#sam hicks

Sam Hicks - Calgary Stampeders at. Toronto Argonauts 08/06/26/

Amazing work to everyone who has been involved with the app that we are currently launching. I can't believe that we brought it to market in about four months. We've got a whole bunch of people waiting for it. The great thing about putting this kind of quality into a first version is it can only get better from here. We've got people's attention. Several Division 1 Basketball programs have already signed up and a few professional teams are sniffing around and will surely make the plunge when the capable sales staff has a chance to demo it live and they can download it straight from the Apple AppStore. Let me tell you what: it is hard getting software right. Really hard. Once you do though, it can be used and re-used, re-purposed, refactored with unlimited economies of scale. Doing it right is worth a fortune in the long-run. We did it right. Of course, I pretty much have had no social life in four months but it still feels great.

Andrew Wiles, sitting at his desk in Princeton.

The hardest challenge I know of in software has nothing to do with the ones and zero. It has everything to do with trying to get the right people to work with you and for you. If you know enough people, you can eventually find great candidates. People with a lot of experience, a great educational background and the desire to really bring it all to the table. Candidate A studied computer science at Dartmouth, has a strong background in computational geometry and five solid years at a well-respected organization. How do you talk that person out of going to a more established organization and joining a young firm? I wish it was just a matter of greed. That makes life easier; simply offer more than your competitors and get the hire. The problem is, of course, that the better candidates know that money will follow success. They don't need a huge upfront contract. What they're secretly doing is scouting for the next Silicon Graphics, the next Facebook, the next...whatever it is they are looking for. Proving to them that you are building a great business and with their help, you have a chance to be a blowout success at what it is they are passionate about is harder than any technical task I've encountered.

Here's a screenshot of the app I've been working on lately. Obviously, it's still a work-in-progress (look at those buttons, ugh.) It will allow a coach to storyboard basketball plays. I think it's going to turn out great. We'll know in about six weeks.

Simulating the physics of water has always been tricky, and game engines sometimes still have to use dodgy mechanics to make it feel real. But the above demonstration of this new fluid simulation technique proves that slowly but surely we're getting there.

Creative: Serge Pennings and Steve Clarke