Avalanche Rescue? There's NOT an app for that...

How to survive an avalanche? Don't get into one.

Interview with Jill Fredston

(Eptstein, 2021)

Illustration by Slate Magazine 2021

https://slate.com/human-interest/2021/04/how-to-survive-an-avalanche-tips-from-expert-jill-fredston.html

Out of bounds (an article from ABC News, Australia (2021 link))

Avalanches? In Australia? They are real and they can be deadly. But a group of back-country adventurers is trying to keep skiers, boarders and bushwalkers safe when they head out into the alpine wilderness. 

The Canadian Avalanche Centre "Avalanche Canada" gear recommendation:  https://www.avalanche.ca/gear

The BCA Tracker2 Avalanche Transceiver on epictv.com

"The Tracker2 avalanche transceiver is used to quickly locate avalanche victims and is required equipment for ski touring and backcountry skiing. The Tracker 2 is one of the fastest and most precise pinpointing transceivers on the market. It features triple receive antenna, instantaneous real-time display, and the same easy-to-use interface as the Tracker DTS. A mechanical search/transmit switch is super intuitive making it easy to use right “out of the box.” Includes multiple burial indicator lights and Special Mode.

Galileo-LawinenFon turns a smartphone into an avalanche transceiver (2014 link).

"(in 2013...) the Canadian Avalanche Centre (CAC) issued a warning about the dangers of relying on smartphone apps that were being marketed as economical alternatives to avalanche transceivers. But a new smartphone app and add-on hardware component could provide an alternative that is not only cheaper than dedicated avalanche transceivers, but also provides additional functionality.

On misguided attempts to replace avalanche rescue beacons with one of a growing number of smartphone apps (2013, link).

"Some people may be tempted to save a couple hundred dollars on an avalanche beacon and opt for one of several apps on the market. The Canadian Avalanche Centre does not recommend using these apps for actual avalanche incidents, however. It assessed three European apps – iSis Intelligent (Mountain) Rescue System, Snøg Avalanche Buddy and SnoWhere – before coming to the conclusion that they are unreliable and promote a false sense of security.

Avalanche airbags now offer wireless remote activation (2010, link).

"ABS has introduced a world-first - a remote, networked electronic system which allows airbag inflation to be triggered by other members of a skiing party, allowing them to help each other in an emergency.

This tracking system promises faster help for avalanche victims (2007, link).

"A new positioning system which will use Galileo, the future European global positioning satellite system, may prove to be a life saver for avalanche victims.

Starting a Tech Business by Alex Cowan

Alex Cowan's recent book on starting a tech business is one of the most practical guides I have found. This book brings it all together but in a way that is engaging, relevant, current, and, if it's not too difficult to believe, in a FUN way.

Cowan's "Starting a Tech Business".

Alex's metaphors for each of the main periods the business undergoes are quirky yet insightful. The metaphors resonate because they capture an element of the truth. For example; The Lawn Gnome of Indolence, the Butterfly of Incoherence, Chihuahua of Unruly Development, and the Hydra of Operational Readiness; each of these metaphors says something, as wry but insightful observations on the character and challenges involved in tech business at different times.

Highly recommended as a guidance for entrepreneurs starting out on systems development or a tech business for the first time or even as a framework to refresh an existing business, product, system, etc.

Practices Of An Agile Team

Fumihiko Kinoshita put together a thoughtful presentation for the Agile2008Conference. Incredibly, to me, even then the Agile approach was considered radical and anti-establishment.

Some documentation tools

A convenience sample of documentation tools or tools that document and structure certain necessary activities for software development...

Swagger for RESTful services (open or free license)
thucydides for TDD with WebDriver/Selenium 2 (open or free license)
JSONDoc (open or free license)
Doxygen for generating reference/documentation via annotated source code for most programming languages (open or free license)
RedGate for SQL schema visuals and doc and other things (commercial license)
DocBook a general purpose XML and SGML document type for documenting anything/everything (open or free license)
PerlPod a markup for writing reference/documentation for Perl code (open or free license)
Javadoc a markup for writing reference/documentation for Java code (open or free license)
Sandcastle a help file builder for Windows (open or free license)
Cucumber a Ruby tool that takes the Behaviour Driven Development (BDD) philosophy for describing application functionality that maps into code (open or free license)

Are sketches old fashioned?

Interesting to note the commentary on Huffington Post on the Pixar development process (link) but to my mind, hard to believe that people would think that sketches are old fashioned...

