Huset er fordelt over tre planer med fire værelser, to køkkener og tre stuer. Hvad jeg synes er mest cool er terrassen med en fed pool og udsigt ud over Middelhavet, Saint Jeannet og Baou bjerget. Derudover har de en fyldt vinkælder, internetadgang på storskærm og et musikanlæg hvor man bare sætter sin iPod til.

Ud over at jeg har kigget misundelig på de billeder Peter har sendt mig dernede fra har det været rigtig inspirerende at arbejde sammen med Peter og Terese.

Accuri Cytometers is the company behind the cytometer, they built the hardware and used Menlo to build the software. What I find really cool is that this product will most likely change the accessibility of cell analysis. Based on some new ideas for the hardware implementation, Accuri can build cytometers at 1/5 of the competitors price. And with the use of Menlos High Tech Anthropology the user interface is a lot more intuitive than that of the competitors. Having a system that is cheap and easy to use will mean that students will have easier access to this tool during education and hospitals in developing countries could be able to afford a unit.

In Denmark I ran into the application of flow cytometry when I visited Dansire, another of our clients. They use it to do sex selection of sperm cells for cattle breading – an interesting concept which is possible because sperm cells with the X-chromosome contains 4% more DNA and reflects laser light from the cytometer differently (article in Danish).

We had a lot of fun running around and posing for these photos, See more photos from the session here.

The Digital Planning Board is basically an online edition of the analog originator that we used for planning at Menlo Innovations:

The result became this online application:

The Digital Planning Board has a few rules it works by. It is for planning one week iterations using these basic rules:

• Blocks represent a task
• A lane represent a person or a team.
• The size of a block displays the estimated time to complete the task.

The colors indicate the status of the card:

• Not Started
• In Progress
• Complete
• Blocked

Tasks can be moved around freely but adding a task to a lane will push the subsequent tasks further down the list.

Further development
Since this is just a side project I am not sure how much further we are going to develop it but based on some of the feedback we have received so far here is a couple of things we could implement:

• Update board state real time so changes made by others show up on other collaborators views(without doing a browser refresh)
• Current time indicator (some kind of way to show how far in the week we are now)
• Hover on a task would show all the details
• The equivalent of sticky notes could be added to show additional information and draw more attention
• Faster editing of task details (right now you have to open a card and click edit)
• Find a way to preserve the cards history. In real life you can cross out things or scribble additional info.

Read more about our planning board or feel free to try it out [update 27/06/07: Sorry the prototype is not live anymore] and please let us know if you have any feedback

Yesterday we spend the afternoon hanging out with Copenhagen Ruby Brigade at the office of Capteco for a hacker workshop. It was a nice laid back afternoon and the first time I met these guys but definitely not the last time I join the Brigade for some geeking.

Starting a company means spending a fair amount of money up front before the money (hopefully) starts rolling in. Every penny counts and what you least want to do is spend a load on software were you only use a fraction of the functionalities. Using Microsoft Windows with Office will usually get the job done but if you want to stay legal you end up paying a lot of money for software.

During our initial months we have used Writely, Googles hosted mail solution, Google Spreadsheet, Google Calendar and Thumbstack presentations in running our company.

Our experience has been mainly positive but there are still some shortcoming in these online application that prevents a complete switch away from desktop apps. Here are the experiences we have had using different free services.

The tools we use

Writely
This is an online alternative to MS Word owned by Google. It has basic word processing features like spell checking, text formatting, inserting tables, images and links. There are more advanced features like sharing and collaborating a document as well as posting to a weblog.

Update: Writely is now known as the first half of Google Docs & Spreadsheet

Gmail for Your Domain
This feature is wonderful for a small company like us. We get the GMail mail client interface for our own domains and send email from our own domain while having all the benefits of GMail. That means that there are no need to run instances of Outlook or Thunderbird or a slow Horde.

Google spreadsheet
An alternative to MS Excel. We havent used it extensively but it seems to have most of basics spreadsheet features working and there is a feature for importing and exporting to Excel. Macros and other more advanced features are not provided.

Google Calendar
In the suite of cool Google Apps there is also their calendar. It integrates with Gmail and it is very easy to share calendars and events. There is a new feature that sends you a SMS message when you have events.

Thumbstacks
Create presentations online using Thumbstack. This is the least mature of the online apps we have been using. Yet again it provides basic presentation features but this one also still has a couple of glitches.

Apart from these free online tools we have been using these hosted (so they are not free) open-source solutions:

WordPress
For creating our website because it is just so easy. There is a big variaty of plugins avalible and with the size of our site WordPress works great as a CMS.

ActiveCollab
For project management we use this clone of BaseCamp that easily lets you manage a project with a set of workers and stake holders.

Positive experiences

1. Sharing is very easy
There is no need to attach files and email them back and forth – these online tools lets you share your documents very easily. Its easy to pull people in and out for reviews or collaboration on projects.

