Author Archives: Philippe Back

A month with Android and Samsung Galaxy Mini

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It has been about a month that I am using a Samsung Galaxy Mini. That’s a cheap EUR 99 phone.

There is a hell of a lot packed in there. I am coming from a BlackBerry Bold 9000 (that wasn’t repaired properly by Belgacom – but that will be for later).

There is also a lot of Apple kit over here, namely iPads and an iPhone 3GS.

So, how does it feel to work with such an Android phone?

Pretty well it turns out. But not without glitches either.

The multitasking works well and in some senses better than on iOS based devices. And I now understand why Apple didn’t allowed multitasking to run wild on their own devices.

Memory management is pretty much transparent on iOS and requires constant attention on Android. When memory gets short, everything slows down to a crawl. I didn’t had this feeling on iOS.

Touch is okay. I don’t like the Swype keyboard and thank Samsung to have included their own.

When it comes to push mail, it works fairly well

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Lessons from Captain America

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I was watching Captain America last evening and tought it would be interesting to make a list of some takeaways in the movie.

Here we go:

* Appreciating strength requires to have experienced weakness.
* You can’t grow strong, fast, and skilled unless you have it in you to start with in the form of values.
* Being able to stand up, again and again, will get remarked.
* Good weapons make a difference.
* Red skulled guys are usually not your best friends.
* It is awesome how great one can become provided the right context.
* One looks like better with a bit of physical training indeed.
* Leading a wonder team may look like herding cats. But they may well follow you down to inferno, and back.
* A shield can sometimes come in handy. Watch your back.
* Don’t embark friends you can’t afford to lose along the way.
* Don’t expect to pick up the smart babe if you aren’t up to the required standard.
* Crazy ideas actually may work.
* 300-1 odds are only in movies. Live to fight another day.
* Given enough means and brainpower, the future can be now.
* Don’t forget to kiss your loved one before embarking on your risky journey.

Even if this was not the best movie ever, I had a good time watching it. Lots of actors from MIB and The Matrix mixed in with a hefty dose of freaking technology and weaponry.

Typical American style of course :-)

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Socius.be 2.0 – Communautair Portaal met OpenSource is Een Jaar Oud

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In de Socius Voortgang Rapport 2011 staat er een paar interessante informaties over http://www.socius.be :

Socius.be
Op 6 april 2011 ging de nieuwe Socius-site online. Naast een volledig vernieuwde huisstijl, biedt het vertrouwde adres nu ook enkele
belangrijke extra’s. Zo biedt de site alvast heel wat meer mogelijkheden voor interactie. Niet alleen kunnen bezoekers, mits voorafgaande
registratie, reageren op de meeste bijdragen, ook de toevoeging van een aantal specifieke blogs stelt vormingswerkers meer dan ooit in staat om hun stem te laten horen en ervaringen uit te wisselen. Daarnaast kunnen ze ook zelf inhoud toevoegen aan de site.

Vacatures, praktijken (zie hieronder), publicaties en op termijn ook nieuwsberichten.

De kennisbank is misschien wel de belangrijkste pijler binnen de nieuwe site. De bank bevat een schat aan kennis netjes verdeeld over acht
sleutelthema‘s: digitale samenleving, innovatie, levenslang en levensbreed leren, omgaan met verschil, onderzoek en cijfers, sociaalcultureel handelen, vrijwilligers en werken in organisaties. Klik je op een van deze thema’s dan heb je als sociaal-cultureel werker alle
relevante informatie die je nodig hebt binnen handbereik: nieuwsberichten, praktijkvoorbeelden, weblinks, publicaties, eventuele blogs en een WIKI.

Met deze WIKI biedt Socius voor elk thema de belangrijkste informatie (PowerPoint-presentaties, filmpjes, PDF-documenten, …) aan.

Nieuw aan de site is ook dat alle artikels, nieuwsberichten, praktijken etc. een ‘tag’ hebben, zeg maar voorzien zijn van een trefwoord. Zo kunnen bezoekers aan de site nog gerichter zoeken naar de informatie waaraan ze behoefte hebben.
Natuurlijk zijn ook heel wat vertrouwde rubrieken gebleven. Zo heeft de site nog steeds een uitgebreide vacaturebank, krijg je de belangrijkste sociaal-culturele nieuwsberichten op een schoteltje aangereikt en kom je online alles te weten over de werking van de sector en het steunpunt.

