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The 8 lies that software developers tell

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There is a science and art to great software development. The field draws committed individuals.  Some are uniquely talented and capable while other much less so. Software developers are typically intense people that care a great deal about their craft.  That intensity can sometimes be displayed in over statement.   

With a nod to those I've heard these from over  the better part of 30 years, here are a few of my favorite lies or "over statements" that they tell.....

1.    I could do that in a weekend

The quick development time line assessment for a new feature, functionality or capability.  And that is a weekend that has never happened for me.  I have asked for it many times but the desired functionality has never, ever arrived on Monday morning.  Or by the following Friday.  I am not sure why the accomplishments of their peers are so undervalued by other developers.

2.    It's completely modular

In the design phase, it's probably true.  At the beginning, it is all Lego block interchangeability. After the second, tenth or hundredth line of code it is no longer true.  And never will be true later. Nothing is as interchangeable as promised.  Everything is as modular as a cord of wood.  A cord of wood is kinda of modular, especially if you put enough effort into making the pieces fit together.

3.    With the product debugged, we need to go back into the code and speed it up

Meaning it is time to install new bugs as we attempt to correct poor coding that while functional was slow. Good news is that it will be much faster.  Bad news is that it will no longer be reliable.  You, as the manager, have to decide whether you prefer reliable or fast.  Both isn't on the menu.

4.    I was here working until 4am

Which is true if you include "off and on" 10 minute coding periods , online game playing and pornography viewing in your definition of working.   The truth is that the food, chair, bandwidth and sodas are better here than at the developer's home and after he was three hours into a game session and it was 11pm, he figured he would hang out and get credit for working late.  Plus, the working late session provides air cover for righteous indignation and cranky misbehavior.  And righteous indignation and crankiness are comfortable.

5.    We need to tweak the UI (User Interface)

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Meaning it looks worse than we think we can get away with and none of us really had the skills to deliver anything better prior to this.  It is bad and will stay bad until it is taken away from the original developers.  If they could have done a slick UI, it would already be there instead of the awful one in front of you.

6.    Trust me, it will work for the demo

Just not for very long. Or at least, not for the entire demo. Hope as a strategy as it will be tested prior to the demo.

7.    It is the server or bandwidth

"You see, if you weren't such a cheapskate," it implies that "my vision and superior performance would be realized and obvious.  Now, my true genius is obscured by your cheap skate sensitivities. Away from me!!"  You are the source of the problems with the code, not the author(s). 

8.    His or Their code is crap

This is said by developers of all other developers.  There's is likely some truth to it.  Then again, it is just different than the developer delivering the opinion would do it.  And that makes it crap. 

I must say I admire the creative act of software development and the skills of those capable of great work.   Along the way, however, I have run into more than a few mis-leading statements about it from modest and great developers alike.

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This is going to be a changing day for your computer!!

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Ok, I've worked in or around personal computers for almost 30 years.  I assembled stand alone and multi-user systems with a variety of operating systems for a long time.  I even built our home computers until my wife put a stop to it.

I know my way around pc's, networks, internet connection and the ancillary devices.  And, given how they interact with each other, it is time for an intervention. For all the years of technological advancement, our automation is "stuck" emotionally.   Let's get to the bottom of this.

1.    Where's the love people?

When you network them, the PC's view each other as enemies and the Mac's view each other as friends.  And peace making is arduous.  If you're not the Dr. Phil of networking it can be impossible.

Can't we all get along? Isn't it time to work together?  Is really that freaking hard to build enabling technology to let the five computers on lines of connected copper see each other?   We're 25 years into this inter-relationship and things aren't progressing towards easily connected systems.  

2.    What's with the anti-social behavior?

If printers were people, we would be profoundly anxious about them.  Let's just say it is comforting that they are immobile and incapable of handling a weapon.  They refuse to talk to anyone and then we they do speak it may or may not make any sense.  I think the silent demeanor may be hiding anger.  Certainly can bring out the anger in me to deal with printers....

On a Microsoft network, it can get so bad that the PC's no long see or acknowledge the printer as even being there after a while.  I do love that about Microsoft,  how can it be that an installed printer just disappears from a PC's awareness?  But it does. All the time. Yes, the printer is anti-social and difficult to converse with  - but should the PC mimic this anti-social behavior?

3.     Did you have to bring that home?

We pay for virus protection until we get an infection and then we pay for the infection's removal.  Seems like one step too many.  Maybe just one payment too many.  They can do and fix a lot of things on those $99 calls to "Mary" in Lahore, Pakistan but she can't tell you why you received for buying the the virus protection.  Can't we build virus protection that either works or covers itself when it doesn't work?  Can't we just avoid trouble?

