Edge.js Brings Node.js and .Net Together

Great article from Scott Hanselman on Edge.js bringing Node.js and .Net together on three different platforms; Mac, Windows, Linux.

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Review: Learning Java

This is a pretty decent book. I'm new to Java but have an extensive development background.

I appreciated the exercises and examples. The only thing I really struggled with was Eclipse. I haven't used Eclipse in the past and so there was a steep learning curve for me.

I think this is a great book to get a decent understanding of the basics of Java. I will need a different book as a guide as I dive deeper into Java.

* Disclaimer: I was provided a free copy of this book to review.

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Hire Me Facebook

I was watching the video in this post and at time index 3:03, Mark Zuckerberg says "Our policy is to literally hire as many talented engineers as we can find." Zuckerberg goes on to say their system limits are in part due to lack of resources to help the build what their products. Sounds like a good problem to have. He mentions lack of training as a reason they aren't able to find enough engineers. And I'll give him that, many of our schools aren't teaching the critical skills people need to build the technology of the future. I can attest to this first hand after a recent semester in college, the technology classes are outdated or not relevant.

I didn't want this to turn into a rant about education, but the bottom line is, Colleges and Universities need to be as forward thinking as companies need to be. It's not good enough to spend $100K on a degree and have to start with little or no knowledge of the tech field.

In this same video, Will.i.am talks about how our world runs on technology yet very few of us know how to code to make things work. I agree. Even a basic understanding of computer code can be valuable. And there are plenty of online learning tools.

http://www.codecademy.com/
http://girldevelopit.com/
https://www.udacity.com/

I'm not really looking for a job, and despite what personal feelings you may have about Facebook, I have my own, working for this company as an engineer would be very cool. So Facebook, let's talk! Here is my LinkedIn profile.

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Want To Be Cool? Learn To Code

If you want to be like the big kids these days, it might make sense to spend some time learning how to code.

What most schools don't teach.

http://youtu.be/nKIu9yen5nc

 

Photo found here

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54 Hour Startup Weekend Ogden

I attended Startup Weekend in Ogden Utah November 1st-3rd, 2012. Check out the website, it's a very cool global meet-up.

I've read for years about small groups building products over a weekend, getting some recognition, and some even getting funding to push the product further. I had a hard time believing they had a product worth investing. And that was my naive view, and lack of understanding. What I experienced at my first Startup Weekend was the complete opposite.

Overview

Startup Weekend is like a tech conference with a rocket ship attached. From idea to product, your team build the framework of a business, including product, marketing and sales in 54 hours. What a rush.

There were so many great ideas, it was hard to pick just one. Several didn't make it past the first few hours. Other projects started from the dust of the fallen. Some didn't stay after the first day. Others changed projects (it happened to my project). Everyone wants to succeed.

Getting There Early

Those getting to the event early are smart, they get to do a little interviewing, get a feeling for those who will ultimately become team mates. I didn't understand that, and made a few mistakes when it came to introductions.

My recommendation is to arrive early and network. You won't have any time to do it once the event starts. Get to know who is there to pitch ideas; who are the developers, creatives, marketer and business guys.

I also recommend staying at the hotel of the event if possible. This will give you more time to work.

Takes notes during the pitches

I'm sure this part of the event will vary at each location, but the one I attended, everyone who wanted to pitch an idea was lined up and given sixty seconds to convince us they were the project to be part of. This was another mistake I made. With 50-60 pitches, I quickly lost track.

Once the pitched are finished, everyone gets 3 votes. After 20 minutes of voting (hearing more details of projects), votes are tallied, and the project pool is announced.

Now the fun begins. Project leaders are asked to create a project team, and get started. There was a lot of recruiting, a lot of explaining, and interviewing. This is a serious process which I wasn't expecting to be so quick. Within 30 minutes pretty much every project had a team of 5 or more developers, designers, and business folks.

Why are you there?

My original thought was to show up, learn a little, see how the process worked, watch from the fringe. But that isn't how it works. Everyone there fell into one of three different buckets; developer, designer, everyone else. So of course I fell into the developer bucket.

