InsideTheProgrammer

I’ve given myself some time to really think about what has happened over the last week, and then share my thoughts to the world about it. Steve Jobs was a living legend who brought and revolutionized so many industries including, modern day computing, music, movies, distribution, handsets, and many, many more. Steve was the guy who inspired me to never give up, and always keep trying. His concept in thinking different always inspired me, as well as others, to think original and “out of the box”. Now that he’s gone, we really realize what he had done for so many people.

SJ showed the world that what you make and do can change the world. He had determination, even after he was ousted from Apple in 1985, and founded two new companies. I highly doubt there will be another Steve Jobs ever again. He was special in every way - his presentations, focus, personality. He was a role model to many, including me, in everything that we did.

But Steve isn’t gone. His legacy lives on in Apple and his products. He still shows us that the impossible still can be achieved. His 2005 commencement speech is very inspiring, and it sure is great to see the amount of people quoting him and realizing his true brilliance.

Today it has been confirmed that he had passed away because of a pancreatic tumor and respiratory arrest. SJ showed us a lot of things, and to anyone who knows someone who is fighting or has cancer, he taught us to never give up. He persevered for 8 long years, and if he can, so can other people.

Another Steve Jobs probably won’t come again, but it isn’t too late to create your own legacy. Steve will be greatly missed, and we all give our condolences to the Jobs family and admirers of Steve. Thanks for giving us so much. R.I.P Steve Jobs.

I’m taking a risk of saying it, but I will: I love when Facebook changes something. Facebook, a social-networking power-house is ranked one of the most visited websites in the last few years. With that however, comes its criticism to privacy, sharing policies, whether Facebook keeps and what it does with user information, etc. The bottom line is I like when Facebook makes a change. I cannot tell you how many people post status updates on how Facebook’s changes really suck after they implement something. To the contrary, I’m different - I love it when they change something.

At this point you may be thinking “What the heck, this guy is crazy!” followed by a few swear words. Hopefully by the end of this post I can convince you to be open-minded towards their changes.

First, there’s new privacy tools.

Many people criticize Facebook like there is no tomorrow on very basic things. I really hate it when people whine and say stuff about Facebook and privacy if they ever go too far. After all, it’s your choice to relinquish your personal data on the internet, so by making that choice there are some risks. Facebook is and always has and will try and protect the user and their privacy as much as possible. The bottom line is, if you care so much, don’t use Facebook.

Privacy is a big issue for me, and one of the reasons I love updates from their end is because it gives me, the user, more control on how and what and whom I can share what with. Every time it get’s more specific with what you want to share and with what category of friends.

Second, it’s all about new features.

I’m a feature addict. Not only just by being a power-user, I like speed, simplicity, elegance, and a lot of other stuff. Facebook constantly adds new features and tweaks with the UI and their back-end that makes things faster, look nicer, etc. Sometimes, we don’t even notice it! It pretty much speaks for itself when I say that features is everything, and good change is always good (obviously!), but people are always afraid of change.

Third, most people hate and complain about Facebook updates until they actually start using them.

I’ve seen it on pretty much every update that Facebook makes. So many comments and status updates on how the new features suck. In a week or so, after everyone has broken into the new features, they don’t complain, but start to like it! Now there have been products where no one has said a peep, because of the fact that they understand the new features, or can relate to it instantly on how they can use it. Unless you’ve used something thoroughly, don’t complain.

Fourth, it’s innovation.

Since the dawn of time, sharing has always been in the human nature. First it was telecommunications, radios, televisions, telephones, instant messaging, and now a more in-depth experience of social networking that Facebook and many other companies provide. Facebook, competing with Google’s Plus, Buzz, Orkut and other companies like Twitter and Apple - yes Apple’s music social network, Ping, counts - push innovation and ideas, further and further to develop new and better ideas.

I think all, if not most of these points relate to all social networks like Google + and other products as well as Twitter and MySpace and Friendster and all the others that is hardly used now; not judging if you still use MySpace and Friendster! I haven’t received all the updates that Facebook has been planning on rolling out, but I do have a few test account that got them, and the new features are awesome! I hope this post has helped you think differently about updates and how they affect us and the companies at work. Always remember, don’t be afraid of good change; it’s why they call it good! If you have any questions or comments or pretty much anything related to this topic, feel free to post! 

That’s all for now, until then: I’ll see you guys on the flip side.

Last Week, Steven Sinofsky part of the Windows 8 Development Team released a blog post about the improvements to the Windows 8 Explorer. I read through most of the post and was very intrigued and happy about the new Explorer. I am very happy about the fact that they’ve integrated the standard “ribbon” at the top to manage and sort through documents and content that are in local hard drives.

However, when I first looked at the screenshot, I was very confused at what to do and where to go. There was way to much eye-candy to look at! The ribbon is just a bit to flustered with all these icons and functions that the user may feel overwhelmed by the lack of organization in the ribbon, resulting in the experience of the Explorer.

