User:Q Linden/Office Hours/2008-01-07
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Time | Speaker | Remarks |
[7:37] | Ricken Flow | Good Morning Q |
[7:38] | Q Linden | o, hai |
[7:38] | Q Linden | good morning! |
[7:38] | Q Linden | what's up today? |
[7:39] | Ricken Flow | just waking up at the moment, My mission this week is to find out what the Lindens do, well the ones that have office hours. |
[7:39] | Ricken Flow | and you are up first :-) |
[7:40] | Q Linden | heh |
[7:40] | Q Linden | that's what I get for being east coast |
[7:40] | Ricken Flow | haha nothing wrong with being first!! |
[7:41] | Q Linden | ok, sorry, I was being distracted there |
[7:41] | Q Linden | now I'm here |
[7:41] | Ricken Flow | no problem, you are at work!! |
[7:41] | Q Linden | anyway, you want to hear about my job? |
[7:41] | Ricken Flow | yes, please |
[7:42] | Q Linden | I'm a software developer here at LL |
[7:42] | Q Linden | Been on staff about 6 months |
[7:42] | Q Linden | Former game developer |
[7:42] | Q Linden | Now I focus on two things, primarily |
[7:42] | Q Linden | Rearchitecting the viewer to enable us to take it to the next level in terms of user experience and technical capabilities |
[7:43] | Q Linden | and focusing on open source so that all that development takes place in public and can leverage the open source community more effectively |
[7:43] | Q Linden | Are you a developer? |
[7:44] | Ricken Flow | no not yet, I am in college online to become a Technical Writer, so I am sure at some point I will need to know something about software development. |
[7:45] | Q Linden | excellent. you might want to talk to Jeremy Linden at his office hours. He's a tech writer who works out of the same office as me sometimes. |
[7:45] | Q Linden | oh, I should mention that I intend to post the transcript of this talk, unless you have some objection |
[7:45] | Ricken Flow | I have no objecion. |
[7:45] | Q Linden | Thanks |
[7:46] | Q Linden | My first job out of college was as a tech writer |
[7:46] | Ricken Flow | Yes, I sent a note to Jeremy, I did a search on tech writing and his name showed up. I have his office hours later on in the week. |
[7:47] | Q Linden | He and Jon post on our main SL blog from time to time |
[7:47] | Q Linden | I think it's weekly |
[7:47] | Q Linden | You might want to check that out: blog.secondlife.com |
[7:48] | Ricken Flow | How did you like Tech Writing? |
[7:49] | Ricken Flow | yes thats how i found that they held office hours its not listed on the calender, I read a recent article of theirs. |
[7:49] | Q Linden | I liked it. It was sort of accidental, really. I have always considered myself a writer, just not as the thing I wanted to do full time. I got the job sort of accidentally. |
[7:49] | Q Linden | I had been applying for jobs as a hardware engineer |
[7:49] | Q Linden | And an enterprising headhunter offered to help me find a job. He rewrote my resume to make it look like i was a tech writer (because I'd included all the docs I'd written for other work) |
[7:50] | Q Linden | I got an interview that way without realizing what job I was applying for. They hired me. |
[7:50] | Q Linden | I later moved on to what I really wanted to do, which was engineering, but I've always written things too. I've co-written a couple of books |
[7:51] | Q Linden | It's a good career if you're good at understanding things and organizing them so others can understand. |
[7:52] | Ricken Flow | I love writing normally it has been poetry and short stories. I was enrolled in college with my major being Business Administration then I took a Technical Writing course and knew I had to switch. |
[7:53] | Q Linden | Cool. You'll be more valuable if you make sure you understand the basics of the tools used these days to do technical publishing -- HTML, various image editors, web site techniques, etc. |
[7:54] | Q Linden | Don't get too hung up on being an expert in any one tool, because the tools change over time |
[7:54] | Ricken Flow | I am teaching myself XML at the moment and learning Visio |
[7:54] | Q Linden | Excellent. THe other thing is -- just write, every day if you can. |
[7:54] | Q Linden | Start a blog and commit to updating it at least 5 days a week |
