Why United Premier 1K status is basically worthless

This post is a gripe, and a very intentional one. It’s no way to start blogging again after years of not writing. Nevertheless it needs to get indexed in Google so when people search for info on United status they can learn the hard truths before committing to United. These are things I wish I’d known.

I have been a Premier 1K flyer for a year now. I live in Denver and fly mostly to major United cities (SFO, Chicago, DC, Seattle). As a Premier 1K, I’m eligible for Complimentary Premier Upgrades (CPUs). I’ve received 3 out of 70 some flights I have made, and those were only when not flying between hubs (OKC, anyone?). As a Premier 1K, I almost never get a complimentary upgrade when flying from Denver to a hub unless it’s Saturday at 6am. The official rules say that CPUs can be confirmed as early as 96 hours in advance. That has happened only twice. Usually I wait at the airport to find out I receive no upgrade. I’m often #1 on the upgrade list, but it doesn’t matter–they sell any remaining seats at the last minute via kiosk discount at checkin rather than give it to a Premier 1K.

I finished last year with 8 Regional Premier Upgrades (RPUs). I thought this would allow me to upgrade any domestic flight in advance. Wrong again. Regional upgrades are  waitlisted, so you don’t know if you actually get your upgrade until an hour before the flight or even on the plane! Starting with 8 RPUs, I’ve tried to use them on my last 30 flights or so. So far, my upgrade has been confirmed only 3x using an RPU. So they’re pretty much worthless, too. United doesn’t open up the upgrade seats until a few days or even hours before the flight. If there is any chance somebody might buy the first class seat, they’re not going to let you have it with an upgrade. Which shows how much they really appreciate your business as a Premier flier with over 100k miles per year. They’ll give you the seat if it costs them exactly nothing.

Global upgrades (GPUs) are likewise near worthless. They are waitlisted until 4-6 days before the flight on the routes I fly, so I can’t know until it’s too late whether I have a lie-flat seat for those long-haul overnight trips. Worse, upgrades for an international flight with a connection are restricted by the domestic leg. So while Houston to Lima might have 9 upgrades available, Denver to Lima has only 2 available, even though the IAH-LIM leg is the very same flight. Maddening.

Premier 1Ks are supposed be able to get “instant upgrades” on Y-, B-, and even M-class fares. But guess what? When you read the fine print, instant upgrades are subject to capacity controls. And only eligible for domestic flights. That don’t have a lie-flat seat. And every time I’ve looked, the M-class fare is higher than the discount first-class fare. So this benefit, too, is a lie.

What about miles? Don’t Premier 1K members get better availability on MilleagePlus award tickets? Yes, and credit card members, and…? My experience is that you can almost never use the saver awards (25k miles) in advance to popular destinations. They seem to open them up at the last minute, so I have been able to use miles to attend a funeral, for example, which would have otherwise been an $800 ticket. But for vacation planning more than a couple weeks in advance, forget it. If you want a red-eye flight or multiple stops, sure, you can find those, and maybe even a relatively out-of-the-way place. I took my family to Toronto in June using miles and we really enjoyed the time, so maybe try to use your miles to Toronto.

In my experience, the only United benefit actually worth something is the ability to book Premium Economy seats for free at time of booking with Gold status, and this I do value greatly. If they ever take that away, I might as well fly Southwest. At least that way, I would get to choose the size of people I sit next to. Also it’s nice that Premier 1K members get Group 1 boarding so you don’t have to wait for your carryon on the other end. Otherwise, “priority” boarding is a joke. Groups 1 and 2 are typically more than half the plane in Denver.

There is one more Premier 1K benefit that’s worth a few pennies: you get a drink (alas, I don’t drink) and an overpriced snack box for free. Twice I got a hamburger, the rest of the time beef jerky or the variety box. It’s something, but not definitely not worth my airline loyalty.

The crazy thing is, United service hasn’t been that bad. The flight attendants are usually friendly. The Premium Economy seats allow me enough room to open my laptop, and on Airbus aircraft, they’re actually comfortable (Boeing not so much). Every third flight or so is delayed, but usually I still arrive the same day. And they’ve lost my bag only when I’ve checked it up front, but they always get it back to me within a couple days. I could actually tolerate these things. But the promise of benefits like RPUs and GPUs only to find out I can’t actually use them except at the last minute–that makes me feel I’ve been cheated every single time I book a ticket.

