Category: technology

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technology

twitter search

I must admit that twitter is actually pretty cool but it’s real promise isn’t as a microblogging website. twitip (the twitter tip site) has a good article about using twitter as a search engine when you’re looking for a response that understands the nuance of your query. Now,admittedly the example described works a bit pat and I’ve had countless conversations where a person’s initial response wasn’t so hot or missed the context of my question. However, there’s a good point here. When it’s in someone’s interest to answer your query then they’ll probably do a better job, faster, than google. Perhaps google should introduce twitter searching into their search engine. Google search could be improved with a bit of ajaxian push.

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technology

using twitter to tweak the dev process

I’ve been thinking about an interesting (nuts) social experiment to understand the software development process in your organisation. Software team managers are often surrpised as to how the actual work gets done (or doesn’t) in their development team. With 10 plus people on your team it can be extremely difficult to understand the dynamics involved. Who is actually coding? Who has got the great ideas? Who is preempting future problems and who is firefighting current ones. How does a bottleneck get created and what could solve the problem.
As twitter posting is so scriptable I thought it would be cool to create a random project spec which would constitute a two week iteration (including some test time) and hand it over to a dev team. An agile “customer” would be provided to own and clarify the specification on request.
To capture data you could setup some twitter gateways from jabber/xmpp, http proxy, source control and project management tool (trac, mingle, etc.). To provide some privacy you could have some anonymised logins like
The purpose of having a two week project of reasonable complexity is that it would make it difficult for a team member to behave in a completely unnatural way. I.e. they’ll need some thinking time. They’ll need some respite & chat. But not so much that they’ll delay the development schedule (hopefully).
At the end of the iteration the team would review the twittering to try and understand how the software engineering process worked. What worked well? What could be improved?
When I started working as a software developer at the end of the 90s agile was just taking off and the development process felt highly structured. It wasn’t of course and many projects suffered from the false security of weighty yet incorrect up-front documentation. I’ve noticed that as agile has become more prevalent we’re trying to move from analysis/design/implementation blobs into every smaller chunks of development time which can be reasonably documented while not unreasonably impeding the development process. Where once documented functional specifications were passed around, now it’s many smaller and looser tasks which are collected on web based tools like mingle. Email is still important but more informal instant messaging has become an important part of smoothing the dev process. Collleagues share little nuggets of information or query eachother to clarify issues or solve problems. A big question I have is how informal has it become? Are major design decisions now being made mostly using informal IM and retro-documented? What are the pros/cons of this? Part of understanding this is looking at all design and dev interactions under a microscope.

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technology

IRMA v Eircom

I can’t help but think that the settlement reached in the IRMA v Eircom case is going to be bad for Irish citizens. It’s not clear to me why Eircom capitulated but I presume their legal advisors believed a win was unlikely. . Silicon Republic has a piece here regarding the recent “landmark settlment”
The settlement isn’t actually a “precedent” as such but it does make it unlikely that other ISP’s wouldn’t atttempt a defence suggesting they didn’t have any responsibility for their customers’ actions using their access networks. Pity, it’s a bit like holding the roads authority liable for losses arising from bad driving. Maybe that would be a good idea 🙂
The problem that I have with this settlement is that it’s private in both its complete terms and the outline of its implementation. It’s unclear how Eircom will implement the suggested 3 strikes policy. I simply don’t trust the music companies or any company they subcontract to reliably identify those participating in P2P filesharing activities. Recollections of unscrupulous activities on behalf of the RIAA abound.
Evidence of false accusations arising from a similar activity in the US have already been documented. See el reg for more info. .
So under the recent settlement, as it’s been detailed so far, an Eircom ISP customer can be disconnected based on accusations, nothing more. The state is not involved in investigating and verifying these accusations. No coherent case is necessary beyond a computer log provided by DetecNet or whoever is subcontracted to provide this service. Quite frankly, that sucks.
Readers of this blog will notice that I normally come down hard on all forms of “freetardation” or the belief that people should be able to rip off other people’s products because it’s technically possible to do so. I’m not sorry for the publishers who find themselves as technological dinosaurs struggling to adapt. Their businesses will change. Some will prosper and some will die. Technology will always dramatically change some businesses. It’s the artists I feel most sorry for as they should be rewarded for their creative works.
This settlement doesn’t really further their rights however. The EU Parliament has already voted against such 3 strikes rules which have been introduced in France. Also described here. The EU parliament reasonably decided that only a judicial process should be able to disconnect someone from the internet. This is reasonable for democratic reasons. Think about the democratic abuse possible when citizens can be disconnected based on unsubstantiated accusations. If it happened in China we’d be agressively pointed fingers.
However, the European Commission, are doing their level best to overturn the amendment which would remove all obligation from ISP’s for content filtering and summary disconnection. This, in a nutshell, is why I’m going to vote NO for a second time to Lisbon. The European Parliament undoubtedly has a conscience but the Commission panders to big business, the larger EU countries and isn’t too concerned with the idea of separation of powers.
The media publishing companies might be over the moon but we now have a settlement where a disproporationate penalty can be imposed on any individual or business which is accused of engaging in this illegal activity without the oversight of the judiciary. Just because the publishers are sustaining loss doesn’t mean they should be able to act unilaterally or suspend the judicial process.
I sincerely hope one of the Irish ISP’s decides to fight this case rather than acquiesce.

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technology

Klipsch image x-10s

Today my new pair of headphones finally arrived. Klipsch Image X-10’s. I ordered the Klipsch when my etymotic research er6i’s failed (for the second time). I also have a pair of Shure e2c’s so I’ve some experience with premium in-ear phones and what to listen for. I remember getting the etymotics first and marvelling at the clarity and of the sound. The sound isolation was very effective with the correct choice of bud to ensure a snug fit. I was a bit disappointed with the intensity of bass and midrange sounds but I could generally get a great sound by playing with the equaliser settings. The er6i’s are great headphones for the money. However, they had 2 problems which I found unacceptable in premium headphones. The part of the headphones that sits in your ear is actually quite bulky and heavy. Perhaps it was just me but they would become uncomfortable after a few hours. The second issue is the chord’s connection to the transducer in the headphone units. This came loose for me under normal usage. I’ve had quite a few headphones and they all still work except the etymotics where this problem occurred twice. Still, I appreciate I could have been unlucky and I wouldn’t discourage anybody from buying Etymotic products.
So on to the Klipsch phones. Well after a few hours of listening to a variety of tracks from my extensive and eclectic collection I’ve only good things to say about them. Unlike the Etymotics the default silicone bud fitting was ideal for me so I appreciate this is a stroke of luck more than great design. However, the subtlety and balance of the midrange sounds is superior. The bass feels very natural, especially coming from so small a driver. It is deep and full. The treble is excellent with a fast-ish response that lends itself to listening to acoustic rock, classical and especially jazz.
After 4 hours of listening to them today I can’t think of a single ergonomic improvement I’d make. They’re svelte and incredibly comfortable. The real test of any of these headphones is do they make you want to listen to rediscover albums from your collection, knowing the phones will bring out new sounds that were previously lost. Well, the answer to this one is obvious.
It’s a huge thumbs up for Klipsch. I hope they hold up to everyday use and I’ll post an update in another few months.