Dario Solera

Dario Solera http://dariosolera.it The cake is a lie, and anyway there is no spoon. posterous.com Thu, 09 Feb 2012 07:57:00 -0800 Twitter Is Hard /cc @ConvergentSpace http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DarioSolera/~3/ya-2RPEg5qA/twitter-is-hard-cc-convergentspace http://dariosolera.it/twitter-is-hard-cc-convergentspace <p> <p>Some people don't seem to get Twitter. I mean, not how you can write 140 characters and post them on the web, but how to get the best out of it.<br />You see, many use Twitter to promote their businesses. Which is fine, mind you. The problem is, sometimes people just think they can flood their Twitter account with messages and get something useful in return.<p /> I'm talking specifically about <a href="http://twitter.com/ConvergentSpace">this guy here</a>. He is a good writer. I've read his book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Convergent-Space-ebook/dp/B005SWE452/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1328800974&sr=8-1">Convergent Space</a>. It is <em>excellent</em>, I highly recommend it to everyone.<br /> But apparently he just can't use Twitter decently. He advertises his book, and retweets messages from readers, friends, whatever, all at once at a very specific time in the day. Something like 2 or 3 dozens messages spurted in half an hour. Every day.<p /> There are two reasons why this is wrong.<br />Firstly, it is a bit annoying because if you follow him and happen to have a Twitter client always running for "business" reasons, like I do, basically you get a truckload of notifications, and you end up ignoring them altogether.<br /> Secondly, and most importantly, if his followers don't have Twitter open at the time the flood hits, they'll never see his tweets, because they'll soon get buried below newer messages.<p />I <a href="https://twitter.com/#%21/DarioSolera/status/167624934749773824">suggested him</a> to schedule tweets, one every once in a while, adding <a href="https://twitter.com/#%21/DarioSolera/status/167627181978169345">two</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/#%21/DarioSolera/status/167627529430106112">clarifications</a>, and he <a href="https://twitter.com/#%21/ConvergentSpace/status/167626304244559872">suggested me</a> to unfollow him. (It is actually the second time I suggest him to rethink his Twitter strategy, and his original response was the same: unfollow).<p /> You see, Twitter is about people, not about SEO*. You're not trying to impress a bunch of servers, but a bunch of humans (your readers in this case). Annoying them, or simply making sure they'll never see your tweets, is not a terribly good idea.<p />@ConvergentSpace: I hope you'll read this. Don't take it personally, it's just a suggestion. If you still think you're using Twitter the best way to boost your sales, fine, I'll just unfollow and leave you alone. After all I'm just a whiny reader.<p /> * Besides, Google ignores links in tweets altogether, so if you're doing SEO, then you're doing it wrong.</p> </p> <p><a href="http://dariosolera.it/twitter-is-hard-cc-convergentspace">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://dariosolera.it/twitter-is-hard-cc-convergentspace#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DarioSolera/~4/ya-2RPEg5qA" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1032795/a9ac45db97e1331587c6113f60b80c2f.png http://posterous.com/users/he6XrBS5Zp12y Dario Solera dariosolera Dario Solera http://dariosolera.it/twitter-is-hard-cc-convergentspace Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:27:00 -0800 On The Volunia Launch http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DarioSolera/~3/9MHFpkPFt-Q/on-the-volunia-launch http://dariosolera.it/on-the-volunia-launch <p> <p>Is it even possible that <a href="http://www.volunia.com" target="_blank">Volunia</a> is so crappy? I mean, it takes effort to build something that no one on our beloved planet thinks is nice. We must be missing something, right?<p />If you've never heard about it, Volunia is supposed to be some kind of mix between a search engine and a social network. Honestly, I have no idea what that means. It's still in closed beta so I'll wait for other pioneers to explore it. You know, <em>hic sunt dracones</em> and all that.<p /> The most interesting thing about Volunia is that its supposedly <em>worldwide launch event</em> was barely a press conference. In Italian. The projector didn't even work. The presenter started talking about chickens (no kidding). Poor live demo. You get the point.<p /> I haven't watched the launch live, but from what I've read it will probably be remembered as the worst launch event of 2012.<p /> If you search Twitter, <a href="https://twitter.com/#%21/search/%23volunia" target="_blank">#volunia</a> has managed to become a trending topic. The problem is that it's just lukewarm to downright negative commentary. They even got a not-too-negative <a href="http://gigaom.com/2012/02/06/is-volunia-italys-answer-to-google-or-just-hot-air/" target="_blank">post on Gigaom</a>, but other than that, probably due to the lame launch event, the project only got national news coverage so far.<p /> People are complaining that Volunia is a failure. No. They are complaining that it's a Typical Italian Failure. Probably they're even right. The cause of the yet-to-be-verified failure, however, is never considered. The project leader (and launch event presenter), Massimo Marchiori, is an engineer. That, and an ugly website, is all it needs to screw a product launch. The guy is an engineer, even a good one it seems, and is temporarily acting as a entrepreneur, marketer, salesman and presenter all at once. That doesn't work, and trust me when I say that. I know what I'm talking about.<p /> They got €2M and 2 years. They have no excuses for failing to hire a designer and a marketing guy. They'd have cost only pocket money compared to all the rest. Even so, I hope Volunia will succeed. I really do. Because we need success stories, not laughable attempts at building the next Google, and failing miserably. That said, kudos to Marchiore and his team, as they deserve at least some appreciation for trying to build something new. Most of the critics don't even know what it's like to run a startup, so they'd better shut up and wait to see what happens next.</p> </p> <p><a href="http://dariosolera.it/on-the-volunia-launch">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://dariosolera.it/on-the-volunia-launch#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DarioSolera/~4/9MHFpkPFt-Q" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1032795/a9ac45db97e1331587c6113f60b80c2f.png http://posterous.com/users/he6XrBS5Zp12y Dario Solera dariosolera Dario Solera http://dariosolera.it/on-the-volunia-launch Tue, 10 Jan 2012 02:50:29 -0800 Job Contracts for Startups in Italy http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DarioSolera/~3/v_4RnY5MrfU/job-contracts-for-startups-in-italy http://dariosolera.it/job-contracts-for-startups-in-italy <p> Italian labor laws are (righteously) under attack right now. Basically, a company can hire people with three main types of job contracts:<br /><ul><li><b>Project-based contract</b>: it defines a project that the employee (which is not really an employee but rather more of a contractor) will have to work on, with defined objectives and milestones. The compensation and the way it's paid can also be defined arbitrarily.</li> <li><b>Permanent contract</b>: the employee is hired permanently and given a monthly compensation.<br /></li><li><b>Fixed-term contract</b>: the employee is hired for a defined period of time and given a monthly compensation (this is <i>almost</i> the same as permanent contract).</li> </ul><p>There are a number of other weird contracts, but they apply to specific sectors and are not interesting right now. The key topic here is that all job contracts in Italy, unless you're a freelancer with a EU VAT ID, are strictly regulated by labor laws. This kind of approach comes from decades of social unrest and fights by workers and unions.<br /> </p><p>Project-based contracts have been introduced only ten years or so ago, and have completely disrupted the job market. Such contracts are much easier and cheaper for employers and in turn give less guarantees to workers. Permanent contracts are precisely designed to protect workers, which in general is a good idea, but in reality it turned into a mess in Italy. I'll spare you the details, suffice it to say that project-based contracts are at one end of the scale, while permanent and fixed-term contracts are at the other, causing all sort of trouble and even more social unrest. The vast majority of new workers, typically graduates, are hired with project-based contracts that can be terminated at any moment and give them less benefits. Another aspect that is being widely discussed right now is that if the employer has more than 15 permanent contract employees, then they cannot be terminated without a good reason (the law defining what a good reason is - not doing a good job <i>is not</i> a good reason). This causes problems when companies plan to lay off many workers, even if they can no longer afford to pay them. That in turn is causing more and more project-based contracts to be used (many of them stretching labor law beyond its limits) because they give employers more flexibility - or rather more freedom to fire workers (everything gets down to that). But I'm getting off-track.