Zen 2.0

I have been wanting some information on this topic for a while now. Finally someone’s written something about it here and here.

Ok, so by now everyone has probably seen this. The code for the front page of Facebook was exposed due to a server misconfiguration.

Both TechCrunch and Mashable have blogs about it so no need for me to say much.

Well, I am going to try blogging again.

I realized recently the failure of Zen 1.0, or the blog I called Operational Intelligence, was probably because I was trying to be too focused. I tried to write about topics that are related to my work. Not that the topics are not interesting or plentiful, it’s just that I was trying to be too careful on not being biased.

In any case, for Zen 2.0, anything and everything goes. Well, in my case, anything and everything will likely be all related to tech since I am a geek (but I am a cool geak since I use a mac! ) through and through. Let’s see how far this one goes this time.

This is a pretty cool compilation of the various technologies in its old and new form.

The least convincing one is probably the mouse. Even though there are small mice, I can’t imagine people using those small mice for a long time and not get sick of it. Human hands haven’t shrunk over the past ten years, so the mouse most likely won’t either.

This is a pretty interesting contest. Netflix is making available to the public 100 million of its customers’ movie ratings so you can help them design a new rating system that’s at least 10% better than what they have today. A better rating system means customers will likely to rent more movies as well as attract many new customers.

You can get more information at Netflix Prize. The download file is 697,552,015 bytes long.

[ Coverage by NY Times ]

Very interesting read on IE + JavaScript Performance Recommendations.

AJAX has been the talk of the web development community since Google came out with Gmail and Google Map. Here’s an interesting view of The 4 States of Ajax Adoption.

Interesting article on exploring the root causes of many coding defects and possible solutions.

More javascript performance tips, Lessons in Javascript Performance Optimisation: 90 seconds down to 3 seconds.

Great article on how to organize CSS files. Given the AJAX popularity these days, CSS knowledge is essential for anyone who wants to play with AJAX. Check out Architecting CSS.

From ajaxian.com:

• Archetype-Based A stylesheet for each class of page, e.g. homepage stylesheet, article stylesheet, etc.
• Page Element/Section-Based A stylesheet for each class of page section, e.g. header stylesheet, sidebar stylesheet.
• Tag-Based Similar to the previous approach, but based around tags, e.g. form stylesheet, table stylesheet.

This is a pretty good overview of the various ajax toolkits out there. Not a lot of detailed analysis but gives you some ideas of what each toolkit does.

According to this CNET news,

A Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives said Thursday that she plans to introduce legislation next week that would force Internet providers to record customer information for one year.

Personally I think it’s stupid for the gov’t to create such mandate, especially for the reasons they are citing.

because members of Congress have “learned that Internet service providers and social networking sites have information that law enforcement needs when investigating pedophiles online, and that is the IP address on a particular date and time that will help identify those involved,”

It’s one thing that ISPs retain logs as best practices, e.g., for forensic analysis and troubleshooting, it’s totally another for the gov’t to make it a mandate.

I certainly don’t want anyone to nose around in my stuff. Total violation of privacy if you ask me.

Earlier we mentioned that EMC is buying Network Intelligence, well, there’s a bunch of analyst/editor comments out now.

EMC and Network Intelligence: What it Means.

In the last few months, Novell bought e-Security and IBM got GuardedNet through its acquisition of Micromuse. Cisco grabbed Protego about and year ago and rumor has it that Oracle is about to buy either NetForensics or Intellitactics. It’s likely that HP, McAfee, and BMC are looking at other leaders like LogLogics as well as network behavior specialists like Mazu and Q1.

Building The New EMC, One Acquisition At A Time

Interesting comments from Dennis Hoffman, vice president of information security at EMC

Network Intelligence plays in three areas of the security industry, he said. The first is log management, a space where the leader is another company, LogLogic, San Jose, Calif., Hoffman said.

The second is event management, or the real-time processing of data for security purposes. “ArcSight is the leader,” Hoffman said. “There are lots of others in this space, too. Names you’ve never heard of.”

The third is security information management, which includes the reporting and forensic analysis of where security problems occur. Network Intelligence is the leader here, Hoffman said.

On a side note, here’s an article about ArcSight.

Ray Lane buys dinner - Who buys ArcSight?

One of ArcSight’s board members told me the company is hitting close to the $75m revenue number, that’s getting close to the magic $80m to $100m level that could initiate an IPO–except that the IPO market is in the doldrums.

Read this post on 5 Easy Ways to be a Better Developer today.

Agree with most of what it says. Though I wouldn’t call these “easy ways.” None of them is easy unless you are willing to spend time working on them.

My comments on the points…

1) Learn Ruby and Ruby on Rails.

