Over The Air (Ota) And Unfinished Products
Listening to a recent brief on Humane Pin and the Rabbit R1 device highlights a negative side effect of OTA.
Tesla defined software defined vehicles and demonstrated the power of over the air updates to continuously upgrade the car’s features. Other car companies followed their lead. Releasing a car without OTA is irresponsible today, as recalls are expensive.
But there is also a serious side effect of OTA: lazy product releases. Ship it! We’ll fix it later. We’ll ship the new features later. Vendors shipping incomplete products are treating their early customers as investors. Yet, they are still paying full price for an unfinished, and sometimes, unfixable product.
May 1, 2024
Finding Ultra
There are few books I read twice. Rich Roll’s Finding Ultra is one of them. I wrote about it two years ago.
Goodreads introduces the book as follows
Finding Ultra is an incredible but true account of achieving one of the most awe-inspiring midlife physical transformations ever. On the night before he was to turn forty, Rich Roll experienced a chilling glimpse of his future. Nearly fifty pounds overweight and unable to climb the stairs without stopping, he could see where his current sedentary life was taking him—and he woke up. Plunging into a new routine that prioritized a plant-based lifestyle and daily training, Rich morphed—in a matter of mere months—from out of shape, mid-life couch potato to endurance machine. Finding Ultra recounts Rich’s remarkable journey to the starting line of the elite Ultraman competition, which pits the world’s fittest humans in a 320-mile ordeal of swimming, biking, and running. And following that test, Rich conquered an even greater one: the EPIC5—five Ironman-distance triathlons, each on a different Hawaiian island, all completed in less than a week.
Finding Ultra does not disappoint. This is not a macho-Navy-Seal-I-can-do-everything-elite-endurance-book. As a matter of fact, endurance sports is only the backdrop. This is a book about healing, finding a healthy lifestyle, and about optimism. The book is very inspiring and makes me pull harder in the water, push twice as hard on the bike, and kick with a vengeance on the trail.
May 1, 2024
That Support Case From Space
Just listened to the Hard Fork episode with guest Todd Barber about fixing Voyager 1’s computer. Todd describes debugging a computer problem 15 billion miles away: NASA’s Voyager 1 Resumes Sending Engineering Updates to Earth. The fact that a computer is still running after 47 years is the most amazing part of the story. I can’t even read my Zip drives from 20 years ago.
The story reminded me also of a support case we received from Space. Our software was part of an experiment that was run from the International Space Station. An astronaut was controlling a rover at Nasa Ames in Mountain View, CA. The experiment was a prelude to controlling a rover on the moon or on Mars.
However, something went awry with the communications. The astronaut took a screenshot of the error and sent it to Mission Control, who forward it to us. We got our first, and only, support case from Space.
The good news is that a reboot saved the experiment. Can you turn it off and on again is the best debugging method out there, isn’t it?
May 1, 2024
Account Suspended
To my big surprise, I am locked out of both Instagram and Threads.
It is unclear why. I haven’t posted anything to Instagram recently. Perhaps, a rare Threads like or repost tripped the Mighty Algorithm. However, I cannot recall anything was inflammatory in nature.
I appealed. The appeal process involved taking a selfie to show I was a real person. That was it. I suspect I got caught in some robot repost.
We’ll take another look at your account. If we find your account does follow our Terms of Use, you’ll be able to use Instagram again. If we find your account doesn’t follow our Terms of Use, it will be permanently disabled and you won’t be able to appeal again.
Ouch, that’s pretty rough language, and a message I imagined applies to robots, blatant lies, and spammers.
… to be continued.
UPDATE: On 4/23, my Instagram and Threads account was restored.
Thanks for taking the time to request a review. We reviewed your account and found that the activity on it does follow our Terms of Use, so you can use Instagram again. We’re sorry we got this wrong and that you weren’t able to use Instagram for a while. Sometimes we need to take action to help keep our community safe.
That’s great and all. Yet, the mystery remains.
April 21, 2024
Viva Calle San Jose
Three times a year, San Jose temporarily blocks First Street for 6 miles to Martial Cottle Park to bike, skate, or walk. It is called the Viva Calle San Jose event with music, vendors, graffiti artists, and many, many food trucks. Taco galore!
After my 80 miles ride yesterday, riding to Viva Calle San Jose was a great way to stretch my legs. These 22 miles pushed me also over the 100 miles in a weekend bar.
San Jose has invested a lot in recent years in bike infrastructure. Separate bike lanes make it much safer to ride. While it dwarfs in comparison to Holland, I applaud the progress.
I do have one important request for the mayor: please run your street sweepers over the bike lanes from time to time. There is a lot of glass, metal, and other debris in the bicycles lanes. It is one big obstacle course, requiring even to get into traffic.
The odometer for the year stands currently at 610 miles. My 2024 goal is 2024 miles. I’ve been riding less and spent more time in the pool and in the gym. And I am not getting the big bump from the AIDS Lifecycle ride. There is still plenty of time to ride.
April 21, 2024
I recently discovered a pandemic era podcast by comedian and storyteller, Mike Birbiglia. You may know him from his Netflix specials or heard his stories on the radio show, This American Life. The podcast is called Working It Out.
The premise of the podcast is simple: Mike and his guest bring an unfinished joke or a draft story and work it out together on the podcast. So far, my favorite guests have been Ira Glass, John Mulaney, and David Sedaris.
A lot of work goes into creating that laugh out joke or that tear jerking story. Comedians and storytellers make it sound so effortless. Listening to the podcast, you can a peek at their work behind the scenes.