I recommend showing up with an agenda. Look for a project that you can relate with, and decide before hand what you want to get out of the event. Do you want to act as a developer/designer, and contribute to a project. Do you want to pitch an idea and put together a project team. Or can you help a project team with sales and marketing? Great opportunity for sales and marketing gurus to become part of a startup. We really needed more of this skill for sure.

Pace yourself

I'm not 20 any more and find it difficult to work at a high level for 24-36-48 hours straight. But some can do that. I need some sleep, water, food, and simply getting up and walking around.

Pacing your self will not only give you the ability to go the distance, but give your team better work. I promise that after 50 hours, you will be burnt out. You will want to walk away.

Just participate

You're there. Do it all. get excited. Help. Encourage. Build relationships. Network when possible. Alex Lawrence, the guy who put together the Ogden Startup Weekend did it right. He had prizes (I didn't win a thing, I never do at these things), contents, guests, mentors, and entrepreneur judges.

It's definitely a culture.

Wrapping it up

We were fed well. Hydrated well. And created some great technology. I was so amazed at what was accomplished by everyone in 54 hours. Most of the work was early stage, minimal viable product, far enough along that we could see results. But nearly every project has miles to go.

If you ever have a chance to attend a Startup Weekend, I highly encourage it. The experience alone will get your creative juices flowing. And you get to meet some incredible people.

Have you attended a Startup Weekend? What was your experience?

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54 Hour Startup Weekend Ogden

I attended Startup Weekend in Ogden Utah November 1st-3rd, 2012. Check out the website, it's a very cool global meet-up.

I've read for years about small groups building products over a weekend, getting some recognition, and some even getting funding to push the product further. I had a hard time believing they had a product worth investing. And that was my naive view, and lack of understanding. What I experienced at my first Startup Weekend was the complete opposite.

Overview

Startup Weekend is like a tech conference with a rocket ship attached. From idea to product, your team build the framework of a business, including product, marketing and sales in 54 hours. What a rush.

There were so many great ideas, it was hard to pick just one. Several didn't make it past the first few hours. Other projects started from the dust of the fallen. Some didn't stay after the first day. Others changed projects (it happened to my project). Everyone wants to succeed.

Getting There Early

Those getting to the event early are smart, they get to do a little interviewing, get a feeling for those who will ultimately become team mates. I didn't understand that, and made a few mistakes when it came to introductions.

My recommendation is to arrive early and network. You won't have any time to do it once the event starts. Get to know who is there to pitch ideas; who are the developers, creatives, marketer and business guys.

I also recommend staying at the hotel of the event if possible. This will give you more time to work.

Takes notes during the pitches

I'm sure this part of the event will vary at each location, but the one I attended, everyone who wanted to pitch an idea was lined up and given sixty seconds to convince us they were the project to be part of. This was another mistake I made. With 50-60 pitches, I quickly lost track.

Once the pitched are finished, everyone gets 3 votes. After 20 minutes of voting (hearing more details of projects), votes are tallied, and the project pool is announced.

Now the fun begins. Project leaders are asked to create a project team, and get started. There was a lot of recruiting, a lot of explaining, and interviewing. This is a serious process which I wasn't expecting to be so quick. Within 30 minutes pretty much every project had a team of 5 or more developers, designers, and business folks.

Why are you there?

My original thought was to show up, learn a little, see how the process worked, watch from the fringe. But that isn't how it works. Everyone there fell into one of three different buckets; developer, designer, everyone else. So of course I fell into the developer bucket.

I recommend showing up with an agenda. Look for a project that you can relate with, and decide before hand what you want to get out of the event. Do you want to act as a developer/designer, and contribute to a project. Do you want to pitch an idea and put together a project team. Or can you help a project team with sales and marketing? Great opportunity for sales and marketing gurus to become part of a startup. We really needed more of this skill for sure.

Pace yourself

I'm not 20 any more and find it difficult to work at a high level for 24-36-48 hours straight. But some can do that. I need some sleep, water, food, and simply getting up and walking around.

