British Scrap "Boring" Computer Classes

Well, kids have to start somewhere, and Excel and Word are rather complex for even many adults...

"Instead of children bored out of their minds being taught how to use Word and Excel by bored teachers, we could have 11-year-olds able to write simple 2D computer animations. By 16, they could have an understanding of formal logic previously covered only in university courses and be writing their own apps for smart phones."

As if we need another Magic 8-Ball app for our phones ;-)

School ICT Lessons To Be Scrapped, Says Michael Gove

Huffington Post UK   Lucy Sherriff First Posted: 11/1/12 09:35 GMT Updated: 11/1/12 16:29 GMT

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/01/11/ict-lessons-to-be-scrapped_n_11984...

Jobs Was Right: Adobe Abandons Mobile Flash, Backs HTML5

And maybe Microsoft will abandon Silverlight and WPF too?

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/11/adobe-kills-mobile-flash/

In an abrupt about-face in its mobile software strategy, Adobe will soon cease developing its Flash Player plug-in for mobile browsers. Adobe said it would abandon mobile flash development, nudge developers to the Adobe Air platform and wholeheartedly back what had been a rival approach — HTML5.

“HTML5 is now universally supported on major mobile devices, in some cases exclusively,” Adobe VP Danny Winokur said in a clear reference to Apple’s rejection of Flash support on its dominant iOS devices: the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. “This makes HTML5 the best solution for creating and deploying content in the browser across mobile platforms. We are excited about this, and will continue our work with key players in the HTML community, including Google, Apple, Microsoft and RIM, to drive HTML5 innovation they can use to advance their mobile browsers.”

Career Advice: Don’t Call Yourself A Programmer

I love frank posts like this written by veteran techies:

http://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/10/28/dont-call-yourself-a-programmer/

As someone who has usually worked at Cost Centers, this patagraph is especially interesting:

You really want to be attached to Profit Centers because it will bring you higher wages, more respect, and greater opportunities for everything of value to you.  It isn’t hard: a bright high schooler, given a paragraph-long description of a business, can usually identify where the Profit Center is.  If you want to work there, work for that.  If you can’t, either a) work elsewhere or b) engineer your transfer after joining the company.

Great Post - Signs that you're a bad programmer

I am really impressed by the scope of C. Lawrence Wenham's blog entry "Signs that you're a bad programmer."

He covers so much ground in this methodical summary bad coding, but here are some of my favorites:

• "Email me teh code, plz" messages posted to help forums
• Persistently using old-fashioned techniques even when new techniques are better in those situations (eg: still writes named delegate functions instead of using lambda expressions)
• Checking to see if a boolean-typed variable is something other than true or false
• Fetching large datasets from the server and computing sums on the client, instead of using aggregate functions in the query.
• Pathologically and redundantly defensive programming ("Enterprisey code")
• Inconsistent naming conventions
• Storing exploitable information (names, card numbers, passwords, etc.) in plaintext
• Doesn't make use of whitespace elsewhere, such as between methods (or expressions, see "ANDY=NO")

Is Fixed-Price Software Development Unethical?

Old but interesting post here:

"...We fundamentally know that fixed-price IT projects are a very poor way of working. Luckily, so do our customers. Whenever a customer insists on a fixed-priced IT project, even within the scope of an RFP that's been put out to bid, ethically we must attempt to dissuade them from this perilous path. Unless we start providing a consistent front against fixed-price projects, we will never get off this treadmill that we find ourselves on. We must actively choose to reduce the inherent risks in our industry, and the desire by customers for fixed-price IT projects is likely the greatest one that we face."

 

http://drdobbs.com/architecture-and-design/209101238

GOOGLE ENGINEER: Here's Why Google+ Is Failing, And How We Can Start 'Doing This Right'

A candid expression of frustration from someone who has seen a lot in IT.  This Amazon/Google vet actually has nice things to say about Microsoft:

Last night, Google engineer, blogger, and frequent public speaker Steve Yegge wrote an epic rant about Google's inept handling of the Google+ platform.

His primary message: Google+ is not a platform like Facebook. It's trying to dictate the direction of Google+ instead of opening up to developers and letting them show Google what makes sense and what doesn't.

He posted the rant on Google+, but forgot to turn off the "Public" sharing option. It was only meant to be shared internally at Google.

The manifesto, for lack of a better word, begins by detailing Yegge's grievances about working under Jeff Bezos at Amazon.

Yegge goes on to outline everything he thinks is wrong with Google, and with Google+.

While Yegge took down the post from public view, he plans to re-post it internally at Google.

