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  Java is not the new COBOL

If you Google “Java is the new COBOL” you’ll find a glut of articles proliferating this mantra. I don’t know its origins, however I’m inclined to think it’s mostly repeated (and believed) by the Ruby community. Ruby, from a developer’s perspective is a low-friction language. A developer can just sit down at a text editor and start banging out code without really thinking about such superflous things as types. Java on the other hand, well, you h...

   Java,Ruby,Type,COBOL,Comparison     2011-11-10 10:40:56

  Whatever works for you

In my earlier 20s when I knew everything, I was a much bigger evangelist for my technology choices. I’m accused of fanboyism a lot more these days, but only because Hacker News keeps sending huge waves of people here who tell me I’m an idiot. But I used to be much more annoying with pushing my choices onto others. I’ve naturally reduced such evangelism as I approach 30 and realize I don’t know anything, but I’m now making a much more conscious effort to s...

   Choice,Product,Usability,Fittability     2011-11-29 08:39:09

  What Separates Good Designers from Great Ones

Most of the design books you read, including my own, are about how to be a good, competent designer. They are about how to make strong, reasoned design decisions and about design methods and tools. But what they won’t—can’t—teach you is how to become a great designer. The only way to be a great designer is to produce great products. Everything else is…well, everything else. I’m convinced that the people who are great designers, while assure...

   Designer,Feature,Great designer,Good designer,Comparison     2011-12-06 02:25:17

  SOME LESSONS LEARNED

Note: Google was kind enough to invite me to give a short talk at their Zeitgeist conference earlier this week. It was a really interesting conference and I got a chance to meet a lot of people I admire. For my talk, I decided to use material from some of my blog posts over the years that I thought might appeal to a broader audience. Unfortunately, I was still recovering from a nastly cold/flu so I didn’t deliver the talk as well as I’d like.  Below is the text.Today, I wanted...

   Investor,Startup,Lesson,Experience,Investment     2011-10-12 11:47:02

  HP To Apple: You Win.

As I write this, I’m sitting in a cafe. Around me, there are five people on laptops — four of them are MacBooks. Four other people are using tablets — all four are iPads. Welcome to the Post-PC world. That phrase was one of the first things that jumped to my mind today when I heard the news that HP was not only killing off their TouchPad and Pre webOS-based products, but also trying to spin-off their PC business. The largest PC busine...

   HP,Apple,Palm,Competition,webOs     2011-08-19 07:38:41

  Jackie the smart quadcopter to launch at Robotics Week

Flying security camera synced to smartphone kicks off Kickstarter campaign Entrepreneurs and robotics graduate students Jackie Wu and Ritwik Ummalaneni, in Northwestern University’s Master’s in Robotics program, are launching their new product, Jackie, during the National Robotics Week. The flying security camera quadcopter syncs straight to a smartphone, and is the next evolution in home security platforms that consumers have been waiting for. Jackie’s intuitive and easy co...

   Startup,Quadcopter,Security camera,Jackie Wu     2015-04-05 20:56:11

  Introduction to OAuth (in Plain English)

Last week we talked about giving away your passwords and how you should never do it.  When a website wants to use the services of another—such as Bitly posting to your Twitter stream—instead of asking you to share your password, they should use OAuth instead. OAuth is an authentication protocol that allows you to approve one application interacting with another on your behalf without giving away your password. This is a quick guide to illustrate, as simply as possibl...

   Security,OAuth,Permission,Partial access     2012-04-05 11:39:54

  The Long Grind Before You Become an Overnight Success

“So, what do you do?”Ugh. I hated that question.The truth was that we were trying to start a new venture but we hadn’t really made any progress.But, instead of just muttering something, I would force myself to enthusiastically pitch our current struggling idea. They would nod along but the skepticism on their face was hard to ignore.And, when I was done, they would sometimes hit me with: “So, is that your full-time thing?” Ugh. What that really meant was: youâ€...

   Startup,process,Waiting,Hardtime,Working     2011-09-29 10:42:54

  8 Very Simple and Easy Steps for Designing a Successful Launch Page

There are such a large number of new companies launching nowadays that you truly can't stand to waste your time for coding for your wonderful products. Also make sure that you are additionally making a list of your potential clients for your application. A Launching page will permit you to connect directly with great business people who can transform your company into compelling brand envoys. You can browse making a coming soon page or even a complete page including the items with their complete...

   app development, mobile apps, app design, app development sydney, iphone app, iphone app development     2014-12-12 00:40:10

  The Programmer Salary Taboo

Salary is an interesting topic. It's certainly one everyone has an opinion on. It's also a uniquely taboo subject among members of the working public. Since I'm about a month away from being done with University and entering the programmer workforce, I've taken to asking my classmates what type of starting salaries they're getting at their first jobs. The first thing I discovered is that not everybody is very comfortable with this question, and many companies are even less so. Microsoft requests...

   Salary,IT company,Taboo,Google,Microsoft     2011-04-18 00:19:03

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