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 and I’ll be sure to follow back.

Software Development

• Any software feature request should be broken down to 90% thinking and 10% coding.
• Multiple-touch is the greatest things since buttons.
• If a developer fools you once, shame on you, because they are usually fooling themselves when it comes to giving accurate estimates.
• Don’t take developers estimate at face value.
• Recommend The Rubyist for the Developers Directory on Tumblr: http://www.tumblr.com/directory/recommend/developers/rubyist
• Many non-programming software users don’t understand the meaning of concatenated or null so don’t use these in labels in your UI.
• I like to provide solutions that don’t involve complaining.
• If Heraclitus is right and you never step in the same river twice, then you never write the same program twice.
• Bugs keep my code humble.
• A bug’s ingenuity is proportional to a developer’s ego and self importance.
• Bugs like to in build nests out of spaghetti code in untested corner cases.
• Working running code is just one corner case.
• I use dead laptop drives as coasters.
• My emotions are user generated.
• I om nom nom nom on memes.
• The interweb is my inspiration.
• I CAN HAZ DREAMS OF INTERWEB MEMES

Team Leadership

• When life gives you lemons, you may make lemonade. When life gives me lemons, I make myself some limoncello.
• New motto/slogan: Don’t be a robot, unless you are 20 feet tall and can transform into a fighter jet.
• Dream big or wake up.
• The Law of Big Consequences: Large consequences are often the effect of making considerable decisions in a big rush.
• Laughter is the duct tape equivalent of emotions, it can be used to patch up bad feelings or misunderstandings.
• Manual, Error Prone, Time Consuming. Pick none!
• When people dig their own hole they can’t get out of it by digging deeper.
• Fight the power, and fight the hype.
• A key skill in life is to know when to end a conversation.
• Nothing is how you thought of it originally, it is up to you to make it better.
• If you have time to lean, you have time to clean.

Product Placement

• Amazon knows what books you bought for the Kindle, how often and for how long you read, can add and remove books, and read your bookmarks, notes, and highlights…
• FaceBook, Inc = F.B.I.
• Apple wants to design multiple-touch devices, Google wants to crawl content, Facebook wants to own your social graph and associated data.
• Facebook is really dumbing down the web with the like button.
• Facebook’s Open Graph is not really open. If you don’t own the platform, can look through the source, can own the data it is not open!
• Did someone just unlocked the Foursquare Sellout Badge at Yahoo HQ!
• I’ve had enough Lifetime movies for one lifetime.
• The world according Ronald McDonald is made out of corn meal.
• The McChicken nugget is the worst thing since sliced bread.
• Peeps are the most disgusting artificial food product.

Qoute

• One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain. – Bob Marley
• I don’t like negotiating with people I can’t beat up. – Goldberg
• We live in an amazing world and it’s wasted on the crappiest generation. – Louis C.K.
• Beware of artists they mix with all classes of society and are therefore most dangerous. – Queen Victoria
• He eyes are the nipples of the face. -The House Bunny

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 and I’ll be sure to follow back.

Software Development

• Security pet peeves: captchas, security questions, having to login after changing my password.
• A supercomputer won’t solve the incompetence of bad programmers on a deadline.
• All software is in beta.
• The Like button needs to be killed.
• \-: “premature optimization is root all of evil.” (-: “That’s what she said.”
• This must be a record. I just improved our app’s memory consumption by 80%, some 400MB, by changing one line of code.
• I love technology because I can now blame my misspelling on my iPhone.
• Where 2.0 is the new meme. Is your website Where 2.0 aware?
• Building a community and building a business around a community are not the same thing.
• The linked list was recently patented, I’m going to patent something critical to civilization, like calculus or pottery.
• Dear debugger, I wish you could introspect my feelings and put a breakpoint on my heart break.
• A slew of computer bugs are caused by assumptions made by the programmer.
• You know things are bad when you get error code 0000.
• Bugs grow organically.
• It is possible to make spaghetti code out of Obeject Oriented Programmmmmming?
• Rule of thumb: use immutable objects as keys to hash maps otherwise get to you your debugger.