It's definitely worth a read.

http://www.businessinsider.com/steve-yegge-google-platform-rant-2011-10

Print Contribute News News Windows Share, a New Data Exchange Mechanism in Windows 8

And the demo code is in Javascript...which seems to be more dominant in Windows 8:

Microsoft has created a new mechanism for sharing information between applications in Windows 8 called Windows Share. Apps can share text, bitmaps, HTML, URI, files, and other type of data, and the usage scenarios are numerous. For example, the app receiving the information can post it to Tweeter or Facebook make it easy to post information to a social network without actually visiting it.

Billie Sue Chafins, Senior Program Manager Lead, and Steve Seixeiro, Partner Development Manager, Microsoft Corporation, presented the session “Share: your app powers the Windows 8 share experience” at BUILD 2011. They detailed the new sharing feature coming up in Windows 8. Windows Share is sort of a universal live clipboard, allowing applications to transfer information between them, but it is much well integrated into the system and richer compared to the traditional clipboard.

Windows Share accepts the following standard data formats: text, RTF, bitmaps, storage items (e.g. files), URI, HTML, but there is also the extensible format that can be used to transfer any stream of information: addresses, contacts, people, geo-location, etc. When the user wants to share some information from an application, he is presented with a list of applications accepting the respective type of information, and the data is transparently transferred upon selecting one of them.

The Share features defines the following types of participants to the process:

• Source – any application that has information for sharing with other applications
• Target – any application consuming the information shared by other apps
• Broker – the transfer mediator between the source and the target

Most applications can be a source, if it has anything to share, and Microsoft encourages developers to make their applications sources of information. Targets will be those applications interested in receiving and processing information. The advantage of Share is the fact that Windows will have built-in protocol for exchanging information and applications developers no longer need to agree on a certain format in order to be able to exchange data. For extensible formats, the parties involved need to agree on the data format used, so it is recommended to use standardized ones such those supported by Schema.org.

One example is sharing a web page’s URL or some text from IE to social networks such as Twitter or Facebook, the target applications Tweet@rama and Socialite taking care of posting data to the respective networks. The information sharing possibilities are numerous, and it is expected the developers to create many such applications...

http://www.infoq.com/news/2011/09/Windows-Share

Government made me do it, imprisoned TJX hacker claims

April 8, 2011 (Computerworld)

Convicted hacker Albert Gonzalez, who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to the massive hacks at TJX, Heartland and numerous retailers, now claims that he thought he was authorized and directed by the government to carry out the illegal activities.

In a petition filed last month, first reported by Wired, Gonzalez informed the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts that he would like to withdraw his guilty plea and asked the court to vacate its sentence.

In his 25-page petition, Gonzalez blamed his attorneys Martin Weinberg and Rene Palomino for not properly representing him or informing him about his defense options. Gonzalez also claimed that his lawyers did not appeal his sentence as he had asked them to.

Gonzalez was arrested in Miami in 2008 along with 10 other individuals on charges relating to the thefts at TJX, Dave & Busters, BJ's Wholesale Club, OfficeMax, Boston Market, Barnes & Noble, Sports Authority, Forever 21 and DSW.

Later he was also charged with the break-ins at Heartland Payment Systems, Hannaford, 7-Eleven and two other unnamed retailers. Gonzalez was indicted in three different states, New York, Massachusetts and New Jersey for his crimes. Prosecutors alleged that Gonzalez and his international gang of cyber criminals stole data on more than 130 million debit and credit cards over a multi-year period.

In Sept. 2009, Gonzalez, pleaded guilty to 20 counts of conspiracy, computer fraud, wire fraud, access device fraud and aggravated identity theft. He was sentenced to two concurrent 20 year terms by federal courts in Massachusetts and NJ.

In his petition, Gonzalez claims that all of the criminal activities that he admitted to in court were actually done with the full knowledge and the direction of the United States Secret Service.

As previously known, Gonzalez noted that he had begun working as a confidential informant for the Secret Service back in 2003 soon after he was busted in connection with a series of ATM thefts. Gonzalez claims that over the next several years, he helped the Secret Service infiltrate various carder gangs and hacking groups, leading to the arrests of many of them.

Gonzalez' petition details his interactions with two of his Secret Service handlers, who he claims treated him almost like another member of the agency and took him to different parts of the country for undercover work.

"The Agents had me infiltrating chat rooms setting people up and then the Agents would bust them," he offers as one example of the work he claims to have done for the government. "On one occasion I was taken to California for a week to help Agents there with undercover operation that resulted in arrests and convictions," Gonzalez said in his petition...

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9215670/Government_made_me_do_it_impri...

Like Facebook? You'll Love the Facebook Book

A new Facebook application is bringing the famous social-networking site full circle.

The tool lets people take Facebook literally, creating hardcover versions of Facebook profiles -- think "Facebook in a book." The idea came from creative director Siavosh Zabeti, when French telecommunications company Bouygues Telecom recruited his ad agency DDB Paris to help launch the company's Facebook platform. 

Microsoft IE browser share dips below 50%

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/100510-microsoft-ie-browser-firefox-chrome.html