"After what we see in the final production, it's hard to believe that in the digital world we live in, Pixar still begins with a simple sketch."

The image sequence of iterations for Monsters University on imgur (link)

Creative Confidence

(courtesy of Alex Beregszaszi) the Kelley brothers of IDEO have a book called Creative Confidence.

"Too often, companies and individuals assume that creativity and innovation are the domain of the “creative types.” But two of the leading experts in innovation, design, and creativity on the planet show us that each and every one of us is creative."

http://www.creativeconfidence.com

Talk to customers

Sunil Kumar offers a nice quote on the risk taken with a design-in-the-dark strategy (interview in Silicon Republic)

"I’ve said this to loads of people: moving from an IT perspective to a business perspective can be achieved but definitely the easiest way to do it is talk to customers, because they say things you don’t expect, and it gets you thinking.
I’ve taken a technical decision in the past where I’ve thought something was a really great feature – coded it, and went out to try and sell it, and potential customers were not interested. All of a sudden you’ve made this technical decision based on nothing but your ability to code it and you get a zero return on investment."

Curious about hardware failure rates?

This post on ExtremeTech identifies aggregate failure rates for a crucial piece of high-tech infrastructure, hard drives. Cloud computing data centres would be expected to have continuous hardware refresh/replacement in place to counter the inevitable failure of storage. (link)

Source: ExtemeTech: "Hard drive failure conforms to the bathtub curve — a curve that reliability engineers use that neatly illustrates the three distinct phases of a product’s lifecycle"

It's a software engineer's life (but not as we know it Jim)

Have a read of this 'image' on imgur and the the follow-up post on Gamasutra. Most viewed image ever on imgur? Something you feel you could do? Similar to your own experience or someone you know? How much did Forced really cost? Was it worth it?

Educational Provocation

“So,” Juárez Correa said, “what do you want to learn?”

This article on Wired (link) on how a radical teaching technique is producing results in disadvantaged settings; it suggests that the basic provision of computing resources, that is, the essential hardware and software for running the machines, coupled with educational materials like encyclopaedia, specialised software and information sources, produces sufficient conditions for people, especially children, to learn effectively in a self-directed manner.

More women, younger developers, shifts from stereotypes...

Does this sound like someone you know?

"Software development is an art and a science that is not attainable for just anyone. It takes a special type of person to write code. Developers are detail-oriented, very literal, and intelligent. Logic is paramount, and they share a passion for their craft that rises above the desire to make more money."

Link to post on Slashdot

Homesourcing: A worker's reflection

A post by c:/ Ryan commenting on what homesourcing is really like (link).

"The perks are otherwise very nice. Fully stocked fridge, personal showers and an easy commute. What more could you ask for? The down side is that you really do have to work at maintaining personal hygiene and appearance. Its easy to get stuck in a rut of wearing pajamas all day. That is generally bad for morale and self worth. It is best to treat it like a Real Job and go ahead and shower before work, shave, and take care of yourself.
Last but not least, working remotely brings with it difficulties in communication with others. I touched on this earlier. When using just text to talk to others, there is a lot that is lost. It is way too easy to gloss over what someone else spent their valuable time writing, and then give them a response that does not dignify them at all. I've had this done to me many times, and have even done it to others without thinking. It's something that you have to be absolutely mindful of. Failure in communication precedes more failures. You must also wear a smile in your text. I've found that a simple smiley here and there really helps convey warmth."

Is there a replacement for "Information Rules"?

Is there a worthy replacement for the book "Information Rules" by Carl Shapiro and Hal Varian (Shapiro & Varian, 2001)?

I feel the subject matter gathered under the old Information Rules books is now scattered among a variety specialised fields which I'll generalise under "techniques and models for design, utilisation and pricing of digital goods, high-tech products and services."

The product management perspective typified by Marty Cagan's Inspired: How To Create Products Customers Love (Cagan, 2008).

Oz Shy's books How to Price: A Guide to Pricing Techniques and Yield Management (Shy, 2008) and The Economics of Network Industries (Shy, 2001) are excellent introductions to the econometrics of high tech goods and services. While not 'hard-core' econometrics they still pose a challenge to graduate students without a background in the economics theory.

Yochai Benckler's The Wealth of Networks (Benckler, 2006) (link to the open source book in PDF) touches on some of the themes in IR but focuses mainly on the political and policy implications of open source, gift economies and radical strands in network and freedom discourse.

