Juixe Techknow » Programming

Retweet April 2012

TechKnow — Wed, 16 May 2012 18:42:50 +0000

From time to time I just blast tweets about software development, project planning, team dynamics, or whatever else comes to mind. Here is a synopsis of recent tweets and rants. If you want to follow the conversation follow me at techknow and/or juixe.

Software Development

Too often I’ve seen code that made me lose my lunch.
Sometimes source code is like the sausage factory where you don’t want to look what goes into an application.
One developer’s corner case is another user’s daily workflow.
Application logs are like money, you can always use more… Unfortunately they are like pennies, the more you have the more difficult it is.
Fix the problem, not the symptom. Some developers prefer to fix the symptom because they don’t know how to find the root cause itself.

Team Leadership

It is important to lead the way and then immediately get out of the way.
If it doesn’t make sense to me it is because you are not explaining it correctly.
Everyone has a right to their opinions but not everyone’s opinion is right.
Great ideas don’t belong to any one person. Great ideas are not unique to anyone. Great ideas stand on their own.
If you are safe in your comfort zone you’ll never be in the zone.
Even when I think outside the box, I am still in the zone.
There are no easy answers without hard choices.
It’s one thing to make sense and a completely different thing to be clear.
There are some things in life that are not meant for you to understand but to accept.

Product Placement

Things Apple should buy: Evernote, app TLD, Square, and my blog.
The Notes app on the iPhone badly needs an to support the undo and redo feature.
The new Google+ is the new New Coke.
If Google would have invented Polaroid, the film would be free but full of ads and a copy would be uploaded to the cloud.
Some of Google’s UI often looks and feels like the uncanny valley of design, it has a plastic aspect to it.
My other Tumblr is a Moleskine.
So much of the content I see in Pinterest seems to come from Tumblr…
Instagram has no ads, only available on mobile, Android support just added, not profitable, no web presence… Obviously worth $1 billion.
Instead of paying a billion in cash and stock why didn’t Facebook just pay a billion in Facebook Credits and likes.
Silicon Valley back of the envelop valuation math: Tumblr + Camera+ > Instagram therefore Tumblr + Camera+ = $10,000,000,000++.
I don’t understand @McDonalds economics… A whole McChicken sandwich costs $1 but ask for an extra BBQ sauce and you get charged $0.50.

Silicon Angels

Is it possible for the whole of Silicon Valley to jump the shark? If and when it does there will be a large splash.
Silicon Valley valuations are relative to previous largest valuation.
The Internet is paved with high valuations.
Frothyness is the new truthyness.
Frothy does a body good.

Randumb

I want to see the world in HD.
What do we want? Our way. When do we want it. All the time.
If someone says something that is factually untrue, it doesn’t mean they lied… It means you lied to yourself by believing it. #truth
One persons guest house is a other persons mansion.
Some people build walls, others bridges, I build BS radar detection systems.
Retweet, reblog, repin, remix, rinse, and repeat!
I think in numbers.
All language is a metaphor.
Trolls shall inherit the earth.

Software as a Pegboard Set

TechKnow — Fri, 11 May 2012 05:35:21 +0000

Software is not like traditional engineering disciplines. Unlike a bridge whose requirements are essentially set in stone, software requirements consistently change and evolve with the needs of the business. The requirements, of say civil engineering, are more firm and concrete than that of software engineering because the artifacts that are being constructed are usually large physical objects like a road or bridge. In the other hand, software is malleable and it often refactored easier than business constraints, that is why product managers often prefer to wedge a round peg (software) into a square hole (requirements) as business constraints evolve. But unlike a kid’s shape sorter or pegboard set, the peg and the hole are consistently changing and not always into the same shape.

Shape Sorter Toy

Local Family Tech Support

TechKnow — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 16:01:24 +0000

It is hard to explain to family members that even though I “work with computers” as a software engineer I can’t always fix their computer problems. I tried to explain it to my grandma that I am more like a “race car driver than a mechanic when it comes to computers. I know how to use a computer but not how to fix the weird noise your computer makes.”. To which she responded, “oh that is fantastic, I can’t get this printer to work… It complains that I need a driver.”