<br /> </p><p>So what should a startup do? How should new employees be hired?</p><p>The problem with project-based contracts is they <i>must</i> define a project and its objectives. In a startup, pretty much all employees do a variety of things, from programming to... emptying trash cans. If you hire someone with a project-based contract, she is prevented from doing anything but what's in the contract. In reality no one really cares, but still it's something that breaks the law to some extent and could cause problems. As you can see, this is totally unflexible and unagile.</p> <p>On the other hand, permanent contracts, while allowing almost complete flexibility for the actual work the employee will perform, due to social insurance and taxes are much more expensive (roughly 1.5x compared to project-based contracts), thus would seem unaffordable for a cash-constrained startup - or any small business in general.<br /> </p><p>Is that even true?<br /></p><p>The points to considers are multiple. Firstly, a bad hire is disastrous for a startup, no matter the type of contract. Secondly, startups surely need flexibility, but also need to make employees feel at home and to retain them. A project-based contract goes against both those principles. The answer is that - probably - a permanent contract is much better, even if it costs a bit more.</p> <p>In an ideal Italy, project-based contacts would not exist, and permanent and fixed-term contracts would cost less while providing the same level of protection for the workers. The key point currently under discussion is the 15-employees thing, which is insane, because the outcome is that growing businesses either hire with project-based contracts or via body-rental companies, <i>precisely</i> because they don't want to cross the 15 employees threshold. A rule that was meant to protect workers is actually causing them harm, preventing growth and causing social unrest. In a small startup that doesn't really matter, but now the project-based contract thing is so rooted in the job market that it seems the only way to hire people in small businesses.</p> <p>Well, it's not, and it causes more harm than good if you depend on your employees, their loyalty, happiness and thus productivity, which are vital for a tech startup.<br /> </p> </p> <p><a href="http://dariosolera.it/job-contracts-for-startups-in-italy">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://dariosolera.it/job-contracts-for-startups-in-italy#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DarioSolera/~4/v_4RnY5MrfU" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1032795/a9ac45db97e1331587c6113f60b80c2f.png http://posterous.com/users/he6XrBS5Zp12y Dario Solera dariosolera Dario Solera http://dariosolera.it/job-contracts-for-startups-in-italy Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:42:55 -0800 Email Epic Fail http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DarioSolera/~3/so1_SouEkuU/email-epic-fail http://dariosolera.it/email-epic-fail <p> Does an email like this even deserve to be replied to?<p /><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile1.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/dariosolera/CA0W7QLZ6FDtYwWFXf44XJlUIB2GiEsPckaGS5ZO87b7M7JTR5HOo2TwW1OO/UselessEmail.png"><img alt="Uselessemail" height="187" src="http://getfile2.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/dariosolera/QMHX2Kkl6GvFOY9BOI3csu3TUWPCAtYbl5hVx5UPOTmU7DpIPFgzRjBxJyh1/UselessEmail.png.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> <p />I am personally more than willing to answer emails regarding what we do, and ScrewTurn Wiki in particular. It's my job after all.<p /> I always try to ignore grammar mistakes, typos, casing issues and misspelled names, but in this case the email is beyond my tolerance threshold.<p />Who the hell is your friend? Do I know him/her? Obviously, there's no way for me to know that, because you haven't mentioned his/her name.<br /> What college? From his name, I can only assume the writer is from some middle-eastern Country or from India or Pakistan, I'm not even sure, but that's it. He could be from Mars for all I know.<br />It is also blatantly clear that the guy didn't even spend 30 seconds on our website, because it contains all the information he needs (assuming he knows what he's talking about, which I seriously doubt).<p /> I was seriously tempted to reply something along these lines:<p /><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204,204,204); padding-left: 1ex;">Hello,<br />thank you very much for contacting us, we really appreciate it.<p /> Regarding your request, customizing screw turn wiki is about taking the engine of your car very near to its built-in RPM limit. Basically, you have to turn the screw usually marked with "RPM adjustment" rightwards, with the engine on, until you can hear it <i>almost</i> blowing up. Your results may vary, and you may end up damaging the engine, but it surely is worth for your final year project. Keep a fire extinguisher at hand, and just to be on the safe side don't forget to wear protective clothing.<br /> </blockquote><br />Instead I replied with this message:<p /><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204,204,204); padding-left: 1ex;">Hi,<br />thank you for your email. From what you've written, however, it is totally clear that you don't even know what you're talking about, and haven't spent a minute reading our website, as it contains all the information you need. In other words, I'm not going to give you the least bit of information because it's obvious that you either don't care about your final year project, or aren't able to communicate with other people (or both). When you ask for help, don't expect an answer if you can't even write an email explaining what you're looking for, adding all relevant context information, and most importantly showing that you've done your homework. Failing to do so, especially when you're in school or university, will simply demonstrate that you are lazy and no one will help you.<br /> </blockquote><br />Am I attracting bad karma? Probably. Am I being an asshole? Likely. Have I wasted more time writing that email than what I'd have wasted simply giving him the information he wanted? Surely.<p />But people have to learn. We have to crush such behaviors, otherwise they'll spread like a disease and we'll waste our lives babysitting these idiots. As if we don't have enough things to do already.<p /> </rant> </p> <p><a href="http://dariosolera.it/email-epic-fail">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://dariosolera.it/email-epic-fail#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DarioSolera/~4/so1_SouEkuU" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1032795/a9ac45db97e1331587c6113f60b80c2f.png http://posterous.com/users/he6XrBS5Zp12y Dario Solera dariosolera Dario Solera http://dariosolera.it/email-epic-fail Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:25:22 -0800 The Lazy Tax http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DarioSolera/~3/E6cOB1NKXXE/the-lazy-tax http://dariosolera.it/the-lazy-tax <p> <a href="http://37signals.com/svn/posts/3063-my-friend-calls-this-the-lazy-tax">The Lazy Tax</a> on 37signal's SVN blog is right to the point. Digitally-delivered goods are often as expensive, or more expensive, than their physical counterpart. Being able to download your purchases off the web, from home, is very convenient. I've personally verified the digital-costs-more-than-physical phenomenon for:<br /> <ul><li>Kindle books (not all of them, let's say 50%, it mostly depends on the novelty of the book, the author and the publisher)</li><li>Videogames</li><li>Music.<br /></li></ul>This is the perfect example of a market whose prices are tied to the demand and are not decided as cost+margin. Surely, bandwidth-intensive digital goods such as videogames, music and movies do have relatively high costs, because letting you download several gigabytes worth of content does not come for free. The cost is probably around 2¢/GB. If you consider that you could download the same item many times, the bandwidth cost becomes significant, and probably not too far from posting a DVD across the world. But yet there is no CD/DVD to manufacture and package, no paper to produce, print, bind and shrink-wrap. Most importantly, digital goods don't have the risk of lying there unsold on the shelf. In the end, producers are making good money, the environment is spared several tons of plastic/paper to produce (and dispose of, at some point), and we're happy because we don't have to rip new CDs just to put the music on our smartphone or digital player. I wouldn't call it a <i>tax</i>. </p> <p><a href="http://dariosolera.it/the-lazy-tax">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://dariosolera.it/the-lazy-tax#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DarioSolera/~4/E6cOB1NKXXE" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1032795/a9ac45db97e1331587c6113f60b80c2f.png http://posterous.com/users/he6XrBS5Zp12y Dario Solera dariosolera Dario Solera http://dariosolera.it/the-lazy-tax Thu, 15 Dec 2011 08:17:14 -0800 Web-induced Attention Deficit Disorder http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DarioSolera/~3/gh0mu-WGfpI/web-induced-attention-deficit-disorder http://dariosolera.it/web-induced-attention-deficit-disorder <p> I am currently subscribed to 103 (mostly technical) blogs and websites via Google Reader. If you think that's insane, then you're right.