Sip from the Firehose

I am up in Hood River Oregon today for the wedding of Martha’s niece.  It is a glorius day with plenty of sunshine and no clouds in sight.  During the day, we drove up to Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood.  There was plenty of snow still on the mountain and people were skiing and snow boarding on the upper slopes. I saw several brides and grooms up on the mountain, obviously in love.

Tonight we attended Sarah and Jeremy’s wedding at the historic Columbia Gorge Hotel on the banks of the mighty Columbia River.  The kite surfers and the wind surfers love this place because of the strong winds, wide river, and beautiful surroundings.

What does this have to do with programming? Nothing really. Except, the volcano, lodge, weddings, and the river all amplify my feelings for the loves in my life:  my wonderful wife Martha, our beautiful daughters Gina, Molly, and Emily, our extended families, and our Embarcadero global community.

The joy of family and software development connue to come together in my life. Looking at all of the visually stunning sights in high definition - the volcano, the river, the kids, the families, and the weddings - brings a smile to my face. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to bring the same rich, HD graphics and visuals to our applications?  What if you could quickly create great software using the following recipe:

• Combine a group of software engineers who love working together
• Preheat the oven to 3 Scrum sprints
• Fold in 2D or 3D ounces of high definition graphics
• Drag and drop 3 cups UI components
• Add 3 tablespoons of image effects
• Spice things up with some animations
• Mix in some business logic
• Add plenty of love
• Include just a pinch of that programming magic that creates the best software
• Bake in the oven until color and texture is perfect
• Serve hot to your happy users

Software development is not a substitute for real life. Perfecting a project will never approach the true feeling of love (at least in my lifetime). But, our Embarcadero developers are constantly working so that you will continue to enjoy the thril of a successful development project.

In the movie, Love Actually, there is a song sung by the aging rock and roller, Billy MacK, played by actor Bill Nighy.  Billy takes his old hit pop song, "Love Is All Around" and modifies it "Christmas is All Around" to try and become the number one song at Christmas and resurrect his career.  The movie is full of love, the challenges of love, watching out for false love, falling out of love, finding love, losing love, and the rekindling of love.  While not exactly the same, you might consider software development as a labor of love.  You are always caught in the changing state of happiness, stress, change, challenge, success, and finding answers to problems.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful July.  Things are cooking in our R&D department.  Stay tuned to this blog, to the Embarcadero web site, and to the Embarcadero Developer Network for some exciting news. For now, I’ll keep my "Poker Face" on.

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