It’s been over five months since I last posted here.  That was just prior to a trip to San Francisco to participate in a Paragon forum.  While I must hold the details of that forum confidential, I will say three things about it:

1. The other panel members impressed me with their qualifications and their personalities.  I intend to stay in contact with them, the client, and Paragon Development.
2. They worked us pretty hard to wring every bit of wisdom and insight from our brains that they could manage in 8 hours.
3. I would highly recommend this process to anyone who is considering marketing a new product.

After the forum, I met up with my eldest son at SFO before returning home.  It was great to see him again, and I’m really glad he’s back at Stanford and doing well there.

Since that time, it’s been heads down for me.  I’ve gathered a couple of new clients, as well as some new work for an existing client after more than a decade of inactivity.  Of course, I’ve continued to work for Synergex and a few other regular customers.  Add to that my writing on TechRepublic and [GAS] as well as my personal sites, and I find myself looking for a fifth hand to reach for my coffee cup.

On Tuesday, June 9, I’ll be in San Francisco to participate as a panel member in one of Paragon Development’s Voice-of-Market forums, concerning the development and marketing of a new programming language.  Further details are confidential, but I hope one day to be able to say “I was there when…”

Many of you know that one of my clients, Synergex, is a vendor of their own programming language (Synergy/DE).  This new language is not intended to compete in the same market space, and my engagement is only for the one day.  I wouldn’t have accepted it if I had perceived any possibility of a conflict of interest.

I’m looking forward to the event – programming language design is my favorite specialty.  Besides advising Synergex on the design of their language features, I participated on the X3J12 ANSI subcommittee for Standard DIBOL, and I’ve written a number of compilers and interpreters – some of which were for languages of my own design.  This should be most interesting – especially the opportunity to discuss it with seven other industry experts.

I’ll only be in San Francisco for the day, but I should have a couple of hours free at SFO between about 4:30 to 6:30 PM before flying home.  If anyone would like to meet up there, leave a comment here or contact me.

Eighteen years ago today I first became an independent consultant.  I was still employed at CPAS in Pensacola, Florida for two more months.  Afterwards, I moved to Gulf Breeze, Florida where I set up shop for a few more years.

While visiting Synergex in October of 1993, I helped them lay plans for porting their products to the Windows platform.  I could see that if I were to be helpful in this massive project, I would need to be there constantly.  So I moved in January, 1994 to Sacramento and thence to Rancho Cordova, California.  I met my wife at Synergex, and moved into her house in Folsom.  The two of us decided in 2000 to move to Bainbridge Island, Washington — which is where I live and work today.

Here are eighteen maxims from my eighteen years of experience.

Following are ten promises I make to my clients.  I first published this in an article on TechRepublic.

1. The time for which you are paying me is yours and only yours. I will eliminate other distractions and focus on the set of problems you have entrusted to me.
2. I will always tell you the truth even when it hurts. It’s better for you to find out sooner than later.
3. I will try to accurately estimate time requirements when they are requested, but I will also qualify those estimates according to the level of additional research required and with knowledge of my own availability and optimism.
4. I will keep you regularly updated on my progress. I will break down the elements of my accomplishments to whatever level of detail you require.
5. I will only perform work for which you have given your approval. However, I will actively look beyond the narrow limits of my project for opportunities and risks that you may have overlooked and bring those to your attention when I find them.
6. When I don’t know something, I won’t try to hide behind a facade of expertise. Instead, I’ll ask pertinent questions and (with your approval) conduct additional research.
7. I will do my best to share my knowledge, to document my work, and to make it as understandable as possible. I will never bake in obfuscations to insure job security.
8. If someone else is better qualified to handle an assignment, I’ll tell you. It’s more important for me to get the job done right than to hold onto a certain number of billable hours for myself. (I expect that attitude to pay its own dividends in the long run.)
9. My recommendations will be based on what I perceive to be best suited to your needs in the present and future. I will not let myself be unduly swayed by considerations of what technology is currently in fashion or is more interesting to me personally.
10. In short, I will treat you as I would like to be treated if I were your client.

I’ve returned from vacation with the family — now I need a relief, so it’s back to work.

Be back on Thursday, July 10th.

Gee but it’s great to be back home.

I returned late on Friday night from a productive trip to Synergex. Back in the early ’90s, I used to travel so often that I kept a bag packed and ready to leave at a moment’s notice. Nowadays, I travel so infrequently that just preparing for and winding down from a trip takes a day or two in itself.

I’ll be catching up on things that happened while I was away, and “just trying to keep my customers satisfied”.

I’ll be in the Sacramento area May 27-30, 2008 on business.  Gold River, specifically.  At the offices of Synergex.

Welcome to the new camdensoftware.com. After 11 years of using my own home-grown design, I finally updated this site to use WordPress. I’ll be blogging here on business-related topics.

For programming tips, tricks, and examples, see Chip’s Tips for Developers.

For my personal blog, see Chip’s Quips.

I also write weekly on the IT Consultant blog at TechRepublic, and occasionally at [Geeks are Sexy] Technology News.