Category: Archive

I “ll teach Flex 3 class on June 2 ndash;6, 2008 in New York City. Details at http://www.faratasystems.com/?page_id=46

My e-book (PDF) “Enterprise Software Without the BS ” soon will be available for free download.

What “s this book about?

Several years ago I was thinking about buying a gas station in my local town. I went to my friend Gregory Zaltsberg, a successful businessman in this field, and asked him, “How do I start a gasoline business? ” He gave me simple but wise advice:

You know nothing about gasoline, but know a lot about computers.

Keep doing what you ‘re doing. Just do it a little better than others.

I followed his advice and remained in field of Information Technologies, or to be more specific, Enterprise IT. was always interested in observing human relations in the IT business:

Why some people are more successful than others.

In which ways are some people a little “better rdquo; than others?

Why people fail job interviews?

Will IT outsourcing hurt your career?

What “s a reasonable salary for a person with YOUR skills living in YOUR geographical area?

Are there underpaid or overpaid people?

How often should you change employers?

Do you even want to have an employer or would you rather work as an IT contractor?

Do you want your child to be a programmer?

How to publish your book?

Me coming to America.

What “s one of the main motivations of innovations in the corporate world?

Prior to this one, I “ve written technical books, which did not make me richer financially, but definitely served my IT career. I do not expect that the book you are about to read will be become New York Times bestseller (actually, I lie ndash; I do expect this otherwise why even bother?). This e-book gives you somewhat different perspective of the day to day life of enterprise software developers.

Since this is an electronic book and is not available in a printed edition, I have the luxury of updating it with new materials in the future. If you have an interesting story of how you became an IT person, please get in touch with me.

This e-book won “t give you the answers to all your career questions, but it summarizes my observations formed during my 25+ years of wearing different hats in the Enterprise IT. The odds are that you will not agree with some of my observations, or find some of them cynical or even insulting. But this is how I see things today, in 2008, in the greater New York metropolitan area.

We keep complaining that in American colleges enrollment in Computer Science colleges is on decline. At least we are complaining, but the College Board of U.S. Teachers is simply making the things worse. Just read this article in Washington Post.

Now, high school kids will be getting even less chances to enroll in the advanced placement Computer Science programs. American College Board has eliminated Computer Science AB program in schools, since it has low enrollment. Latin Literature, French Literature, and Italian are as unpopular as Computer Science.

And the College Board just finds the easy way out, “If kids do not want it, we “ll kill it “. Sure, it “s a lot easier than making it more appealing to students.

In the unlikely event if your elementary school kid will decide to pursue IT career in the future, you “ll have no other choice but sending him/her to Bangalore for studying Computer Science.

My congratulations to India that is clearly winning in the battle for becoming an IT world leader!

Can I have a beer, please?

In May, I “m going to India to present at a conference. Looking forward to see this country. Tickets are purchased. Need to get visa. I “m traveling a lot, and most of the countries allow US Citizen in without visas as the chances are slim that Americans will try seek political asylum anywhere else. Not a biggie ndash; as per the consulate Web page, this can be done by mail.

But hellip;I “ve learned that visa is peanuts comparing to what I need to do before visiting this beautiful country. I need to take vaccinations to avoid yellow fever, Hepatitis B, Japanese Encephalitis, Rabies, Influenza, Polio, and Malaria. And getting these shots seems to be a lengthy process.Dr. Razavi is kind enough to describe the entire process of preparing for my short travel.

Another document states that if I do not I have these shots done, I may be placed for six days into some facility for quarantine or something.

It goes without saying that I should never drink water if it “s not commercially bottled. Ideally, I should not eat too to avoid severe diarrhea. In particular, I was told to never even try fish and dairy products (I like ice cream). Another advice was to take a bottle of vodka and drink a little bit of it daily to detox my body.