So forget about your upgrades, and enjoy your snack box.

Advertisement

Speeding up enterprise GWT development

TL;DR

• -draftCompile
• <collapse-all-properties />

GWT developers are always looking for ways to speed up the development cycle. Colin Alworth has written an excellent blog post on GWT compiler options that can be used to select for faster builds or smaller output. In this post, I want to highlight the two most useful options for speeding up GWT development and show how to select them using a maven profile.

Speed up super dev mode (SDM) launch

GWT super dev mode, which is now well integrated in IntelliJ Ultimate Edition and (soon!) Google Plugin for Eclipse, does incremental compilation to bring page refresh time down to a few seconds for most applications. However, the initial compilation can still take a minute or more depending on the size of your app. Typically, about half the time is spent creating any required permutations. Normally, the browser request that triggers initial compilation in super dev mode will include enough information (such as user agent and language) to select a single permutation; however, if your application includes properties that generate additional permutations, you can use a tag in your gwt.xml to collapse them all into a single permutation. Simply include this in your gwt.xml:

<collapse-all-properties />

If you’re currently seeing SDM build multiple permutations, this will likely cut your initial SDM launch time by half.

Speed up full compilation

The <collapse-all-properties /> switch is always useful when doing a full compilation because in this case, the compiler must otherwise build all the permutations. Keep in mind that the resulting output is 15-20% larger than any single permutation would be so this is not recommended for your final production build. However, for a quick development build, it’s very useful.

In addition, when you are doing a development build, you can use the -draftCompile option to get about a 25% reduction in compile time at the expense of less optimized output. For testing or debugging, this is a great tradeoff.

The combination of <collapse-all-properties /> and -draftCompile will normally result in a 60-70% reduction in compile time.

Setting gwt.xml properties for development only

When you are using <collapse-all-properties /> or other techniques such as setting a single user agent in gwt.xml, you don’t want to accidentally leave these options in place when compiling for production. A simple way to avoid this is to create an additional gwt.xml which inherits all properties from the base gwt.xml. Both gwt.xml files should use the rename-to attribute with the same module name. The development-only version should inherit everything from the base module and set or override properties which apply to development only. Here is a simple example from my contactmgr example project:

contactmgr.gwt.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE module PUBLIC "-//Google Inc.//DTD Google Web Toolkit 2.7.0//EN"
        "http://www.gwtproject.org/doctype/2.7.0/gwt-module.dtd">
<module rename-to="contactmgr">
    <!-- Inherit the core Web Toolkit stuff.                        -->
    <inherits name='com.google.gwt.user.User' />
    <!-- Other module inherits                                      -->
    <inherits name="com.google.gwt.i18n.I18N"/>
    <inherits name="com.turbomanage.gwt.Util" />
    <inherits name="com.googlecode.objectify.Objectify" />
    <inherits name="com.google.gwt.place.Place" />
    <inherits name="com.google.gwt.activity.Activity" />
    <inherits name="org.fusesource.restygwt.RestyGWT"/>
    <inherits name="com.google.gwt.logging.Logging"/>
    ...
    <!-- Specify the app entry point class.                         -->
    <entry-point class='com.example.contactmgr.client.ContactManager' />
</module>

contactmgr-dev.gwt.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE module PUBLIC "-//Google Inc.//DTD Google Web Toolkit 2.7.0//EN"
        "http://www.gwtproject.org/doctype/2.7.0/gwt-module.dtd">
<module rename-to="contactmgr">
	<!-- Inherit the core Web Toolkit stuff.                        -->
    <inherits name='com.example.contactmgr.contactmgr' />

    <collapse-all-properties />
</module>

In your IDE, you can then create a run configuration specifically for the -dev.gwt.xml. Using this simple technique, you can continue to manage all your module dependencies and properties in the main gwt.xml while setting development-only properties such as logging switches and <collapse-all-properties /> in a separate file.

Configure IntelliJ to use the dev-only GWT module

In the next section, we’ll look at how to select development options using a maven profile.

