It’s a while since I begun my online course! Actually in 3 weeks I’m done!
How is going? Great! I know I don’t know everything about web programming, but this course is really opening my mind!
The great part is that even if it should be dedicated to mobile, there are so many good advices for general web developing that it will be worth even if I’ll never develop anything for the cellphones!
I think I’ll collect some good link and I’ll post them at the end of the course!
Be tuned!
Probably the best quote I read tonight is from Mr President Barack Obama. He said “There may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented!”
I am one of these people: I learned of his passing checking my Facebook page on my iPhone!
Apple really changed the IT part of my life! I still remember when I was struggling with my last pc many years ago before I decided to give up on craziness and to switch!
At the beginning it has not been simple! It was not like now! Having a Mac was really another life and even if I switched to MacOs X 10.2, it was not simple at all to find programs and solutions for my needs!
But my first Mac taught me one of the most important things about a computer: it has to help your life, not complicate it!
I’m happy with what Apple has done in these years… Happy with most of the choices they have taken… Less happy with the latest direction they took.
And I like to think that Steve Jobs has contributed to make my technological life better with all the devices he and his company has created!
Goodbye!
Is talking about WordPress inside a WordPress website “meta-talking”?
No, the point of this post is not answer the previous question…. that one just came out because I just finished to submit my first WordPress plugin in their website and right now I’m pretty tired!
The plugin I wrote is for the service I work for (ADS http://adsabs.harvard.edu ) and probably will be useful for few people only!
But who cares! It has been a wonderful experience and I learned how to write these kind of small web applications: I’m extremely satisfied!
Anyway, if you want to give a look you can read something more HERE.
BTW… I’m still thinking that talking about WordPress inside a WordPress website is “meta-talking” 🙂
Several years ago, when I was working in my own company, I went to a server farm to install a couple of servers.
If you don’t know what a server farm is, let’s say that it is a place where to put your servers and where everything is optimized to avoid problems, including the temperature!
The heat is probably the biggest problem for a server, so in these places they keep the temperature so low that you need a coat if you don’t want to freeze!
Now do you know what is the only other place that gives me the same sensation of cold? A real American restaurant!
Last week I went with my wife to a nice restaurant (one of the best in Cambridge, according to TripAdvisor) and as soon as we entered in that place a polar wind attacked us and since we didn’t have clothes warm enough, we had to leave!
Now the funny thing was that it was not that hot outside.
Anyway… I realized that to go in a restaurant sometimes I need the same coat I used to wear in the server farm!
Did you see the new interface of Facebook?
Ok… I have to be more specific 🙂 : did you see the new interface that Facebook released few days ago (September 21 2011)?
New features, new filters, new cool stuff! Moreover I just read that they are going to introduce a new interface for the user page.
The problem? I don’t want them because I don’t need them!
Now, as a computer scientist I understand the need of improving a service. I also understand that there is a competition between Facebook, Google+ and Twitter and that Facebook and Google+ are copying each other.
What I really don’t understand is: why don’t they hire some experts in usability?
My question comes from the fact that every new feature they introduce in Facebook is against any concept of good usability about interfaces! Now they want their users to learn how to use their service, and I’m fine with that (even if I have some different point of view), but they cannot change completely in one day the way the users have to do the same basic things!
An example? If I’m used to have the list of the posts in chronological order (most recent first), it’s ok to introduce new filters and new ways to view the same posts, but WHY THERE IS NOT “View the posts in chronological order” any more?
So my only complain is: why cannot I give up on the new stuff and have my old simple functional interface?