Technical & Software Blog – ssims.co.uk

The Oracle lawsuit against Google for infringement of various software patents has sparked huge debate about software based litigation and indeed prompted many to question the overall nature of the software industry in relation to the context of the world in which we live.

At the crux of all major issues relating to the advancement of technology, which today is synonymous with software, is the chasm between those that know the business of software, those that understand development of software and everyone else. The more specialised and complex technologies become, the fewer people there will be that really understand them. Very soon there could come a point where it is absolutely pointless trying to legislate on anything to do with software, because no-one who invents laws, enforces them and legally represents people regarding the laws will understand what it is they’re trying to preside over.

This divide not only presents legal issues. The direction and effectiveness of future technologies are driven by people who work in the software industry – for better or for worse. Governments cannot hope to control their own systems if they do not employ people who have experience of the software industry. If they do not do this, then they run the risk of spending vast sums of money on systems that they have no idea will actually do what they want, if indeed they know what they want in the first place. Needless spending could become astronomical, and security flaws would become inevitable.

To my knowledge, it is said by Buddhists that if only a small number of beings exist on Earth who are currently enlightened then the world will be kept from destruction. The prevailing feeling is that there may come a time when this theory is to be tested in the sense that if only a handful of people in the world really understand software, the world may continue to prosper for a while, but if the number diminishes even slightly, it will instead crumble.

There is however an alternative to this future which can be seen. If computing and software are demystified by a more thorough focus on it in the education systems than currently exists, then perhaps the future generations will have a deeper understanding of software. The lawyers of the future need to understand software, the business people of the future need to understand software, governments of the future need to to understand software, and it would be of benefit to many more individuals around the world to better understand software. For this to happen the world needs to recognise that software development is not something that can only be learnt by attending lectures in computer science, years of software business experience, or by sitting in front of a computer for unhealthy amounts of time every day. Of course all those things help to becoming a good software developer, but to gain at least some understanding doesn’t require such dedication. In fact software development can be viewed as a mixture of problem solving skills (systems analysis and software engineering) and practical skills (programming). Software engineering and programming itself is something one can learn much about through simple practice. Theory of course helps one to gain a very deep understanding of the subject matter, but it is not essential.

Its no longer advisable for people to separate themselves from trying to understand software by claiming that it doesn’t involve them. Most people use software every day, and are in some capacity part of the software development process whether they realise it or not; their expectations and goals drive development. Project managers oversee software development, business users decide what they want out of software and end-users report bugs in software. But very rarely do these categories of people ever think about really what it is the software does, where it comes from and the platform on which it runs. At best some can outline the general principle of the software, usually by recognising the end result they get out of it. This leads to the kind of pseudo-technical speak that you hear described in marketing pitches for software and software patents. Unfortunately this type of talk obscures the real underlying technologies.

Think how restricting a world it would be if every profession were a black-box, just as software is to many people today. Imagine if we had no idea what it was a plumber did, could never figure out how a car works, and could not prepare a meal unless we were a chef. Think how much power each ‘professional’ would have over everyone else. Perhaps this will give a taste of how liberating it might be just to know that little bit about how software works.

I suppose the real challenge to tackle is the fact that software is dealing with the ‘virtual’ – telling a computer how to do stuff, often things that as intelligent sentient beings we may take for granted. The only advantage of computing power over human effort is that, if we can figure out how to tell them to do something, they can do it for us. As software is not a tangible physical thing, asking someone to try to understand it might to some seem as difficult as asking them to understand how a persons brain might work. But this is making more out of what it really is. Just like building something physical, software is made of nuts and bolts and tools can be used to put it all together. There’s no magic in it, and that’s the simple belief that allows some people to become accomplished programmers. Its just a little hurdle to overcome, which if everyone progresses beyond we may just find will stop software from drifting away from everything else.

Although this may be somewhat morbid subject matter, it is an important issue relating to todays socially networked and internet centric culture in highly developed countries.

To begin with you might think that the fact that your online presence is likely to outlive you is a somewhat comforting one – after all most people would like to think they would leave behind some form of legacy when they die. And of course people can pay their respects by emailing relatives from anywhere in the world, creating tribute web pages and leaving facebook messages etc. However it is worth considering that for some people an enduring reminder of a loved one’s death may not in fact be very comforting, particularly if they died in tragic circumstances. I recently read an article about two obviously very bright but also terribly troubled researchers in the field of Artificial Intelligence. Both sadly commited suicide around a similar time a few years ago, although neither of the events were linked or seemingly related. Both these bright young people most likely believed strongly in the great ability of the internet to allow ones achievements to live on. But you have to wonder whether, for the families and friends that were affected, certain reminders of such tragic events are quite painful to have to deal with.

