I have spent the past several days doing some work for a client and am travelling out to their office today to deploy the work on their servers.  The plan was to download the release from Subversion onto a workstation and upload to their server (and updates configs and all that). 

Last night at 9pm, my main pc wouldn’t start.  I could hear the fan humming and disks spinning, but nothing showing up on the monitor—not even bios set-up screens. It’s a four-year-old Dell Dimension 9150, so the pc isn’t new and I expect there to be problems from time-to-time, but this kind of problem couldn’t happen at all those times I don’t have any clients?

My main development PC gets backed up once a week to an external hard drive using Acronis True Image.  My PC also wakes from hibernate every morning at 2am and takes a local backup from all my websites and databases hosted on different web servers.  I have a Subversion repository hosted off-site where I keep all my code.  I’ve thought a lot about disaster recovery.  But it wasn’t enough.

I wasn’t concerned about the PC as much as I was concerned about the code.  But, as much as I tell my developers to check-in every day, I was a bit lazy here and didn’t do it myself for two days. 

After Googling the problem for a while (on my laptop) I found the issue was some RAM had gone bad.  I took memory out one by one until the computer would start again.  I breathed a sigh of relief.  Eventually removed two RAM modules (bringing my pc from 4gb down to 2gb)—and the first thing I did was check my code into Subversion.  So after a few hours of panic, everything was fine.

Here’s the problem with my backup strategy—it’s not regular enough.  It’s geared for a hard-drive failure more than anything else.  If my pc completely packs it in, I can restore my operating system, hard drives and everything else onto a new box—but my backup only runs once a week.  I could be 6 days out of date.  I need to increase it.  Besides, I live in Oxfordshire.  It’s not like I’m in San Diego where you can swing down to Fries at 9pm on a Sunday night and pick up a hard drive.

If you’ve ever had a hard drive fail, you know how important back-ups are—but they got to be automated or they won’t happen.  When you get paid for the work you do on your computer, it’s even more important. 

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3. Catching up

A little common sense and a knowledge of web standards and it’s easy to write HTML that will look good and be functional in all browsers.  Still, in my experience, too many developers are choosing a platform and sticking with it—most of the time that is IE.  It’s easier to test one browser, it’s easier to tell a user to use the browser that’s probably already installed on their pc.

Flash and Silverlight are different than HTML—they are runtimes which are allowed to run inside the browser—kind of like how Java applets used to be able to.  They are executables which run compiled functionality on your computer.  They are cross-browser—but not like html is cross-browser.  When I look at a Silverlight or Flash app on my pc, it’s always the same runtime working.  Silverlight is a few years old and really starting to look like Flash—allowing Microsoft developers like me to get more fancy and provide far better functionality for our users.  Silverlight runs on Windows and Mac, but has ignored the Linux landscape (there is an open-source Silverlight runtime called Moonlight being developed for that—but I consider it a snub).

In the world of web development, I think Flash and Silverlight are “cheating” at cross-platform compatibility.  Everyone has accepted Flash (except the iPhone/iPad), but the jury is still out on Silverlight.

Silverlight and Flash are great in that they move a lot of the processing to your computer and free up resources on the server from which they originate.  But they also increase the responsibilities of they client over the server.

Security flaws are found all the time.  We all scramble around and try to fix them when they come up.  As a software developer, I like the idea that I can apply a patch to a server and be done with it.  With client driven app, I need to make sure all of my users apply the patch (and do it in a way that lets them know that the app is safe—and not to panic).  Flash could bounce back from it (“You need it for Youtube, too. You should apply the patch”), but Silverlight is too new.

I’m often seduced by the cool things that Silverlight can do.  I’ve played around with it a lot and have written several small apps (including an animated Overpass ad on my blog), but I’m not ready to jump in head-first yet. 

Related posts:

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Even more interesting, most corporate environments I’ve worked in support only Internet Explorer internally.  You are simply not allowed to install another browser.  I’ve worked on projects where the intranet application we are developing only works with Internet Explorer—usually because of bad coding/testing—but no one will fix this because “we only support Internet Explorer”.

I remember one high-level manager in an investment bank tell me—“Seriously, Eric, I can’t see us ever moving away from Internet Explorer.”

The lack of cross-browser support in the ASP.net developer community has been a big pet-peeve with me for years.  You don’t find this with PHP, Java, or Ruby guys.  But Microsoft developers stick with Microsoft browsers. 

