Recycle

Randy Pausch's Last lecture

Bahadir Cambel — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 23:38:32 GMT

I think , watching this video which is 1 hour 16 minutes long , might be the best spent hour in my life time. It was also karma to bring me this video for the second time and I regret myself that, I quit watching the video on the first time. But at least , at the end of the day , I did watch it, and I am really glad!

Randy Pausch was a Professor at Carnie Mellon University. If you noticed , I said , he was , he passed away last year because of cancer.

As far as I read , he added some significant value to the people who had around him. But with this video , he already reached 8+ million viewers in YouTube so far ,plus with an amazing amount of comments also ( 8,040 ). I don't mean , you should watch it , because 8 million people watched it , you should watch because , there is a summary of an amazing life within an hour.

Thanks Randy for your last lecture !

Top 100 by Jurgen Appelo

Bahadir Cambel — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 10:48:20 GMT

Jurgen has researched a couple of Top 100 things about books and blogs , which is very nice to see. I guess he put quite some effort to prepare these lists ;

Here are the links ;

Thanks Jurgen!

Part 2 from Founders at work : Hotmail - Sabeer Bhatia

Bahadir Cambel — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 01:12:22 GMT

I did able to finish part 2 , but I think , I am not going to write much about that . I kinda got bored about the story. It wasn't that muc existing as it was for Paypal.

He was working in the Apple and by somehow , found himself writing a web-based email system. Within 20 months , the Hotmail was acquired by Microsoft at a price of $400 million. It was more like a I did this , they did that story. Not that much to talk about. Sorry Sabeer!. But I will re-evaluate my thoughts and text one more , I might update my comments also :)

Part 1 from Founders at work : Paypal - Max Levchin

Bahadir Cambel — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 00:17:15 GMT

Wow , pages have flown pretty quickly. Already finished 16 pages , and read the story behind the paypal and the guy behind it ; MAX LEVCHIN

He started with cryptography and wrote some software packages into Palm Pilot ,and started the business around that. Afterwards , they did able to raise fund around the Silicon Valley VC's. Although they have changed their business plan 6 times ,the last one was the PayPal. The most story was around the fraud thing , and how the other web payment companies had been smashed by the fraud loses. Max spent most of his time around the fraud detection algorithm IGOR. What he experienced , is just the fact that , you don't know first , you got slapped by somehow , and you try to solve the problem.

The basic idea behind the success is , try to figure out problems before it kills the company and fix it by somehow ( like sleepless 5 days , not having a good sleeps for 4 years) When you read the story , you can easily realize, the patience that put into the business ,and the commitment to their selves and the business, really paid of after the eBay acquired PayPal $1.5 billion. Solve the big 'fraud' thing , extend hyper active business through the years ( exponential growth of transactions and user requests ).

One of his suggestion was , get a good partner on startup and play back to back.

Max is also founder of the slide.com and the chairman of yelp.com
For more information about Max , you might also check the wikipedia page of him

Some remarks from wikipedia ;
PayPal went public in February 2002, and was subsequently acquired by eBay. Levchin's 2.3% stake in PayPal was worth approximately $34 million at the time of the acquisition.^[1] He is primarily known for his contributions to PayPal's anti-fraud efforts^[2] and is also the co-creator of the Gausebeck-Levchin test, one of the first commercial implementations of a CAPTCHA.

Founders at Work: Stories of Startups’ Early Days

Bahadir Cambel — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 22:47:58 GMT

This book has been written by Jessica Livingston in 2007. I decided to give it a change. I also put a deadline to myself , otherwise it takes more time then it actually should. I will also try to write down some notes, thus I can summarize what I have read , and what things are going to be triggered afterward.

My deadline is 7th of December, so I have 2 weeks to finish it up.

Some quotes from the book ( copied from author's website, I hope she doesn't mind ) ;

2000 was basically the year of fraud, where we were just losing more and more money every month. At one point we were losing over $10 million per month in fraud. It was crazy.