Not only can other people leave both positive and negative comments about a person online, social networking sites like facebook that are not under the full control of the family or friends present issues like dealing with the removal of personal information, and stopping unsensitive things happening such as ‘suggestion’ type services which ask one to interact in some way with a person who is no longer alive.

As life with a heavy online presence becomes increasingly normalised, the superficial advantages on the surface give way to expose some much more serious issues which we deal with on a fairly regular basis in real life but which are uncharted territory on the internet.

This all links in with the privacy debate surrounding the internet as a whole which I feel is set to become one of the huge legal and political issues relating to the computing and technology industry, and I can only hope that such issues are not ignored by software giants, policy makers and politicians and the public at large in favour of the reward offered by advancing the online world.

It’s important to be aware of your productivity at work and the factors that can affect it. I thought I’d share some tips I find particularly useful as a software developer to be aware of, although these can apply to countless other jobs.

Any work can be potentially mentally taxing, but software development can be a particularly cerebral activity requiring a lot of concentration. Every programmer will know how difficult it is sometimes to juggle system architectures, models and concepts as well as more specific programming language related constructs and syntax. The complexity of these tasks can be comparable to solving mathematics problems and manipulating scientific theorems. Any intense thought processes take their toll on your energy and occupy your mind, and the more they do so the more difficult solving problems can become. When you add into the equation any work or home related stress and project deadlines that may crop up,  this can become all a bit much and even affect your wellbeing. Here are some tips for keeping your head fresh at work that hopefully may prove useful:

• Take regular breaks – this is probably the single most important piece of advice to follow to increase productivity and your wellbeing too. It can be difficult to adhere to this particularly when a problem presents itself, however this is exactly the sort of situation where a break is most beneficial. If you can arrange to have a short break every hour or two, it will help to alleviate fatigue and can give you a fresh look at your work. Sometimes seeing a problem from a new perspective is exactly what you need to advance with your work.
• Make notes – no matter how intelligent you are there is a limit to the amount of information you can keep in your head at any one time. The chances are that the more you try to remember, the more things you will as a consequence forget. It’s much better to make a few notes either electronically or physically to remind you of things you need to do or be mindful of in relation to your work. Sketching diagrams and scribbling down your ideas can also help where design is required or you are having trouble understanding something in particular.
• Communicate – this is both important to do in order to share ideas and obtain assistance from others, but also simply to keep socially active and avoid feeling isolated from your colleagues. Software development can often be a somewhat solitary activity where words are rarely spoken amongst people. However for most people, the less you interact with your work peers the less pleasant your work environment may seem to be. The odd conversation can help to lighten the mood and boost your confidence in the work you are doing.
• Pay attention to your working environment – this one is carefully worded because there are several potential issues here. Firstly, the physical surroundings in which you work can have a big impact on how you get on at work and your feelings about your job as a whole. An ideal environment for many developers would probably resemble their own desks in their own rooms at their own homes. Really what I’m saying is that its a matter of personal preference and so any opportunity to improve your surroundings to your liking should probably be taken. If you feel comfortable and relaxed you’re probably going to work better as a result. Also though, there are aspects of your work environment beyond your control and so it is worth being aware of how you feel about these aspects. These external environmental factors can be poignant enough to make you feel very negative about things. If this is, or has become, the case then you really need to monitor the situation and consider your options to improve the situation or remove yourself from it entirely. Remember that work is not a selfless act, you do it in expectation of something in return, and if it is not providing for you what you need in any particular aspect it is time to consider moving on.
• Monitor your physical and mental wellbeing – these things are affected by so many factors I could not possibly list all the things to watch out for. But be aware that everything from your working hours to your diet and leisure/hobby activities can affect your physical and your mental health. It is easy when you’re working hard to ignore how you are feeling personally and your health in general. However one of the most important things in your life is your health so you need to avoid causing yourself any harm and take any problems you may be experiencing seriously and talk to a doctor about them.

At times you may have to actually force yourself to be mindful of these things, it is easy to forget or ignore them – we all do it! However it is worth it in the long run to be happy when you’re not at work and at the very least content as often as possible when you’re at work. And the more this is the case, the more productive you’re likely to be.

Unless you’re someone that actually writes and benefits from these things, you could look at the vast quantity of unsolicited rogue bots and web crawlers as a huge nuisance. However even if you are on the receiving end of such unrelenting software, you could also view it as an opportunity to turn the situation on its head. It occurs to me that like any website that bots may themselves hack in order to extract or publish information, one could develop a website or web application to hack the bots themselves in a multitude of ways.

