Bill Shupp Software engineer, photographer, musician, space geek

2010 Year in Review

In front of the Nasa countdown clock

Welcome to my second annual Year in Review.  Lots of changes and exciting things happened this year, including a space shuttle launch, a house purchase, hearing damage, a job change, traveling to New Zealand, and shoulder surgery.

• In January, I started taking my new folding bike, as well as BART, to work.  Though it doubled my commute time, I started getting a LOT of reading done on BART, and continue to do it when the weather isn't bad.  I love it.
• After many years of playing music and going to live shows, I finally decided to get my hearing checked.  I've lost about 20-30% of the upper frequencies in both ears.  So here's your token reminder to ALWAYS wear earplugs when playing in loud bands, going to to hear live bands, or even riding BART!
• Also in January, I took up blogging, which has been fun.  Though only 8 posts this year, it's a start.  One of my early posts was about a test use case for using MogileFS.
• Feburary had some highs and lows.  We were able to get in a great trip to Yosemite for Valentine's day, but also found out that our cat had a bladder stone, and had to have surgery.  He's much better now.  Later that month, I put down some of my current thoughts about unit testing.
• In March I blogged for Digg about the OpenID work I was doing there.
• In April I gave a talk at the OpenID Tech Summit West.  That month I also took a position of Director of Engineering at Digg, my first management only role.
• In May, I had the amazing experience of seeing a Space Shuttle launch.  Not only was able to go there with my wife and 3 of my siblings, but I had been selected for the @nasatweetup!  This event gives you viewing access from the infamous press area (see my picture above), and included 2 days of talks from former astronauts and other NASA personnel.  Truly a once in a lifetime experience.
• In June, on our 3rd wedding anniversary, we closed on a house.  This is the same house we have rented since relocating to South San Francisco in 2008.  We planted a jacaranda tree in the backyard to mark the occasion.
• Also in June, I got an opportunity to tour the Pixar campus in Oakland.  What a cool company.
  

  Visiting Pixar

• In July, I decided to change jobs.  I'm back to coding full time, and really enjoying it.  Unfortunately, much of the identity work I had done at Digg (mentioned above), got pulled before their V4 release in August.  Though it's built and working under the Digg hood, OpenID is still not available there, despite its support having been announced in 2007.  But I suppose that's the least of their worries these days.
• Took a vacation to Jackson Hole, Wyoming for Independence Day.  Hiking in the Grand Tetons was beautiful, and we were even able to squeeze in a trip to Yellowstone National Park to see Old Faithful.
• Also in July, I saw Paul McCartney live for the first time.  It was everything I could have hoped for:  such an amazing musician and song writer, and one of my all time musical heroes.
• In September I had surgery on my right shoulder to correct a genetic bone issue that was pushing me towards a full rotator cuff tear.  If I had known how painful the recovery would be, I might have reconsidered.
• Later that month I did a blog post for my new job talking about the development environment I put together there.
• In October I picked up the new AppleTV.  Pretty cool device, and well priced.  Earlier today, I think I came up with a workaround for the slow movie downloads I was seeing with my setup.  I also picked up my first electric guitar that month.
• The latter part of November brought an awesome trip back to New Zealand for Peggy's sister Kim's wedding.
• December saw the launch of my friend Paul's project, MusixShare, which I helped build for him.  A really interesting idea.