Software application development
This blog is intended to provoke discussion and exchange between like minded software application developers, engineers, architects, project managers - and keen hobbyists too.
Wednesday 16 April 2008, 7:23 PM
Robots and embedded software for personalised crumpet toasties
I’ve been engaged in fair bit of discussion over embedded software these last few days – not surprising perhaps if you consider the fact that the Embedded Systems Conference is taking place in San Jose this week.
I used to talk to a couple of the Microsoft guys here in the UK about some of their home-based hobbyist embedded software projects and, typically, they don’t spend too much time trying to build remote-controlled vacuum cleaners or re-engineer their toaster to burn their favourite football team’s name onto their crumpets. By and large, they build robots.
While companies like Microsoft Embedded and VIA’s Embedded Platform Division are keen to talk about the so-called ‘evolution’ of embedded devices and their increasing integration into networked and service-based applications. By and large, hobbyist developers in this space appear to want to build robots.
We know that embedded has graduated to high-level x86 design status and that real-world practical embedded systems can be customised with systems like Via’s ARTiGO to feature wireless and network connectivity, GPS and also web server connectivity. We also know that vendors in this space are targeting both the academic and hobbyist community to try and foster interest in this area. But we also know that guys like to build robots.
Ah well, domo arigato Mr Roboto.
Monday 14 April 2008, 9:36 AM
Of painters and programmers
If you happen to read this blog then let me issue a caveat up front. I am NOT suggesting for one minute that the skill set needed to be a painter and decorator is in any way akin or at a similar level to the qualifications and talents needed to become a software engineer.
I am merely trying to bridge the divide that always opens up when non-techies ask you what you do (or in my case, what I write about) and look at you like you've just started talking a foreign language.
So I go swimming every night and there's always a bunch of chaps in the sauna afterwards who like to chew the fat and discuss work. There's a coffee trader, a TV producer, a building surveyor, a retired Irish jockey and a painter called Dave.
Now I was chatting to Dave this weekend trying to get a price for a bit of a job round at my place and trying to learn a bit about how he does what he does. When I told him he was expensive Dave tried to justify his position by saying that he was an expert professional and after all - he couldn't do what I do for a living.
... and as I left I thought, well how would I explain programming to a painter?
Dave goes into a potential clients 'gaff' to 'do a reky', rub his chin a lot and generally mutter phrases like, "well, it's gonna cost ya" - and programmers meet their customers to perform requirements management before a project commences.
Dave then costs up the job based on what he has seen - programmers might undergo configuration management procedures to determine what the current status of the systems in place are, it's best to know what you're working with before you start.
Dave puts down a foundation coat to make sure the rest of the paint sits on top of a good base layer - programmers make sure they adhere to proper design procedures and have a solid technology backbone with backup and disaster recovery provisioning to rely on.
Dave waits for one coat to dry in one room while he gets on with painting another room - programmers put segments out to test while they carry on with other elements of design and coding.
Dave makes sure his boys work hard and don't just sit around drinking tea - programmers rely on (or suffer!) the direction of their team leaders and project managers.
Dave's customers change their minds and need and an extra room worked on and may even ask for colour changes - programmers employ change management and application lifecycle management techniques to deal with these kinds of things.
Dave puts some little finishing touches on the job to make it look nice - programmers focus on the GUI & front end of the application to make sure the users are happy.
Did I bother trying to use this example to explain things? No of course not. Is this just a bit of fun? Yes of course it is. But how often do we hear IT companies telling us that their "innovative solution" helps to bridge the IT to business divide? Heck - IBM has themed its last four year's Rational Users Conferences around this idea with labels like "Better Software = Better Business" and "Software in Concert" (with business that is) ... will they do it again I wonder - I'll be at the show in the USA in June to find out.
Will Dave be there too? Nah, he's got a monster of a job on over in Croyden this summer by all accounts.
Friday 11 April 2008, 11:41 AM
Fresh Orange Juice
I was too busy this year to attend Orange's 'Partner Camp' (the artist/event formerly known as Code Camp), which is a shame as what's not to love about three days of interactive presentations, workshops, sessions, coding, 1-2-1 chats and contests in Faro, Portugal?
But, I did get to speak to Orange's vice president for partners Steve Glagow this morning to get the low down - and here's what Orange is saying to the development community right now...
The company is spending time educating developers on the Orange API and widget workshop to help build better apps. This is in response to direct requests from developers for access to the company's infrastructure. Glagow says this "making APIs available" action is a natural evolution in the industry.
What may surprise you (it made me stop and think) is that Orange now has a widget strategy for the desktop - the company says that they are "more than mobile" these days. Well, I often mention the fact that all desktop development ultimately extends to mobile - so no reason why it should work the other way around - right?
Back to the event - there's play zones and demos to help develop and test for mobile: this is good, as it means real users can get something out of this event and it's not all marketing manager backslapping (although there is that too).
There's a mash pit for mash ups. You say mosh pit - I say mash pit. Anyway, nice one. It's 24 hours a day this year apparently.
