tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-270612972024-03-07T20:05:10.870-05:00Nael El Shawwa - My thoughts on technology and web applicationsA Software Engineer's thoughts, rantings, and other commentsNael El Shawwahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11706085274030540366noreply@blogger.comBlogger140125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27061297.post-60219683466168264162011-06-26T18:06:00.000-04:002011-06-26T18:06:01.855-04:00#DevTO - You don't just write code#DevTO started out with @kevinkvs and @jonezy thinking about the need to have a regular meet up for developers in Toronto to share and learn from each other. I first heard of this idea on Twitter from Chris and was immediately intrigued and offered to help out. @clickflickca also joined in later on the fun and brings his experience organizing and running other events around Nael El Shawwahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11706085274030540366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27061297.post-6528284867801118182011-06-16T11:00:00.001-04:002011-06-16T20:22:33.897-04:00All developers are not created equal - hence not interchangeableEarlier yesterday I came across this article on the New York Times: Thieves Found Citigroup Site an Easy Entry. At first I thought, "Man, another big site had their customer data compromised", but as I continued reading this incident is a little bit different; especially the nature of the attack that was described in the article. The marketing and PR departments for these brands - and in this Nael El Shawwahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11706085274030540366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27061297.post-74019665208984692872011-02-26T20:55:00.001-05:002011-02-26T20:55:47.971-05:00Rogers OnDemand Online Vs. NetflixA week after the condo I'm renting suffered from a bathroom flood fiasco, I sat down last night to watch some TV at home. Now, my whole unit is a mess, and furniture has been moved around so I couldn't really use my TV, instead I decided to use Rogers on Demand Online (RODO). However, I am also a Netflix customer, but for some reason I chose to try RODO.
Rogers On Demand OnlineI first signed up Nael El Shawwahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11706085274030540366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27061297.post-78828938851751159812010-12-11T14:20:00.001-05:002010-12-11T14:23:07.558-05:00Mobile e-commerce & augmented reality?When you think e-commerce what comes to mind? For me, I think Amazon.com and eBay.com. I remember reading somewhere that Amazon wasn't the first online bookstore, but in fact it was books.com - which is gone now by the way, and instead redirects to Barnes & Noble. Today, Amazon doesn't just sell books anymore, heck I can even order 18-inch wheels from there. But, what comes next? The Nael El Shawwahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11706085274030540366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27061297.post-64279530683684963272010-09-03T14:53:00.002-04:002010-09-03T15:20:17.460-04:00Don't tell me your TV supports Twitter (Part 2)In Part 1 I ranted about the Samsung commercial that I caught on TV raving about accessing Facebook and Twitter from their new TV. I questioned how TV manufacturers are repeating the marketing campaigns the telecoms did a few years ago when the iPhone came out on select telecoms. The ones that weren't chosen such as Bell and Telus raved about their Blackberry, Palm and HTC lineups. They Nael El Shawwahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11706085274030540366noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27061297.post-40235057058946930042010-08-28T15:17:00.002-04:002010-09-03T15:20:50.327-04:00Fast Mover Advantage?I just finished reading the book "The Accidental Billionaires" by Ben Mezrich. The book provides great stories into the lives of the "founding fathers" of probably the most successful website on the Internet today - Facebook - although it wasn't a first mover. What amazed me the most about the book is how fast everything was happening.
Maybe once upon a time "First Mover Advantage" was importantNael El Shawwahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11706085274030540366noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27061297.post-89598831232509761852010-08-24T11:30:00.014-04:002010-09-03T15:21:28.753-04:00Don't tell me your TV supports TwitterLast night I caught a Best Buy ad on AMC about Samsung's smart/social/internet TV. It reminded me of the Telus/Rogers/Bell BlackBerry ads a couple of years ago marketing Twitter and Facebook as features of their smartphones. They're still doing it with terms like "social phone" or "smarter smart phone" which I don't really understand. I was still really excited about this ad, Nael El Shawwahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11706085274030540366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27061297.post-37220667612783223202010-08-14T19:56:00.003-04:002010-09-03T15:22:20.245-04:00Yahoo's culture vs. Google's cultureTwo interesting articles I have read in the past week had to do with Yahoo's "hacker-centric" culture - or lack of. Two different views, one from Paul Graham's "What happened to Yahoo" post and the second from Ryan Grove's "What's happening at Yahoo!". Both were excellent reads and provide an interesting look into Yahoo's culture.
