A Person, Artist, Software Engineer, Geologist.

Just read the book "Team Geek"  (amazon)  today and I would highly suggest reading it.  It's short, to the point and covers almost all aspects of development teams and the issues therein. It's a great book.  It does not mince words on problem staff, management (good and bad) and the multitude of issues that we have all been exposed to in our careers.   The good and the bad. Where Buddhism is about understanding oneself and making changes based on this understanding, this book covers the other side of the coin, working with others, problem staff, management anti-patterns and culture.  I can't say enough good about this book. The only comment I do have is the section on the physical working environment.  There are workgroups on one end and offices on the other.  I understand the flow of communication with workgroups but the interruption and lack of a personal workspace can effect a number of people.  This is somewhat covered by the comm...

Last months news that Facebook was re-writing their iOS application did not come as a surprise.  I had been following (and researching) the trend of using HTML5 for native applications.  It appears there is a much larger population of web -vs- iOS developments and the lure of using what you know to solve a new problem is very temping.  It's this whole "change is hard" thinking. Facebook knows web development (PHP, JS, CSS, etc) and its understandable that the HTML5 option would be on the table.  It's not for a lack of money or resources.  I believe it was the thinking that there customers are familiar with the desktop browser version of Facebook and thus the transition for their customers would be a minor issue.  Business win, developer win, customer win. Except, for two issues: Their mobile users may not be the same as their desktop users, thus different expectations. The expectations from a mobile application (i.e., native) are much different from...

There are so many catch phrases used in our (every) profession that are accepted as truth, that I would explore a couple of them. They are: - Re-writes never work. - Fast, Easy, Quick.  Pick 2. These phrases are used more to support a preexisting position of the programming staff than reflecting any real truth.  They are tools of propaganda and mis-information that are pulled out once in a while to guide decisions to a pre-determined goal. While experience may have proved these statements to be to true, they must be looked at in context and the amount to sampling to achieve these so called truths. For those only having 5-10 years of programming experience behind them, the occurrences of major re-writes and FEQ (Fast, Easy, Quick) decisions may be limited.   Re-writes of a major product are not that frequent or a product would never get released and provide the business with time to recoup it's investment.  Likewise with the repercussions of FEQ decisio...

In software development, we struggle with our own thoughts for the directions we take.  Strive for the shiny new object to develop with?  Use our current tools or take a risk on a newly released tools for new project?  What is real and what is driven by our desires and personal wants. We like to think that we make rational decisions but we don't.  We fool ourselves by pretending contraary evidence does not exist or apply for the decisions we make. This can get us in to big trouble. This is not limited to indivuals but to companies as well.   Google has been denying that fragmentation is a problem with the Android ecosystem.  That what worked for the phones would work for tablets (it doesn't).  Adding fragments that require even more resources, id, files and references should work fine for larger screen sizes (it doesn't).  Tablets are just like phones except we can just place more of the same existing views on the screen at the same time, it...

For me, its the year of change.  There have been so many changes that have occurred this year that I have embraced them and am planning for more. Besides the changes in my life, I'm continously looking for changes that occur in the world around me and here are a couple of my observations.  Of course they are only my opinion but it's food for though never the less. It's the human (or so we would like to think) touch.  Apple's release of Siri and the enabling of using ones voice for information and operations has met with praise and imitators.   People criticize it for not being perfect, for it's limitations and quickly released voice assistants of their own.  But the point of Siri has been lost on many.  Siri is not about just providing another method of interfacing with a computer, but instead Siri is about trying to bypass the computer and providing human qualities in interaction with the user.  It's not about executing commands, starting a...

Back from vacation and got some great photos when we where at Wakulla Springs State Park (in Florida) for a day.  This is the worlds 4th largest spring and it creates a new river where it comes to the surface.  It's a great road trip destination. Some interesting photos from Wakulla Springs.  The first is the mens bathroom.  It's a little lesson in design for urinals.  While the urinals do fit in this location, the users (when all are occupied) do not.  Given the increasing girth of users these days, the position that the users would be required to take are, a little too close for personal space.  This would be a user design fail in my book. About the springs themselves is that they harbor a great diversity of wildlife including alligators, turtles, birds, deer and snakes (water and land).  Did I mention alligators?  There is a very reasonable boat ride down an up the river that is created by the springs.  Well worth the $8 dollar ...

OK, there are not that many old time software engineers, but there should be.  Just finished the book "To Forgive Design" which is about engineering failures (of the bridge, crane, boat kind) and what engineers should and do learn from them.  The last chapter is one of the most interesting and also applies to software development. Engineering is thousands of years old and there are still failures.  Software development is only a few decades old and is somewhat still in it's free wheeling days, but generally people don't die when software fails (but there have been some cases). The bar is so low and the turnover so high that valuable lessons are lost every "software" generation (10-20 years?).  Mature (HR speak for expensive) engineers do cost more that less senior developers, but the old mistakes are re-made, the desire to push though a bad design still exists and this costs $$$. If you have worked in this profession for any length of time you may ha...