<p />Truth is, I only read a tiny amount of articles, let's say 5%. Most of the time I just scan for interesting titles, read a few sentences here and there, and then mark everything as read. This is not true for a small subset of blogs, that I actually enjoy reading, but the vast majority of the content is just wasted on me, even when it's about topics I care.<p /> The problem is that blogs, websites and other online news outlets amplify the attention span deficit that lives - and grows - inside everyone of us. There are always things flashing around, links to click, pictures to look at... it's like a luna park with lots of attractions that you cannot miss because they're so shiny!<p /> At some point, I even find myself interested in an article, but end up not reading it because it's too long and I couldn't make it past the first link. You know, TL;DR.<p />This doesn't happen to me with books (I mean novels and such). And I only read books on my Kindle.<p /> I think the key point is that reading on a e-book reader is almost the same as reading a paper book. It doesn't have anything flashing around, there are no links to follow, and pictures are very limited. In other words, a book, either digital or analog, allows you to focus precisely on what you're reading, without distractions. It's just you and the book.<p /> I am not sure that a full-fledged tablet like the Kindle Fire allows to read a book with the same level of focus and the same lack of distractions. There is a browser just a couple taps away. There is email. There are movies, and YouTube. There are Facebook and Twitter. Even ignoring the fact that reading on a LCD screen causes much more fatigue to the eyes than reading on a e-ink device, I strongly believe that if you like reading, then you don't want a tablet with the entire Internet tempting you to lurk around, letting your brain lose - and waste - the concentration level that is so hard to achieve and that only a book can give you. </p> <p><a href="http://dariosolera.it/web-induced-attention-deficit-disorder">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://dariosolera.it/web-induced-attention-deficit-disorder#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DarioSolera/~4/gh0mu-WGfpI" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1032795/a9ac45db97e1331587c6113f60b80c2f.png http://posterous.com/users/he6XrBS5Zp12y Dario Solera dariosolera Dario Solera http://dariosolera.it/web-induced-attention-deficit-disorder Mon, 12 Dec 2011 00:17:00 -0800 Do Developers Care About Windows Azure? http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DarioSolera/~3/Np-5BsCNcUs/do-developers-care-about-windows-azure http://dariosolera.it/do-developers-care-about-windows-azure <p> <p>The 7th edition of the <a href="http://ugialt.net">UGIALT.NET Conference</a> will take place in January. It's a free, independent conference born after the ALT.NET movement, held twice a year usually in Milano and Bologna. It's a very nice thing to have, also because attendees get to vote for the talks they want to attend. This year more than 50 proposals were submitted, for a total of 19 slots available, so that's a huge result by itself.<p /> I submitted my talk proposal on Windows Azure, and more specifically on how to build a simple Google Reader clone on Azure. The project would have allowed to discover all the major features of the platform, so I thought it would have been a nice fit.<p /> To some surprise, my talk was not among the top 19. "OK," I though, "perhaps it was too boring". The problem is that <strong>none of the proposals on Azure were selected</strong>. Of course, they might have been uninteresting, boring, or simply <em>less</em> interesting than the others.<p /> But then you have this:<p /><a href="https://twitter.com/#%21/jamescon/status/146096566363635712"><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="Azuretwitter" height="156" src="http://getfile0.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/dariosolera/NjCRy2SgfLvtWCdGivTQPLV2ZeWZJHhVnKoOEKdPLNzrVRqMESWfwgsyLV7E/AzureTwitter.png" width="325" /> </div> </a><p />How can it be? Is it just that Italian developers don't care about Azure? Or are they already experts? Or, perhaps, is Azure not "ALT" enough? More generally, how can a talk on <a href="http://nodejs.org/">Node.js</a>* be more interesting, let alone useful, than one (not necessarily mine) on Azure? Have conferences become a way to hide ourselves from technical reality and learn things that are not that useful, but are funnier?<p /> Perhaps it's just this one conference that is weird, and it is to some extent because the voting system makes the agenda absolutely incoherent and spotty. I'll keep my eyes open to see if the same Azure-is-boring phenomenon happens at other events in Italy.<p /> *) Remember, <a href="http://teddziuba.com/2011/10/node-js-is-cancer.html">it's fucking JavaScript</a>!</p> </p> <p><a href="http://dariosolera.it/do-developers-care-about-windows-azure">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://dariosolera.it/do-developers-care-about-windows-azure#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DarioSolera/~4/Np-5BsCNcUs" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1032795/a9ac45db97e1331587c6113f60b80c2f.png http://posterous.com/users/he6XrBS5Zp12y Dario Solera dariosolera Dario Solera http://dariosolera.it/do-developers-care-about-windows-azure Thu, 01 Dec 2011 06:17:41 -0800 SaaS = Code + Data? http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DarioSolera/~3/z23xgGhgAAs/saas-code-data http://dariosolera.it/saas-code-data <p> This idea keeps coming back in my head lately. It seems obvious now, but it took me a while to put everything in the right perspective.<p />When you build a SaaS, it all starts with code in a number of programming languages. Over time, the system starts accumulating and crunching data. Before you even notice it, the data becomes part of the application, and it's at least as important as the code itself.<p /> This reasoning actually works on multiple levels.<p />The first is rather obvious: all new versions of the application must be able to read, use and alter all existing data. If you do things properly, this is not really a problem, but actually a result of your development methodologies.<p /> The second level is about how existing data subtly forces you to do A instead of B. To slightly adjust your route (both technical and commercial). To do something not quite in the way you'd like. Existing data is a living, growing entity that you, as a developer, must carry on your shoulders. Again, if you do things properly the weight, while still not being nil, is surely tolerable.<p /> The third level is simple but vital, and gets more important over time: without the data, your application is worth nothing. Everyone focuses on technology, on innovation, on UX, and on marketing. The problem is that once your SaaS has started getting traction, and you're seeing a considerable number of people using it, the value starts shifting from the code to the data the code handles. Should you lose all the data, you'd be dead in no time, however innovative your application is.<p /> This is particularly important for SaaS startups. The typical process that gets advertised so often is this:<br /><ol><li>Build a minimum viable product (MVP)</li><li>Get market validation, possibly adjust your route</li> <li>Get funding precisely because your service/application/whatever is innovative in some way<br /></li><li>Scale</li></ol><p>The point is, once you start scaling, the value shifts gradually from the code to the data. Sure, the data is nothing without the code, and the code works perfectly without the data (typically on your local machine), but from a business perspective the code becomes <i>worthless</i> without data.<br /> </p> </p> <p><a href="http://dariosolera.it/saas-code-data">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://dariosolera.it/saas-code-data#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DarioSolera/~4/z23xgGhgAAs" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1032795/a9ac45db97e1331587c6113f60b80c2f.png http://posterous.com/users/he6XrBS5Zp12y Dario Solera dariosolera Dario Solera http://dariosolera.it/saas-code-data Thu, 17 Nov 2011 23:57:00 -0800 [Note to Self] Running Multiple Skype Accounts At The Same Time http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DarioSolera/~3/m5Xad6pIeIQ/note-to-self-running-multiple-skype-accounts http://dariosolera.it/note-to-self-running-multiple-skype-accounts <p> <p>It's as simple as running another instance of <em>Skype.exe</em> with the <em>/secondary</em> command line, like this:<p /><em>C:\Program Files\Skype\Phone\Skype.exe /secondary<br /><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="Skypex2" height="40" src="http://getfile9.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/dariosolera/NDekAT0M5iKSP4B6cXKvXw13XxF6xPFNygsnfZbY1QJX2KnZkLwjA6OnYVEi/Skypex2.png" width="340" /> </div> </em>The only problem is that there is no way to distinguish between the two instances without opening them.