Download Squad http://downloadsquad.switched.com Download Squad. http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/downloadsquad.switched.com/media/feedlogo.gif Download Squad http://downloadsquad.switched.com prods@weblogsinc.com (Weblogs, Inc. Producers) support@weblogsinc.com (Weblogs, Inc. Web Support) en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. View our terms of service here: http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/ Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/ <![CDATA[iPhone App Review: Twitterrific exercises your EDGE connection and your patience]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/12/iphone-app-review-twitterrific-exercises-your-edge-connection-a/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/12/iphone-app-review-twitterrific-exercises-your-edge-connection-a/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/07/12/iphone-app-review-twitterrific-exercises-your-edge-connection-a/#comments TwitterificSlick UI seems to be the norm for most 'big name' iPhone applications on the AppStore. Twitterrific easily gets the top spot in terms of having attractive UI and navigation. However, UI and usability are not synonymous. When I use my phone, I want to accomplish what I want to do quickly and easily. Unfortunately Twitterrific falls short in a few area which makes it one of the most frustrating apps to use on the iPhone.

Until recently, the only way for developers to test an iPhone application was to use the simulator. While it does a great job in allowing developers to see and interact with the app as they develop it, it doesn't show how the app performs in real-life situation.

There are two major differences between the simulator and the real iPhone that are at play here. One is the computer speed and the other internet connection speed. Even the slowest MacBook Air runs faster than the iPhone and thus any performance issue would be masked. Likewise with internet connection, there is no straightforward way to simulate the speed and latency of a EDGE connection and therefore any deficiency of the code in the app would not be exposed until the developers try it out on the real iPhone with spotty EDGE connection.

Twitterrific suffers from both of these problems. The scrolling performance of the message list is so jerky and slow that initially I thought there was something wrong with my iPhone. As I waited patiently for the list to scroll up and down, I also noticed that Twitterrific loads and re-loads every single user picture, even if it has previously been loaded. I stared at my iPhone in dis-belief because I could not comprehend how any sane developers would be as inefficient as that. My hunch that the reloading issue is tied to connection speed was confirmed last night when I got home and connected to the net via wi-fi. Both scrolling and picture reloading sped up because of the much faster connection I have at home.

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iPhone App Review: Twitterrific exercises your EDGE connection and your patience originally appeared on Download Squad on Sat, 12 Jul 2008 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> appstoreedgefacebookiphoneiphone2.0Netnewswiretwitterrific Alex Hung Sat, 12 Jul 2008 15:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Dev Chair : iPhone SDK experience]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/03/28/dev-chair-iphone-sdk-experience/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/03/28/dev-chair-iphone-sdk-experience/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/03/28/dev-chair-iphone-sdk-experience/#comments
The iPhone SDK has been out for couple of weeks now and I've been using it to develop an application for my work as a technology demonstrator. My experience thus far has been largely positive. I wasn't surprised by how well-made the SDK is, even at this beta stage. The amount of work involved in releasing any SDK, let alone one that is so tightly scrutinized, cannot be underestimated.

Consider that I am learning three new things simultaneously: programming in Objective-C, learning how to use Xcode, and what is available in the iPhone SDK, I am going to describe the whole experience instead of just confined to the SDK.

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Dev Chair : iPhone SDK experience originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> applec#iphoneiphone sdkiphonesdkobjective-cresharpervisual studiovisualstudioxcode Alex Hung Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Dev Chair : A geek solution to the writers strike]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/01/27/dev-chair-a-geek-solution-to-the-writers-strike/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/01/27/dev-chair-a-geek-solution-to-the-writers-strike/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/01/27/dev-chair-a-geek-solution-to-the-writers-strike/#comments
As the Writer's Strike continues into the end of January with no real end in sight, most people are running out of quality TV programs to watch. Heck, we're even running out of quality-less programs to watch. Unless you are a fan of reality shows such as Gladiator, there isn't much coming in the next month or so, if at all, for this rapidly evaporating season.
I think it is time we in the software industry step up to the plate and offer our help. With what we know about artificial intelligence (AI), genetic algorithms, and natural-language parsing, it should be possible to develop a software program where TV scripts are created based on previous episodes.

