Sara J Chipps

StackOverflow - The Answer to "-site:ExpertsExchange"?

So, the collaboration between Atwood and Spolsky titled StackOverflow has come to (beta) fruition. The buzz is finally starting to come in. I have seen both good and bad and decided to see for myself what the hype was about.  I'm going to walk you through my experience and give you some of my reactions.

The UI is welcoming, and I say that as a developer. Well, maybe not so much a developer as much as just someone who likes a "no frills" UI. I'm more of a reddit girl than a digg girl, I don't like extra bells and whistles and even special colors. Let me rephrase that, I like a high functioning skeleton without all the distracting "Look at me! Look at me!". In other words I like plain webpages. Why was that so hard to say?

So, naked UI, check. How does this thing work? I figured I would play around... so I did the obvious and asked a question. This is a problem I am really having with my Visual Studio. I think it has something to do with Installing and Uninstalling both Refactor Pro and Resharper. It comes and goes, but regardless it's an annoying problem and I figured I would check to see if anyone else had it. I was able to post a question without registering. I gave myself the moniker "Kevin Lee." I often hear that being a female I get my questions answered a little faster than the average nerd. Something about a "Geek to the Rescue" fantasy. I figured if I just pretended to be the average programmer I could see an unbiased response time. My question was answered quickly  (I notice you can't see exactly but it took about 20 mins) and the integral goal of StackOverflow was fulfilled. I was impressed, only because my first question about StackOverflow was "Well, I mean, don't we have forums for that?" However, it takes me a lot longer to get an answer on the ASP.NET forums. Was it answered correctly?  Yes, after a few. There were some answers that were a little off the path for my question, though I could see why a programmer would go to them, they didn't apply. The same experience as if I was in a forum, answered a little faster. So, I mark the answer as "accepted" and go to rate up the answer as well (may as well throw around some points). 

What's this?  Hmm,  apparently I can't rate answers up if I don't have at least 15 points. Well, that's clever, I need a rep in order to decide what question rates. What about if I want to vote an answer down? I need 100 points, so if I'm some kind of jerk who likes to go spreading bad web vibes I have to work REEEALY hard to get there. I guess that adds to the Wiki-ish flavor. A lot of the feedback I have read in the "sphere" points to the idea that everyone that answers questions isn't necessarily going to answer correctly. I found that the correct answers tended to be indicated and rated high, possibly this algorithm for voting is to thank for that.

Ok, now let me go answer some questions. Mmmm, I had a little trouble including multiple tags when searching questions, now I'm not going to jump on the "THIS IS A BUG" wagon, but if it isn't then the UI could be a little more explanatory. I entered the names of multiple tags I saw on the list, but when I entered C# and then .NET (with a space in between as instructed) nothing was returned. I was able to answer questions with ease... nothing too exciting (though the level of most of the questions being asked was impressive).

What are some of the other features I noticed? Well, you can earn badges based on performance. I was really excited to see that
I had earned the "Autobiographer" badge, but then I realized it was simply because I had filled out my profile. I sincerely hope I get a "Kiss Ass Blogger" badge for this post. Some other fun things were the ways you can filter questions by what is unanswered, or what is popular, and other nifty filters to make browsing more interesting.  I'm sure I will discover more in time.

What didn't I like? Well, the amount of information all at once was kind of daunting. I supposed this could be partially remedied by the use of multiple tags. I would also recommend giving users the option to not see a preview of each post and just view titles. There were many times I wanted to rate an answer or question and I can't yet which was frustrating. I suppose that's the price you pay to keep the community clean.

So, the question remains, is StackOverflow THE new resource for all your coding needs? Is it going to put Experts Exchange and other pay-for-your-answer sites out of business? My answer is: no one knows and don't pretend you do, blaggers, because you don't. If I were to design a perfect UX for a one-stop-shopping coding resource this is pretty dang close. However, it's really up to us as a community to put in the effort. It seems to have a huge following already in beta, so Joel and Jeff as developers may have hit on something big (is this possible for people not named Scott?). I'll be interested where this thing goes and what changes are made for the first official release (may I suggest a NY release party?).

Yeah, you know that whole Microsoft/Apple war? We made that up.