<p />Also, the secondary instance does not seem to start automatically with Windows. I guess you could manually add it to the registry at <em>HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run</em> (copying the existing one and adding <em>/secondary</em>), but even creating a shortcut on the desktop is a viable solution if you only want the second instance to be run on demand.</p> </p> <p><a href="http://dariosolera.it/note-to-self-running-multiple-skype-accounts">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://dariosolera.it/note-to-self-running-multiple-skype-accounts#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DarioSolera/~4/m5Xad6pIeIQ" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1032795/a9ac45db97e1331587c6113f60b80c2f.png http://posterous.com/users/he6XrBS5Zp12y Dario Solera dariosolera Dario Solera http://dariosolera.it/note-to-self-running-multiple-skype-accounts Mon, 14 Nov 2011 05:04:00 -0800 The Right Way To Build Web Apps http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DarioSolera/~3/2f_Boa20nGM/the-right-way-to-build-web-apps http://dariosolera.it/the-right-way-to-build-web-apps <p> <p>A recent <a href="http://www.codeproject.com/Lounge.aspx?msg=4074373#xx4074373xx" target="_blank">thread on Code Project</a> about Silverlight being dead caused somewhat of a heated debate on how and when web applications can replace desktop (or Silverlight in this case) applications.<p /> <a href="http://www.codeproject.com/Lounge.aspx?msg=4074373#xx4074373xx" target="_blank">My answer</a>, in short, was <em>yes, they can</em>, as it always is when this topic comes up (quite often, in case you're wondering). There are a number of counter-arguments you can think of, but the truth is that you can really build complex applications with HTML, CSS and JavaScript. And it's even very simple and streamlined. HTML and CSS enable a level of flexibility that no desktop-like UI framework has ever seen in the history of GUIs. If you add JavaScript and a framework of your choice to the mix, you really have an unprecedented freedom on what you can achieve.<p /> To a big surprise, a reader then sent me an email. To cut a long story short, he asked if there are books that teach you how to build web applications.<p />Like any good developer, I learned most of what I know by doing things and, most importantly, by following experienced fellows via blogs and websites like Code Project. The reader took the time to explain his history, that is mostly in desktop and embedded programming, based on a variety of languages and frameworks. Jeez, he started programming when I was 3. How can't he find his way through web development? I immediately thought there must be something that's blocking his view.<p /> I thought about it over the weekend and I figured it's all about the approach.<p /> The main point in building web applications is to start thinking the right way. You know, ASP.NET WebForms have actually done more harm than good in this respect. The model they promote is completely, deeply and hopelessly wrong. <strong>You can't program a web application as if it was a fucking desktop application.</strong> You're building a skyscraper with shaky foundation, while also hiding your head in the sand and pretending everything's fine.<p /> I used to love WebForms. I've started doing web development with ASP.NET 1.1. It was amazingly similar to WinForms. And amazingly wrong, as I've learned later in my life.<p /> We developers are lazy, most of the time. That's why shiny frameworks that promise to automate boring stuff get great levels of attention. ASP.NET was nothing different. It was an amazing framework that promised to make web development easy even for developers who never did it before. And you know what? It actually worked very well. It delivered on that promise. So instead of finding the right tool for the job (web development), <strong>we actually bent ourselves to fit into ASP.NET</strong>. And before you start arguing, all of you Microsoft haters, this happens all the time to <em>everyone</em>. 99.9% of developers fit into the tools they have at hand and which are often imposed by upper management levels. The remaining 0.1% find themselves in the position to create a new framework because they actually figured out that existing ones are crap. Example: Ruby on Rails. But creating a new web framework is not like flipping a hamburger. It's not for everyone. Unless you're 37signals, you'll have a hard time coming up with something decent, and even if you're 37signals you'll get lots of things wrong.<p /> So it was late 2009 and I've been using ASP.NET for like 3 years. I had built a large web automotive web application, plus <a href="http://www.screwturn.eu" target="_blank">ScrewTurn Wiki</a>, so I could call myself a web developer (or so I thought at least). For reasons that are not important for this writing, I had to bang out some code (which later became <a href="http://amanuens.com" target="_blank">Amanuens</a>) in the shortest time possible. For reasons I don't remember (probably I wanted to experiment with something new), I decided to use ASP.NET MVC.<p /> BOOM! All hell broke loose.<p />After a few hours of complete disorientation, I started to understand why WebForms was completely wrong. And before everyone of you starts saying <em>I told you so</em>, let me explain.<p /> Imagine that it's 2006 and you're good with C#. You have to build a web application. Microsoft has ASP.NET. What would you do? Without even thinking <em>once</em>, you open Visual Studio and start writing code in ASP.NET. It was natural, and actually made sense from a business perspective. It was a good solution for the problem at hand, and let you feel at home when writing event handlers for button clicks. Event handlers! Can you imagine that? It was like free beer!<p /> But of course it all came at a price. Firstly, you had this huge <em>__VIEWSTATE</em> thing. You had tons of auto-generated HTML that would make web designers tear their eyes off and run away screaming. And you still didn't have 100% browser compatibility. All in all, it was a limited success from a technical point of view. But you were happy, because it was easy.<p /> Over the months and years, your brain started to bend, to distort reality, and in the end you actually believed that there was nothing wrong with ASP.NET. It was perfect.<p /> Then suddenly brave souls like Phil Haack, Scott Hanselman and their entourage started advocating this new MVC thing. Well, it was huge. It was a completely new world. It was finally <em>The Right Way</em> to do web development on the Microsoft stack. It took me no more than one hour to wake up from the WebForms dream - or was it a nightmare? - and fully embrace MVC.<p /> Why?<p />Because - and this is the most important thing in web development - <strong>MVC does not try to hide HTTP, HTML, CSS and JavaScript under several layers of abstractions and pretend they don't exists</strong>. MVC embraces the models that make web applications possible, treating them like first-class citizens. Sure, ASP.NET MVC still has lots of abstractions, but they're all good lightweight abstractions. A MVC applications screams <em>The web is not the desktop!</em> with every controller, action and view you write.<p /> So, to answer the reader's question, surely there are books about developing web applications, but first you really have to understand how the web works and most importantly that it's stateless, start from there, and absolutely avoid trying to fit the web in a desktop development model. Then probably any ASP.NET MVC or Ruby on Rails book is more than enough.</p> </p> <p><a href="http://dariosolera.it/the-right-way-to-build-web-apps">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://dariosolera.it/the-right-way-to-build-web-apps#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DarioSolera/~4/2f_Boa20nGM" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1032795/a9ac45db97e1331587c6113f60b80c2f.png http://posterous.com/users/he6XrBS5Zp12y Dario Solera dariosolera Dario Solera http://dariosolera.it/the-right-way-to-build-web-apps Tue, 08 Nov 2011 07:52:59 -0800 Plan For The Worst (Lost/Stolen Laptop) http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DarioSolera/~3/nz6mrDpkoeY/plan-for-the-worst-loststolen-laptop http://dariosolera.it/plan-for-the-worst-loststolen-laptop <p> I must be getting older, as things like this would never have happened to me a few years ago. I lost my laptop at the Heathrow airport. It was not even stolen, I forgot it at the security check. I got distracted by the security officer asking to see my liquid items, and taking a lot of time to check them, that I simply left the laptop in one of the trays. How dumb of me. Anyway, the number of measures I took to prevent someone to hack into it and steal data, in hindsight, have proven at least partly effective.<p /> <b>Pick A Strong Password</b>. This should be obvious, but oftentimes passwords are just plain obvious.<p /><b>Encrypt vital data with TrueCrypt</b> and use a strong pass phrase. A volume encrypted with <a href="http://www.truecrypt.org/" target="_blank">TrueCrypt</a>, provided you use a <i>very</i> strong pass phrase, is virtually immune to any kind of attack that does not make use of quantum computers (just to make it clear: quantum computers <i>do not</i> exist at the time of this writing).