These articles got me interested in comparing both Yahoo! and Nael El Shawwahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11706085274030540366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27061297.post-19013709801516879402010-08-09T23:16:00.003-04:002010-08-09T23:31:42.857-04:00Daily DigestLast night I came across this sweet web app called paper.ly that generates a newspaper of your Twitter feed daily. It comes with a pretty basic embed that displays a table of contents for your own personalized news paper that you can embed on your blog or website. The people I follow are mainly from the tech community in North America and the Toronto Twitter community. You'll find posts fromNael El Shawwahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11706085274030540366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27061297.post-17234943941628985112010-08-08T18:24:00.002-04:002010-08-08T18:44:54.472-04:00Matt Ridley: When ideas have sexJust came across this fascinating video on TED. Needless to say that when technological ideas have sex we can end up with the Twitters, Facebooks, iPads, iPods, iPhones, etc. etc. Enjoy.
At TEDGlobal 2010, author Matt Ridley shows how, throughout history, the engine of human progress has been the meeting and mating of ideas to make new ideas. It's not important how clever individuals are, he saysNael El Shawwahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11706085274030540366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27061297.post-36635519390808153022010-08-07T21:57:00.004-04:002010-08-07T22:40:01.853-04:00Stay on your toes, think proactivelyI was coming back home today and while in the elevator the lady that just got on forgot to press her floor's button. She realized a little too late as we passed the 15th floor; her floor. She then press 17, but that too was too late, then she pressed 18, and again that was too late. She gave up and got off the 20th floor with someone else. At that point I was thinking, if she pressed 17 and 18 atNael El Shawwahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11706085274030540366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27061297.post-16452030898178697212010-07-29T22:37:00.006-04:002010-07-29T23:44:22.142-04:00@flipboard - my personal magazineI haven't tried this yet, and I don't have an iPad still, however this video is just screaming at me to go buy an iPad just for this app. It's kind of like how Shazam and UrbanSpoon apps in the iPhone ads were the "kick over fence" for me.I'm not all that interested about using it for Facebook, the use case that appeals to me the most is its Twitter integration. Twitter is a brilliant way to keepNael El Shawwahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11706085274030540366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27061297.post-3995153488049679282010-07-19T09:00:00.001-04:002010-07-19T09:00:04.168-04:00Dojo templates & Google Maps InfoWindowI have been building mashups using Google Maps since 2007 and one problem I had is passing in the content for these bubbles that show up when you click on a marker i.e. the InfoWindow. One big annoyance with it, is that you have to pass in the HTML content as a string when opening the marker. I don't like it because I have to intertwine HTML inside of JavaScript. So how can we make this better?Nael El Shawwahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11706085274030540366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27061297.post-20981256905638747452010-07-18T14:12:00.004-04:002010-07-18T16:35:41.817-04:00Dojo How To: Publish / SubscribeI haven't been using Dojo for a very long time, just over a year now, but its time I blog about all the little great features I have learned.One of the features I like the most in Dojo is the Publish / Subscribe mechanism. Its flexibility allows you to cleanly implement communication between different components like modules, widgets, portlets, etc.Lets get down to business. Say I have two Nael El Shawwahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11706085274030540366noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27061297.post-47992144025998112802010-07-04T18:52:00.006-04:002010-08-08T18:26:20.666-04:00John Underkoffler points to the future of UII caught this video by John Underkoffler - the science advisor for the movie Minority Report on TED the other day and it got me thinking about web interfaces, especially for online banking such as CIBC's and online billing such as Roger's. I'm not saying we need interfaces such as this for these kind of online applications, but we are surely due for a major overhaul of these interfaces. I sure Nael El Shawwahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11706085274030540366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27061297.post-27113197432880161822010-07-01T19:47:00.002-04:002010-08-08T18:26:03.863-04:00Sir Ken Robinson is a brilliant speaker, thinker and evangelist.Nael El Shawwahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11706085274030540366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27061297.post-43591075994886088372010-06-29T23:20:00.005-04:002010-06-30T00:37:30.035-04:00the intersection of business and technologyTechnology is useless if it does not deliver business value. Either it saves me time and hence money, or it makes me money. It has to be one or the other. Where does front end architecture fit in this picture? As the title