The problem is that this game is fairly taxing on computer graphics, so it wouldn’t run in a VM on his iMac. Of course, we tried and received some nasty errors, so we thought we could easily install Boot Camp and run the program natively in Windows. Not so fast. Something caused the keyboard to be too fancy for the base Windows installer to find it. We had three options facing us: 1) buy the new version of the game that runs natively in MacOS, 2) dig deep, prepare for an epic battle and vow to solve it no matter what and 3) give up. Option 1 was far too easy. Option 3 wasn’t really an option at all. Option 2 it was. Solve it we will.

While talking about problem solving might seem obvious and a tired concept, it’s the one thing we all use every day. Here’s my approach to high performance problem solving:

Step 1: Mental Conditioning – Get your head straight and make the decision that you will solve the problem. If your heart isn’t in it, stop here.

Step 2: Issue Isolation - Not just problem identification…  Start by identifying the problem, then isolate the root cause(s) of the issue. Write down the issue(s) and define your success criteria.

Step 3: Research – It’s unbelievable how quickly we can now access vast quantities of good (and bad) information. Start with basic search engines and look for a trend.  Don’t just believe the first person that says they found a fix.

Step 4: Establish Ground Zero – Capture the beginning state (photos, diagrams, documentation, backups, more backups). Make sure you can get back to your control case when your first few fixes cause more problems.

Step 5: Plan of Attack – Write down the steps you are about to take. Pick a technique that fits your problem.

Step 6: Execute – Go for it! Cast aside fear and make it happen. Be aware of everything that is going on. It might be a very subtle clue that provides direction to the final solution.

Step 7: Analyze Results – Look back over what you observed, document your findings and determine if the outcome was a success.

Step 8: Rinse and Repeat 5-7 Until Solved

Step 9: Celebrate – Take a moment to kick back and relish the satisfaction of a job well done. Tell the world about it. Post your solution to the community. Give credit where credit is due.

Step 10: Recap – Look back over your logs and commit your findings to long-term memory. You may or may not encounter the same problem again, but you will most likely have to apply what you learned again in the future.

As I sit, my son is enjoying his new game. It took six iterations, but we got it. The final answer came from some obscure online forum where someone described a process that we slightly modified and it worked. After iteration five, we were a little perplexed and took some time to pray for direction. Sometimes the answers comes quickly, but the ones you remember and enjoy the most put up a good fight.

Mrs. Edwards stood out. She was the first English teacher that tried to understand me and she was the first one that admitted she liked Math. That was just the connection I needed to give this lady a chance. She knew me too well and could see through the fact that I never read the assigned books. I just tried to find the movie, Cliff’s Notes or talk to the dorky chick in the corner that obviously read the whole thing cover to cover. So, for her, I read my first book all the way. I hate to admit it was Ethan Frome: a 195-page book about nothing. But, I read it for her and for me and I think I even passed the test and book report. That year helped me realize that I wasn’t just that guy that loved Math, Science and fart jokes. I found out I also really loved photography, art and architecture. I even painted a piece of wood with a fish for Mrs. Edwards as a gift for making me enjoy being weird (she loved fishing). Now, I even love reading long fiction books. They just have to be about spies, ninjas or conspiracy.

When I started my Co-Op job at Scientific Atlanta, I wondered how I would fit in. What would a 19-year-old have in common with a bunch of old, coffee drinking geeks? Thankfully, a lot. I found out that there was much more to them than Star Trek and vi. A few of us started a racquetball tournament ladder. Others wanted to get in early on Thursdays for Bible study. I got on the company softball team and played in the intramural volleyball. These personal connections made me love to come to work. Even though I was weird, I found out that there were more weird people out there.

One of my good friends is a campus minister. He always makes fun of me saying that I’m one of the only computer nerds he knows that has a personality. I take that as a compliment and a challenge. The challenge is to see people for who they are and try to find common ground. Embrace what makes you weird and see if your weird gives you a connection with someone else’s weird. Even if they represent the dark side of the force (like English teachers), they might just make you a better person.

So, what does this have to do with Fred Squared? Everything. Life is about people. We want to connect with people that want to make a difference. Sure, we want to pay our bills, but more than anything, we want to see the human spirit achieve great things. What makes you weird? What do you dream about?

I guess this is what shaped my desire to specialize in the software/hardware integration discipline within Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech. My professors helped me understand what it takes to make computers and programs talk. My co-op job at Scientific Atlanta (now Cisco) gave me hands-on experience and resources that would shape my quest. I vividly remember looking at a protocol analyzer and seeing the transaction stream between a cable settop box and the headend controller. One was a hardware ASIC and the other was an IBM OS/2 application, but they were able to efficiently communicate using a pre-defined structure of data over a serial connection. I was able to experiment with MS/DOS applications built in C talking to SCO x86 UNIX applications for host billing communications. Again, pre-defined structure over common media networks.