Now I’m not suggesting for one second that someone cause malicious damage this way (hacking in my dictionary defines a very wide set of computing practices, not necessarily with bad intentions). However there are interesting possibilities with this kind of reverse hacking, including spam prevention, SEO manipulation, and identification of bots and their method of operation.

Personally I don’t have the time or need at the moment to investigate these possibilities, but I thought I’d provide some food for thought – nuisance bots could actually be a useful resource.

By now really, much as I have a dislike for gimmicks, I cannot deny that mobile devices are a ubiquitous part of everyday life. Nearly everyone in the UK has a computer on their person, and that computer is likely to have a powerful processor, an updatable Operating System, numerous pieces of software, several databases, some form of internet access and probably many other features.  These things are useful in a multitude of ways, and I think the real test as to whether they are a pointless gimmick or not depends on the user’s usage of the features.

What is somewhat frustrating though is that because mobile devices reach such a wide audience, they often fail to accommodate for a particular section of society. Most mobiles are marketed at the broadest range of individuals as possible, and as such attempt to do everything they possibly can as well as possible, prioritising only the features that appeal to the majority of the market. This leaves people with an amount of choice that is paradoxically both incredibly broad but also guilty of not catering enough for specific niches. Why do we need a netbook that touts potential for ‘multimedia’ usage as well as internet usage? Some folks might be quite content surfing the web and reading plain old text without watching videos as well! And the two are a very different purpose: compare e-readers with iphones (and ipads) – the design is deliberately different. So why are there hardly any web-readers? At best one can find a handful of  good quality ‘Mobile Internet Devices’ which aren’t phones and don’t focus on multimedia delivery.

I’m not against mobiles that can do everything, but sometimes I might want to buy a product for a more specific purpose – because a phone just can’t do everything as well as a product designed for a specific purpose.

On the software side, I agree that people want choice more than anything. But the problem is real choice isn’t a lock-in operating system or an App Store which is designed to turn the people who made the hardware a tidy profit. I’m happy to pay for software but I want to feel I’ve chosen the software, not that someone’s chosen it for me. And I want to at least have the option to tweak under the hood, and again if necessary I’d pay a small premium for an optional OS that offered such flexibility.

Its a shame that because the success of different types of mobile devices is driven by the mass target market, new innovation tends to emerge rarely. When it does happen it often becomes quickly absorbed into the ever-growing list of features that any new mobile device seems to have to implement in some way. Using this mobile features ‘checklist’ to develop new products gets in the way of any really creative developments which come from trying to solve a more specific problem on its own, or implement something in a better way by focusing entirely on it. I can only hope that more specific mobile devices will co-exist and thrive alongside their more all-encompassing cousins.

So a general election has been called in the UK and party political campaigns are well underway, which has made me think about many issues related to how I will use my own vote.

In the back of my mind though there is a subset of these issues that is entirely related to my line of work, and they’re growing concerns that are unlikely to be mentioned much in the run up to the election.  The government can have an impact on the software industry and vice versa in a number of ways:

• Governments regulate the way businesses operate and are instrumental to passing, maintaining and enforcing laws relating to issues such as intellectual property (a contentious issue in software)
• Software development for government funded organisations is largely contracted out to private software companies, sometimes to disastrous results
• In an increasingly inter-connected world software security means national security

One of the most important issues over which I feel government could affect change is the wasted spending on scrapped software projects. Software that is designed, developed and deployed in the correct manner can actually save money by improving business processes and reducing administration costs. But all too often government organisations such as county councils, the national health service and the ministry of defense have been seduced by software companies that plainly have been unable to deliver. These canned projects account for millions of pounds of loss due to:

• Lack of understanding of what is required, of how to approach the problem and of the technology involved itself
• Over-optimistic estimates of the time and monetary costs as well as under-estimating the skills and expertise required
• Poorly thought out system design and architecture
• … the list goes on

What I feel the government and government organisations really need are experienced people who can understand the software development process and have some understanding of modern software technologies so they can recognise what they require and can determine whether a consultancy can deliver.

The more you think about it, the more numerous other issues where software and government policy meet seem. Security is another key area that is and will increasingly become important. It is not a sensationalist view to assume that the internet is now seen as a platform for criminals to operate, and indeed on which to organise and carry out attacks.

Perhaps one day soon the government will need a whole new department of people who are part software expert, part politician. I’m in favour of such a development in government if it means there is someone there to make intelligent, rational decisions about the strategy under which software is employed in government organisations.