Brave Tech World

SUN 11 JUN 2006

Scoble who? By Marcelo

    I believe there is a huge disconnect between reality and your favorite Web 2.0 blog/news aggregation site.
    Let's see...
    This morning, Robert Scoble announced that he is leaving Microsoft. Scoble who? Would most my friends ask. Most my tech friends! I know hundreds of people at Microsoft and most of them probably don't know who Robert Scoble is. Now, if I ask all my other friends that don't work on Microsoft (and don't work for a Web 2.0 startup), they not only don't know who Scoble is, they probably don't know why blog matters, and, they certainly don't have a clue about Podcasting.
    Now that is my reality. Now let's see the  parallel realities:

• TechMeme: top headline with +/- 50% of all the homepage links;
• Technorati: #1 searched term "Scoble"
• Digg: Top 10 links

     What I see is a very dangerous trend. This "group thinking" on everything Web 2.0, that takes certain things as unquestionably true:

• "Scoble is important"
• "Podcasting is/will be a mainstream"
• "Simplicity is what everybody wants"
• "Dave Winer is evil" / "Dave Winer is a genius" (Winer Who?)
  
• "You can't succeed without appearing on TechCrunch by Michael Arrington" - (Arrington who?)
• [insert your favorite unproven conventional wisdom from the blogosphere]

    Now, I wish Scoble all the luck on his new endeavor, but that is not news that will cause any significant impact on tech/sw/Internet. So, why does it becomes so promiment on aggregators?

TUE 13 JUN 2006

Sampa Beta is available. By Marcelo

   For the readers of my blog, feel free to try Sampa:
      https://sampa.com/sm/pplan.aspx

   This is Beta, has bugs and we are gathering feedback to decide what the next steps should be.


PS: Just 1h 15min for  Brazil's World Cup first match!

THU 15 JUN 2006

Gates "exit" and Layoffs By Marcelo

 

   I wans't going to comment on anything related to Bill Gates "exit" of Microsoft, but I saw this post from 37signals which predicts some layoffs at Microsoft.

   Here is the problem with that: Microsoft has 5,000+ open positions right now. How the heck are they supposed to justify a major layoff? Think about all the lawsuits, the shareholders questions, etc.

 

   Now, since I worked at Microsoft I was always in favor of a 10% workforce layoff! Why? There is so much dead-weight at that company.

    I'm not talking only about the people underperforming (old-2.5s), but the people that are not adding value for the company, or, worse, are taking value away from it. Look at all the PR, HR, Marketing, Legal and those non-core jobs at Microsoft. They have to find something to do, so, they keep creating rules, projects, intranet sites, hallways posters(!), creating work for themselves. Same issues on the Product groups as well. Half of all Program Managers could be layed off without any consequence to the bottom line. And about 10-15% of all Testers and Developers could also go.

 

    I once told a friend about why I thought that Seattle was not a hot place for startups as SF. I believe (he didn't buy it, though) it was because Microsoft never had a major layoff. Once that happens, people will be forced into action, including joining smaller companies, or founding their own. Currently, Microsoft is a huge drain in the NW, taking most of the great engineers from the region. This effect has slowed down a little because of the new "Web 2.0" wave and because of the anti-Microsoft feelings, but still is very strong.

 

 

 

 

FRI 16 JUN 2006

JS Tip #1: Pick your Battles, I mean, your Browsers By Marcelo

    With the all Web 2.0 meme, the use of JavaScript on the client has exploded. I first learnt it circa 1999, and back then, using IE 5 you could get a lot of cool stuff done with MSXML invoked through ActiveX. It took 6 years for another browser to come up with an equivalent technology (XmlHttpRequest) and allow the anti-Microsoft crowd to finally get some decent technology to develop for.

    However, despite all the evolution in the browser (Firefox only, IE is stagnant), the tools to develop DHTML/JavaScript have not evolved that much. Where is the JS Profilers? Code coverage tools? Decent debuggers?

    I've been doing intensive development for Sampa on the last 16 months, and gathered a lot of good tips to share with other developers. I will start a weekly post about JavaScript tips focused on “Web 2.0” views of web-development. Topics will range from cross-browser compatibilities to performance, from AJAX to AJAH, from hacks to known bugs/issues. I hope you enjoy this series, and case you have some good tip, send it my way and I’ll co-publish (you get the credit).

Tip #1 - Pick your Battles, I mean, your Browsers
   
    Most of the time you see developers that are on either side of the spectrum: Either they say they only care for Firefox 1.5 (or IE 6, anyone?) or they say their code must be compatible with all browsers in the market, including, but not limited to IE 3-7, Firefox 0.8-2.0, Opera 6-9, Safari 9-10, Netscape 4-9, and all the mobile browsers.

 

    If you are serious about creating a Web company, you can't be on either side of this fight. You have to pick the most popular browsers used by *your* user base (at least to who you think will be your user base).

    As much as Mac fans don't like to hear it, a mainstream product must support IE 6. It also must support Firefox 1.0+ because this is the most popular alternative (and the favorite of the Web 2.0 crowd). After those two, each browser that you add to your list of fully compatible will have a tremendous cost in development and time to market. If you are going to pick a third browser, make it Safari, but not Opera (market share says it all).

    A stupid thing being done by some companies is the release of an IE6-only or a Firefox-only version. They say they will release the other version later. If you do that, you risk finding out that what you wanted to do is impossible on the other browser.

    I also have a pretty tough standing in regards to yet-to-be-released browsers. I don’t develop for them. Period. I won’t install IE7 until MSFT officially releases it (maybe I’ll install RC0); same thing for Firefox 2.0 or 3.0. It is just a waste of your time since these browsers have too many bugs, their behavior will change, and you’ll be spending precious time debugging issues instead of focusing on improving the quality of the product where it really matters.