What we need are:
  • Characters in the series and their attributes (gender, personality, etc.)
  • Tons of previous scripts
  • The series formula, e.g. The new clue to solve the case between minutes 39 and 40 in Law & Order, or CSI.
  • A genetic algorithm that learns the characteristic of the series through all the existing episodes, e.g. how each character behaves, their favorite catchphrases, and how the general plot line evolves. For many shows, just the catchphrase would suffice.
  • A software bot to trawl the net for bizarre news as seed to generate new stories.
The scripts generated by this AI program would probably not very good at first -- but hey, neither was Seinfeld -- they might not make sense at all. But, after some teaching sessions by a human -- perhaps volunteers from the audience? It's all about crowd-sourcing these days, right? -- some reasonable scripts should result.

Granted this strategy would not work for proper drama like 24, Dexter, Weeds, etc. which all have major story arcs running through entire seasons but, it should work great for formulaic shows such as Law & Order, CSI, Numbers, Psych, where almost everything stays the same from episode to episode with only minor plot device differences in between.

How much effort would it take to develop this AI program? I don't have the faintest idea. I just suggest stuff, it's up to other people to handle the sticky details of implementation. I can imagine modifying an existing AI algorithm to accept TV scripts instead of whatever scientific research data, let it run on some beefy servers (may be run it as adistributed project like SETI@home? New TV shows are at least as important as finding aliens, maybe moreso.), and see what comes out at the other end.

Remember, this idea is hardly new. It has already been done with financial news by Thomson Financial as reported by Wired back in 2006. Is it such a big leap from news to formulaic drama?

Come on, doesn't this sound like a fantastic final year college project? Surely the prospect of getting your final assignment done and being the hero who breaks the Writer's Strike deadlock sounds appealing to someone?

More interesting question is: Which one is smarter? Law & Order, or an artificial intelligence program? With Fred Thompson dropping out of the presidential race, our money is on the AI.

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Dev Chair : A geek solution to the writers strike originally appeared on Download Squad on Sun, 27 Jan 2008 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> 24dexternumberspsychscripttvweedswiredwriter's strikeWriter'sStrike Alex Hung Sun, 27 Jan 2008 19:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Dev Chair : Do we want scientists or engineers?]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/01/10/dev-chair-do-we-want-scientists-or-engineers/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/01/10/dev-chair-do-we-want-scientists-or-engineers/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/01/10/dev-chair-do-we-want-scientists-or-engineers/#comments Good computer science graduates do not make good software developers. Really, I mean it. But for the polar opposite reason that these two New York University computer science professors think.

When I was in high school my physics teacher once told us, "All physics experiments work. They just may not work the way you want them to."

This encapsulates neatly what software development is all about. On one hand, it is science. It is deterministic. Each programming language statement performs exactly as stated (baring bugs in the compiler, or the SDK, or the OS). On the other hand, software development is closer to engineering where years of experience allows a software developer to spot patterns in the model and apply them to build a system.

Unfortunately, just as in physics, computer science courses do not prepare students for what comes after graduation. Skills that are considered crucial in almost all commercial software projects are either not taught in college or are only touched upon. This disparity between the skills graduates possess and what the industry is looking for means it generally takes one to two years of working in real life project for a graduate to become fully trained.

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Dev Chair : Do we want scientists or engineers? originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 10 Jan 2008 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> cc#computer scienceComputerSciencedevchairjavarubystanfordvb.net Alex Hung Thu, 10 Jan 2008 09:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Dev Chair : Faster, better, cheaper with Agile?]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/22/dev-chair-faster-better-cheaper-with-agile/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/22/dev-chair-faster-better-cheaper-with-agile/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/22/dev-chair-faster-better-cheaper-with-agile/#comments Nokia N800
As NASA starts to wind down their Space Shuttle activity in the next three years, the space agency's effort to return to the Moon has been ramping up quietly in the background. With their new Orion/Ares space vehicle combination, crew automation will definitely be on the top of software priorities for NASA. But with a much smaller budget and shorter timescale than the last lunar attempt, would NASA and its contractors embrace new approaches and techniques so our tax dollars are better spent? Can Dan Goldin's "Faster, Better, Cheaper" approaches be finally achieved?

A couple of months ago I was fortunate enough to join ThoughtWorks, a company that advocates the use of Agile software development practices (Extreme Programming, Scrum, TDD, etc.) to bring business value to our customers. I have been using Agile practices on my previous project for over three years and it had proved to be highly successful. And ThoughtWorks' experience in this area proves that Agile can also be applied successfully on large enterprise software projects. But can Agile be used on a highly mission-critical software project such as the one for the Orion spacecraft?