De site was in 2011 goed voor 257.208 bezoeken en 108.482 unieke bezoekers, ten opzichte van 332.023 bezoeken(-23 %) en 133.886 bezoekers (-19 %) in 2010. Deze daling is te wijten aan de stopzetting van de vacature RSS-feed. In het verleden waren enkele honderden gebruikers via RSS ‘geabonneerd’ op de vacaturebank. Via mail werden ze rechtstreeks op de hoogte gehouden van nieuwe vacatures. Met de lancering van de nieuwe site werd deze dienstverlening ten node stopgezet. Eind 2011 voorzag Socius opnieuw de mogelijkheid tot RSS-abonnering.

 

De technologie is Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware.

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Fireworks instead of a rocket

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Yet another article coming back from the grave. This was 2001. Still, the same issue applies today!

 

Starting with some VC-backed capital, a couple of guys started a small company and hired a group of above average developers. The domain was defined but there was no defined product specification. So, all developers started developing ideas in code instead of exploring designs on paper or on inexpensive mockups to market test them. No arrangements with distributors were investigated, no marketing plan devised, no product sheet made.

Instead of having a clear goal of where to end up and align people, cash and energy where spent going in all directions.

Fig 1
Fireworks and Rocket

 

The figure on the left shows that from the starting point, efforts where going in all directions without coordination.

This has several effects:

The cash burn rate was higher that it would have been if the target was kept

Given the fact that cash was going down to dangerous levels for the survival of the business, branches which were the furthest from the real target got cut, meaning a net loss

The branch which was the closest to the target was retargeted but  there was not enough money to end up with something as big as the initial target

As such the final product was smaller than expected and was not aligned with anything. The point is that in this case, there were already competitors in the field and the final product could not compete with the other products on the features and usability level.

A lesson that may be taken out of this rather sad story is that having a vision and a plan to work it out and, most of all, find a way to sell it properly are key in finding success on the software marketplace.

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Required blocks for development checklist

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I wrote this list in 2002. Things have improved but a lot of places could still use it! (Sadly…). And that despite all the nice improvement and agile/kanban/scrum/you name it…
  • Coordination meetings with issues, risks, recurring tasks and organizational problems
  • Understanding of the customer expectations and their management including Service Level Agreements
  • Change requests list
  • Incident Reports list
  • Configuration management with proper support document (for local configuration and delivery site)
  • Data sources available
  • Proper Tooling (editors, compilers, deployment, parameters, scripts, including test tools)
  • Service Fault Investigation and Diagnostic procedure
  • Tests sheets
  • Weekly build properly packaged (read complete and burned on archive media, along with release document)
  • Weekly release performed on user acceptance system (from above build)
  • Samples for testing
  • Nomenclature for documents, basic templates
  • Calendar overview (weeks, months) with holidays and release dates for every person involved in the project
  • Contact list for every person involved in the project
  • Source control (SCM along with agreed procedure and training given to people + tools installed properly with documented parameters)
  • Connectivity works
  • Escalation procedure
  • Project web
  • Good understanding of existing infrastructure and deployed systems (at our location and at the premises of the customer)
  • Code reviews
  • Shielding people carrying work
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Core values

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All alignment of people together is a question of values. What is the set of values of the company ? Without that people will not be able to align with them. The company is meant to become one of the trendsetters in the business. As such clear set of values has to be present to allow for alignment.

For IT development, the following may fit, this is some kind of « Nike Philosophy » - Just Do It:

« We deliver regularly and on time with evidence of added value »

« Each team member down here is working smart and hard, is resourceful and efficient »

« We do not compromise the quality of our products just for the sake of giving Eye Candy to the customers »

« We do not overpromise and respect ourselves when it comes to evaluation and carrying work »

« We are proactive and do not wait for things to happen – we make them happen »

« We actively and aggressively reduce risk from the start of projects »

« We learn by doing and stay focused, cheap talk belongs to the kitchen »

« We have a set of proven and properly configured tools »

« We understand our technical environment »

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