Book Review: My Job Went to India

Just finished reading the book 'My Job Went to India'. I began to read it not sure if it would be any value for me in it (I am neither an 'indian' nor a 'US' developer). But the book is not for US people, it's for any software developer that want to make a 'career' ( and I mean 'non executive' career, to be clear). It's about how to stay on top of the things when the industry changes everyday, when the jobs migrate from one country to another, when younger, brighter developers get hired and talk about things you never heard of, making you feel like an old age dinosaur.

The core idea is that you should become a little bit of marketer, to build and to sell your own single product: yourself. Depending on how well you will do that the success will come or not.

First you should invest in your product: chose carefully what technologies to learn, become proficient in them, be aware when they start to fade and the next big thing begins to emerge. What is hot today might be obsolete tomorrow.

Understand the business process, cause they pay your check. Make the business persons comfortable by speaking their language instead of the geeky jargon we all find so dear.

Make the others aware of your brand (inside your company and outside, via forums, discussions, open source) (e.g. how does it sound 'I worked with Struts' vs 'I am a Struts committer' ) . Be a mentor for the others, share your knowledge, strive to make a little step forward every single day, learn to listen and to interpret the hints.

Some advices even sound counter intuitive like : strive to be 'disposable' (your code is so elegant everyone can work in it easily) or 'sometimes is better to work in maintenance instead of creating brand new functionality' (there are not the same process constraints in maintenance versus new code)

But let's stop rephrasing the whole book. Just grab it, read it and live by it: find your own spot and provide value in every way you can.

Modern data visualization ways

Amazing new data visualization ways: innovative, elegant and very, very descriptive.

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/08/02/data-visualization-modern-approaches

Sometimes I am amazed about how far the things have gone.

I Believe In Anarchy let's see you pogo!

"I'm not afraid of having a Fight
and i'm not ashamed about getting drunk
and i don't care what you say cause
I believe in Anarchy"

Ok, ok, not quite the same thoughts but intresting any way:
Hog Blog » How to Be an Anarchist

CVS is evil, Subversion is pointles

....."and you are stupid and ugly just because you continue using them".

OK, I have to admit, I did not test gip yet, and also did not read the user manual yet, but if it does only half of what is Linus saying then it's exactly what I was hoping to find in CVS when I started using it, and got disappointed that is not there, and then get used with the fact that is not there and then forgot i even wanted it., and then became stupid and ugly ....

Enjoy and spread the word:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XpnKHJAok8

Generic Programing...where to?

What is generic programing, why is useful and how it should/will be done ... at least in C++.
Lose one hour watching this and you will be warn about how programing will be done in the future, and maybe you will be prepare for it when will come.

You Java mortals, listen to the gods!...... maybe you learn something
:-P

Doug Gregor: Concepts Extending C++ Templates For Generic Programming

Simple architecture story

That is a fascinating story. It is simple and powerful. I will try remember it everytime somebody will try to 'sell' me a powerpoint full of diagrams and acronimes.

http://paultyma.blogspot.com/2006/12/architecture-of-mailinator.html

Creativity

I was deeply impressed by this speech delivered at TEDTalks. It is about creativity and its importance in our world, and how our current education system does not nourish creativity....and how crucial for our future is to be able to think out of the box.

Enjoy it!
http://www.niciest.com/index.asp?id=193