Category
Software Development
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Software Development
Catch Me If You Can
Daniel Jalkut makes the best case yet as to why desktop applications are here to stay and why web applications, almost by definition, will always play catch up with desktop apps:
When something truly innovating and mind-blowing happens on the web, I can drop it into a WebView on my Mac and make it a part [...] -
General, Software Development
The Outrage of Air France 447 Crash
06.17.09 | Permalink | 6 CommentsWhen Air France flight 447 was reported missing, news reports blamed storms over the Atlantic. As a frequent traveler, this didn’t make sense to me. Then reports started coming out blaming the pitot tubes that measure an airplane’s speed. It turns out that both Airbus and Air France already knew of problems [...]
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Cedrus, General, Software Development
Featuritis: Worse Than You Think
I just finished reading Dreaming in Code by Scott Rosenberg. The book describes Mitch Kapor’s valiant effort at creating Chandler, a software product that was supposed to be the mother of all PIMs. Scott was there from the start and describes the various mistakes made, such as not having a finalized user interface [...]
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Software Development
The Beauty of Programming
Gustavo Duarte writes in his excellent piece, “Lucky to be a Programmer”:
For the past few weeks I’ve been working with a fellow developer on a project that required an all-out programming effort. It’s done now, so we’re back to a regular schedule, but when people hear about the crazy hours they often say they’re sorry. [...] -
Cedrus, Design, Software Development, User Experience
Free iPhones For All
OK, so it’s not quite free for everybody, ya know. I’ve done dumb things before, but c’mon! It’s free to all Cedrus employees who have been with the company a year or more.
Why?
It’s simple, really. With all due to respect to Samsung’s Instinct and other iPhone wannabe recent offerings, the iPhone currently has no competition. [...] -
Software Development
A New Way to Setup Teams?
What do Ethernet and the original graphical user interface (shown below) have in common?
Both were ignored by their company. They were invented at Xerox’ famous Palo Alto Research Center, or PARC. Xerox didn’t know what to do with them.
These examples illustrate a long standing dilemma of organizations, especially the large ones: how can [...] -
Software Development
The Myths of Innovation
Welcome to 2008, and Happy New Year to all.
I just finished reading Scott Berkun’s The Myths of Innovation. Scott does an excellent job of debunking a number of myths, explains how innovations are diffused, and describes the various obstacles that slow down their diffusion.
I won’t provide a thorough review — plenty of readers who [...] -
Software Development
More On App Development vs. Consulting
Shortly after I commented on The Two Types of Software Development (application development vs. consulting), Joel Spolsky posted the text of a talk that he gave at Yale. It largely agrees with my comments and it’s why I am firmly in the apps side and never want to go back to consulting.
Ever eloquent, Joel [...] -
Software Development
The Two Types of Software Development
I’ve been thinking for a while about the difference between application development versus contract programming, a.k.a. consulting. I have done both and clearly prefer application development.
What spurred me to ink my thoughts is Ben Collins-Sussman’s recent Version Control and “the 80%” post where he separates developers into two groups: the 20% alpha geeks and [...]
about me
My name is Hisham Abboud. Curious Chap is my blog about hardware design, user interfaces, and other related topics. During daytime, I play at Cedrus. I still haven't decided what I want to do when I grow up.
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