ralovely » ralovely

The best of both worlds

ralovely — Wed, 23 May 2007 21:33:46 +0000

Though I don't see myself as a programer, I still do program and learn programing a lot.
I evolve in the LAMP sphere (or should I say MAMP…), and I really dig PHP. It's simple, has a really wide community (even became mainstream according to O'Reilly) and allow quick-and-dirty scripting as well as well-planned-and-thorough coding. I don't use a framework yet, even if CakePHP seems a good one.
But for two or three rears now, the buzz was elsewhere. And, as an early adopter, I must say, I can't stay indifferent to the buzz.
The buzz is with Ruby. Or to be a little more specific, it's with Ruby On Rails, the Ruby frameworks.
The Rails framework is the pure-genius-creation of a bunch of guys at 37signals (more on them later… stay tuned!.. Check their blog meanwhile . It's really impressive and well thought.
So, I decided to give it a try.
First, because it's on fire right now, but most of all because it's really (really) impressive (Am I repeating myself here ?).
I'm not saying that I'm switching my main language. But following an advice that seems wise to me (though not really always practical), learning other languages can teach a lot more than just that (the advice is from Pragmatic Programmers, and tell you to learn a language a year).
Ruby is a real Object Oriented Language, and PHP, since v.5 is becoming one.
Learning Ruby will be a great way to improve my PHP skills.
There are many resources on Ruby and Rails. I'll only point here, Google will do the rest.
Oh!, go see these very neat screencasts too.

The Thing with Apple

ralovely — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 22:50:53 +0000

Ironic: we’re getting used to being amazed by Apple technologies and designs.

But everybody seems to miss one of the true genius part of their designs : Evolution.
Every time they upgrade a product, the previous one seems ugly and old, and the new one sexy.
They change very little things, but it changes everything.

If – as I am – you’re lucky enough to access many different generations of Macs and Apple-branded products, you can’t miss it.
iMacs, iPods, iBooks, PowerBooks… every time. A little bit thiner, a little shinier, a round corner here…
They have The Thing

My mother should be able to do it

ralovely — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 10:38:48 +0000

I’m not a software developer. I’m not even what one can call a web developer.
But I use softwares a lot. And I’ve been using them for 20 years now.
So far, you’ll tell me, nothing remarkable.
But for the past 10 years, as an IT manager, I’ve been helping and watching average people using computers.
And that is really interesting.
By average, I don’t mean retarded! Some pretty bright people even. I mean people who don’t see any interest in spending hours in front of a computer, learning how to do something obvious, on the computer itself.

First, as a rooky mistake, I used to think pfffu those users are really dumb, asking me all those questions..
Then, I figured : hey those pieces of software are really dumb, never working the way they should….
Now, if you’re working in the IT business, you’re either thinking one of two things:

Don’t know what you’re talking about?… Those softwares I develop are perfect!
Thanks for stating the obvious !

In the first case, no matter how fluent you are in C++, change your career decisions. You’d be better off getting milk out of a cow.
In the second case, can you tell me then why nobody ever talks about it ?
You have to read advanced software and computer material to find theory on this subject.
Guys like Joel Spolsky (I love this piece), also him, and him and many others talk about software usability, and they all conclude pretty much the same thing: not good. But do you think my mother read there work before buying her Mac (I don’t even talk about Windows).
Meanwhile, my mother still doesn’t understand why she can’t send me this picture she likes.
The brochure was saying “easy sharing of …”.
Worse, she thinks the problem is with her not understanding. So much for self insurance.
So she buys iPhoto for the dummies. Pointless…

Apple were clearly the ones who understood it a while ago, and they still do.
But that’s hardly enough.
There is a real need for a shift in the software industry. There are great softwares, today already, and they are getting more and more “usable”, even easy and obvious considering the complexity of their tasks– that is, if you’ve been using softwares for the past 10 years!
Of course, eventually, old people will die, leaving only the ones who understand how softwares work.
But that’s hardly enough.

p.s.: I like this theme. I think I will make it a recurrent one : My mother should be able to do it!

(Not so) new generation

ralovely — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 22:23:27 +0000

And, talking about music, here is the first post about it.
It’s about a few guys and a gal’.
They all deserve a solo carrier, but it’s hard for young musicians these days, so they hang tight, together.
They play a music at the fragile intersection of Funk, Soul and Jazz, remixed with today’s technics.
I have every piece of album they managed to make, I have seen many of there shows, and they deserve being talked about, heard and seen.
So let me introduce them to you.

I’ll start with the girl: her name is Sandra Nkake. A beautiful tall black woman with just an incredible voice and an awesome vibe. She’s prepping her album right now (can’t wait). She has a MySpace page and a blog.

Then, there is Booster. He’s one of the guys behind the music. His part is the electronic sampling and keyboards. Some kind of genius (I’m not afraid of the words !). He already produced 2 albums (one of them still waiting for a publisher – shame on them). He also has a MySpace.

And then, there is Juan Rozoff. He’s a little older, but is just the funkiest man alive (just behind Prince… gotta admit !). Only 2 albums, but maybe 2000 live shows. Just can’t get enough !

There are a few other ones in the sphere : Vincent Theard, keyboard, composer and producer; and Guillaume Farley, amazing bass player.

There are a lot of big words in this post, but they really deserve them.
Let me try and prove it to you:
Here is an excerpt of a live recording of a 09/03 show in Paris at Le Sunset.
It’s a Prince song called Forever In My Life, with booster at the programing, Juan Rozoff and Sandra Nkake at vocals (quite representative of what I’m talking about…).
I’ve seen and heard Prince play this song many times, but this version is one of my fav’.

If you’re lucky enough to live in Paris, run to their shows (considering you like the genre…).
If you live anywhere else, buy their albums (and I mean buy, don’t steal. You can steal from other big ones, not from them, they actually need the money!), and try to pay a visit !

18 hours a day

ralovely — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 21:45:22 +0000

There is one thing I do all day long. And when I say all day long, I mean it.
It’s listening to music. It’s just vital for me, like breathing.
I wake, I put on music, and when I arrive at work, I turn the music on before turning the iPod off…
So naturally, I’ll write about music here. The music I like of course, the shows I attend to…
Makes me think, I’ll have to put a little player also, to share some of it.