I’ve had the arguments so many times in various contracts—“We should support Firefox too.  It only takes a few minutes to test functionality if we do it early enough, but will be a huge task to implement it later.”  I can remember having this argument a half-dozen times, at least.

It has never been easier to do cross-browser development (you should have tried it in the Netscape 3/IE 3 days—that was painful), but it still gets overlooked.

Even the online banking site for my  business bank account only renders properly in Internet Explorer.  This is a huge pain to go through all the necessary security logins for banking—only to realise you are in the wrong browser and you can’t read the page.  I’ve nearly changed banks because of this frustration.

An ideal web development team would have different developers using different browsers.  In a team of 4 people for example, have one person on each of the 4 major browsers—IE, FIrefox, Chrome and Safari.  Better yet, adhere to proper XHTML or HTML syntax (most of the time, apps only support IE because of some malformed html that Explorer allows). 

But for years I’ve heard the same argument from different people--“We don’t have that kind of time”, “It’s an internal application and the we only support Explorer”, and “We’re not a software house.  But now, when governments are recommending that we switch browsers, these developers haven’t even given their users this option.

This could kill Internet Explorer or at least severely weaken it.  I see a lot of “Make this website work in Firefox” projects coming up.

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1. The scary thing about Silverlight . . .
2. The Client-Side Install
3. I’m a Firefox Convert — finally

I found the following video on the fantastic Signal vs Noise blog from 37 Signals.  It’s a one hour introduction to web usability given by Krug in 2008.  If you have a bit of time (I know an hour is a bit long), it really is an interesting talk so have watch.

The url for the video is (on Signal Vs Noise) is http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2092-i-cant-think-of-a-better-intro-to-the-essential

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The IT head pointed out to me that a PSTN is the industry term for a land-line (it stands for Public Switched Telephone Network) and that, now that I knew this, it should make sense to me.  I suggested he change it to “Phone Number”—since this app was going to be used by the general public.  He insisted that most people know this—just not me.  I told him he should still change it.  This advice fell on deaf ears, but we made some other good changes to improve the usability of the app.

photo credit: jakeliefer

My logic is (and continues to be)—if I don’t understand a term, it’s too confusing.  If I do understand it, would my grandmother?  In my situation, there are still occasions when I don't understand something because of cultural differences-- like expressions used in the UK but I never grew up with.  I still question them anyway.

This happens all the time—techies want to educate the non-techies on how to talk about technology.  Sometimes, these aren’t even terms in the technology industry—but acronyms and abbreviations used in a specific company that everyone adopts.  I’ve been in small twenty-person offices where you would think everyone went to school to learn how to talk like they do—even the secretaries: “Are you going to de-duplicate the NOC node or shall I?”  Eventually, no one knows how to talk like a regular person anymore.

We techies love our lingo.  In even smaller arenas (like a company or an industry) this lingo becomes even more precious. When we talk like this, we really sound like we know what we are talking about.  It impresses people (or so we think).  I can remember the feeling of working on a stock trading application for a major bank and talking about trade flips and different types of transactions and FSA systems and then stopping to reflect on how cool it must all sound—I was an insider.  I wasn’t a newbie—I sounded like an authority.

But all good software and hardware have the ability to take techie jargon and make it palatable to the masses.  A good site or web application should not imply when you log in that you have no business being there because you don’t know how to use it.  If you don’t understand the menu options, then you are in the wrong place.

In the future, people may look back at our gadgets today and conclude that Apple created the digital music player.  The truth was that portable MP3 players existed a few years before the iPod, but while techie ruled this area (with Rippers, LAME codecs, etc), Apple made the whole process simple for those who didn’t feel like pouring through thousands of forums and blogs to figure out who to rip a cd.  Try explaining to your grandmother how to set up a podcast aggregator while not using iTunes and you can see how much they simplified this area.  The term MP3 made it into the mainstream lexicon, but most of the terms of the early days did not.  Today, you still hear people argue about the benefit of Ogg or Flac over MP3, and can’t figure out why the mainstream hasn’t switched from MP3 to the superior Flac.  But the general public doesn’t care about this.

Google is revolutionary and I love the company, but to read many of the books out there (like “The Google Story” or “What would Google do?”) you would think that before Google, we were all randomly typing URLs into our browsers hoping to find something.  Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, Alta Vista, Lycos, etc were all there.  But Google made it easy in addition to being far more efficient.  One textbox, one button.  It was easy to tell your grandmother how to use it.