Retweet March 2012

TechKnow — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 15:02:59 +0000

Software Development

Say no to consultant code. No to complacent code. No to sloppy and crappy code. No to cut and past code.
Developing a machine learning algorithm so we don’t have to learn anymore.
Hacking, art or science!?
Great hacking weather… Well most weather is great hacking weather as long as your computer don’t overheat.
What would an autonomous algorithm do?
Sex, drugs, and hacking.
You don’t go on Hacker News to show off your project, act arrogant that it’s a closed network, and not expect someone to hack a clone.
Nothing worse than setting a test to run overnight only to have a Windows update restart your computer in the middle of the test/night.
Refactor with conviction.
Building on assumptions is like building on quicksand.
When in doubt, step through it in a debugger.

Team Leadership

Every problem is an opportunity in the rough.
Mo’ money, mo’ problems. Mo’ problems, mo’ opportunity.
Ask the right questions is better than making the wrong assumptions.
Everything is mental, even when it’s physical.
Being successful means you are only a mistake away from not.
Don’t use the fact you don’t know a fact as a reason for not knowing it.
Just because a team member knows one thing does not excuse the rest of the team from learning for themselves and knowing it too.
A team is composed of a group of individuals, but a group of individuals is not a team.

Product Placement

Google used to be a search engine and return search results now it wants to be an answer engine and return you the answer.
What do you call a Pinterest user? Pinner? Pinhead?
Facebook IPO: it’s complicated.
How hard is it to add filters to Flickr’s iPhone app?
These @calottery lotto ticket should have a QR code so that I can quickly scan to see if I’m a winner.
The Google of today is the sort of operation that Sergey and Larry originally set out to disrupt.
Somewhere some evil genius is building a super computer out of a cluster of The New iPad.
AT&T is in the phone business, so of course when you call customer support they will always have you call someone else who transfers you that gives you a different number that redials…

Quote

P.S. GitHub sorry, I was bored. — Egor Homakov, the guy that hacked GitHub
I have never seen someone try so hard for attention while looking so atrocious at the same time. -Anna Wintour on Nicki Minaj
I would give my life for her but she also wants me to do the dishes. – Hellboy

Questions

Are you killing time or is time killing you?
Do The Simpsons pay royalties for basing their episodes on popular movies?
Why do single people love cats?
Why is it that sometimes when you don’t do a thing people notice, but when you do they don’t?
Which would you prefer, an iPad with a keyboard or a net book?
If you could only attain one thing which would you choose, money, happiness, or longevity?

Randumb

Fear is free but it will cost you opportunities.
Ideas are cheap, but originality will cost you.
Hot sauce makes everything better.
The odds of you being a loser are better than you winning the lottery.
There are people I follow on Twitter that I would never follow in real life, who I would rather push of a cliff in real life.
Complainers are worse than haters.
College is not for the uber successful.
future obituary: died of chili cheese fries.
“Really? Really?” Is the new “Oh My God”
The term “gateway drug” doesn’t make sense, if you are already doing a drug, you are already past the gateway for drugs.
Power drinks are the new gateway drugs.
Power drinks are making me fat and jittery.
All advice is relative, especially advice from a relative.
Life is a journey not a destination, death in the other hand seems like the destination.

The Big Rewrite

TechKnow — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 16:01:39 +0000

When working with legacy code, there is a big difference between a developer trying to add or fix a feature and getting it to work and another developer trying and giving up only to recommend a complete rewrite. From my experience, the one main reason why any person suggest a complete rewrite of an existing application or feature that works for a large install base is only because they don’t understand it. I would be suspicious of any engineer or developer if he or she recommends to rewrite any large portion of a existing appellation just because because they don’t understand it.

The Code Rules

TechKnow — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 16:01:13 +0000

Rules to code by…

No consultant code.
No complacent code.
No crappy and sloppy code.
No cut and past code.

It’s Always Your Problem

TechKnow — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 16:01:48 +0000

As a business, if any client has any sort of problem using your software then it’s your problem. Non technical users will have trouble using your software because of an array of issues, such as permissions, settings, configurations, other software, and external devices. No matter what, you have to make the effort to get them started using with your software or not. I’ve seen issues at different client sites because one software application required one version of Java and another required a newer version. Typically you can have multiple version of Java on a computer, but these two applications demanded that only over version exist and that it be the one they require. I’ve seen issues where end users print from an application and complain because they don’t see the document printed in their laser jet, it was printing in another printer in another floor and they didn’t know how to configure it correctly.

