Dev Dawn

Ever released a new version of software to over 6000 machines????
Ever found that last minute bug just before sending the CD to the copiers????
Ever found that last minute bug after recieving the CDs????

Here are the Top Ten Songs Likely to be played by a Developer after finding that BUG!!!!

10. “If I Could Turn Back Time” – Cher :: I’m sure she is a developer at heart.
9. “The Gambler” – Kenny Rogers :: Know when to hold em know when to fold em, know when to RUN……
8. “You can’t stop the Music” – Village People :: Program stopped but not the music.
7. “Like a Prayer” – Madonna :: We need a prayer and we need it now.
6. “Back in Time” – Huey Lewis :: Lets go forward or backward….arrrggghhh
5. “Eye of the Tiger” – Survivor :: Lets get motivated to fix this one!!!!!
4. “Eat It” - Weird Al :: Maybe lots of food will help right now!!!
3. “When you wish apon a star!!” – Whoever :: I need a miracle!!!!!
2. “Bohemian Rhapsody” – Queen :: This developers mind is completely whacked right now.

And for the undisputed king of BUGGY Software Releases!!!!

1. “Start me up!” – Rollingstones :: Start Me Up and I’ll never stop – Yeah Right!!!!

History will be the judge of that song selection. Win 95 should have been “Shut Me Down!!!”

If you have not experienced the angst of a software release you are probably not a coder but just another of those generation Zers snoring through IT.

Although the site is relatively new, over the next few weeks I won’t be posting as much as I have in it’s up-till-now lifetime. Sad I know, don’t cry … it’s okay.

Ahem. There are projects on the boil. Most of these are being worked on right now, and are taking my time. The biggest is of course my “paying me a salary” project. Which has precedence, and is rather large. The others are smaller, but have a more immediate relationship with Dev Dawn. One, in particular, will be rearing it’s head here in an Alpha, or Beta. I’m not exactly sure about where to break those things up in functionality terms. When does it move across from one to the other. That sort of thing.

That’s all for now.

In the first Dev Shout, I’m going to give a big greet to TADSpot.

First things … this is one of the funniest posts I’ve ever seen. Today’s Google Rumor.

Classic stuff.

Anyway … TADSpot has a great design. And when I say great, I mean it’s the kind of site that looks different, and then grows and grows on you. I’m now at the stage of considering a total Borg assimilation because I’m getting sick of the boring Dev Dawn theme.

But … it’s not just the visual appeal. The TAD Man posts are intelligent, insightful, and off-beat enough to start the thought processes flowing. Because that’s what we need. Not just towing the line … not just being a news aggregator, but pushing further.

TADSpot is this, and much more. Go visit now.

Now.

Taken from the Sydney Morning Herald.

Clarion awesome tool but why don’t people all use it???? Let’s be a problem solver and break it down!!!

Even Software Developers are suckers for Peer Group Pressure!!!!

I have always subscribed to the adage: “Use the right tool for the job!”.

Over the last 10 years I have used many tools and been frustrated by many tools —- clarion doesn’t frustrate me and btw i think my hairs growing back.

I pity the guys who have to chain them selves to the desk and spend the first 10 weeks of each project creating class hierarchies……..yawn and if thats productivity….they can have it. Software Development is about solving a business problem not reinventing the wheel.

Noboby ever got fired for going with Microsoft……..it cost them but they didn’t get fired. That’s what the generation Z managers are saying as they snore their way through the creative business of IT.

I have a couple of mates that are trapped in this cult…..they have seen what clarion can do but Senior IT managers keep whipping them into submission.

So for all the Microsoft devotees while you are still building a extremely complex solution to a business problem…but not actually solving the problem…..I have to go because I’ve have to get to the bank and bank my first payment.

For more on Clarion http://www.softvelocity.com
For full article Clarion :: You can build it! But will they come???

Cheers,

Pleasantly Calm (Not Frustrated)

This was, for a very short period of time, a post … but now it’s an article. Apologies to anyone coming through from Digg.

How Do You Solve Problems?.

We face problems every day, not the least of which in Development. How do we approach these, and are we willing to change the way we do this?

Okay, all those folk who visited here browsing with IE … PLEASE RETURN. The site is fixed. Apologies …

I’ve just noticed that IE is again having problems with the CSS on this site. Will get this fixed asap. It seems the background images have been pushed across, and the middle div (main content) has been pushed down below the two sidebars.

A thousand apologies for the inconvenience.

I’m a sheep. Baaa Baah. I’m easy to please, and not so smart that I don’t get excited about the “cool new things” that people like Google give to me.

So I’m wondering, directly after typing out my last post, about the effects of Google being the Shepherd. What risks are there, if any? And what about the future? What is it exactly that Google is trying to do? Just become a big Entrepreneur, a Capitalist Giant (man I love Answers.com), or is it something more?

I think it’s more. Bigger than Ben Hur.

Now I’m partial to a bit of conspiracy. Or rather, the fantastical. I reckon that Nessie is alive and big. I love to imagine that Dinosaurs still walk this planet.

What I’m not gonna say is that Google is out to get control over the entire world. It’s plan lies in a different direction. A vision I think, of Information.

That’s not to say that this won’t be used for nefarious activities. I’m sure it will. But Google, in my mind, is trying to achieve a Tower of Babel in the Online world.

Whoah. That came out of nowhere. Maybe that does change things.

Anyway … if you strike the Babel idea … hmmm, I can’t get that image out of my head.

Blah. Now I can’t remember my point. Stupid imagination.

If Google is trying to bring together a massive fount of Information (which it already has), and mould that into a hundred and one different services to the Interweb, then how does that impact us?

Depends on which part of us you are. If you’re Bill and his mates, then you’re a little worried, and have begun the re-envisioning of a the once monolithic company, towards the new exciting technologies.

If you are like me, a blogger with visions of glory, then I think we can get the benefits of what they provide without worrying too much about the global scale. After all, I don’t mind a bit of a battle in the upper heavens over who is pushing out more new cool stuff.

So I guess, we’ll wait and see. The blogosphere will remain vigilant for news, and will be most excellent at thinking through the issues. That’s one of the great strengths of the blogging world. Maybe each of us hasn’t got a super-brain able to calculate the billions of computations necessary to pull all the different threads together, but there are a million and more blog-brains out here who can think through at least a few threads, and if you put all these together.

Thanks for reading, and reading … and reading.

Okay, so by now everyone has heard that … Google Base is live. It’s gonna rock the world … most probably.

It’s rather sparse at the moment, well … comparitively against a normal Google search, ha, but that’ll change quickly. Google is a trusted name/brand. I’d say they’ll have plans in motion to implement all kinds of goodies over the next few months within the Base functionality.

Google Analytics, after a bit of a shaky start, seems to have righted itself. I’m getting some stats, although as Tad (spot) reported, it ain’t all there yet. They are seriously making their way into many different segments of the ‘Net. And it doesn’t matter if initially their product doesn’t do all that the others do … they’re Google, and the masses will use them. Me being one of the ‘Masses’.

Anyway, have been spending a little of my time with Joomla lately. My brain is having trouble wrapping itself around the actual management of content. Don’t laugh … it’s true. But just doing the simple things is making things clearer. It (and Mambo, it’s forefather) seems to be a very powerful content management system. I like the large support base, lots of helpful hints lying around the net.

Lastly, I’ve just purchased Snag It, screen capture (amongst other things) software. It’s simple, and powerful. Just the kind of functionality I like. Kudos to you Snag It peeps. It’s gonna be very handy for getting images into blog entries, and other things.

Images. Blog. Yeah.