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

• The future is written in code, probably in JavaScript.
• Remember when the best way to debug JavaScript was to use alerts and document.write?
• Software is the new alchemy.
• When fixing a bug, the coding of the solution is the easiest part, but not necessarily the most import.
• TLDs I would like to see: .app, .js, .rb, .py, .twt, .lol, .anon, .beer, .bit, .woot
• If you would see this code I’ve working with you would think it had dyslexia.
• Just Do It: Refactor it. Abstract it. Centralize it. Generalize it.
• Software development is a team sport for people that were most likely not good at sports.
• Working Code > Perfect Code
• Never assume, always test.
• Trust no cloud.
• Don’t be eval().

Thought Leadership

• Seek out silver bullets instead of reaching out to golden hammers.
• Quality is something you engineer for.
• The first thing you create should be quality itself.
• When you have no QA, everyone does QA.
• When you feel like there are no options, there are still options.
• Inspiration comes in all shapes and sizes.
• Simple ideas can go a long way.
• There is often no quick solutions to deep problems.
• If you are going to dream, might as well dream big.
• I eat top priorities for breakfast.
• When you get new top priorities that displace the top priorities you received hours prior and didn’t get to because of previous priorities.
• Sometimes you have to up your game, other times you have to up your competition. If you don’t lose much you might be in the minor leagues.

Product Placement

• I remember that about two years ago I tweeted that RIM should have been renamed RIP. I got a lot of flack then, I don’t thin I will now.
• What does it mean when 7 out or the top 10 free apps from the Play marketplace are from Google?
• Posted in my iPhone: iPhone is a blood gadget. #rareearth #minerals
• I would like Apple to make a dual touch screen phone… Where on screen slides out to give you double the screen real estate.
• The way I described the recent partial eclipse.. Like the world had a giant Instagram filter on.
• Transformers, GI Joe, Snurfs, and now Battleship… What other 80′s toy/cartoon will be renamed as a movie? Hungry Hungry Hippos?
• VMware is hilarious, they sent me email for a Mother’s Day sale on VMware Fusion. Yes, that’s exactly what my mom wants for Mother’s Day!
• The Angry Birds franchise has been so successful that I’ve thought about creating a mobile game, how about Mildly Irritated Donkeys?
• Everyone should be Photoshop literate.
• I can’t wait until American Idol relaunches with a more appropriate name, Auto-tune Idol.
• I don’t do anything against the ToS but I’m so paranoid about Google disabling my account, I have a separate accounts for each service I use

Randumb

• NASA has found a space lake that has “140 trillion times all the water in the world’s oceans.” Imagine, deep space/ocean fishing.
• Water is a key ingredient of life, imagine the space tuna that can be found in this space lake, trillions of times larger than our oceans.
• You are not a battery of negative energy, don’t store, hold, or consume bad energy.
• If I am going to have an imaginary friend I am going to sleep with it.. Imaginary friend with benefits.
• Truth is simple, peoples reasoning for the truth is what is complicated.
• When I’m constipated, instead of taking a laxative I eat McDonald’s food.
• We have the technology to make everything dead simple.
• Warning in allergy medication: Do not use if you have an allergic reaction to this product or any of its ingredients.
• As a futurist I am disappointed with what the future has become.
• You got to find yourself by doing something rather waiting for something.
• By definition, anything that is viral is a fad.
• Too much of nothing is never enough.

FB IPO

• Zuckerborg may go down in history as having scammed everyone he met… She scammed his classmates, co-founder, users, and now investors…
• In Zuck we don’t trust.
• Zuck really fooled everyone, the Winklevii, Saverin, users, competitors, wall street bankers, institutional investors, …
• Classic FB/Zuck… Days after the IPO there are already lawsuits regarding impropriety, irregular, and illegal activities.
• Facebook wants to make organ donation social. I Like your new liver.
• When Zuckerborg dies, he wants to be buried with a hoodie.
• Will Zuck have a second act? Facebook wont last 5 years on likes alone.
• I’ve never paid for sex or likes. #facebook #IPO
• I’m unfriending Facebook.

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.

