Colin Charles Agenda

Long-term I’m bullish on Android. Its everywhere, its like the multiple Linux distributions. I have a preference to Google-sanctioned devices (i.e. the Nexus series), but each and every Android device manufacturer has their own bells & whistles.

The mobile landscape is actively changing. I was in Paris when I watched the announcement that there would be an Ubuntu for phones. I was a little disappointed that the announcement was for the possibility with no manufacturers or no actual device being announced. You’d presume that’s what you would get with the countdown on the website, and all the hype built up around it. To add to my confusion, there still exists Ubuntu for Android, which has been around for quite some time with no one biting. I heard its vaguely opensource so you could run it on a device, but I’ve not seen much.

The idea is amazing (carrying your phone, plugging it in to see a full-featured desktop) and I can’t wait to see what happens in 2014. It seems like the developer environment is Qt/QML for a native feel, but you’ve also got HTML5. They’re going to leverage on the Ubuntu community. I just think the hype around this is being built too early.

However, what’s more exciting is Mozilla’s recent announcements. They have a Firefox OS developer preview phone announced. They tell you how to use Firefox OS today. There are also AppDays happening worldwide. And they have a phone coming soon as a partnership with Geeksphone & Telefonica of Spain. Here it seems clear that your HTML5 apps are going to rock (see the Firefox Marketplace). When I say soon, I’m saying next month, i.e. February 2013. I’ve signed up to buy one.

The mobile landscape is changing. Nokia was the king of phones with Symbian, and today they’re backing Windows Mobile. Most of the top manufacturers are building Android devices (opensource). There are many companies signed up to make Tizen devices in 2013 and beyond (opensource). Now you have opensource Ubuntu & Firefox OS. Apple may have started this modern trend but iOS device sales aren’t stellar (witness Apple’s recent stock drop). iOS to be fair is also built on opensource (itself its closed).

Year of the Linux desktop? Who needs that. You’ve already arrived at the years of opensource computing.

I’ve always enjoyed working at home. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I got myself an office. I still don’t use the office that much, with the exception for storage. I try to check in from time-to-time since I do have a room there, but I’m still largely a mobile worker.

Today, I’m sitting in my parents house and can hear extreme drilling from a house renovating nearby.

In offices, you can’t do drilling/renovation works until the evening and most likely its usually only on weekends. At homes, you can’t do drilling/renovation works unless its confined between the 8am-5pm timeframe.

Overall, home renovations tend to be extensive. Imagine working from home and listening to drilling/knocking/banging for about six months?

As a proponent of using Bose noise canceling headphones (Bose QC-15), I can assure you it doesn’t help.

Goal: Non-intimidating guides for readers new to various topics. There are quite the few:

1. For Dummies series… “A Reference for the rest of us” – wiki, site
2. Teach Yourself series… – wiki – guides in a week have arrived – site
3. Complete Idiot’s Guide series… – wiki, site

O’Reilly has the Annoyances, Hacks, Head First, and Missing Manual (wiki).

What are other guides that are non-intimidating, distilling topics for people to grok? 

Apress calls their guides “for professionals by professionals” (technically oriented). Packt has a huge amount of books on a variety of topics.

Travel is a whole other ballgame. I visited Kinokuniya recently and saw shelves of travel guides. I’m not sure if people buy these anymore considering the vast amount of information on the Internet that exists.

Does your mother have an iPad? Know people in their 40’s playing games on their smartphones or tablets?

I’m starting to see iPad’s transcend ages. People are using their tablets from the time they are a year old to the time they are in their 70’s (yes, personally seen these age ranges).

The touch interface is amazing. A handheld computer without a keyboard – who’d have thought this would work?

Buying an application from the App Store convinces you that its a good idea to use your credit card over the Internet.

When I read A Generation Gap? Not on This Website I was quite convinced that there’s more to Halsbrook than meets the eye.

E-commerce in Malaysia is growing. People are getting used to buying things online. A lot still happens via bank transfers (which suck for e-commerce unless you use a capable payment gateway). Getting convinced that its a good idea to use your credit card online is an important first step. The App Stores (or google Play Store) bridges this gap. 

via California to Give Web Courses a Big Trial:

The program is an attempt to overcome the biggest failure of open online courses today – their 90 percent dropout rate.

