Moving away from Google+

Post one in a series on migrating away from Google+.

So, here we are, at the crossroads.

Google+ is being sunsetted. Aww, bollocks! Let’s use the appropriate terms: terminated, decapitated, shat upon, no fucks given about, or to refer to it in classic Google style: ABANDONED. You can quote me on that. All of it. Why, Google, WHY!?

I don’t know about you, but I am really going to miss Google+, as it has been the only place that I’ve felt at home in social media. No ads, good moderation tools, and easy to find people and topics to follow.

Photo by rawpixel.com on Pexels.com

What to do?

The G+ shutdown is inevitable, so let’s get on with figuring out what to do next. I’ve spent some time looking around, and exploring my options. There are a number of considerations: Do you want to host it yourself? What level of functionality do you need? Do you need it to be readable on mobile? Do you need it to be able to import old content? How does it integrate with others? How is the visibility? Can it be searched?

Continue reading “Moving away from Google+”

Google wants to kill the URL!

Google wants to kill the URL!

“I don’t know what this will look like, because it’s an active discussion in the team right now,” says Parisa Tabriz, director of engineering at Chrome. “But I do know that whatever we propose is going to be controversial. That’s one of the challenges with a really old and open and sprawling platform. Change will be controversial whatever form it takes. But it’s important we do something, because everyone is unsatisfied by URLs. They kind of suck.”

Considering all the tracking crap that is attached to URLs, I tend to support the idea, although it is hard to envision how this will be done.

https://www.wired.com/story/google-wants-to-kill-the-url/

https://www.wired.com/story/google-wants-to-kill-the-url/

Does Google listen in on your life?

Does Google listen in on your life?

“Google retains a copy of the recordings to improve its software. The company is trying to be the opposite of sneaky. It provides a detailed history of every recording it has on the user’s “My Activity” web page.

Each recording or set of recordings is presented on its own card.

The recordings are listed by date and service (for example, “Assistant,” “Google App” or “google.com.” On the left you can see the text version of your command, which is a link that, when clicked on, takes you to Google Search results for those words. On the right you’ll find a “play” button, so you can listen to each recording. A “more options” menu on the top right of each card enables you to delete any recording.

It’s unlikely for a recording to happen by accident. From a phone, for example, the phone must be unlocked and the recording begun by specific user action, such as pressing the icon. On a Pixel phone, the user can set up automatic listening mode by changing the default in settings to enable the “Trusted Voice” setting. That makes the phone listen for the “OK Google” command…”

Learn more from Mike Elgan:
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3149085/search/does-google-listen-in-on-your-life.html

https://www.computerworld.com/article/3149085/search/does-google-listen-in-on-your-life.html

My Job Is To Meet Expectations

This is a reply to the article Your Job Is Not to Write Code by +Laura Klein. 

It IS my job to write code. That code has to meet the expectations of the end users, the product manager (PM), the Quality Assurance Manager (QM), the support team, and myself.

The PM has to set the bar. Functionally and performance wise. If the PM leaves it up to me to decide what the code should run on, on what kind of hardware, that PM is not filling the role. The PMs are the ones that set the targets.

In a proper development team, it is NOT the developers job to test that the code runs on all variants of hardware. This is where you have testers, and a PM and a QA Manager (QM) that define the bar of what is acceptable function and performance in accordance with the specification you created.

The developer may be given his/her own test machine which can be used for “worst case” scenarios, but it is the test team that has to validate on a decent sample set of environments.

I might be a hired hand, and probably do not know all there is about the trade that the software is developed for, nor do I know the clients or how they actually use the software. Over time, I might learn this, but only as far as the PM lets me.

It is my job to think of the what-if’s. Actually, writing code is all about what-if’s. However, it is the specifications that decide the scope of the what if’s.
Should I recognize different number formats? Date formats? International characters? Right to left text? What should the default value be when a calculation fails due to a division by zero? What should the correct behavior be when a criteria is not met? All these things are about specifications defined by the PM according to the needs of the clients.

When I “check in code”, I should NEVER EVER check it into production. I should push it to a proper staging environment, and write roll out documentation, then the test team should roll it out on a test environment, validate that it works, refine documentation and then hand it to the support team for rollout to production.

If the PM did not ensure that there is proper QA, it is that PM that is responsible for the shitty code in production. If the product doesn’t do what the customer expects, it’s the PM that did not write proper use cases and proper specifications and operational parameters, and it would be the PM that did not ensure that the QM had created the necessary test cases and functional specifications.

My skill is not customer management. My skill is not necessarily to know the business that the client is in. My skill is to transform various degrees of incomplete specifications into something that resembles what the customer wants, within reasonable time, and with a reasonably high quality.

The PMs are the ones that defines what the customer wants.
The QMs decide if what I wrote, meets that definition.
The support team will be the ones that verify that the definition actually was complete and correct.

Good software meets expectations. Good software is a process. Good process depends on team work. Team work depends on a certain degree of separations of roles. Roles are defined by responsibilities.

My role as a developer is to write code that meets expectations.

In some companies, these roles may boil down to just a few people — or even just a single individual. The roles are still there. The responsibilities are still there.

If the CEO doesn’t understand or care about these roles and allot the necessary time and/or resource — that company will be fighting fires, playing blame games, and losing clients.

Sincerely,
Your Developer
Lars Fosdal

Welcome to the Delphi iOS & Android Developers Community on Google+!

The Google+ Delphi Developers Community sprung another sibling!
Feel free to join up with the Delphi iOS & Android Developers Community.

The Delphi Developers Community is a relatively whine free place to discuss our programming challenges, and has just passed 2200 members, and our new iOS and Android offspring focuses on the finer details of getting the most out of the FireMonkey mobile platform – already have 125 people participating.

Then there is the growing Delphi Component Directory, where a steady flow of posts are highlighting the good stuff we may need to solve our challenges.

There even is a place to vent your anger with Delphi and Embarcadero without detracting focus from solving programming issues. If you need to rant and rage – people are all ears in Unit Number 5.


https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js

Delphi Developers on G+ has passed 1500 members

With Blogger’s ability to +mention people, and now also sharing the blog comments on Google+, I’d say that you would have a hard time finding something that can beat it the Google+/Blogger combo for impact. Perhaps this can reignite the Delphi blogosphere, as it has never been so easy to create content and reach a targeted audience.

So, why don’t you put on your writer’s hat, write about your Delphi experience, and share it with us at the Delphi Developers Community?

Blog++ / Google+ Delphi Circle

I just connected my Blogger ID to my Google+ account, and according to the update at the Blogger site, I’ll be getting access to the new G+ integration stuff as it is rolled out. Can’t wait to see G+ as the commenting system! I also tried out the new dynamic template, and you can see it live on the “Tools and Books” section, but that is not quite ready for prime time use yet. I like my gadgets and syntax highlighting… speaking of – I think I lost the booklist 🙁 *sigh*

BTW: I already have over 200 people in my Google+ Delphi circle. Look me up at plus.lars.fosdal.com and drop me a comment to be circled!