The Reality of a Developer's Life

JavaCodeGeeks has a great post on the joy of being a developer. Here are some of my favorites:

When you upload to the production server:

When you close your IDE without saving the code:

When you try to fix a bug at 3AM:

When you show your boss that you fixed the bug:

Predicting the Future

A warning from Michael Crichton on predicting THE FUTURE.

Let's think back to people in 1900 in, say, New York. If they worried about people in 2000, what would they worry about? Probably: Where would people get enough horses? And what would they do about all the horseshit? Horse pollution was bad in 1900, think how much worse it would be a century later, with so many more people riding horses?

But of course, within a few years, nobody rode horses except for sport. And in 2000, France was getting 80% its power from an energy source that was unknown in 1900. Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and Japan were getting more than 30% from this source, unknown in 1900. Remember, people in 1900 didn't know what an atom was. They didn't know its structure. They also didn't know what a radio was, or an airport, or a movie, or a television, or a computer, or a cell phone, or a jet, an antibiotic, a rocket, a satellite, an MRI, ICU, IUD, IBM, IRA, ERA, EEG, EPA, IRS, DOD, PCP, HTML, internet. interferon, instant replay, remote sensing, remote control, speed dialing, gene therapy, gene splicing, genes, spot welding, heat-seeking, bipolar, prozac, leotards, lap dancing, email, tape recorder, CDs, airbags, plastic explosive, plastic, robots, cars, liposuction, transduction, superconduction, dish antennas, step aerobics, smoothies, twelve-step, ultrasound, nylon, rayon, teflon, fiber optics, carpal tunnel, laser surgery, laparoscopy, corneal transplant, kidney transplant, AIDS? None of this would have meant anything to a person in the year 1900. They wouldn't know what you are talking about.

Now. You tell me you can predict the world of 2100. Tell me it's even worth thinking about. Our models just carry the present into the future.

They're bound to be wrong. Everybody who gives a moment's thought knows it.

The essay is called "Aliens Cause Global Warming" and one can find it in several places. EDIT 1/31/2014: Removed several dead links. Aliens Cause Global Warming

Assist of the Year

Technology and Privacy

There is a TED talk Margaret Gould Stewart: How YouTube thinks about copyright which describes, in a general, way the state of technology. YouTube/Google is able to review an incredible amount of data in order to determine if the information is copyrighted - and if it is what to do about it.

If you're concerned about privacy use this video as a stepping to stone to comprehend the future. Computer processing speed is doubling every 18 months. In less than twenty years processing power will be 1000 times greater than it is today. What currently takes Google, YouTube, the NSA one year will take about 8.5 hours. Or, put in another way, what now takes 24 hours will take a little under 3 minutes.

Oh to be able to comment on web pages

On my wish list for the web - once again -  is the ability to easily save web pages locally as a single file AND be able to highlight text and add notes to the existing page - all while within the browser.

The above can obviously be done by taking a screenshot and then adding text in Photoshop. That is not what I want. That is not what I need. No. The Christmas gift I want for this year is to be able to save and comment on web pages.

Future Technology, this is not far-fetched

Sight from Sight Systems on Vimeo.

CMS v Framework

I just had a long conversation with a customer who had asked whether we were using a CMS or Framework to build his site. I find it interesting that I was asked this question in the first place as few customers care deeply about the technologies involved in their site. Secondly I was intrigued in how a CMS was confused with a Framework.

A CMS is a system where pages are loaded with data that is stored in a database* and the the customer has direct control over the page contents and much of the formatting.

A Frameworks is a set of rules that sets up how files are organized and how they work together. These 2 things have very little to do with each other.

"So why not alway use a CMS?"

Because not all sites are used for delivering content. Publishing houses deliver content, as do eCommerce sites, but some sites are applications and frameworks are used to build these applications. An application may be a Content Management System but it need not be.



* Yes it can be a NoSQL or flat-file solution as well.