The 5 Magic Rules of Systems Development

I recently read about an ISP engineer who accidently deleted 700GB worth of customer emails. He got confused between a window session to the live server and one to the development server. Now, we've made exactly the same mistake a while back. As a result we came up with a short list of inalienable rules of systems development:

#1: The smallest change can make the biggest difference

Ever heard the chaos theory metaphor about a butterfly flapping its wings in Tokyo, causing it to rain in New York? It must have been a programmer who came up with that, because nowhere else are such effects more apparent than in the wild west of systems development. I've seen entire distributed systems go down because an SQL query got split onto multiple lines using "\" characters. Distributed systems integrate software from multiple vendors running on various platforms. They don't all use the same coding conventions. Live by this mantra and the rest of the rules follow naturally.

#2: Don't dive without a buddy

Never make changes to the LIVE server without testing, consultation and oversight by another team member. Take time to do 'checks' with your teammate before you commit any changes. Explain to him exactly what it is you're planning to do, in what order, what files will be changed, where they've been backed up and how you can reverse the action in case of failure etc. 9 out of 10 times everything goes fine. Prepare for the 10th time.

#3: Thou shalt not boondoggle!

Leave a software developer alone without clear timelines and deliverables and he will come up with a brilliant solution to a problem that doesn't exist. Have a clear development plan that everyone on your development team agrees to. Do not recode everything to make it 'more like Web 2.0' while there are security holes in your system, that you know about!

#4: The Power of 'One'

Do not work on many problems at once. Inevitably, one feature will seem more important today than the one you started working on yesterday. Tomorrow the same thing happens. All of a sudden, you're working on 10 features at once, and you're expected to finish all of them by the end of the month. You don't get to test all of them thoroughly before you upload to the live server on a Friday afternoon, and start getting frantic phonecalls from clients on Sunday. You now have to fix it, but first you need to find the cause. You have 5000 lines of code to filter through and you can't 'see' the problem.

Code 'one' thing, test 'one' thing, implement 'one' thing.

#5: All the world's a stage

Sometimes everything works perfectly on the development server in your office. But the moment you upload to your Live server, everything breaks!

Follow the Power of 'One' and test changes on a staging server before you implement them live. If anything breaks, you can figure out why and prevent the same thing happening when you're ready to go live. Your staging server should approximate your LIVE server as closely as possible. The only difference should be the IP address! Before you upload changes to the live server, upload them once, and only once, to the staging server. Test as if it's live. If you can, have some of your clients use the staging server for a while, and see if they experience any problems.

Follow the rules above and it could just save your job or your startup business. Either way, it will make things a lot less stressful.

Never mind iTunes, here comes diggTune

I had a really great idea last night that I just couldn't keep to myself.

How about digg for songs? Instead of people submitting stories, artists and record companies could submit mp3 tunes to digg.com. mp3 posts would essentially look the same as other digg posts. Readers then click on a play button to listen to a streaming version of the song.

They then simply click on 'digg it' or 'bury song'.

They can then decide to download it. Songs could be free, or for a fee. digg.com could take a small commission on all songs sold.

Gone are the days where indie artists have to struggle to get their demo tapes to the 'right' people in the music industry. They can simply upload their music onto digg and, if they're good, become famous overnight!

Now, the problem was, how do I get this idea implemented? I am too busy with Skyrove and I really don't know how to sell 'just' an idea. Perhaps I could approach some patent attorneys and spend a lot of money to do something that I think should be in the public domain, implemented in a way that works best.

So I came up with another idea. I registered diggtune.com and am auctioning it on eBay. (50% of proceeds will go to Non-Profit Organizations).

Of course I'm hoping that the folks at digg themselves will be the highest bidder, as I think they could best implement my idea and help more struggling musicians than anyone else. (Maybe I'm just an "addiggt", as in I'm "addiggted" to digg)

Then again, I've just told them about my idea for free! They don't really need diggtune.com and they could just do it themselves!

Either way, I hope you liked reading about my crazy idea.

Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be coders

Don't let them write programs and hack them too much
Let them be doctors and lawyers and such!

Credit to John Newton for the title!

John brings up the old issue of people not encouraging their kids to go into the software industry.

I teach a few different IT courses at a private college. The real problem is not that kids don't want to study information technology, it's that they all want to become networking technicians!

When I ask my students about this it soon arises that they think becoming a networking specialist is a lot easier than becoming a programmer. It is definitely true that it's easier to study networking technologies than programming, and becoming an entry-level programmer probably takes a bit more hard work than becoming an entry-level networking technician. Being a CCIE level networking engineer is a different story though.

