Apr 05
David MartinezUncategorized Mac
Well, I mentioned I'd attach a bluetooth keyboard to the iPad to try it out and that's exactly what I did. The results are better than with the regular keyboard but still not ideal.
Of course typing with a real keyboard is going to feel great. The problem is that it's just field typing. On most of the apps, tabs don't work to move from field to field, and the PageUp/PageDown keys on the small apple bluetooth keyboard (Fn and Up/Down) are not wired in at all.
All the media function keys, however (from the brightness controls of F1&2 to the media and volume controls on F7 through F12) work fine. Which underscores the idea that this is a media consumption device more than a production device.
Mar 11
David MartinezUncategorized agile, software
As a software writer, I download a lot of sample software. In the software world, most people are good about working with their community, and the way you conduct yourself in business matters a lot. This is why I was so amazed to receive this today.
More
Jan 28
David MartinezUncategorized
Found this on my "fortune" program today:
"Computer literacy is a contact with the activity of computing deep enough to make the computational equivalent of reading and writing fluent and enjoyable. As in all the arts, a romance with the material must be well under way. If we value the lifelong learning of arts and letters as a springboard for personal and societal growth, should any less effort be spent to make computing a part of our lives?"
-- Alan Kay, "Computer Software", Scientific American, September 1984
Fantastic!
Jun 25
David MartinezUncategorized gadgets, Mac
ZDNet published an article on How to avoid receiving an $837.20 iPhone bill which is very much worth reading. Here are some of my Strategies when traveling internationally with an iPhone
More
Mar 10
David MartinezUncategorized
I am now using Twitter again. I am hackerdude, of course. Come join the fun!
Dec 18
David MartinezUncategorized
Here are some thoughts on success by Steve Jobs, prompted by a question asked at the D5 conference where he had a joint interview with Bill Gates. The whole thing is worth watching, or listening to, or reading the transcripts but this is relevant if you work in this business.
More
Nov 28
David MartinezUncategorized
I set up instiki locally for my own notes and I needed to get it to start automatically in a proper way. I found an excellent tip on how to create launchd items using the property list editor. Works like a charm.
Now I even made a web clipping dashboard widget with the homepage of my instiki on localhost. Awesome.
Oct 10
David MartinezUncategorized
I do consulting and sometimes I deal with different clients/projects. This requires a bit of compartmentalized thinking, but I still like to do it fast without having to endlessly tweak my setup. By now I have evolved a way to set up a new customer (when I get a whole new project) on my Mac. This discusses my filters, calendars, and other programs. So this is basically my cheatsheet.
More
Sep 27
David MartinezUncategorized
I do love my iPhone. But.. I'm writing this while commuting on an underground train, of course without a connection. And of course there's Airplane mode. Being out of the country. There's a million reasons to need to use the iPhone disconnected.
You just can't tell me that, since the programming model is fully on the web, that I cannot use my apps when not connected. People's brains just don't work like that. It's a major cognitive dissonance that of the 12 main menu options on the machine, 5 don't work unless you are connected at the time.
So a "real" programming model, with a rich language and apps that get downloaded to the machine and store their data locally simply makes sense.
I mean, this machine has 8Gb of storage, for crying out loud.
At least my Blackberry was smart enough to know when it was disconnected and would save the request for when it connected again (so it could show me the pages on the message viewer). I missed that today.
Aug 10
David MartinezUncategorized interviewing
Interviewing is difficult. Technical vetting is even more difficult. You only have an hour to determine if the person knows his/her salt.
I've been doing a lot of these lately, and I seem to be getting slightly better at them. In my worry to make sure we don't hire the wrong people, I eventually settled with this as a way to break the ice and start talking difficult problems. I call it the mind map method of technical vetting, or the Mind map approach to interviewing.
The problem
Basically, you only have an hour or two to completely technically vet someone on what may be 20 years of experience. Even if you yourself are very smart, there's simply not enough bandwidth in the world to guarantee a level of competency. And certifications are usually no help, because none of the stuff in there tends to relate to real world experience for your particular type of position.
The other problem is that the candidate is likely to be nervous at their best and sometimes plain scared out of their wits - even if they're the perfect candidate. Not exactly conducive to your best thought processes. You don't want to skip someone just because they're nervous or the shy type.
So what to do? A little workshop with a mind map.
I thought about this originally when I interviewed a now-coworker. So he helped me test-drive it. Maybe part of the success is that it worked the first time I tried it? Anyway, I've been using it for a little while now on the technical vettings and it seems to have worked so far.
technorati tags:
interviewing
More
Older Entries
RSS