I look back and still remember the days of the File Manager that was in Windows 3.1 and how we’ve evolved. I love the fact that you can see more files and have a better preview that can maybe compare to Apple’s OS X Leopard, Snow Leopard and Lion interfaces. I haven’t used Windows 8, so I can’t give you my full opinion on it.

Looking, there are a few UI kinks here and there, but this looks to be the Alpha preview of Windows 8 and the Explorer - see my other post about different types of previews. I love how they share statistics on how they made the ribbon and how they’ve optimized the most used features that users use most of the time within the Explorer.

One thing that I would love to see is the integration of real-time use. By that I mean that the Explorer and other programs would use algorithms and other technologies to learn what my most frequent uses are and change the UI according to me. I’m not like the rest of the people and maybe I am that 16% of users who use a certain feature and they choose to make it hard to find based on that percentage. Another use of real-time is integrating feeds of other programs or documents or something into the Explorer. It’s hard to explain, but that’s a whole other post :).

I don’t want to make to many judgements or criticisms because I haven’t seem Windows 8 or the Explorer in person and had a full experience with it. I have to admit that Windows 8 is looking pretty good, but still a bit shaky with the integration of their breakthrough “Metro UI” within the OS. I just feel that it creates a break in the experience separating two parts of the OS and drawing a line between it. But that’s just my opinion. I can’t wait to see more leaks and images of the Windows 8 releases, and look forward to hopefully getting my hands on a test machine as soon as possible!

That’s all for now, until then: I’ll see you guys on the flip side.

Many companies now days release software to some users for feedback. Beta testing is the act of a developer releasing software to users for feedback, ideas, opinions, bug findings, preparing for other users to build software on top of their platform, etc. Alpha testing is the pre-beta testing which has tons of bugs, and usually has other purposes than beta testing; most companies don’t really go this route a lot. Beta testing is the most common of all, and a really good way to release and get feedback from users before releasing it to the public.

The advantages of Alpha testing is that you can release pre-mature software that isn’t cooked to the public and expect developers to give feedback- whether for coding or idea purposes. Sometimes companies open-source the Alpha software so developers can help them. Because Alpha software isn’t that close to being finished, users and developers can submit ideas and suggestions and have a higher probability to get them looked at and possibly added to Beta or Goldmasters. Sometimes companies use Alpha to test uncooked software inside their company or employee-base to get ideas from other employees maybe not working on the particular software project.

Beta testing is really good for users to see and use software that is really close to being released, but just has some kinks to be worked out. Most companies go this route because they want to give users a preview/sneak peek at what’s ahead and can make last minute changes based on opinions and suggestions.

Software that is considered a “GoldMaster” or “GM” is pretty much the final version of software. The software is pretty much “cooked” and most of the kinks and bugs are worked out and there is very little to do but to prepare for launch. Usually it’s a bit to late for users and developers to submit suggestions to add to this software, but giving suggestions like making an the software more stable or compatible with other software are acceptable suggestions. There aren’t a lot of advantages to the user accept that they get to see the software before the release, and can suggest very basic and last minute changes and opinions on how this version or future versions can be improved.

That is a very brief and short list of three types of testings that companies usually use. I know Apple, Microsoft, Google, and many other companies use Beta and GoldMasters for the public, but Alpha testing at times internally. If you have any other suggestions, questions or comments leave them below and we’ll try our best to communicate them!

On a side note, if you know anybody that is interested or will be in our content, please pass this blog on so we can get even more followers! I would personally like to thank all of you guys who are following this blog; it really means a lot! Thanks for everything!

That’s all for now, until then: I’ll see you guys on the flip side.

I know it’s probably old news by now, but very, very sad news. Steve Jobs has been the innovator and visionary of Apple and the computing industry, entertainment, portable devices, music, post-pc, and many, many other industries. He’s pushed us forward in how we think and create applications and use computers and devices these days. This one single person pushed so many industries. Sure, he has had some failures, but if it weren’t for those Apple and such industries wouldn’t be as successful. Last week was a very, very sad day. Seeing a man who is so committed to his work leave because of his health is very disturbing. I was very moved by the news because he has contributed so much to so many industries, and hearing his resignation was very depressing.

Steve is an asset to all the industries because of what he’s done. The question that arrises in everyone’s mind is if Apple will survive. When Steve came back to Apple in 1997, and even when he started it with Woz, he ushered in a culture that is stuck to Apple, and to quote Tim Cook - the previous COO and present CEO of Apple - “it’s in Apple’s DNA”. He created Apple into the cultures that he wanted in it forever, because he knew that he wouldn’t last forever, and had to leave Apple once again, at some point. I do believe Apple will survive. They have an awesome product line, and personally I think it’s just the beginning. Apple’s stock will take a fall, but you know that it’s gonna pick up, so I suggest that you take advantage and buy!