The real reasons why there aren't enough programmers being churned out from private colleges and universities are simple:

1. Private colleges don't encourage students to study programming. Programming teachers cost a lot more and seeing as class-sizes are already smaller, private colleges simply prefer to focus on networking basics.

2. Universities should start by teaching JavaScript, not Java! Studying Computer Science is dreadfully boring for the first 3 - 4 semesters. It's also extremely difficult for the uninitiated. Especially when you're writing code in Java or C++ and you can't "see" what's going wrong and can't decipher cryptic error messages. It would be better to use JavaScript to teach students about for loops, if-then-else logic, simple functions etc. Students will have a lot more fun creating a 'cool' website they can show to the world than they would creating a command line Java app.

It doesn't help that most university teaching staff see Javascript, PHP, Ruby on Rails etc. as somehow 'inferior' to Java or C++.

The problem is not just getting students to study Computer Science, it's getting them to graduate with a CS major. In my first year at varsity, there were about 400 students 'majoring' in Computer Science. By year 3 it was closer to 100.

Considering the current world of web 2.0, universities should be spending more time on web languages and technologies, and less on teaching students to write stand-alone applications!

digg this

My bet with Steve Jobs

I wrote in my last blogpost about how Apple has been doing just about everything right and are winning over PC addicts like myself.

One of the things that really irks me though, besides the price, is that you can't read anything on Apple's website because they are using a dark grey font against a black background. (http://www.apple.com/macbookpro)

Please write a comment below to tell me if you can read it!

Anyways, here's my correspondence with Steve Jobs on the matter (yes, I was surprized he replied to me, even though it was somewhat curt)


On Apr 24, 2006, at 4:09 PM, Henk Kleynhans wrote:


Dear Mr Jobs,

The text at http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/ is entirely illegible. Dark gray against a black background? What were you thinking???

If you fix the contrast on your webpage, I’d bet your sales will increase significantly!

If I’m right, I wouldn’t mind an all-expenses paid trip to Silicon Valley and a Macbook Pro.

If I’m wrong, well, you’ll have a place to stay with a young entrepreneur in Cape Town, South Africa. (I’ll even throw in a township tour)

I have a pretty darn irritating habit of being right quite often, but you’re still welcome in Cape Town in any case.

Best Regards,

Henk Kleynhans – CEO
Skyrove (Pty) Ltd
Tel: +27 (21) 4488843
Fax: +27 (86) 6204077
henk@skyrove.com
blog: www.yeahfi.com

p.s. See my blog post on How to convert a Hardcore PC user into a Mac Fanatic: http://www.yeahfi.com/2006/04/how-to-convert-hardcore-pc-user-into.html






________________________________________
From: Steve Jobs [mailto:sjobs@apple.com]
Sent: 25 April 2006 03:52 AM
To: Henk Kleynhans
Subject: Re: calligraphy & what went wrong with macbook pro
Importance: High

I think its fine.

Best,
Steve






________________________________________
From: Henk Kleynhans [mailto:henk@skyrove.com]
Sent: 25 April 2006 11:06 AM
To: 'Steve Jobs'
Subject: RE: calligraphy & what went wrong with macbook pro
Importance: High

Dear Steve,

Thank you for your prompt reply.

I’ve now browsed the site www.apple.com/macbookpro from a few different machines in our office. It does look fine on LCD screens, but really horrid on normal CRTs.

As I posted on my blog, I think Apple is doing everything right. But it really is truly impossible to read the text on your website.

I have a tremendous amount of respect for you, so I don’t mean to sound cocky, but my wager stands!

You’ll save many people from the fate of Windoze if they were able to read the text on your website.

Best regards,


Henk Kleynhans
Skyrove (Pty) Ltd
Tel: +27 (21) 4488843
Fax: +27 (86) 6204077
henk@skyrove.com
blog: www.yeahfi.com

How to convert a hardcore PC user into a Mac fanatic

Today, I've been finally and completely won over by Macintosh! My next laptop will be the Macbook Pro with Intel Core Duo processor.

And if I've been won over by Mac, I predict everyone else will be won over too. (official prediction, write this down: I predict that 50% of all new laptop sales in 2010 will be by Apple. I'll eat my hat if it isn't)

I've grown up with PCs, I like taking them apart, tweaking them, upgrading them and doing things with them that no one really should.