This business trip is slowly turning into a really interesting adventure hellip;

If you are evaluating which technology to use for your next rich Internet financial application, do not miss a one day event Flex on Wall Street that will take place in New York City on April 18, 2008. This is your chance to meet with real-world practitioners who have been using Adobe Flex for developing financial systems and can address your concerns and help you in making a Deal/No Deal decision.

I ‘ll be presenting there too and will be glad to talk with you personally about your RIA plans.

I did not list these companies in the order of importance, but each of them is a part of my daily routines, and it “s going to stay this way for a while.

Microsoft

During the last 20 years, when I turn on my computer it displays the familiar logo of Windows OS. Isn “t it something? Can you name any other software which became a fabric of life of so many people around the world and has such longevity? I can “t. Microsoft is also the most popular object for bashing. Programmers of all nations love to hate Microsoft. They “d give you some technical reasons trying to explain why Windows sucks while Linux or Unix or Mac rules.

While I can often understand technical reasons for not liking a specific feature of Windows, I do not accept the amount of anger in most of the blogs or articles writing about them. IMO, there are two main reasons for such anger:

a) In the nineties, MS was attracting the best programmers in the world, and it would give a warm feeling to an average Joe when he could point at bugs or design issues in Windows;

b)Bill Gates is a filthy rich person and Joe is not.

The freedom of blogs allows everyone to proclaim something like, “Bill Gates sucks rdquo;. For some people it became a daily habit like brushing teeth.

I “m not a Microsoft developer. I know that Microsoft is not a kosher company when it comes to running business (who is?). But I always remember that Microsoft is a part of my life one way or the other, and I give them a credit for this.

Sun Microsystems

Back in 1998, I was programming in PowerBuilder and was looking to make a move to another field. It was a kind of a jumping the sinking ship situation. This ship was not exactly sinking at that time, but I was an independent contractor and was looking for a way to maximize my hourly rate. PowerBuilder as all other programming tools or languages are just the tools, and I try not to get emotionally attached to them. If it does the job, fine. If there is a better tool for the job ndash; just use it. Do not fall in love with a programming language. You can “t love a screwdriver, can you? Do not love something that can “t love you back.

Anyway, I switched to Java and do not regret it. Today Java is a backbone of most of the enterprise IT shops, which makes me feel home in so many working places. For many years Java put bread and butter on my family “s table, and this is something that can “t and won “t be forgotten. And my family is just one of the millions and millions of homes that make a better living than in a pre-Java times. Let alone families ndash; countries. Java brought such a huge country as India to a different level of their history. For thousands of people in India Java gave a chance to break out from poverty, to break the written in stone caste laws that stated that if you were born to a family of a street vendor, you did not have a chance to move to a higher society.

I remember Raj Kapoor movies from my childhood hellip; Most of these movies had pretty much the same plot ndash; a poor guy working in the factory falls in love with a beautiful girl (with a sexy belly) from a rich family. Her parents would never allow a marriage with this low caste guy. The entire movie theater was in tears. If only Raj knew Java! He “d go to America, made some serious dough and would have come back to his loved one in white Toyota Camry (remember the ending of Pretty Woman with Richard Gere?)

Seriously, Java affected my life in a very positive way. These days it lost its glamour, people are complaining that it “s not sexy anymore, it “s obese and has cellulite. Maybe. But I still like it and respect Sun for giving us such a solid product.

Google

Its search engine is sooooo fast that it changes the way I do things. I never counted, but I go to google.com at least fifty times a day. Google makes everything a click away. Need to find help for the API you are currently using? Google will respond faster that the IDE of this API that is installed on your local hard disk. Want to purchase a dog that has long years, one leg longer than other and blue eyes? Google will connect you with the right breeder in another part of the world in split of a second. Need to send a $1000-an-hour prostitute to your hotel room in Washington? Go to google.com. I like gourmet food, and a couple of Zagat guides that rate restaurants are sitting on my book shelf. But, why standing up and making a step toward the book case to pick this Zagat if I can go to Google and get up to date info about dining places?