In the design space I see two strands that overlap with IR's scope somewhat: ludic theory or gamification, and information design. The first could be typified by Jesse Schell's The Art of Game Design: A book of lenses (Schell, 2008), the second typified by a kind of 'hands-on' hacking attitude evident in communities centered on Arduino, Raspberry Pi, and installation/art/information tools like Processing.

Getting Started with Processing

Form+Code in Design, Art, and Architecture (Design Briefs)

A Touch of Code: Interactive Installations and Experiences

Padraig Cunningham - Motivation

Padraig Cunningham on what motivates him as a software engineer

Developer Culture in FB

This post by Yee Lee (framethink) gathers some impressive and informative impressions on the developer culture in Facebook.  There appears to be a kind of constant pressure to perform up to and exceeding the expectations of peers and peer-managers. It must be mentioned of course that it appears to take place in a highly 'visible' work environment, but one that values responsibility over correctness, a kind of risk laden work style that attempts to avoid the reactive response to risk-aversion. How this kind of working style acts to support individual skill growth, career development and team oriented activities is still open to question.

See article at FrameThink

Hacker-and-hustler v Investor-or-Venture-Capital

Without agreeing with Venkatesh Rao's analysis or conclusions he does present an interesting story...

Like Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs in the garage, "Technology startups typically have a hacker-and-hustler founding pair" (see Forbes article Part I page 1)

but

"As software eats the world, every sort of engineering (and indeed, every sort of profession organized along lines suggested by the physical sciences, including fields like medicine) is becoming effectively a branch of computer science." (see article Part II page 1)

"Codification of tacit knowledge does not codify political skill, but is never an apolitical act. All codification is political. Knowledge is captured and codified in ways that benefit a specific class." (see article Part II page 2)
If bootstrapping is seen as a reaction to the dominance of capital the logic behind it can still be subverted the neutralise it as a funding strategy for new ventures; " bootstrapping vs. venture-funding has been subtly reframed as a lifestyle business vs. growth-business debate." (see article Part II page 3)

Finally more painfully perhaps...
The technical entrepreneur staggers from new post-industrial school (aka y-Combinator or similar hot-house) into obscurity. (see article Part III pages 2/3)

...rather depressing really

References:
Rao, Venkatesh. 2012. Entrepreneurs are the New Labor, Forbes Magazine (link)

Colossal Cave Adventure

An archeology of interactive role playing games leads inevitably to a small handful of innovative and influential programs developed over the decade spanning the sixties and seventies. One of the most influtential of these games was a program call the Colossal Cave Adventure. Originally written by Will Crowther, then developed further by Don Woods with Will's consent.
Ports of Adventure to newer operating platforms and language environments have enabled users to play Adventure on successive generations of computing hardware and operating system environments. However the core of the game remains the same and concept, gameplay and feel. A player running the port to Mac OS/X or the console version for Windows XP is subject to essentially the same experience as those who encountered it on University computer servers in the 70s and 80s.
While the game is no longer actively developed the concept of Advent inspired a host of related programmes in the 1980s all vying for the hearts, minds, or money, of the world's growing band of computer enthusiasts and users.

---

Seeing Adventure running for the first time is like walking along the beach and picking up an interesting looking shell. Someone has left the terminal logged in... It intrigues with three sentences:

YOU ARE STANDING AT THE END OF A ROAD BEFORE A SMALL BRICK
BUILDING . AROUND YOU IS A FOREST. A SMALL
STREAM FLOWS OUT OF THE BUILDING AND DOWN A GULLY.

Ahh, a game. What do I do? The blinking cursor invites me to write something.

help!
 I DON'T KNOW THAT WORD.

