Category: Web work

These days, most of my work is very related to the online world. Building web sites, reviewing web applications, integrating with web services, coordinating people who are far away from each other, etc. Whenever I find a new tool or service or an innovative, interesting idea about working online, I share it in this category.

Web OS? Yes. Are You Dense? No.

I came across the post titled “A Web OS? Are You Dense?“.  It has a lot of sense in it, but it also asks a question that needs answering.  And I think the answers are quite simple.

So, when your Aunt asks why her 1.2GHz computer isn’t fast enough to run an online word processor that has the same [censored] features as the 1987 version of Corel WordPerfect, you don’t have an answer for her.  There is no justification.

First of all, your Aunt is hardly capable of comparing the features of Corel WordPerfect in 1987 to features of Google Docs in 2009.  So, she probably won’t ask you the question at all.  And even if she will – that’s just for bragging and not for the justification.

Secondly, the features of Corel WordPerfect in 1987 are different to features in Google Docs 2009.  Collaborative editing with access level restrictions, online access, mobile support, web site integration, etc.   These haven’t been there in 1987.  Whether your Aunt is using them or not – that’s something else.  There are people who do.

Thirdly, the justification that exists for such a complication in technology stack is not for the Aunt, but for other people – often those in the technology industry.  Money, for example.  Go back to that original article and look at the diagrams.  Now, replace those vertical arrow comments with “Amount of money to be made/earned”, and you’ll have your own justification.  There are thousands upon thousands of people feeding on each layer of that technology cake.  The thicker the layer, and the more layers you have, the more people can feed of it.  I don’t like the way it goes, but on the other hand, I’m one of those feeding of that cake.

Fourthly, well, don’t mind the definitions, but Web OS is what you want for your Aunt.  Because in 1987 you had only one Aunt who was using a computer, so you had the luxury of time for going there and installing and upgrading software, fixing all those problems she was having, and explaining to her how to do things better.  In 2009 each of us has dozens of Aunts that need this help.  Going around doing all those little favours is getting time consuming.  So, giving her a small laptop with just a browser in it and the rest of the software from inside that browser  is an awesome option.

And I can go on and on about this …

A better world with multiple inboxes in Gmail

Google has recently added a super mega cool feature to Gmail – multiple inboxes.  For me, it was an instant boost in productivity and huge improvement in the way I handle email. However, while I was sharing my excitement with friends and co-workers, I’ve received quite a few cold looks and “so what?”s.

Multiple inboxes in Gmail

So, what’s so cool about multiple inboxes?  Here is how I enjoy them so far.

I’ve setup forwarding on all my email accounts so that all messages end up in the single Gmail account of mine.  This means that I have the same mailbox for personal emails, work emails, blog related emails, spam, and so on and so forth.  All that email is handled with a multitude of labels and filters.  And overall it works pretty well.

However, there was a little annoyance in my daily routine.  As part of my job I have to review and monitor Subversion commits from several programmers that work in our office.  Commit notifications come to me in the form of emails, and since they are rather high priority, they are labeled automatically, but not archived.  They stay in the main inbox until I read and archive them manually.  Also, as part of my consulting work for another company, I have to go through their commits as well.  These too are labeled separately, but end up in the main inbox.  And, additionally, I am using Gmail as a task manager for things that should be done eventually.  For that I have emails with tasks, labeled separately, and starred.   Not a huge mess, but not the ideal solution, especially when it mixes up with direct messages from work and friends.

Once Gmail got the multiple inboxes feature, I modified my filters to archive commit messages from both companies automatically (but not mark them as read).  Then I created three additional inboxes – one for tasks, and two for commit messages.  The tasks inbox lists all starred messages with a certain label.  Commit inboxes list messages with labels for each company.  Now I have my main inbox for direct messages from friends and work, and the rest of the things that I need to keep an eye on are right there, in front of me, but re-organized a bit to give me some breathing room.
With this new feature I can keep my main inbox message count much closer to zero, while still have some lose ends in case I need to argue over a commit or keep a few more things on the task list.  Excellento!

Big thanks to Gmail team – well done.

Software engineering is like cooking

During the last few month I’ve been explaining software engineering to management types quite a bit.  Most of the “bosses” that I talked to weren’t technical at all, so I was trying to stay away from famous concepts, examples, and terminology as much as I could.  Of course, that required some sort of substitute for concepts, examples, and terminology.  I’ve tried analogies from different unrelated areas, and was surprised as how good cooking was fitting the purpose.

Before I go any further, I have to say that I am not a cook and that I don’t know much about cooking.  But.  I know just about the same as any other average human being.  Which, sort of, moves me into the same category with my targets, or “bosses”, as I called them before.

Here are a few examples that worked well.

Continue reading Software engineering is like cooking

Upgraded to WordPress 2.7

I’ve just upgraded this blog to WordPress 2.7, and yes, it’s as good as they said it would be.  The new interface is looks better, is more convenient, and even feels faster.  Things are somehow closer to where they should be and overall it makes more sense.  However, I am yet to test it on a few non-technical bloggers who I help with blog hosting and administration.

The upgrade itself was fast and painless as usual – just overwrite the old files with new, visit administration, and click on a button to upgrade the database structure when asked so.  That’s it.  I’ve also scrolled through the Settings section just to see what’s new (a few things are), and that’s about it.

I’ve noticed that there are a few glitches here and there, most of which are related to plugins that I am using.  Hopefully I’ll sort them out soon.  In the worst case scenario, they will be taken care of in the new design that is in the works for this blog.

Gmail gets Tasks/TODO

Many of us, Gmail users, have been waiting a really long time for this, but now the wait is over.  Gmail blog announced task manager / todo list in Gmail via Labs extension.

We put your tasks in the same kind of window as chats, so they’re visible while you’re scanning your inbox, reading mail, or searching (and in Settings, too!). Just pop your list out into a new window to use Tasks outside of Gmail.

To enable Tasks, go to Settings, click the Labs tab (or just click here if you’re signed in). Select “Enable” next to “Tasks” and then click “Save Changes” at the bottom. Then, after Gmail refreshes, on the left under the “Contacts” link, you’ll see a “Tasks” link. Just click it to get started.

Excellent news for this morning.