—Max Levchin, founder of PayPal, page 6

All the best things that I did at Apple came from (a) not having money and (b) not having done it before, ever. Every single thing that we came out with that was really great, I'd never once done that thing in my life.

—Steve Wozniak, founder of Apple, page 36

Microsoft made a buyout offer for Excite in late '95, and even then I had Microsoft's CTO, Nathan Myhrvold, yelling at me, "Search is not a business. People are just going to search a few times and then bookmark what they want to go to."

—Joe Kraus, founder of Excite, page 68

I originally had my parents moderating, since they were retired, and after a few days I asked my dad how it was going. He said, "Oh, it's very interesting. Mom saw a picture of a guy and a girl and another girl, and they were doing..." So I told Jim, "Dude, my parents can't do this anymore. They're looking at porn all day."

—James Hong, founder of HotOrNot, page 380

The wisdow of the flying pig , Management and leadership thoughts from Jack Hayhow

Bahadir Cambel — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 22:17:14 GMT

I don't remember exactly how , but I found a great book about management and leader , which is full of great saying from all around the world. One of the nicest thing of the book , if you register yourself to the website , you can download the free copy of the keynot when you use the promotion code L8N1B . This promotion code has been published by Leading Blog

Click here to go Jack Hayhow's web site and download the ebook.

One of the things that I found amazing is the how the text placed in the book. It is easy to read , understand and think. The characters are also nice within the book.

Just started with pragmatism

BahadirCambel — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 18:27:18 GMT

Back in couple of years ago , I remember , somebody told me , you've got brain killed by programming when you've reached your thirties.I though that time, I should run out of programming as soon as possible. Well , I kinda run out already, but from my current point of view , the real programming starts at 30ies. It is not the programming that kills you ,it is the business that makes you got brain killed! It is a challenging job , but it also requires the good understanding of the processes and people rather than the tools. It is so important to understand your busines, if you want to be pragmatic and pragmatic

How to write your own operating system using Visual studio .NET and C# , meet Cosmos

Bahadir Cambel — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 08:58:47 GMT

Do not re-invent the wheel , is a commonly used saying to express not to repeat that has been already done , but I bet , writing an operation system in your favourite language ( if this is the case for you ) might be fun!

The whole idea is to make it as simple as possible ( hmm Vista is also simple , right , when you think about 50.000.000 Lines of production code , and you need to click Yes , agree , approve , deny 23423432 times / day )

Thus , take a look at the code project article Cosmos , and also the CodePlex website of the project.

Brute Force Debugging

BahadirCambel — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 23:40:19 GMT

Perform a full design and/or code review on the broken code
Throw away the section of code and redesign/recode it from scratch
Throw away the whole program and redesign/recode it from scratch
Compile code with full debugging information
Compile code at pickiest warning level and fix all the picky compiler warnings
Strap on a unit test harness and test the new code in isolation
Create an automated test suite and run it all night
Step through a big loop in the debugger manually until you get to the error condition
Instrument the code with print, display, or other logging statements
Replicate the end-user’s full machine configuration
Integrate new code in small pieces, fully testing each piece as its integrated

from book Codecomplete

Quotations about Computer Programming

BahadirCambel — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 23:15:08 GMT

Few companies that installed computers to reduce the employment of clerks have realized their expectations.... They now need more, and more expensive clerks even though they call them "operators" or "programmers." ~Peter F. Drucker

Programmer - an organism that turns coffee into software. ~Author Unknown

Programming is like sex. One mistake and you have to support it for the rest of your life. ~Michael Sinz

All programmers are playwrights and all computers are lousy actors. ~Author Unknown

Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code will be a violent psychopath who knows where you live. ~Martin Golding

Everyone knows that debugging is twice as hard as writing a program in the first place. So if you are as clever as you can be when you write it, how will you ever debug it? ~Brian Kernighan

