Feb 6 2010

Retweet December 2009

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

  • Are we that good that some features work because of an unintentional side effect of a bug?
  • I’ve heard of cloud computing, even ground computing, but I can’t wait until I can do intergalactic-interdimensional computing.
  • Maintenance is a real full time job and it should be planned, scheduled, and budgeted accordingly.
  • Maintainability is a feature.
  • Team meetings should not feel like AA meetings.
  • The debugger don’t lie, but the test might.
  • Old legacy systems don’t die, they just complicate your architecture.
  • Mashup data with dreams, feeds, and feelings…

Team Leadership

  • Guilt is not the optimal way to inspire people to do what is right.
  • Knowledge is like an fractal iceberg, and what you know is the tip of a snowflake in the tip of an iceberg in an ice planet.
  • Usually there is only one way to win at a given time, but many ways to lose most of the time.
  • When people don’t listen to the truth they are lying to themselves.
  • Not all great ideas make for a good business.
  • Thinking Asymmetrically!

Product Placement

  • Should I get a Droid or wait for the new Google phone?
  • Does Zuckerborg eat his own dog food when it comes to privacy, his real profile is not public, just his fan page in which he doesn’t post much.
  • The only way Zuckerborg would appreciate privacy is if TMZ deployed their paparazzi on him.
  • @zynga I would love to give points/credits as a gift in non-spammy and non-recurring way without signing up to services I don’t need.
  • @zynga can I buy Cafe World gift card?
  • I just got a subscription of Mobile Me. I like how I can track, lock down, and erase the data of my iPhone from the web.
  • Got crack? There’s an app for that!
  • Twitter should increase to 256 characters…
  • Money don’t grow on trees, but with these prices for xmas trees you would think it does.

Quote

  • What came first, chicken nuggets or the egg mcmuffin? – Little Jackie
  • If I ask no questions I hear no lies. – Little Jackie.
  • The Three Es of Good Work: Excellent, Engaging, and Ethical. – Howard Gardner
  • The United States has been dominated by the three Ms: Money, Markets, and Me. – Howard Gardner
  • If you can’t cover it up, turn it up. – Adam Curry/NA-152 #noagenda
  • We have privatized our foreign policy – Philip Brenner
  • The more complex an economy is, the more fragile it is, and the more cataclysmic its disintegration can be. – Bryan Ward-Perkins

Dec 13 2009

Retweet November 2009

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 bad artists copy and great artists steal then bad programmers copy and great programmers cut and paste.
  • You have to think outside our current requirements and think about solutions that fit the platform and which we can build product features.
  • Can programmer mood/happiness be deciphered based on rate of check-ins, changelist, source code diff size, amount of refactoring?
  • Software is alchemy. The magic of software is that it can turn complexity to simplicity.
  • One man’s feature is another’s complexity.

Team Leadership

  • A 10:00 PM design leads to 1:00 AM release leads to 8:00 AM FAIL.
  • There are sore losers and sour winners!
  • You may know your competitors, but do you know your complementor? Complementors are businesses and services that complement yours.
  • Know thy competitor, and get to know thy complementor.
  • The biggest risk is not taking risks.
  • Don’t be afraid of someone stealing your idea, be afraid that someone is actually going to follow through with it
  • Taking startup advice is like taking dating advice.

Product Placement

  • Google Wave does not feel like a wave, it is more like a creek and I am without a paddle.
  • I’m riding the Google Wave, but not drinking the Google Kool-Aid.
  • It’s great that Apple invest in design and multi-touch tech, but they need to invest in water proof tech too. I’ve lost two ipods to water.
  • I want to tether an iPod Touch with an iPhone.
  • The iPhone is the PC.
  • 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 over a year ago.
  • Recharging my Kindle. It used to be that a book recharged my creativity and imagination now I have to recharge my ebook.
  • FaceBook should just rename itself to FarmBook! All I see on FaceBook when I sign in are updates from FarmVille, Cafe World, etc…
  • Will Microsoft port Google Go to the .NET platform? Why will they call it? G++? Iron Google Go? Google Go 2010 Business Edition?
  • What will people abbreviate Google Go down to? GooGo? GoGo? Goo? Goog++? Golang? Pogo?
  • ‘Python 300’ + ‘C++’ + Googleplex + $$$ + WTF = Google Go

Self Development

  • Creditability is worth more than money in the bank.
  • It is better to work on your own ideas than on someone else’s assumptions.
  • To think outside the box it helps to first master the box.
  • Don’t do what stops you from doing what you want to do unless that is what you want to do.
  • You are damned if you do, damned if you don’t, and damned if you hesitate.
  • If you don’t have the key to success, call on a locksmith.

Quotes

  • The biggest motivation is not the money but the impact. – Matt Mullenweg/#TWiST 26
  • You can’t build everything and there is no more a killer feature. Everyone has a different killer feature. – Matt Mullenweg/#TWiST 26
  • I am the unhappiest WordPress user in the world, I think it sucks. – Matt Mullenweg/#TWiST 26
  • Having a virtual assistant is one of the greatest training for managers. – Matt Coffin/#TWiST 27
  • I only believe rumors that I start – Mike Elgan
  • Wait a second, … you’ll waiting for me to take a risk, and then you’ll take a risk, that is not risk at all – @jason/#TWiST
  • We spend more time worrying and planning for the downside than we do spend worrying and planning for the upside. – Mark Pincus/Zynga
  • A lot of what you have to do as CEO is convince the employees that you are not a normal company. – Mark Pincus/Zynga
  • If you don’t have control of your company, you are an employee. – Mark Pincus
  • The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings. – Eric Hoffer

Nov 7 2009

Retweet October 2009

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

  • I can haz codebyte!
  • Hacks are in the eye of the debugger.
  • Is there a werewolf in your software, then why do you need a silver bullet?
  • I know HACK is a four letter word but it is not a bad four letter word.
  • It is okay to paint by numbers but its something different to code by numbers. I code by polynomials.
  • If it doesn’t matter either way, why not choose the option that is easier to implement, cleaner to design, and friendlier to use.
  • Content is the killer app.
  • They say those who can’t do, teach. Well, those that can’t create content, aggregate.