BTW, was there life before Google maps? How people would find places without it?

How about this simple and smart advertising business model that was overlooked by Microsoft that was positive that the only way to make money was selling licenses?

Last year I got a call from Google “s recruiter asking if I wanted to apply for a job there. I did not apply for a simple reason ndash; did not feel like going through their humiliating interviewing routine what a 25-year old kids would ask me question like, “How would you count all lakes in the USA? rdquo;. I “m embarrassed to admit, but I have no idea how to count these freaking lakes. Just do not want to fail the interview. But Google is da man, and I really like the fact that it “s a part of my life.

Adobe

Three years ago I knew that Adobe is a little company that created a PDF Reader and a couple of tools for photo hobbyists and illustrators.

Two and a half years ago they “ve purchased yet another small company that had a couple of little known overpriced tools for Web developers and a player for Internet banners and skip-intro pages. After the merger, a new version and new pricing policy for their tool Flex was announced, and it was clear to me that this is the best Web API for server side Java applications.

Two years ago I was writing a book about use of Flex; my two co-authors and I have founded a company to help enterprises develop rich Internet applications that include Flex. This is a good example of technology driving business. Today, more and more companies realize that Flex is the best choice for RIA, but we had a good nose and were one of the first adopters of this technology, which opens up a market for us that will only get bigger and bigger. Flex allowed to add a little of black caviar to Java “s bread and butter. Do you want to share this dinner with me?

Farata Systems

This company is influencing my life for a simple reason – I am one of the founders of this small software development and consulting boutique. In my rather long programming career several times I either had an idea of developing some product, or I was approached by other programmers, “Hey, I “ve got this idea – let “s develop such-and-such program together. It “ll sell like hot cakes rdquo;. I was always rejecting these offers understanding that the main word in a life cycle of any product is “sell rdquo;. You can have the greatest idea in the world, you can even implement it, but selling the software is an art that must be backed by some substantial and often expensive PR and marketing. But two years ago I broke the rule, and we “ve created this company. We have our own software, we consult, we write, we hire and manage people, we speak at the conferences promoting our services and software products. We are building a brand, which is a time consuming but interesting job.

There is a lot of good software companies out there, and each person has his favorites. I listed mine and wish all of them success and prosperity.

Fast spreading rich Internet applications require new skills for development of what was known as boring-looking enterprise applications. In the past, development of the user interface was done by software developers to the best of their design abilities. A couple of buttons here, a grid there, gray background. There users were happy cause they did not see any better. The application delivers the data ndash; what else to wish for? Enterprise business users are not spoiled and works with whatever is available ndash; they need to take care of their business. It is what it is. Is it really? Not anymore. I “ve seen excellent (from the UI perspective) functional specs for financial applications made by professional designers. Business users slowly but surely become first-class citizens! The trend is clear: developer “s art does not cut it anymore. You need to hire a professional Web designer for your next Web application.

The vendors of the tools for RIA development recognize this trend and are trying to bring designers and developers closer to each other. But the main RIA tools vendors, Adobe and Microsoft, face different issues.

Adobe is a well known name among creative people (Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash) and now they are trying to convince developers that they have something for them in the store (Flex, AIR).

Adobe is trying to win developers hearts, but does not want to scare designers either. In addition to various designer-only tools, they are developing a tool called Thermo that will allow designers create Web application without knowing how to program.

Microsoft comes quite from the opposite side ndash; they have legions of faithful .Net developers, and now are creating tools as a part of the Silverlight offering trying to convince designers to create UI for RIA in Expression Design and Expression Blend IDEs that produce code for .Net developers.

Recently, I “ve attended an interesting event for educators. Adobe has invited professors from different schools discussing what has to change in the curriculum of Visual Design and Software Engineering disciplines so designers can understand programming better and software developers would be a better at designing user experience. In my opinion, it “s a complex and not necessarily achievable goal.

Do we need to breed new creatures called d-e-s-i-g-n-o-p-e-r and d-e-v-i-g-n-e-r?

