The secrets of a system integrator. My Journey of Startup, Product + Project Development
I build a Web application when I don’t want to:
- be supporting a thousand environments each with their own quirks. Specifically, viruses, trojans, software interfering, and making it work the same everywhere.
- worry about applying upgrades and taking lots of calls
Crafting software is like.. building a house.
You can try building it without a blueprint or plans or an architect or qualified tradespeople and it will almost always cost you much more and you will have constant issues.
Second, just because you can..
One thing I’ve found myself doing more and more in ColdFusion is using it for it’s integration powers to parse data, or do batch performing tasks. With it’s Java underbelly, ColdFusion does most things great, and if you want even more performance, tie into the Java layer!
I come from the group of people who pursue the dream that computers and technology should make people’s lives easier. That’s why ruthless automation is at the center of most startups, or businesses that are growing. Keep people dealing with people — what they do best, and let your system handle the details for you!
Someone asked what tools are usable for software development. Having juggled so many details for so many years, it’s interesting to take a look and see what tools we use and why.
There are many parts to a conceptual design. Depending on which part you focus on a variety of tools are out there.
As with most computer things, Capturing it is easy, filing it away so you can find it later is critical. You won’t use all of these tools 100% of the time, but they all need to flow to one central spot.
It’s simple. Building a product with less time developing the product, and more time building the business around the product (marketing, etc.,), the greater chance it will have of actually succeeding.
I recently read that a product is 80% marketing and 20% actual product. That probably would explain why garbage can succeed and great software can fail.
The truth is as developers, startup entrepreneurs, it’s critical to know how to sell and market. Without learning the ability to have the conversation to sell, there may not be much of a reason to start building anything.
Someone asked the question and I realized that’s my job title I didn’t know was my job title all these years!
—
If a person can build a shed without a blueprint, it doesn’t mean they can, or should build a house without a blueprint.
Architects see what you need now, what you mean when you [...]
Coldfusion is power with ease. It gets most anything done faster, cheaper, on time compared to any other language.
The language is no where in decline or dying, it’s used by very large organizations who seem to value CF developers highly. Developers can be hard to find, but on the flip side, its probably the easiest language to learn for the web and easily among the top in terms of power and ability.
One of the key things to keeping any successful web application running is ensuring you can keep one version running live (in production) while developing the next version… all without the two worlds colliding.
Below are some tips that I have found helpful.
The first time entering the world of barcodes can be a bit of an aggravating experience. There are so many standards, technologies, equipment, formats, printers, readers that knowing where to start, or what to look for can be a little dis-orienting.
I have done a fair amount of barcode work in the past 10 years. Recently I was asked to give a quick background on it so..
The following is a post I had put on Stack Overflow.
Web Application Monitoring Best Practices
Nagios is good, it’s good to maybe have system testing (Selenium) running regularily.
Edit: Hyperic and Groundworks also look interesting.
There is probably a test suite system that can keep pressure testing everything as well for you. I can’t remember the name off [...]