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

• Kids lunch snacks sound like Java interfaces, Uncrustables and Lunchables.
• 99% of software is hardcoded defaults.
• Software will shape the future.
• I don’t count lines of code.
• Code less, debug even less.
• Every few years JavaScript goes through a renewed renaissance.
• Sometimes life does not compute. #dividebyzeroerror

Team Leadership

• Success is a dish best served with champagne.
• Don’t let circumstance beyond your control control you.
• Just because it’s widely accepted that Steve Jobs was difficult to work with and a genius doesnt mean you have to be difficult to work with.
• Negativity is like cholesterol, to much of it can kill you.
• Most important lesson in my life: Learn to appreciate what you have and do not agonize about what you don’t.
• Corporate titles mean nothing, that is why I put Chief Creative Business Developer Principal Program Scientist on my business card.
• The biggest lesson one can learn is to listen.
• The universe doesn’t hate you, it doesn’t even know you exist.
• Try harder. Do better. Go further. Think Bigger.
• Forget stopping to smell the flowers, I stop to reach for the stars.

Product Placement

• I’m going to start a search engine for ego searches and call it egoogle.
• Google is a giant keyword router in the cloud.
• Android uses food related codenames for its different versions, such as ice cream sandwhich. I hear next release will be named leftovers.
• Why is Gingerbread still the most popular/common version of Android In new phones? It’s like two releases behind latest version.
• I think it is safe to say that G+ is a successful flop. I would compare it more to MySpace than Facebook.
• Missing Feature: I wouldn’t be surprised if the Kindle reader would allow you to tweet a quote right from an eBook.
• If Apple would design single family homes it would cost over $1 million and only be 800 sq/ft but I would want one really bad.
• iPhone or iMole: whatever data or contact or image you have on your iPhone some hacker, service, API, law enforcement, or app will access.
• In today’s day and age, no person should be executed for tweeting and no person should have to go to jail for downloading a song.
• Blue Ivy Carter sounds more like a brand name of vodka or energy drink put out by Jay-Z than the name of his kid.

Cash Angels

• Who needs $3 million to run a WordPress-powered tech blog? At these valuations my blog is definitely worth $10 million.
• Silicon Valley entrepreneurs are modern day alchemists turning virtual goods into real cold hard cash, IPOs into billions.
• A frothy market is a tasty market.
• The future is in crowd financing.
• It’s raining stock options in Silicon Valley. #makeitrain
• All the people of Palo Alto rejoice at news of Facebook IPO, in a few months their rents will go up 30%.
• To much Facebook IPO analysis on my feed. If you aren’t a preferred investor you ain’t making money.
• 1. _________. 2. $#%#%$*(&. 3. ?????? 4. Profit.

Question

• Can software refactor the world?
• How can people wave their constitutional rights be agreeing to a terms of service they didn’t read or understand?
• Breyer’s or Dreyer’s?
• Who will be the Bill Gates and Steve Jobs of 3D printing?
• Forget “where’s the beef,” where’s the 100 Mbps broadband?
• Who is Waldo?
• If corporations are people does it mean a man can marry a corporation?

Equations

• Principles > Politics
• Generous > Gorgeous
• Cheddar > Chatter
• Worrier < Warrior
• Sex On Fire > Heart On Fire

Recently I noticed that I had less than 3GB of free disk pace on my laptop. I have and take a lot of photos, in addition to that I download and install a lot of different development tools and IDEs. I also have a lot of music and listen to a lot of podcasts. In addition to all this, I am a digital hoarder and download and save any PDF or image that I find interesting.

When I discovered that I was running out of disk space I immediately started to look for “disk space” apps on the App Store. I found Spacie to be what the HD DR ordered. With Spacie I found that I had multiple version of NetBeans each taking close to 1GB. I had multiple versions of the Android SDK each taking close to 1GB. Spotify was caching over 2GB of data. I found that iPhoto and iTunes was taking the bulk of the space. I easily had 20GB in iPhoto and 40GB in iTunes. In iPhoto, I started to export and backup photo sets older than a year or two so that I could reclaim more space. In iTunes, I found that I had a hundreds of podcasts taking over 100MB each. I pushed these photo sets and podcasts to an external hard drive and reclaimed over 40GB of disk space. Spacie helped me to identify what files where taking the most space and I systematically addressed each folder as best I could.