Over ten years ago my first programming job was for small software company developing real-time, safety critical software for controlling railway trains. The work we did was the embodiment of the Waterfall model. The system requirements were collected and analyzed. The model was designed and validated. Then we mere programmers set out to write code to realize the model. Huge amount of unit tests and integration tests were created to make sure our code did what the model said it should do. All the while, the project manager kept track of our progress to ensure that, hopefully, we delivered the product on time and on budget.

At first glance, Agile sounds like a good fit with this type of project where requirements are generally very well defined and correctness are paramount. Short iteration and test-driven development will ensure features are delivered often and proved to be working by the unit tests. Continuous integration means there will be fewer surprises as multiple systems are joined up to work with together. The costs of requirement changes will be reduced and can be implemented quickly, rather than in the next version.

But would the world of safety /mission critical software development, dominated by engineers and scientists, be receptive to the less rigid world of Agile development? Would they feel that without the top down approach, its highly structured development process, and the tightly prescribed set of delivery artifacts, the project delivery cannot be guaranteed?

I would love to hear from people who have more recent experiences in this area of software development with regard to Agile. Is it being used, is it being used widely, and how effective it has been?

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Dev Chair : Faster, better, cheaper with Agile? originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 22 Oct 2007 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> agilenasaprogrammingtddthoughtworksxp Alex Hung Mon, 22 Oct 2007 09:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Dev Chair : What can green do for you?]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/01/dev-chair-what-can-green-do-for-you/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/01/dev-chair-what-can-green-do-for-you/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/01/dev-chair-what-can-green-do-for-you/#comments Green

About a hundred years ago the Industrial Revolution transformed the lives of millions of people. The invention of steam power, telegraph, electricity and the like freed people from labor intensive jobs and let them spend their energy on improving living standards. The focus of the industrial revolution was on new mechanical inventions. It wasn't until the invention of the transistor in the 50's that the next phase of technological revolution was kicked into high gear. The advent of the electronic age further improved the mechanical machines and allowed us new methods of communications. Now, computer software dominates large aspect of our daily life.

The same pattern is happening with the environmental technology movement. As we move to a greener future, all our focus and efforts are directed towards mechanical improvements to existing technology, such as the use of fuel cells or bio-fuels over fossil fuel, or the replacement of environmentally harmful materials with bio-degradable materials.

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Dev Chair : What can green do for you? originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 01 Oct 2007 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> nasaopensourcerichard bransonrichard-bransonRichardBransonvirgin earth challengevirgin-earth-challengeVirginEarthChallengeX10ZigBee Alex Hung Mon, 01 Oct 2007 09:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Mobile Minute: iPhone APIs are like life - they're full of compromises]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/08/13/mobile-minute-iphone-apis-are-like-life-theyre-full-of-compr/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/08/13/mobile-minute-iphone-apis-are-like-life-theyre-full-of-compr/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/08/13/mobile-minute-iphone-apis-are-like-life-theyre-full-of-compr/#comments Two weeks ago we saw the first wave of third party applications for the iPhone. But because Apple has yet to open up the device and provides an API (Application Programming Interface) for software developers, making third party applications right now is not for the faint hearted or even regular developers. A couple of weeks ago in MacBreak Weekly, Leo Laporte called for Apple to open up the iPhone immediately and he could not see any reasons preventing that happening. What Mr. Laporte, and most pundits, seems to imply is that providing an API is a straightforward process. Publish the API online and let the developers use it, right? If only it were that simple.

An API is a contract between the provider (Apple) and the consumer, who in this case is the software developers. As with any contract, once it is published, a level of trust is established between the provider and the consumer. This means the provider describes the functionality accessible by outsiders in the API, and that functionality will work as advertised. The consumer has to depend on the provider to keep their word so the consumer can develop applications base on that functionality.

But establishing an API also means restricting internal development freedom for the device. It is no longer simple to rework a particular function to provide better capability or performance without substantial testings to ensure the existing APIs are not broken. There are a few ways to deal with this situation.

