My thoughts as an enterprise Java developer.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Are older people better programmers? | Javalobby

Are older people better programmers? | Javalobby: "Fast programmers who produce disorganized code rely on their superior short term memory to get things done. These programmers get worse with age as their short-term memory weakens. They tend to drop out of the field.
Slow programmers who produce well-organized and readable code avoid relying on short-term memory. They tend to get faster and better with age as they accumulate in their long-term memory an ever increasing portfolio of strategies, patterns and techniques."

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Ignore the customer experience, lose a billion dollars (Walmart case study) - Good Experience

Ignore the customer experience, lose a billion dollars (Walmart case study) - Good Experience: "The mistake was a lack of customer focus. I know, I know: 'They ran a survey! Customers loved the idea!' But that's exactly the problem. Walmart didn't pursue the question of what customers wanted. Instead, Walmart came up with the answer first, then asked customers to agree to it. That's exactly the wrong thing to do, because it ignores customers while attempting to fool stakeholders into thinking that the strategy is customer-centered.

Put another way, Walmart based this incredibly expensive misadventure on what customers said, rather than what they did. And the customer experience is all about what customers do. In real life. No hypotheticals. Walmart acted without considering the customer experience, and that was a big mistake."

Friday, April 08, 2011

France Outlaws Hashed Passwords - Slashdot

France Outlaws Hashed Passwords - Slashdot: "'Storing passwords as hashes instead of plain text is now illegal in France, according to a draconian new data retention law. According to the BBC, '[t]he law obliges a range of e-commerce sites, video and music services and webmail providers to keep a host of data on customers. This includes users' full names, postal addresses, telephone numbers and passwords. The data must be handed over to the authorities if demanded.'"