 

 

Now wait, before you say anything, I want you to do me a favor, I want you to pretend we're just having a chat. It's you and me, we were just at a conference, or an expo, or a workshop or something. I noticed your tee shirt on the street, whatever, something happened and now we're talking tech, it's going well. Have you seen the stuff you can do with Jquery? RIA, what do you think? Then it happens, one of us brings it up and the lines are drawn.

 

Oh, you're a .NET developer? Run Vista? That's cool.

 

Wait, you live on Leopard? You think iPhone apps are the new wave?

 

We both know this wont end well. One of us is going to talk UI and hardware performance, the other computability and support... we're never going to agree, so let's just talk politics... FISA, will we ever recover?

 

There are wars fought world wide over arbitrary ideals, developers will be the first people to tell you that. Why can't we apply the same unbiased principles to ourselves? Why must we throw our souls behind any million dollar corporation that makes the thing we happen to relate to the most? What exactly do Apple, Linux, and Microsoft compete on? Operating systems? They all specialize in very different things, it doesn't seem like they should be a threat to each other. They also offer much more then just OS's, I bet Apple and Microsoft both make much more money in other things than OS packages. Why are we feeding their gluttonous revenue streams by turning against each other?

 

Linux/Unbutu guy, we know how little you need UI. You make your own operating system, and you're not afraid of a challenge. No one holds your hand, if it's tough you figure it out. You're the triathelete of developers, and we'll never forget that.

 

Oh you Apple lover, we know how close your relationship is with your users. OS X is good looking, and easy to use. We know what respect you have for true color, for beauty and art in design, you can't accept a sub par UX in exchange for functionality. You know simple and attractive is agile, we think you have a point.

 

 

.NET developer, we don't think you're a fanboi. We know that you respect quality, reputation, and stability. We don't think you're a follower, really, we know you're leading the way in cutting edge technology. So what people don't think you're edgy off the bat, they have no idea what kind of difference you are making in the industry.

 

Instead of letting big brother corporations buy our allegiance with straw man advertisements and snazzy swag, why don't we make this market what it should be. Let's invest in the products that are the BEST. Also, that's just a matter of preference and opinion! There is no Bible here. Myself? I love my Vista, it's really snazzy and fast, after all I develop in .NET. I'm running it on a Mac Book Pro. I have an iPhone, I'm writing this article in Open Office, I use Subversion. I think that when I'm editing HTML/CSS the only place to be is in Firefox, when I'm surfing it's only IE. I keep Leopard on my machine so that I can be more familiar for my users. For me this isn't about a “team” or a “side.”

 

Believe me, I know. Mac is the little guy, Linux even littler. Microsoft is the New England Patriots of the Software world, secretly, lots of people love to see them lose. Guess what, though, they do a lot of things really well. Until they stop, I'm going to use their product. When someone makes what I need better I will be using that.

 

Though, if you really just want to take the side of wherever the cool kids are have I got a product for you. It's an operating system, and it's brand new, cutting edge. Not even out yet, don't ell anyone but I can get you a hot copy of Windows Mojave before it even hits the streets. Just make your check out to “Girl Developer” and you'll be one step ahead of those Apple dorks. They'll be too busy eating their granola and smelling like patchouli to know what hit them.

Untraceable - Review

    So I got this movie on Demand tonight and I found it highly entertaining. On one hand, it was a little sick. I'm not big on horror/slasher type things, I was never allowed to watch those types of movies as a kid, so now movies like that really freak me out. This wasn't as much horror as gory thriller, but still, I'm a big believer in Garbage In/Garbage out so I try to stay away. On the other hand I liked the premise, it focused on an FBI agent named Jennifer Marsh that was in a cyber crimes unit. Since this was a web focused movie, it really piqued my interest. One thing I really appreciated is they fact that it wasn't dumbed down at all. Most of these movies set up these situations where someone says something the average Joe might not know, and someone who happens to be in the roon that isn't so savvy says something like "That's all greek to me" so someone explains it so the people in the audience get what is going on. It may have been irritating for the less aware, but they threw around terms like rotating DNS and botnet, and no one had to explain it in simple terms. Also, no fake OSs this time, she was running Vista on her home machine. There was also no "traveling through the virtual internet" shots where we are shown what the inside of computers look like with floating words, and binary, and beautiful green light.

