In talking to Mark Law, the new VP of product development for AOL's MapQuest, I was surprised to learn how powerful the service still is. To my mind the formerly leading mapping system is a trailing contender against Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and Ask.com, but apparently MapQuest is still in the game as a leading Web site, with 48 million monthly visitors to the site, not to mention the users of the service who see it embedded on partner sites. The new MapQuest puts a map on the destination page, as well as a better address entry box.Law walked me through updates to the service that will be rolling out as an optional beta test to the site's users on Tuesday. In a nutshell, the changes are evolutionary and to my mind required if the app to stay relevant. But the MapQuest team has to be careful with its updates, since so many general users of the service are accustomed to its somewhat old-fashioned interface and market-trailing features. Of his users, Law says simply, "They don't want to see a lot of change."
More: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10025491-2.html
Hot.2 Improve Your Development Lifestyle
My friend JP has always said that man (and woman) was not meant to sit behind a desk 8+ hours a day. We were meant to do physically laborious tasks like pillage, plunder, and conquer. Although I’m a lover not a fighter, I understand what he means. I personally have always struggled with my weight being as heavy as 300 lbs to as low as 190 lbs. My pants have been as large as 44” waist to as low as 32”. It’s a constant battle to stay healthy, especially in the U.S.A. where everything can and will be super-sized. Although I love development and the challenges it brings, I do not love the lifestyle it promotes. Developers are usually convinced and persuaded to drink lots of coffee, energy drinks, and sugary snacks to stay in programming Zen. Along with bad snacks you have the long night development crams where managers lure you with pizza, and early morning deployments with incentives of donuts. Take a look around your development environment and see how many people are wearing pants that are too tight, or count the number of bellies pouring over the belt. So what do you do to improve the developer lifestyle, well it’s quite easy… on paper. It takes a lot of hard work and discipline.
More: http://monstersgotmy.net/post/2008/08/25/Improve-Your-Development-Lifestyle.aspx
Hot.3 Dealing with programmers who are different and disagree
Generally, we are very tolerant and understanding. We appreciate to work with other people, listen and accept their ideas. Especially it is easy with people who completely agree with us. As for people who don’t… How could we appreciate people who disagree with your bright ideas, have own opposite opinion and don’t want to happily follow you? We can fight them, lure them and even force them to agree. There are many persuasion techniques, psychological tricks and political games that could make them to convert to your side. But should we always convert them? This post is devoted to the hard and ungrateful job of appreciating people who think, feel and behave differently.
More: http://softwarecreation.org/2008/dealing-with-programmers-who-are-different-and-disagree/
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