Developers Orbit

Gerade kam ich über einen Blogeintrag auf cnet.com dadrüber, dass Benutzer in den “Terms of Service” angeben, dass Sie mindestens ‘of legal age’ sind. In Deutschland und in den USA ist man erst mit 18 Vertragsfähig. Benutzt man also YouTube, Gmail, Bilder, Nachrichten oder die eigentliche Suche als Minderjähriger benutzt, bricht man die Benutzerbedingungen. In der EULA von Safari 3.1 muss man bei der Installation bestätigen, dass man Safari nur auf eine, Apple-benannten computer installieren darf, erneut bricht man die Benutzerbedingungen.

2 days ago I flew from San Francisco to Munich, which took me about 10 hours. 10 hours no internet and since I had to save money I flew economy class and didn’t even have a power outlet so I could only work for about 3 hours. Since I can’t ever sleep on a plane and I have already watched all the movies before I would want to work or just surf the web. I was doing some calculations (on paper on the plane) and calculated what the costs would be.Numbers I was calculating with: 

• People on the plane: 300 - 70 in first and business class, 230 in economy class
• Number of people using internet at the same time: 60
• Connection needed for 60 people: ~20-50 Mbits
• Costs per flight: ~$1000  

If the cost would be spread out through out the whole plane with everyone paying the same amount the extra charge would just be about $3,33.If the first and business class would pay for 70 percent of the costs and the economy class would pay the rest the extra charge for the better seated would be $10, for the others the extra charge would be just about $1,30. That way people who can barley afford flying don’t have a big price increase, but even the price increase for the wealthier is nothing people will be angry about but will be happy about being able to look up the weather, chat with friends or just do boring old work on the plane - and not have to do it when you get back home.  About the power outlets I am sure the excess energy the engine produces is enough to power the customer electronics of about half the plane without any problem. So come on airlines when will I be able too surf on the internets (again) 36000 feet above the ground. 

Finally more and more (beta versions of) browsers don’t only pass the ACID2 test but Opera and the Webkit have started to pass even the ACID3 test. The browser creators are fighting to be the first the best and as of 2007 and 2008 the most standard-conform (FINALLY!).

Why is this interesting for Webdevelopers?

Its simple most developers spend almost one quarter of the time fixing bugs, which are caused by the non-standard conform rendering by the browsers like Internet Explorer. If every browser rendered everything the same way, the Webdeveloper wouldn’t have to use hacks to get it working and looking the same way in every browser.

What are the problems caused by having the standard mode of the rendering engine be standard conform? 

 There is only one real problem pages which have not been written standard conform look awful and users will not be able to use websites anymore, we have described this scenario in our first german post. Joel on Software has written a very nice post about exactly this. But having the non-standard conform websites look awful is great because the authors will be forced to renew their design and get it to be more easily accessible by search engines and even users themselves for example if they use their phone to view the website.

Are we excited? 

  YES, we are! With IE 6 getting older and older new projects will not have to be optimized for it in 1 year or so. Which will finally stop making us work late (and very frustrating) nights to get random problems to just disappear.

When I came last summer as an exchange student to America there was no way I was not noticing Starbucks. I mean, that company basically gets whole America going each morning by serving a sweet start into the day with White Chocolate Mochas, Machiattos, etc. But when I wanted to order my first beverage there, I had some problems…
I wrote my experiences with that company in a little essay, that you should not take too seriously. If you have some feedback, I would love to read it.

My hand opened the door with the familiar logo on it. Starbucks was basically everywhere in normal day life. I was not surprised anymore, when I saw men as well as women in the city, trying to balance their cup and important notes for their next business meeting while running over streets to get to their office as soon as possible. Obviously this coffee is worth spending five minutes of time for in the morning.

I went into the warm room that was filled with the mixed smell of roasted coffee beans and chocolate. Since I was the only person in the room besides the employees of that local Starbucks shop, I approached the counter, excited for my first time of Starbucks. The lady behind the counter nicely asked me, “What kind of beverage would you like?” My eyes widened as they wandered over the board that listed all the different kinds of drinks. I began to wonder that Starbucks had invented a new language, that just all the “Starbucksers” understood, since I had never heard about a “Frappucino.”

I asked what a “Frappucino” might be. The lady looked irritated, obviously she was used to customers that order their coffee in perfect “Starbucksish.” She explained what a Frappucino was in five sentences but what took about three seconds.

“Ah, thanks” was my helpless answer, “What can you recommend me?” The lady, now visibly disturbed by my ignorance, asked if I preferred a “Frappucino” (again, I had no clue what she meant – Starbucks should create a dictionary and sell it as marketing gag) or a normal coffee.

Due to her obvious surprise I felt terribly stupid, which was supported by the fact that a line of customers was starting to build up behind me. Sweat started building on my forehead and dripping down my face.

“I think I will just go with a normal coffee, please.” I responded.

“White Chocolate Mocha, Caramel, … “ and on and on she went with several kinds of flavors. As if I didn’t know that other people were waiting behind me, one started to clear his throat to make me “realize” this fact.

