Slides from the Aleph "Summer of bots" event

Though my bot didn't win the challenge, it was a great experience. 20 teams applied, and Ricky was a finalist.

Here are my slides from the final event.

Ricky

Think inside the box!

The cliches of creative thinking could sometimes be counter productive.

As you all probably know, "think outside the box" and "find a creative solution" are common phrases in problem solving. Letting yourself loose of current constraints (Of, sometimes, resources, technology and money), and trying to find a solution outside of your current method of operation.

In our world, this could lead to adventurous, cost and money taking processes. Rewriting something because it doesn't work. Using a new library which solves "everything". Changing and switching components. Redesigning your UX.

However sometimes, the solution is not far away from what you already have.

Take a small piece of paper and jot down all the resources you already have in hand which could be involved with this problem. Now start writing possible solutions USING THOSE RESOURCES AND ONLY THEM.

You might just find you already have a solution inside your box.

DevOps is the new Server side

A long time ago, the weight was different in the software world. Server side programming was considered to be the pinnacle of engineering, with lots of knowledge and skill requirements.

But open source changed all that. Most server side problems are already solved by off the shelf code, and server engineers became more integrators and architects than actual programmers: It's pretty easy to connect everything, build a logic layer (That might be complicated - But mostly due to large amount of product requirements and not complexity), an API layer, a database et voila!

As server code becomes simpler (And client code becomes more complex and rich), the main challenge for backend and application engineers became the DevOps side.
Building, the application, integrations, dependencies and frameworks, automating processes and tests, securing, backing up and scaling the system have become the skills to learn.

And while those skills used to be owned by selected devops engineers, more documentation and better tools allow every server side engineer with network and os knowledge the ability to do all of the above.

All of this, of course, helps you focus on what's really important as a developer: Delivering.

Microservices ecosystem (Credit: Sequoia)

Asus x205ta vs. Macbook Air 11

My little daughter is 9, and we've decided it's time to get her a laptop.
I was looking for something that has a small form factor, no moving parts, and inexpensive.
Was considering a Chromebook, but then came across the x205ta from Asus - A small, Chromebook-like device, capable of running Windows 10.

Price was under 200$, so not much of a risk, and after receiving the machine with windows 8.1, I had to upgrade to windows 10 (Left the upgrade working overnight.)

After using it a little bit, the obvious question was - How does it work in comparison with my (Now wife's) Macbook Air 11?

So here are some conclusions:

- Specs: The Asus has budget processor, 32 GB drive, 2 GB ram and costs 25%. Though these specs are quite nothing in comparison with the Air's Haswell processor and 4/128 RAM, But you can get a 128GB micro SD and extend your HD capacity for dirt cheap.
- Form factor: The tiny Asus is a bit lighter, smaller width, and thicker than the Air 11.
- Finish: No comparison here. The Asus feels much cheaper. Its keyboard and touchpad are ok. The screen has the same resolution, but isn't as good. But it's completely ok, considering it costs quarter than the Mac.
- Performance: Well, you can't really compare a budget processor and 2 GB RAM to a top of the line one with 4 GB. But Windows 10 actually works really well, runs office and browsing fine, and (Compared to the unusable Metro UI) is very comfortable to use. It's not a gaming platform.
- Battery life: Now this is the first time I've seen a windows laptop runs so long between charges. More than 12 hours (For browsing and office usage). The Air? 9 hours was my record.
- Software: The most important software for my kid is office, and though Office runs on both laptops, Hebrew support for Office still lags on Mac OS. The Asus comes with 1 year free Office subscription.

In conclusion - This is a very smart buy for students. Cheap, light, fun to use, and runs everything you need - It's not a tool for heavy programming, photoshopping or gaming, but rather for browsing and office applications. The price is the main disruption here - Why get a tablet for your kid when you can get her a fully functional laptop?
This is quite like comparing apples and peaches (Pun intended) - Eventually, if I'm a casual user, this is a no brainer - The Asus takes it. But if I'm a heavy user and need an ultraportable, the x205ta isn't an alternative to the Air. I would look for something more in the area of the Air's 800-900$ MSRP (Yes, they MSRP for less now...).

My take on the Google/ Alphabet rehash

So Google gets a new CEO, and the leaders form a parent company named Alphabet.
I've written quite a lot about Google's ability to change, and pressure reinventing themselves out of being an ad agency.
Looks like they've come to the conclusion that they can't. Google will remain Google, and Alphabet will be... Something else?

The real question is, if you don't change the people in charge, will you be able to do new things?

Time will tell. One thing is certain: They have enough cash to begin with.

Don't solve this.

Part of the fun in building a new product is creating and writing it. A lot of the creation process includes problem solving - We need to do this feature, we need to create an interface for that etc. etc.

However, a lot of these problems have already been solved.
Don't waste your time re-solving problems yourself in an early stage. Do some research - You'll most likely find off-the-shelf components, even if they're not 'tailor made' for your needs.

Put your efforts on your new product, not on re-solving problems that were already solved.
This will save you a lot of time to focus on what's really important - Your value.

Ad Blocking - A different approach

This is nice:
Wired (And probably other content sites) is now making a lot of its cash from displaying ads.

However, as ad blockers are common practice, this hurts their living. A lot.
As solutions like DSERO are getting more and more common, there's also the direct approach method.


Worked in my case. I've whitelisted Wired.