What do comedians have to do with software developers? Both are creative folks and the success of their craft depends on how they connect with their audience or users. I recognize several similarities in the actions to create a simple joke or story and what it takes to build a beautiful and easy to use product.
| They rearrange the story for maximum effect. Land the punchline! Bring them to tears! Call to Action! |
Start by clarifying the end goal: when done, what does success look like? Forget about the detailed requirements, what are the key acceptance criteria? What is the Job-to-be-Done (JTBD)? What is our punchline? |
| Comedians, no matter how famous, will test new work with a small audience. What works and what doesn’t work? |
Unless you are Steve Jobs, developers build their best products while working early on with users and customers. Understand the use case better. Validate assumptions. |
| They write it down and share the drafts for feedback with their peers |
They write the project charter and narrative of what they are embarking on. First of all, it will clarify their own thinking. Secondly, they get it reviewed. Capture the design and share it for feedback. |
| Comedians don’t overcomplicate the joke. They stick to one analogy. Don’t mix metaphors. Try one, adjust or throw it away if it doesn’t work |
Great design limits exposing options. Try one approach and adjust if needed. Provide the user only with options when there is a high demand for them. |
| Storytellers ask themselves often Where do we go from here?. They keep an eye out on the bigger storyline. |
Developers and architects need to understand the long term impact of product features and decisions. This is also true for development processes. |
Just as many teams have started improv classes at work, developers can learn a thing or two from the creative processes comedians and storytellers follow.
February 10, 2024
Working It Out
After listening to one episode of Mike Birbiglia’s podcast, Working It Out, I am hooked.
The premise of the podcast is simple: Mike and his guest share a half baked joke or story, and they evolve it together. It shows the work that goes into crafting something potentially wonderful.
In the first episode, Mike works it out with none other than radio royalty, Ira Glass. You get an amuse bouche of what Ira must be like in the writers and editing room of This American Life. Ira’s input is detailed and direct. And that’s what brilliant about this podcast. You rarely get to see what happens behinds the scenes.
At this point I listened to the John Mulaney and David Sedaris episodes. I have a long list of other episodes queued up.
I always thought Mike Birbiglia got discovered by accident when he contributed his sleepwalking story for This American Life. I’ve heard his story about what happened in the La Quinta Inn in Walla Walla, Washington, so many times. It keeps being great.
As I learned on the podcast, writing great stories is not something that happened to Mike by luck. He has been working it out for many years, crafting jokes, writing screenplays, telling stories, collaborating with other comedians, and doing stand up.
He just doesn’t come across as that punchline comedian. Instead he reminds me of that funny story telling neighbor from the movies, who overshares and regularly gets himself into some crazy situations. Here I was, minding my own business, when … We all have a friend or a neighbor like that.
The title of the article in The Atlantic captures it perfectly:
How Mike Birbiglia got sneaky-famous. The comedian who “invented storytelling”
PS - The podcast theme song is excellent and as raw as some of the half-baked stories.
January 20, 2024
Casey’s Case
I listened to a few opinions on the saga of why Platformer, Casey Newton’s tech newsletter business, is leaving the Substack platform, including the discussion on the Hard Fork podcast.
It is all too easy to make the jump to cancel culture, (big) tech censorship, liberal tech elites, or how to define alt-right, nazi, antifa, etc.
Om Malik reminded us that these platforms have investors and they want to see a growing business. The same is true for the content creators. They want to get more readers and subscribers.
all media — Old, New, Nouveau! Podcasts, Newsletters, and Streaming need growth. Organic growth is slow and measured. In our hair-trigger attention world, that is not an option. The platforms provide them an opportunity to grow fast.
Can a platform serve both masters? Perhaps. I realize that this is complicated and requires nuanced policies. I would start with the following elements:
- Welcome all opinions - Everybody is welcome to publish their opinion. I like to read different sides of a topic. Let’s allow information that covers the spectrum: both pro and contra vaccines, pro-Israel and pro-Palestine, climate-alarmists, climate-deniers and all those in between. This gets platforms out of the direct censorship debate. So, yes, climate-change deniers can share their opinion on the platform.
- Free speech does have limits - There are limits to the content that can be published on the platform. These limitations are clearly published when you join the platform, including the process to report violations. The list of limitations is not absolute. Some will need to be reviewed and discussed when they happen. Some obvious limitations include incitement to violence including sharing information with the doxxing intent, violations to intellectual property law, etc.
- Promotion and amplification is about values - It is up to the platform to decide what they value. The Fox News platform and MSNBC have clearly different values. Make the values clear. “We don’t promote Nazi propaganda.” “We encourage a debate on climate change.” The implication here is that amplification algorithms are not fair and have rules defined by the owners of the platform. Also, it means that the platform may take down duplicate or similar posts.
- Provide cross polination controls - For the content that is promoted and amplified, provide controls to the user and publisher. “I am a gear head and I don’t want to read about electric vehicles” or “Don’t promote my opinion to the Elon-fan club. I can miss the online harassment that naturally ensues at the inkling of any criticism of their leader.”
So what would change in the Platformer-Substack debate?
- Substack doesn’t have to take down some of the controversial newsletters. If there isn’t any obvious free speech reason to not allow the content, keep it. And yes, Substack would still make money from those newsletters, although limited as it doesn’t amplify them.
- Substack clarifies their promotion and amplification approach. It would be clear that Nazi content would stay in a corner. Casey can then decide where he stands on them. Given what I read, he would likely move his business elsewhere anyway.
- Platformer doesn’t have to be middle person and convey the reader’s sentiments (“I hate it that I see articles about Elon next to Platformer”). The reader has some control.
I realize this write up makes it all too simple. The many folks at YouTube, Facebook, pre-X Twitter who worked on content moderation can surely chime in with the next level of nuance or complexity that comes with the field. For now, I would be happy to understand clearly the four points above from all platforms.
January 14, 2024