Macs aren't too common in South Africa, but some schools had sponsored Macintoshes, and my Dad, a technophobic schoolteacher, even had one and knew how to use it!

But back then, buying a Mac locally would cost the same as it would to buy a ticket to the States, spend 2 weeks at Disneyworld, buy a Mac overseas and bring it back here!

The cost just didn't make sense. Furthermore, Macs were underpowered. No matter how many disciples have told you that Macs were optimized for Photoshop and Video Editing, a high end PC could always do the job faster than a high-end Mac. And it could do a whole lot more, especially if you wanted to play the odd PC game.

The first time I started looking at Macs with some degree of tolerance was when Mac OS X came out. The fact that it was based on UNIX and could run UNIX applications, including giving you the "Power of the Command Line" through Terminal, was intriguing, to say the least...

However, it was still underpowered, and forever would be, or so it seemed.

Until Apple went and did a very smart thing: They put Intel Inside!

All of a sudden I say to myself: I'll consider a Mac! It now has a great Operating System running on a great processor. It's still expensive, but I'll think about it.

Then a few days ago, Rick Segal (VC Guru extraordinare and Mac evangelist) posted a link to a video that combines the audio of a futuristic Windows Vista presentation and the video of Mac OS X. It shows how Mac OS X does everything today what Windows will be doing for the "first time ever" in a year or so to come.

Today Apple went and did the one truly extraordinarily smart thing in all their history: They delivered Boot Camp. (not without reason, some thought it might be an April Fool's joke)

Boot Camp allows you to run both OS X and Windows XP in a dual boot configuration on a Mac. I might never even need Windows XP once I'm fully converted to Mac, but just knowing that I can boot my Mac into Windows if I really need to, makes all the difference!

I am converted. My next laptop will be a Macbook Pro. There's only one little problem: I don't have any money!

The only stupid thing Apple still does is charge 42% more for a Macbook Pro in South Africa than it does in the USA. It's better than before, but you could still take a holiday to the UK and buy it over there for the same price as buying it locally. Hopefully Apple will continue the trend of wisening up.

{
The abbreviated version: (in case you're writing an essay for a marketing class, or your name is Malcolm Gladwell and you're tracking the Tipping Point)

1. In Mac OS X, Apple built a great operating system based on UNIX
2. They put Intel Inside!
3. With a cute little movie they showed that they were miles ahead in productivity and functionality
4. Macs are now based on a widely supported and powerful hardware architecture and operating system, that even gives you the flexibility and comfort of running Windows programs
5. Today they announced you can now dual boot into Windows XP using a Mac
}

Serial Entrepreneurs Anonymous

One of the terms that always make me cringe is the term 'Serial Entrepreneur'. Maybe it's the relation of the word 'Serial' with 'Serial Killer' and 'Serial Rapist'.

I think of Serial Entrepreneurs as the human equivalent of a hurricane. They come at you at breakneck speed, throw a million ideas at you, mention their entire network of business contacts they think is even vaguely related to your business ("Oh! You're in Wi-Fi, I know a guy in Switzerland who sells cordless phones!"), talk about mergers with their own companies and even companies you've never even heard of.

Once they've finished talking they ask the stupid old question: "So What's your Exit Strategy?". I've always been confused by this question, as I'm working 16 hours a day getting a global Wi-Fi company off the ground, so my idea of an exit strategy is literally getting to work 10 hours or less a day. (See my previous post: "What's your Exit Strategy, Sonny?"

I've finally figured out that they're really not interested in my exit strategy, but rather in figuring out their exit strategy.

So imagine my expression when I looked in the mirror today and suddenly realised that perhaps, maybe, aw heck, admit it... I'm becoming a serial entrepreneur!

You see, I'm getting drawn into a little startup called Tinfon. Tinfon is one of those amazing little gems that come around very seldom, even to the most connected of 'serial entrepreneurs'. (more about Tinfon later)

One of the first things I was thinking about was an exit strategy...

Is there a Serial Entrepreneurs Anonymous chapter in Cape Town?

Neighbourhood Power Watch

It usually takes bit of effort to convince overseas investors that South Africa has the infrastructure available to run successful global companies.

South Africans traveling to California often come back talking about how bad the roads are, how patchy cellphone reception is, and even about Palo Alto's 'bad' neighbourhoods. This is in stark contrast to what we expect.

Likewise, travelers to South Africa often expect dirt roads, animals in the streets and other popular notions picked up in Hollywood movies that feature Africa. They don't expect to find 6 lane highways without potholes, an advanced banking system and a highly skilled workforce that is spending much of its time proving that South African companies and educational institutions are on par, if not better, than the best in the world.