So I call BS on this one. I know the author says these are examples of how to write clean code, but you don’t need to learn a specific language just to learn how to write clean code. What happens now if you have to work in a C or Java or C# environment?

The latest language and coolest technology is just fad. It will come and go. However, basic fundamentals of good programming is always necessary. I’ve always said that once you understand the semantics of programming, syntax will come to you. There’s really no difference in how you program in C, PHP, Java, Python, Ruby or whatever the latest language is. Once you understand WHAT you want to do, you can pick up the language syntax fairly easily.

2) Read The Daily WTF?

This actually is a pretty interesting site to read, if you have the time. Every once in a while it gives examples of good and bad pieces of code.

3) Learn something new every week.

Couldn’t agree more. I’ve always told people that the best programmers are lazy programmers. Lazy programmers will try very hard to make things simple for themselves and avoid doing as much work as possible but still finishes the job. By that, I mean most lazy/good programmers will find existing code/libraries that fit their needs and use them. Obviously there’s certain amount of due diligence you have to do here to ensure the code you are copying is legal and “good.” For example, using Apache Foundation’s libraries is generally legal and “good.” Learning something new every week, e.g., find a intersting library and learn how to use it, will allow the programmer to be lazy when needed.

However, being lazy doesn’t remove the need for programmers to understand the fundamentals. I know I always have arguments with some folks on whether to develop everything from scratch or reuse other’s library. I am always on the side of reuse/copying other people’s code. Some folks tend to want to write his own to fit his exact needs.

Even though we are on the extreme opposite of each other, we generally agree that programmers do need to understand the fundamentals of algorithms and data structures, etc.

4) Understand customer wants != customer needs.

Again, agreed! To add to this point, I believe programmers need to understand the general market they are developing for as well. You need to make sure you understand the general market trend and why customers are buying your solution.

If you are just a programmer that always just take the “spec” from the architects and write the code to meet the “spec,” then you will never become a good programmer. A good programmer should be able to

• Understand what the customers need
• Anticipate the customer needs based on the understanding of the product and market. This is perhaps the MOST difficult step for most programmers as many are so used to just coding from spec.
• Spec a solution that meeds the needs as well as being able to critique others’ specs. Again, some programmers can spec a solution based on the requirements, but a good programmer with understanding of the market and product and customer requirements can critique others’ specs.

5) Find some passion!

This is a bit general but it’s somewhat true. If you don’t like what you are doing, you most likely won’t spend the time on doing the best job.

I also want to add a couple things to the list:

6) Communication is king!

One of the the things I find most lacking in most programmers is the ability to communicate, both written and oral. Just because one can code (even if he’s a clever coder), doesn’t make one a good programmer.

I believe communication is what separates a average programmer from a good or great programmer. In a rapid development environment, it’s critical that everyone understands

• What problem you are trying to solve
• Do you understand the customer use case
• What are the proposed solutions
• What are the pros and cons of the proposed solutions, essentially what’s the thought process behind these solutions
• Which proposed solution you chose and why
• What are the caveats with the chosen solution
• If there are any caveats, are there workarounds
• What is the workflow of the solution, e.g., how is the customer going to use the solution?
• Have you tested the workflow on others and convinced them that’s a viable solution
• Can you prototype it and show it to others for feedback

A good or great programmer would have gone through this process and covered every angle to ensure a successful solution. As you can see, most steps in this process is about communicating to others what your proposed solution is. Communication should happen way before any code is written (unless you are prototyping.)

If I were to hire programmers, regardless of how good the programmer’s coding skill is, if he cannot communicate effectively with the team, then he’s not a good fit for the team.

This article on Engineer Interview Triage? also emphasizes the importance of communication.

7) Be able to do mock ups and prototypes.

This again has to do with communicating your solutions to others. One of the best way I’ve found/seen to communicate your ideas, however brilliant, is to show people what it looks like and how it works. Prototypes are just that, examples and models of the real thing. It doesn’t have to be perfect or covered all cases. But it should be able to demostrate

• The solution. Does this idea really solve the customer issue?
• The workflow. How the customer (customer in this case maybe your fellow team members) will use it from start to finish?

The prototype should convey enough of your solution to get people talking and discussing.

Anyways, these are my thoughts. Love to hear what your thoughts are…

Rumor has it that EMC is buying the SIEM vendor Network Intelligence for between $150 to $175 million. NI’s revenue is said to be around $20 to $25 mil. That’s 7x revenue, which is not bad at all.

[Update: Announcement was made today on the NI acquisition by EMC. Interesting how the NI story is hidden inside a much bigger story. Does that indicate what's to come? That NI is going to just be a small piece of the EMC security story? The PR doesn't even mention the price. However, Reuters' piece mentions the $175m figure.]