Team Leadership

• The best ideas are free.
• No matter what, you will never be less busy.
• Let’s be honest, anywhere from 10-30% of a resume is a stretch.
• So as not to forget anything, remember nothing.
• When you give someone else time, you waste you own.
• Don’t give any answer, give the right question.
• If you have a one trick pony, ride it until it is ready to be put to pasture.
• Problems are meant to be solved only if they can’t be ignored.
• The one best possible thing you can do to make any situation better is to not make it worse.
• One can lead by asking questions, just as well as giving orders.
• If you build it, they will come. But if you make it to complex or change it to often, then they will leave.
• The secret ingredient is to believe there is a secret ingredient.
• I don’t express myself best when speaking, but when reflecting.
• Praying may not change the world, but it can change your perspective which is helpful to change your world.
• Folks usually want the what first but I think that the why and the how is more important than the what.

Product Placement

• Facebook announced a major investment by the CIA. It was reported that the US Gov will push for Facebook Connect as a National ID program.
• PayPal just sucks. I can transfer money to former Soviet Bloc countries faster than I can between PayPal and my bank.
• Spam is like a staple in Hawaii. So it comes as no surprise that Mahalo is one of the most spam ridden sites online.
• My suggestion to cable companies: give away basic cable to every American with on demand features. Add value outside the cable box.
• Which will provide better value/info for businesses, yelp or foursquare?
• The current Apple Appstore approval time is rand() * Months.
• McDs should make a tofu McMuffin.
• A sign at a Palo Alto church: redeem your soul, there is an app for that.
• Purple Cow Thinking: don’t be boring, safe is risky, design rules now, very good is bad.

Quote

• If there is a limit, you should, you must test it. – Seth Godin/Purple Cow
• Vision without execution is hallucination – Thomas Edison
• Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. – Herman Cain

The iPad has garnered the most press I have seen for a electronic device since, well, the iPhone. Just after a day after it’s release, it has already been jail broken. Here is a list of my favorite iPad reviews, resources, articles with tips and tricks, etc. I hope you are reading this in your new iPad!!!

• The iPad Gets Jailbreaked In Less Then A Day
• Nicholas Carr’s Blog: The post-book book
• Apple iPad Review
• iPad Verdict After One Day
• iPad is to iPhone as…
• iPad Teardown
• Official Gmail Blog: Gmail on the iPad
• The iPad needs its HyperCard
• Landing Pad — an iPad Design Gallery
• How to Make Money on the iPad
• Netflix Streaming App Coming to iPad
• iPad Arcade Cabinet
• 10 Ways the Apple iPad Will Change Our Lives
• Check if Someone Hacked Your GMail Account
• Best iPad Review Ever
• So, iPad
• Summary of iPad Review

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 and I’ll be sure to follow back.

Software Development

• If your code works not because of your programming intentions but because of bug side effects and your client doesn’t care, it is not done.
• I need a software development bug repellent.
• Design fail if you fix a log message and you break some functionality.
• If a carpenter’s rule of thumb is to “measure twice, cut once” then a programmer’s rule of thumb should be “design twice, code once, refactor a few times, and optimize only if you have to.”
• Saying you know programming is like saying you know how to read, a first grader knows how to read!!
• Requirements gathering is not creative writing.
• I love requirements: The initial instruction should completely initialize the initial value.

Team Leadership

• The only two requirements for a manager is that he is breathing and that he can communicate with his team in their language.
• What happens to you is not other people’s fault, it is your opportunity.
• There is nothing worse than a perfectionist that doesn’t know what he wants.
• The worst thing you can so when you make a mistake is lie about it.
• Every once in a while you have to recalculate, reshuffle, and/or remix your priorities.
• Embrace the edge.