Continue reading Mobile Minute: iPhone APIs are like life - they're full of compromises

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Mobile Minute: iPhone APIs are like life - they're full of compromises originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 13 Aug 2007 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> .mac1passwdapidashcodedelicious libraryDeliciousLibrarydevelopmentigtdiPhoneleo laporteLeoLaporteleopardmacbreak weeklyMacbreakWeeklymobileminuteos xOsXsdktextmatetwitterxcode Alex Hung Mon, 13 Aug 2007 08:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Dev Chair : Geeks are not Apple's target with the iPhone]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/07/17/dev-chair-geeks-are-not-apples-target-with-the-iphone/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/07/17/dev-chair-geeks-are-not-apples-target-with-the-iphone/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/07/17/dev-chair-geeks-are-not-apples-target-with-the-iphone/#comments
This last Saturday I had the good fortune of being in the middle of a passionate debate between Roy Singham and another ThoughtWorker over iPhone vs. other smartphones. Roy argued that the iPhone is not the game changing device that most people claim it to be because his Nokia N95E90 smartphones can do more and better. The discussion was cut short due to scheduling pressure but it got me thinking, why do people lust after iPhone more than other smartphones? Is it because of the large touch screen? Is it because of the Safari browser? Is it because the iPhone is a video iPod and a cell phone? Or is it all just hype?

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Dev Chair : Geeks are not Apple's target with the iPhone originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 17 Jul 2007 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> exchangegoogle mapGoogleMapgpsipodn95nokiathoughtworkswwdcyoutube Alex Hung Tue, 17 Jul 2007 13:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Dev Chair : iPhone Safari and the rest of Web]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/06/29/dev-chair-iphone-safari-and-the-rest-of-web/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/06/29/dev-chair-iphone-safari-and-the-rest-of-web/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/06/29/dev-chair-iphone-safari-and-the-rest-of-web/#comments

iPhone day is upon us. Much has already been written about the iPhone despite the fact that only a handful of journalists have used it. One thing that is common among all reviews is the AT&T's EDGE network is slow. Perhaps it is faster now but EDGE is still no 3G.

Earlier this month at WWDC, Jobs told Apple's developers to develop web applications for the iPhone instead of releasing a SDK. Again, much had been written about how developers felt betrayed by Apple, and that web applications are not really applications at all. Despite all these resentments, a few iPhone only web sites have sprung up since WWDC. Unfortunately, none of them are particularly impressive or useful probably because no one has gotten their hands on a real iPhone yet, which kind of confirms what the developers feared; that web applications will not be as good as proper iPhone applications. There are exceptions, of course. NewsGator's online feed reader allows users to read their RSS feed via the web anywhere and sync with their desktop apps when they get home. Similarly, the latest version of Google Reader does the same.

With all the attention on iPhone only web apps, I think people are neglecting the regular web sites. Just because iPhone's Safari can render regular web sites fully and allows the users to navigate/zoom around the site with their fingers, it does not mean it provides the best user experience.

My prediction will be that as soon as all the new iPhone owners get home and start surfing to their favorite news site/blog/message board via EDGE connection, they will find that -- although they can do almost everything on that smaller screen -- it is not as easy as on the desktop computer. They will be disappointed and lots will be written on the web this weekend about how web surfing sucks on the iPhone using EDGE. And I will agree with them. Can you imagine loading and navigating cnet.com on the iPhone using EDGE?

So what can be done to improve the user experience? The solution is a concept that has existed ever since cell phones were able to connect to the internet; mobile versions of web sites. The idea of a stripped down version of the regular web site for a mobile phone is as old as HTML4/CSS2 themselves. Some of the best examples that I have used are Fandango, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Vox. What is so good about specificly tailored mobile web sites? First, they are designed with cell phone in mind so the site is generally formatted to fit the narrower screens. Second, because of limited bandwidth mobile, they strip out all extraneous graphics, animations, AJAX menus and buttons, Flash, and the like. so the page will load quickly. Third, and the most important of all, because of the previous two reasons these sites always focus on what the users want to do on the site. Whether it is to find movie times on Fandango, updates your current thoughts/activities on Twitter or Facebook, or read/compose blog on Vox, these sites let users get there and do it quickly and pleasantly.

Some of the big players in the web are already there. Both Yahoo and Google have mobile version of their sites, allowing quick access to search, emails, and other features. BBC has a PDA version, so does CNN. As the battleground shifts from desktop to mobile computing, web sites need to start thinking about how their sites look on a restricted device (be it a UMPC, iPhone, etc.) because it is no longer just about providing content or services. It is about how easy the users can access these content or services.

My hope is that the iPhone will finally make web developers pay more attention to the mobile experience of their web sites. Even if iPhone 1.0 disappoints, at least other mobile web users will benefit from improved user experience.