Other people ask if Tim Cook, the previous Chief Operating Officer and now Chief Executive Officer of Apple will be able to fill Steve’s shoes. I think Tim is a great person, and is very well suited for the job. Steve has worked with Tim for about 13 years, and got to know him tons, as vice-versa. Steve would not pick a candidate or colleague that he would think cannot do a good job to lead so many industries and the company forward. I do think that Steve is irreplaceable, but I respect Steve’s decision and I think that everyone should, too. Tim’s going to do a great job.

Steve’s departure is very sad, but people are making it that he’s gone forever. He’s not! He still remains the Chairman of the Board of Directors, and will still be watching out for the company and continue guiding it; just not in a CEO capacity. I think it’s good for Steve to take a break and focus on his health, because I’m sure it’s a crucial thing to do right now. I wish Steve, Tim and Apple all the best, and hope that Steve get’s better. Steve has inspired many people, including me in many ways, and I know he will continue to do so.

That’s all for now, until next time: I’ll see you guys on the flip side.

I’ve talked about App Stores and digital distributions in previous posts. I mentioned how App Stores helped 24/7 access, environmentally friendly distributions, ease of installing and uninstalling, etc. However, I didn’t talk about how it’s changing how we’re handling infrastructures of companies. With so many developers getting on board with creating apps, it’s very hard for some to imagine how companies Apple, Facebook, Google and soon-to-be Microsoft handle all these apps and so many people buying apps 24/7. You may not think, but it affects the environment; depending on the company, it could be negative.

Facebook has awesome and eco-friendly ways to deal with the creation of their servers and data centres. Their Open Compute Project really sets a gold standard and bar for the industry to keep on par. After a few minutes just browsing around, I really found how awesome their philosophies are. On a side note, pretty much all the companies that have projects, servers and data centres like Facebook and the Open Compute, they don’t make it open source, and they keep it very internal.

When we relate this back to servers used for high traffic products like App Stores and websites like Facebook, having effective servers that are environmentally friendly and having it open source is very, very key. Apple showed off their data centre for iCloud at the WWDC 2011 developer conference, and even though the environment was touched a lot, I’m sure a company like Apple would use environmentally friendly ways to transfer air flow and have good eco-servers.

The problem with all this traffic is that companies need more space to hold all the traffic and user content, therefore needing more servers. In these recession times, most companies are trying to find ways to cut back on how much they spend on equipment and employees. When they need to buy equipment in bulk, they often look for the cheapest option and not the environment. However, a lot of times building eco-servers cuts down on cost which some companies don’t realize.

There are web-hosting services out there that are “130% powered by wind and solar energy” - which is an awesome thing. I think that a lot more companies than just Facebook should adopt the Open Compute Project, since it seems like a decent way to go, and it’s open sourced so companies don’t need to invest a lot of money in this type of research and development (R&D).

Overall, the environment is very important, and these high traffic websites and servers used for many different types of projects lead to one problem: some aren’t eco-friendly. However, they have one solution: become more eco-friendly. If you’re a company looking into this, I’d be happy to answer any questions, considering that I’m thinking of creating one of these Open Compute servers myself. We all have the power to make a difference, let’s start here.

That’s all for now, until then: I’ll see you guys on the flip side.

There are tons of development platforms; either for mobile, or desktop. I myself started with learning basic web-languages (i.e. HTML, CSS, JavaScript, XML, PHP, etc). A few months after the iPhone App Store launched, back in 2008, I got interested in learning how to develop for the iPhone. I looked into it and decided to wait until more was added to the platform. I was afraid, and still a bit doubtful that I would be investing so much money and nervous something would not work out. Well, I’m not exactly nervous that the platform wouldn’t work out, as much as my app wouldn’t be successful. iOS has several advantages that I want to highlight. I realize these points don’t hit all of them, but here are just a few.

I waited a long time to write this post as it sat in my drafts “bin” because I didn’t know if I’d be able to share all of this information in one post. It’s a fairly big topics for developers and geeks, so I’ll try not to be too controversial.

Personally, I really like iOS for the flexibility it gives you. I’ve already written a post about good development tools, and iOS has all those things developers love - for the most part. By flexibility, I mean that if you have an idea, there’s a large possibility that you can find a way to implement it. Now there are some ideas and approaches that you may think of that you can’t do, or Apple’s foolish sounding rules and TOS (Terms of Service) doesn’t allow. There are always other possibilities in taking a different route in writing or developing that idea. Apple provides documentation and a good decent amount of APIs to work with, not to mention easy ways to make your app “shine” like it was written by Apple devs themselves, even if you’re not a professional.