Sometimes it pays to stay in bed in Monday, rather than spending the rest of the week debugging Monday's code. ~Dan Salomon

[A]nd then it occurred to me that a computer is a stupid machine with the ability to do incredibly smart things, while computer programmers are smart people with the ability to do incredibly stupid things. They are, in short, a perfect match. ~Bill Bryson

Another effective technique is to explain your code to someone else. This will often cause you to explain the bug to yourself. Sometimes it takes no more than a few sentences, followed by an embarrassed "Never mind, I see what's wrong. Sorry to bother you." This works remarkably well; you can even use non-programmers as listeners. One university computer center kept a teddy bear near the help desk. Students with mysterious bugs were required to explain them to the bear before they could speak to a human counselor. ~Brian Kernighan and Rob Pike, about debugging

A good programmer is someone who always looks both ways before crossing a one-way street. ~Doug Linder

All programmers are optimists. Perhaps this modern sorcery especially attracts those who believe in happy endings and fairy godmothers. Perhaps the hundreds of nitty frustrations drive away all but those who habitually focus on the end goal. Perhaps it is merely that computers are young, programmers are younger, and the young are always optimists. ~Frederick Brooks, Jr.

Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand. ~Martin Fowler

Any sufficiently advanced bug is indistinguishable from a feature. ~Rich Kulawiec

Beta. Software undergoes beta testing shortly before it's released. Beta is Latin for "still doesn't work." ~Author Unknown

Controlling complexity is the essence of computer programming. ~Brian Kernighan

Don't argue with people who write with digital ink and pay by the kilowatt-hour. ~Don Rittner

From a programmer's point of view, the user is a peripheral that types when you issue a read request. ~Peter Williams

At Group L, Stoffel oversees six first-rate programmers, a managerial challenge roughly equivalent to herding cats. ~The Washington Post Magazine, 9 June 1985

It's not a bug - it's an undocumented feature. ~Author Unknown

Version 1 of any software is full of bugs. Version 2 fixes all the bugs and is great. Version 3 adds all the things users ask for, but hides all the great stuff in Version 2. ~Fred Blechman

Writing the first 90 percent of a computer program takes 90 percent of the time. The remaining ten percent also takes 90 percent of the time and the final touches also take 90 percent of the time. ~N.J. Rubenking

Good code is its own best documentation. As you're about to add a comment, ask yourself, "How can I improve the code so that this comment isn't needed?" ~Steve McConnell

Great software, likewise, requires a fanatical devotion to beauty. If you look inside good software, you find that parts no one is ever supposed to see are beautiful too. I'm not claiming I write great software, but I know that when it comes to code I behave in a way that would make me eligible for prescription drugs if I approached everyday life the same way. It drives me crazy to see code that's badly indented, or that uses ugly variable names. ~Paul Graham, "Hackers and Painters," 2003

I really hate this darn machine;
I wish that they would sell it.
It won't do what I want it to,
but only what I tell it.
~Author Unknown

He who hasn't hacked assembly language as a youth has no heart. He who does so as an adult has no brain. ~John Moore

If debugging is the process of removing bugs, then programming must be the process of putting them in. ~Author Unknown

If you cannot grok the overall structure of a program while taking a shower, e.g., with no external memory aids, you are not ready to code it. ~Richard Pattis

It should be noted that no ethically-trained software engineer would ever consent to write a DestroyBaghdad procedure. Basic professional ethics would instead require him to write a DestroyCity procedure, to which Baghdad could be given as a parameter. ~Nathaniel S. Borenstein

It's easy to cry "bug" when the truth is that you've got a complex system and sometimes it takes a while to get all the components to co-exist peacefully. ~Doug Vargas

It's okay to figure out murder mysteries, but you shouldn't need to figure out code. You should be able to read it. ~Steve McConnell

It's the only job I can think of where I get to be both an engineer and an artist. There's an incredible, rigorous, technical element to it, which I like because you have to do very precise thinking. On the other hand, it has a wildly creative side where the boundaries of imagination are the only real limitation. ~Andy Hertzfeld, about programming