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Dev Chair : iPhone Safari and the rest of Web originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 29 Jun 2007 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> applebbccnnedgefacebookfandangoflashgoogleiphonenewgatorsafaritwitterumpcvoxwwdcyahoo Alex Hung Fri, 29 Jun 2007 17:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Dev Chair : Why is Safari on Windows?]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/06/11/dev-chair-why-is-safari-on-windows/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/06/11/dev-chair-why-is-safari-on-windows/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/06/11/dev-chair-why-is-safari-on-windows/#comments So Apple went and released Safari for Windows. It is interesting why Apple did this. Safari may be faster, as the Royal Steveness claimed, and provides a number of nice features that are not in IE7 or Firefox by default (e.g. Forms auto-fill and resizable text fields) but I am not sure it would get much traction in the long term once the novelty factor has worn off.

Steve Jobs also announced that 3rd party developers will get access to the iPhone via web apps. Traditionally, cell phone application development is 'hard'. Hard in the sense that, by nature, cell phone manufactures are not software companies, so either the software development kit (SDK) use lower level languages (C++, etc.), an unsupported developer community (compare with web or desktop development), or antiquated OS (Palm OS 5.x). Whereas web development has a much lower learning curve as well as much bigger pool of developers to pull from.

It is obvious, at least to me, that releasing Safari for Windows is primarily a move to open up the iPhone's development environment to the largest audience possible. If Apple were to actually make a proper SDK for the iPhone, it would mean the SDK would have to support the Cocoa framework on OS X, and either port Cocoa to Windows (possible), or use 3rd party framework for Windows (not likely, given how much Apple likes to be in control). Either way, I doubt this hypothetical SDK would be OS X only, and asking 3rd party developers to purchase a Mac just to develop for the iPhone would be the death keel that many have been predicting.

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Dev Chair : Why is Safari on Windows? originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 11 Jun 2007 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> adobe integrated runtimeAdobeIntegratedRuntimeairfirefoxgoogle gearGoogleGearie7iphonesafarisilverlight Alex Hung Mon, 11 Jun 2007 22:30:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Dev Chair : The Vista Tax]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/06/05/dev-chair-the-vista-tax/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/06/05/dev-chair-the-vista-tax/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/06/05/dev-chair-the-vista-tax/#comments
As regular computer user, I don't have much interest in migrating to Vista in the immediate future. I don't think it offers any great leap in usability or functionality over XP. UAC (User Access Control) is definitely much needed and will improve security overall but it can be annoying as hell for average users. Aero Glass UI is nice to look at but does nothing to actually let you work more efficiently. Added to which, there are still doubts on how well Vista performs as a home media center or gaming platform.

On the other hand as a .Net software developer, Vista is both a blessing and a curse. I want every single Windows user migrated to Vista as soon as possible because having the .Net framework included as part of Vista's standard installation is a very big deal. This means that application installers will no longer need to check for the presence of the .Net framework or provide a method to automatically download and install it if absent. This is a huge time and effort savings for the user as the framework is a large download. Also some users are turned off by the mere idea of downloading yet another component in order to run an application in XP. With the framework part of the OS, users will have one less thing to worry about.

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Dev Chair : The Vista Tax originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 05 Jun 2007 10:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> .netinnosetupinstallermsinsisuacvistawcfwindowswpfxp Alex Hung Tue, 05 Jun 2007 10:45:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Dev Chair : Rebooting the web]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/05/04/dev-chair-rebooting-the-web/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/05/04/dev-chair-rebooting-the-web/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/05/04/dev-chair-rebooting-the-web/#comments

Two weeks ago at NAB, Microsoft announced their Flash competitor, Silverlight. At that time, I was like 'blah' about it, thinking it was just another reaction from Microsoft to Adobe. But when Microsoft elaborated more about their future web development strategy at MIX07 two days ago, I was stunned just like most Microsoft developers.

CoreCLR, cross-platform .Net Framework, DLR, Silverlight, the list goes on! But what is so great about them all, you ask? Currently we have the .Net Framework with ASP.NET AJAX and a library of free components to help web developers. But despite what those web monkeys try to convince us desktop developers, web programming sucks in general, and JavaScript/CSS in particular, because we have to deal with the web browser and the messy standard(s).

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Dev Chair : Rebooting the web originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 04 May 2007 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> .netadobeflashflexmicrosoftmix07scoblesilverlighttextmate Alex Hung Fri, 04 May 2007 10:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Dev Chair : Safety first]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/04/25/dev-chair-safety-first/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/04/25/dev-chair-safety-first/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/04/25/dev-chair-safety-first/#comments
Many years ago, car manufacturers emphasized only new features to entice new buyers. Then some time in the early 90's car safety became important and car manufacturers put safety features top of the selling points for new model.