   It wasn't all realistic though, for example her daughter in the movie had admin rights to her machine that she used for work at home that had sensitive FBI info on it. That was a bit off. They were also using trackball mice, which I thought was just dumb, I guess they thought it looked cooler. The "hacker" killer wasn't very good with a keyboard if you ask me, At work she looked at sites with a proxy IP in a vitual machine, yet at home this was not the case. I may be reading too far into these things. I did however, learn new abbreviations like MTC (more to come) and LFM (looking for more). I'm going to be a texting goddess (incedentally, I am tired of people who don't use t9 when text messaging, that's so 2002. Saw someone doing this yesterday).

  The movie brought up a few issues in my mind. Mostly net neutrality. I'm all for it, and no censorship. However, common sense says that what's illegal IRL should be prosecuted online as well. It does need to be regulated on a level, as much as I hate putting control in govenment hands. There are some real sickos out there, and with the access the web gives them it's that much more important to stop it. It also made me think a little more about my personal safety, I know there is all kinds of personal information floating around the intarnette, and I really need to put a kibosh on that stuff. I'm so trusting, you really want to be. It's nice to think that everyone around you has the same intentions you do, but that's simply not the case and I really need to start protecting myself.

 Anyway, decent film 2 1/2 stars IMHO.

Girl Developer's Review of the iPhone, the One We've All Been Waiting For?

Yesterday I was completely dead in the water. My mobile phone is my only phone (a clear indicator that I’m part of generation 2.0…. if you have a house line get off the internet immediately Prodigy called, you’re over your bandwidth limit this month and they’re going to charge you another $9.99 if you don’t hang up… and if you say it’s for your kids tell them Raffi called and he says “Baaaaaby Beluuuuga.” every 5 year old has a cell phone now) ANYWAY, my iPhone wouldn’t charge, wouldn’t turn on, nada. I sent smoke signals to the Apple store to set up an appointment and headed on down there. I was cranky, the store was almost closed, and I was 10 minutes late because I had to stop for gas. Long story short the guy looks at my phone with one of those things the Dr’s use to look in your ear and determined that water had gotten into it and it must be replaced. $249 later I have a new phone (I know, I know, don’t even say it, July 11).

All this got me thinking, I haven’t told you guys about how close I am to my dang phone. There is nothing I love more now than standing in line, or on the train, and listening to Bill Simmons, and checking my MySpace, and Facebook. I love being able to find recipes in the supermarket. I like being able to pretend I have something better to do when I’m uncomfortable around people. All these things make the iPhone invaluable. It is a rockstar phone and I highly recommend it.

So what would this article be without a review of the Dev material? Ok, so I’m doing this as I write, I just registered as a iPhone Developer, so let’s get iStarted. Well, I take that back, apparently you need to have a STOONAD Mac. However, let’s just take a look at “Hello World” at least after I check out the text. There is a main file, two delegates, and two MVCs. The crux of the app is in here:

 

- (void)applicationDidFinishLaunching:(UIApplication *)application {

   

    // Set up the view controller

    MyViewController *aViewController = [[MyViewController alloc] initWithNibName:@"HelloWorld" bundle:[NSBundle mainBundle]];

    self.myViewController = aViewController;

    [aViewController release];

   

    [[UIApplication sharedApplication] setStatusBarStyle:UIStatusBarStyleBlackOpaque];

   

    // Add the view controller's view as a subview of the window

    UIView *controllersView = [myViewController view];

    [window addSubview:controllersView];

    [window makeKeyAndVisible];

}

 

 

On startup the delegates receive message that the application has started, which kicks off the controllers that show the “Hello World” and we’re out. I didn’t go too in depth, but Objective-C seemed to have a lot of familiar characteristics. Here is my thing about iPhone development: Yes, its something cool to learn, but what’s in it for ME??  All of us do this for a living, no? As far as I can see there is not advertising besides “Made By: “ Why would I make an application that makes Apple money and me nothing… I mean there is bragging rights, if you’re in high school or college it’s a great way to get your hands dirty (when you’re not using the other ways)… Unless you are advertising for an existing application, you’re donating your time to The Man, I don’t still get why everyone says Microsoft is the beast.

