Category: Technology

I work in technology sector. And I do round a clock, not only from 9 to 5. It is my bread and butter, it is my hobby, it is the fascination of my life. And with the current rate of change particular in information technology (IT), there is always something new to learn, to try, to talk about. I often post news, thoughts, and reviews. And when I do, this is the category I use.

Some more about technology

This thought has been so caught so many times in my head that by now I’m not even sure if I posted about it or not. But just in case I didn’t, here it goes…

The technological progress is enters our lives from many sides and in many forms. Sometimes, it is very noticeable, like, for example, in the case with all that hype about iPod or iPhone or what’s the lates gadget from Apple is called these days… But sometimes, it’s totally silent and natural and it seems like it was there for ages. Although it wasn’t.

This thought comes to me often when I am about to drink tea. No fire, no towels, no pots or kettles. Press the button and a small plastic bucket will provide with plenty of hot water in a couple of minutes. Pour some in the cup and drop the tea bag in. Done. Oh, wait, it’s too hot. Open the fridge, take a couple of ice cubes and drop them in the cup too. Now it’s just right.

Think about it. How natural that is now. I know at least a dozen people who do this on a regular if not daily basis. But even less than 50 years ago, fridges weren’t coming with ice makers. In fact, they were making ice that nobody wanted and had to unfreeze their fridges once in a while. And nobody I knew was even thinking about making ice themselves or using it for tea. Perhaps it was different in other areas of the world, but something tells me it wasn’t very different. And tea bags too weren’t the preferred way of making tea. And water was boiled using gas cookers. And so and so forth. But now, not it feels like it was always available.

There are plenty of other examples. Mobile phones, for example. They still look odd when used by older people, but in general they are a part of everyday life of everybody I know. That wasn’t so even ten years ago. Cars, digital television, Internet. What else?

Confession of an RSS junkie

If you’ve been looking for something to add to your RSS feeder, then look no further.

It’s almost impossible to be a functional RSS addict in our society. RSS has become so pervasive there’s simply no way to escape it. Everywhere I look I see those damn orange icons.

From My Life As An RSS Junkie | Medialoper

Your own compiler – should you or should you not?

Joel Spolsky shares why they have their own compiler and how long it took them to write it.

Most people don’t realize that writing a compiler like this is only about 2 months work for one talented person who read the Dragon book.

While compilers seem like a thing of the past for many in the industry, I find it not to be so. Recently, I was participating in one project that had to do a lot with web, and web data aggregating. Somehow, we almost ended up writing our own compiler. The problem was tough and there seemed no other way to solve it. Unfortunately, the project took a different path and died later.

Also, looking around with a bit wider open eyes, I’ve realized that there are quite a few people working on compilers now. One of the big companies is, of course, Google. They’ve recently released their tool which takes Java code and compiles it into AJAX-ified HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. And although I haven’t tried using it yet, it sounds like a really really really neat solution. Developing in AJAX is a pain. Coverting all the pain into machine’s work seems like a sensible idea.

Should we give them wrong-doers any ideas?

As I’ve mentioned before, I hate write-your-email-in-the-subject emails. Now that LifeHacker asks the questions once again, I’m ready with an answer.

Now, the question from my side is: should we repeat and promote such discussions once in a while to let the rest of the world know what we think, or should we quietly avoid them, not to give any ideas to the wrong-doers?

Turning the world I-side out

Here is an example of things to come. The world is changing in so many interesting ways that it’s difficult to catch up with most…

The best market example I know is digital photography. Who is a digital photo “consumer” any more? Nobody consumes film, and relatively few consume print processing. Instead everybody is a producer in that marketplace. I have close to eleven thousand pictures up on Flickr now. From the start Flickr (a terrific Linux/LAMP hack) and I have both understood that those pictures are my data, and that the two of us are making the most of that fact. Same goes for Tabblo*, a new company that does stuff with photos that Flickr doesn’t. Because Flickr has open APIs, and welcomes customers who also work with other vendors, I am able to make montages for printing and sharing, on Tabblo’s site, with my Flickr photosets. As a result, Flickr, Tabblo and I all make money off each other, and enjoy productive symbiotic relationships that grow the new photography marketplace.

Meanwhile, where is Kodak, owner of one of the world’s largest patent portfolios and leader of the photography industry since the dawn of the category? You tell me. Where I contribute to the market, their name almost never comes up.