I feel that right now Web 2.0 service providers are operating like those car manufacturers before the shift to car safety.

Ever since the infant days of the internet, people have been putting more and more data online (emails, newsgroup posts and IRC conversations) without giving it any thought. But in the Web 2.0 age we are leaving behind a trail of data much more personal than ever before. We tell people about our lives, our thoughts, and where we've been with our photos (some even tagged with geo-data).

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Dev Chair : Safety first originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 25 Apr 2007 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> archivebackupcddvdjaikursssafetytumblrvoxweb 2.0Web2.0yahoo pipesYahooPipes Alex Hung Wed, 25 Apr 2007 10:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Dev Chair : Web 2.0 and future of desktop blogging clients]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/04/09/dev-chair-web-2-0-and-future-of-dekstop-blogging-clients/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/04/09/dev-chair-web-2-0-and-future-of-dekstop-blogging-clients/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/04/09/dev-chair-web-2-0-and-future-of-dekstop-blogging-clients/#comments
With all the new and shiny Web 2.0 applications coming out, one may easily be convinced that desktop applications are breathing their last breath. At least that's what Google would like you to think about Google Apps, and its chances against rival Microsoft Office.

On the blogging front, most of the popular blogging systems (Blogger, Vox, TypePad, WordPress, etc.) have incorporated some degree of rich/WYSIWYG editor to make life easier for bloggers. Some of them integrate with other Web 2.0 applications (e.g. Vox with Flickr and YouTube, Flickr with blog systems) to allow users aggregate their disparate content. Does this mean the slow death of desktop blogging clients?

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Dev Chair : Web 2.0 and future of desktop blogging clients originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 09 Apr 2007 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> bloggerectoflickrgooglemicrosoftportlandsan franciscoSanFranciscotypepadvoxweb 2.0Web2.0wi-fiwikipediawordpressyoutube Alex Hung Mon, 09 Apr 2007 09:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Dev Chair : Create a Tumblr widget using Dashcode]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/03/26/dev-chair-create-a-tumblr-widget-using-dashcode/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/03/26/dev-chair-create-a-tumblr-widget-using-dashcode/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/03/26/dev-chair-create-a-tumblr-widget-using-dashcode/#comments
Back in December Apple released a beta version of Dashcode, a programming environment which makes it easy to develop OS X Dashboard widgets. The problem with Dashcode is that there is not much information on how to use it available on the internet. Even the documentation that comes with Dashcode provides only the most basic information and does not currently link back to Dashboard documentation.

Meanwhile, we like Tumblr here at Download Squad. It is great for posting quick snippet of content onto a blog-like web page without the need to compose a full length blog post. Tumblr provides a great bookmarklet to make this process even easier. You just click on it to post the current web page in your browser to Tumblr, or you can select some text which becomes a quote on your Tumblr.

Last week, I realised that Tumblr makes an ideal candidate for a Dashboard widget! So I decided to combine these two ingredients and see how easy it is to make a Tumblr widget using Dashcode.

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Dev Chair : Create a Tumblr widget using Dashcode originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 26 Mar 2007 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> appledashboarddashcodejavascriptosxtumblrwidget Alex Hung Mon, 26 Mar 2007 14:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Dev Chair : Resume tips]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/03/20/dev-chair-resume-tips/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/03/20/dev-chair-resume-tips/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/03/20/dev-chair-resume-tips/#comments
While we are on the subject of jobs, here are some tips on how to make your resume sing. This should improve your chances of being noticed by potential employers. Some of these tips are obvious, some may be new to you, but all of them are from my personal experience so YMMV.

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Dev Chair : Resume tips originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 20 Mar 2007 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> jobresume Alex Hung Tue, 20 Mar 2007 10:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Dev Chair : Getting the most out of version control]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/03/15/dev-chair-getting-the-most-out-of-version-control/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/03/15/dev-chair-getting-the-most-out-of-version-control/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/03/15/dev-chair-getting-the-most-out-of-version-control/#comments
So you've picked a version control system and successfully installed/configured it. Now it's time to figure out how to get the most out of all this newfound power.

The What
What kind of files would you want to put under version control? Anything and everything! Seriously, everything that you work on every hour of the day makes a perfect candidate for version control.