Pacing your self will not only give you the ability to go the distance, but give your team better work. I promise that after 50 hours, you will be burnt out. You will want to walk away.

Just participate

You're there. Do it all. get excited. Help. Encourage. Build relationships. Network when possible. Alex Lawrence, the guy who put together the Ogden Startup Weekend did it right. He had prizes (I didn't win a thing, I never do at these things), contents, guests, mentors, and entrepreneur judges.

It's definitely a culture.

Wrapping it up

We were fed well. Hydrated well. And created some great technology. I was so amazed at what was accomplished by everyone in 54 hours. Most of the work was early stage, minimal viable product, far enough along that we could see results. But nearly every project has miles to go.

If you ever have a chance to attend a Startup Weekend, I highly encourage it. The experience alone will get your creative juices flowing. And you get to meet some incredible people.

Have you attended a Startup Weekend? What was your experience?

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Can We Build Something Besides Social Software?

OK, I have to ask, have we, as a technology industry, boiled ourselves down to who can develop the most unique social network software? I mean, it's about all I see in the news anymore.

Even Salesforce, according to Robert Scoble, could go after a large part of the social sphere. Why would a company like Salesforce do that? Will that help me as a sales professional do a better job? As a business owner I would question that.

With quick wins, and superficial products, is anyone, any company, developing technology with substance?

Who's building killer educational software and getting recognized for it?

Who's building medical software to help us find cures and eliminate disease?

Who's building technology that helps us better design and implement green communities?

Who's building technology that helps us discover and tap into cheaper forms of energy?

Who's developing technology that will help us find more water sources and build better distribution systems?

With all the worlds resources, we are doing something more than building platforms to show ourselves off, right?

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Simply Design Your Web Site

I visited the io9.com web site today, after getting there from an external link. I've visited this site before, and mostly read stories they publish via RSS. But today, when I landed on the home page, I was frozen. I had no idea what to do.

Over the past several weeks I've been working on a project where the initial landing page needs to give the visitor enough information about the sites offering, and make it painlessly obvious what options are available. I consider myself an expert web browser, but I must admit when I landed on io9.com today, I had no idea what they wanted me to do.

Experimenting, redefining, shifting, and tossing, has shown us so much can be accomplished through simplicity. Using a sifting method, we have been able to remove the pieces of a web site that shift the focus from the message. Are the elements on your site changing the focus of your message. If they are, remove them, or add elements that speak to the message.

For example, looking at my site, I can see there are several elements that probably distract visitors from my message. Those are things in the side bar. Here are some things that could probably be removed. I wonder if I can find something that would let me track the effectiveness of these sidebar elements.

[gallery link="file" columns="2" orderby="ID" exclude="1556"]

Remember to "simply" design your website.

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Required And Optional Function Parameters

I love using different programming languages. Whether it's C#, PHP, Python or Ruby on Rails, they each have their strengths, which makes finishing projects faster. Choose the best tool for the problem.

Today a project I'm working on required an additional parameter to a  Javascript method that was already called in several files. In C# I could write an overload method

Use Overloading in C# versions below 4
[csharp]
public void MyFunctionA (int par1, int par2)
{
//some code
}

public void MyFunctionA (int par1, int par2, string par3)
{
//some code
}
[/csharp]

Use Default values in C# 4
[csharp]
public void MyFunctionA(int a, int b = 0)
{
//some code
}
[/csharp]

A solution I just found today is using named parameters with defaults
[csharp]
public void MyFunctionB(int par1, int par2,
string par3 = "test")
{

}

MyFunctionB(par1: 10, par2: 4);
MyFunctionB(par1: 10, par2: 4, par3: "My Test");
[/csharp]

One way to do it in PHP is through a default value function parameter. If nothing is passed into the function for that parameter, the default is used:
[php]
function myFunctionA ($par1, $par2 = "test") {
//some code
}
[/php]

And in because I'm just starting to learn Ruby on Rails, I wondered how it handled function defaults or overloads. This is what I found on StackOverflow. Pretty clean, and similar to PHP.