<p /> <b>Encrypt other important data with NTFS EFS</b>. NTFS's Encrypting File System is a decent way to prevent Average Joe to dismount your hard drive and peek at your files. Unluckily EFS is not immune to more sophisticated attacks like brute forcing your Windows password, or fiddling with Windows' users database, but it surely prevents the average thief (or lucky finder) to see your data. Of course I assume the NSA is not after you: in such case EFS is no good.<p /> So far so good. What did I miss?<p /><b>Encrypt EVERYTHING else with NTFS EFS, especially your user profile folder</b>. I failed to do this out of laziness I admit. Failing to do allows to easily peek at, for example, your browser open session. I'm not sure how effective that is, because applications are able to copy files from other locations, causing them to be unencrypted. YMMV.<p /> <b>Be aware that Dropbox does not have a remote wipe function</b>. Besides using NTFS EFS on the Dropbox folder as well as its cache folder (which I did), there is no reliable workaround for this problem. You could leverage Selective Sync and create an "evacuation" folder, not synchronized on the laptop, where you put all of your files in case of emergency, causing them to be deleted from the laptop the first time it connects to the Internet.<p /> Now a couple of bonus items.<p /><b>Use a Mac with Bootcamp</b>. The funny thing about Macs running Windows via Bootcamp is that you can't start a Windows setup CD/thumb drive without first configuring Bootcamp from OSX, nor you can easily access the BIOS (or actually EFI). This is another layer of security, although I'm not sure how robust it is. Again, your target is Average Joe.<p /> <b>Use TrueCrypt's full disk encryption</b>. It seems like a very complex process, but it might be worth it. I will surely have a look at it next time.<p />Luckily, the airport Lost Property office collected the notebook and I was able to arrange for a relative to pick it up for me. This time I've been very lucky, but it's now clear to me that Dropbox poses serious security risks. As I mentioned, I discovered when it was too late that no remote wipe exists, so I contacted Dropbox's support to ask if it was possible to move my Premium subscription to another account and delete everything from my current one (so the data would get deleted on the laptop too in case it was booted and connected to the Internet). It took them roughly 48 hours to respond to my request, without actually answering my question and simply suggesting to change password and unlink the lost PC from Dropbox. Luckily they don't run the Heathrow airport...<p /> Bottom line: <b>be <i>quite</i> paranoid</b>. </p> <p><a href="http://dariosolera.it/plan-for-the-worst-loststolen-laptop">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://dariosolera.it/plan-for-the-worst-loststolen-laptop#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DarioSolera/~4/nz6mrDpkoeY" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1032795/a9ac45db97e1331587c6113f60b80c2f.png http://posterous.com/users/he6XrBS5Zp12y Dario Solera dariosolera Dario Solera http://dariosolera.it/plan-for-the-worst-loststolen-laptop Mon, 31 Oct 2011 04:13:04 -0700 Being Responsive http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DarioSolera/~3/ZaWBYJqch0c/being-responsive http://dariosolera.it/being-responsive <p> Ben Yoskovitz <a href="http://www.instigatorblog.com/responsiveness-customer-development/2011/10/27/">writes</a> (emphasis his): <i>"Most customers tolerate bugs. Most customers tolerate products with missing features [...] Most customers tolerate the quirks and hiccups that come with new technology and software. This is true of early adopters, but it’s even true to some degree, of late adopters. Customers can be quite forgiving. <strong>But what they won’t tolerate is being ignored.</strong> Even the feeling or inkling of being ignored can set customers into a rage; and worse, have them looking for alternative solutions to yours."</i><p />My thoughts exactly. </p> <p><a href="http://dariosolera.it/being-responsive">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://dariosolera.it/being-responsive#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DarioSolera/~4/ZaWBYJqch0c" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1032795/a9ac45db97e1331587c6113f60b80c2f.png http://posterous.com/users/he6XrBS5Zp12y Dario Solera dariosolera Dario Solera http://dariosolera.it/being-responsive Fri, 21 Oct 2011 06:31:09 -0700 Android Is the Windows of Mobile Devices - Or Is It? http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DarioSolera/~3/IddQtTDGhuw/android-is-the-windows-of-mobile-devices-or-i http://dariosolera.it/android-is-the-windows-of-mobile-devices-or-i <p> I've had my Android phone for ~14 months now. It's a HTC Desire and it served me quite well. I can say that it really changed how I do certain things, from reading news to moving around.<p />There is a major problem however with Android as an operating system: it's a resource hog. Until the internal storage memory was big enough to hide the problem, Android phones, sooner or later, would hit the 15 MB threshold of minimum free space. Each application you install leaves something hanging around once uninstalled, so it's not really a matter of <i>if</i>, but of <i>when</i> you're going to hit the problem. So to free up some space you uninstall an application or two, trying to ignore the fact that <b>you're only making room for other app's leftovers</b>. The worst part is that when you have less than 15 MB of free storage, your phone stops syncing data and reporting app updates, which makes having a smartphone pointless. Of course this is no longer a problem on newer phones.<p /> Compared to iOS and Windows Phone 7 (yes, WP7), <b>Android is extremely slow</b>. Animations are not fluid, installing an app blocks everything else, so much as if you receive a phone call in that few seconds the phone restarts. And mind you, my phone has a <b>1 GHz processor</b>. One gigahertz! And 576 MB of RAM! How was that thing about flying Apollo to the Moon with the same computing power as a C64?<p /> So obviously the solution <i>must</i> be <b>throwing more hardware at the problem</b>. Android Phones with <b>dual-core 1.5 GHz processors</b> are in stores right now. Fast smartphones for everyone!<p />Oh really!? This is insane.<p /> The point is, Android has become very like Windows. The fact that it's flexible, open and compatible with diverse hardware is its main culprit, because it makes it slow. It's a huge pile of layers over layers over layers of abstraction and bad software design decisions.<p /> The first iPhone was very fast, and it only had a 600 MHz processor and hardly any RAM. Windows Phone 7 is much faster and fluid than any dual-core Android phone, even if its hardware is still single-core 1 GHz.<p /> Android is probably going to die under its own weight - if only because software can grow much faster than hardware. You can only fit so much cores into a handheld device with a finite battery.<p />Despite that, when it will be time to upgrade, my next phone will run Android. The reason is Google Maps, and the tight integration with the other Google services like GMail. It's probably something that will upset EU antitrust sooner or later, yet it's what makes Android a good platform. Not because it's open, not because it's available on a huge number of devices, but because of a handful of killer applications that Google will either not release for other platforms, or will keep them behind in terms of features on platforms other than Android. Remove that, and <b>Android is is worth zero</b>.<p /> Companies are starting to build things on Android, like Amazon's Kindle Fire. Funnily enough, Amazon didn't even mention it's based on Android. The OS has become a commodity and the real value is in what you build on top of it. <b>It's like the pre-Internet era of desktop operating systems.</b> The most concerning aspect is that the entity that really moves Android forward, despite the consortium behind it, is Google. Too bad Google isn't making that much money with Android. Despite the impressive growth in the installed base, <b>mobile ads are just a tiny fraction of Google's ads revenue</b>, and they're hardly covering the costs of development, marketing and management of the entire Android ecosystem. Hardware makers are actually making money, and that's probably why Google acquired Motorola.<p /> So the point is, <b>does it make sense for Google to keep working on Android</b> without forcing themselves to be yet another smartphone maker? After all, Microsoft makes more profits selling Windows licenses than what they would make by directly printing Dollars, and they never even imagined building hardware or acquiring hardware companies. </p> <p><a href="http://dariosolera.it/android-is-the-windows-of-mobile-devices-or-i">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://dariosolera.it/android-is-the-windows-of-mobile-devices-or-i#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DarioSolera/~4/IddQtTDGhuw" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1032795/a9ac45db97e1331587c6113f60b80c2f.png http://posterous.com/users/he6XrBS5Zp12y Dario Solera dariosolera Dario Solera http://dariosolera.it/android-is-the-windows-of-mobile-devices-or-i Fri, 14 Oct 2011 06:52:24 -0700 Azure Table Storage Performance Considerations http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DarioSolera/~3/ifB2EAOsqks/azure-table-storage-performance-consideration http://dariosolera.it/azure-table-storage-performance-consideration <p> <i>I'm going to keep my tech-oriented posts away from here.