Kurt Siegfried2012-05-17T09:14:56-07:00http://kurt.im/Kurt Siegfriedkurt@kurt.imChez JJ2012-05-16T00:00:00-07:00http://kurt.im/2012/05/16/chez-jj<h1>Chez JJ</h1>
<p class="meta">16 May 2012 - Mountain View, CA</p>
<h4>Hacker House</h4>
<p>I spent last night at an AirBnB property over in Mountain View, CA. It seemed somehow appropriate to use one of my favorite Y Combinator sites to look for a place to stay while visiting Y Combinator. Previously, I had used AirBnB to find accomodations on an impromptu trip to Port Aransas, Texas, with good success, so I was happy to try it again.</p>
<p>As soon as I walked in, I was greeted by the House Captain who showed me around, and introduced me to the other residents. Residents, at first, seemed like an improper label, but as someone only staying for a single night, I was in a minority. There seemed to be at least three different startups operating out of Chez JJ, and the living room looked more like a co-working space than a bed and breakfast. MVP demos happened frequently, and design reviews were par for the course.</p>
<p>Overall, it was an awesome introduction to startup culture. Everyone there seeemed to be genuinely interested in hearing about new ideas, and meeting new people. It's a bit difficult to describe, but it seemed like everyone was working towards a common entreprenurial goal. The group seemed like some combination of support group, beta testers, sounding board, and roommates; quirky, but thoroughly enjoyable. If you're in the area, I highly recommend checking out <a href="http://www.airbnb.com/rooms/257079">Chez JJ</a>.</p>
<h4>Work at a Startup - Postscript</h4>
<p>Aside from a terrible moment when I thought that somehow I'd misread my invitation, and that I had not really been invited (my nametag had been misplaced) Work at a Startup was a great experience. The Carwoo team was great to talk to, they are in a market that is just begging for disruption, and seem like they could be the group to do it. Chatting with other founders, and people working for startups, I was amazed by the accessibility of everyone at the event.</p>
<p>As a totally unrelated side note, the caterers were serving a very California appropriate beer. The beer was Anchor Steam Beer, and the style of beer dates back to the time of the California Gold Rush. Prospectors brought their Lager recipes, and Lager style yeast out with them in their migration to California. However, with a somewhat understandable lack of cooling and refrigeration equipment, lagering beers was quite difficult. Lagering typically requires keeping the beer between 40-50 F for a period of several weeks. In order to work around the higher fermentation temperatures, a hybrid strain of yeast was developed that could handle the higher fermentation temperatures, and still produce flavors similar to the traditional lager. This new style of not-quite lager was given the name: Steam Beer.</p>
Work at a Startup2012-05-14T00:00:00-07:00http://kurt.im/2012/05/14/work-at-a-startup<h1>Work at a Startup</h1>
<p class="meta">14 May 2012 - Chicago</p>
<h4>A Brief Note</h4>
<p>I'm heading to Mountain View for Y Combinator's Work at a Startup 2012 event. I'm interested to hear pitches from all the startups that are coming. I'm also interested in seeing how much different the tech scene is outside of Chicago.</p>
A Year Later2012-05-07T00:00:00-07:00http://kurt.im/2012/05/07/a-year-later<h1>A Year Later</h1>
<p class="meta">7 May 2012 - Chicago</p>
<p>You didn't think I was kidding in my first post about infrequent updates did you?</p>
<p>So, in the past year, what has happened? In May 2011, I started working for Informatica's Ultra Messaging Business Unit (<a href="http://www.informatica.com/us/products/messaging/">http://www.informatica.com/us/products/messaging/</a>). Coming from a background with plenty of Network Engineering work, I thought I had a fair grasp of networking. Working here has showed me that I still have plenty to learn. Aside from being able to work on some of the best low-latency systems in the world, I really enjoyed the casual work environment and having passionate and accessible co-workers.</p>
<p>In late August 2011, I made the long drive from Chicago down to Austin, Texas. From then til the end of December, I took part in AMD's fall Co-Op term. For the unfamiliar, this is AMD's program that puts Undergrad and Graduate students in a professional setting for longer than a typical internship. With a brand-new CEO with a penchant for pirate sayings, a large layoff, and team shake-up this was definitely one of the less boring professional experiences I've had. From a professional perspective, the people I worked with at AMD were amazing. As someone with a strictly software engineering background, being around that many hardware engineers was a bit intimidating. However, I never felt left out of meetings or discussions.</p>
<p>Aside from work, Austin has an awesome music scene, and an even more awesome craft beer scene. I'm definitely keeping an eye out for chances to go back.</p>
Obligatory First Post2011-03-22T00:00:00-07:00http://kurt.im/2011/03/22/obligatory-first-post<h1>Obligatory First Post</h1>
<p class="meta">22 March 2011 - Chicago</p>
<p>I've never really felt the need to have a blog. Something about the tendency of many authors to overshare soured me on the idea, and it never seemed all that attractive. However, I am interested in technical writing, and occasionally sharing pictures, so I downloaded Tom Preston-Werner's <a href="http://github.com/mojombo/jekyll">Jekyll</a> and started writing.</p>
<p>Also, I needed somewhere to stash my <a href="http://kurt.im/resume.pdf">resume</a>.</p>
<p>Posts will likely be infrequent, mostly consisting of apologies for not posting, and broken promises to do so more frequently. An actual goal will be to use this as a class notes repository. So far, I've tried three separate techniques, all of which were successful to a certain extent, but were changed after one semester.</p>