At CheapTickets.com, my view expanded greatly by being able to work on the systems that connected with a major travel reservations global distribution system (GDS). Our Systems Engineering team regularly wrestled with the artifacts of how the GDS organically evolved. Many things that made sense on a green screen were quite confusing for Internet transaction processing. To meet timelines and requirements, we had to be very creative at using legacy data fields to store required elements such as email addresses or website referrals. The tech buzz among travel industry engineers was all about creating a new integration framework that was optimized for Internet-based systems. To my knowledge, this dream is still not realized.

I remember a time that everything was polarized. You had to ask critical questions first: Mac or PC, Java or .NET, AOL or Prodigy. The world has come a long way. With Mac OSX and a fully interoperable Microsoft Office, companies and friends were finally able to freely share files. Web Services, Open ID and other powerful APIs have lessened the issues of Java and .NET. One common, global Internet quickly ended the issues of the AOL and Prodigy silos.

While not nearly as versatile as Duct Tape, WD-40 and SuperGlue, there are many powerful components that make up today’s Open Integration Frameworks. When used properly, these tools can cut development time in half and expand reach tenfold. Be sure to think about how the data needs to be prepared, transported, translated and processed. Consider the following list of technologies when needing inspiration in solving your integration challenges:

• Web Services
• OpenID
• IBM MQ Series
• Open Source Integration and Jitterbit

At Fred Squared, we embrace these Open Integration Frameworks and are taking an active role in ensuring their adoption. Join us in breaking down barriers and providing a future where Lego and G.I. Joe live in harmony.

At times, these obsessions become intense and are very consuming.  This used to seem like a bad thing. Then, I realized how constructive it can be when pointed in the right direction. When you are truly passionate about something you think about it all day, dream about it at night, and can’t help but tell the world about it.

I’m so thankful for my business partners. They share that same trait and I think it is something that makes Fred Squared truly special. I can’t count how many late nights have been spent dreaming together on the phone or iChat… answering our essential question of “wouldn’t it be cool if… ?”. These are the times we push the limits of what others call “reality” and dream the impossible. Then, it usually continues with 4am emails containing relevant research, more crazy ideas and thoughts of business models.  Once the initial surge is at bay, the hard work begins of determining feasibility, scope and profitability.  If an idea can run the gauntlet, it is prioritized and added to the list. The list isn’t the end, rather  a way to keep focused on the things that pay the bills today while defining a bright future.  The ideas that really shake us up are the ones that we can’t get out of our minds and spark something deep within our souls.

Current Fred Squared Obsession: Kidnomi – Kidnomi is going to be unbelievable. My son wakes me up every morning with more and more ideas about it. The story gets more and more real every day. I never thought it would pay off to have played so many games like the Legend of Zelda and watched so many movies. Characters are developing and a new immersive universe is forming. Be alert, the time is nigh.

What are you obsessed about? How can you channel your passions to change the world?

Thank You Georgia Tech.

I like to give credit for my life.  My wife taught me how to love others.  My mom ingrained the importance of truth.  My dad inspired me to dream big.  My kids gave me back my child-like imagination.  My GTCCF campus minister introduced me to the grace of God. And, the Georgia Institute of Technology taught me every problem has a solution. It’s my responsibility and calling to find it.

I’m often asked how Georgia Tech equipped me for the future.  The answer is Georgia Tech taught me that the impossible  is simply a problem in need of a solution, and she gave me the courage and confidence to face all challenges.  Though my degree is in Computer Engineering with emphasis in the area of hardware and software interactions, the lessons I learned at GT apply to all areas of business and life.

I remember my freshman year, discovering challenges bigger than myself. (Adjusting to no longer being the smartest one in class.)  While Engineering Design (EGR1170) was a blast and the foundation for my professional career, it was a painful Physics class on electromagnetism (EMAG) that introduced me to solution-based thinking.  A thinker’s mind was born.

Then came my Controls and Concurrency class taught by Jim Greenlee.  The first day of class, we were given an assignment that involved writing a program in UNIX C.  The only problem was he wasn’t there to teach UNIX C.  Rather, he wanted us to learn the value of shared resources and computer logic. To be candid, I didn’t think too fondly of him during that first week.  But, by the end of the quarter, I had learned how to be resourceful with a team of fellow students (while picking-up a new computer language to boot).

Jim taught me that most problems are better solved as a group.

The advantage Georgia Tech gave me also extended beyond the campus.  Through their co-operative education program, I found a job at Scientific Atlanta as a staff engineer.  Every other quarter I got a slice of real-life training while earning credits.  Upon graduation I was not only ready, but wanted by the technology workforce.

In short, Georgia Tech deserves a major credit in my life and so many others.  That’s why I’m still involved and very happy to report GT has the largest voluntary co-op program in the United States.  We’ve even formed an alumni affinity group to reach new employers and students — as any GT student knows there is always room for improvement.  It’s also no wonder that Atlanta has become the hottest growth market for venture capital and technology startups.  Georgia Tech’s continued leadership and able alumni community know exactly how to attract and create the best solutions.  It’s integrated into our DNA.