Setting development options in a maven project

In a maven project using gwt-maven-plugin, we can build on this technique to set compiler options using a maven profile. In my projects, I set the default gwt-maven-plugin configuration to use -draftCompile and the -dev.gwt.xml. I use a separate release profile to do the slower production build with all permutations, optimization, obfuscation, etc. Here’s a snippet from the contactmgr sample pom.xml showing the technique:

    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
                <artifactId>gwt-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>${gwt.version}</version>
                <configuration>
                    <logLevel>INFO</logLevel>
                    <style>${gwt.style}</style>
                    <extraJvmArgs>-Xmx1g -Xms64M</extraJvmArgs>
                    <!-- Doesn't affect super dev mode, only gwt:compile -->
                    <draftCompile>true</draftCompile>
                    <modules>
                        <module>com.example.contactmgr.contactmgr-dev</module>
                        <!-- For GPE -->
                        <module>com.googlecode.mgwt.ui.Animation</module>
                        <module>com.turbomanage.gwt.Util</module>
                    </modules>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>

    <profiles>
        <profile>
            <id>release</id>
            <build>
                <plugins>
                    <plugin>
                        <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
                        <artifactId>gwt-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                        <version>${gwt.version}</version>
                        <configuration>
                            <logLevel>INFO</logLevel>
                            <style>OBF</style>
                            <compileReport>true</compileReport>
                            <extraJvmArgs>-Xmx1g -Xms64M</extraJvmArgs>
                            <modules>
                                <module>com.example.contactmgr.contactmgr</module>
                            </modules>
                        </configuration>
                        <executions>
                            <execution>
                                <id>gwtcompile</id>
                                <phase>prepare-package</phase>
                                <goals>
                                    <goal>compile</goal>
                                </goals>
                            </execution>
                        </executions>
                    </plugin>
                </plugins>
            </build>
            <properties>
                <gwt.style>OBFUSCATED</gwt.style>
            </properties>
        </profile>
    </profiles>

Note that the default configuration of gwt-maven-plugin specifies the development-only GWT module (contactmgr-dev) while the release profile specifies the base version. To do a full production build, use mvn -Prelease; otherwise, maven will use -draftCompile and the -dev.gwt.xml to reduce compile time.

If you project is particularly large and you use a continuous integration server like TeamCity or Jenkins, you may want to consider using -draftCompile and <collapse-all-properties /> in your builds for pull requests (commits) so you can get build status quicker. For example, using -draftCompile and <collapse-all-properties />, the GXT Explorer project builds in about 6 minutes vs. 18 minutes. There’s likely no reason why you need to build fully optimized and obfuscated output every time someone submits a code change.

Using these techniques in your enterprise GWT projects should help your team to be more productive in GWT development.

A good time for GWT

Just a quick note to the let the GWT community know that I’m really pleased to be joining Sencha as Developer Advocate for GXT. This is an exciting time for GWT and I’m glad to be part of it again. A lot of the stuff we’ve been hearing about for the last year is really starting to take shape. My own projects are already benefitting from the much faster super dev mode in GWT 2.7.0-rc1. Thanks to incremental compilation, small changes often take only a second to refresh. JSInterop looks promising and I’m happy to see that several companies continue to invest in GWT, including Google, as evidenced by lots of new stuff in GWT 2.7 and its use in the Google Inbox Web app (which, by the way, looks very promising). Sencha’s Brandon Donnelson has contributed a lot to super dev mode support in Eclipse, and the IntelliJ folks have made it really slick to launch super dev mode in IntelliJ 14. I am told that GXT 4 will have some nifty new stuff, too, but more on that later…

I look forward to seeing you at GWT.create 2015!

Painless REST+JSON API with Jersey and RestyGWT

It’s been a while since I’ve been active in GWT programming, but I recently picked up an old GWT + App Engine project and dusted it off. This time around, I need a service layer that will work with native mobile apps as well as the GWT desktop app: in other words, a REST+JSON API.

