A list of decisions and such that I've had to make regarding the ongoing development of my companies web based help desk software. Mostly stuff I just need to get off my chest.
Where to start? - I always hate trying to figure out where to start. Do you do the underlying libraries, design, core functionality, wire frames, arghh.
The admin - Once you get going you almost always have to build the admin before you can go forward. Sure you have all kinds of great ideas for displaying help requests efficiently using this nifty widget, but guess what? You have to build 20 admin pages first in order to get stuff into your system to begin with and nothing is more boring than building admin pages.
Duplicate functions - Always great fun to discover you just spent 2 hours figuring out a different way to build a function you already created a month ago but forgot about.
Code reuse, hah - Sure you've built a page "just like this" a hundred times before but you can't really reuse that old code because now your using a different database abstraction or your templating differently or you don't know where you put that old code and it will take you longer to find or fix the old stuff than just writing it again.
Compatibility - Boy it's great Microsoft has several new browser competitors so I get to check everything on IE, FireFox,Safari, and Netscape cross-platform. (I exclusively use firefox but the business side of my brain still adds up the costs of checking all these)
*"How can it be, visitors must wonder. How can the richest country in the world look like this?
Oddly enough, it may not be a coincidence. Americans are good at some things and bad at others. We're good at making movies and software, and bad at making cars and cities. And I think we may be good at what we're good at for the same reason we're bad at what we're bad at. We're impatient. In America, if you want to do something, you don't worry that it might come out badly, or upset delicate social balances, or that people might think you're getting above yourself. If you want to do something, as Nike says, just do it."* - (Made in USA) - A very interesting read from Paul Graham
Want a good feel for the internet and society conf? Read Jeff Jarvis. This guy is literally a bundle of energy. In every section he was asking the the best questions with the most enthusiasm.
In the tools and hardware session. First 30 minutes is people showing off their tools and projects. Kind of an interesting idea. A great chance to show off your stuff in front of a who's who crowd. Nothing too great yet :-( IMHO
Tonight I attended the food for thought dinner with 12 very interesting folks. OK food and good conversation. I've never really had dinner before with bloggers or other people I only know from the internet. It's an odd experience. I've been reading Dave Winer's weblog, Scripting News, for 2-3 years and it's weird to be able to start a conversation in the middle. I know almost everything that's happened to this guy over the past 3 years but he doesn't know anything about me. It was very interesting and we talked alot about Podcasting, Adam Curry, and the new company.
Then across the table was Craig Newmark of craigslist fame. Just a normal guy. He almost seemed uncomfortable with the fact that he is "craig". We talked alot about the legal environment and it's impact on craigslist and the stuff that keeps him up at night. We also talked a little about some of their technology. Apparently the list is Linux/Apache/Mod Perl. I can't remember the DB, I think it was MySQL.
The ride home was interesting. Dave, Craig, and me got a ride to the hotel from one of the other folks at dinner (I can't remember her name). She has this little old boxy BMW 2 door so me(6'4") and Dave(6'4" ish) squeezed in the back and Craig was in the front. It was a sort of surreal experience being squeezed in this little car with these guys I really admire. I mean hey the guy who invented RSS, the guy who started craigslist and me! Boooinnggg
Update: As per Craig below her name was Betsy and they use MySQL. Thanks Craig.
Today we have live Wifi. Right now I'm in the Podcasting session with Tony Kahn. Lots of good stuff. Notes:
Can't get the lights to all work
Tony can't get his mac notebook to talk to the screen so he's doing without. He's making a good point about problems with "high tech" in the 21st century.
Going through a sample of various podcasts. Really really funny. Adam Curry, sports cast, geek news central, dawn and drew, lots of others I don't know.
I'm here at the Internet and Society conference in Boston USA. Great first night forum with Joe Trippi and Michael Turk. Very good discussion about the Internet, Politics, the use of the Internet for communication and empowerment. Very good stuff. I'm going to try and blog it all day tomorrow.
If your in town I suggest the meatloaf at John Harvards:
CLASSIC GRILLED MEATLOAF WITH MASHED POTATOES
Brushed with our housemade barbecue sauce and finished with gravy, crispy fried onions.
$8.95