[7:54] | Q Linden | Practice is key |
[7:56] | Ricken Flow | Hmmm, I never thought about starting a blog but it would help with writing and lessons on making things clear. |
[7:56] | Q Linden | Definitely...it's also a place to experiment with formatting and tools |
[7:56] | Q Linden | I mean, a diary is as good as a blog, but I think it's valuable to publish it. |
[7:57] | Q Linden | The way you'll convince an employer to hire you is to have a portfolio, so save everything you write |
[7:59] | Ricken Flow | I have everything from school. Getting ready to create me a simple website with my current work. |
[7:59] | Q Linden | Excellent |
[7:59] | Ricken Flow | do you still maintain a portfolio or website I would love to see it! |
[8:01] | Q Linden | Well...I have a web diary I wrote in 1996 while I lived in France, which still gets a lot of hits. |
[8:01] | Q Linden | http://world.std.com/~kentq/frindex.htm |
[8:02] | Q Linden | This was a project I worked on last year: |
[8:02] | Q Linden | http://www.cognitoy.com/meltingpoint/ |
[8:02] | Q Linden | whoops, my database is a bit borked |
[8:02] | Q Linden | that website needs attention |
[8:02] | Q Linden | But now I have A Real Job |
[8:03] | Ricken Flow | :-) |
[8:03] | Q Linden | But what about you? |
[8:03] | Q Linden | I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on SL |
[8:03] | Q Linden | What works for you, what doesn't? |
[8:04] | Ricken Flow | all in all in works good, a lot of times it will freeze on me sometimes it comes back and sometimes it crashes |
[8:05] | Ricken Flow | it does it most of the time if i turn around quickly |
[8:05] | Q Linden | Hmmmmm |
[8:05] | Q Linden | Are you using the Windlight viewer? |
[8:06] | Ricken Flow | I use both viewers but havent been on Windlight much. |
[8:06] | Q Linden | I've heard of the "turn around quickly" problem before, but I thought it had been fixed. Trying to find the details.' |
[8:07] | Ricken Flow | Also, another issue people have been having on a rare occasion is transporting. |
[8:08] | Ricken Flow | A lot of times when we transport it brings up an error and we have to log out |
[8:08] | Ricken Flow | and becoming invisible happens but that is rare |
[8:09] | Q Linden | yeah, we're working hard on the teleport / region crossing issues |
[8:09] | Q Linden | It's a surprisingly complicated problem |
[8:09] | Q Linden | heh |
[8:09] | Q Linden | hi, lindara |
[8:10] | Ricken Flow | yes normally linden seems to work out things pretty quickly but this one seems to be taking a while |
[8:10] | Q Linden | that's 'cause it's not "one" -- it's a whole raft of related issues. |
[8:10] | Q Linden | when people move from region to region, all sorts of things happen |
[8:11] | Q Linden | and it's sensitive to everything from server load to network glitches |
[8:12] | Q Linden | But I'm confident we'll work it out -- I think people will see a big improvement in stability as we roll out the Havok 4 servers |
[8:13] | Ricken Flow | Well I am happy with the service now i am sure there will still be people that complain they dont realize how complicated everything is. |
[8:14] | Q Linden | Heh, thank you for that. |
[8:15] | Q Linden | In the ideal world, we wouldn't have to explain how complicated it all is -- but in THIS world, it's a really hard problem. |
[8:15] | Ricken Flow | My RL partner is an information architect and my mind hurts just looking at some of the things he does, LOL |
[8:16] | Q Linden | Heh. Yeah...it's an interesting field. |
[8:16] | Q Linden | Does he use SL too? |
[8:17] | Ricken Flow | no, he watches me on it but he does not have an account. |
[8:17] | Q Linden | Yeah...my wife has an account but doesn't use it much, pretty much only when I show her around. |
[8:20] | Ricken Flow | Yes, some people love it and some don't have much interest but I think there is something here for everyone. You just have to find it. |
[8:20] | Q Linden | Heh. I may quote you on that. |
[8:21] | Q Linden | Will you excuse me? I have to bolt a few minutes early today. |
[8:21] | Ricken Flow | sure no problem Q |
[8:21] | Q Linden | Thanks! It was nice to meet you. Enjoy SL! |
[8:21] | Ricken Flow | Thank you thanks for sharing!!!! |