In technology, especially when it comes to interface design or anything that requires us to interact with the public, the best skill is to be a layperson.  Some people call this the “mother” test.  If your mother came to this site, or used your application, could she figure out how to use it without calling you?

I think about every time I have to fill in my tax forms how lost I am.  Even the “How to fill in this form” instructions confuse me.  It makes sense to someone, but they are in love with their lingo too.

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"Our goal should be to design the least complex architecture possible that solves the business problem”

I’ve been part of many projects that were mired in complexity.  They usually over-run or we end up with a sub-par system that awaits a never-to-happen refactoring and revision.

photo credit: Kecko

It’s easy to brainstorm a project and add feature-after-feature until you produced a project plan which stretches over months or years.  It’s easy to design an interface that looks like a cockpit dashboard with lots of functionality that you will probably never use, but looks impressive in the way it fills the screen.  “Wouldn’t it be great if this interfaces with every other system we have?  Wouldn’t it be great if we could use that new transactional system that’s really hot right now?  Wouldn’t it be great if . . .”

I’ve been guilty of this in the past—but I’ve been burned so many times that I tend to err on the side of simplicity (but I don’t always get final say in architectural decisions).

Over the past few years there has been a move to simpler architectures, simpler interfaces, and quicker release cycles.

Scrum is an agile methodology that stresses frequent releases over many iterations.  So, at the end of each 2-3 week iteration, you have working software—regardless of whether you release it to the public or hold until the next iteration.  It’s a methodology that resonates with a lot of people who have worked on failed projects in the past.  I became Scrum Master certified a few years ago, and it changed my whole view of how projects should run—but it is not easy to convince business owners to go this way.

37 Signals released a fantastic e-book called “Getting Real” which they stress that building software is more important that talking about building software.  They have released one of my favourite on-line apps ever with Basecamp.  It is quick, easy, and has a simple interface.  They refuse to clutter it every bit of functionality anyone asks for.

Interfaces in general are getting more simple to use—and not just for products like Basecamp.  10 years ago, you had apps that tried to fill your entire browser with things to do, but now you see more and more that are intuitive and easy to use.  Compare Yahoo! (with a browser window you couldn’t find any blank space on) with Google (a textbox and a button—no manual needed).

The software that has a better chance of reaching “finished” is the software that keeps the architecture simple, keeps the interface simple, and releases frequently.

Here’s the link to the ComputerWorld article:  http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/345994/The_No._1_Cause_of_IT_Failure_Complexity

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They put a video out on Youtube recently called the Future of Work. It’s very good.  Here it is if you haven’t seen it:

The link is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8Yt4wxSblc

For the past few years, you could definitely see the tide turning.  Maybe there will soon be a world where the majority of people don’t have work which makes them put on a suit and commute for hours every day.  I’m glad that other companies believe that and are working towards it.

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photo credit: schoschie

I know professional software developers who have never read a tech book all the way through.  They survive on Google searches.  When they run into a problem or need to do something new, they Google, get the answer and move on.  This works, but you often don’t get all the of the information that would be helpful to you.

When you just search for the information you need, you only find the subjects that are interesting to you.  It would be like picking up a computer book and only reading the chapters that sound good.  You would look at the construction of the GUI, database code, etc.  This is how things like Code comments, html standards, testing habits, etc. get ignored so frequently in this industry.

When I conduct interviews for developers, I like to ask “What is the last technology book you’ve read?”  Sometimes, the interviewee will try to impress me by telling me how long he has been in the industry, but that’s not the answer I was looking for.  I also ask which websites or blogs they go to for new information—since books are slow to publish, but technology changes everyday.

You have to Google for solutions, don’t get me wrong.  But if you’ve read a book (or e-book or whatever) you have a more holistic view of a technology.  Google is fantastic because we don’t need to be so concerned with exact programming syntax as we do with what a technology is capable of.  Back in my early days as a software developer (VB5), I used to pride myself on my ability to write code on paper—I knew the exact syntax without intellisence.  Now, that’s just stupid—I can look up anything I need in a few seconds (because I know what I am looking for).

