <a href="http://twitter.com/jwilger">Twitter</a>, I had barely updated the site in the last 2 years, and a lot of what was there was either outdated or of no real value to anyone other than myself.</p> <p>So here we go again. <strike>This time around, I&rsquo;m just using <a href="http://pages.github.com">GitHub&rsquo;s pages feature</a> to publish the site. I don&rsquo;t have to maintain the server, and now I <em>know</em> that the repository is on my GitHub account.</strike></p> <p><strong>UPDATE</strong> I&rsquo;m actually switching to using <a href="http://github.com/cloudhead/toto">toto</a> with <a href="http://heroku.com">Heroku</a>. I like toto better than jekyll, because I don&rsquo;t have to put up with using the Liquid page templating engine. Plain-old ERB FTW!</p>

<p>Hello, World! (?)</p> <p>I&rsquo;ve had the decision to completely restart my website made for me. The previous incarnation of my site was being generated via a post-commit hook in a git repository that lived on a VM at Slicehost. I decided to shut down that VM and move the website to a system that I didn&rsquo;t have to maintain. Unfortunately, I <em>thought</em> that I had the git repository mirrored on <a href="http://github.com/jwilger">my GitHub account</a>, but apparently not. I&rsquo;m sure I could come up with usable backups if I put forth enough effort, but let&rsquo;s be honest: thanks largely to <a href="http://twitter.com/jwilger">Twitter</a>, I had barely updated the site in the last 2 years, and a lot of what was there was either outdated or of no real value to anyone other than myself.</p> <p>So here we go again. <strike>This time around, I&rsquo;m just using <a href="http://pages.github.com">GitHub&rsquo;s pages feature</a> to publish the site. I don&rsquo;t have to maintain the server, and now I <em>know</em> that the repository is on my GitHub account.</strike></p> <p><strong>UPDATE</strong> I&rsquo;m actually switching to using <a href="http://github.com/cloudhead/toto">toto</a> with <a href="http://heroku.com">Heroku</a>. I like toto better than jekyll, because I don&rsquo;t have to put up with using the Liquid page templating engine. Plain-old ERB FTW!</p> http://gentle-waterfall-36.heroku.com/2010/03/09/new-job-sort-of/ 2010-03-09T16:36:04-08:00 2010-03-09T16:36:04-08:00 John Wilger

<p>The big news in my life right now is that the company I work for just went through a merger, so TSSI is no more, and <a href="http://projectdx.com">ProjectDX</a> is now part of <a href="http://renewfund.com">Renewable Funding</a>. I decided to accept the offer presented by the new owners&mdash;and it came with a bit of a promotion&mdash;so I am now Software Development Manager and responsible for guiding and growing the Portland development team.</p> <p>Thankfully, even though Renewable Funding is based in Oakland, CA, there are no plans to move our team down there. We&rsquo;ll be staying in Portland and continuing to work on the public-facing web application that provides communities with tools to educate their residents about sustainability programs and allow property owners to manage applications for <a href="http://renewfund.com/pace/definition-history">PACE</a> financing programs.</p> <p>I&rsquo;m looking forward to figuring out my new role as I step into a management position. Although I&rsquo;ve always been a natural leader&mdash;I&rsquo;ve served as technical lead on various teams and held a lot of influence over team and process design in my consulting work&mdash;this is the first time I&rsquo;ve been responsible for personnel management and had people reporting to me in the org-chart. I don&rsquo;t pretend to know all there is to know about being a great manager, but I have the benefit of some great mentors and a fantastic team to start with. I&rsquo;ve always done my best work when I&rsquo;m thrown in just a bit over my head, and this is definitely pushing my boundaries (especially when combining the new responsibilities with navigating a merger).</p>

<p>The big news in my life right now is that the company I work for just went through a merger, so TSSI is no more, and <a href="http://projectdx.com">ProjectDX</a> is now part of <a href="http://renewfund.com">Renewable Funding</a>. I decided to accept the offer presented by the new owners&mdash;and it came with a bit of a promotion&mdash;so I am now Software Development Manager and responsible for guiding and growing the Portland development team.</p> <p>Thankfully, even though Renewable Funding is based in Oakland, CA, there are no plans to move our team down there. We&rsquo;ll be staying in Portland and continuing to work on the public-facing web application that provides communities with tools to educate their residents about sustainability programs and allow property owners to manage applications for <a href="http://renewfund.com/pace/definition-history">PACE</a> financing programs.</p> <p>I&rsquo;m looking forward to figuring out my new role as I step into a management position. Although I&rsquo;ve always been a natural leader&mdash;I&rsquo;ve served as technical lead on various teams and held a lot of influence over team and process design in my consulting work&mdash;this is the first time I&rsquo;ve been responsible for personnel management and had people reporting to me in the org-chart. I don&rsquo;t pretend to know all there is to know about being a great manager, but I have the benefit of some great mentors and a fantastic team to start with. I&rsquo;ve always done my best work when I&rsquo;m thrown in just a bit over my head, and this is definitely pushing my boundaries (especially when combining the new responsibilities with navigating a merger).</p>