Stressed and nervous, I squeezed “Can I have the first kind that you said, this chocolate mocha?” I paid and waited for the coffee. Meanwhile, I was astonished by the other customers that could put their complete order in a sentence that contained probably about five words of English.

After about one minute of wait I got my coffee. While I drank it its flavor filled my nose, and the warm beverage gave me a good feeling in my stomach. Now I can understand, why people take five minutes of their time in the morning to start their day with Starbucks.

Jeder mag Musik, egal ob Entwickler oder normaler User. Dafür Geld ausgeben mögen allerdings nur sehr wenige. Da wir bei DevOrbit gegen das Klauen von Musik sind, haben wir euch eine Auswahl an kostenfreien Online Diensten zusammen gesucht, bei denen ihr entweder Musik online hören oder die Lieder sogar runterladen könnt.

Pandora

Pandora ist mein Favorit. Ohne Umwege ist dieser leider aus Deutschland nicht zu erreichen. Bei Pandora gibt man einen oder mehrere Künstler ein die man mag und anschließend hört man schon Musik. Mag man ein Lied klickt man den “Daumen nach oben” und die Playlist ändert sich entsprechend. Das schöne an Pandora ist, dass man dauernd neue Musik kennen lernt die man allerdings sehr oft mag, da Pandora durch die vorherigen Bewertungen die Musikrichtung und den Geschmack sehr gut anpassen kann. Diese Vorschläge sind manchmal allerdings auch wieder zu ähnlich und es fühlt sich an als habe man das Lied gerade schon gehört. Leider fehlt die Vielfalt,  die man auf manchen Radiostationen bekommt.

Jango

Jango ist Pandora sehr ähnlich, nur das System das die Musik auswählt ist nicht so gut wie bei Pandora. Außerdem ist das Design ein wenig überfüllt und der Dienst manchmal etwas kompliziert zu benutzen.

finetune

Finetune ist meine Alternative, wenn ich nicht in den USA bin oder die virtuelle Maschine für den Flash Proxy für Pandora laufen lassen möchte. Bewerten kann man die Musik meiner Meinung nach allerdings nicht, sondern muss eine Möglichst umfangreiche Playlist angeben.

last.fm

Last.fm ist wie die anderen auch ein Dienst, welcher Musik und Alternativen anbietet. Hier gibt es ebenfalls Stationen, wodurch das Interface meiner Meinung nach relativ kompliziert wird.

WE7

Die Idee von WE7 ist revolutionär. Die Künstler werden hier wie bei den anderen Diensten auch bezahlt. Allerdings wird dies wird durch einen kleinen Werbejingle am Anfang des Tracks ermöglicht. Lädt man ein Lied dann nach einem Monat noch einmal herunter bekommt man das Lied auch ohne Werbung. Als Benutzer muss man sich selbst die Lieder aussuchen die man hören will und kann über die Weboberfläche entweder eine Playlist erstellen und dort hören oder die Lieder herunterladen und auf seinen MP3 Spieler packen. Die MP3s selbst sind DRM-Frei. Die Lieder sind zum größten Teil von Indie Labels veröffentlicht worden aber unter anderem findet man auch Musikstücke von SONY BMG.
Nette Idee, wären mehr Labels dort würde es allerdings noch besser sein.

Jamendo

Jamendo ist anders als die anderen Anbieter. Es bietet Musik an die kostenfrei von den Künstlern auf der Seite veröffentlicht wurde, sprich die Künstler verdienen kein Geld. Alle Musik ist unter der Creative Commons Lizenz lizensiert und darf sogar zum Teil für Podcasts und ähnliches kostenfrei verwendet werden.

Falls ihr noch mehr Dienste kennt schreibt dadrüber in den Kommentaren dann füge ich diese hinzu.

Based on the comments and reactions that I got to my post Why it is hard to be a software developer people obviously disagree. Maybe I just was not able to explain my point good enough to bring it across.

Some noted, that maintaining an old menu is not hard. Changing that menu is just a change in the code, and you can have a different menu structure etc.
The hard part is when the customer comes into play. Now it is not just a black-white area, that you can either get right or wrong. Let’s take writing an algorithm for example. It either works or it does not. But when you change the menu, you have to think way deeper. Now you have a whole gradient, with customers on the one side, customers on the other and a whole bunch spread apart in between. Does the changes make sense for every single one of them? In some cases they do, in some cases they dont. Do the customers follow and understand that change and why it is made? Not necessarily everyone will.

Every human being is different, and so are their views and opinions about something. Some might like that change, some might get upset about it and complain. This reaction may vary with the size of your customer base. If you just have several dozen customers, the reactions might vary less than when you have hundreds of thousands of customers. The hard part is the variation of customer responses. You just can’t satisfy all expectations, but still you have to try.

I also did not say, that being a software developer is physically harder or more dangerous than working in the construction business. Of course, working as a construction engineer is way more exhausting physically than developing software. Let’s face it: As a developer you sit the whole day on your butt. But I respect those construction workers for what they do and did not want to insult or lower the impact of their work.

I hope I could clarify my point and would be glad if you could give me more feedback. Thanks!