All the usual suspects are there on the partner level: think RIM, think Symbian etc... you'd be worried if they weren't. Orange is also focused on Microsoft, UIQ and Access (the people that used to be PalmSource).
Orange reckons it can pull these events off from both a technical and commercial perspective - personally I think that smacks of trying to be all things to everyone - but I don't hear anyone complaining, so maybe they can? Glagow told me that the reason that they have done this is that the developers attending these camps come up with great ideas but have a hard time monetising their projects - and this is something the company has learned over time as this is event is the 7th in a series (they are held in mainland Europe and generally East Coast America) and details of an October event in the US are due to be announced soon.
Just to round up on this story - when I did attend this event back in 2005 it was in Opio in the South of France. I got on a plane to come home relatively well oiled with a Pernod-Kronenbourg cocktail and got chatting to a lady next to me who asked if I had just been to the exhibition. I said yes and spent 15 minutes detailing the high points of the Code Camp I had just left - she let me drawl on for ages before stopping me and telling me that she meant the fashion show she'd just attended with Posh 'Mrs Beckham' Spice in Monte Carlo. Geek meets chic? Oh yes.
Fresh Orange Juice indeed - or as they say em Português: Suco Alaranjado Fresco!
Thursday 10 April 2008, 10:25 AM
Microsoft and interoperability: oxymoron or secret soul mate?
There are many out there who would argue that the words Microsoft and interoperability should never be seen in the same sentence. Certainly, for those who have installed Vista only to find that their printer, wireless keyboard or other peripheral are rendered driver-less, it would be a hard one to argue convincingly.
Microsoft itself has formed departments with specialists who focus on ‘baked-in’ interoperability and the company says (I’ve met a few of ‘em at Tech.Ed Europe events) that it remains focused on getting partners and programming ‘practitioners’ everywhere to buy into its messages and help develop complementary technologies.
Of course, Microsoft has recently posted a large amount of protocol documentation on the MSDN to ensure open connection routes to its high-volume products are clearly defined. But is it enough?
So, where are we up to at the moment? Well, latest (that I’ve heard of) to jump on the ‘interop’ bandwagon is Iona whose Artix mainframe and integration products have been bundled for Microsoft interoperability.
Iona’s press- and customer-facing materials are can be difficult to digest, but if you take plenty of Rennie (or Tums or Pepto-Bismol) and can get through the “seamlessly extending connectivity” and other unnecessary gung-ho malarkey, there may be something of use here.
Think Microsoft – think Microsoft partner – and your next stop should be Windows Communication Foundation (WCF). I know I’m towing the corporate line here, but I’m just trying to point in the right direction.
So to give them their due… Artix Connect for WCF enables companies to ‘optimise’ (eek!) their investments in Microsoft technology and extend connectivity (yikes! – there it is) with legacy applications from within the Microsoft Visual Studio development environment. Enterprise organisations can, allegedly, integrate their MS apps with non-Microsoft platforms from BEA, IBM, Oracle, TIBCO and also with CORBA based applications. By wrapping back-office legacy systems behind standards-based Web Services Description Language (WSDL) interfaces, Artix Connect for WCF allows (shouldn’t that be ‘enables’?) the .NET developer to connect with Java or CORBA without the need for custom adapters or new code generation.
Wanna know how companies working in this space try to convey their messages? It’s not websites and the usual marketing morsels; it’s white papers and weighty analysis pieces with titles like “The principles of interoperability”. Does this convey the extra gravitas of the situation? Maybe, I guess. Am I being deliberately sceptical? Yeah, kinda – is that a problem?
Wednesday 9 April 2008, 12:09 PM
Survey scurvy
Everybody knows that sarcasm is the lowest form of wit and that surveys are the lowest form of marketing. But assuming that there’s some whisper of truth in these things I do continue to scan many of these infernal things as I can stomach. I think it was F. Scott Fitzgerald that said, “Reserving judgments is a matter of infinite hope.” But that doesn’t me much good in IT writing does it?
Anyway, as I mentioned a survey yesterday – I might as well keep digging and refer to some info from server management company Vizioncore who says that the ability for organisations to recover from failure is much quicker when using virtualisation techniques - according that is to an end-user survey conducted at the VMworld Europe conference in February 2008.
Of the more than 200 responses, 76 per cent of those surveyed stated that they could recover a virtual machine within two hours, while 73 per cent stated that virtualisation had helped them to reduce application downtime. However, just over a third of all organisations that have implemented virtualisation do not have a specific disaster recovery strategy in place to protect their environments.
It seems that virtualisation deployments have gone beyond mere server consolidation – and I think we might even be able to suggest that disaster recovery planning is now forming a considerable part of virtualisation deployments.
Think virtualisation – and you might typically think reduced hardware costs, centralised management and virtual desktop deployment efficiencies from a virtualised the data centre. Maybe you’d think green computing too. Is it time to think disaster recovery as well? Our survey said…
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