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Great Video on Media Convergence

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I attended a great panel at the Digital Media Insider conference that was conducted at last week's Consumer Electronics Show. The following video is a fantastic encapsulation of the major trends within media today. If you have a few minutes, take a look, it is well worth it.

Twitter and Real Time, It's not for just for breakfast cereal anymore

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In college I repaired pinball machines for spare cash.  Not that I was qualified or trained to do so, the market rate was $35 hourly for pinball repair when the alternate positions paid $3 hourly.   So, yeah, I can fix pinball machines, I said, and taught myself how to do so.   As fate would have it, the timing of this was fortuitous. 

In the late 70's when I did this, the switch to circuit board based pinball and video games gathered steam.  For me, it was an absolute revelation to see a 5" by 10" circuit board replace a two foot by three foot set of electromechanical relays.  I didn't really understand and certainly couldn't fix the circuit boards but I knew they were the future.  I was sure they were my future.

I graduated in 1982 and joined nascent the personal computer business.  I followed it since through networking, electronic mail, Internet technologies and Venture Capital. Always looking for the new, new thing and usually thrilled to find it.

Which brings me to Twitter and Real Time in the present moment.  I think the true significance of Real Time information is largely being lost on most due to the technology's mis-characterization as a tool for providing a world wide update on one's breakfast cereal choice.  Yes, it can do that.  But it can do and will do a whole lot more for society and commerce when it is more properly harnessed for productive purposes.

How will that happen?  Well, first, we would begin to recognize that all the information we typically access today is inherently stale by comparison, it is not anything approaching real time information.   So, for example, if you're a salesperson walking into an account and want the latest status --- you can get it so long as you're willing to accept information from yesterday or before --  but you won't see what has happened today.  And what happened today is often what's on the customer's mind when you walk in the door.  The bad customer support call, the mis-addressed shipment, the credit hold or the sales call by one of your company colleagues from another division -- all the stuff from earlier today that one only finds out after the fact.  After you've stepped on the land mine.  Success is not only about the right information but is about getting it at the right time.

There is another aspect to real time information that bears discussion which is authenticity.   Every story loses some edge over time.  The update immediately following a sales call is simply more authentic than the filtered, moderated one that gets entered into the corporate systems one, two or three days later. Is this always good?  No, probably not.  But emotion and initial reaction is important in sales and in life.  And now there are tools to capture both related to our endeavors.  To get real situational awareness, filtered and unfiltered, current and archived, is better than a facsimile.

We are also raising a generation that may be more comfortable with the texting paradigm for data entry than any other form.  There is an element of the path of least resistance for the Twitter form of information contribution.  It is easier and faster and as a result, may dominate information entry sooner rather than later.

Circuit boards found much higher purpose than pinball machines over time and real time information updates will do far more than keep the world apprised of our critical cereal choices. 

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Reports of AOL's Death are Greatly Exaggerated

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AOL is a local company here in DC.  Yes, I know their Corporate Headquarters moved to NYC and may or may not move back.  But, there are legions of current and former AOLers here.   There is a strong AOL diaspora within the DC area and its start ups.  I back a few companies with AOL D.N.A. and that background reflects well on the individuals today.  I think reflects well on AOL chances.  AOL has traditionally hired smart people. I don't claim to be any specialized student of AOL or a qualified Wall Street analyst.  But, I am real fan of smart people.

And I am old enough to remember Apple being written off and left for dead (twice).  I joined IBM (also written off as a goner) during the Gerstner make over in the 90's as a young executive and took part in a turn around of major proportions.   I would assert that no one made positive predictions in the press about the turnarounds of Apple or IBM until those turnarounds were completely obvious.   And no one is saying much positive about AOL's prospects now.  

But, I will.  AOL's new senior management team is smart enough to leverage the company's considerable assets into a positive direction.   AOL has content strengths, advertising expertise and personnel advantages, customer base assets, sophisticated e commerce technology, multi-billion dollar revenues and soon, the operating freedom, to turnaround its fortunes.   I learned at IBM that smart, hard working people can and do accomplish incredible things.  Sometimes they need to be re-directed and that can take a little while.  AOL will have the time and tools to become a great company once again starting next month.  You can blame the past on AOL, Time Warner, the fates, or some combination thereof.  My argument is AOL's past isn't necessarily predictive of its future and AOL isn't done yet.

Ok, so the turnaround AOL is unlikely?  Yes, it might be.  But, let's watch a little the movie before we get overly convinced about the ending.  

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Internet Summit 2009, November 4 -5 in Raleigh

 

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This looks like a great event for those interested in the latest internet and social media technologies.  Aside from the star power of the speakers and Jason Caplain, it is also reasonably priced.  I am going to try and get there.