Wow. 90% as a dropout rate from online courses is insane.

I’ve published open content since 2004, and have always wondered about the idea of taking it further for online education. I remember back in 2004 or so, there was a company called Digital Distribution (founded by Justin Clift) that gave you online courses using Flash. The company is no more, but what did survive from yesteryear is Lynda videos (from the mid-90s).

Now you have Udacity, Coursera, edX, Stanford online courses for certain classes and probably more – all with the focus of not just open education content, but testing, assignments, and more. Marking/grading assignments is probably the hardest. Let’s not forget niche based stuff like Codecademy or 10gen’s online education for MongoDB.

Signing up is easy. It’s continuing on a week-by-week basis with a busy schedule called life that I reckon discourages most people.

I wonder if the trick is as easy as calendaring time to study. After all from school to university, you live & breathe by a calendar (more affectionally known as a timetable). Self-study is probably harder for the masses (as it requires self-discipline), which explains why you don’t find as many part-time students until a little later in life.

How will apps & video play a role? Are apps the new channels?

I’m willing to bet though that eventually we’ll see the education becoming free, you’ll only end up paying for the certification. More self-starters, less student debt, overall a more productive world in a quicker fashion. For those of us that live in Asia, parents aspire to send kids to the UK, USA, or Australia. A lot of that is going to change.

Like Bernard Sia (love reading Digital News Asia), I’ve had my fair share of interviewing for IT positions in Malaysia. However, I won’t claim to have his per year record. I however think I have to refute some of his points. I end with a challenge to Bernard’s career – why did he stop being a hands on engineer?

Line managers? Experienced engineers who are still hands-on aren’t rewarded properly. The idea in Malaysia is to be a great engineer, get promoted to a team leader, and keep on climbing. I’ve seen in the IT world that there are “price caps” for great engineers, but the cap is immediately lifted if you become a “project manager”. 

No one likes earning the same salary or working against a cap, so the natural thing to do is to start focusing & improving in terms of management. What suffers then is lack of hand’s on skill. The IT world moves quickly as you might imagine, so after a while you’ve got great project managers who used to be able to do hands on programming in Java (some five years ago), but now is finding it hard to grasp .NET. You get the drift.

This problem is caused by none other than the employers. Pay your stars well for what they do well, not make them jump thru career changes. There is one other minor point: naturally someone who’s 20 years old will likely want to code for 12 hours a day. Remember at 30 years old, he may only want to code 8 hours a day – commitments change. Companies are constantly fighting against deadlines, and this is where you can’t expect so much from a person.

Army of operators? Push-button engineers are common in Malaysia. Let’s thank the education system for this. Most are taught to mug even at diploma/degree level. We also have to thank industry lobbying at large for this. When Sun was around, the push was Java. Now its .NET. You get degrees in running Microsoft Office. I’m sorry, employers influence educational institutions to create folk that are generally useless in the long run. Gotta love lobbying, right?

Dearth of integrative thinkers? I agree. Many people I’ve had the pleasure of leading seem to be good at doing only one thing. You don’t get full stack engineers easily. And when they do pop by, they want rates that the CTO is getting paid.

I again point back to the education system. At the same time, integrated thinkers cost more – are companies willing to pay for this?

As an aside, I’ve seen this problem not only in Malaysia but worldwide. 

Freedom to move within ASEAN come 2016? Great, we’ll face a larger brain drain in Malaysia. Multinationals are already leaving in droves, the only one’s that seem to be sticking around are servicing large customers (other multinationals) or the government.

I’m glad the conclusion Bernard comes up with is similar to what I’ve said:

The worst of the findings are technical personnel, usually with around five years of experience, lamenting that they can no longer do technology; the money is not there, they’ve reached a ceiling and need to be a manager — more often than not, in broken English.

Broken English? Need I point even more fingers towards the education system?

Bernard cops out by not blaming the government. The failure is due to government policy. Policy is made by delinquents who pander to lobbyists. Lobbyists very rarely have the long-term interest of the nation at their helm.

I ask Bernard what his career span may look like: graduate in IT, software engineer/systems analyst, project manager by year 5, manager/technical director by year 8, now head of strategy looking for IT pros but probably not coding any longer. I doubt I’m far off from this estimate.