   There are some changes that NEED to be made. Some of them are being made, like the GPS. Has anyone tried the existing navigation (the one that uses triangulation with cell towers to figure out where you are)? I think it’s just F-ing with me sometimes. I would do better driving with a globe and a compass in the passenger’s seat, so thank god they are changing that. Some things are inefficient about the web access…. Like, I really need it to remember my logins, even if you need to ask me about each one. Or store them in a repository of logins that I could click on when I need them. Tapping away on that little keyboard is tedium, esp since the cookies aren’t persistent. Also, the need to figure out a way for my purse to stop calling people. I think after you hang up a call it should take you to the home page. Also, ummm, has anyone else noticed you can’t send or receive picture texts? This may not be a big deal to you, but my friends need me to be able to rate future MySpace default pictures in real time. Everytime I say something about being able to do something on my phone like surf or email they say “Yeah, but you can’t even send picture messages” as if I’m walking around with a VCR in my purse. Lastly, apps-wise I haven’t found anything super awesome… but I like the baseball one, and I’ve played with some other ones. The games aren’t that dynamic, there are some cool random tools like a Domain Name finder and a program to search for genetci defects?

Let’s end with the worst things about the 3G (besides the fact that I just bought a new-old model and I’ll have to up/downgrade in a month.) Everyone is freaking out about the $10 cost increase, I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. AT&T is a lot cheaper than Verizon. The $10 isn’t going to kill anyone, where they are REALLY going to get you is the App Store in your Home Screen. Let me tell you I used to be the biggest offender of being bored and downloading some games on my phone. They aren’t going to just have games, they are going to have every app some nerd created for them, and this time they are charging. When you look at that bill THEN you will be freaking. I’m kind of bummed that now EVERYONE will have an iPhone and I wont look cute but sophisticated in a mysterious way anymore. I’ll be “just another a-hole with an iPhone”. I think that’s the real moral here.

 

 UPDATE: I found an advertisement on one of my iPhone apps I put on my home screen. So, this article is 10% accurate and 80% funny. Totally worth it if you ask me.

 

Here's to you, Penelope Garcia

David Lightman, Neo, The Lone Gunmen, Dave Bowman, Stanly Jobson,  you boys have always had programmers, hackers and computer engineers on TV and in movies to look up to growing up. Well, though we’re in the minority I’ve been inspired by some awesome women on the big and little screen over the years, and it’s time to honor them.

 

When I was 12 I was a very different girl. My first love was a 386 and on it I would play text based RPGs, and tie up my mother’s phone line being the co-sysop of a BBS. That’s why Erica Dansby was someone that changed my life. Ghostwriter was my favorite show, Alex Fernandez was my mega crush. She came on the show as a young hacker that was there to save the day and get the team out of serious trouble with the police. Someone was hacking into the school systems and getting one of their friends in trouble. It took Erica(played by a young Julia Styles) mere minutes to access the problem, there was a hacker and his name was Max Mouse. She wowed the team with her attitude and her knowledge of systems. She bagged the bad guy by outsmarting him with her prowess. Her lingo and look were hot, and Alex definitely took notice. I thought it was awesome that a smart and rebellious girl could get the guy (especially after seeing him all season with that do goody skank Tina).

 

Kate Libby was also a girl who’s attitude and confidence were larger than life. She wowed all the men around her with her knowledge, tools, and sexy style. When she went to a party the whole place stopped and looked, the guys with desire, the girls with envy. As a girl who never got invited to parties or garnered much attention she was the ideal. Smart, and respected, when she whipped out phrases like “God gave men brains larger than dogs' so they wouldn't hump women's legs at cocktail parties” she showed me that nerd girls really have it going on.

 

Quiet Angela Bennet was someone I could really identify with. She was an introvert and didn’t really talk to many people. Her only friend was her mom, but she loved that computer. She was such a good programmer that she worked from her home receiving instructions by way of emails and disks in the mail (hmm, that’s kind of my life now). When she broke some secrets on a disk she received she was in big trouble. She had everything taken away from her, but that didn’t stop her. She went on the run and escaped multiple law enforcement agencies. She never gave up and she got her life back, she was a little emotional on the way but that allowed me to really relate to her. In the end she used her brains, she was brave and she won.

