First Impressions of the Apple Watch: Surprised that it’s not called the iWatch. The user interface looks surprisingly cool. Distressed that the Apple Watch needs to be charged every day, but if the docking station is sufficiently easy to use, it shouldn’t be a deal breaker. The watches look like real watches, beautiful as well … continue reading
Once upon a time, back when dinosaurs roamed the planet, I learned COBOL. While I never wrote any deployed applications in the language, I did use it to teach an undergraduate course in computer science for business majors, back in the early 1980s. Those poor students, who submitted their programs on punch cards for an … continue reading
Tuesday’s voicemail from my bank was short and simple: “My name is Patricia from the Bank of America fraud prevention department. This important message is for Mr. Alan Zeichick. We are calling to verify some potentially suspicious activity on your account. It is very important that we speak with you.” Nobody had pilfered a credit-card … continue reading
Your app’s user interface is terrible. Your business plan is flawed. Your budget is unrealistic. Your code isn’t efficient. Clients are unhappy with your interpersonal skills. Your meetings are too long. You don’t seem to get along with your developers. You are hard to work with. You are being kicked off the task force because … continue reading
Cloud-based development tools are great. Wonderful. Convenient. You may access your cloud-based IDE, your cloud-based code repository, your cloud-based storage, your cloud-based test suite from anywhere, perhaps through a browser, perhaps from a thin client. Log in, choose your project, off you go. Except when it doesn’t work. I don’t know if you were affected … continue reading
What do you do when you’re not programming? What do the coders on your team do when they aren’t programming? There’s a good chance that you (or they) are moonlighting. There are many reasons why someone would come home after spending 10 hours in front of the office desktop’s IDE, have a quick dinner, then … continue reading
Why did we become programmers? There may be many reasons, but I’ll bet that for most (or all!) developers, it’s because of a love of design and creation, and the joy of seeing something that we’ve built come alive. For many of us, particularly those who became managers or entrepreneurs, opportunities to code are few … continue reading
We drove slightly more than 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers), my wife and I, during a weeklong holiday. We explored different states in the western United States: Arizona (where we live), Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming. The Rocky Mountains are incredible. Most of our vacation was at altitudes above 6,000 feet (1,800 meters). Many of the … continue reading
Where do your employees go to find shared data? If it’s external data, probably an external search engine, like Google (which apparently holds 67.6% of the U.S. market) or Bing (18.7%) or one of the niche players. What about internal data? If your organization uses a platform like Microsoft’s SharePoint, that platform includes a pretty … continue reading
Where do your employees go to find shared data? If it’s external data, probably an external search engine, like Google (which apparently holds 67.6% of the U.S. market) or Bing (18.7%) or one of the niche players. What about internal data? If your organization uses a platform like Microsoft’s SharePoint, that platform includes a pretty … continue reading
Microsoft has evolved considerably from its early days selling developer tools, or its era focusing on Windows and Office, or its run as a server software maker, or its first iteration as a cloud/online services company. Despite all the myriad changes, it’s always been true that Microsoft does not excel at innovation. In fact, when … continue reading
If developers aren’t enrolled in developer relation programs, they will become obsolescent … continue reading
Android is the spearhead of Google’s plans for cars, smart devices, TV and more … continue reading
These agreements prevent workers from working where they want, and companies from hiring the best available employees … continue reading