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Dev Chair : Getting the most out of version control originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 15 Mar 2007 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> CVSfile protectionfile storageFileProtectionFileStorageprotecting your filesProtectingYourFilessoftware developmentSoftwareDevelopmentversion controlVersionControl Alex Hung Thu, 15 Mar 2007 12:30:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Dev Chair : Version control for beginners]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/02/28/dev-chair-version-control-for-beginners/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/02/28/dev-chair-version-control-for-beginners/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/02/28/dev-chair-version-control-for-beginners/#comments
Put up your hand if you do not consider yourself a software developer but know what 'version control', 'CVS', or 'Subversion' is.

Good, you guys can stop reading now and come back for the next post.

The rest of you may want to stick around and find out why version control software may be something you need but do not know it exists.

Why would you need Version Control?
You may think that version control software is only for 'proper' or hardcore developers. But let's say you host your own blog on a web host. There are many files to maintain for the blog system, let alone the configuration files, the style/template files, the plug-in files, etc. Wouldn't it nice if you can take a snapshot of the whole system every time your blog is in a semi-satisfying state? Or may be you are a Linux user, you probably have a bunch of shell scripts that you use and tinker with everyday. Wouldn't be cool if you can go back to the copy of a script you have last Tuesday at 1:09 AM before you decided (erroneously) that half of the script was junk? How about you are a writer and want to take a snapshot of your novel? Sure you can save multiple copies of your file but if you have spent some time renaming files on your hard disk and append "1", "2", or "old" to the file name, then you are prime candidate for a version control system.

If you're still reading, hopefully I have convinced you the virtue of storing critical and often changed files on a version control system.

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Dev Chair : Version control for beginners originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 28 Feb 2007 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> commercialcvscvsdudefreewarejavaopensourcesmartcvssvntortoisecvstortoisesvnvss Alex Hung Wed, 28 Feb 2007 09:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Dev Chair : First love]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/02/19/dev-chair-first-love/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/02/19/dev-chair-first-love/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/02/19/dev-chair-first-love/#comments As the senior manager of the software development team, part of my duty is to interview job candidates. One thing that jumped out to me a while ago as I was going through a resume is that a lot of candidates have more interesting jobs at the beginning of their career than their latest employment.

My own experience is very similar. The first job I got after finishing college was with a software engineering company for transportation (mainly trains) and traffic control system, where 'engineering' meant exactly that. The company was ISO9000/9001 certified so that means every process and decision had to be clearly documented and signed off. The traditional software development model, i.e. "The Waterfall", was king and the thickness of the requirement and design documents were matched by the comprehensive testing documents. Every change request must be approved, coded, tested, and signed off before

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Dev Chair : First love originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 19 Feb 2007 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> careerectoiso9000jobsoftware developmentSoftwareDevelopmentwaterfall Alex Hung Mon, 19 Feb 2007 10:30:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Dev Chair : My love-hate relationship with Apple development]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/02/12/dev-chair-my-love-hate-relationship-with-apple-development/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/02/12/dev-chair-my-love-hate-relationship-with-apple-development/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/02/12/dev-chair-my-love-hate-relationship-with-apple-development/#comments First, let me start with the full disclaimer: I develop Windows .NET application by day (and by night too for ecto) and use Mac OS X at home for everything else. Before getting my Mac Pro last December I used to work on ecto using a second Windows machine, but since then I have been using Visual Studio 2005 in an XP virtual machine using Parallels.

Whether you love or hate Microsoft, you have to give them credit for popularising programming on Windows. While I was a junior programmer fresh out of college learning C++ and working on train control software, truckloads of CS/Engineering graduates were learning to program in Visual Basic. Whatever faults VB has, the way it allows even beginner or causal programmers to learn the craft and produce quick and dirty applications means that programming for Windows was no longer the eminent domain of the traditional CS/Engineering graduates, where FORTRAN and C/C++ rules. Microsoft continues this trend with C#/VB.NET and the .NET Framework, providing a lot of built-in functionality that used to require hand-crafted code or expensive third-party libraries, freeing up developers' time to concentrate on problem solving instead of mechanics.

With OS X, Apple began with Objective-C and Java as the programming languages of choice but ever since version OS X 10.3 Java had been put onto the back burner and is expected to be phased out eventually. Unfortunately, making Objective-C the sole language of the platform also makes it difficult and 'expensive' for Windows programmers, such as yours truly, to join the party. The difference in syntax (despite the 'C' in the name it does not have much resemblance to C or C++), difference in framework and API, difference in IDE philosophy, and the lack of refactoring tools (ReSharper, CodeRush, etc.) and unit testing tools (NUnit, JUnit, etc.) mean that some of the more open-minded programmers (mostly Java and .NET) will not take an active interest in Apple software development.

