Django
Congratulations to the Django project!
One of my friends asked me yesterday about why python does not use brackets or keywords for the syntax. I didn’t know the answer. I just told him that it was to keep simple the language, but that I would search about it. As many times Google gave me an answer. This is a great article and here are a few quotes:
A logic reason for use indentation instead of brakes or keywords.
Python does not allow to obfuscate the structure of a program by using bogus indentations
Tabs or Spaces?
It can be a good idea to avoid tabs altogether, because the semantics of tabs are not very well-defined in the computer world, and they can be displayed completely differently on different types of systems and editors.
This is a difference between Java and python; and just for finish my post, I’d like to share one problem that I had a few time ago. I started reading some Java code from someone who left the place where I was working and I found something like this:
if(x==3) x++; { System.out.println(x); }
The first time I read the code, I din’t get why always the x variable was being print. That is why I now I use checkstyle libraries for my java IDEs. Anyway, I really like programming in python and it’s nice to have more reasons for using the right indentation.
I have been using python during the last year and half. And I’m starting to feel more and more happy about learning python. I was a php and java developer, but because of the school I started to learn, and I have enjoyed every python code that I have written. Today I read something that made me feel like when I was at high school learning Pascal and daring my friends to write the best and short code. I read “An Optimization Anecdote” from the Guido van Rossum’s articles, and I really would like to recommend this article, not just because of the technical content, but because I liked the way Guido tells the story.
I stared written this post like 3 weeks ago, but then some things start changing in my life, so I stop thinking about posting. Anyway, here it is.
No! I couldn’t go! Where?? The future of Webapps conferences and workshops in Miami. I would love to visit Miami some day, I haven’t been there(yet). I think this was a great opportunity, but there are a lot of things that require my attention in Valencia right now. Anyway, I have found very interesting that the audio and the slides are available for downloading here. I have just heard two or three conferences, but I’m planning on put more attention on almost all. Here are the notes about what I have listened.
Kevin Marks from Google
He spoke about the Open Social API and how the email has been replaced by other ways of communication, like the instant messaging, the blogs, and of course the social networks. I like his conference because he explains in an ordered way how is evolving the communication process between people. I haven’t tried the Open Social API, but I for what I have heard in the conference and I’m interested in knowing how it works, and I will compare it with the Facebook API and with others available. In the Q&A section someone asked about the dark side of Social Networks, because there is one. Because we can’t lie about the party that we said we didn’t go, but we did go, if we public photos in Flick or Facebook about this party we may be caught in our lie. This has happened a lot in Facebook, and I believe this is part of the future. We are going to be more honest in the future. Maybe not more honest with our friends, parents or our boss, but we will be more honest with ourself.
Kevin said something else that I have thought but I haven’t been able to explain. He mention something about two kind of social networks: public and private. I think those networks could be like this:
And maybe there is room for another kind of network, one even more close and personal. One social network where we really share valuable information and true friendship. I think this kind of network may have only a few contacts (10 or something like that), where we could be more honest and share information without being worried about who reads, sees, or comments our dirty laundry. I know that by having restricted and small networks the concept of social networking does not work very well, but since the value of a network is defined by two main factors: the number of elements integrating the network and the value of the information that share the elements of the network, I believe this close and small private networks will successfully provide a private life and give us the chance to be a little bit more hones with the people we trust.
I have really enjoyed listening this conference, and I’m try¡ng to listen a few more (instead of the punk-rock music I usually have in my mind), so If I get anything inspiring to share in my mind I’ll be posting soon.
I have been working in two new post (which are not ready yet), when I found an article from the fortune magazine about Indra Nooyi and Pepsi. I enjoy reading the fortune magazine, because I have the feeling that they always talk about the future with very good analysis of what we should expect. Finally I put here a CNN interview with Indra where she talks about the small slow down of the economy and what Pepsi Co. is doing for helping around the world.
Well, I’m just happy about Yahoo!, they know that their company is very valuable. I have read the news at bloomberg.com. I think this is one of the best things that could happen to the Internet, maybe Microsoft will try to update what they are offering, but Yahoo! wants more than $40 per share (the bid was for $31), so it won’t be easy for Microsoft.
This are just a few things that I think about what it is happening with Yahoo! and Microsoft.
The old Yahoo!
In the beginning of the World Wide Web, there was a company born just to organize and categorize other sites in the same World Wide Web. This company brought innovation, organization and made available information lost in the unknown dark places of the Web. We felt happy. We liked Yahoo! And Yahoo! felt the same way about us. They liked us. The company grow, and the problems also start growing. And there was the dot com crash, but not before Yahoo! were known as one of the most respectable an important companies in the Web.
Today’s Yahoo!
Yahoo! survived the crash, and they became a better company. They bring innovation again. They found innovation in other new companies. They got del.icio.us, flickr, Zimbra and many others. They also did a great job in their own, for example: new features for the famous Yahoo! Mail, a great portal design and an incredible news and financial sites. Yahoo! is now on the top of the Internet. But they also made some mistakes, they didn’t realize about all the potential of some new companies. It was impossible to know a few years ago that Google will become what it is today. But, if Yahoo! hadn’t let go Google maybe today we wouldn’t have AJAX maps, or android, or something like Gmail or Yahoo! Mail with chat. It has been competition what it is improving the new technologies around the Internet for last three or four years. And for that, maybe what Yahoo! did wasn’t a mistake (for the Internet), because they let Google, Facebook and others change the Internet in ways that just one company wouldn’t be able to imagine.
The new Yahoo!
I don’t now what will happen with Yahoo! and Microsoft. I wish Yahoo! could stay by itself for a long long time. I wish they could keep doing creative stuff for a long time. But, there is a lot of money on the table, and there are a lot of doubts inside Yahoo! Maybe the only way that they could survive the bid is if they had some killer Web Application or some new and creative business. However, if they don’t believe in their projects or just don’t have a really cool one, they will let all the “not so cool” new projects be part of Microsoft. Probably there is one or two great things that are cooking inside Yahoo! that may shake the Internet and probably we won’t see or hear anything about those projects before this thing with Microsoft it’s over. I would like to see Yahoo! helping start-up companies an becoming so much powerful in the next years. I would like to see a Yahoo! supporting more Open Source projects. I would like to see Yahoo! working with Google and Microsoft but being three different companies. I would like to see Yahoo! in the next Web generation. Yahoo! deserve it.
This is my official first post, and it is dedicated to Karem, my dear girlfriend. Last January I got the Fortune magazine at the Frankfurt airport, because in Valencia it is hard to find it. Anyway, one of the most interesting articles is about the 25 most powerful business people, starring by Steve Jobs and many others famous people that we heard in the news every day. Well, in this list the number 23 is Indra Nooyi, the Chaiman and CEO at PepsiCo. I have heard about her, but I didn’t know how well she is doing at PepsiCo. According to the Fortune Magazine she is the most powerful women in business. In other important business magazines, Forbes, she is listed as the fifth most powerful women, and I have found there the reason for writing this post: “Being a woman, being a foreign-born, you’ve got to be smarter than anyone else”, she said. I really admire this woman. She is graduated from the Madras Christian College (where she studied Chemistry!), and later she got a Master Degree in Finance and Marketing from the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. She has been doing a great job at PepsiCo since 2001 when she was named CFO, and she became CEO on August 14 from 2006. She is just a successful woman, with a great spirit.
I like the song. You know, the greatest SoundGarden hit: “Black Hole Sun”.
It is just, that the blue works better for me.