[ruby]
def hello_world(name, message="Hello World"):
print "name = "+name
print "message = "+message
[/ruby]

And finally to Javascript, the real piece I needed to solve. Javascript let's you create a method with no defined parameters, but gives you an array you can check for values. Here is an example:

[javascript]
function myFunctionA() {
alert(arguments[0]);
alert(arguments[1]);
}
[/javascript]

This Javascript option worked great for our needs. We were able to leave the code written originally, but allow new references to the function to add in a new parameter. I didn't want to have another method with duplicate code just to handle the one new parameter, and this seemed to be the best solution.

I'm sure some of you would solve it a different way, so please share.

Thanks to Noah Sparks for helping resolve this issue.

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4 Hot Social Gaming Trends to Watch

Link to article.

More than 18,000 interactive gaming industry pros came to San Francisco for the Game Developers’ Conference this week, an annual event that draws programmers, artists, producers, game designers, audio professionals, business decision-makers and anyone else involved in the development of interactive games.

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Apple Announces iOS SDK 4.3 For Developers

Developers are getting iOS 4.3 a little early I guess, to make sure there apps run on the new OS. Fun times. http://bit.ly/g3Aimw

Get your apps ready for iOS 4.3 which features faster Safari mobile browsing performance with the Nitro JavaScript engine, iTunes Home Sharing, enhancements to AirPlay, and Personal Hotspot. Be sure to update your iPad apps so they take advantage of iPad 2 features including the powerful Apple A5 chip, built-in front and rear cameras, and gyroscope.

Cool feature of 4.3 - AirPlay: Stream video from your app to a widescreen TV using new Media Player APIs that support AirPlay video. You can also update your web content to support AirPlay.

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Popup Video On Page Load

First let me say, there are probably a million ways to do this, and probably 99% of them are the right way, including my way.

Site: WordPress. The need: Pop up a video using Lighbox for a registered user. Record the video was shown to the user. Record in usermeta table. Don't show it again on subsequent visits. And lastly, make sure the video only plays on the Home page.

Works like a charm. The video pops up in a Lightbox window. Meets our needs.

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Favorite iPhone Apps Of 2010

I'm installing and buying more apps for the iPhone than ever befor. A couple of reason for this, but mostly, I'm eating my own dog food as it were. Paying for great apps instead of always looking foe the free alternative.

As a software engineer, I want people to appreciate my work, and I hope they find it valuable. One way thy can show me that value is to pay me for it.

That said, I installed a few apps last year that totally rocked. I'll share my three favorite apps of 2010. They are SpringPad, Camera+, and Mormon Channel.

SpringPad is an application similar to Evernote, but I like the way SpringPad visually represents my data. The iPhone app is every bit as good as the Web version. You can create multiple notebooks, and within the notebooks, you can create todo's, links, text, and web clips.

The feature that really won me over though was the way it handles web clips. It actually works. I can never get Evernote web clips to work. All I get is the page text and usually no images, so when I look at it, the page is all screwed up.

Camera+ is an awesome application. There are so many options that it would take me days to explain them all. But here are a few of the ones that won me over.

• Dozens of styles that allow me to alter the photos.


• A timer, like a real camera


• Edit existing images


• Share multiple images to Facebook, Twitter and Email. This is huge, and the one feature that really won me over. Most of the other apps only let you send one at a time.

The Mormon Channel is a pretty narrow niche, but for me it brings together all the amazing resources the Church of Jesus Chris of Latter-day Saints has to offer. Everything from scriptures, magazines, radio broadcasts, audio recordings, video records and more.

Another Mormon specific application that I am getting a lot of value from is LDS Scriptures App. This application is probably the most comprehensive LDS based application I've used. This application includes scriptures, manuals, magazines and other content. The only thing I wish it had more of would be audio and video content. But other than that, this is a rock solid app.

Other applications that I really enjoyed; Angry Birds, Facebook, TweetDeck, Pandora, Foursquare and DropBox.

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Person Of The Year: The Web API

No sense in waiting a few more weeks to announce this, I don't think two more weeks is going to change the outcome. Votes are in, tallied and tabulated, and hands down the Person of the Year is? The Web API.

