Take 2

July 12, 2010 1 Comment

It’s been a while since I last posted here, almost a year to be exact. Sure I could blame it on the fact I’ve been busy at work, getting settled in San Francisco, and working the night shift here and there. But that’s not 100% true.

I haven’t blogged because I wasn’t sure what to blog about. A year ago I moved out west to work at Apple and that was a big change for me (99% of my experience was developing for Windows & IT). In the past I mostly blogged about my projects and that just wasn’t going to happen anymore.

So I’m here to say that going forward I’ll be writing about my thoughts on developing great software. And by that I don’t mean the nitty gritty details of how to write a for loop. I’m talking about the people, thought, and discipline that it takes to build great bytes versus mediocre bits.

Now I’m not saying I’ll be right on any of this, everything is solely my opinion. Heck, if you try any of this you might just make The Office seem normal. My main intention here is to create some dialogue (so please comment!) that gets you (and me) thinking about the stuff that it takes to build a great software app, team, and company. So I have to say please do not try any of this at home the office… or if you do it’ll be at your own risk!

Filed under Personal

Hello I’m a Mac

July 15, 2009 1 Comment

So today is my last day at Citrix.  Over the past month or so I’ve been interviewing with Apple’s iPhone team and have accepted a position on the Wireless Technologies team.  My official title is “Tools/Automation QA Engineer”, which basically means I’ll be writing software to test the iPhone’s Bluetooth and WiFi features.  I’m pretty excited about the opportunity, after all I get to work on the world’s best phone and live in one of the greatest cities.  But there’s a lot that needs to happen in these next couple of weeks.

San Francisco from Coit TowerMy first day on the job is July 27, a little less than two weeks away.  In about a week the movers will ship all of my stuff out west and I’ll be jumping on a plane shortly after.  I’ll be staying in temporary housing till I can find a place in San Francisco, hopefully this wont take long.  I really can’t imagine what this experience would be like without the help of the relocation staff.

So between getting ready for the move and enjoying my last few days in the warm Atlantic Ocean, I plan on spending some time on NetPoint.  It’s a bit aggressive, but I’m going to try get the NetPoint v2.5.1 update online and give the Neutex web site a facelift.  The v2.5.1 update will have some bug fixes and basic integration with OneOrZero’s help desk system.  As far as the web site goes, I think there are a few things that can be done to help market NetPoint better.  I anticipate the first month or two at Apple will be crazy, so finishing this before I head out to the valley will definitely save me some grey hair.

As far as Shannon Ma Virtualized goes, you probably wont see much new content on XenApp.  However, I still plan on developing tools like NetPoint that will alleviate some of the common problems IT Pros face and you can be the first to hear about them here.  I also have some other ideas for topics that I need to look into a bit more, so we’ll see how that pans out.

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Joining the XenApp MX team

November 9, 2008 Leave a Comment

Since March 2006 I’ve been working on the XenApp Automation team, leading and technically contributing to many automated test suites. Prior to this I worked at a defense contractor for a few years in both IT and software engineering capacities. The Automation team has been focused on enabling Citrix to release new high quality versions of XenApp more often by automating tests. During this time, I learned a lot about XenApp and the software release processes at Citrix. I’ve also learned that I’d like to have a more direct impact on customers and get more involved technically.

So a little over a month ago I joined the XenApp Management Experience (MX) team. We develop the infrastructure and tools, such as the Access Management Console (AMC), that allow IT departments to easily manage their farms. The team has a lot of experience, technical involvement, and interesting challenges to solve. Initially I will be ramping the team up with their automation processes, infrastructure, and tests. But after this I’m expected to develop some the new management features that will be in the next version of XenApp.

There’s a long road ahead of us. We have a lot of work to get done for XenApp vNext and there’s a lot of room for innovation and new ideas. Best of all, there’s a lot of energy on the team to only do the best. With that said, I’m excited about the projects I’ll be working on and customers we’ll be helping! If you have any ideas that would improve the XenApp management experience, I’d love to hear about them.

Filed under Citrix, Personal

Hello World!

July 8, 2008 Leave a Comment

Being that this is my first post, let me start off by introducing myself.

My name is Shannon Ma and I’m a software engineer in Fort Lauderdale. During the day I’m a Citrite, developing the software that tests our flagship product XenApp. At night I handle the software development and business aspects of NetPoint, the PC inventory software that helps companies gain better insight of their networks.

With this blog I plan on sharing some of my thoughts and experiences from the software industry… so stay tuned!

Filed under Personal

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