Jill Bolte Taylor's My stroke of insight
Jill Bolte Taylor's My stroke of insight is a remarkable talk about her experience of a stroke. Since my mother's stroke, I have read a number of accounts of stroke experiences and other helpful guides. None of these, however, compares to Taylor's rich and emotive retelling of her stroke. It brings me closer to a knowledge of my mother now. Well worth twenty minutes of your time: have a hankie ready.
What is a pseudo-systems guy to do?
I was in the early stages of writing a JavaScript layer on top of Servlets, JMS, and Derby running under Glassfish. The whole point of this effort was to give me a rapid development environment. I need this environment for two reasons -- and so do you if you are a developer. I need a platform on which to quickly try ideas. I need a platform on which I can deploy production quality implementations. If these are one and the same platform then I have less cognitive dissonance between play and purpose. It is also a fun activity. (Yes, I am a card carrying geek.)
But what is a pseudo-systems guy to do when Amazon has its developer tools (S3, SQS, EC2, etc) and now Google has App Engine? Why would anyone build an application on local infrastructure when these global infrastructure are so powerful and readily usable. I guess, I need to re-focus on the application that I wanted the infrastructure for in the first place. This is a good thing but the parting does bring sorrow.
But what is a pseudo-systems guy to do when Amazon has its developer tools (S3, SQS, EC2, etc) and now Google has App Engine? Why would anyone build an application on local infrastructure when these global infrastructure are so powerful and readily usable. I guess, I need to re-focus on the application that I wanted the infrastructure for in the first place. This is a good thing but the parting does bring sorrow.
Web applications and desktop integration
Much of my tool set is now housed inside the browser. The tools are web applications. My email is there. My calendar is there. My collaboration is there. My industry awareness is there. Etc. This web application suite is not uncommon. The trouble is that neither the Microsoft Windows desktop nor FireFox work together to provide me with a common application management experience. For example,
• The Windows "task bar" shows one task button labeled "5 Fire.." rather than one task button for "Email & Calendar", another for "Bloglines", etc.
• I can place URL shortcuts into the Windows "Start" menu which helps with organizing these tools. FireFox even suggests that I can drag-n-drop the URL from the browser's address bar into the start ment, but it fails to drop and so I must manually add the short cut.
• When I use the Email shortcut, for example, FireFox opens another browser tab to the URL even if already have the URL open on another tab. What I want is Email brought to the front just like an ordinary desktop application.
• FireFox does nothing to help me NOT replace my email tab or calendar tab with other transient content. When I am using the "Email & Calendar" browser I want all non-email and calendar content to be opened another browser window.
I want a browser with great desktop integration. There are some great FireFox extensions that make manipulating tabs easy but doing this is manual. They also only make FireFox better. The Windows desktop needs a new set of rules for integrating web applications. Mozilla's Prism might help. I suppose I could code something up with Greasemonkey but I really don't have the time and what time I do have I have other more interesting uses for.
How do you manage the web application and desktop integration?
• The Windows "task bar" shows one task button labeled "5 Fire.." rather than one task button for "Email & Calendar", another for "Bloglines", etc.
• I can place URL shortcuts into the Windows "Start" menu which helps with organizing these tools. FireFox even suggests that I can drag-n-drop the URL from the browser's address bar into the start ment, but it fails to drop and so I must manually add the short cut.
• When I use the Email shortcut, for example, FireFox opens another browser tab to the URL even if already have the URL open on another tab. What I want is Email brought to the front just like an ordinary desktop application.
• FireFox does nothing to help me NOT replace my email tab or calendar tab with other transient content. When I am using the "Email & Calendar" browser I want all non-email and calendar content to be opened another browser window.
I want a browser with great desktop integration. There are some great FireFox extensions that make manipulating tabs easy but doing this is manual. They also only make FireFox better. The Windows desktop needs a new set of rules for integrating web applications. Mozilla's Prism might help. I suppose I could code something up with Greasemonkey but I really don't have the time and what time I do have I have other more interesting uses for.
How do you manage the web application and desktop integration?
Typography animations
Very cool typography animations Pulp Fiction in Typography, Oceans Eleven Project and Duck and Cover.
Making visible intellectual work
I love how David Macaulay in this 2002 TED talk reconstructs how he worked out his book Rome Antics. I wish more people did this: So much of our work -- intellectual work -- with its seemingly random explorations, horrible missteps, beautiful tangents, self doubts and sublime flow is invisible and when it is visible the sights are no more than shadows. No wonder my kids would rather be dirt bike racers and spys. (Then again, sometimes, so would I.) So, watch David Macaulay's talk with your kids.