Web API's are the hottest thing on the Internet and in Web development. Application like Twitter and Facebook provide third party applications access to their data through API's. Companies like Kynetx use Web API's to enhance the web experience. Applications like Foursquare not only have their own API, but use API's to connect Facebook, Twitter and other services.

These web accessible data points are becoming more and more common, and key parts of application development. Web parts make getting products out the door faster with less development time. As platforms move their storage and web servers to the cloud, the easier it is to compete on global level with fewer resources.

However there are a few drawbacks. And for the me the biggest of these is the dependence on another companies ability to stay online. Take for example applications that rely solely on the Twitter API. If that API goes down, you application is dead in the water. This is a risk yo take when relying on these web parts. But in the end, the risks generally outweigh the risk, especially if your application is non-mission critical.

Bottom line is, Web API's are here to stay, and are all the rage. But more importantly, they are a useful integral part of the web landscape.

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No Development For Old Men

I started listening to a new podcast today, well new for me, called This Developers Life. And aparently I started listening at a great time. The podcast is hosted by Rob Conery and Scott Hanselman. The podcast is a discussion on things technical and not so technical. Great idea, been wanting to do something like this for a while.

Last weeks show Scott made a comment how developers who can't keep up with fast changing technologies, give up and go into management. At first I thought what big balls this guy has to make a statement like that. He was basically saying that if you can't keep up you're a loser, and the only thing left for you is management.

The rest of the day was spent reflecting on my career, the choices I've made, and the direction I am heading. I also wondered if I had made that choice; give up trying and default to management.

The movie title No Country for Old Men popped into my head at one point. I some times feel like that. What to do with old developers. I remembered back to my days during Y2K, and the number of Cobol programmers brought out of moth balls to help remediate code written 30 years ago. For a short while they felt useful again. It must have been exciting to be back in the game.

I digress. Back to Scotts comments, Rob's thoughts, and a follow up interview with a listener named Mark Freedman. I've read Marks blog off and on, and his story is about a technology Manager trying to get back into development, and the struggles he is facing. It's a great read, and I appreciate his openness.

Honestly, I've tried to spend more time in management, and less time coding. It wasn't that I couldn't, or wouldn't, keep up with the fast pace of changing development technologies. My choice, I thought, was for the need to share my experience, mentor other developers, and work on the big picture of projects. I have also used the "I can't keep up" excuse several times, as a way to express my displeasure of development. I think I was really just copping out.

So how do Old Developers get a Country? Well, just because I'm older, and not as fast, doesn't mean I need to shelve my development efforts. Scott and Mark both talk about going solo, forging ahead on your own, and filling multiple roles; developer, manager, entrepreneure. I've freelanced for some time, and I know the grass isn't greener on that side either. That path has it's own unique issues. But the trade off was I get to code, get to manage, and get to innovate. The best of all worlds. I think that could be a great Country for Old Developers, like me.

I'm amazed how much one podcast has affected me. Great job Rob and Scott (and Mark too). I love it when someone makes me think about my own situation, and causes true change. Working on my career plan, which I haven't updated or added to in a long time.

(Image from Firstshowing.net)

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Fall 2010 Utah Code Camp

September and October are turning out to be a complete geek fest. With the Kynetx Impact Dev Day on 9/18, Utah Code Camp this week 9/25, and of course Utah Open Source Conference 10/7-10/9. Check out the camp schedule here.

I hope to attend these classes:

• Keynote 9:00am - 10:00am Modern Software Development, the State of the Craft -- David Starr


• 10:10am - 11:10am ASP.NET MVC 3 Razor -- Nathan Zaugg


• 11:20am - 12:20pm Internet-Enabled Applications for Windows Phone 7 -- Richard Thomson


• 12:20pm - 1:00pm Social Networking and Building your brand -- Pat Wright


• 1:00pm - 2:00pm What is ALT.NET? -- Craig Berntson


• 2:10pm - 3:10pm WPF MVVM Design Pattern -- Danny Staten


• 3:20pm - 4:20pm MVC and Entity Framework -- James Johnson

This should be a great event. Pat Wright and company do a great job. If you're Microsoft Developer, or want to learn more about Microsoft development tools, this would be a great place to start.