Now is the time.  Georgia Tech and Atlanta are ‘this close’ to becoming an epicenter for technology that will rival the Stanford/Silicon Valley connection.  All it takes is for us to ban together, just as we did in those hallowed GT classrooms.  I implore our community to work as one — investors, entrepreneurs, employers, regents, alumni, faculty, students and the newly recruited to all do your part in getting us there. No act is too small or too big.  Together, we’re an unstoppable force of nature (and technology).

In fact, I’m walking the talk.  Recently, I became the President of the Coweta and Fayette county alumni club, and I’m a serial entrepreneur who incubates startups and technology innovation inside Atlanta.  What can you do?  Or better yet, imagine what can we do together…

Go Jackets!

Photo provided by John Trainor

Pink Baby goes to work

Children really do say the darndest things. It never gets old to enter their world and try to understand the beautiful creation of their mind. This past Mother’s Day, my daughter informed me that she needed lots of special treatment as she was a mother, too.  She got a pink, cloth baby doll when she was born from her grandmother and it has been a family member ever since.  She calls it “Pink Baby” and it creates quite a controversy as to how much of a person she really is. I’ve even been asked to babysit on days with client meetings and needed to bring Pink Baby in my briefcase. It is that kind of imagination that will be dreaming up our world’s next innovations.

Sure, a two-year old will still ask you “why” in response to anything you tell them, but they are just preparing for the next phase of “why not”. I love the way that kids aren’t hamstrung by “reality” and their minds can explore things that shouldn’t be possible.  It’s for this reason that Fred Squared is working hard on Kidnomi as a way to inspire and equip the next generation of digital innovation. I want the leaders that come up with the idea asking first “why not”. Then, I hope that these phenoms take that same attitude to their future work environments and continue to challenge the status quo. It will be a great day when a bright mind presents a game-changing idea in a board room and is met with the right question: “why not?”

Then, Apple’s .Mac service got more and more stable and turned into Mobile Me.  This was a great start for the core of getting your goods into a virtual service with public and private areas and an easy way to access as well as keep in sync between computers.  Other big guys like Google, YouTube and Yahoo are proving that disk space can be cheap.  Now, we just need to combine it all with strong authentication and look for the next frontier of bandwidth.

Once all of these things collide, the dream should come true. I’d love to walk up to any kiosk or computer and be able to access all my files, songs, pictures, notes and feel safe about it.

I started my career in UNIX C development at Scientific Atlanta on their System Manager 10 computer that controlled cable TV systems.  About that same time I stumbled upon HTML, Perl, lynx and Mosaic.  My mind and keyboard came alive as I learned how these things fit and I started building web applications.  My first one was an online version of our cumbersome test plans.  I converted the MS/Word test plan documents to HTML with paging.  Then, I built a simple Perl script and DB to dynamically keep up with the test results.  That gave me just enough confidence and recklessness to go out and try more things I had never seen before.

…  Pause for a few years of hardcore development and then moving more into architecture and then into management …

So, here I sit today thinking that I’m useless at this new world of fancy web applications, IDE’s, frameworks, and platforms that seem tough to get into the guts of.  Sure, the principals are still the same and the architecture needs the same TLC, but what about the code?

Reconnecting with the Open Source community allowed me to find w world of new and more intuitive building blocks for us Old Timers to play with.  I’m finding that PHP has come a long way and is well embedded into many of the new mid-tier web platforms like vBulletin, Joomla, WordPress and Drupal.  With a little old school PHP, it’s possible to tweak existing themes and widgets and build something quite powerful.  Take for instance the Fred Squared website.  That was created in a matter of days.

The inner geek is still alive and able to learn some new tricks.  Setting up cheap web hosting or enabling web sharing on a workstation is much easier than it used to be.  There’s still a place for the experts to come along and make it bulletproof, but for a small to mid-tier product, these tools are hard to beat and it gives me an outlet to play with vi (the finest editor ever to grace the platters of a hard drive).

Are you a Geek?

No longer do you need to lock a geek in a back room with unlimited Mountain Dew, pizza and bandwidth to get a good prototype for your ideas.  More and more tools are available that can be easily customized to get your point across and let people touch and feel your idea.  Here are the basic steps:

1. Open a hosting account with a reputable host that offers free open source application installers. Good examples are: SiteGround and GoDaddy.
2. Dream up a domain name and register it with your web hosting provider
3. Find their application installer and read about each application and pick the one that best suits your needs.  On SiteGround, it’s called Fantastico in your cPanel.  On GoDaddy, it’s called the GoDaddy Hosting Connection located in your hosting control panel found by clicking the button at the top for “Your Applications”
4. Try it out.  Select something like Drupal, Joomla, WordPress, vBulletin, phpBB and hit install. Once setup, they will give you the link to the administration area along with your login.
5. Play around and install some plugins, try some themes and see how close you can prototype your idea.  If you get totally stuck, call the host for some basic support or just delete that app and start over.
6. Mock up your fancy functionality for now with images or articles that explain what it will do once fully implemented.
7. If you want to spend a few bucks, look for an expert who can build only the specific thing you need.  Look through your LinkedIn and social networks or try out services like Elance to find the right person for the job.