2. Revisions are easy to keep track of
No more need for obscure file names like proposal_edit_michael_3-02.doc. Writely has a revision feature that lets you see the changes and lets you browse them easily.

3. Simultaneous editing
We can work in the same document at the same time. As long as we are not working in the same paragraph it works pretty well. This enables for getting things done faster if necessary.

4. No lost data
My laptop broke (f!ck!) but since everything was online I just needed a new (old) computer and I was back on track.

5. Organize using tags
Instead of a folder hierarchy files can be tagged. With tagging things can still become disorganized but so far its worked for us.

6. Low learning barrier
Unlike Office XP these applications are very simple – and that is most often a good thing.

7. Easy to get started
For most of these applications it is very easy to get started. Sign up and you are going.

8. Accessibility – Work from anywhere
Documents are accessible everywhere you can get online all you need is a computer with a steady connection. Having a broken laptop and an old box I cant bring my stuff with me, but when I visit my parents in the other end of the country I can still work on documents on my dads computer.

9. No upgrading
These products are still quite young and new features are added regularly usually without any action needed from me.

10. Its free!

Negative experiences

1. Security and confidentiality
Putting your data out there on the Internet can be a scary. How can you be sure nobody is snooping? How can you garantee confidentiality?

2. No Internet – no work
As if it wasnt already true, your Internet connection become just as vital as your power plug. If you loose connection you cant get any work done.

3. World of Beta
Features might come and go, and the interface might change overnight – tho usually to the better. Some might become premium features once the application has matured.

4. Lack of features
I dont miss a lot but there are essential features that I still really need in order to do everything using these tools. So I still need to pull them out into a desktop application to make them look pretty.

5. Lock-in
Can I get all my data out the day I find a better alternative? Most of these tools allow you to export the single document but so far there are not a batch functionality for it.

6. Missing localization
The spell checking is only in (American) English, number and date formats are also only available in English standards.

7. No possibilities for audit of changes
Since we are only two people this hasnt been an issue – but for a bigger group the option of approving/auditing changes might be a necessity.

8. No linking to other documents wiki-style
Writely is not a wiki-tool but the ability to create relations to other documents would be a very useful feature.

9. Exporting to .doc creates some layout issues
Exporting a document to Word/OpenOffice for further editing and layout inherent some layout issues. It inserts some blank lines and you need to do some clean up of the document before it looks ok.

10. Its free
So what can I expect/demand from the supplier?

Conclusion

Overall this has worked out fine for us and we continue to use these apps – tho still with the backup of desktop apps. It will be interesting to follow along on the scene of online applications to see what they have evolved into in a year or two.

Further reading

• Jonas is keep everything online – uninstalling everything on My Uninstalled Life
• Jackson is living life as a mobile web worker with new tech at Web Worker Daily
• Other alternatives to the applications I have described is the whole Zoho suite, WideWord, TeamSlide and many more.

Some of the people we met during the days in Aalborg were the CommunicateIT boys that have set up a thriving IT business in short time, the two wizkids Martin and Torben starting up there own thing and Andreas Haugstrup a Danish vlogger pioneer and organizer of VlogEurope. We ended up spending almost a day each place talking about setting up businesses and geeking about. I hope we have an excuse soon again to go up and play again

We also toured some of the departments and met up with Jan Stage and Ivan Aaen of Dept. of Computer Science. We had a very interesting discussion with Ivan about the paradigm of agile software development. The Software Innovation Research Lab they are setting up sounds like a really interesting project about how to facilitate continual innovation in a software project, and hopefully they will set up a blog so we can follow along in their experiences. At E-Learning Lab we ran into Thomas Ryberg who is doing the last stint on his Ph.D. on young peoples use of technology.

We spend an afternoon at the VR Media Lab that has some very neat 3D facilities. For the first time I had a chance to try out the 3D cave. This was an amazing experience I especially enjoyed the 3D drawing program where I could draw all the way around myself or draw an object and walk around it. Peter had arranged for our tour and we all had a blast. There is a lot of potential in 3D imagery but there are still a lot of difficulties in getting this technology out of the academic setting and in to entertainment – but maybe Peter is a man for changing that

The Menlo development team at the pair programming pods

Since we knew the processes it was not difficult getting into the rhythm again but there was still a couple of things that made the experience very different from being there in flesh.

First of all our kitchen is not close to being as interesting as Menlos and we do not have a coffee shop next door providing java for the Java.

This is Menlos kitchen – Im not showing ours

Another thing that we could not really participate in was the daily stand up meeting. We tried doing it over Skype conference phones but it just isnt the same experience. Every day at 10 AM the dart board on the wall makes a noise, everybody stands up in a circle, and pass a viking helmet or another toy around telling about the activities you have planed for the day and any problems you might have. It sounds weird – I know – but once you get used to it and the many other seemingly crazy things Menlo do they make a lot of sense. They got this plenitude of practices that supports cross-company communication, collaboration, standards, project management and development.

