danieldraper-blog

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The importance of developer communication

Imagine for a moment that you have just learned a difficult concept and you are to now explain it to a co-worker. Its not an easy task is it? This is the challenge faced by most programmers every day.

Programming is often an exercise in the abstract and rarely does a day pass when the proficient software engineer does not need to translate a real world concept into its digital metaphor.

The programmer working on her own might decide that insight into the inner nuances of her code is not a necessity for sharing with others but for programmers in a team its a whole different story. Communication in a software team is akin to communication in a sports team: each player must know their role but must also be acutely aware of what (at least some) of the other players are doing.

The challenge with software (and technology in general) is that the messages we must get across are frequently much more complicated than a shout to receive the ball. What’s more is that the members of your team are not just the highly skilled engineers but also the project managers, the upper management and stakeholders and even the users. These people probably don’t have the same technical understanding as you and now you must explain complex concepts to them in a way that they can appreciate.

I recently learned of the engineering platform, TopTal and their Ruby on Rails Group. TopTal’s promise is access to the top 3% of software freelancers world wide and I quickly decided I wanted to be a part of it.

Feeling confident in my own skills and knowing the importance of communication in software teams, I decided to dig deeper and learned of some of the exciting companies using Toptal. For me one of the attributes that separates a member of the 3% from a member of the 97% is great communication.

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A girl's best friend! Misogyny or a failed attempt at equality?

Tonight I was browsing my twitter stream, and as is often the case with me, not interacting a great deal. But then I saw something that got my attention. @reinteractive, the Twitter handle for Sydney's dev services company posted this:

. @elbanoitca we absolutely don't stand by that tweet and are very disappointed that @ninefold thought it best to drag us in

— reinteractive (@reinteractive)

September 3, 2014

This tweet seemed uncharacteristic for the well respected Dev Hub co-organiser so I dug deeper. The offending tweet (since removed) appeared as a screenshot:

The reaction was unsupportive; to put it mildly:

@ninefold @reinteractive what point are you trying to make? I doubt that you have struck the chord you were intending to.

— Keith Pitty (@keithpitty)

September 2, 2014

Perhaps you @reinteractive guys and you @ninefold guys talk, then say "sorry", like Atlassian: http://t.co/9BBcfK6vtm pic.twitter.com/KzsktmVK0d

— jeff kennedy (@elbanoitca)

September 3, 2014

Why is this a problem?

In defence of @ninefold, I think the tweeter had their heart in the right place. I mean the subject of the tweet was female ("a girl's best friend"). In fact, you could even say that a girl's best friend is Rails. But it goes deeper than that.

The fact is that the tweet was insensitive. It puts an unnecessary sexual connotation on the message and casts a divide between men and women. In an industry that already struggles enormously with gender balance, this kind of message is at best ill-considered and at worst seriously damaging.

Computer Science was once a female dominated industry. Restoring the balance will require a concerted effort from coders, pundits and corporations across the board and tonight was a set back from one of Sydney's key players :(

Related: Codr.TV is producing a documentary on Women who code.

UPDATE:

Later tonight I received a tweet from @dennisgraham7 who has apologised for the tweet on behalf of @ninefold. As I said, I don't believe the tweet came across as intended but let this be a lesson for us all.

@reinteractive @keithpitty @elbanoitca @genlevel @MelissaKaulfuss @andrewjgrimm My sincerest apologies for the tweet It is entirely my fault

— Dennis Graham (@DennisGraham7) September 3, 2014

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A chat bot developed at Princeton AI recently passed the Turing test - the only computer ever to do so! See http://princetonai.com http://codr.tv is a produc...

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How not to mess up an interview with a coder! Part 1 of out interview with Ted Tenzca (Ted Tencza) Check it out!

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This will help.

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News June 14: Not Building or Scaling? What's your excuse?

See more at codr.tv

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Man's Solo Airport Video Clip a Setup?

So a few days ago there was this:

All by myself from Richard Dunn on Vimeo.

And now Celine Dion has posted a reply.

Either Dion's publicist saw this as a perfect opportunity for her to promote her Vegas show or the whole thing was a Jimmy Kimmel style social media setup?

What do you think?

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How to recover from a hacked twitter account

So apparently twitter was hacked and in the process many accounts were compromised. The simple fix is to reset your password but the hackers were able to compromise the server that hosts all of Twitter's stylesheets so that changing your password is damn near impossible.

(NB: technically it was a DNS hack that redirected traffic to a different server entirely)

The fix. If you're on a Mac/Linux enter the following into your /etc/hosts file:

68.232.44.139 abs.twimg.com

(you should remove this later when twitter fixes the problem).

Go ahead and reset your password.

Important: you should also revoke access to all of your applications in case one of those was the entry point through which your account was accessed (ie; it may not have been your password it may have been an authorized app).

To revoke access, go into your settings, click "Apps" and click the Revoke Access button next to all of your apps.

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Rails devs know this feeling - just when you think you're done...

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2012 in Review thanks to Google

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Its time to sell the beast. '72 KE20 with a 4AGE conversion. Sprinter gearbox, custom radiator, magna front brakes, KE55 diff (needs tailshaft), Celica front struts. Reluctant sale :( $1400 ONO

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The Adelaide Codehire Cup.

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Seeking a partner in (code) crime

So, I'm back on the Startup warpath. Having started two companies before (NetFox and Codefire) I'm ready to do it all again with my new baby, Codehire. And, I'm seeking a co-founder.

The problem I'm looking to solve

Firstly, let me preface this by saying that I'm not building technology and hoping to sell it. I am trying to solve a problem and right now the approach happens to be with a particular kind of tech. If that doesn't work I will change the approach but will always be focused on solving the problem.

Imagine you're a technology business person or a senior manager in a tech company and you need to hire a coder (or a bunch of coders). But here's the problem: you are not a coder yourself. How on earth do you know who to hire!? How do you even get a list of potential candidates? How can you pitch the role/company/team in such a way that coders will be queuing up to apply?

Even experienced recruiters struggle with this problem and tend to rely on years of experience or references which help only so much. IMHO what you need to do is get candidates to actually code. But what should they code? How can you set a task that is both realistic and meaningful?

I've developed a challenge engine, which I recently tested at the Adelaide Codehire Cup. The engine works across languages, can be scaled for difficulty and is virtually impossible to game.

I now want to commercialise this tech.

A co-founder

I'm not looking for another coder though if you have some tech background thats helpful. I believe a big key to success will marketing and so I'm looking for someone who is great at technology marketing and sales. You should have a passion for this sort of stuff and think outside the box. You should know social and all the usuals (SEO/SEM/PPC etc).

I happen to think I'm not a bad marketer but you should live and breath this stuff. You should be dedicated and driven. It will also help if you live in Sydney or San Francisco or are willing to move there!

I plan to seek capital and have big plans for the business.

If this is you or you know someone please get in touch (daniel at codehire dot com or +61 403 089 661).

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