points out, its right in the middle.The front end is a misunderstood piece of any application, it is usually overlooked, underestimated, and belittled. Its fairly common to Nael El Shawwahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11706085274030540366noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27061297.post-25676287464480635202010-06-05T01:41:00.009-04:002010-08-08T18:26:42.116-04:00On selling customer experiencesI was looking at how much of a dent an iPad will put in my wallet when I noticed the mandatory field reminder on Apple.com's shopping cart. Then I came to this realization, Apple isn't a mobile device's company, nor a computer company, its a customer experience company. So much time is spent on just tweaking and perfecting the whole cycle. From the moment you browse their online store or their Nael El Shawwahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11706085274030540366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27061297.post-13175210879789693702010-05-28T22:12:00.015-04:002010-05-29T18:04:11.772-04:00Chefs, Curators, & DevelopersBesides that these people all eat, sleep, and lineup for the latest iStuff, developers ought to have another thing in common with chefs and curators. I would say software development is part engineering/science and part creativity, even as high 50/50 or maybe a little more.CuratorsThe term "custodian of a collection" doesn't describe what curators really do. It almost makes it sound as if they Nael El Shawwahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11706085274030540366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27061297.post-15403615075141385622010-05-24T12:40:00.001-04:002010-05-24T12:40:35.665-04:00The Mythical Man-MonthI think it was in first year software engineering that we had to read this book, and nine years later I really, really understand the underlying purpose of this book. It may just be yet another book back then, but the lessons that are hopefully learned from it will last a life-time - not just for software projects, but any project.The Mythical Man-MonthUnfortunately on software project plans, Nael El Shawwahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11706085274030540366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27061297.post-3078636913843777282010-04-20T23:43:00.005-04:002010-04-21T00:24:26.810-04:00Crash 'n' Burn: The 11th hour for FlashAdobe's rhetoric continues after the curve ball Apple threw. The whining continues with this post: On Adobe, Flash CS5 and iPhone Applications.Sadly, the whining doesn't change anything, and Adobe's argument would have been more valid if they didn't trying to lock developers into Flash/Flex and if it -Flash- were really open. Also, I think Adobe's Flash/Flex tools favor developing using Cold Nael El Shawwahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11706085274030540366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27061297.post-16362486479002087682010-04-20T19:26:00.012-04:002010-04-20T21:08:17.145-04:00How to throw usability out the window - Part 1Sometime between when I paid my Rogers bill last month, and when I tried to look it up this month, the Rogers site was "upgraded" to portal. I'm not sure what it used to be before, but I think now it sits squats on top of the BEA Weblogic portal - now owned by Oracle.Note: This is only part I, the Rogers Portal went offline while I am writing this. To be continued when its live again...The Nael El Shawwahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11706085274030540366noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27061297.post-29849693111475126012010-04-19T09:00:00.003-04:002010-04-19T09:00:08.869-04:00there will always be someone who can do it cheaperFor most companies offering professional services, the business model is based on cost plus billing. This includes people like lawyers, consultants, accountants, marketing agencies, etc.This is fine for starting up and getting the $ rolling to keep the lights on. However at some point you realize that that was fine for starting out and that it is completely flawed and doesn't make any economic Nael El Shawwahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11706085274030540366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27061297.post-91238854514874297322010-04-10T23:34:00.004-04:002010-04-10T23:44:34.133-04:00First Google Maps Mashup Turns 5 YearsLast Thursday the Google Maps mashup turned 5. Paul Rademacher posted this on Craigslist announcing a Google map mashup of housing properties. That post started it all. Back then, there wasn't even an official API for Google Maps. That mashup now lives at housingmaps.com.Congrats to Paul on this milestone. That experiment started the whole mashup building community, and the reason why Google MapsNael El Shawwahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11706085274030540366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27061297.post-88845721169432815942010-03-08T22:48:00.003-05:002010-03-08T22:54:22.693-05:00Microsoft courierI just saw this concept video for "Microsoft Courier" and its pretty good. If it makes it out to market, and just based of this video it definitely kicks the iPad's ass! I was shocked that this is coming out of Microsoft; if this makes it out to market, then maybe Microsoft still has hope after all...Nael El Shawwahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11706085274030540366noreply@blogger.com0