Avalanche Technology Group Creates CTO Role For Strategic Partnership Growth

Kevin Yank to provide technical oversight in expansion of subsidiary partnership opportunities at Avalanche, parent of AVG (AU/NZ), and internal technology development.

MELBOURNE 8 March 2012 – The Australian owned Avalanche Technology Group, that takes innovative technologies to market in Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific, has appointed Kevin Yank to the newly created position of Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Avalanche’s continuing growth has necessitated a dedicated CTO role with both internal and external responsibilities for the Group which includes AVG (AU/NZ) Pty Ltd, the local regional distributor of the award-winning AVG Internet and mobile security software.

As CTO, Kevin Yank will be working with the executive team to identify and evaluate the technology and business opportunities for expanding the group of companies with proven partnerships such as that with AVG. His role is to provide technical perspective, guidance and oversight in that process. He has also taken ownership of all internal systems including the Group’s internally developed e-commerce / CRM / Reseller management system.

Over the past decade Yank has held CTO and other positions at online media company SitePoint and has built a strong reputation, especially in the web development and broader technical communities. He is also a highly regarded author and accomplished presenter. Yank holds a Bachelor of Engineering, Computer Engineering from McGill University, Montreal, Canada.

Kevin Yank said: “I was attracted to the potential in Avalanche’s thriving business and this demanding position where I can be pivotal in helping make the right technology choices from the exciting opportunities in front of us.”

Avalanche’s CEO Peter Cameron said: “The AVG (AU/NZ) subsidiary is a success story we’re looking to repeat. Kevin’s appointment, with his expertise and commitment, will ensure we have the right team to provide outstanding technology solutions for the Australian, New Zealand and regional marketplaces. We are delighted to have him join us.”

For the first time in a decade, I feel like I have everything to learn and more than a little to prove, which is both incredibly exciting and a wee bit scary. Thankfully, the team at Avalanche and AVG (AU/NZ) is a wonderful bunch of people; without exception, each person there is both a pleasure to work with, and a genuinely lovely human being.

Before you ask, I’m not being cagey, here. Mostly this is just a vague feeling, perhaps brought on by my recent visit home to Canada—a reminder that there are people I care about with whom I don’t communicate much (no, Facebook doesn’t count).

I dreamed up a fresh (but simple!) site design last night, so I broke out the Wacom to see if it worked in two dimensions. If I can keep it balanced, I think it might.

Note to self: ask Lox if he minds me recycling his old comic book header idea.

For the main event for our three-day getaway in and around Marysville, Jess and I went horse riding in Rubicon Valley on a perfect morning. We lucked out and got a guide all to ourselves, so we got to learn a lot more about riding than we had done on our previous ride.

Jess’s horse Bounty must have been having an off day, because she made several attempts to bite my horse, Apache (Yes geeks, Apache. Believe me, I was geeking out about it all the way!). Otherwise, the ride went smoothly, with lots of high-speed cantering that had Jess calling me “the geekiest cowboy around”.

View ‘Rubicon Valley Horse Riding’ set on Flickr

Having one too many dusty CDs taking up shelf space, I’ve decided not to buy music in physical form any more. I don’t care how many exclusive, special edition DVDs and fancy-pants packaging they dangle out there—it’s time to move past the physical disc.

By itself, that’s easy enough to do. There are plenty of places to purchase digital music out there, not least of which is the iTunes Music Store. Unfortunately, I refuse to buy music crippled by DRM that restricts the devices I use to listen to the music I have purchased.

The iTunes Music Store recently launched its iTunes Plus DRM-free music offering, but due to resistance from most of the music labels, it’s only able to offer this format for a small subset of the music it has for sale. Amazon.com’s MP3 Downloads section provides even better quality and value for money, but it’s only available in the US for now.

The first band to miss out on my money because its music is not available in DRM-free digital form is Matchbox Twenty. Their new album, ‘Exile on Mainstream’ sounds great to me, but I’ll just have to do without it until I can buy it in a format that works for me.

In related news, Radiohead is about to release its new album, ‘In Rainbows’ in DRM-free digital form, and is enabling buyers to choose for themselves how much they want to pay for the album! Sounds great, right? Sadly, the physical (‘Discbox’) version of the album contains eight tracks that the digital version does not. Sigh.

It’s aliiiiiiiiiive! The first copies of Simply JavaScript—SitePoint’s latest book, co-written by me and Cameron Adams—have arrived! And if you’ll forgive my obvious bias, it looks awesome.

I’m so proud of what Cameron and I have achieved with this book. We knew from the beginning that it wasn’t worthwhile writing another beginner’s JavaScript book unless we could produce something really special, and we definitely have.

Simply JavaScript teaches the technology with unprecedented clarity, featuring loads of colour illustrations and advice on how to use JavaScript the right way in the real world.

It’s also a surprisingly entertaining read, although I’ll admit our sense of humor is a little odd at times. On one occasion, we had to fight to keep a joke in when the proofreader had crossed it out with the note “not funny” in the margin. All the same, I daresay it’s the funniest book SitePoint has published to date, which is saying a lot!

Plenty more details in Tech Times #167 and SitePoint.

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At the risk of tempting fate, I’m posting it for all to see: my email inbox is empty! This time last week, I had some 1,000 unread messages vying for my attention. Things were starting to slip through the cracks, and it was time for a big cleanup.

The biggest step I took in this process was to fully embrace a GTD-style workflow for my day-to-day work, both personal and professional. As a result, I no longer need to use my email inbox as a glorified To-do list. In other words, it’s not that I have less work on my plate; rather, my work just doesn’t pile up in a disorganised mess of unread email.

There’s plenty of software and paper systems for doing this, and everyone has their favourite. Personally, after initially selecting ThinkingRock because it’s cross-platform and portable between my work and home computers, I’ve settled on the very slick iGTD. iGTD is for Mac only, but its user interface works better for me than ThinkingRock (for now – both are under active development), and the additional system integration is worth the loss of cross-platform support now that I carry my MacBook between work and home.

At home with Jess, Toffee seems lost without his big brother. The pair haven’t been apart for more than an hour in their entire lives!

Update: Sunny’s home and doing fine. He’ll have a cool scar to show the ladies.

Having recently joined the ranks of Impro Melbourne‘s talented ensemble, this was the first Festival where I took to the stage! Joining on opening night the cast of Impro Melbourne’s production of Smells Like a Song was a privilege … not to mention a blast!

Making the occasion extra special, my parents had arrived in town just in time to see me in an impro show for the first time—an improvised musical, no less! The pressure was on, but as always happens when I hit the stage to improvise, my mind went blank and I forgot they were even there.

Although Smells went on to have better nights (including a closing night that nearly brought the house down), it seems my new blood made a good impression on my fellow improvisers, because I’ve since been cast rather heavily in the upcoming season of Unforeseen Stories, which starts next week, hot on the heels of the Festival!

But by far the greatest moment of this Festival for me was the “Impro Love-In Jam” organized by Lliam Amor and Janelle Koenig, where all the Australian improvisers in the festival were invited to rub elbows, play games and shout each other drinks. The three hours sped by, and a few new bridges were built between Melbourne’s traditionally insular impro companies.