Technologies, talent, experience and, soon, data
More data usually beats better algorithms is an interesting post about more sources of data used together with simple algorithms do a better job then complex algorithms. Where this is interesting to me and my customers is that we need to find or develop data sets that better support the customer's users more successfully using the customer's site.
Most high-end web development shops are not yet at the point where their technologies, talent, and experience alone are not enough to turn a lead into a customer. However, we should be thinking about adding data to this mix now.
Most high-end web development shops are not yet at the point where their technologies, talent, and experience alone are not enough to turn a lead into a customer. However, we should be thinking about adding data to this mix now.
Value of chemicals found in the human body
The images show an original picture and a re-imagining of it using whole images found on Flickr. This has been done before at the pixel level where images are picked for their approximation to the pixel in overall color and brightness. Using a coarser granularity, however, produces a much more interesting image. Chris, my wife and artist, likens the result to the the value of chemicals found in the human body.Technically, it is also a fantastic use of Hadoop. Hadoop is an implementation of the MapReduce algorithm made famous by its use in Google's software.
Why are natural numbers still used for primary keys?
Most database products have a facility for creating unique numbers. These numbers are commonly used as the primary key of a record. You can often see this exposed as a small integer in the URL of a web page. This posting is not about the risks of exposing primary keys but rather about why natural numbers are still used for primary keys.
The observation I want to make is that 1234 can easily be mistaken for 1324. Suppose I have equal access to both the records associated with 1324 and 1234, what mechanisms prevent or at least hinder me or my agents using of the wrong one?
UPCs numbers are numeric but not natural numbers. Credit card numbers are numeric but not natural numbers. ISBNs numbers are numeric but not natural numbers. Each of these are examples of identifiers exposed as "numbers." These identifiers have useful characteristics. They are self validating so that some transcription errors invalidate the identifier. Some identifiers are self correcting. And in the vast universe of value for, for example, 13 digit numbers only a small fraction of the values are valid ISBNs.
As ever more systems record URLs as references to data we need to be ever more careful about our identifiers. Public identifiers should not be natural numbers. Perhaps any system of identification that does not require ordering by identifier should not use natural numbers. It is time that database products had a facility for creating and using unique identifiers that is as easy to use a sequence table or an automatically incrementing integer. Until then, add a check digit.
ISBNs are not stricly numeric as the check digit might be 10 and this is represented as "X".
The observation I want to make is that 1234 can easily be mistaken for 1324. Suppose I have equal access to both the records associated with 1324 and 1234, what mechanisms prevent or at least hinder me or my agents using of the wrong one?
UPCs numbers are numeric but not natural numbers. Credit card numbers are numeric but not natural numbers. ISBNs numbers are numeric but not natural numbers. Each of these are examples of identifiers exposed as "numbers." These identifiers have useful characteristics. They are self validating so that some transcription errors invalidate the identifier. Some identifiers are self correcting. And in the vast universe of value for, for example, 13 digit numbers only a small fraction of the values are valid ISBNs.
As ever more systems record URLs as references to data we need to be ever more careful about our identifiers. Public identifiers should not be natural numbers. Perhaps any system of identification that does not require ordering by identifier should not use natural numbers. It is time that database products had a facility for creating and using unique identifiers that is as easy to use a sequence table or an automatically incrementing integer. Until then, add a check digit.
ISBNs are not stricly numeric as the check digit might be 10 and this is represented as "X".
RI, go vote today for Barack Obama
My reasons for supporting Barack Obama are my two 8 year old boys. The next president is likely to leave office when they are 16. I want these years for them to see America at its best. I want them to see and experience leadership that rights wrongs. I want them to experience an optimistic America. I want them to participate in an optimistic America. I fully expect the next years to be difficult for this country. I believe that Barack Obama can lead us through this hardship.
New Common's working space
Last week I spoke with Robert Leaver and Michelle Gonzalez at their New Commons offices. It was a great conversation and one I hope to continue. Robert's and Michelle's manner and their working space immediately make you relaxed. I am usually confident and comfortable in new situations but the feeling of welcoming there was intense.
Their working space is very well designed. Robert's work creating spaces and places would of course lead you to expect this. Here is my rough [*] floor plan of the space.
I particularly liked the open hallway and the offices's French doors onto the meeting space.
[*] Visio's floor planning tool is very easy to use. However, the formality of the final visual hides too well the inaccuracies of dimensions and the mistakenly forgotten or added features.