The server side

I decided to use Jersey on the server, which makes it incredibly easy to create REST services, especially in combination with the fabulous objectify-appengine. Here’s one of my services:

@Path("api/user")
@Produces(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON)
public class UserDao extends ObjectifyDao<User>
{
    @GET
    @Path("me")
    public User getMe() {
        return AuthFilter.getUser(); // long live ThreadLocal!
    }
}

All the other standard CRUD methods (list, get, delete, etc.) are inherited from a generic DAO. A servlet filter verifies user authentication, XSRF tokens, etc. At only one class per entity, I find this much more agreeable than the four classes per entity I used to write with gwt-dispatch (Action, Result, Handler, DAO).

The GWT REST+JSON client

On the client side, GWT developers have long needed something which combines:

1. The convenience of GWT-RPC (automatic serialization of pretty much everything)
2. JSON data format
3. Simple verb-based service APIs
4. Benefits of the command pattern such as request caching and batching
5. Minimal boilerplate

RestyGWT delivers on all counts.

The interface is actually simpler than GWT-RPC because you don’t have to define a synchronous and asynchronous method, only async (although you can reuse the server interface and call it using DirectRestService if it helps you sleep better). Here’s a sample interface using RestyGWT. This is a generic CRUD API which I simply extend for each entity class.

public interface RestApi<T> extends RestService {

    @GET
    @Path("own")
    public void getForOwner(MethodCallback<T> callback);

    @GET
    @Path("get")
    public void get(@QueryParam("id")Long id, MethodCallback<T> callback);

    @GET
    @Path("all")
    public void listAll(MethodCallback<ListResponse<T>> callback);

    @POST
    @Path("save")
    public void save(T obj, MethodCallback<T> callback);

    ...
}

Here’s a sample service API and the GWT code that calls it:

public class UserPrefsService
{
    private static final UserPrefsRestService service = GWT.create(UserPrefsRestService.class);

    @Path("/api/userPrefs")
    public interface UserPrefsRestService extends RestApi<UserPrefs> {
        // just in case you missed it, all the CRUD methods are inherited
    }

    private UserPrefs prefs;

    public void loadUserPrefs()
    {
        service.getForOwner(new AppCallback<UserPrefs>() {
            @Override
            public void handleSuccess(UserPrefs result) {
                prefs = result;
                App.getEventBus().fireEvent(new UserPrefsLoadedEvent(prefs));
            }
        });
    }
}

I really like the benefits of the Command pattern from the old gwt-dispatch framework such as the ability to do caching and queuing centrally. The downside of the Command pattern is the proliferation of classes associated with turning every API method into two or more classes (in the case of gwt-dispatch, an Action and Result class for every service method). GWT’s RequestFactory (the GWT team’s “final answer” to RPC after GWT-RPC and deRPC) used generators to remove some of the boilerplate, but I wasn’t in love with having to call someSingleton.getRequestFactory().someRequest().create(BeanProxy.class) each and every time I wanted a new Bean. And it uses a proprietary data format, not REST+JSON.

This is where RestyGWT really shines. It lets you define simple API interfaces using methods, but uses a Command pattern dispatcher under the covers with an ingenious filter mechanism for adding capabilities like XSRF protection, caching, and retries. The magic is possible thanks to RestyGWT’s generator classes which transform your annotated service methods into MethodRequest classes that get sent by a dispatcher. To add caching capability to all your APIs, for example, just put this in your GWT onModuleLoad():

DispatcherFactory factory = new DispatcherFactory();
org.fusesource.restygwt.client.Defaults.setDispatcher(factory.cachingDispatcher());

For a look at some of the other dispatcher options, have a look at the RestyGWT User Guide and the example DispatchFactory class.

Tips for success with Jersey + RestyGWT

Just a couple final notes to ease your migration to Jersey + RestyGWT.

