osunickA blog about tech, gadgets, Eichlers, and Mozilla (in no particular order)

Even though I’m no longer on the team, I’ll always be a big, big fan of Delicious (with or without dots) and the team.  Seeing that thing launch last week with maximum fanfare and minimum drama was great to see, as that was something that I worked on for most of the last 18 months of my life as a product manager on Delicious.  My friend and fellow ex-Yahoo wrote an excellent post on the topic.

While the new design does take some getting used to, I’m a big fan. Here are some of my favorite features:

• Contextual search: you can now search any view on the site.  This is easier to do than describe- but as a quick example look at another person’s bookmarks.  Do a search, and you’ll see results from their bookmarks.  If you’re looking at one of their tags, then the results are from that tag on their bookmarks.  Same goes for their network page.  It’s incredibly flexible and great for finding bookmarks from your friends that were previously lost in the mists of the past.
• Deeper integration with the extension:  With the new Delicious Bookmarks extension for Firefox, the website detects if you have the extension installed and integrates seamlessly with the import settings page.  Simply go to ‘import bookmarks’ on your Settings page and we’ll take care of sending the data along for you- no more creating bookmark files and manually uploading them!
• Speed:  It’s just way faster than before.  I find myself browsing and searching Delicious a lot more because of the speed.  If you have the extension installed, you’ll notice that we added a handy search plugin for your Firefox and IE search bars.  Try it out!

Anyway, my heartfelt congratulations to the team, I’m pleased as punch that things turned out the way they did.

I got the PM gig at Yahoo! Answers because I was the top points-scorer during the internal alpha.  These days, my participation is limited, but I still want to answer your questions.  Email me a question at osunick@osunick.com and I’ll do my best to answer it!  Try to play to my strengths- questions about consumer electronics, cars, and home improvement are more likely to be answered satisfactorily than questions about table manners or ballroom dancing.

The ultimate irony for me is old technology that seems cutting edge.  Nothing epitomizes this more than X10, which was developed in the 1970′s as a way for people to remotely control lights and appliances in their homes.  Since then, the basics have remained the same.  There’s a wall module that can control up to 16 devices.  These devices are comprised of light switches and appliance modules.  The light switches simply replace your standard wall switch and have dimming capability.  The appliance modules plug between your appliance and the wall.  They come in a variety of capacities and designs.  These are controlled by a variety of remotes in all shapes and sizes- a wireless wall switch, a full remote with 16 buttons, and even a small key fob remote.

The big difference between today and the 1970′s is the availablity of programmable control modules.  You simply connect your computer to the control module and you can program macros and timers for any X10 device in your home.  For instance, I have a macro that lets me set all the living room lights to a level that is suitable for tv viewing, and another that turns off every light in the house (very handy for bedtime).  The timers are quite flexible too- not only can you set any device or macro to turn on or off at a set time- you can also program timers that are based on dusk/dawn settings.  For instance, I have a macro that turns on the front door light at dusk- and since there’s almanac data in the control module, the light turns on at a different time every day.

Finally, there are a variety of interesting add-ons like motion sensors that can turn devices on and off based on motion.  In my garage the openers are in the extreme corners of the garage.  This isn’t great for finding your way around the garage at night, so I have a motion sensor turning on the garage lights whenever there’s motion in the garage.  The openers are sufficient for triggering the sensors, so I always have light when I want it, and the sensor also takes care of turning off the lights after a couple of minutes.

Yes, replacing every switch in your house takes time, and X10 isn’t without issues.  Since the device signals travel through your house wiring, it may take some experimentation to find out which outlet in your house works best for the control module.  For instance, when we had the module in our bedroom, signals from the module wouldn’t reach the garage.  We found an inconspicuous outlet in the living room which works nicely.

The last issue is that the primary vendor of X10 devices is X10.com.  Visiting this site can make your eyes bleed- it is very well known as the purveyor of wireless cameras of dubious virtue… but rest assured that even non-voyeurs can find something of value here.  Any of the ActiveHome bundles will get you started- and if you have any questions feel free to ask!

Leaving a familar place is always difficult, especially when you know it’s coming.  Three weeks ago, I received an offer I couldn’t refuse.  I accepted the offer and gave my notice- and Friday the 20th was my last day at Yahoo! as a Senior Product Manager on del.icio.us.

It didn’t really hit me that I was leaving until the end of my last week, when I started doing late nights to encode all of my arcane del.icio.us knowledge into product twikis – online documents – so that my successors can hit the ground running. It’s hard to walk away from something that you spent so much time and energy doing, with people that you genuinely care about and respect.  I took lots of pictures of my old office.

As I took these photos, I realized that I was really walking through these buildings for perhaps the very last time. It felt like graduating from school, and the feelings of saying goodbye to people and being hyperaware of my surroundings as I mentally recorded my experiences were reminiscent of those days. This all sounds crazy- it’s only a job, right? After all, instead of paying to be there, I got paid.

Nonetheless, I still learned more than I ever did in school and made friends that were just as good. Yahoo! deserves all the credit for really giving me the chance to refactor my career and become a product manager working on exciting and game changing products. I really wouldn’t be where I am today if it weren’t for my years there.

Now I’m at a new job, doing a new challenge with a combination of old friends and new colleagues, and I’m excited about my future.  I should be– I’ve left a lot behind, but just like a new college graduate, I feel like Yahoo! has imbued me with the experience to succeed.  So long Yahoo!, and thanks for all the fish.  I really hope for only the best for you, and I’ll be rooting for you from the outside.