Their working space is very well designed. Robert's work creating spaces and places would of course lead you to expect this. Here is my rough [*] floor plan of the space.
I particularly liked the open hallway and the offices's French doors onto the meeting space.[*] Visio's floor planning tool is very easy to use. However, the formality of the final visual hides too well the inaccuracies of dimensions and the mistakenly forgotten or added features.
Marrying the working environment with the working materials
I love this team-space designed by Clive Wilkinson Architects and this personal-space design by Francois Perrin. I am attracted to these carefully designed spaces exposing raw materials because I spend so much time inside software. There is a comfort that comes from marrying the working environment with the working materials.
Good example of labeling
The Virginian Pilot, the local newspaper in Virginia Beach, VA, has a good graphic design department. I have always liked their maps and this Sunday's edition had another fine example detailing the changes on Witchduck Rd. One element of their design program I really like is how points of interest are labeled using a modified balloon -- a simple pin shape with the label text below. All the points of interest clearly labeled and aligned at the edge of the map and the connections acute triangular shape does not interfere with the map's content.Does anyone have pointers to specific services or tools for cleaning up newspaper scans? It just seems that the page color can be subtracted without touching the printed image.
Give Your Readers Something To Do
"For some content providers, looking at content through the prism of actionable content is also a good way to decide whether it is content worth publishing at all. If your readers can’t do anything with the content – meaning they can't use it - then how useful is it?" Vinny Goldsmith, Give Your Readers Something To Do. The full posting makes other good points too.
Make the "holding page" useful
Building a web site always takes longer than expected. And the size of the web site does not seem to matter. There is an inverse relationship between cost and commitment: A $10,000 job with 100% commitment takes about the same time as a $1,000 job with only 1% commitment. And who can commit to any project 100%. The point of this is that that web site's "holding page" better be useful. An "under construction" sign does not help your client or your client's audience. For example, the holding page at Social Venture Partners Rhode Island (svpri.org) is a one page web site. It tells you who they are, what they do, what is happening, and who to contact. All this on one page and maintained with an insignificant tool -- a few dozen line PHP script.
Mofuse, from local Pawtucket company Swift Blue, has an interesting tool that makes your web site mobile phone friendly. Here is its take on this blog. I like the idea that this can be done, but would rather see sites consider the information architecture and visual design of their content for mobile users.
An iPod Touch moment
An iPod Touch moment: I have started to "flick" web pages with my mouse. It doesn't work.
Simple & Direct Tools
I have been using sftpdrive to enable me to mount the directories of remote file systems as local drives with Microsoft Windows. I chose this product over others as it does not cache much data about the remote directories and files. Not caching is important because I tend to modify files both via an editor in Microsoft Windows and an editor on the remote system. Without caching there is a noticeable delay in directory navigation. However, this is a small price to pay for having absolute consistency in the content from Windows and from the remote system.
One of the tools I use that mitigates the directory navigation delays is a Java class and package browser I wrote several years ago. The browser is a 300 line perl script that displays an interactive list of packages on the left and an interactive list of classes on the right. The significance of the class view is that it lists all the classes under a given package hierarchy and orders them by class name. For example, the figure shows all (4) classes under the "com.ingenta.oso" packages.
Double-clicking a class name opens it in an editor.
The tool is very simple but surprising useful. There is no comparison between it and powerful package and class browsing components in Eclipse and NetBeans. However, these weighty tools sometimes offer too much when all you want is a class file list and quick access to the source.
One of the tools I use that mitigates the directory navigation delays is a Java class and package browser I wrote several years ago. The browser is a 300 line perl script that displays an interactive list of packages on the left and an interactive list of classes on the right. The significance of the class view is that it lists all the classes under a given package hierarchy and orders them by class name. For example, the figure shows all (4) classes under the "com.ingenta.oso" packages.
Double-clicking a class name opens it in an editor.The tool is very simple but surprising useful. There is no comparison between it and powerful package and class browsing components in Eclipse and NetBeans. However, these weighty tools sometimes offer too much when all you want is a class file list and quick access to the source.
Google Calendar and Travel Time
A small improvement to Google Calendar would be to allow you to define travel time around an event. For example, the illustration shows that to attend the 6 pm meeting you need to leave by 4:30 as the meeting's location is an hour away and you need to find parking. (The drive home is shorter because you don't need to find parking!)
30G iPod for sale
If you are interested in a very lightly used 5th generation, 30G, white iPod I am selling mine for $165. You can buy it from me or buy it via Amazon.com. SOLD. I have had so much success with Amazon.com Marketplace. I highly recommend it.
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