If you’re using RestyGWT with Jersey + Jackson on the server, you’ll want to set the default date format to avoid Date serialization errors. Put this in your GWT’s onModuleLoad():

Defaults.setDateFormat(null);

Similarly, recent versions of Jersey complain about “self-referencing cycles” or some such with Objectify’s Ref properties, so you’ll probably want to annotate those in your server-side entities with @JsonIgnore. If you need the id of a related object, use a differently named getter instead. Jersey will create a corresponding JSON property. Example of an Objectified entity on the server:

package com.my.server.domain;

@Entity
public class UserPrefs {
    @Id
    private long id;
    @JsonIgnore
    private Ref<User> ownerKey;
    ...
    public long getOwnerId() {
        return ownerKey.get().getId();
    }
}

Then on the client you can reference the ownerId property:

package com.my.client.domain;

public class UserPrefs
{
    public Long id;
    public long ownerId;
    ...
}

I would prefer to use the same object representation on client and server, but RestyGWT makes using DTOs about as painless as possible. The client-side object is a class not an interface, so you can create a new instance anywhere you need it vs. having to GWT.create(BeanProxy.class). I could probably hack Jersey and maybe objectify-appengine to automatically replace all Refs with a long id, but honestly, it’s easy enough just to copy the server entities and replace Refs with long ids on the client.

Also, here’s a pair of classes you may find useful for sending any type of list from server to client. For security purposes, a JSON response should always return a root object, not an array directly. The ListWrapper (server) and ListResponse (client) serve as this root object, having a single field containing the list.

package com.my.server.domain;

/**
 * Wraps a List<T> in a JSON root object.
 */
public class ListWrapper<T> {
    private List<T> list;

    public ListWrapper(List<T> list) {
        this.list = list;
    }
    public List<T> getList() {
        return list;
    }
}

Use it like this in one of your Jersey-annotated methods:

    @Path("all")
    @GET
    public ListWrapper<Subscription> findAll() {
        User user = AuthFilter.getUser();
        List<Subscription> userAll = this.listByOwner(user);
        return new ListWrapper<Subscription>(userAll);
    }

Using ListWrapper this way has the additional advantage of causing Objectify to fetch any lazily loaded properties such as Refs used in the getOwnerId() method above while producing the JSON. If you were to return the List directly, this would not occur!

Here’s the corresponding representation on the client:

package com.my.client.domain;

public class ListResponse<T> {

    public List<T> list;

}

See the RestApi example earlier for how it’s used.

Summary

Jersey and RestyGWT in combination make a powerful and easy way to create a REST API for your GWT client and mobile apps, combining all the benefits of a request dispatcher with straightforward service interfaces and minimal boilerplate.

Happy coding!

Debug an Android annotation processor with gradle and IntelliJ (or Eclipse)

Alex Gherschon and I have recently added maven support to storm-gen (note: I plan to push to Maven Central this week). You can now build and install storm-gen to your local maven repository with

git clone https://github.com/turbomanage/storm-gen.git
cd storm-gen/storm-apt
mvn clean install

Since gradle can pull in maven artifacts, you can then include storm-gen in your gradle build file like this:

apply plugin: 'android'
apply plugin: 'android-apt'


android {
    compileSdkVersion 19
    buildToolsVersion "19.0.3"

    defaultConfig {
        minSdkVersion 10
        targetSdkVersion 19
        versionCode 1
        versionName "1.0"
    }
    buildTypes {
        release {
            runProguard false
            proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android.txt'), 'proguard-rules.txt'
        }
    }
}

dependencies {
    compile 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:+'
    compile 'log4j:log4j:1.2.17'
    compile 'javax.persistence:persistence-api:1.0'
    compile 'com.turbomanage.storm:storm-api:0.98'
    apt 'com.turbomanage.storm:storm-impl:0.98'
}

Now here’s the fun part. Previously, in order to debug and set breakpoints in the annotation processor itself, I used Eclipse RCP and ran it as an Eclipse plugin. Fortunately, there’s now an easier way using Java remote debugging. There are several variations on this technique (configuring an annotation processor directly in IntelliJ or debugging a gradle script). Unfortunately, Android Studio rejected my adding the Xdebug JVM args directly to the gradle script. However, I found this workaround. It is not fully integrated with AS, but does allow me to debug the annotation processor on demand by running the gradle script.

Add these lines to your ~/.gradle/gradle.properties:

org.gradle.daemon=true
org.gradle.jvmargs=-agentlib:jdwp=transport=dt_socket,server=y,suspend=n,address=5005

Then do something that causes the gradle daemon to start.

gradle --daemon

Now you can go into IntelliJ or Android Studio and attach a remote debugger. I use IntelliJ because AS won’t import the storm-gen maven projects and the whole point of this exercise is to set breakpoints in the storm-gen annotation processor. The screenshot shows configuring a remote debugger in IntelliJ. Just accept the defaults and make sure the port number matches your gradle.properties. It should also work in Eclipse.

