Author: Rastin Mehr

Senator Ted Stevens thinks Internet is a series of tubes. He said it himself last year.

[…] They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the Internet. And again, the Internet is not something you just dump something on. It’s not a big truck. It’s a series of tubes. And if you don’t understand those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and it’s going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material

According to the Wikipedia he is also the Chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.

f99PcP0aFNE

Matthew Yarro, VP Marketing for the CP80 Foundation, thinks that Internet is a toaster! and he wants to fix it and control it.

“There is this assumption that you can’t control it (the Internet),” Yarro said. “It’s a toaster, we made it, we can fix it. … We can solve the Internet pornography problem tomorrow if we decided to.”

I think Internet is a collection of interconnected computer networks. It is distributed and diverse by nature, and cannot be controlled and dictated by an entity from the top. What computers do, computers can undo, which is exactly why top notch dictators such as China or Iran spend tons of resources and still have a difficult time censoring the Internet. Internet by nature is democratic. An element of control and locking mechanism placed today by a small group of people, can only withstand for so long the wisdom of millions who attempt to crack it.

Politicians would wish if Internet was just a series of tubes or a Toaster, so they’d have had an easier time understanding the nature of it.

[tags] Matthew Yarro, Ted Stevens, series of tubes, internet porn, cp80, funny, humor [/tags]

This article was originally posted on rmdStudio bloe, a mobile app development company in Vancouver.

Absence of a Business System Analyst is often the reason that relationships between Business People and Programmers go ugly. Most of us have heard stories about business people who bring a project to programmers, and later on the project is either delivered late, or comes short of the specs. That’s not always the case specially when the Programmer does a good system analysis job during the project, but again not every programmer makes a good system analyst.

Photography by Rastin Mehr © Some rights reserved

In larger organizations, System Analysts make the communication between IT and Business departments possible. In the absence of System Analysts this relationship becomes gradually dysfunctional, until at some point one department manages to dominate the other in the power hierarchy. During this struggle, people on both side become overworked, undermined, and frustrated. Eventually, the excessive loss of resources and lack of productivity could bring down an entire organization.

What System Analysts (SA) do, is to study a business model, break it down to smaller bits of tangible information and understand how they should be processed. Then, these bits of information are compiled in the form of documents and visual diagrams ( UML, ER, IA Garrett ) for Programmers to comprehend and follow. It is impossible to put down every detail of a project at the beginning, that is because designs usually change as the project moves on and by the time the project is finished it probably has little in common with the original specs. Despite that, the initial documentation could provide a development team, a good starting point and a big picture view.

Continue reading What is Business System Analysis (BSA)?

So I skipped a week of bloging. Just recently I have co-founded a second company Tazzu Networking Ltd. , partnering with a good friend of mine Jeannette Duguay from JenTekk Web Solutions.

Now that would be one interesting project.

Tell you something I am so pleased to have Jen as my business partner, she is just the most wonderful person to work with.

This time of the year is very busy for us. Most clients want their projects ready by the end of March or April right before summer starts. To all the consultants out there, be careful with what you’re asking for when you flex some marketing muscels. You can get so overwhelmed by the results to the point that a trip to the dentist office may seem like a vacation. Ok I was just kidding!

[tags]tazzu, business networking, JenTekk, work, company[/tags]

Sometimes traditional Sales and Marketing companies try to grow their in-house software development team, having said that, what is considered a productive work environment for the more social sales and marketing folks, may not be as productive for the knowledge workers.

Photography by Templeton Elliot © All rights reserved

The product of programming is intellectual property produced using hours of mental work. It is essential that programmers work in an interruption free environment.

Continue reading Bringing back the Zen to Programmers

Here I’ve got a really good book for you. Hackers & Painters is a collection of essays from Paul Graham. He is a Ph.D. Computer Scientist from Harvard University who has also studied painting at the RISD and the Accademia in Florence, Italy. Paul has created the new Arc language, and he has also created the first web-based application in 1996. Being a Web Application Architect and a Visual Artist myself, he could well be one of my idols. I think he is a living example of Leonardo Da Vinci.

The term Hacker is used here to describe skillful Computer Programmers, and Software Architects, and should not be mistaken with Computer Criminals.

I must say I bought this book only to find out that all the essays are available on Paul Graham’s website for free, so if you have no problem reading a book on the screen you’ve got yourself a deal. I sometimes like the feel of a book, because I can take it to a coffee shop, read it, and look smart to the ladies. A Book also has an index, so you can look up keywords such as “Pointy-Haired boss“!

Continue reading The Hackers & Painters book