However, lately Cape Town and surrounds have suffered a severe electricity shortage. As a result Eskom, the national power company, has decided to implement 'rolling blackouts', in the form of two power cuts per neighbourhood per day, lasting for about 2-3 hours each. Once the power comes on in one, they'll switch off power to another neighbourhood or business district.

Apparently, Cape Town will need to cut down on its usage by about 25%. I've started switching off our geyser and taken care to ensure all screensavers in our office kick in after a minute.

Although some companies, such as Enablis, have switched off their airconditioning systems, one can also see empty skyscrapers at nights with lights burning on all floors, oblivious to the current power crisis. A few days ago I was at a house where the owner had 2 heated swimming pools running. (I did confront him about it, but that's another story...)

My solution is to have Cape Town neighbourhoods 'compete' for electricity. If a particular neighbourhood does manage to save 25% on a given day, that neighbourhood will not suffer a scheduled blackout the following day. This will empower communities to control the amount of power outages they suffer.

Imagine the embarrassment and irritation to have your neighbours phoning you up at 2 AM to remind you that they can hear your swimming pool filter is running!

Now, I know I have the new mayor's business card lying around here somewhere...

Wibiki embraces Fon

Wibiki just announced that they will embrace new Wi-Fi services and models, such as Fon's. They will even adapt their software so that Wibiki users can use free FON hotspots.

Of course, one really only has two choices when a competitor all of a sudden becomes BIG friends with Google, Skype, Cisco and the like. Either you 'embrace' them, or you make a big noise about how their product is inferior. Wibiki chose to do the former, but did mention that Wibiki is the only company to still offer totally free access.

So why is Fon better than Wibiki? In my opinion it has nothing to do with Fon getting $22mm in funding, but with the simple fact that Fon integrates both for-fee and for-free models. I don't think Fon does this particularly well, or in an innovative way. It simply offers both models under one brand name.

But the fact that it offers both means it can compete for the minds and hearts of different kinds of hotspots owners: The small entrepreneurs who intend to setup hotspots at various locations, as well as the guy wanting to share with 2 or 3 neighbours.


Wibiki, the Company that provides
software for a free Wi-Fi world, said today it will extend its free Wi-Fi platform to embrace new Wi-Fi services and models. The Company will provide free Wi-Fi software for more routers, including NetGear. Wibiki will also enhance free Wi-Fi software for laptops to help users find FON (http://www.fon.com) hotspots when free Wi-Fi is unavailable.
CEO Shant Hovnanian said "Wibiki is all about free. We intend to make Wibiki compatible with any company and all organizations that include a free Wi-Fi access component in their offering. We recognize that the FON model primarily depends on user access fees, but they've told us hotspot owners will have the option to provide Wi-Fi without charge."
Wibiki will continue to focus on free Wi-Fi for users and communities. It has developed a new user opt-in advertising service to pay for free user services. Wibiki has filed patents for technology that increases user control of Internet ads on their screens. "Pop-up" ads will be excluded by the new service. Initial funding for Wibiki was provided by Speedus Corp., the company that pioneered development of wireless broadband in the early 90s.
Wibiki remains the only company offering a totally free Wi-Fi platform -- free software for both clients and routers -- that make it simple and safe to share wireless access. Wibiki intends to continue its investment in giving all users an easier way to find and connect to the best free Wi-Fi available. Users can download and install Wibiki from http://www.wibiki.com.

Fon Fon Fon Fon Fon! (sung to the tune of the Tigger song)

Wow, what an exciting few days it's been. I'm not sure which is more exciting, the fact that FON raised $21.7 million from Google and Skype, or all the blogging going on around it!

I've been watching Fon with some interest the past few months, and must admit that I'm totally blown away by the amount of capital they raised for what has repeatedly been called a "flawed business plan". (See "Wibiki joins Fon in reiterating failed business models of the past") Of course, having Google, Skype and 22 million dollars in your pocket gives a whole new perspective on the term "flawed business model".

The greatest thing for us about Fon managing to get this kind of backing is that it validates what we at Skyrove are doing, that is, community owned wireless infrastructure.

It does also make it clear that there will be major competition in this space! Fon is not doing anything new. It's really the same as Joltage, Wibiki and SOHOwireless, although Glenn Fleishman argues that the they're really a for-Fee hotspot service like Boingo or The Cloud and that the for-Free sharing model they're pushing is really just a smokescreen for the 'true' business of commercial hotspots.