Secondly, in conjunction with the first point, I love the integration with the iPhone Simulator and all the tools like Instruments and Interface Builder that make the experience of developing an app fun and addictive. It all works together so seamless and with ease that it’s magical. Steve Jobs would really appreciate that I said that :-).

Thirdly, the user base. Whenever I see the developer conferences and media events that Steve and Apple hosts, it always boggles me to see the facts and updates that they give during the beginning of their keynotes. The user base that the Mac and the iPhone have are flabbergasting. It scares me (in a good way) how you can affect so many people by creating an app. If it’s well received, you’ll be successful and happy that you’re making a difference.

Lastly, the devices. iOS and Macs have different and diverse devices that really make an experience and developing worth while. Macs are macs, but iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads have different meanings. I do believe that each device and category is awesome in their own area. I don’t subscribe to the fact that an iPad is a bigger iPod Touch or an iPhone is just a bit better than an iPod Touch or iPad. All of these iOS devices really have their own market and their own way of handling users and apps, even though they run the same OS and platform. Each of them have capabilities that allow users to use them whether they are looking at the price or features. This also helps expand user base, too. As you can see, all the points work together to make a really solid and awesome platform and make awesome products.

I love iOS for many reasons. For their UI & design, abilities to add your own effects and ease of integration of gestures, and much, much more. I love it to the amount Tumblr will curse and remove this blog from their servers. But don’t get me wrong, I’m not a fan boy, and certainly don’t hate other development platforms. 

That’s all for now, until then: I’ll see you guys on the flip side.

If you’re a nerdy geek, then you may have been hearing things about “delta updates”. For those of you curious, delta updates are updates that involve only updating changes to software. For example, if I download a piece of software and 5 lines of code (i.e. that adds a new functionality to the software), it will only download those 5 lines of code rather than the full 400MB file size. This helps when upgrading OS’s, quick over-the-air (OTA) updates, etc.

One company, Apple, has been pushing this into iOS 5, the next generation iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad OS. This would allow you to do easy OTA updates without tethering you to a computer. This initiates and innovates the “post-PC” era where we can use a tablet or iPod/iPhone and have it as out primary device, without a computer. Now you could probably imagine that being a stupid idea; but the goal is to reach customers who don’t want/can’t use a computer in their region, and un-tethering you from your computer. Delta updates allow for OTA updates because of lack of large file sizes.

Personally, I think that this is a good way to go; considering we’ve been pushing and innovating other ways and ideas into the post-PC era, but missing this one functionality.

So what do you think? I think that OTA updates and delta updates allow for a more seamless and better way to offer content, and also for those of us who have bad bandwidth caps (they can only download a certain about of gigabytes of information per month).

I’d love to know what you think.

That’s all for now, until then: I’ll see you guys on the flip side.

I love APIs, they’ve helped me thus far for adding social interactions and much more to my websites. But today, I’m finding that most companies are developing their own developer and internal APIs. Is this the way programming is headed? Are developers plugging in API code and calling themselves a programmer or developer?

Many companies like Facebook, Twitter, Google, and a whole bunch work on internal and external APIs for themselves, and for developers. I feel that we’re sort of shifting away from traditional programming, and instead heading towards APIs. It is true that pretty much all APIs use common languages, like Facebook, Twitter and Google use PHP, MySQL, XML, Python, Java, JavaScript, etc. but as we start to develop programs and things for our own projects, we’re starting to shift to using developer APIs. This may not be clear to you, but we’re starting to make programs that ping back to other sites and do other thing, when they don’t really do things on our website or app.

For example, if I made a game, whether online or on a mobile device, I want users to share game scores. To make that happen, I use another’s companies APIs to take the data and ping it back to their servers and databases to hold it. It’s not that hard than before, and all we’re doing is plugging in some code.

I just feel that we’re really getting away from programming and moving into using APIs. I see this happen on the web more than anywhere. Sure, most of the time it’s more social and all, but seriously? I’m not sure the practice of using so many APIs are useful, but see them taking the shape of traditional programming.

I do think that people will need to learn a programming language to actually build a program and to use an API, but will they actually know how to do it themselves? I don’t know, maybe I’m just seeing this myself… tell me what you think.

Don’t get me wrong, I use APIs. At this point, you probably think I dislike APIs or something. The truth is, I don’t hate them. I just see the wrong culture taking shape of developers just plugging in code and not really writing it. I use APIs myself on my websites and planning in my apps; so I don’t hate them - if anything, I love them. Just not to the extent where I will use them over basic programming.

That’s all for now, until then: I’ll see you guys on the flip side.

Anyone and everyone. If you have an idea, you can implement it. It’s very easy learning a language. Many people can be discouraging or come off that programming is hard; really, it’s not.

If you don’t want to learn programming, there are development companies that you could pay to build apps for you. Google is a great source.

That’s all for now, until then: I’ll see you guys on the flip side.