Juixe Techknow

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

• Software will rule the world.
• Software will inherit the earth.
• In the interwebs, beta is forever.
• The future is written in code.
• When you have no QA, everyone does QA.
• I breakpoint for bugs.
• Can’t say enough good things about jqPlot. It’s a great JavaScript charting library.
• Search term that popped up on my blog’s analytics dashboard: programming languages are like girlfriends: the new one is better because *you* are better
• I prefer “show me the source code” over “show me the money”
• No simple change ever ends up being so simple.
• Optimize for simplicity.
• I remember when developing in JavaScript was cool, then when it wasn’t, then it was cool again, back to not, … fast forward to now.
• How many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop? And … how many leaks does it take to crash your app?

Thought Leadership

• Seek out silver bullets instead of reaching out to golden hammers.
• The future is not in plastics, it’s in multicores.
• Delegate and defer.
• I have 99 problems and deferring and delegating them ain’t one.
• Brainstorming the perfect storm.
• “If you build it they will come” has been replaced with “test it, see if they will come, outsource it, and charge for it.”
• No one starts out as an expert.
• As a consumer, this is one concern I have with cloud/apps, that when they get updated you are forced into the upgrade no matter what.
• If every piece of software is in the cloud, there will not be any legacy apps, everything will be in ‘beta’ or dead.
• If you have writer’s block, put a stick of creative dynamite in it and light the fuse.
• Disrupt all the things.
• It is unfortunate that instead of finding the silver bullets people settle for a golden hammer.

Product Placement

• Google started out as a search engine but when they searched for revenue the top result was advertising.
• It has been reported that Google has applied for the TLD .lol in addition to .google and .youtube.
• Is Google a gTLD squatter? They have applied for 98 domains including .app, .lol, .dad, .foo, …
• The MLB and NFL should apply for .mlb and .nfl TLDs.
• I’ll be happy when Siri can monitor my heart rate, cholesterol, weight, and automatically schedules exercise as needed.
• Apple is not good at backward compatibility. I have a perfectly working second generation iPod Touch but a ton of the apps have stopped working.

Silicon Startup

• At some point in a company’s history it will be either be in one of the following stages: resurrected (IBM), zombie (Yahoo), dead (Kodak).
• In Silicon Valley, apps that attempt to make Silicon Valley nerds cool or popular get immediate funding.
• Fund raising is easier the pimping!
• If the bubbly flows day and night then we must be in a bubble.
• Pivots are to be the new sport at this Sumner Olympics.

Google IO

• Facebook has nearly double the amount of users than there are Android devices.
• Google is demoing Jelly Bean (Android OS 4.1) but still the most common Android version in new phones is around 2.3.
• The one feature I really want on Android OS is the ability to easily take a screenshot or screencast from my device.
• Android is still playing catchup to iOS. The audience doesn’t even know when to applaud. #awkward
• Wow… Jelly Bean has a built it Siri clone. #tailgating
• “Smarts phones are only as smart as its users.”
• Android is the perfect stalking device. I knows your appointments, your routes, your schedule, you contacts, your preferences
• What the towel covered stool in the middle of the stage at? Seems cheap way to reveal the new Nexus 7 tablet.
• “I read this so many times I don’t know what will be exiting to you”
• Asus is making the Nexus 7 tablet.
• The crowd don’t seem as excited as you would think for the big reveal on the Nexus 7 tablet.
• Still waiting for the killer, must have, innovative features available in Nexus 7 tablet.
• “Video is stunning in Nexus 7, you can see the individual hair in Ron Swanson’s mustache.” – #awkward
• Nexus Que?
• Sergey looks like Larry, Larry Ellison.
• yeah, woo who – Sergey Brin.
• The police and military industrial complex are going to love Google’s Project Glass.
• Google Project Glass available to US-based IO attendees for $1500. Not intended for consumers. Shipping early next year.
• Android Developer Pack: Galaxy Nexus phone, Nexus 7 tablet, Nexus Q. #oprahmoment

ICANN, the organization that regulates domain names, has allowed organizations and individuals to apply for new generic Top Level Domains (gTLD). A Top Level Domain (TLD) is the a domain extension such as .com or .org used by millions of websites. In addition to .com and .org there are country specific TLDs such as .co.uk, .fr, and .mx. ICANN has nearly 2,000 applications for new gTLDs. ICANN has released to the public gTLD application information such as the newly proposed domain extension and the applying company. For example, Google has applied for nearly 100 domain extensions including for .app, .youtube, .goog, .plus, and many more. Google clearly can afford the $185,000/application fee.

I downloaded the data, played around with it and generated some graphs to help me visualize the new land rush for domains. Please note that I discounted and removed a few gTLD applications for non-latin domains.

The first chart shows that nearly 50% of the new domain extension originated from North America. North American and Europe combine make up over 80% while African organization only applied for roughly 1% of proposed new domain extensions.

The following chart shows that a large number of the new proposed generic domain extension are under five characters long but there are a few that are up to eighteen characters in length.

The following graph shows the most popular proposed domain extensions. For example, thirteen different individuals or organizations applied for the .app TLD, eleven for .inc and .home, ten for .art, etc. This chart shows only domains with five or more applications.

As previously noted, Google applied for nearly 100 domain extensions… 98 to be exact under Charleston Road Registry Inc. Top Level Domain Holding Limited registered 68 gTLDs followed by Amazon with 65. Apple doesn’t appear in this chart because this graph shows application organizations with more than ten domain extension applications.

I also wanted to graph the number of applications per primary contact and found out that a single individual, Daniel Schindler, has filed for three hundred domain extensions. Looking at the data, each of the applications submitted by Mr. Schindler are for distinct legal entities.

So who is the real domain squatter? ICANN will be squatting on nearly $400 million because of the $185k/application fee. Another question is, how will a flood of new gTLDs affect the value of current domains? And perhaps most importantly, how will the private organizations use and restrict access to these domain extensions?

As the saying goes, if a thing is worth doing, it’s worth doing well. It has been proven that doing a thing right the first time is most efficient and cost effective. But what is the cost of doing something wrong? In terms of money, I’ve seen cases where something is done incorrectly and then had to redone at a loss of $100k. In terms of time, you can model it in the following thought experiment.

If a task takes x amount of time to complete and it is done wrong the first time, how long does it take to fix it?  More than 4x. It takes to x amount of time to complete the task the first time, probably at least x amount of time to find out it was done wrong, another x amount to figure out what the first guy did, and finally x amount to fix it correctly.

We all can agree that time is money and if a task is done incorrectly it may cost at a minimum as much as four times as much as it would cost if done correctly the first time around.

I always give 110% to any task I set out to complete. If you ever give anything less than 100% then you get the following logic…

It’s okay if we do 80%, but the 80% needs to be done 100%… We can’t deliver 80% of the 80% we actually attempt of the 100% we are committed too.

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

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.”