 

I firmly believe that every self respecting  nerd once had a crush on Mulder or Scully. Mulder was a dream bucket, he was clever and funny and nerdy and broody and all that was right with the world. When Esther Nairn fell in his life she was like a sexy tornado destroying everything in its way. She was a hot young programmer who was on the crew that finally developed AI (yeah, a GIRL). She was on the run from the program who was monitoring phone lines and web correspondence trying to find her. Her wisdom and quick thinking are the only things that keep the gang out of trouble when the AI starts targeting Mulder and Scully after figuing out they were out to destroy it. In the end of the episode she actually bonds her consciousness with the AI and lives the rest of her days in cyber space. Rock on.

 

So I’m a grown up now, and can’t really mold my life in the direction of fictional characters, but there is one more girl that I just have to mention. I don’t know if any of you watch the show Criminal Minds on CBS but I freakin love it, Crominal Profiling, the FBI, serial killers, all the things that are mmorbidly interesting. Well there is this kick ass chick on the show named Penelope Garcia. Panelope dropped out of CalTech when she lost her parents in a car crash. She then got herself to the top of the FBI’s Most Wanted Hackers list. They thought she was so awesome that they wanted her on their team, so they recruited her. She has an AWESOME lab and whenever a member of the BAU team needs ANYTHING they call her. Any system there is she can get into, not some guy HER. That’s who I want to be, so me and Penelope spend Tuesday nights together me in my living room and her representing on the little screen.

An open letter for girls considering I.T.

I was reading this article the other day and here is the quote that really got to me:

“Rather than telling girls that IT is trendy and fashionable, we should be telling both girls and boys what we really believe to be true: that focusing on being trendy and fashionable is hollow and irrelevant, and that a career in IT is interesting and challenging. The kids who dismiss that argument aren't cut out for IT and shouldn’t be persuaded to devote their careers to it.”

 

 I love being trendy and fashionable. Fashion after being a developer is one of my biggest passions. I am not hollow or irrelevant, I make being a developer kick butt. I put on my BCBGs in the morning and I sit down and program for the rest of the day and both of those things are very fulfilling.

So girls, here are some reasons I think it’s awesome to be a developer and I think you will too:

 

Smart is Sexy- There is nothing like being out with your girls on the weekend and having some hot guy talking to you and the whole “What to you do” question comes up, whether I ask or they just feel like sharing it always goes the same. There is a pause, they look me in the face like they are wondering if I understand big words and say something like “I’m an Architect” or “I’m a Business Analyst”. “Oh” I usually say, “That’s really cool.” Then we will talk about that for a minute then usually they throw the question at me. So, I look them in the eye, and while maintainting contact I say “I’m a software engineer.” Then, when their jaw goes slack a choir of angels in my head sing “BOYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.” Usually I can whip out something relevant to their career like “I guess you must use AutoCAD?”, or if they are in IT as well we usually have great conversations about different systems and concepts. It never fails, I always get, “Wow, I can’t believe I’m talking about this with a girl!”

Nerds are funny-So, remember the guy that sat behind you in High School that made you laugh till you cried all day? Well, he’s a programmer now and he’s still hilarious. Oh yeah, and he’s grown into his nose, got some confidence, and diversified his investments. Think about it.

It’s an art – There is more than one right way to do things usually when designing systems and writing applications. You have to develop your own style and make it unique. Take pride in what you are doing and make it your own. That’s satisfying, you can really express yourself.

Nerds are nice- Listen, these guys actually care about you and your wellbeing more then their killer calves and great tan. When you say something in passing like “I freaking love kobe sliders” they will  make sure there is one left for you when you come out. When you are sick they will bring you Kleenex, lozengers, AND clean your apartment. They wont take advantage if you’re sad and just want to talk. They sincerely want you to be happy.

You’re worth it- It’s an accomplishment when you type a bunch of lines, compile, and it does something awesome. It makes you feel like you’ve made something great, especially when it’s something you’ve never done before.  It makes you feel better about yourself when you’ve made a career out of your knowledge and passion. When you have great developers surrounding you passing on their skill you know they think you can do it too.