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Please Pitch Me A Win Win Venture

In my post yesterday, I asked that you not pitch me one sided ventures. Today, I’m asking you to pitch me win win ventures.

Let me start by saying, lot’s of programmers, designers, and other freelancers, are looking for great projects. They want to be part of something as big and bad as you do. Let’s work together to make that happen. I love bootstrapping. It’s the fastest way to get a company off the ground. Synergy, and a good plan, can overcome most obstacles.

I love exploring new ideas. A few weeks ago I attended the Kynetx Impact Conference, and the ideas were flowing all around me. Everyone seemed to have some idea how they could leverage the Kynetx API. I heard some excellent ideas. I even had one. It didn’t turn out to be something Kynetx was suited for, but I was encouraged to explore my idea thoroughly.

I can always get a sense of how good an idea I have when I run it by a few of my good friends. When they give me the “huh, that sounds interesting” response, I know I haven’t communicated my idea well enough, or it totally sucks and I need to go back to the drawing board.

I’ll use an example of someone pitching me an idea, and how they were successful at getting me on board. It started very out innocent. We met for a lunch. We talked about the idea, we sketched some things on paper, we talked about the holes, we talked about the market, we talked about the competitors. We really didn’t talk much about a product. We talked about a vision and an idea.

Then we met a few days later, this time with the understanding we would discuss a project. After about twenty minutes of hearing the enthusiasm, the passion, the commitment this person has made in getting his project off the ground, I was sold. I would have done just about anything he asked. He even eked out a prototype on his own. Rudimentary as it was, I could tell he had put a lot of thought into it.

I would love to hear your ideas. I would love to help you get those ideas off the ground. I would be glad to connect you with people who have the means and ability to rock your project. I’m committed to helping others succeed. Because when you succeed, I succeed.

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Please Don’t Pitch Me A One Sided Venture

What is a one sided venture? It goes like this:

I understand you’re are a programmer? Well, I have this great idea for a product, it will be the next killer app, all I need you to do is sign this NDA, write a few thousand lines of code, and take a five percent equity stake in the company. I’ll do the rest.

That is a one sided venture. Why? Because the programmer is doing all the work, for air, and hoping you can do your job; sell the product to investors or customers.

I get this type of proposal at least once a week, if not more. I’m sure there are many projects that have had success with this model. But for the one that succeeds, thousands never make it off the floor.

I would love to have someone pitch me a venture where I’m offered compensation up front for the work I do, AND a stake in the company. Then everyone has skin in the game. Why do people think programmers should take such a risk? Show me you’ve got something invested in the venture besides the idea. Those are cheap, and I hear hundreds of ideas a year. For heaven sakes, I have hundreds of ideas.

That brings me to non disclosure agreements, or NDA’s. If I can get away without signing one, I will. When a lawyer tells you not to discuss your idea with anyone until they sign the NDA, they are smoking crack. Asking me to sign an NDA really tells me the idea isn’t that solid, or you think you’re the only one on the planet with the idea, which of course probably isn’t true. If not signing an NDA keeps me from accepting a project, most of the time it’s ok with me.

Look, if I had time to steal ideas, you would already know that about me before we spoke, which means you wouldn’t be talking with me in the first place. And if it came right down to me signing one, I would probably ask you to sign an agreement giving me full and exclusive rights to any code written. Seems only fair no?

All I’m asking is if you’re in the market for a freelancer to help get your project off the ground, don’t go in expecting they will fall all over themselves to help you, for free. Use some common sense. Show us that you are serious about the product and business. We’ll play ball if the venture seems legit, and you have a proven track record too.

In full disclosure, I’ve excepted work on speculation in the past, but I’ve always tried to give something tangible back in return. I would never expect to get something for free, and use it in a project I am making money on.

[off my soap box, let the flames begin]

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