Need for mere pragmatism

Opensource needs lots of pragmatism too, engineering, chosing software and doing stuff.

I looked around for while, almost 30 years, and more recently I have been sad trying "open stuff" popping up here and there like mushrums: javascript frameworks, dependency resolvers, installation facilities, CI/CD software and so forth. All engineered stuff - my gosh - but running with lots of problems or turning out to be too abstract. I understand that a newbee maybe merits to have its *gate* but engineer leaders or project heads here should rock and impose some strict rules on publishing software before to let it arrive on everyone desk.

I think this pragmatism is necessary to distinguish ourselfs from the proprietary software and, making a sad enough comparison, to not let us finish into the left wing side kindly *envisoned* for all the loosers in the political landscape. And I think this pragmatism is necessary more over now that opensource business and consumer adoption moment is breaking through.

File handlers vs DBMS, 1st Episode

Once upon a time I was walking around into the jungle myself tired, dirty and mainly (the papers were all for me) jobless. I just have been suggested to meet an undergradueted engineer, an elf, inhabitant of one oak there. The oaks are famous to be rare, not like the dbms, I mean. Indeed, found the oak, elf John fired immediately my fantasy: "So you are saying that you work on the web but you never touched it by a web app written C". I was really intimidated by him. "I see your face: 'A low level programming language like C and I should use it to build for the web?'. Sorry, dude, but do you almost know what is a file handler?". And he went away. He was probably arguing that we live in the era of the terabyte DBMS and we do not worry enough if we really use them or not, isn't it? If he was still here I could argue to him that we all come from the spider era of Yahoo and we are in the social era of Meta and X. Who needs to care about just mere file handlers to XML or text based files? DBMS like the Internet, the "scientific boredrome" will never be challenged enough by simple file handlers? How many tera of data/documents we really need for a "blog"? Maybe just leave a good blog title about XML / XSLT.

Joke: A 2.5 decades problem

HTML and event associations. Today, it is almost two decades and half that we still confuse the onchange declaration with onkeyup declaration for textbox and combo elements on a value change. Time for a fix?

Augumenting as usual

In Unix, I run commands, I launch applications and I read notification and logs from the console. My Tlc/tk apps are indeed augumenting my reality by the console. Different multimedia interface same metaphor: a smartphone or a tablet can augument my shopping experience, my trip, etc. Indeed question soon arising: which pair of AR glasses fit better to a mobile device? We are maybe grasped about a different reality but up to down!

Your name usage frequency

We are so proud to show off our technical language that we do not realize that we are engineering walls, indeed losing appeal. You can test it by checking the usage frequency of our own words, on Internet. I add you more - and it is so pathetic my realization - when 15 years ago I arrived in China they were talking about the frequency of their own surnames like playing Majan to them. Popularity, frequency what damn are them?

usbcable.eu

I was skeptical about the EU choise to adopt usb-c cables as standard for any electronic device, I felt it was just the trick to move electonics sales ahead. Instead, I have to admit it, after received the first usb-c cables they appeared immediately sporting a great quality and mainly in the manufacturing of the termination to the device where micro-usb cables are instead easy to demage.

One step ahead our privacy

Probably you ignore it but this period of the year it is the time to book your italian holidays. I went exactly into this process and with abnegation and *some luck* I did it: I placed my reservation in Tuscany by a privacy protected agency website, with a cool gmail address and paying directly to a third party property bank account. That's it. Easy and straightforward. But one moment! How can I be sure to have placed the reservation to the right people? By feeling!

Goodies more than cookies

Today, in NuMode, we feel systems suppliers more than website developers. What does it mean? Among devops, dns and web resources reachable by PHP, NuMode engineers project complete and running "web systems" apart web pages. And we think not only this good for us but must the imperative thinking of anyone projecting today in the web.
If "system" is certainly a magic term an other one is "flexibility". Firstly, cause the web is some "volatile stuff", today is one reality, tomorrow is an other cake. Second, variable endeovers are actually the magic to go ahead the mechanical concept of precomputation. So, in NuMode we talk about and project "flexible systems".
Indeed, from The Internet Book we personally undust some necessities from the past and we made them glossy. We finally think that any company should be in the need of a "demo platform", an "upload system" and, do not ask more, its "own email server".
We do not know you but we hate cookie dialogs, not only because one more distraction of the websites, but practically they are useless as all the well-known web browsers have facilities to block cookies. Then what really happens when I do my click to fire that serverside event? We thought a bit this matter and we ended with this stuff: a website should officially list all its users the places of origin, where its web resources are loaded from, and being conscious about them - dot.

Identity thief on the way..

It was around the mid of 2006 when I firstly had a grasp of some chinese websites. Do not miss understand, it was difficult material to understand for me too. Some years later in 2008, I found myself on the first time to prop like a consultant to a company some chinese websites features that I found enough interesting. Among these features there was "surely" the display of the reppresentative own pictures on their corporate websites. Alleluya, I thought, in the end a transparency refresh in doing stuff! But lucky truth was blusting in the months to come. In UK, 2009, I found myself browsing for a brand new Sony laptop. I didn't employed really so much time to realize that the best feature in that official store Sony laptops was "face recognition". And no one laptop without it! Finally, I bought one among the many. Home. I had a great unboxing of my new Sony. And here it is! The greatly acclaimed and wanted *face recognition* login is downtown! Indeed, do not doubt clicking "Load image from disk" you could go ahead with your websites pictures..

My own trick scheleton..

All the escursions both philosophical or empirical of NuMode touch base: the user is in the center.
These days I decided to take a step ahead on my php development, enhancing the php scheleton I'm usual to start from my web apps and I found myself deeply involved in the process to simplify the client life interacting with my works. In the specifally I choose to adopt:
1. Custom PHP templatization.
2. ini files (yess!): easy file format, easy backoffice.
3. Drag-n-drop: simplicity with the max control.
4. Custom download areas for every website: stop formalities, the user is at your fingertips!
What exactly I'm mainly talking about is I believe to be able to automate any website backend giving the client some lasting technologies from the past like ini files and drag-n-drop completed by the easie of PHP templetization. This could help in the creation of *generative* portals at the complete disposal of an enpowered client erasing time costs for web developers sometime transformed in mere Content Editors and Web Masters. Finally, porting features from my blog platform AvatarFree and looking to its rich gallery and download areas I came with this philosophical question: why blogs must be so *attractive* and corporate websites relegated to formal stuff only? Take these one: and my corporate scheleton became more *social*.