Richard the CEO has the token at the daily stand up meeting

But apart from not being immersed into this crazy, loud and yet very productive environment it was a lot of fun being back on the team – pair programming from our small flat in Copenhagen. The amount of team communication was not nearly as high as when we sat next to our peers and Skype isnt perfect but it still worked out pretty good.

Femi and me working in Copenhagen on the first job as company owners

This will not be the last time we have worked for Menlo but since we ended this current gig we asked for a quote for our website and Richard the CEO wrote us a nice piece.

As you probably have figured by now I am a big believer of the way that Menlo do things. And for right now I cannot quite stop talking about the experience of working there. I ran into Alexander of Positive Sharing at a Copenhagen Bloggerdinner and talked to him about what a cool place to work is, I of course started speaking of Menlo. Yesterday he made a post about Menlos Extreme Interviewing which I had the fortune to be a part of during my stay.

Alexander does a good job of describing the way the extreme interview works so Im just refering to him and the original white paper. Id just like to add my two cents as this was the first time in my life I was a job interviewer. First of all it didnt feel like an interview at all – but being an observer of the exercises really gave me a chance to see the dynamics when two people work together. Some people just click, most people are polite and attentive, some are controlling and a few are obnoxious. Watching others was a great way of becoming aware of my own behaviors.

After we had 20-something through the interview the Menlo team sat down and evaluated each interviewee

As we were walking home that fateful night the discussion turned to how sad it would be to get into the everyday life after this incredible year we had just experienced. And then my friend said – “we should start our own company together, do stuff we want to do and use all the great things we’ve learned here”. The talk got intense and we had a lot of crazy ideas (as only drunk friends on the way home from the bars can have). We promised each other that we had to try to start our own company – if we failed then to hell with it – we are still young. No matter what it will be a great experience.

Five months later my friend Femi packed one bag and flew from Belfast, Northern Ireland – his home town – to Copenhagen, Denmark were I am living now. Our company Arb Design was made official September 1st. Sometimes I have to pinch myself, sometimes I wake up and think “what am I doing?!” and I’m not sure we fully understand what we set in motion here – but trust me we are having a lot of fun

Stay tuned for more on the story of the life as an entrepreneur.

Min afrejse blev fejret med rigtig amerikansk kage.

Først og fremmest har jeg haft det rigtig skægt med de andre softwareudviklerer. Vi arbejder altid i par (to personer foran en computer og et keyboard) og vi skifter makker hver uge, så det bliver som en slags familie. Til at begynde med virker det som om der er meget larm i rummet, men man vender sig hurtig til det. Kommunikation er en vigtig del af det at udvikle software – især hos Menlo – og hvis man kunne måle hvor mange timer der bliver snakket omkring disse borde ville de fleste nok blive forbavset.

Til at styre det hele så vi faktisk kan skrive kode (og ikke skal lave alt muligt andet) er der for Ovis projektet to managerer David og Tom, som er et par herlige gutter.

Og til at styre alt det praktiske sidder Bob (en af de tre ejere) og Elaine i kælderen

På min sidste dag havde vi Extreme Interviewing som de kalder det her. I stedet for at kigge på folks CV bliver folk først og fremmest hyret på deres børnhave-egenskaber, hvilket basalt set vil sige at de kan lege med andre uden at rive dem selv eller deres kammerater i håret. Det er en meget sjov øvelse og denne gang havde vi 32 folk forbi for at prøve at lege. Læs mere her om hvordan Menlo hyrer folk. Her er James (en af ejerene) igang med at snakke med nogle af de interviewede efter seancen.

Menlo er et rigtig fedt sted at være praktikant, for fra time eet er du midt i et projekt og i løbet af et par uger er du bragt op på niveau med resten af teamet. Fordi vi arbejder, som vi gør, er der utroligt meget fokus på gruppen som et hele, hvilket gør en Aalborg Universitets studerende lun om hjertet :).

Fordi Menlo prioriterer en 40-timers arbejdsuge har jeg haft en masser af fritid, hvilket jeg ikke har følt jeg har haft da jeg gik i på universitetet. Det har givet mig mulighed for at lave en masse andet, så derfor har mit arbejde, uberettiget, ikke fyldt meget her på bloggen.

Og nu er jeg på vej ud af døren igen – men mere om det senere. Her er lige et par andre glimt fra Menlo

RDet daglige stand-up møde, hvor en token styrer hvem der taler og hvor alle giver en kort beskrivelse af hvad de laver.

Femi og noget af vores legetøj. Alt det bløde bliver som regl brugt som kasteskyts hvis det hele bliver lidt for kedeligt.

Væggene bliver brugt som arbejdsplads her er det vinduerne i konferencerummet der er blevet taget i brug

Det var rigtig fedt at se mine forældre igen og vi havde en god uge sammen, samtidig med at vi oplevede en masse. Se alle billederne fra turen her.