And this is why
Life, communication, programming, it’s all about structuring a rational argument. But too many people are either unable to, or are unwilling to, rationalize. “I hold this opinion because I’ve read the facts and thought it through” matters. “I hold this opinion, and that’s it” doesn’t. Ian Betteridge Whether the argument is about creative design, system architecture, which restaurant to eat at or politics and religion, it’s critically important to express, clarify and declare the rationalization behind it.
I love debugging
Rob Galankis tongue-in-cheek writing in Why I hate Test Driven Development: … So why do I hate TDD? Because debugging is fun. There, I said it. I love debugging. I think lots of clever people like debugging. I love someone having a problem, coming to me, looking at it together, getting up to walk around, look at the ceiling, talk to myself, stand in front of a whiteboard, draw some lines that spark some idea, try it, manually test a fix out, slouch down in my chair staring at my computer lost in thought, and repeating this until I actually find and fix the problem.
Photoshop Etiquette for Web Designers
There is a brilliant list of things web designers should be doing when designing web apps in PhotoShop at the photoshop etiquette manifesto for web designers. Do these and we developers will have a much easier time implementing your designs. Applies to iOS app designers, Mac App designers, in fact any app designers too. From now on, all my designers will be asked to follow these rules.
Maker's Schedule, Manager's Schedule
Classic article by Paul Graham in 2009 called Maker’s Schedule, Manager’s Schedule. One reason programmers dislike meetings so much is that they’re on a different type of schedule from other people. Meetings cost them more. There are two types of schedule, which I’ll call the manager’s schedule and the maker’s schedule. The manager’s schedule is for bosses. It’s embodied in the traditional appointment book, with each day cut into one hour intervals.
The Mac App Store Needs Paid Upgrades
Brilliant post by Wil Shipley on his blog called The Mac App Store Needs Paid Upgrades, well worth a read: Right now developers selling through the Mac App Store face a lose/lose choice: either provide all major upgrades to existing customers for free (thus losing a quarter of our revenue), or create a “new” product for each major version (creating customer confusion) and charge existing customers full price again (creating customer anger).
On Digital Hoarding
Melinda Beck writing in the WSJ in Drowning in Email, Photos, Files? Hoarding Goes Digital presents a fact-less and ridiculous claim that we are doing something wrong by storing all the emails and files that we do. In the article, she equates the rest of us, people and companies alike, with those crazy nutters who fill their houses with junk.
My take: We, especially businesses, need to keep all old emails under law in case of subpoena, just like individuals need to store tax records. We need all our old work files as they are referenced in later works. We need our music and photo files because we no longer have their physical equivalents (or have to buy them again and again in case of media). In short, we’re not hoarding, we’re filing, scrapbooking and holding on to our possessions that are no longer physical.
But let me respond to the article.
You're being stalked
In the same vein as an earlier article on my blog, Giving Yourself Away With a Facebook Login, Alexis Madrigal writing in the atlantic in I’m Being Followed: How Google—and 104 Other Companies—Are Tracking Me on the Web quotes Joe Turow saying: If a company can follow your behavior in the digital environment – an environment that potentially includes your mobile phone and television set – its claim that you are “anonymous” is meaningless.
iPad 4G Misleading
As reported in the Verge, Apple’s iPad ‘4G’ advertising labeled misleading by Australian watchdog, may be banned. The same can be said for the fictitious 4G on my iPhone 4S. As a proud Aussie, I am a fan of the ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) and Australia’s Trade Practices Act that supports them. In short, companies cannot lie or mislead customers in any way, or the ACCC can nail them and force them to make things right.
Freemium Simulation Games prove Stupidity
I don’t get the allure and popularity of freemium time-based simulation games like Farmville, DragonVale, Tap Zoo, and Smurfs Village. Yet these games are the top grossing games on the App Store. So I decided to take one on to see if I can find the ‘it’ factor that makes these games so enjoyable, popular and profitable, without paying real money to short-circuit the game.
tl;dr (Too Long; Didn’t Read): You have got to be out of your mind to find these ‘games’ enjoyable or worth spending money on. They are slow, skill and challenge lacking, chore-based, time-draining, naggy, annoying proofs of stupidity. The only conclusion I can draw from this experience is that people don’t value their time, have no self-respect and are just plain stupid to be playing and spending money on these products. “Men in Black” got it right: “A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it”.
Giving yourself away with a Facebook Login
Applications that require a Facebook login are doing so to gain access to you, your name, your friends, your location, your personal details. They are not using the login because they are too lazy to create their own. Hilton Lipschitz, right here right now My wife asked me why I deleted Draw Something this week, as we were both enjoying drawing pictures with each other. I told her that Zynga purchased them, who Zynga were and why I did not want them to have access to my information.