It appears to the be 2nd time this has been held so I would appreciate comments from any  previous attendees.

Here are the featured speakers:

Internet Summit 2009

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ADOTAS Guest Column

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I contributed an article on the auto industry and interactive advertising which was posted yesterday.

Here is a link to it.
Adotas

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Twitter: Grotech General Partner Steve Fredrick on Bloomberg

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Steve Fredrick was interviewed today on Bloomberg about Twitter and its impact.  

Social Media changes the online advertising context

I had the opportunity recently to discuss online advertising progression recently with Ed Barrera of ADOTAS.   We covered a number of points but foremost among them was the state of internet display advertising.

The death of internet display advertising as been much exaggerated within the industry.   My thinking is twofold, first we're seeing the ongoing the destruction of unreasonably high expectations for this limited form advertising medium.  It is one dimensional and one way as compared to so much else on the internet.

With that in mind, I also think that the display advertisement has new potential in Social Media.  The Social Media user is in an active state.  The typical browsing (read skimming) user is not fully engaged on any page per se'.  The user who is interacting with the Social Media context is by definition communicating in an active, alert fashion.  Here the display advertisement is presented in a superior context for action.

That superior context isn't the only environment variable that is positive for display advertisers.  Social Media also delivers the predictable context that advertisers would receive from TV display advertising, i.e. - the advertisers knows the network standards, time, TV show appeal and audience demographics, and all other external factors which deliver a safe place for the brand.   Prior to Social Media, the internet presented very little of the safety components for a prominent brand that TV delivers everyday.   With the closed nature of a social network, advertisers can present display advertising within a whole, new, predictable context.

See article here:

  

http://www.adotas.com/2009/04/social-media-throws-a-lifeline-to-display-advertising/

My life on Craigslist

Having kicked around the Internet for the better part of 12 years, I cannot help but be struck by the advent of the local Web. It has been long threatened and over promised but the local functionality of Internet connectedness may finally be upon us.   Local content, meaning micro content -- your neighborhood and town, cannot be far off.  And the last frontier of Internet advertising and commerce may be opening up, the local advertiser market will be the final domino to fall.  And it is a big one.

My case in point is the preceding weekend. On Friday, I agreed to purchase a G5 iMac from a seller on Craigslist. We agreed that the seller would deliver to my house after our respective kids went to bed. He arrived at 9:30p, I paid cash and we set it up together.

On Saturday am, I pondered the evening while I taught at the Univ. of Maryland MBA program. Unfortunately, my desired option of going to a Nats game was out as they were going to play that afternoon during my class.   I checked Craigslist for tickets to other events and found that the comedy troupe, "Kids in the Hall" were appearing in town at the Warner Theater.   I arranged with a seller to meet during a class break at 11:30am outside the UMD building on Penn. Ave, NW.   I bought 2 tickets at face during a 15 minute break and went back in to finish the class. 

On Sunday am, I had a computer technician that I found on Craiglist come by to fix my remaining network issues with my new iMac.  He arrived at 10am and charged $40 an hour.  It took 45 minutes.  I suppose he was happy.  I sure was pleased.

This doesn't speak to local advertising directly.  But that is more a function of the anamoly that Craigslist represents as content and commerce largely devoid of advertising.   Where the consumers go, the advertisers will follow as soon as an avenue is provided to them.  Local content, advertising and commerce are the proverbial "last mile" of the Internet economy.   

Boy, I am glad that I'm not a channel manager

Distribution channels are still a valuable necessity in a lot of industries.  But in many industries, they are truly under attack.

We're seeing opportunity after opportunity where value will flow from the content creators and thought leaders without the participation of a distribution channel in the classic sense.  Whether it is writer, artist, musician, reviewer, subject matter expert or other, the Internet is enabling the flow from its source to a multitude of destinations without restriction.  More importantly, value is flowing too.   

An example of this is BrightHub.  BrightHub aims to enable product reviewers to participate in the economic impact of their articles.   Consider for example, that a product reviewer may have established a large following and be a trusted source.  What is the fair economic value for a truthful, positive review that drives product sales?  Who receives that value?   

Heretofore, a magazine might pay the reviewer a small portion of the true economics to the reviewer and leverage the resulting impact to drive ad sales.  Good for you if you're the magazine.  Bad for you if you're the reviewer.   So in the BrightHub model, the reviewer benefits from the value of their own brand and participates in the industry created by their work.  I only point to them as a suitable example.

They're are, in fact, many great examples of the content creators disaggregating the distribution channels that have long retained economic value by restricting the conduit and leveraging the resultant scarcity. 

We live in a great time but it isn't going to be great for everybody.