Notes From the Road | Official blog of the future. Or something.

Posted by Mike Seidle on Apr 11, 2012

Salt: Remote Execution and Configuration Management With Python

Last night's IndyPy Meetup was a blast. We had around 25 python developers there and I had the privilege of sharing a little of what I have been working on over the past week or so at DirectEmployers Foundation.

Posted by Mike Seidle on Apr 3, 2012

Three Product Design Mistakes You Can Easily Avoid

Sometimes you win because the competition goes out of their way to lose. Usually this is the case when one company nails it, and everyone else strikes out.

Posted by Mike Seidle on Mar 30, 2012

Why Python is More Productive

I was reading a recent discussion argument on Slashdot about how Python’s duck typing was inferior or superior to static typing (yes, the article was about if Python was fast enough, but the discussion wasn’t questioning that). It is a very silly argument, because it really sidesteps what matters: Python is an order of magnitude more productive than most statically typed languages. Here is...

Posted by Mike Seidle on Mar 7, 2012

Companies That Don’t Train Employees Suck

One of the biggest mistakes that technology people make is not going to real educational conferences. When I joined the team at DirectEmployers, the single benefit that mattered to me was this: Going to Djangocon in the fall. Going to PyCon in the spring. Why? I wanted to pick the right employer, and the single symptom of a company that sucks is that they do not invest in their people. Sometimes lack...

Posted by Mike Seidle on Mar 4, 2012

Stop Making People Lie

Seth Godin is on to something with his latest post, “Why Lie?” Seth’s spends a lot of time dealing with what happens after a lost sale, when salespeople typically try to recover a deal by questioning the buyer’s decision. Seth is right about that situation, but the problem is deeper than Seth’s post indicates. People lie to salespeople because they are conditioned like...

Posted by Mike Seidle on Feb 1, 2012

Difference Between Software Developer vs. Programmer vs. Software Engineer

Just so everyone understands the difference: A programmer is a puh-tey-toh. A software developer is a puh-tah-toh. A software engineer is a potato (in some states, a certified potato).

Posted by Mike Seidle on Jan 12, 2012

Congress Wants to Unplug the Internet with SOPA and PIPA

Next week, congress will vote on SOPA (House version) and PIPA (Senate version). Both SOPA and PIPA will break both the Internet and your Constitutional rights by enabling private companies to jail you for up to five years for posting something they think might infringe on a copyright. Update: Even the SOPA author US Representative Lamar Smith would run afoul of his own law. If passed, SOPA will give...

Posted by Mike Seidle on Jan 4, 2012

Couple of Quick Updates

I’ve been pretty busy lately and not had time for the blog… I’ve released several new open source packages via the DirectEmployers Foundation… and in speaking of the Foundation, we now have a website which explains exactly what we do. The first package is a URL shortener and click server for Django. Click servers (sometimes called URL routers) are important because they give a...

Veteran’s day

Posted by Mike Seidle on Nov 11, 2011 in Blog, politics | 0 comments

I served in the Navy. I never once felt like I was doing a thankless job. Here...

Open Source is Winning. Get Used to It.

Posted by Mike Seidle on Nov 6, 2011 in Blog, IT, programming | 0 comments

Companies are making a killing with open source. Google hasn’t done bad...

If You Will Not Listen, Don’t Ask For Input

Posted by Mike Seidle on Oct 31, 2011 in Blog, politics | 0 comments

Ever wonder why leaders don’t often ask for input more...

IndyDjango Meetup – State of the Django Universe

Posted by Mike Seidle on Oct 25, 2011 in django, programming | 0 comments

Here are my notes from the “state of Django” from the 10/25/2011...

How to Predict the Future

Posted by Mike Seidle on Sep 15, 2011 in Blog, startups | 0 comments

Trying to accurately predict the future is hard to do. Most who try their crystal ball do so get it so totally wrong that it's embarrassing. Some people perpetually get it right, like Steve Jobs. What's the difference? The people who are wrong are on the outside looking in. The people who get it right are cheating. Don't believe me? Here's what Alan Kay (one of the people who your grandkids will learn about in American History and tell you about) has to say:

Why the B2B Sales Model is Broken

Posted by Mike Seidle on Sep 13, 2011 in Blog, marketing | 0 comments

I spent the last week in Portland at Djangocon, which is a conference for people who are making really cool web apps with a toolkit called Django. I haven't been surrounded by as many really, really smart people since Nuclear Power School in the US Navy. One of the presenters, Brad Fitzpatrick, casually mentioned his disdain for dealing with

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