</i><br /><p>"I started working with Windows Azure in late 2009, when it wasn’t even RTM. It took a good deal of effort to become good at understanding Azure storage usage paradigms and how to get the best performance."</p>Read the full post on <a href="http://codebetter.com/dariosolera/2011/10/14/azure-table-storage-performace-considerations/">CodeBetter.com</a>. </p> <p><a href="http://dariosolera.it/azure-table-storage-performance-consideration">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://dariosolera.it/azure-table-storage-performance-consideration#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DarioSolera/~4/ifB2EAOsqks" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1032795/a9ac45db97e1331587c6113f60b80c2f.png http://posterous.com/users/he6XrBS5Zp12y Dario Solera dariosolera Dario Solera http://dariosolera.it/azure-table-storage-performance-consideration Thu, 06 Oct 2011 00:47:29 -0700 RIP Steve Jobs http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DarioSolera/~3/O1kKG1JK5T0/rip-steve-jobs http://dariosolera.it/rip-steve-jobs <p> We'll all miss him - especially Apple I guess, but I would bet that Bill Gates is also deeply sorry.<p />The very weird aspect of this event is that it reminds us how mass IT is a young industry. You figure this if you think that the vast majority of the people who invented consumer electronics and software are still alive - and many are still very young.<p /> That simple fact makes Steve Jobs death even more sad - as it's something totally unexpected. </p> <p><a href="http://dariosolera.it/rip-steve-jobs">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://dariosolera.it/rip-steve-jobs#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DarioSolera/~4/O1kKG1JK5T0" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1032795/a9ac45db97e1331587c6113f60b80c2f.png http://posterous.com/users/he6XrBS5Zp12y Dario Solera dariosolera Dario Solera http://dariosolera.it/rip-steve-jobs Thu, 22 Sep 2011 11:34:22 -0700 News Oblivion http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DarioSolera/~3/Cqc08Hkt4-0/news-oblivion http://dariosolera.it/news-oblivion <p> <p>If you feel like you can't keep up with what happens around you, you're not alone.</p> <p>If you feel that most of the tweets on your stream are obscure to you, you're not alone.</p> <p>If you didn't know about a great conference everyone is talking about, you're not alone.</p> <p>If you miss lots of industry announcements and feel dumb when the news hit you, weeks later, you're not alone.</p> <p>You're not alone, and you're actually in good company. You are missing lots of stuff because you're working hard. Because you're building something new, something that somebody will be talking about, someday.</p> <p>You are building your own future, your own news announcement.</p> <p>You're on the right track.</p> <p></seth-godin-mode></p> </p> <p><a href="http://dariosolera.it/news-oblivion">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://dariosolera.it/news-oblivion#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DarioSolera/~4/Cqc08Hkt4-0" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1032795/a9ac45db97e1331587c6113f60b80c2f.png http://posterous.com/users/he6XrBS5Zp12y Dario Solera dariosolera Dario Solera http://dariosolera.it/news-oblivion Sun, 18 Sep 2011 09:22:02 -0700 Forums Are Dead http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DarioSolera/~3/Q_NjEmy_kaI/forums-are-dead http://dariosolera.it/forums-are-dead <p> I came to the conclusion that forums (or <i>fora</i>) are not a good way to provide customer support. They are perhaps a good way to engage the community, but not to provide support. Put it simply, they lack proper team features. You keep seeing threads as new even if someone else on your team has already responded.<p /> In the end, it's a giant waste of time, not only because you have to mark as "read" several threads without even bother to read them, but also because it becomes extremely hard to find existing questions and answers.<p /> A <a href="http://stackexchange.com/">Stack Exchange</a> approach would be good I guess, and there are open source projects that already use <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/">Stack Overflow</a> as their only Q/A place. Sure, there are no "general" or "off-topic" discussions, but that's a pro, not a con. It's the only way to keep a high signal-to-noise ratio.<p /> Spam is another huge problem. We are seeing few automated spam lately, but more elaborate, human-driven messages containing just enough unique content to instill in you the doubt that the post is legit and that it's simply a clueless individual who posted it. Well, it turns out it's not the case. I mean, we get dozen of such messages each week, I just can't believe humanity has gotten so bad in so few time. </p> <p><a href="http://dariosolera.it/forums-are-dead">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://dariosolera.it/forums-are-dead#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DarioSolera/~4/Q_NjEmy_kaI" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1032795/a9ac45db97e1331587c6113f60b80c2f.png http://posterous.com/users/he6XrBS5Zp12y Dario Solera dariosolera Dario Solera http://dariosolera.it/forums-are-dead Sat, 10 Sep 2011 02:06:38 -0700 The Software Localization Paradox http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DarioSolera/~3/TvIk2SwXSw0/the-software-localization-paradox http://dariosolera.it/the-software-localization-paradox <p> A few days ago I stumbled upon (funny how I don't remember how - was it Twitter? was it someone else's blog?) an <a href="http://aharoni.wordpress.com/2011/08/24/the-software-localization-paradox/">interesting blog post</a> about software localization, which is incidentally my company's business. This is the most important passage (emphasis mine):<p /> <i>"So this is the paradox – to fix localization bugs, someone must notice them, and to notice them, more people who know English must use localized software, but people who know English rarely use localized software. [...] Even people who know English well should use software in their language – not to boost their national pride, but to help the people who speak that language and don’t know English. They should use the software <b>especially if it’s translated badly</b>, because they are the only ones who can report bugs in the translation or fix the bugs themselves."</i><p /> You can't imagine how that is close to reality.<p />For a starter, my three main PCs have Windows 7 and all software in English. My Android phone is set to use English as main UI language. The problem is, I am Italian but I just can't stand software in my language. It just feels weird. Moreover as a developer I often have to lookup error message on the Internet to solve problems and bugs in the software I write. It is way easier to find information in English than in any other language (well, except Chinese perhaps).<p /> I am sure that this happens for everyone involved in the software industry. <b>We just don't care about localization</b>. The worst part of this is that even companies deeply involved in software localization don't care the least. Try to find one software localization platform vendor with a multi-language website. You'll find very few, if any.<p /> Translation agencies and vendors are different. They do care, but they're linguists, not technologists, so that must be the difference. They love language like we love software, and they mostly ignore software like we mostly ignore language.<p /> So we are working to build a tool that helps to do something we don't care much about. Well, this actually happens all the time in all industries, but it makes you feel a bit guilty when you realize that you're doing the same. </p> <p><a href="http://dariosolera.it/the-software-localization-paradox">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://dariosolera.it/the-software-localization-paradox#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DarioSolera/~4/TvIk2SwXSw0" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1032795/a9ac45db97e1331587c6113f60b80c2f.png http://posterous.com/users/he6XrBS5Zp12y Dario Solera dariosolera Dario Solera http://dariosolera.it/the-software-localization-paradox Tue, 30 Aug 2011 08:28:15 -0700 Microsoft WebMatrix: Epic Fail http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DarioSolera/~3/LVNwfgvCYIw/microsoft-webmatrix-epic-fail http://dariosolera.it/microsoft-webmatrix-epic-fail <p> <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/web/webmatrix/" target="_blank">Microsoft WebMatrix</a> is a platform that allows you to easily install and customize web applications running on your server. It's mostly a superset of the Web Platform Installer (WebPI) and includes tools like an editor for HTML and <a href="http://ASP.NET">ASP.NET</a> files and a utility to deploy to remote servers.