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Art of Keep It Simple, Stupid (KISS)
We, humans that is, love to complicate things and it seems to come naturally without too much effort. The longer we work with a given project, the more complex it becomes. I am not just talking about software engineering, but pretty much anything we undertake. Yet how does this seem to happen? The short answer…
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I have seen many a multi-monitor setup, but when I spotted one of my team, Trace, with the tiered monitor configuration, I done a double take. Trace has a USB monitor in-between his laptop and his keyboard, low enough that he can look over to see the laptop monitor behind him. Genius setup.
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Tesla Motors: How Elon Musk and Company Made Electric Cars Cool, and Sparked the Next Tech Revolution
The inspiration behind Tony Stark’s Iron Man business man persona, Elon Musk, is truly a fascinating and intriguing character. I will confess that my first impression of Musk, was an eccentric rich play boy, who craved the lime light with no real substance – the technologies Paris Hilton. I couldn’t have been more wrong in my initial view of Musk. The man, immigrated from South Africa, cut his teeth…
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[review] Marissa Mayer and the Fight to Save Yahoo!
I am always fascinated at the history of companies, particularly those that we interact with on a daily basis. Yahoo is one of the original pioneering internet companies that seems to be a poison chalice for any CEO that attempts to reform it back to its glory days. This book, contrary to the title, is not all about Mayer and her fight to save Yahoo. It is instead a history…
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Amazon S3 overhaul for OpenBD
Building on last weeks work with AmazonS3Write() function, I have just released a slew of updates and changes to the whole range of OpenBD functions designed to make it easier to work with Amazon’s S3. The following functions have been updated with new functionality: AmazonS3Write()Supports background uploads. Multi-part uploads (for larger files). Set storage class and ACL as part of same call. Retry logic. Callback CFC uploads. Amazon Server Side…
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Improved AmazonS3 uploads with OpenBD
I have added an end of year feature bonus to OpenBD, available in the nightly build edition. This improves the uploading capabilities to Amazon S3 from your CFML apps. With this improvement, the AmazonS3Write() function brings the following features: Retry capability, complete with configurable time to wait between retries Automatic local file delete on successful upload Background uploading, with CFC callback upon success or failure This will help a…
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JavaScript is our new Visual Basic
JavaScript is sweeping the development community and is popping up everywhere, having broken free from the confines of the browser. We see it at the server side, embedded inside programs, powering mobile apps and we even see it popping up inside of games. However, we are creating a huge headache for developers and companies in the future, because JavaScript was never designed to take on this scale. It isn’t a proper language. Now…
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JavaOne 2014 App – the anti-pattern to mobile development
The JavaOne conference, held annually in San Francisco is a shining beacon of everything good and wonderful in the Java space. What was once the main event, JavaOne is now a side show to the massively large OracleOpenWorld, which takes over all of the Moscone halls, streets and a number of hotels. There was a time JavaOne was that big – but Java has fallen and if this years…
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Why, I, the anti-social-networker fell for Google+
I hate Facebook. I don’t care about your lives. If I cared, I would be part of your life and I would talk to you, I would interact with you and I would get involved with you. I could go on for why I hate Facebook and all the problems with privacy and how you are giving your life over to a company whose sole purpose in life is to…
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“From Earth to the Moon” teaches us a little software management
The Apollo era of the space race, was one of the most exciting and energetic periods in the scientific community with many of the foundations of software engineering being pioneered that are still in use today. One of the best TV series to articulate the challenges that had to be overcome is the Tom Hanks HBO TV “From the Earth to the Moon” series. This drama-documentary has one particular episode,…
the leg-end that is, Alan Williamson.
For over 20 years, I’ve shared my thoughts whenever the muse strikes. It’s unpredictable, honest, unedited, and occasionally witty. I’m living the best years of my life, working harder than ever, and enjoying every second.
Alan Williamson 