Product Placement

• In Google We Trust.
• Google claims their motto is to ‘do no evil’, put I suggest they change it to ‘do no customer support.’
• If you use Google search to find Google Mail customer support and still can’t find it, is that a fail in their customer support or search?
• There should be Freedom of Information Act for corporations. I want to know everything that Google knows about me and how that info is used
• Can’t believe the AT&T website is not iPhone/mobile friendly.
• Apple should develop a dual screen iPhone, iPhone GS3 DS.
• I imagine a time when Zynga will have in-game ads for Monsanto genetic modified seeds on FarmVille or Foster Farm turkeys for Cafe World.
• Facebook saves everything you create/post/save/click/delete, it can reverse engineer what you where thinking.
• Doing four square drive-by check-ins.
• Does Craigslist have an iPhone app?
• Do you have multiple twitter personality disorder?

Quote

• If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living. – Seneca
• If I could make the same amount of money but wake up until when I can’t hold in my pee any longer, I will be a success. – Phil Kaplan
• The answer to the question “where do good ideas come from” is always the same, the come from bad ideas. – Seth Godin
• Only the mediocre are always at their best. – Jean Giraudoux
• From pitch perspective, the more you wear your idea, the more it fits you… – Brad Feld
• Nothing fails like success. – Arnold Toynbee
• I totally question the conventional wisdom of the American dream. – Anil Dash
• If we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything, is ready, we shall never begin. – Iva Turgenev

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. So if you don’t know what is the hottest gift item or you want to redeem yourself from the Cosby sweater you gave last year, this is the gift guide for you.

The hottest tech gift two years running must be the Apple iPhone GS3. The iPhone is one of those gifts that will be used every single day, and not just to make calls. In fact, the feature I use most often is email, browsing online, and Google Maps. I also use the iPhone to play freely available casual games available on the App Store. And of course you can play your iTunes music on the iPhone just as you would on your iPod. This year, the iPhone has some competition in the new breed of Android phones in particular the Motorola Droid.

Netbooks are a trendy new segment in the ultra portable laptop market. Netbooks usually refer to sub $500 laptops perfect for email and internet browsing. The ASUS Eee PC is perhaps the most popular brand in this market but there are available models like the HP Mini 1140NR and Acer Aspire One.

Acer Aspire One

The Flip MinoHD is quickly gaining a big market share of the camcorder business from established brands such as Sony, Panasonic, Canon, etc. The Flip is the iPod of video cameras. It is small, portable, and simple to use. When recording, you can zoom in out and stop. When playing back you can increase/decrease the volume and pause. We have take ours on every trip we take and it is easier to use than the standard point and shoot digital camera.

The new version of the Sony PlayStation Portable (PSPgo) has the best graphic intense games available in the hand held gaming market. The PSPgo has a new slim down form factor. Download movies, shoes, and games directly from the PlayStation Network.

The Nintendo DSi portable gaming system will also be a popular with geeks this holiday season. Unlike the PSPgo, the DSi has more innovative games that take full advantage of its touch dual screens. On the DSi, the geeks in the family will enjoy games like Scribblenauts, KORG DS-10 Synthesizer, and DS classics like Brain Age 2 and TouchMaster 3.

The Nintendo Wii is perhaps the innovative console and social gaming platform currently available. The game play with the Wii Remote can be very animated. The Wii is definitely a gaming console for the whole family, and there are plenty of games that the family can play together. This holiday season Nintendo is releasing a whole slew of Mario Bros games. What geek doesn’t love Super Mario Bros based games? Two highly anticipated games are Super Mario Galaxy 2 and New Super Mario Bros.. The Mario Bros have been geek classics since the first game came out in the original Nintendo Entertainment System.

One item that a geek never has enough of is disk space. Technologist can easily fill a 100 GB hard drive with bittorrents, software, games, movies, pictures, data, etc. in no time. The geek in your life will appreciate a portable hard drive like the Western Digital My Passport which are available with 360 or 500 GB. The My Passport is the slimmest, slickest, and sexiest of the portable drives I have seen. They are small enough to carry with you in your laptop bag. As a stocking stuffer, you might be interested in getting a 32 GB USB drive. Some of the cutest USB drives are the Star Wars Mimobot Thumb Drives.

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.

