Great article via Digg.com, Developers are from Mars, Programmers are from Venus, is probably the single best description of the difference between developers and programmers. I am proud to be the former. It took a year of experience to get me there, but I’m on the right track. Kudos to the blog author.
Archive for the 'Tech' Category
Well, most gadget aficionados, myself included, are awaiting the release of many new products in the coming months. From the newest product from Nintendo, the Wii, to the Sony Mylo, and Microsoft’s Zune there are a myriad of new toys to be had. The target market for most of these devices lands smack in the middle between highschool kids, and college students. Call it a coincidence, or just fate, but this happens to be the same target audience which MySpace has succumbed to. The horribly crafted pages of MySpace.com lend themselves to the artsy hands of anyone with a small amount of knowledge of the web. By making the web this easy to influence, MySpace has created what some call a cult of personality much like Apple did with the iPod, but without the Jobs. The independent souls of MySpace can go from zero to hero in a matter of keystrokes. Digg helps nicely with this effect.
More on the history, and philosophy after the jump.
Continue reading ‘Zune, iPod and MySpace: A Short Study’
Subversion
Subversion is the CVS done right. Now, I know many web developers who sware by FTP and their own voice as a means of controlling their source code. I for one believe that method is by far the easiest, and usually most efficient way to manage source code in a small business. Yes, it is dirty, and yes it can get ugly. The upside is that everyone knows what is going on in the company, and everyone knows what they can edit at any given time. The downside is that one slip up can cost you several hours, if not days of precious development time.
Continue reading ‘Free Source Control and Blissful Workflow’
I just had to cross post this. If for no other reason than to show off, gloat, or otherwise inflate my ego. That or just to prove how incredibly crazy the web really is. Small world, huh?
Well, it is about time Sony realized that they’ve been doing everything wrong. I mean everything. Their new “Mylo™ personal communicator” is basically a complete 360 degrees for them. I mean, they finally realized that convergence is key. The PSP started it, but really failed at bringing cheap, portable video to the consumer. It also had so much potential to be used as a portable WiFi device, but really hasn’t been pushed to it’s true potential. The Mylo is just that, a PSP with what we all wish it had:
- Qwerty Keyboard
- Instant Messaging
- Internet Phone/Voice Chat
- A battery that can last a real work/use day
- Built in memory
- Video, Audio, and a decent browser. Yes, Opera.
- WiFi Streaming between players
I’m happy to see devices like this sprouting up. I would keep an eye on Microsoft’s Zune, as well as this project and of course the Nokia 770. These devices are the future. The handheld market has been slow recently, but with these new additions there’s no telling where we are going.
Oh, and if you’d like to buy me one you can send a donation to me. Hey, my birthday is coming up give me a break!
Sony Mylo™ Specs
Sony Mylo™ Learning Center
Pictures
Video
Update:
The thing runs linux!
It’s called ScatterChat by Hacktivismo/CDC. Very nice tool that uses the Gaim source along with the Tor network to route IM traffic as well as encrypt it using RSA key files. Very slick.
Background
It is (about) day 2 of using ASP.NET and Visual Studio 2003 and I’ve finally managed to deploy an application to the new webserver. Basically all it does is read the iTunes text file output (File –> Export Song List… –> Text File) and outputs a DataGrid component with the artist, album, and song title with nice pagination. The nice thing is that the DataGrid handles the pagination and pretty much any operations with the data. I have to say, I really wrote this in about 2 hours in the wee hours of the night so if it breaks, let me know.
Why ASP.NET is unique…
There are so many people that have told me that ASP.NET and .NET in general is pretty much a waste of my time, but see, there are so many others who are using it and loving it. Here are a few reasons I personally see promise in the language(s).
- .NET keeps the code out of the interface using ‘Code Behind’ allowing your layout people to work on layout, and your coders to work on… code.
- .NET uses more than one language, but those languages can be used in both desktop and web based development. What this means is, an employer only has to hire one person and they could easily jump from web to desktop in hours instead of weeks.
- I can’t say just how much .NET WebForms really act like desktop applications. You can actually write subroutines that run on the webpage based on user actions. This is really unique, as at my work we usually have to shoehorn it by creating a new page or using a ton of javascript. .NET tries to take care of it for you and does a darn good job.
- Choices: You get a choice of VB.NET, J#, and C#. They all work pretty much the same with the .NET framework, but it really gives programmers the choice to specialize or just pick their favourite to work in. Personally, I like C# because it reminds me of Java and C mashed together, but these choices give developers with different backgrounds the ability to work together.
- Postbacks: .NET has a built in way of handling postbacks, you know, when there is an error or if you want to process data on the same page it is displayed, .NET can handle it for you.
- Source code safety: ASP.NET builds. It actually has to complie, which for some of us LAMP developers sounds like a royal pain, but really it keeps your source safe. Think about it, if you lose a client, or a client demands FTP access, they cannot access your source (at least not easily). It’s really a beautiful thing.
Hello World, for good measure…
I of course had to write a classic ‘Hello World’ in C# (desktop!) for good measure. It has a little more than a standard hello world, but I think it just shows how carried away I can get at 2am.
Well, that’s it for now. More when I finally write something useful!
From TOR Park Website:
You may have heard about those heavily advertised second-rate software packages like Anonymizer, SafeSharing, InvisibleIP, SecretSurfer, etc. Well, not only do they charge you money and/or a subscription fee, but they are bloated and full of useless components. They also require an installation which leaves tracks on your computer. How is that anonymous? Try Torpark; its small, portable, clean, free of spyware/adware, and best of all its free of cost.
From TOR Official Website:
Tor is a network of virtual tunnels that allows people and groups to improve their privacy and security on the Internet. It also enables software developers to create new communication tools with built-in privacy features. Tor provides the foundation for a range of applications that allow organizations and individuals to share information over public networks without compromising their privacy.
A branch of the U.S. Navy uses Tor for open source intelligence gathering, and one of its teams used Tor while deployed in the Middle East recently. Law enforcement uses Tor for visiting or surveilling web sites without leaving government IP addresses in their web logs, and for security during sting operations.
Awesome. Subethaedit is being offered on MacZOT. If 700 blogs post this info, and submit their link to MacZOT, they’ll give it away free to all those who participated. Join in!
Obligatory plugs for MacZOT:
SubEthaEdit from CodingMonkeys
BLOGZOT 2.0 on MacZOT.com
MacZOT and TheCodingMonkeys will award $105,000 in Mac software
I saw this amazing link on Digg today and thought I needed to make my stance on MySpace heard. MySpace.com is quite honestly the most rebellious and anarchistic social networking site I have ever seen. Users can pretty much do whatever they want to their profile, post what they want, and befriend who they want. All in all, this sounds like a wonderful Utopia of social goodness and web based interaction. The problem with all this freedom is that at some point that animated GIF background, your flash based video and music player (which autostarts no doubt) will make your content illegible and probably annoy any potential viewer. On top of the usual suspects, there is illiteracy. The article actually graphs the millions of grammatical and spelling errors that MySpace is chock full of and I must say, it is very, very scary.
Anyways, enough ranting. Enjoy the link.
