Take you foot off the pedals and enjoy the ride

We are in a time of creativity at the moment; every so often the technology industry goes through this. Prior to this we have had years of development of new technologies that while potentially useful few organisations have adopted. This could be because they didn't think it was the next big thing, when it has become, or simply they haven't had time to integrate it into their business of 'commonly used technologies'. Either way businesses are now up to speed and technologies such as C Sharp that appeared in 2001, are now being commonly used. Flash is a good example of a technology that was frowned upon a few years ago as it was a plug-in and may not be installed or enabled on a user's computer. Now it's used everywhere to stream video, quite different to what is was used for five years ago. We now have the power, the bandwidth and the tools to do pretty much what we like (for now) it's now up to the creative community to think up the next big thing, hopefully not yet another social networking website.

Back to the command line?

With the recent launch of Windows Vista I naturally have to investigate the new operating system. Not only does this mean playing around with the new features but also researching what the industry leaders are saying about it. One feature that struck me is the search function that seems to be popping up in all Microsoft software these days. These search boxes doesn't do what I originally thought; send you to the MSN internet search, No, if there is a list like on MSN messenger typing something in the search box filters the list with relevant results. This feature is also on the Vista start menu (No longer called that as there is no start button). Typing a program name for example displays the link to that program and also any folders that maybe associated with that search. This is a great feature and all the reviews of vista I have read have highlighted this but I have one small issue with it, isn't it just a command line? Type "word", press enter and MS Word loads… I guess this a nice well of pleasing the Unix console mob as well as the rest of us.

Is the world turning geeky?

The world has changed a lot since I started this game. We now receive hundreds of channels via our TV, the walkman has been upgraded to the ipod and we now find out about the world within seconds via the internet. Just a few examples of change, of course, but has it all been good? Prices of electrical goods have come down dramatically and everything seems to becoming ever so more glossy. With this gadgets have become disposable and spending £100 on a ‘toy' no longer takes lots of thought. The integration of technology in everybody's day to day life has resulted in a tech savvy world, but the question is has the stereotypes of techies also been integrated into society. People are more happy to txt than pick up the phone, and interact more with their xbox than their fellow friends. The expectation 10 years that everyone would be interacting with computers far more hasn't strictly become true. Yes we interact with computers but not in the form of a PC. Mobiles, MP3 Players, Navigation systems and TV digi boxes are most people's form of interaction however the principles are the same. The majority of the time technology is an antisocial form of recreation and entertainment, with a 1 to 1 ratio to the peace of kit being used. I can not say whether this is going to become a problem for tomorrow's world or whether it will create a very switched on world. We can only wait and see…

IPTV gets closer but watchdog stunts its growth

For about 2 years now the BBC has been developing and trailing the BBC integrated Media Player (iMP). Using peer to peer technologies the BBC will eventually offer its UK viewers the ability to download for free BBC shows to their computer for a limited time. The UK TV regulator has issued a report this week that recommends the 'limited time' to be reduced from 13 weeks to 14 days. The reason they give is it will have a "negative effect" on commercial rivals. Of course it will, but these services are extras to the commercial rivals and why shouldn't I be able to download BBC content that I have already paid for via my licence fee. It seems to me that it's another case where a regulator it stating it's in the “public interest” but really it's supporting a profit making-shareholder company. I can see the only reason why I would want to support such an organisation is if I was a shareholder. Channel 4 has already launched its equivalent called 4OD but charges around 99p for content. With my limited life on this planet I am starting to wonder whether monopolies are a good thing rather than bad. From what I have seen privatisation and general regulation just causes confusion and barriers for both consumers and the organisations concerned. This may be different for other countries and I have heard of large supermarket chains taking advantage of their power, but with a country as small as the UK, companies know how valuable their brand image is and that one slip up could cause a big loss in profits. The BBC does have an unfair advantage as it gets a steady income from the licence fee payer. However as everyone who watches TV is effetely a shareholder of the BBC how can it be in our interest that we should worry about commercial rivals? Now of course I can see how the competition is a good thing as it pushes the BBC to produce better content so in that respect I agree. But when you are talking about extra services however I believe the regulator has over stepped the line. I will be watching with great interest on this subject and I expect the BBC will compromise. Programs saved to my Sky+ PVR are normally deleted within the week of recording them so I doubt most people will want to save programs to their computer for 13 weeks anyway.