 

So girls, I still have a long way to go and a lot of things to learn. I am not on the top of this mountain yet, but I have come really far. Looking back I wouldn’t trade it for the world and doing this was the best decision I have ever made. Girl developers don’t always wear baggy pants and Birkenstocks. They are you, whatever you enjoy, whatever you like. You don’t have to change yourself to be a developer. You get in there and make being a good developer being like you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Google Developers are People Too

First of all, before anything else, am I the only one that's noticed that gmail is still in beta? Man those guys are thorough. I can't wait for RC1 I hear it's going to be really awesome.

So, tonight I was on the intar looking for some blogspiration (yeah, ok you can use that, but you gotta give me the credit) and I happened upon this blog: Gmail Blog I don't know about you, but when I picture the team of people that work for google I see something like this:

I was pleasantly surprised to read the  article that I posted. It was definitely a refresher in basic troubleshooting for slow loading pages. I think this stuff is invaluable for good developers, everyone needs to be reminded sometimes, it's so logical. Caching, monitoring HTTP transactions, and using tools like fiddler is something I would do in my trusty office. To think that Google developers think of the same things I do when trying to make their app speedy makes me like them a lot more. Maybe that's the plan?

This is sad:, there has GOT to be a way to make this profitable and scalable! Even if big companies with bad raps sponser it, like Microsoft or IBM. How much different is it than ball parks sponsered by Citibank and Cisco? Someone do this, please.

Today while working, I realized how dumb it is that you can't insert multiple rows with one insert statement (without a subselect). Then I came upon this article on reddit and saw this will be fixed in 2008. Good going Microsoft, why do so many people hate those guys? Anyway, some educational comparisons in there as well.

Anyway, thanks for all the great feedback, everyone, I really appreciate of your help.

Mind Your Intar-Business

Seriously, I am still loving this social networking crap. I like feeling closer to people with little to no effort. I like being able to see what my friends are doing. I like taking inventory of the people I know, where they are. MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, now my blogtastic goodness. I always know everyone’s status. Everyone knows mine. Right now I am “So glad to get my iPhone back”.

You know my likes and dislikes and I know yours. You know that I think Arrested Development is by far the best cancelled show ever. You know I like the Mets and the Packers, and I would knife someone to steal a plate of sliders. If you didn’t know that it would be relatively easy to find that out. You would just need google and a penchant for stalking people on the internet (an epidemic in and of itself).

Is it bad that our identities can be wrapped up in 1000 words or less in an “About Me” section (and the first 10 seconds of a song)? Yes, but that’s not the worst of it.

The worst of it is that we know too dang much about each other. I am not being ignorant and anti progress. I love new things, especially when they are flashy with bright colors. However, there are tools being published all the time that are enabling us to greedily give away the the fabric that makes us unique.

 Microsoft Search Together: AHHHH, I don’t want people to know what I am searching for! It would be one thing if we were all classy and chummy like the people in the example. We were all searching for places to stay in our jet setting tour of Europe where all we need is our backpack and our dreams. No, we are not. We are searching for stupid crap. Here are some things from my google search history:

Clearly this was a banner day. I was trying to find a new haircut, a place to get it done, and some princess quotes to vandalize my brother’s xbox live profile with. I don’t want you people knowing this crap about me. Heck, I wish google didn’t know this stuff about me. I can only imagine the things boys are searching for. Somehow I would rather not to learn about your “midget thousand island dressing tarp” searches.

Ok, so that’s just google searching, I mean what do you really have to hide (you know, besides “rick roll funny video bababooey”). Check out  this bad boy. Social networking based on DNA. Because that’s an awesome idea. I really want to learn that my ex boyfriend was really my 14^th cousin on my mother’s side. I really want BoiCrzyBston08 to know that I have carry the Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency gene, and that my mother passed me Tay-Sachs. I also definitely want to be stored in a semi secure database, you know, in case Americans decide to arbitrarily give away more freedoms or something (WHAT? There are lots of brown people, some wear hats.)

We have to wonder if we are unwittingly creating our own Big Brother. Not, like, 1984 Big Brother, like a cool Big Brother, that plays catch with you and lets you hang out with his older friends yet sometimes comes home from school and inexplicably beats the crap out of you leaving you to wonder “What did I do wrong?” We have to draw the line for ourselves I suppose. Watch it, as much as you want people to know what makes you YOU, how about choosing some intar-modesty sometimes. Keep the mystery alive.