Software Quality for Sole Proprietor Developers

I just wrote a paper for a Software Quality Assurance class about sole proprietor developers like myself, Personal Software Process and building reliable, quality software.

If you like you can read it here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/qihfynfac7ed4ih/Hancock_Final_Paper.pdf

Setting up ADB for debuging the Viewsonic G Tablet in Ubuntu Linux

After rooting and installing CyanogenMod, the Viewsonic G Tablet is an amazing device.  If you are a developer though, you may find difficulty using this device with ADB.

To get it working under windows, follow the guide at XDA forums under the "Setting up ADB" heading.  If you are on Linux, follow the steps below:

To start with, in the terminal, enter the following command.

sudo nano /etc/udev/rules.d/99-android.rules

Then, paste the following line into the file.

SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="0955", SYMLINK+="android_adb", MODE="0666" GROUP="plugdev"

Press CTRL+X to close, and press Y then Enter to save.

Then run the following commands:

sudo restart udev
adb kill-server
nohup adb start-server
adb devices

You should see your tablet in the list of devices. If so, then you're ready to go! If not, comment below with your results, and we'll try to get it figured out.

The real question we need to ask ourselves about the government of FOSS

With all the hullabaloo around Ubuntu these days, everybody has an opinion and a poll. Linux Journal just asked their users if FOSS is a democracy. I think they are asking the wrong question. Democracy, republic, meritocracy, aristocracy, none of it matters as long as the developers know what their users want, and are able to make that happen. So my question is:

In a conflict, should open source developers listen to their users, or rely on their 'better judgement'?

If you were in Mark Shuttleworth's shoes, what would your response have been?

Chrome OS is valuable

Today's Joy of Tech cartoon perfectly illustrates the value of Google Chrome OS. People fear the cloud because they don't own the hardware where their data is stored. The value of having that data stored by Google is that they have multiple datastores all over the world that retain a copy of your stuff. Can you do that with your hardware?

Google's Chrome Extension Library is one step closer

Chromium and Chrome Dev: Google's hosted Chrome Extension Library now has a landing page instead of a redirect to chrome.google.com or just google.com.

This appears to be new this morning, though links to this page appeared in the New Tab Page of both Chromium and the Chrome Dev Branch a few days ago. I thought it odd that Google would start putting out links to a page that didn't exist yet, but they seem to be rectifying that quickly.

Another thing I noticed is that the site is secured. Obviously they are taking the security of extension installing very seriously, just like Mozilla.

Of course there has been a great collection of Chrome/Chromium extensions over at ChromeExtensions.org for a while now. It seems there are a few new extensions added every day. My favorites:

• Google RSS Reader: Gives you a nice easy way to preview and subscribe to feeds in Google Reader
• Google Wave Checker: Notifies you of new Waves
• Gmail Checker: Notifies you of new Gmails
• Bit.ly Shorten Url: Quick access to shorten the url of the page you are currently on.

Windows 7

Windows 7 recognized almost all of my hardware! Almost as good as Ubuntu with only 5 times the bloat.

I installed Windows 7 on my laptop on Sunday. I was pleased to see that I didn't need to install WiFi or NIC or VGA drivers. I did have to install my Realtek audio drivers and Synaptic touchpad drivers, which I would think would be obvious drivers to include. Also, Windows 7 had no problem connecting to my HP OfficeJet 6500.

All this is great, and it blows XP out of the water. However Ubuntu has been doing this well since at least Gutsy. With Feisty, everything but my card reader worked. Since Gutsy, ALL of my hardware works out of the box.

I think Microsoft has done a great job with Windows 7, and I really hope they overcome the stigma they earned with Vista. So far, I am enjoying my Windows 7 experience. It's snappier than Vista was, and prettier than XP. My favorite part is the new taskbar that replaces Quick Launch. Absolutely brilliant design.

With Gnome-Do, Ubutnu still takes the cake in my opinion though.

Chrome on Linux!

Since my last post was a million years old, and Chrome on Linux was brand spanking new, I thought it would be nice to post an update. I didn't land the Google Summer of Code spot working on Chrome for Linux that I wanted. Although, since school is year-round for me, and I took an extra consulting gig this summer, it probably worked out for the best.

Whoever did get that spot seems to have done some great work though. I've been using Chrome on Ubuntu for several months now, and it gets better every day! It is super fast, pretty stable, and I can even watch YouTube now.

Shortly after the announcement of Chrome OS, I was discussing Google's new move with a group of local IT professionals. They were not as excited as I was. Most are Microsofties. Even the guy who introduced me to Google Apps didn't think much of Chrome OS. For me though, it is not so much that I'm excited about Chrome OS itself, but rather what it means for Chrome. If Google is going to be remotely successful with Chrome OS, they will have to:

• Make Chrome work like a dream on Linux
• Make all of their web services work correctly in Chrome
• Bring Google Voice and Video to Linux

Since I am a Google junkie, having all of their products working on my Linux desktop will make my day.