<p /> <div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/dariosolera/sr8Sey1di2eualFVzIQC1Z75rRseIBFkRvChVCLmSeonJa09AjNaZlL4TduB/WebMatrix.png"><img alt="Webmatrix" height="335" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/dariosolera/XpoxEWQSPTIVBoavWv7sdknLlC5J1Ife78272C7aKv07bMDcu20hBCbo3P5W/WebMatrix.png.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> <p /> The main point of WebMatrix is that it's connected to a library of web applications (called the <i>Web Application Gallery</i>) so you can easily install them from one central place. The tool <b>downloads and installs dependencies automatically</b>, which is very cool because no one wants to go hunting the right version of a library or database server or whatever, right?<p /> The problem is, the whole thing might look good for end-users, but is a mess for developers. <a href="http://www.screwturn.eu" target="_blank">ScrewTurn Wiki</a> is available on WebMatrix/WebPI since the very first release of the tool in 2009, too bad we haven't been able to update it to the newest version in <b>6 weeks</b> now. The process for submitting an update looks like this:<br /> <ol style="font-family: verdana,sans-serif;"><li>You build a package according to the documentation, which is entirely about WebPI and makes no mention whatsoever of WebMatrix - they're perfectly compatible they say.</li> <li>You place the package somewhere on the Internet.</li><li>You update the package URL and checksum on the Microsoft.com/web control panel and then wait for approval.</li><li>Someone in the testing team at Microsoft discovers a problem with the package - something that doesn't work right in a specific WebMatrix scenario you didn't even know about.</li> <li>You respond you can't really understand where the problem is and ask for clarifications and then wait.</li><li>There's no step 6. You'll wait forever.</li></ol><span style="font-family: verdana,sans-serif;">Insane.</span><p /> <span style="font-family: verdana,sans-serif;">But wait, there's more! ScrewTurn Wiki supports multiple storage engines, namely a file-based engine and a SQL Server-based one. We used to have a package that allowed to chose which engine to use during the installation. At the time the WebPI tool insisted in downloading SQL Server Express even if the user chose not to use it, and even if there was SQL Server Standard/Enterprise installed already. But that's not the point. One day, some 6 months ago, the file-based option simply disappeared for no apparent reason, without us modifying our package at all. The MS team responded it was an error on their side and that they would fix the issue in a few days. Well, <b>we're still waiting for the fix</b>.</span><p /> <span style="font-family: verdana,sans-serif;">I never wanted to dig deeper in the details of the whole thing as our goal is building a great wiki application, not fighting with this kind of issues. Interestingly, the Web Application Gallery only has a few dozen applications, which are certainly not updated more than a few times a month (or year), and the only reason it takes so much time to get approved must be that the testing team is understaffed and/or inexperienced and/or incompetent. I can't imagine spending more than a few hours to test an application with the help of a few pre-configured virtual machines. I'm also quite sure that it would be possible to script the entire testing procedure and execute it in a matter of minutes.</span><p /> <b style="font-family: verdana,sans-serif;">The Big Picture (Sort Of</b><b style="font-family: verdana,sans-serif;">)</b><p /> <span style="font-family: verdana,sans-serif;">The only reason why developers want their web applications in WebMatrix/WebPI is </span><b style="font-family: verdana,sans-serif;">visibility</b><span style="font-family: verdana,sans-serif;">. This is fine, it makes sense. It's the same reason why in the end we're not giving up on WebMatrix, also because we're in constant contact with people in Microsoft whose sole goal is making the .NET web ecosystem a better place. But a small dose of constructive criticism is always good.</span><p /> <span style="font-family: verdana,sans-serif;">It turns out, sysadmins don't really like WebPI for the very reason it installs a boatload of stuff that's not needed.<p /> When something went wrong with a ScrewTurn Wiki installation, I used to suggest WebPI as the </span><i style="font-family: verdana,sans-serif;">Magic Tool That Would Configure Everything Automatically (TM)</i><span style="font-family: verdana,sans-serif;">. No one really liked this suggestion for the very reason it </span><b style="font-family: verdana,sans-serif;">reduces control on what is being installed</b><span style="font-family: verdana,sans-serif;">, and that's fatal for an admin's heart.</span><p /> <span style="font-family: verdana,sans-serif;">WebMatrix is purposely built to allow end-users to modify application files. There are countless reasons why this is a very bad idea, but I'll mention only a couple:</span><br style="font-family: verdana,sans-serif;" /> <ol style="font-family: verdana,sans-serif;"><li>End-users have no idea about what they're doing and there's a high chance of <b>breaking something</b>.</li><li><b>Upgrading</b> to a new version is very hard as end-users have to <b>manually re-apply all the changes to the new version</b>.</li> </ol><span style="font-family: verdana,sans-serif;">So the idea behind WebMatrix is <b>flawed</b> either at its roots (for allowing direct editing of application files) or in its implementation (for not providing a way to upgrade modified application files).</span><p /> <span style="font-family: verdana,sans-serif;">Another problem is that WebMatrix is </span><b style="font-family: verdana,sans-serif;">trying to hide complexity</b><span style="font-family: verdana,sans-serif;"> that is still be there after deploying your favorite application. It's not uncommon that a WebPI deployment of ScrewTurn Wiki fails due to some exotic server configuration. Installing and administering a web application is not a trivial task and should not be done without some experience. The result of this is people asking help because the application displays a <i>Yellow Screen of Death</i>, without the least idea on what it means or how to investigate the problem. Remember, web applications are complex and are usually not meant to be installed by end-users, but rather by server administrators.</span><p /> <div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/dariosolera/uAxx7zahroVOWwUWCdUX6dmcJCeoD2EU7mPDmv7gr22qHDqNGbT9FP30mv64/YSOD.png"><img alt="Ysod" height="250" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/dariosolera/heU4xIHmlBdQBPsNUye5CvIf8k730Mn5IjvyI0g5N3GURZedZ56n8eLXAVAn/YSOD.png.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> <p /> <b style="font-family: verdana,sans-serif;">Good Idea, Mediocre Implementation</b><p /><span style="font-family: verdana,sans-serif;">Microsoft's goal behind WebMatrix, WebPI and the Web Application Gallery is simple: </span><b style="font-family: verdana,sans-serif;">increasing adoption of Windows Server and .NET</b><span style="font-family: verdana,sans-serif;">. The story behind it is also simple: make users and developers happy by providing a way to install web applications easily so they can be used immediately.</span><p /> <span style="font-family: verdana,sans-serif;">I have the strong impression that if you are experienced enough to know what are a web application and a web server, and specifically IIS, then installing one the good old way is not a big deal - quite the contrary, it even feels better for many (let alone the fact that installing is not the problem, but rather upgrading to new versions - problem that is not resolved by WebMatrix/WebPI). Thus we must conclude that WebMatrix/WebPI is aimed at people who don't really know about installing and configuring web applications.<p /> Question: wouldn't they be much happier with a hosted service?</span><p /> <span style="font-family: verdana,sans-serif;">I think so. Even for developers like me, hosting a blog is a bit of a hassle, and in fact this one is hosted at Posterous, at least for now.</span><p /> <span style="font-family: verdana,sans-serif;">I'm not sure if it's official or not, but as a matter of fact Microsoft is working with web hosting companies to provide </span><b style="font-family: verdana,sans-serif;">hosted versions of web applications</b><span style="font-family: verdana,sans-serif;"> to end-users. This is done with WebPI-like tools (MSDeploy), that are transparent to end-users and, given a </span><b style="font-family: verdana,sans-serif;">controlled environment</b><span style="font-family: verdana,sans-serif;">, are extremely robust and reliable and would give access always to the newest version of the application. I believe this is the correct route: <b>making web applications available to end-users directly at their favorite host</b> or, even better, on Windows Azure. Wouldn't it be great if there was a way to insert your credit card number and then get ScrewTurn Wiki up and running in a few seconds on a highly-scalable and reliable cloud platform? That's my dream.