Happy New Year

BridTEC wishes you a happy 2007. It's a big year for BridTEC as we celebrate 10 Years of being “at the heart of technology” i.e. 10 Years with a web presents under the former Grahamsoft brand. The launch coincided with my first year at secondary school which at the time had one network room featuring Acorn computers. Then and now the technology was dated but with the internet generally not available in schools at the time we weren't missing out on anything. The Acorns provided us with all the software we needed for our education and in some cases where better than the PC based equivalent. A few years later the school was under pressure to upgrade but with a small budget buying 30 to 60 new PCs was out the question. Instead the school invested in a smart fill-in solution which was Citrix Metaframe. I am going to spare you from the details but basically it gave the school the ability to run a Windows terminal on the existing Acorn desktops. What was even better was that a Windows terminal could also run on old PCs that would normally be thrown out. The school purchased a number of cheap old PCs and all the classrooms where kitted out with them. This was a great solution which started my interest in computer networks and I later went on to teach myself Windows 2000/3 Server.

Time Management

As of September I have been working as a software engineer for a company that builds screen printing equipment. The company is a leader in its field and supplies circuit board printers to most of the major technology companies in the world. The job has been fantastic in giving me an insight of what the software engineer profession is all about. Being paid to do something you are good at and you enjoy is a great feeling and something you only dream about while you are struggling through tedious exams at school. However one unexpected problem has resulted from the nine to five working hours. Simply I have suddenly realised how many things I use to do in my spare time, and how much little spare time I now have. I feel my hobby time has rapidly been eroded and in the last 3 months I have done little towards my final year university project that by now I wanted the requirements to be completed. It has become apparent that better time management is in order if I wish to continue building the BridTEC brand, something that in the new year I hope to achieve.

Is the web killing software engineering?

I so love desktop applications, so rock solid and they do exactly what you want them to do. I have the totally opposite opinion of the web interface, having to click submit before a refresh of the page can occur seems so clunky me. Lucky so-called web 2.0 may fix my dislike towards the web, as it should offer real time updates using technologies such as Ajax. But I have deeper concerns of what developing for the web is doing to the definition of software engineering. As in any engineering there is a life cycle of the processes you have to do to go from start to end, or in most cases start to recurring support. When you build a house you have an architect who in software are the people who prepare the requirements, analysis and design documents. You also have the builders who in software are the programmers. If you build a shed without an architect you maybe able to just use the builders to construct a simple design and go onto build the shed. In majority of cases this happens in web development that on the whole works fine. My issue with this isn't what you would initially think, with the builder doing the work of many people and the possibility for that shed will fall down. No, my issue is that the team who are building sheds for the living get out of the development routine that would be required to build a grand hotel.
There is no doubt in my eyes that web development can become enormous but being realistic not every web developer is working on big projects and the majority are working on relevantly small ones. Now the trouble with techies, including myself is that we like to investigate and learn other technologies. This is meaning that true desktop application developers are cross-pollinating with web developers resulting in mixed disciplines of software development. This doesn't cause too many problems on the web side, the only issue maybe the projects are over engineered and run behind schedule. On the desktop application side is another story. Few applications I used on a day-to-day base aren't from one of the major software houses. Applications that I use that aren't from one of the big boys I would have a major issue with somewhere. The big software houses such as Microsoft enforce industry standard software techniques, which I believe is why I have no big issue with their applications. Where smaller developers applications' I believe, which I cannot directly prove, that the reason I have issues with their applications is because these developers come from the age where the ease of creation and deployment of web sites is predominate and this has eroded away the true software engineering discipline. This discipline is a main ingredient to good software and without it we see a future of inadequate software.