Software Blog  RSS News Feed  What's This? Select a topic from the list below. Topics are ordered by date with the eight most recent at the top. Show All Articles July 19th 2010
iPhone App Development
We are moving on from AJAX applications to the development of iPhone apps (and apps for other smartphone platforms). There are many challenges in making this move, some of which are described here. July 18th 2009
Facebook Security Issues
Facebook has serious problems with its attitude to privacy, so much so that they appear to be in breach of Canadian privacy laws. Any action by the Canadian government will however be limited to just a small part of the wider problem. Facebook has to go much, much further. This article makes some suggestions on how I think they should clean up their act. July 5th 2009
Multi-Language Support
Translations of complete web pages have come a long way from the early days of Babelfish, although they still leave a lot to be desired. But what if you only need to translate individual phrases? Should you construct the phrase in English and then use Google Translate or do we need to do something more sophisticated? November 4th 2007
Working From Home
Working from home is becoming easier and easier as computers, the internet and mobile phones become more sophisticated. Why then don't more people (and more companies) embrace it? July 8th 2007
Using AJAX In Practice
AJAX is a powerful programming tool that is without doubt the future of the internet. However, until the search engine and browser developers catch up with the new reality, there are a few gotcha's you need to be aware of. April 22nd 2007
Web Design Trends
Web pages are moving away from fancy graphics to dynamic interactive sites with added value for users. To develop such pages, web developers need to be able to program in a variety of different languages. If you can't program, there soon won't be a place for you in the web development industry. March 19th 2007
More On Mobile Devices
Mobile devices become smaller and more multi-functional with fewer buttons and bigger, touch sensitive screens. Those of us with limited short range vision should be getting worried by these developments. Perhaps the science of haptics wil be our saviour. February 25th 2007
Censorship On The Internet
Some censorship of the internet is necessary. I fully support the removal of child pornography for example. But insiduous censorship by special interests is slowly creeping over the internet and eroding free speech. These special interests include web site owners who censor forum posts and business owners who deliberately remove competitors ads from public listings. |
| |
  | |
| |
|
| |
|
|
|
I JUST WANT TO BE A WRITER |
| |
It finally came to me this morning why I’ve spent the past few days redesigning and rebuilding the Activeminds web site. It’s not because the site was out of date or was representing the company in the wrong way or because I’m chasing extra business and this is my primary sales tool. No. It's not like I need to attract any more work. It’s simply because I like to write.
I’ve been meaning to start blogging for a while now. I didn’t want to use one of those mass blogging sites. Not that there’s anything wrong with them of course. It’s just that as a software developer I can make my blog look exactly how I want it without having to live with other developer’s design constraints. It also means that if I want to change the structure, I can just do it.
Thinking further, I realized that software developers are just authors anyway. Their usual languages aren’t spoken ones but the final output is strikingly similar. Software developers write computer code to build applications to encapsulate ideas that other people want to look at and absorb. This is almost exactly what a journalist or author does. Good software developers write clever and sophisticated code just as the better authors write erudite and interesting prose.
I suppose games developers are the equivalent of the manga comic writers or more specifically, the designers of Everquest are the modern Tolkeins. I’m not quite sure what the paper equivalent of Second Life might be. The National Examiner or Fate Magazine perhaps? If anyone has any better ideas, please leave a comment in the box below.
Taken further, developers of sophisticated engineering design software (and similar) are today’s university textbook writers. Web site designers are a bit like advertising copy writers. However, instead of having to write copy to fool the general public, web site designers write it to fool the search engines.
So, am I finally out of the closet? Am I any good at writing? Will I eventually sit down and write that book everyone’s supposed to have inside them? Who knows. I’ll just start small and quietly and see if there’s any interest in my ramblings...
Please feel free to comment on what you've just read by adding a note in the box below. Your name will be posted alongside your comment but your e-mail address is only for my records and will not be made public or sold or given to any third party. If you choose not to give an e-mail address, that's fine but your credibility is increased in my eyes if you are prepared to stand by your comments. Please do not be abusive, use strong language or post spam or other junk. Due to persistent abuse by spammers, all comments will be moderated before they are published. Therefore, your comment will not appear immediately. By commenting on this form, you agree to permit Activeminds Software Ltd. to publish your comments on this website. Activeminds Software Ltd. accepts no responsibility for any comments posted on this site. They are solely the view of the commentator.
|
| |
|
|
|
Email Activeminds
