Juixe Techknow

I’ve always been a book lover. I have a private collection of Ruby, Perl, and Java books, amongst other topics, that would make a public library jealous. In fact, I recently moved and was surprised that that the bulk of the items boxed up where books. I’ve been making the trend of moving my library to ebooks. I was an early adopter of the Amazon Kindle, I still use my first generation Kindle. Here are some books in my collection, which I’ve use as reference.

• The Programmer’s Kindle Book Club
• The Android Learning Library
• The App Engine Learning Library
• The Ruby on Rails Library
• Beginning iPhone Development

I’ve even dedicated a blog post to a few of my favorite books, such as the following.

• Peopleware
• JavaScript: The Good Parts
• Smart and Gets Thing Done
• 97 things every software architect should know

One of the most interesting technologies right now is Google App Engine. Google App Engine is a framework that runs Google’s cloud. Developer and programmers can program in Java or Python and upload their applications to be hosted in Google’s infrastructure. Google has a generous free plan, but if your application picks up traction you to buy additional bandwidth. Google App Engine has some decent documentation but I also like to follow in a book or two. Here is a short list of books on Google App Engine in hopes to get you started.

• Using Google App Engine
• Beginning Java Google App Engine
• Professional Google App Engine Programming with Java
• Programming Google App Engine: Build and Run Scalable Web Apps on Google’s Infrastructure
• Developing with Google App Engine
• Hello, Android: Introducing Google’s Mobile Development Platform

I’ve started learning and developing for the Android platform and I found the best way for me to learn is by learning from ebooks. I’ve long ago stopped buying physical copies of technical and programming books. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to learn about digital technology from a dead tree technology. Here is a short list of the best Amazon Kindle books to learn how to program for the Android platform.

• Beginning Android 2
• Pro Android 2
• Pro Android Games
• Building Android Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
• The Android Developer’s Cookbook: Building Applications with the Android SDK
• Professional Android Application Development
• Unlocking Android: A Developer’s Guide

I’ve always loved to read collections of inspiring quotes. For one, you can read one quote at a time and you don’t have to worry about following a plot or losing your place in the book because each quote is self contained nugget of wisdom. At least that is how I felt when I first read Words I Wish I Wrote: A Collection of Writing That Inspired My Ideas by Robert Fulghum. Since first reading Words I Wish I Wrote, I have collected programming related quotes from blogs, books, and articles that I’ve read. Many, but not all, of the quotes that I’ve collected have ended up as a blog post here.

• Favorite Programming Quotes 2010
• Quotable Calacanis 2010
• Favorite Programming Quotes 2009
• Quotable Calacanis 2009
• Quotable DHH 2009
• Favorite Programming Quotes 2008
• Juixe TechKnow Quotes 2008
• Favorite Programing Quotes

I don’t remember where I read it or hear it, but the idea that a computer program is a combination of code and data has stuck with me. I would only add that a great computer program is designed with the user experience in mind. There is a design pattern that embodies this idea of code, data, and user experience is Model-View-Controller. This combination of programming and design elements forms a foundation of any program I’ve designed that it manifests in The Programmer’s Triforce.

The Programmer's Triforce

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

• Email is not the future of UI. I dislike services that use email for data entry or input device.
• Common source of errors, cut and paste!
• Functional specifications are often times as misinterpreted as the Bible.
• I’m a programmer by day, developer by night, and hacker in between.
• Some features are disguised as bugs.
• One man’s feature is another man’s bug.
• Void is my favorite return type.
• Code Commandment: No code shall PrintStackTrace
• Show me your implementation and I’ll tell you about yourself.
• The words “it does not compute” does not compute, they are not in my default dictionary.
• Get your hack on!
• When a developer says, “pretty much working” it does not mean production quality.
• I’m not sure that a software application larger than “Hello, World” can be bug free.
• If there is a giant red ‘Do Not Press’ or ‘Active Dooms Day Device’ button, someone will press it.
• Every design decision should be a conscious choice, not an accidental assumption.
• Will work for intellectual stimulation.
• If you are a User Generated Content site saying you will censor a topic will only inspire your users to find ways around that.
• What’s your default setting for the Ultimate Bitch Mode setting?

Team Dynamics

• Just like how there are no any stupid questions, there are no any stupid ideas.
• In order to get the most out of crowd sourcing you need to source your crowd.
• Look past people’s past.
• If you are going to shot for the stars you best have a rocket ship.
• When the stars align, shoot for them. And if you shooting for the stars you best bring the big guns!
• When shooting for the stars I bring an Klingon Bird of Prey!
• And on the 8th day God said, “Let there be a TPS report.”
• Life is too short to sell yourself short.
• Don’t think in problems. Dream in solutions.
• Never say maybe.
• The next big thing usually starts as a small idea.
• People will always push your buttons, you need to know how o deactivate those buttons.
• I don’t fear being wrong. I fear not being able to recognize when other people are wrong.
• You can’t delete emails once sent, but you can read them before you send them.
• For every great idea there are hundreds of ways to mess it up.
• Show me the monetization.

Product Placement

• Mark Zuckerborg is a geek super evil privacy villain.
• Boing Boing should just sell out to Rupert Murdoch.
• Panda Express’ logo says, “Gourmet Chinese Food.” Really, Gourmet? Chinese?
• American Apparel might file for bankruptcy, maybe China can buy it out and rename it to Chairman Mao Apparel.
• The company Manpower has a very male chauvinist sounding name.
• If only mother nature would have patented all her innovations, we would all be paying royalties to her.
• Why does it cost $30 for Apple’s iPhone earphones? They like $.50 worth of material and $.25 of labor!
• If you Google for love you will find about 1,930,000,000 results (0.23 seconds). At least one of those results is meant for you.
• Google Finance should have a “I’m Feeling Lucky” button.
• The cake is a lie. Do no evil is a lie.
• The next version of the iPhone should be called ivePhone after it’s designer Jony Ive.
• Upset that I’ve had to purchase yet another iPhone headset!!! At $30 a pop the white earphone are Apple’s razor blade business!

Resume Writing Tips

• Resume Writing Tip: Use a good phone line for a phone interview.
• Resume Writing Tip: At a minimum candidate should be able to figure out our URL by a) clicking the link on job description b) from my email.
• Resume Writing Tip: The minimum research a candidate needs to do is lookup the company website himself prior to interviewing.
• Resume Writing Tip: Ensure your cover letter or email is in one font, it shouldn’t look like you cut and pasted from somewhere else.
• Resume Writing Tip: I would leave out MS Access 2000 out of technical skills. It’s also not necessary to list HTML, DHTML, and HTML5.
• Resume Writing Tip: Proof read your resume and fix obvious typos, you can’t say you detailed oriented if you have basic spelling errors.

Quote

• I want to put a ding in the universe. – Steve Jobs
• The problem with Google is that Eric Schmidt is creepy. – Daring Fireball
• They [People] want Google to tell them what they should be doing next. – Eric Schmidt
• People aren’t ready for the technology revolution that’s going to happen to them. – Eric Schmidt