Saturday, July 10, 2010

Time...between compiles

Remember in the first Jurassic Park movie, Dennis Nedry the programmer who attempted to sell/smuggle dino-embryos off the island? He stated that it would take several minutes for the section of the software that he had just added code to compile, and that certain systems would be down during this compile. It was during this gap in time that he attempted to smuggle the embryos.
 
Anyway, I often have 5 minutes here, 15 minutes there waiting for compiles to complete. During these times I refuse to be involved in illegal activity! My employer will be glad to know that I am sure. But seriously, I try to get other things done such as planning the next section of code to write, consider more optimal database queries, and complete emails, etc in that time.
 
The point is that I have to plan the break or I catch myself surfing the net and wasting time. What do you do with your time in between tasks to stay focused? A list of items to complete? Does your type of work govern the web and flow of the day for you?
 
Oh... the build is complete...got to get going...bye!
 

Posted via email from Mark's Musings

Future of Tech: Mobile or the Living Room?

Was listening to the Pipeline podcast, episode 20 where "Dan Benjamin interviews Clayton Morris, self-described casual geek and anchor of Fox and Friends about inspiration and creativity, authenticity online and on TV, the way we as viewers are changing the shape of media, pursuing your dreams, balancing work and personal life, and more."
 
Towards the end of the show the discussion arose as to where the future of technology would be focused. The two spaces discussed were the mobile space and the living room. I aways thought that while mobile and home based technologies would have there own areas of products and services, the two would converge together into a "personal, electronically assisted living" that was not restricted by location but existed and functioned in your home as well as transportation.
 
We shall see.

Posted via email from Mark's Musings

Friday, July 09, 2010

Never Trust a Programmer

"Programming is a bit of mystery to people. It breeds a lot of distrust in an organization. In general, when you don’t understand what it takes to make something, anything seems plausible. You might think a house can be built in couple of weeks...." Good stuff! The rest here.
 

Posted via email from Mark's Musings

Thursday, July 08, 2010

Who is the "Bitsmith" in your domain?

Harvard Business Review's Management Tip of the Day today (Thursday, July 8, 2010) is Get Yourself a Bitsmith. A Bitsmith is defined as, "a person who understands both the work content and the tools needed to support the job."
 
One thing that organizations need to understand is that IT is more than a group of code and reboot monkeys that can be simply plugged into a position like a warm body in the Matrix. Successful IT in any company understands the objectives of the business and what it needs to do to see it happen. "By understanding the domain and the technology, bitsmiths can quickly take an idea from concept to implementation, speeding up productivity. Find someone on your team or bring someone in from IT who can serve as your bitsmith."

Posted via email from Mark's Musings

Thursday, July 01, 2010

Ubuntu Lucid Lynx DVD Watching...ba da bing, ba da boom

Got my new Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage movie DVD the other day. I wanted to watch it on my Ubuntu Desktop. Alas, I did not have the proper libraries loaded. Solution, query the smart and generous Ubuntu community. A quick search yielded How to play video dvd Movies in Ubnutu 10.04 Lucid Lynx.
 
In short, do the following from the terminal prompt:
$ sudo wget --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/$(lsb_release -cs).list
$ sudo apt-get --quiet update
$ sudo apt-get --yes --quiet --allow-unauthenticated install medibuntu-keyring
$ sudo apt-get --quiet update
 
And, ba da bing, ba da boom...I was watching the DVD on my Ubuntu Desktop.

Posted via email from Mark's Musings