</span><p /> <span style="font-family: verdana,sans-serif;">Microsoft had an interesting idea with all this WebPI/WebMatrix stuff. It is tackling real issues about installing web applications, but I'm afraid that few are paying attention and the many problems of both the approach and the implementation aren't helping. The brand new </span><a href="http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/lightswitch" target="_blank" style="font-family: verdana,sans-serif;">Visual Studio LightSwitch</a><span style="font-family: verdana,sans-serif;"> is somewhat similar to WebMatrix: it's very interesting on paper, but </span><a href="http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2011/07/visual-studio-lightswitch-hits-the-market-but-misses-its-markets.ars" target="_blank" style="font-family: verdana,sans-serif;">no one cares</a><span style="font-family: verdana,sans-serif;">.</span> </p> <p><a href="http://dariosolera.it/microsoft-webmatrix-epic-fail">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://dariosolera.it/microsoft-webmatrix-epic-fail#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DarioSolera/~4/LVNwfgvCYIw" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1032795/a9ac45db97e1331587c6113f60b80c2f.png http://posterous.com/users/he6XrBS5Zp12y Dario Solera dariosolera Dario Solera http://dariosolera.it/microsoft-webmatrix-epic-fail Sat, 13 Aug 2011 01:40:15 -0700 Thoughts On The Bitcoin Phenomenon http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DarioSolera/~3/99IDfCfG_VI/thoughts-on-the-bitcoin-phenomenon http://dariosolera.it/thoughts-on-the-bitcoin-phenomenon <p> I've read <a href="http://vermorel.com/journal/2011/8/3/bitcoin-thoughts-on-a-nascent-currency-system.html" target="_blank">Joannes' post</a> and I admit that I'm intrigued by the concept of virtual currency - or actually crypto-currency. If you've never heard of <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/" target="_blank">Bitcoins</a>, I'll explain them briefly.<p /> In short, Bitcoins are a form of virtual currency and exchange system based on a distributed (P2P) network of computers running a small piece of open-source software. The key point is that there is no central authority and transactions are validated by peers in the network. Bitcoins are generated with a method called <i>mining</i>, which basically consists in consuming computing power to "discover" new blocks of the cryptography chain that keeps the network secure (this is vastly oversimplified). When you discover a new block, you are awarded an amount of Bitcoins, plus all transactions that are later processed using that block grant you a processing fee (very much like credit cards). The entire system ensures by design that there cannot be more than roughly 21 millions Bitcoins (to avoid inflation and favor deflation). Currently, about 6.5 millions have been mined. You can also purchase Bitcoins for real money (USD, EUR, etc.) via brokers/traders/exchanges. Bitcoins are "stored" in digital wallets. At the current state of a system, such wallet is nothing more than a file on your hard disk. The system's cryptography and hashing algorithms ensure (theoretically) that it's not possible to forge money because no other peers in the network know about its existence and thus cannot approve any transaction regarding it.<p /> <div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="Bitcoinlogo" height="63" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/dariosolera/ukPD40r2GViX9MWpS5S8H0vmYwlEu0LJ3JjlYyyGC157VsGLiJryHooPQaZm/BitcoinLogo.png" width="300" /> </div> <p />As Joannes already pointed out in his post, Bitcoins have raised a variety of reactions but they seem to somewhat gain momentum. My initial reaction has been something like "Wow, cool, how does this work?". Then reality kicked in and I've spent some time learning the details of this new new thing.<p /> <a href="http://falkvinge.net/2011/05/29/why-im-putting-all-my-savings-into-bitcoin/" target="_blank">Why I'm Putting All My Savings Into Bitcoin</a> by Rick Falkvinge describes how the virtual currency <b>value has improved 100,000% in 14 months</b>. The guy allegedly invested all his savings into Bitcoin currency in the hope to cash it out later and make profit (in real dollars). Funnily enough, this has nothing to do with Bitcoins being a currency used to trade goods and services, but rather working just as <b>financial speculation</b> means. Nothing new here.<p /> <a href="http://tav.espians.com/why-bitcoin-will-fail-as-a-currency.html" target="_blank">Why Bitcoin Will Fail As A Currency</a> by a guy known as Tav, whose real name is too long and complex to write (his own words). Pretty superficial analysis that gets to the point: the system itself is created to favor deflation, meaning that at a certain point, 0.01 Bitcoins will be worth thousands of Euros, which makes the currency <b>impractical</b> to use (very much like banknotes with 1,000,000,000 printed on them in some African Countries subject to hyperinflation). Before switching to EUR, in Italy we had notes valued at £500,000 (worth €258.23). That was really funny.<p /> <a href="http://www.links.org/" target="_blank">Links.org</a> by Ben Laurie reports a number of potential flaws and inefficiencies in the cryptography system used by the network. Mostly technical, but the key aspect in my opinion is that to mine all the 21 millions Bitcoins, we're using computing power, that is energy, that is mostly <b>non-renewable resources</b> like oil and coal. The funny thing is that as more Bitcoins are mined, the network will make it harder to mine for more, actually requiring more computing power. This makes the system resilient to people or organizations that want to get all the money, but it becomes actually a giant waste of precious resources. I couldn't agree more, as after all we're just moving bits around for no good reason (well, if you don't consider financial speculation).<p /> An anonymous individual (did I mention <a href="http://dariosolera.it/on-the-importance-of-real-identities-on-the-i">I don't like nicknames</a>?) keeps <a href="http://amincd.tumblr.com/" target="_blank">a blog</a> and posts arguments in favor of Bitcoins. Some of them go beyond my comprehension but are interesting to read as counter-arguments presented in other places.<p /> Last but not least, <a href="http://apenwarr.ca/log/?m=201105#08" target="_blank">Why bitcoin will fail</a> by Avery Pennarun is a very funny but practical analysis of why, allegedly, Bitcoin will fail as a currency. Trust me, it's very funny and worth reading. Key take-away point: Governments will squash it.<p /> It turns out there is a <a href="https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Trade" target="_blank">large number of websites and real online businesses</a> accepting Bitcoins for payments. I'm impressed (for real).<p />I don't have the knowledge nor expertise to judge the system economically and financially, but I'm tending to believe that this thing cannot work in the long run.<p /> Leaving out all my thoughts about actual usability, security and perceived trust in the system by actual users, there is one main show-stopper in my opinion, already pointed out by Avery Pennarun: <b>Governments will outlaw it</b>. The very nature of the P2P distributed infrastructure makes it impossible to know what's happening inside it. It's impossible to track transactions back to individuals or businesses, as each of them simply has one ore more alphanumeric identifiers. As an example, in Italy it's already forbidden to pay something cash over a certain amount (€5,000 IIRC) for the very purpose of tracking money, know who should pay taxes and find suspect and illegal activities. That limit is going to be lowered further over time. Freelancers, in certain business areas, cannot accept cash payments over €250. Everything must be traceable. <b>This an actual law, already existing and enforced in a EU Country</b>. I'm not sure, but I guess similar regulations are present in most EU Countries and probably USA and Canada. For what I understand, and to avoid problems, I wouldn't even think about accepting Bitcoins payments, either as an individual or for my company. It's just too problematic, and frankly (so far) EUR has proven to be pretty strong a currency...<p /> One major strength in the distributed nature of the currency is that Governments cannot physically shut it down, meaning that, whatever means Governments will find to block the protocol in a certain geographical area, the global network will still be working happily. This very fact is likely to get attention itself and cause trouble. Governments are scared of social networks and a distributed, non-traceable network for exchanging money will drive them nuts. The fact that you can still use Bitcoins even if your Country outlawed them makes you nothing more than a criminal in the authorities' eyes. Will it be worth the risk?<p /> That said, it's so crazy it might even work. </p> <p><a href="http://dariosolera.it/thoughts-on-the-bitcoin-phenomenon">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://dariosolera.it/thoughts-on-the-bitcoin-phenomenon#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DarioSolera/~4/99IDfCfG_VI" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1032795/a9ac45db97e1331587c6113f60b80c2f.png http://posterous.com/users/he6XrBS5Zp12y Dario Solera dariosolera Dario Solera http://dariosolera.it/thoughts-on-the-bitcoin-phenomenon