Another category of gadgets in every techie at heart wishlist is electronic book readers. The Amazon Kindle DX is probably the best ebook reader in the market at this time. But Sony and Barnes and Nobles have their own offerings.
The Kindle’s wireless connectivity allow you to shop and download books on the fly as you go on the run. Hundreds of blogs are also available through the Kindle such as Slashdot and The Onion. I have a growing collection of ebooks on my Kindle, in fact I have not bought a hard cover book since I got my Kindle last year, just like I have not bought a CD since I first had my first MP3 music player.

The Powermat is the perfect gift for the early adopter techie. The Powermat is a wireless power adapter. To enable your favorite gadget (iPhone, Blackberry, DSi, etc) you need to buy and use power receiver for your device in the form of a case. With the power receiver, simply place the device on the Powermat to recharge wirelessly.

No geek gift guide is complete without a computer mouse. The Apple Magic Mouse has the form factor of something out of science fiction. The Magic Mouse uses multi-touch technology used in the iPhone. The multi-touch technology allows the whole mouse to be a button and/or a scroll wheel without actually having a button or scroll wheel. You don’t just any mouse pad you having laying around with the Magic Mouse, the SteelSeries SX Mouse Pad is more appropriate.

Apple Magic Mouse

Be sure to take a look a the Juixe Store. We have selected the best software development books that need to be in every software developer’s bookshelf such as the classics like Code Complete, The Mythical Man-month, and The Pragmatic Programmer.

If you still need a little bit more help in finding the right tech gift for the geek in your life, take a look at the following geek gift guides from other sources such as CNET.

• The Ultimate Geek Gift Guide 2008
• The Ruby and Rails Library
• Beginning iPhone Development
• Beginning Android Development
• CNET Holidy Gift Guide

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 and I’ll be sure to follow back.

Software Development

• One source of conflict with human computer interactions is that they unsure of themselves, we seek answers and they seek approval.
• What modern Operating Systems need is some level of artificial intelligence subsystem which all applications can use.
• I hate when each application asks the same question, "are you sure you want to exit?" The OS should help apps to be more opinionated.
• Computers prompt us all the time for what smart defaults would do just fine. Computers lack of inteligence is wasting mine.
• Programmers have a form of groupthink, Programmer Think. This is especially true if FUD becomes dogma and design choices are not tested.
• Break Programmer Think, test all assumptions, every design choice, every implementation, every third party library, every different scenario
• If you are testing, have spent two days on a single problem, look in the log file, especially that null pointer exception, chances are that’s the problem.
• Even with all this cloud computing we still can’t forecast the weather accurately!
• First there was the web, the the web 2.0, now the perpetual web beta.
• Going gang busters don’t scale.
• Everything is beta.

Team Leadership

• If you don’t agree on paper, you are not going to agree in code.
• When you don’t take any personal responsibility and make any proper planning, it is always someone else’s fault.
• Seen it happen… Your brains cells are inverse proportional to your climb up the corporate ladder and the resources you manage.
• Each solution comes with a free can of worms!
• OH: you would make a great manager, cause you make a grumpy developer.

Product Placement

• Google can’t commit to a version number that is why everything is in beta. Beta is like a philosophy at Google, testing like a religion.
• Google’s philosophy of the meaning of life, the universe and everything else: Beta.
• This Week in Tech does ads for their ads… to promote the fact that they need to take ads.
• Apple has sold 225 million iPods to date.
• Twitter: If you build it they will come, but if they all come you will epic fail.

Questions

• What happens when someone has buggy code in their test cases, how do you test the jUnit tests for bad test logic?
• Is Mono chasing .NET’s tail lights and .NET chasing Java’s tail light and Java is chasing Ruby’s tail light, …?
• Infinite Shakespeare Theorem: What would get if you have Shakespeare hitting a typewriter keyboard for an infinite amount of time?
• All clicks being equal, is the Amazon affiliate program better than Google Adsense?
• What is your innovation quotient coefficient?
• What is your innovation quotient?
• What name/term has the most website related moniker/naming patterns? e-iComputroniiixr beta 2.0?
• Are social networking sites making you unsociable?
• Is it possible to burn the rice and still have it be under cook?
• Which do you prefer best, an uncomfortable truth or a flattering lie?
• If you can have any view from your back porch, what would it be?