We should forget about small efficiencies, say about 97% of the time: premature optimization is the root of all evil. ~C.A.R. Hoare, quoted by Donald Knuth

Programming is like sex. One mistake and you have to support it for the rest of your life. ~Michael Sinz

Programming is similar to a game of golf. The point is not getting the ball in the hole but how many strokes it takes. ~Harlan Mills

Programming languages should be designed not by piling feature on top of feature, but by removing the weaknesses and restrictions that make additional features appear necessary. ~Author Unknown

Programming languages, like pizzas, come in only two sizes: too big and too small. ~Richard Pattis

Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the universe is winning. ~Author Unknown

Programs for sale: fast, reliable, cheap - choose two. ~Author Unknown

Ready, fire, aim: the fast approach to software development. Ready, aim, aim, aim, aim: the slow approach to software development. ~Author Unknown

Reusing pieces of code is like picking off sentences from other people's stories and trying to make a magazine article. ~Bob Frankston

Should array indices start at 0 or 1? My compromise of 0.5 was rejected without, I thought, proper consideration. ~Stan Kelly-Bootle

The best performance improvement is the transition from the nonworking state to the working state. ~J. Osterhout

The magic of myth and legend has come true in our time. One types the correct incantation on a keyboard, and a display screen comes to life, showing things that never were nor could be.... The computer resembles the magic of legend in this respect, too. If one character, one pause, of the incantation is not strictly in proper form, the magic doesn't work. Human beings are not accustomed to being perfect, and few areas of human activity demand it. Adjusting to the requirement for perfection is, I think, the most difficult part of learning to program. ~Frederick Brooks

The only way for errors to occur in a program is by being put there by the author. No other mechanisms are known. Programs can't acquire bugs by sitting around with other buggy programs. ~Harlan Mills

There are two ways to write error-free programs; only the third one works. ~Alan J. Perlis

One man's constant is another man's variable. ~Alan J. Perlis

There does not now, nor will there ever exist, a programming language in which it is the least bit hard to write bad programs. ~Lawrence Flon

We don't manage our time as well as we manage our space. There's an overhead of starting and an overhead of stopping a project because you kind of lose your momentum. And you've got to bracket and put aside all the things you're already doing. So you need reasonably large blocks of uninterrupted time if you're going to be successful at doing some of these things. That's why hackers tend to stay up late. If you stay up late and you have another hour of work to do, you can just stay up another hour later without running into a wall and having to stop. Whereas it might take three or four hours if you start over, you might finish if you just work that extra hour. If you're a morning person, the day always intrudes a fixed amount of time in the future. So it's much less efficient. Which is why I think computer people tend to be night people - because a machine doesn't get sleepy. ~Bill Joy

When a programming language is created that allows programmers to program in simple English, it will be discovered that programmers cannot speak English. ~Author Unknown

When debugging, novices insert corrective code; experts remove defective code. ~Richard Pattis

When you catch bugs early, you also get fewer compound bugs. Compound bugs are two separate bugs that interact: you trip going downstairs, and when you reach for the handrail it comes off in your hand. ~Paul Graham, "The Other Road Ahead," 2001

You cannot teach beginners top-down programming, because they don't know which end is up. ~C.A.R. Hoare

In programming, as in everything else, to be in error is to be reborn. ~Alan J. Perlis

The New Testament offers the basis for modern computer coding theory, in the form of an affirmation of the binary number system. "But let your communication be Yea, yea; nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil." Matthew 5:37 ~Author Unknown

What I mean is that if you really want to understand something, the best way is to try and explain it to someone else. That forces you to sort it out in your own mind. And the more slow and dim-witted your pupil, the more you have to break things down into more and more simple ideas. And that's really the essence of programming. By the time you've sorted out a complicated idea into little steps that even a stupid machine can deal with, you've certainly learned something about it yourself. ~Douglas Adams