back. seriously.

hello, dear reader(s).  i have finally emerged from a work-hole, having successfully launched one of two sites we’ve been working on.  one more to go!  at some point in the next 24 hours i’ll post something relatively interesting.  seriously.

sorry…

been trying to get a client project out the door.  couple of all-night work sessions, etc.  back as soon as we get this done and i have a moment to breathe.

software developers vs web developers vs interactive developers

i’ve interviewed a lot of people for webdev positions in the past few years, mainly from recruiters and open job postings.  invariably, the majority of folks who sit before me end up being software developers.  what’s the difference?

a software developer…

• tends to think user interface is the least important issue
• is usually surprised by last-minute changes
• is used to working as a member of a large team
• probably has a CS degree and takes it very very seriously
• considers the marketing department to be a waste of good desks

not that there’s anything wrong with that.

then you’ve got typical web developers.  regardless of language, they’re writing code that is meant for the web from day one.

a web developer…

• tends to think that user interface is the second-least important issue
• is used to last-minute changes but pushes back whenever possible
• is used to working with relatively small teams
• has learned everything on his own thanks to The Google
• thinks marketing is maybe the third-least important issue

not that there’s anything wrong with any of that, either.

a web developer in advertising — an interactive developer — is a different breed.  interactive developers (should, anyway) eat, sleep, and breathe communication.  everything we do has an overall objective: increase the client’s brand equity.

the ideal interactive developer…

• understands that creative is the key, and that no user ever got excited by a singleton
• expects last-minute changes
• thrives under the pressure of completely ridiculous deadlines
• is used to working with small teams, but understands each role is vital
• has an actual interest in advertising, communication, and cultural expression

seems that there aren’t many interactive developers around.  maybe they already have jobs.  the folks i have hired in the past few years are absolutely brilliant programmers, but they are also brilliant communicators. and, at the end of the day, that’s what we get paid to do.

too many arguments while deleting files in linux.

for reasons that i’ll keep to myself, i needed to delete thousands of files on a linux box.  so many files, in fact, that rm -Rf *.mp3 returned a “too many arguments” response.  first time I’ve ever seen such a thing.

turns out that there’s a maximum number of arguments that can be passed to rm.

solution: find . -name “*.mp3″ | xargs rm -Rf

there is something very very satisfying about the pipe command.

flash 10 makes me want to jab someone with a hot poker.

Error #2176: Certain actions, such as those that display a pop-up window, may only be invoked upon user interaction, for example by a mouse click or button press.

so the geniuses at adobe have added a goddamn pain in the ass security feature into the latest flash player. file upload via FileReference must be triggered via a direct user interaction, i.e., a click.

sure, sounds harmless enough, right? WRONG.

one of the great things about flash is the ability to do lots of behind-the-scenes server roundtrips with a file. a user uploads a file, does some stuff to it, then the file is sent to a server, which does more stuff to it, then back down to the user, then back up to the server, and so on. now, the upload-to-server has to be directly approved by the user.

this has broken a bunch of things all across the web. we found a fix for our make me super campaign (just needed to rework some event listeners and the way messaging between objects worked), but i imagine there may be some situations where a fix is impossible without changing UI.

entire businesses have been built around flash. for adobe to make such a change — regardless of intent — and then completely ignore the pained screams of the development community is a very bad decision. while i think microsoft couldn’t develop their way out of a wet paper bag, this provides a tiny opening for silverlight. which, of course, microsoft will proceed to fuck up in record time.

many developers seem to get lost in their own world, assuming that what’s good enough for them is good enough for everyone. you see this on any message board where a person asks a question:

Q: “How can I install subversion under cPanel?”

A: “Don’t use subversion, use [random ass open source piece of shit]:”

A: “Why are you using cPanel? I prefer command-line for everything, because I live in my mother’s basement.”

guess what, guys? some of us have businesses to run. the web has changed since netscape navigator 1.0, believe it or not.