I've been getting quite a few emails from folks since Monday asking what's the difference between Skyrove and FON.

Here are some differences AND similarities:

1. We have the same vision: Cheap Global Wi-Fi coverage through community-owned hotspots.

2. They have funding and brand-name backers, and we don't (yet) :)

3. There's nothing unique about their business model. They're simply offering BOTH for-fee and for-free sharing models. Skyrove combines the two in a new way, letting the Hotspot owner decide the price.

4. Skyrove is conceptually like the "eBay of Wi-Fi". We don't sell Wi-Fi, we provide the platform for anyone to sell it themselves at the price they set, while we take a commission on the sale. Think of FON as trying to be the "McDonald's" of Wi-Fi, which is the competitive space shared by Boingo, The Cloud, iPass and others.

5. Their router software was written by the same brilliant programmer who wrote our software, Sebastian Gotschall, and we use the same router, the Linksys WRT54GL. However, they are selling the router at $25 while in South Africa we're paying about 4 times as much from the distributors!

6. Skyrove's edge: Our system is implicitly ISP friendly. Although our system caters for both Usage (per MB) and Time billing, we are biased in favour of Usage billing. An ISP can offer a per GB package to Hotspot Operaters without fear of it being 'abused' in some way. The more GB used, the more money the ISP will make. We don't have to "convince" ISPs that "Sharing is Good". We believe it is good, but we'd like there to be a real "bottom line" incentive for ISPs.

7. We have already signed a small ISP in the US (SkyWi) and are in talks with some others (large and small)

8. We don't have SpeakEasy or any other ISPs theatening legal action (yet) (see Speakeasy Says No Deal with Fon)
*UPDATE: SpeakEasy and Fon made peace soon after. I spoke to a SpeakEasy rep who said that they're totally happy with anyone sharing their internet with Wi-Fi, regardless of the payment method*

9. Skyrove has a much stronger focus on enabling small entrepreneurs, particularly in developing countries, to set up multiple profit-making hotspots. We will enable ordinary folks to share with their neighbours, but we give massive incentive to entrepreneurs who install multiple hotspots.

10. Just like Martin's blog, this blog suddenly got a shitload of hits on Monday. Although Martin's probably got about a 1000 times more!

I hope that all the hype around Fon's fundraising will be the jumpstart needed for investors to start backing Wi-Fi projects, so that we can finally see truly global Wi-Fi access, particularly in the developing world.

Wi-Fi is a dirt-cheap technology. What is needed are folks like Fon, Skyrove and others to take internet access out of the hands of telcos and give the power of communication back to who it belongs to: the people.

Update: Wibiki embraces Fon

My Tip for Trevor - South African Minister of Finance

SILLY EXCHANGE CONTROL REGULATIONS FOR INTERNET COMPANIES

Dear Mr Manuel,

South Africa has the talent and skills to be part of the next Internet revolution. Internet-based companies by their nature are able to trade globally from day one. However, this is severely restricted in South Africa.

For example: Lungi has been selling handmade African jewelery in Gugulethu. She can start a website, with the help of a local NGO, and sell online to people overseas. However, folks overseas wish to pay in their own currency, e.g. Euro.

Currently, to perform this simple task, the only viable option for Lungi is to open an offshore bank account and an offshore company.

But to do this, she needs to get something called 'Reserve Bank approval', which is a silly process that A) Costs too much for a mini-entrepreneur and B) is a bureaucratic nightmare, with all sorts of requirements that were drawn up without ever thinking of small entrepreneurs and/or internet businesses.

Trevor, you'll do South Africa a GREAT favour by ensuring internet businesses can go global and flourish from day ONE.

How about this? I'll raise the funds for an NGO that helps township businesses go global, if you level the playing field and make it as easy to start a global internet business based in South Africa, as it is in most countries around the world!


Yours faithfully,

Henk Kleynhans
CEO of Skyrove (Pty) Ltd
Winner of the Enablis/Business Report ICT Entrepreneurs Challenge 2005
henk@skyrove.com
blog: www.yeahfi.com



* Please join me in this campaign by leaving a similar Tip for Trevor!*

If you are too lazy to type out your own blurb you may copy & paste the following:

"Dear Trevor, Please re-consider Reserve Bank approval for internet companies that need to trade globally, whether it be tangible products, or intangibles such as electronic books, music, videos, telecommunications services etc. Please contact Henk Kleynhans via email at henk@skyrove.com if you need further clarification."