I just wanted to point out a simple little application that dose not get as much press as it should. It’s called Pink Noise and it’s made by Blackhole Media.
What is Noise exactly? It’s described on the Blackhole site as follows:
Also known as a signal with even power distribution on a logarithmic frequency scale, pink noise masks background noise to help you concentrate.
Why do I think this needs extra mention? Because I have noticed several big box retailers selling the noise-canceling or sealing headphones. These are great for listening to music in a noisy environment, and reduce the volume you have to play music (or as often the case here at Synthesis, NPR) considerably.
If you are looking for a way to remove auditory distractions from your workspace, the combination of Pink Noise and noise blocking headphones works.
We were never huge fans of titles around here, but if push came to shove, I could tell you that Jeremy is a Senior Architect, Jessica is the Director of Operations, and I’m the IT guy. The roles, however, that we take on while working on a project is what’s the most important, and we work really hard to make sure the exact right person is on the project, regardless of his or her title.
Even if somebody is not technically “assigned” to a project, we like to think that everybody gets his or her hands, brains, and heart into a project because everybody at Synthesis isnaturally curious. It’s not uncommon for one of us to peer over a shoulder and say, “Hey! What are you working on today?” After that, suggestions start to fly on ways to tear it apart and put it back together again to make it awesome. It’s all part of making sure we build the best things we can.
Not all of our roles are used on all of our projects, and not all of our roles have a person that is strictly assigned to them — in fact, these are more like hats that people wear, but we all find ourselves wearing particular hats on particular projects. A few of these hats include:
Project manager
This is the “Get It Done” role, making sure everything is done on time, and everything is kept to a budget. This person also works really closely with our clients to keep conversations going, make sure that our relationship is a real collaboration, and that the decision-making is shared.
Product manager
While the project manager makes sure that we get things done on time, our product manager is there to suggest ways to make your product better than you thought of. Whether this means market research to better understand where its going to go and who is going to use it, or if this means suggesting that we should do user studies before we go any further — the product manager is trying to look at the process through your glasses and in your shoes, just with a bit more experience on how Synthesis works. This is the creative lead.
Prototyper
Sometimes an idea is still just an idea, and needs more thought before it becomes a reality.Ormaybe there are just too many questions surrounding its feasibility — this is where the prototyper comes into play, literally deciding to test a proof of concept by dropping something off a building, or mocking it up in gum wrappers (both true stories). The questiontoask is, “Can this even be done?” The goal of the prototyper is then to answer it.
Architect
Because our projects are unique, and diverse, our architects pride themselves in having the experience, education, and instincts to make sure that weare designing somethingrobust and extensible. It takes skill to make sure that you can design something that can be tested (and not just in the way of putting it out there and hoping it doesn’t break), that will last, and that when you come up with that next novel improvement, its not that hard to get it slotted in there.
Engineers
Finger to keyboard, solder to soldering iron, whatever it takes — these folks do it. Synthesis has a really wide breadth to these people from software, to electrical, to mechanical. These people also really like to work in teams as it means that they can look over each other shoulders. They can test each others code. They are always trying to one up each other, and that’s to the benefit of all involved.
Testers
Bash that thing to bits, and figure out how to make it better is really the mantra of somebody who has to wear this hat. Ideally, this person hasn’t seen any of the code or schematics of what was written, but his or her goal is to behave like a regular person using the product and just be really hard on it. And then feed it back to the Engineers.
And finally, there is somebody like me. I’m where the buck stops, and the final call. I’m here to make sure it all works like a well-oiled machine.
As time goes by, Synthesis becomes more and more of a Mac (and Linux)- based office, so it’s always fun to speculate what coming up from Apple.In that spirit, here are a few of my predictions for what’s coming in the Steve Jobs keynote Monday at WWDC.
The second generation iPhone is an obvious call, but there have been many different rumors about the details.My guess is that it will be available in both unlocked and carrier-subsidized versions, with the latter probably as low as the $200 figure that’s been bandied about.It won’t have the massive rounded white back that appeared in some “leaked” photos.It will, of course, be 3G and have GPS.And I might even buy one.
Those of you (like Justin) waiting for a Mac tablet/Newton revival will have to keep waiting.Apple has the technology to make this, but I don’t think there’s enough of a market to make it worthwhile.I’d love to see an iPhone Nano or clamshell version, but I don’t think it’ll happen either.
I also believe the rumors of a rebranding of .Mac as Mobile Me/me.com, along with upgraded capabilities (e.g. over-the-air iPhone syncing).Apple is becoming more and more of a services company, and there’s no reason they shouldn’t upgrade .Mac to match the strength of their other offerings.A big boost to the online storage would be nice.I could see some minor collaboration with Google on this, but nothing fundamental (e.g. GMail won’t be the Mobile Me webmail client, and Google won’t store your data).
I’m also betting the iPhone application store will open on Monday, along with the iPhone 2.0 firmware.(And, looking beyond WWDC, I think the iPhone is going to take a massive share of the consumer market for mobile applications.You’d be silly to develop one for another platform.)
An announcement of the next version of Mac OS X also seems plausible, although I doubt the suggestions that there will be no major new features.My guesses are better Windows integration (e.g. the ability to launch individual applications) and better Exchange support.Both of these could help convert large numbers of current Windows users.
Finally, I think the MacBook will be redone in metal, with an announcement either at WWDC or next year’s Macworld.This will eliminate the last plastic holdout in the product line, and probably lose the amazing WiFi range of the current models.The MacBook Pro will keep the same classic design, though it may be upgraded or otherwise modified (look for solid state drives, for example).
Well, those are my predictions — what do you think?
It’s just not enough to simply be challenged by your work — ideally, you’ll also like it! We try to do the most possible to ensure our workplace is fun. Once a week, we have recess; on sunny days we walk down to a nearby playground, and on the rainy ones we plug in the Wii. We also have lunch together every Friday, a time we set aside to catch up with each other — and oftentimes we go off on some really ridiculous tangents, which for some reason frequently include topics like zombies.
A healthy work environment is so important, and it’s about more than Rock Band breaks. That’s why we signed up with Boston Organics to have fruit delivered to our office on a weekly basis. Each Wednesday we receive a goody bag of sorts, which contains a mix of apples, oranges, bananas, several different types of pears, berries and kiwis. (We put in a request for fruit we could eat with one hand, so we could work and snack; otherwise we would be knee-deep in watermelons, cantaloupe, pineapples and honeydew.)
One of the nice things about Boston Organics — aside from the bonded door-to-door service — is that each piece of fruit in our weekly box has been approved as being organic by autonomous groups like the North East Organic Food Association. In addition to that, not only are we getting truly delicious fruit but also really fresh fruit. The turnover on Boston Organics’ produce is incredible; frequently the fruit is in the company’s hands for less than a day, delivered from their participating growers on the same day as distribution. Whatever hasn’t been shipped out to clients is donated to Food For Free, so our contribution goes towards fighting local hunger issues.
Having fresh fruit in the office is wonderful, and makes it easy to maintain a healthy work environment as well as a healthy lifestyle. Of course, it would be better we took the extra step to eliminate the candy tray, but we’re not extremists. Not to mention it’s hard to kick a daily banana-and-peanut-butter-cup habit.