help
 I KNOW OF PLACES, ACTIONS, AND THINGS. MOST OF MY VOCABULARY
 DESCRIBES PLACES AND IS USED TO MOVE YOU THERE. TO MOVE TRY
 WORDS LIKE FOREST, BUILDING, DOWNSTREAM, ENTER, EAST, WEST
 NORTH, SOUTH, UP, OR DOWN.  I KNOW ABOUT A FEW SPECIAL OBJECTS,
 LIKE A BLACK ROD HIDDEN IN THE CAVE. THESE OBJECTS CAN BE
 MANIPULATED USING ONE OF THE ACTION WORDS THAT I KNOW. USUALLY
 YOU WILL NEED TO GIVE BOTH THE OBJECT AND ACTION WORDS
 (IN EITHER ORDER), BUT SOMETIMES I CAN INFER THE OBJECT FROM
 THE VERB ALONE. THE OBJECTS HAVE SIDE EFFECTS - FOR
 INSTANCE, THE ROD SCARES THE BIRD.
 USUALLY PEOPLE HAVING TROUBLE MOVING JUST NEED TO TRY A FEW
 MORE WORDS. USUALLY PEOPLE TRYING TO MANIPULATE AN
 OBJECT ARE ATTEMPTING SOMETHING BEYOND THEIR (OR MY!)
 CAPABILITIES AND SHOULD TRY A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT TACK.
 TO SPEED THE GAME YOU CAN SOMETIMES MOVE LONG DISTANCES
 WITH A SINGLE WORD. FOR EXAMPLE, 'BUILDING' USUALLY GETS
 YOU TO THE BUILDING FROM ANYWHERE ABOVE GROUND EXCEPT WHEN
 LOST IN THE FOREST. ALSO, NOTE THAT CAVE PASSAGES TURN A
 LOT, AND THAT LEAVING A ROOM TO THE NORTH DOES NOT GUARANTEE
 ENTERING THE NEXT FROM THE SOUTH. GOOD LUCK!

Right, I'm starting to get this, lets see what the 'DOWNSTREAM' command does...

downstream
YOU ARE IN A VALLEY IN THE FOREST BESIDE A STREAM TUMBLING
ALONG A ROCKY BED.

downstream
AT YOUR FEET ALL THE WATER OF THE STREAM SPLASHES INTO A
2 INCH SLIT IN THE ROCK. DOWNSTREAM THE STREAMBED IS BARE ROCK.

lift rock
YOU ARE IN A 20 FOOT DEPRESSION FLOORED WITH BARE DIRT. SET INTO
THE DIRT IS A STRONG STEEL GRATE MOUNTED IN CONCRETE. A DRY
STREAMBED LEADS INTO THE DEPRESSION.

THE GRATE IS LOCKED

downstream
YOU CAN'T GO IN THROUGH A LOCKED STEEL GRATE!

This is getting interesting, quick, grab a piece of paper and start drawing a mental map of where I was and where I'm going...

And so it goes on. Time passes, I snap back to myself for a moment, twenty minutes later! What's happening here? It's engaging, appealing, frustrating and rewarding, like getting into a good book but this one talks back to you.

Extreme programming shouldn't work!

XP shouldn't work should it!
Much has been written and observed surrounding the practitioner proposed software development approach called extreme programming. Indeed the wider agile movement should have failed long ago because it's just a bunch of people, not a corporation, not a University, not a government funded institute.
And agile methods are just a bunch of practices, they weren't designed as a single structure, an organisational standard that teams and organisations could adopt!

Instead of formal definitions the proponents of agile methods present their personal interpretations and expect adopters to adapt them to their own local contexts. Agile practices are mutually reinforcing attitudes, techniques, activities and skills, some of which are widely acknowledged as industry best practices: e.g. unit testing, coding standards, and short iterations. Other practices like as pair programming, collective ownership, regular releases, and on-site customer remain novel, difficult to adopt and subject to continued scepticism. It may seem that some of the key practices of Extreme Programming for example are at odds with accepted corporate governance structures and processes like top-down control. Attempts by groups to adopt agile practices within established organisations may fail as the practices contest existing power structures, redefine the relevance of certain resources, for example: from plans to planning activity or from external testing towards testing becoming the heart of design work. Bottom-up introduction of agile practices on development teams will introduce tensions at the interfaces with other teams, with professional overlaps, ownership of activities and resources, and upon the technological infrastructure (source code control systems, test tools, build environments, knowledge management tools etc.).

Notwithstanding the potential strains and tensions the focus on professional practice and practices in teams is a valuable additional perspective to bring to understanding how the work of software development is accomplished. Agile thinking turns attention towards the practical everyday activities that constitute development. And while the risks associated with attempts to adopt agile methods at the level of teams are amplified by the impacts on other parts of the organisation, they seem to be necessary changes if software development is to truly accommodate its unique conditions of production: digital media, multi-layered complexities of systems layered on systems, designs that remain in flux throughout the product life cycle, exceptional demands on communication and coordination behaviour by teams and beyond.

VC view of current market

via @chrisjhorn on Twitter

...and Roger McNamee (Elevation Partners) 10 Hypotheses for Technology Investing (slidedeck) read.bi/x64V5L A MUST READ! :-)

James Whittaker's post "Why I left Google"

"The old Google was a great place to work. The new one?" fb.me/1ccardTdH