I do not think so. Developers are from Mars, designers are from Venus. I know this first hand. My son has graduated from School of Visual Arts majoring in classic animation. I am a software developer. We are people from different planets even though he is my son. Several times I “ve approached him offering to teach him Flex programming so he could have double his income. He rejects saying that it “s boring to sit in front of the computer all day writing code. He does not find boring spending hours drawing or animating, go figure.

No one will be able to make me a good artist either.

If I “d be staffing a RIA project I “d rather hire two different talents ndash; a creative person and a Web developer hellip;budget permitting. But if the money is tight, I lsquo;ll have to bring on board either designoper or devigner.

Yakov Fain, developer

Today is the first day of the AJAXWorld conference that takes place in New York City at the Roosevelt hotel. I was delivering a talk comparing various technologies for creation of rich Internet applications. The room was packed. People were sitting on the floor. This is an yet another evidence of the growing interest to RIA among enterprise management and developers.

On this photo I ‘m with the creator of Sys-Con Media, a publisher of lots of technology magazines and books, Fuat Kircaali.

This was the first time I ‘ve included into the list of the RIA players a little known product called Curl. Even though this language was created in MIT, it ‘s mainly used in Japan. I had a chance to spend an hour with Curl folks today, and it seems that this language may be a good fit for RIA that require solid processing power on the client. I need to spend more time studying this language to form an opinion about this language Curl.

Today, besides AJAXWorld, Roosevelt hotel hosted sort of a job fair for the Bear Stern employees who all of a sudden lost their jobs. I ‘m sure you know that this Wall Street giant was purchased by JP Morgan for a price of a good football player. A friend of mine has overheard a conversation between two of the Bear ‘s people. You might find it interesting.

“Man, I lost a lot of money last week, but I ‘m still OK ”

“Me too, but John ‘s broke. He ‘s lost everything and now he ‘s down to his last ten millions “.

Isn ‘t it cute?

In the USA, your profession often suggests what car to drive. Lawyers, doctors and real estate agents drive luxury cars to make a statement that they are successful. But if you are a software programmer, in general it ‘s not a good idea to drive a luxury car to work. Other people driving Toyota Corolla ‘s won ‘t say anything, but they won ‘t like it. Ten years ago I was working for a small company, and the owner, supposedly educated person, simply said, “All Lexus owners are assholes “. As simple as that.

Last year I was working with a very good programmer who was driving Mercedes S600 to work, which I think was wrong (he bought it used though). A guy driving S600 and coding in a cubicle looks as strange to me as these women in New York subways with Louis Vuitton bags purchased for $20 in China Town. Things have to match.

But currently I work for a client, where half of the parking lot consists of Mercedes cars driven by regular people like you and me. While Google offers their employees car wash on premises, these people enjoy discounted car prices, inexpensive short term leases, test drives of luxury cars for a couple of days. They work for a company called Mercedes Benz USA.

In the hall of the company you can often find the cars that you won ‘t see on the streets. For example, here ‘s me pretending to be a race car driver next to a sport model of MB McLaren. This upgraded model cost about $1M and has a reinforced 670 horse power engine and bald wheels. No cup holders of fancy leather inside.

While the original consumer ‘s model shown below has only 617 horses.

There is this popular Web site where former classmates register to find people they did not see for 20-30 years. They upload their photos. Often people pose next to a nice car or in a luxury Carribean hotel to show that they are doing good. There was a funny post on that Web site asking people to stop taking pictures by expensive cars cause it makes it harder to figure out the real financial status of the person. For simplicity, the poster suggested to post photos next to your yearly income tax return statement.

Since I can ‘t upload my photo with McLaren there, this blog is the only place where it belongs.

Here ‘s a little web page that I created last year and use daily – in the car, in the office or at home. These are the Internet radio stations that I listen to.

Hope you like it. I ‘d appreciate if you could share with me what are your favorites.