blog.zgraggen.name  All-day insanity or I have a blog too!

This week, I am tapering for a marathon this weekend. This means less training and more free time.
As a logical conclusion I spend some amount of this free time playing flash games. Here are three puzzle/thinking games which I really enjoyed

The Company Of Myself
This game has some similarities with Chronotron. You have to interact with yourself to solve problems, except that this time it is not based on a time machine. Even though I like Chronotron better, I think this game has some interesting puzzles!

Red Remover
The idea of this game is very simple. There are different shapes in the colors red/green/blue. Remove the red, keep the green, and blue doesn’t matter. The trick with that is that there is gravity and things can fall out of the screen. So be wise when clicking on the read shapes. The interesting part about this game is that you can unlock features to play the same levels in a more challenging mode. This makes the game a lot more fun and challenging!

Take Something literally
I think this game even needs less explanation. But whereas the last two games also required some skill, this puzzle just needs brain power.
Or as the creator puts it:
“Just use your brain and all your environment :).”

Have fun =)

This is the title of a book which I recently finished. This book focuses on managing risk in a software project. Different then other risk management book, which focus on identifying single risks. This book focuses more on the overall project risk and its impact on the schedule.

It also explains EVR (Earned value running), risk models and simulation techniques. I also enjoyed a new view on the Denver International Airport Case.

Here are some of my favorite quotes of this book:

• - “Risk management is something that most of us practice all the time-everywhere except the office.“
• - “In the absence of explicitly declared uncertainty, achieving anything but the most optimistic imaginable result is a failure.“

The following two are both quotes from Paul Rook, mentioned in the book:

• - “Risk management decriminalizes risks!“
• - “We aren’t really bad at estimating. What we are really bad at is enumerating all the assumptions that lie behind our estimations.“

I definitely recommend this book!

Oh no! The Boston Marathon 2011 sold out on the first day. Last year it took about 2 months to fill up.

My goal was to run qualifying time in Washington DC at the Marine Corps marathon in 1.5 weeks and then sign up for Boston. And now this option is gone. I can’t run in Boston in 2011!

The organizers at least were surprised as much as I was. To use their words it was “unprecedented”

The only problem I have right now is the motivation. Should I even care to run qualification time? It doesn’t matter anyway… Or should I just do it and say at least I made qualifying time even though I didn’t get in? Well people who know me well already know the answer…

Stay tuned for it

Duh! Everyone who has at least been to the USA once, knows that what they sell as Swiss cheese is everything else then Swiss cheese. But this weekend, when I went grocery shopping I discovered something else.
So far I always assumed that Swiss cheese brands like Gruyère would be imported from Switzerland. How silly of me to assume that. The Target next door just opened a fresh product section which I really enjoy! It is not big and the selection is limited, but at least it is an easy way to get some fresh products. Like vegetables, fruits, sandwiches, and milk products.
So while I was looking through all the new things they have, I discovered some cheese called Gruyère. But already the looks of it told me that it is not real Gruyère. When inspecting the back of the package. I learned that this cheese was made in the USA and has nothing to do with Gruyère what so ever. In my opinion this is just a marketing trick which I lucky didn’t fall for
I’m amazed that they are allowed to do that…

But this won’t hold me back to enjoy the expanded selection of my closest “grocery” store!

A few weeks ago Amy and I went to a wedding in Indianapolis. Besides the wedding we also enjoyed exploring the city.
Here are four things which you shouldn’t miss in Indianapolis:

Monument Circle
In the middle of the city is the monument circle. And as the name says there is a monument which you can climb. If you take the stairs it is free and if you are lazy and take the elevator you have to pay for the experience. It shall remain a secret how we got up there

WWII museum
We walked passed the Memorial Fountain and the Veterans Memorial Plaza, when we discovered the second world war museum. The entry is free and the exhibition is very impressive and interesting. Unfortunately, we had only about an hour to look at all the things until a wedding reception was held at this location. But this place is definitely worth a visit.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway
If Nascar fan or not… This place is definitely worth a visit. The 2.5 miles look is huge and impressive even without cars on it. A ride as a co-rider on the track in a Nascar would cost $135 which we thought wasn’t worth the experience. But the museum for $5 was definitely worth it. Many winner-cars from the INDY500 races can be looked at. It is also funny to see and read about the history the first car needed over 6 hours to finish the race where as today the cars finish the race under 3 hours even though there are some limitations for the cars, since the race got too fast. They obviously love their cars and the track, which you can also see on the web page. (History section)

Weber Grill
A restaurant which cooks on a Weber grill. Obviously, we had to test how good it was… Amy and I both approve it! My favorite part was the pretzel rolls (Laugenbrot) which was offered as a free appetizer. I love this bread and couldn’t believe that they have it here in the states!

Of course there is plenty more to see in Indianapolis, but we had only very little time. Here are some pictures from the weekend.

Ps: Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to inspect the Hooters in Indianapolis…

Today, I run the Hartford half marathon. My goal was to qualify for a spot in the NYC half marathon. The requirement for that is a time under 1:23:00. This would also mean that I would improve my personal best time from 2005, which is 1:23:26. I tried to improve my best time three times already and failed every time. Well today was attempt #4.

Unfortunately, I didn’t qualify for NYC half marathon and also missed my personal best time by 4 seconds. This was because it was too windy, too hilly, I was sick 2 weeks ago, and I had to run alone. Excuses, excuses… what it boils down to is that I should have trained harder and run faster

Well better luck next try…

Result page with finisher video and pictures. Enter my BIB: 7313

A while a go George Fairbanks asked me to write a quote for his book: “Just Enough Software Architecture: A Risk-Driven Approach”.
I already read a statement paper about the idea for the book and reviewed a chapter of the book. I really liked the concept he had and was glad that he asked me. Which I believe is important when you write a quote. I wouldn’t want to write a recommendation for something I can’t support.

George then sent me the draft of the book. Since, I knew I had to write a quote I made notes about what I liked and what I could include in the quote. I hoped this would make it easier to write the recommendation. But when I started with the writing I had so many comments at the beginning that I didn’t know where to start. I then looked at many other quotes for technical book to get an idea what to write. But I was honestly disappointed most quotes are not book specific and could just be copy pasted to most tech book. so I decided to write something more specific which should help the reader in the buy decision.
Here is the end result:

“In many companies risk management is only a list of how projects could fail. Instead, this book shows you how to drive your architecture design based on risks. The book gives you a risk driven approach, and discusses good architectural practices, models, styles and techniques to create the architecture.”

You can see other quotes for this book here. Compared to some other quotes my quote doesn’t sound as exiciting as others. I know, that this would be the time to make a strong statement and maybe even exaggerate a little as this is common in the US culture. But, I also feel that I have to be true to myself. Another thing which I realized is that my recommendation is rather short compared to others and therefore doesn’t include much content. Maybe, reading some other book quotes gave me the wrong impression of the length. These might have been some of the reason, why my quote didn’t make it on the cover. Even though it would have been nice to make it on the cover, I am aware that the decision who will get on there is purely from a sales perspective. I am still grateful for this opportunity. I certainly learned a few things for my next book quote. If I ever get an opportunity again

The book has been published and can be purchased on Amazon.

I really enjoyed the book and would definitely recommend it to all software engineers who have to deal with project risk and design.

Please feel free to tell me what you think of my quote. I’m open for input!