The upcoming Xcode 3 looks like it would make a big step in closing the gap, but the IDE still lacks the tools mentioned above to attract the time-constrained, less hard core developers from the Windows side of the world. The dark horse may be the combination of Eclipse IDE and Mono project. The Eclipse IDE is mature and has a flexible plug-in architecture so refactoring and unit testing tools can be integrated into the IDE by third party developers. Meanwhile the Mono project has been making lots of progress as far as compatibility with Microsoft's implementation is concerned. And the ability to take code written in Windows and runs it in Linux or OS X (with some limitation, of course) will appeal to Windows developers, at least as a starting point.

In fact, Eclipse/Mono may actually achieve what Sun tried to do with Java all those years ago. Remember 'Write once, run anywhere'?

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Dev Chair : My love-hate relationship with Apple development originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 12 Feb 2007 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> .netCeclipsejavamac proMacProobjective-cos xOsXparallelsprogrammingrefactoringunit testingUnitTestingvbVisual Basicvisual studio 2005VisualBasicVisualStudio2005xcode Alex Hung Mon, 12 Feb 2007 11:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Dev Chair : It is all voodoo magic]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/02/08/dev-chair-it-is-all-voodoo-magic/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/02/08/dev-chair-it-is-all-voodoo-magic/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/02/08/dev-chair-it-is-all-voodoo-magic/#comments My wife (and the rest of my family in fact) has never comprehended what I do as a software developer. Throughout all the years we have been together she has seen me sat in front of the computer and typed code into the screen for hours on end. But still she does not know how ideas in my head are transformed into a software application like one that she uses everyday. She thinks it is all voodoo magic, really she does. Last week, I explained to her that software development is kind of like cooking. Not the follow the recipes in the cookbook type, rather the Michelin Star chief type where the dish is created out of thin air.

The image of 'programmers' and 'hackers' portrait by Hollywood does not help either. When I tell people that I write computer software for a living, I am pretty sure in their mind they see binary code (probably green) flowing down the black screen continuously in multiple overlapping windows. Just like in 24 or The Matrix, in fact. And coding involves typing a few lines of indecipherable command in one of those black windows, more code flows down, and Boom! Global warming is solved!

While this image works really well in a TV series or movie, unfortunately software development is not that dramatic or glamorous. The idea of someone (be it a genius or a mad scientist) working alone deep in the basement and conjuring a software application out of nowhere and that every single line of code is memorised is so deeply ingrained in the general population psyche that I truly believe this is affecting software development as a whole.

Of course, it is partly our own fault. We, the software developers, have worked so hard to make complex and powerful software easy to use for the users. We have worked so hard to improve our development process to decrease the turnaround time for each development cycle so new features and bug fixes are delivered to the users with increasingly shorter time-scale. This has raised the expectation of the users on our ability to deliver feature that looks deceptively simple on the surface but probably hugely complex behind the scene.

Is there a light at the end of this tunnel for software developers? Perhaps, but only if we work very hard on at least the following two areas. First better design concepts (object-oriented design, design patterns, refactoring), processes (Agile, TDD), and development tools (C# 3.0's LINQ, Ruby On Rails, etc.) will continue to be improved to let us deliver more and faster. These are already in place and many clever people are working hard to take us there. More importantly, as well as building kick-ass software; we also need to begin an education initiative.

We need to change the perception of our work in the users' mind from part voodoo magic, part art, part skills, and full nerds to a disciplined profession. Some may even want to call it 'software engineering', do you believe that?! Until the general population considers software development on the same level as lawyers, doctors, or engineers, recognises the immense complexity of software applications and the skills requires to build them out of thin air, our job as software developers would only get harder and harder.

* Dev Chair: The place where I plant my butt after a hard day of code bashing and muse about meta-issue. [Alex Hung is a co-developer of desktop blogware ecto and will be penning a regular series for DLS about software development.]

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Dev Chair : It is all voodoo magic originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 08 Feb 2007 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> 24agilec#hollywoodmatrixprogrammingrefactoringruby on railsRubyOnRailssoftware developmentSoftwareDevelopmenttddtest driven developmentTestDrivenDevelopment Alex Hung Thu, 08 Feb 2007 15:00:00 EST Download Squad