Configure a remote debugger in IntelliJ

The remote debugger should attach to the running gradle daemon. You can then tickle the annotation processor by running a build. For example, this runs the storm-gen tests on an already-running emulator or connected device:

cd storm-test
gradle clean connectedCheck

When the annotation processor runs, your breakpoint in IntelliJ (or Eclipse) should fire.

One caution with this technique is that Android Studio will also use the gradle daemon because it’s now configured in your gradle.properties. But if you launched the daemon from the command line, AS will try to launch it again and you’ll see an error message about the port already in use. In that case, simply kill the running gradle process and AS should be happy.

GWT, App Engine, maven, and… IntelliJ!

I’ve been putting off migrating to Android Studio for a while now because I’m frankly loathe to learn a new IDE. I’ve used Eclipse for a decade and grew to become very productive in it. But a completely different team at Google may have just well forced me into it.

When I joined the GWT Developer Relations team in 2010, I worked closely with the Google Plugin for Eclipse team to get maven support into GPE. With their excellent work, we eventually achieved the holy grail: you could import a POM containing maven-gae-plugin and gwt-maven-plugin into Eclipse and all the GWT + GAE stuff from GPE like launching dev mode would just work (well, if you had the right supporting plugins like m2e-wtp). So the other day, I picked up a POM that worked in those days and tried it out on Kepler + GPE + m2e-wtp. Amazingly enough, the GWT stuff still works. Google now supports its own appengine-maven-plugin, so I swapped out the old GAE plugin for the new. It’s supposed to work with GPE and WTP, but so far no dice. It will be great when they get the kinks worked out. Funny thing is, I remember seeing exactly the same problem with GAE-maven integration way back in my GWT days. Only then, I could just walk over to Rajeev’s desk and he would fix it 🙂

In the mean time, imagine my surprise to discover that I could just import the POM into IntelliJ (full edition) and everything works. The maven project imported, I can launch GWT dev mode, set breakpoints and debug, etc. It’s funny to me that JetBrains can keep up to date with Google App Engine better than the GPE team, but that’s how big companies move sometimes….

So I’m off to learning new keyboard shortcuts (I could use the Eclipse keymap, but I had customized Eclipse, too. It’s easier than I thought to learn new tricks). And I have to say, the performance of IntelliJ is impressive. A couple of my teammates way back at Intuit will no doubt be glad to hear that I finally came around to maven + IntelliJ, not to mention some of my Android DevRel mates. We’ll see how this goes, but so far, I’m impressed.

 

Android Camp in the Rockies

Join me in the Rockies Aug 25-29

Calling all mountain lovers who’ve been thinking about learning Android development…

Ever feel like you’re just a bit too ADD to spend all week in a nondescript classroom and pay big bucks to stay in a downtown hotel where there’s not much to do? Does your brain hurt after working exercise after tedious exercise using courseware that adds little value over the API docs? Do you gain weight eating on the expense account without much exercise?

Me too. Besides these problems, in my past training experience I’ve found that many students find it difficult to maintain concentrated technical attention 8 hours at a time (yeah, it happens in the workplace, too). For myself, I find that I frequently want take a walk, preferably somewhere more refreshing than the parking lot or around the downtown block.

So I started looking around for venues in more refreshing places. I thought of Denver, Boulder, and Colorado Springs (see the pattern?). But then I realized that as long as my mind would still be in the mountains, I might as well put my body there, too.

So this is a bit of an experiment. I’m offering a 5-day Android bootcamp with lodging and meals included in one of the most refreshing spots on earth, YMCA of the Rockies Estes Park Center. We have about 3 solid days of material, so we can cover it in 3, 4, or 5 days, and work around the weather for hiking. In the evenings, you can head into the bustling town of Estes Park or hang out in the meeting room to work on an app project with others in the group. We’ll have some special activities, too, like a BBQ or ice cream social. Because most schools in the US now start in early Aug, the last two weeks see a thinning out of the crowds. Which makes it a great time to visit RMNP, especially if you want to access the high trails free of snow.