Team Leadership

  • The sooner you adapt, the wider your lead.
  • Don’t nickel-and-dime old business assumptions.
  • When leading the way, be sure to get out of the way. As a leader you don’t want to be a roadblock or bottle neck to the troops.
  • A manager should do two things: give precise tasks and expect precise results.
  • Don’t confuse opinion for advice, don’t confuse advice for a plan.
  • Even a detailed schedule can’t predict the future.
  • Sometimes schedules are another way we lie to ourselves.
  • Time does not run on a schedule.
  • A good skill is to identify the skillset of your team, a better skill is to improve those skills while leveraging them to the fullest.
  • Little baby steps add up to giant leaps for mankind.

Product Placement

  • In Windows, when you overwrite a file instead of replacing it without a trace, the OS should put a copy in the recycle bin first.
  • You can learn a lot about someone by taking a look at their FarmVille farm.
  • Is Twitter lists just another metric for users to have a pissing match on Twitter? If comparing followers wasn’t enough…
  • Why is it that installing ImageMagick is a longer and more painful process than upgrading OSX?

Self Dev

  • In certain task I am worth my weight in gold, in others I am worth my weight in lead, but I do my best to avoid tasks were I cost my weight.
  • Many people will ask for out of the box ideas, but they don’t want ideas too far away from the box, more like ideas hovering around the box.
  • It’s okay to have your cake and eat it to, as long as you bake the cake yourself…
  • Be a double agent of change.
  • On man’s problem, is another man’s opportunity.
  • Authenticity has no substitute.
  • Not failing fast enough is the biggest failure.
  • Failure is when you don’t learn from it.
  • You have to kill it to win it.
  • Fail frequently, fast, and furious
  • If I played baseball I would be the GM.

Questions

  • What is the opposite of a trophy wife?
  • Do you have a failure resume?
  • Is Facebook to big to fail?
  • How many tweets does it take to get a trend?
  • There are wrinkle free pants, when will we see tangle free headphones?
  • Which is best Happily Ever After or Happily Ever Now?
  • What does it mean to ‘trust the chicken?’
  • Do you have to sell out to get buy in?
  • If you are not passionate, who do you expect your team to be passionate?

Quotes

  • Good ideas are simple. – @jason
  • Money is the shortcut. – @garyvee
  • Great entrepreneurs don’t have better ideas, they have better process. – Eric Ries
  • Pay attention to pixels. – Bump Technologies Job Listing

Sep 8 2009

Retweet August 2009

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

  • sudo gem install mixico; wishing sudo gem install vacation.
  • Version control tools need a better way to diff source history than just diffing two versions of a file…
  • If all bug defects are set to high priority, how are you to know, which one are really really really important ones?
  • I have 20 bugs marked a high priority, but some are higher than others. In addition to the having a priority and severity on defects we need color code too, ‘high pink’ is lower than ‘high crimson.’
  • Just remember, a two line fix can cost you a two hundred thousand dollar deal! Any code change to a production system must be tested.
  • LOL, getting a NullPointerException in a method called initNullValues.
  • Give me open source or give me piracy!
  • Let your users help drive the development of your product, not the accountants.

Team Leadership

  • Sometimes it seems that team meetings are anti-team building!
  • You can still compare apples to oranges, but it is harder to compare apples to some ill-perceived subjective metric.
  • Sometimes people tell you whatever you want to hear, because you are not listening to whatever they are trying to say.
  • People are crazy, and you getting upset about other people’s craziness, will make you crazy.
  • Not losing is not winning.
  • Take your competitors and make them your competitive advantage.

Product Placement

  • I don’t think Apple sponsored #iPhoneDevCamp 3, which is interesting because the iPhone dev camps generate a lot of business for Apple.
  • One feature implemented in many MS products is to restrict other features unless you upgrade from the home to the super business edition.
  • Why does Edible Arrangements require an answer to the following question ‘How did you hear about us?’ before I can place an order?
  • Finally figured out how to cancel @UsWeekly, just typical of a old media company their web site/design/usability makes absolutely no sense!
  • Facebook adds so many obstacles before you can follow someone… It’s like they don’t really want you to have friends.
  • Updating and adding new plugins on my WordPress bloggie! Plugins are like bling for blog!
  • You might have heard of ttyl, maybe of ttyn, but what about ttyat&t? ttyat&t: Talk To You if I get cell reception from AT&T.

Business Planning

  • When you have lemons don’t just make lemonade, make lemon cake too!
  • Having your mommy pay for your business plan is not a business plan.
  • Everyone has a million dollar idea, I have a billion dollar idea, care to invest?
  • Cash in your million dollar idea!
  • If content is king, then context is like emperor.