Spacie finds large files in your hard drive and helps reclaim disk space.

Spacie is available on the Apple App Store. It is currently priced at $1.99 and it’s well worth it since it saved me from having to upgrade to a new hard drive.

This geek gift guide is not so much for geeks and techies but for those that have geeks and techies in their life and need a little help in finding the right geek gift this holiday season. If you want to wow the geek in your life with the latest technology gadget you need to look no further.

For two years straight the iPad has been the most coveted piece of technology on most self respecting geek. The iPad is great for geeks no matter their expertise, music, photography, gaming, social media, etc. A geek that travels a lot or enjoys reading on their iPad when at a coffee shop would enjoy the 3G iPad so that they can always be connected no mater where they are. Whether you give the geek in your life an iPad or if they already have one, there are a ton of great accessories, such as a envelope iPad cases from Poketo.

Poketo Envelope iPad Case

Over this last year there has been an explosion of tablets come into the market such as the Amazon Kindle Fire, and Barnes and Noble’s Nook Tablet. The Nook tablet at $249 is a great bargain but so is the Amazon Kindle Fire at $199. The Nook tablet is a bit faster and more powerful than the Kindle Fire, but if you already own a Kindle or have purchase Kindle ebooks then the Kindle Fire would be the obvious choice.

For the financial whiz in the family I would recommend the HP 12c Financial Calculator. The HP 12c Financial Calculator has a retro HP look and over 120 mathematical functions that would be appreciated by any business and finance power user.

Every engineer needs a notebook and there are no better notebooks than Moleskine notebooks. Moleskine has come out with a limited edition Star Wars notebooks perfect for that die hard fan. For the old school video gamer in the family, they also have a limited edition Pac-Man set.

As everyone already knows, the standard geek uniform is jeans and a t-shirt. Any self respecting geek needs to have some ThinkGeek shirts in his wardrobe. ThinkGeek gear is like Armani Exchange for geeks, binary fashionable and geek chic.

If you need more suggestions, take a look at previous years geek gift guides:

The Ultimate Geek Gift Guide 2010, The Ultimate Geek Gift Guide 2009, The Ultimate Geek Gift Guide 2008

I’ve been an Android user since the HTC G1 first came out. Since then, I’ve had and used the Google Nexus, HTC G2, and the Dell Streak 7. I’ve tried to like my Android devices but they lack polish or frustrate me in several other ways. The first annoying lack to details is noticed immediately as soon as you un-box the device. Just turn over the device and you’ll see three or more logos, the maker logo (such as Dell, HTC, or Samsung), the carriers logo (T-Mobile or Verizon), and the product name or other insignia. Apple products just have the Apple logo. On Android devices, you’ll have different logos each placed on the back plate separately, the vendor’s logo will be etched into the back while the carrier’s logo will be some cheap vinyl sticker placed afterward.

My personal pet peeve with Android devices is the craziness with moving apps from the internal device’s memory to the external SD card. Even relatively recent Android devices such as the Google Nexus and Dell Streak 7 have less than 1GB internal memory so if you download a lot of apps you’ll soon need to move apps around to the SD card. But some apps you can’t move to the SD card so that presents a different issue.

Who cares if the phone’s memory can be extended by using higher capacity SD cards if a one year old device can’t even be upgraded to the latest Android version. So the whole thing with extensible SD cards and moving installed apps from the internal memory to the SD card I find completely and frustratingly useless. The whole concept of an Operating Systems is that best manages the resources of the device, the Android OS should best manage installed applications in either the internal memory or SD based on some intelligence. Why am I doing Android’s job?

Another concern I have with Android devices is that they usually come with a lot of pre-installed apps. For example, my Dell Streak 7 came with Kongregate Arcade app which I can’t remove and reclaim the wasted internal memory. Similarly, carriers and vendors add and customize Android so that no two devices have the same user experience.

My last concern with Android’s lack of polish is its dark goth color scheme. Most application’s menu and option screens are as if they were designed by a goth listening to The Cure. The Android UI design is not “Just Like Heaven.”