There is a fear that if you are carrying a book around about your specialist subject, you are somehow showing people that you don’t know enough about it.  I have a friend who gave me a hard time about reading a book on Advanced CSS a few years ago. He told me he had never read a programming book because they are too dry.  I’ll agree with that, but that’s like a professional athlete saying he doesn’t like to train because it is too boring.  By stepping away from the practice and into the theory of what we do, we become more self-critical and improve at what we do.

I listened to a Brian Tracy audio book years ago.  He is always talks about the importance of reading.  He says (and I’m paraphrasing):

If you went to see a doctor about a problem you were having, you wouldn’t want to see one that doesn’t read anything.  You wouldn’t want someone who had learned everything on the job.  Someone who is only really good at stuff he has done before and looked it up at the time.  You want someone who knows what is going on in the medical industry.  You want someone who reads the latest books and periodicals in his field.  The same is true for lawyers or any other knowledge profession.

And the same is true for software developers.

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In Shanghai and Dalian, I met with 9 software companies in an effort to find more offshore partners for Overpass.  I learned a lot from the companies I visited.  They ranged in size from a few companies with thousands of developers to companies with only two developers. 

Some of the software companies were located in large software parks with state of the art facilities.  A couple were located in residential-area office buildings far from the centre of Shanghai. 

There is definitely a lot that China can offer the software offshoring world—in fact, they already are.  On this trip, I was also advised to look at Sichuan, Chengdu, and Nanjing as some other destinations.

I also met with some expats in the area who gave me a great deal of insight into the software development situation in these cities.

I came home with piles of notes to record and thoughts to put down before they evaporate.  It’s been busy the past few days—so this post is pretty brief. 

It was a great trip and I am totally in awe of the hospitality I was shown there.  I thank everyone who showed me around, showed me their companies, and generally made me feel very welcome.

I’d also like to recommend the China-Britain Business Council (CBBC) who set up the meetings for me.  If your looking to get into China, give them a call.

Now, the real work begins.

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I’ve spent the last 5 days in Shanghai.  It was my first time to the city and I, like most people generally, am very impressed with the size of it.  Shanghai is huge!  There are so many people and it makes London look tiny.

The Expo is less than six months away and there is a lot of pride that it is being held there.  The Expo logo is everywhere.  I hope to return in the summer when it is held.

I stayed in a tiny room at the Rayfont Shanghai Xuhui Hotel.  I wouldn’t recommend it, but it wasn’t too bad.  My room was so small, I could see every part of from any angle.  The shower and toilet were separated from the rest of the bedroom by a clear sliding glass door.  Luckily I was by myself or I would have look away when someone used the toilet.  The internet was slow.  When I paid the expensive price for the breakfast buffet in the hotel, I could get bacon, eggs, crinkle cut chips, and spaghetti.  However, I was on the 31st floor of my building (the hotel has several tall buildings) and had a nice view of the city.  I even watched a thunderstorm roll in over Shanghai, which mixed with the lights of the evening, was strangely beautiful.

I got around mostly by taxi but took the metro when time permitted.  I felt much more comfortable on this trip to China than I did on my first trip in August.  I tried to get by on Mandarin as much as possible and many very hospitable people helped me around.  Generally, everyone pretty much found my Mandarin to be amusing.  I’m really glad I can speak it—there are many people (especially older people) that I would not have been able to talk to at all unless I could do it in Chinese.  This was important, since travelling by myself got pretty lonely.

Most of my days were spent in meetings.  I met with 6 software companies in Shanghai—ranging from huge companies to very tiny ones.  It’s been a very educational experience. Most of the time, I spoke with General Managers and chairmen, but I really enjoyed getting a chance to talk with people on a technical level.   All the companies were very hospitable and I made some new friends.  Some people even read this blog before my visit which was nice.

I didn’t bring a good camera and mostly took videos of everything I saw.  The trip was for business rather than sight-seeing.

The flight attendant on this plane just announced that the temperature in Dalian is below zero right now.  It was hot and muggy when I arrived in Shanghai on Saturday.  I’m looking forward to Dalian.

In Dalian, I’m going to meet with a few more companies and a few friends.  I’m looking forward to the trip.  Dalian, I hear, is big in outsourcing but mainly focuses on Japan and Russia.  They don’t do much business with the West.  Still, I’m eager to see what they are like and discuss some things with them. 

Hmmm. Adventures in software development.  Who would have thought it would be this exciting.

Sorry if this post is all over the place.  It’s been a long day.

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