As a development lead, if any programmer has any sort of problem with your architecture then it’s your problem. If someone doesn’t understand an design and they have to work with it, they will make changes that can cost you in the long run. If you make a system overly complex, there will be a time that you will have to delegate that to someone else and they will not understand it as deeply as you and will make changes to fix the bug of the day, but cause another problem to be discovered later.

Whether an end user doesn’t know how to change the printer or a new developer doesn’t know how to implement your design, it’s your problem and it should be addressed with something other than blaming the confused.

Sometimes it’s because you took on the wrong client, or hired someone without the technical background, but it is still your problem. Often times, the problem is basic communication and availability of training material. Always, examine these situations and see how you can improve the process, training, and communication of your team.

Retweet January 2012

TechKnow — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 00:41:20 +0000

Software Development

Even I’m surprised to know how many people use code that I wrote and tested on a train ride to my work.
What will be the preferred web development platform in 2012?
The default should always be opt-in.
legislation != innovation
Data to the people.
Technology is democratizing idiocy.

Team Leadership

If knowledge is power, than data is the source of power.
If you think your business model is finished, you are finished.
Doers gonna do.
Most managers have 20% time, the time spent not looking ignorant about some aspect of technology.
Better than picking your battle, pick the time of the battle, better still pick the your combatant, even better still put it on pay-per-view
In space no one can hear you scream, in the interwebs no one will let you forget it.
I had a dream that I had woken up at 10am and that I was late for work, I panicked and woke up from the dream and it was only 5am.
I absolutely hate absolutism of any kind!
If you want to have your cake and eat it too it is best to bake it yourself.
So-so is the enemy of awesome.

Product Placement

I wish there was a entrepreneur version of television show Deal or No Deal.
Green Burrito is the worst name for a fast food fastaurant.
It’s clear that @Google has Facebook envy, especially with their new privacy policy.
I’ll never use a social networking site if it requires a government ID for me to log in.
How can Google claim that G+ supports pseudonyms if they may review and require government ID for you to prove that is your real pseudonym.
People forget that Google’s “Don’t be evil” motto is an abbreviated form of “Don’t get caught being evil.”
Would William Shakespeare publish his works on the Apple iBooks platform?

Question

What is worse than bullshit or bullballs?
Why do bills arrive faster than cash?
How do you become the thought leader on thought leadership?
In what food group are gummy bears in?
Is it really made in the USA if it’s made of Italian leather from Spanish cows?

Randumb

Old hippies never die, they just cut their hair, take a shower, and become The Man.
If it was up to the movie/music industry, all Americans would have to pay a Copyright tax off 5% across the board.
Only one of the infinite parallel universes will end on 2012. Which universe are you in?
Many people on Hoarders are not true die hard hoarders, they are lazy and messy.
Complaining about the use of the #FirstWorldProblems hashtag is a #FirstWorldProblem.
I like cats but dislike cat people.
Just like haters gonna hate, cheaters gonna cheat.
The key of love is to know when to let go.
Fame made me do it.
Haters love me.
The future has no past.
Each day you die a little.
I like watching the future in reverse.
At the Hispanic section in a Chinese store.
If time flies, it must have lost its luggage.

The Mobile App User Half Life

TechKnow — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:01:43 +0000

Recently at a iOS development meet up the presenters from Qubop showed a powerful slide from their presentation that quantified the mobile app user life cycle. It is estimated that on average after one day of usage, 38% of the users will stop using a mobile application. After a week, the percent of users that will still use the app drops to 50%. After 6 months, you are down to 10% of users still using your app in some capacity.

Because of the half life of mobile application users, app developers are constantly updating their mobile apps. It depends on the number of apps you have on your phone, but if I don’t get the latest apps in a weeks period I would have 15 app updates waiting for me. I update one day and the next day there is another app ready to update. Because apps are updated so often, and they require the users permission to do so, mobile app users have are developing app update fatigue.

Year In Review 2011

TechKnow — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 16:01:18 +0000

It is that time of year where we reflect on the accomplishments of the passing year and look forward to the one to come. Here is a window into the past year in technology through this year’s popular posts on TechKnow Juixe.

Code and Design

Reviews and Rants

Retweet 2011

Year in Review