The biggest headache in software development is that most programmers can’t program and don’t want to learn anything. I recently finished up a MOOC called Software Engineering for SaaS, offered by UC Berkeley through Coursera. For a modest investment of a few hours a week for five weeks, I learned some Ruby on Rails — a well-designed platform and a lot of fun to work with — as well as tools like GitHub, Cucumber, RSpec, SimpleCov and Heroku. Over 50,000 students from 150 countries signed up for the class. According to a final email from the professors, about 10,000 students attempted at least one assignment or quiz. Or to look at another way, 80 percent of the students gave up without even trying. Approximately 2,000 students, or 4 percent, completed all four of the assignments and the three quizzes. One of the enrollees who gave up without trying is a… Read more →
April 2012
We have to live today by what truth we can get today and be ready tomorrow to call it falsehood. — William James
I’ve Got a Little List
From the LinkedIn profile of a linguistically challenged IT manager: High-Level Strategic Planner and Executioner Read more →
Alternative Uses for Beer
I’m picking up a few things at Trader Joe’s — some Clif bars, a couple boxes of cereal and a bottle of IPA. The checker points to the bottle and says, “That’s good. Have you tried it?” Like he’s the beer expert and I don’t know anything. “Yeah, I’ve tried it.” Not to be outdone, I pointed to the cereal boxes and said, “Have you tried it on cereal?” “No.” “Well . . . think about it.” Read more →
Mobile Site vs. Full Site
From Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox: The basic ideas are to: cut features cut content enlarge interface elements Read more →
This Scam Still Needs a Little Work
I got this in my email today: From: paypal@service.com Subject: account information needs to be updated Dear PayPal Costumer … Read more →
News Judgment
Dog bites man — not news. Gravy-wrestling model hit in the face with monkey wrench after finding friend having sex on her sofa — now THAT’S news! Read more →
Aside
Steve Denning: The Best-Kept Management Secret On The Planet: Agile
Steal Like an Artist
There’s an economic theory out there that if you take the incomes of your five closest friends and average them, the resulting number will be pretty close to your own income. I think the same thing is true of idea incomes. You’re only going to be as good as the stuff you surround yourself with. — Austin Kleon, Steal Like An Artist Read more →