Over the five days, we will learn the basics of Android development with an emphasis on enterprise apps. If you finish with a lab early or need a short break, you can play mini-golf or go elk-spotting in the woods at the center. During longer breaks, you can grab a buddy and go for a hike in Rocky Mountain National Park. I know the trails quite well and look forward to sharing them with you if you’re so inclined. If you’re really nice, I’ll talk you to the spot where I took the photo above. Bring your tripod for HDR 🙂

For further description, syllabus, cost, etc., see the full event listing on EventBrite below.

See you in Colorado!

Ruh-roh, I think my brain is re-wiring

Spanish is starting to sound natural to me. This is very, very good news. But English… I can hardly spit this out: I’ve been making spelling mistakes. With increasing frequency, Gmail or Google Docs has put a red squiggly under a word after I’ve moved on the next one. At first I questioned why the spellchecker didn’t have certain words in the dictionary. But as it’s kept happening, I’m afraid there might be a better explanation. Spelling mistakes are very much a new thing for me (go ahead and laugh–please remember that I was very disappointed when I came runner up in the 3rd or 4th grade spelling bee). The other night, it took me until the next morning to remember the instinctive spelling of “legitimate.” For a long time, I sat staring at the red squiggly. I tried all kinds of things that didn’t make the squiggly go away and only the next day while I was walking downtown or maybe sitting in the kitchen, the word suddenly sort of appeared in my brain and it was obvious again.

Spelling isn’t all that’s wrong, however. I routinely find, upon re-reading what I’ve written, that left a word out or put in one the wrong order. This is very troubling! I have rarely needed to double-check my writing for grammar and spelling mistakes. No the purpose of revision is to smooth any rough edges [ok, this is getting ridiculous–the errors in the second sentence were for fun, but I really did forget the comma after “No” just now]. There are two possible explanations for this phenomenon. One is that I’m getting old. Of course, I know better than that. The second is that as I learn Spanish, my brain is somehow re-wiring. If that truly is the case, then I am left in complete awe of the Creator of the human mind. The capacity for learning our first language is a miracle, especially when you consider that two year olds do it. But the capacity to learn a second language at age 43, well… it blows my mind.

storm-gen has moved

In order to more easily support pull requests, I’ve moved storm-gen, the annotation-based open source ORM for Android SQLite, to Github. You can now find it here:

https://github.com/turbomanage/storm-gen

I’ve migrated all open issues to the Github tracker and, following six months of language school in Peru, have recently resumed work on the framework. Thanks to Alex G, we’re about to add support for maven, gradle, and Android Studio. I’m also adding more operators and the long-awaited .order() method to FilterBuilder.

Also, there is now a G+ community for feature discussion and a StackOverflow tag.

Enjoy!

Open for business in Peru

This is my last week in language school (at least until I need a refresher course) and with it come some big changes. My family has settled in to life in Arequipa, at least to the extent that can be expected after five months in a foreign country speaking a new language. I have received my work visa and have started a Peruvian company to focus on training / consulting for software developers.

My first client / partner is Lima-based Tekton Labs, which has hired me to provide technical training and architectural guidance to the cloud and mobile development teams. I am looking forward to working with the team for several reasons:

1. Tekton has a talented team and strongly believes in personal development. This is very important because, while there are a few good computer science programs in the country, there is no substitute for continuing education in our field.
2. The company has a mature, agile software development process (Scrum), which in my view is a prerequisite for taking on large projects.
3. Tekton has a sizable portfolio of work for large enterprises, but still offers significantly lower prices than US-based companies.

In the US, some of the most coveted jobs in programming are with Internet and software companies. In Peru, on the other hand, they are in finance and telecommunications because they typically pay the best ($500 – $2,000 / mo. + benefits). Unfortunately, this means there are few cloud and mobile jobs here; however, there ARE talented developers with the necessary training as well as self-taught hackers just like in the US. My aim is to help provide further training for these developers and to connect them with US-based companies like startups who may have great ideas, but can’t afford US-based labor. Over the next year or two, I’ll keep you posted on how it’s going. In the mean time, if you have an idea which might be a fit for a Peruvian development team, ping me on G+ and let’s talk.