Hello All
This week’s edition has several great elements. It is always noteworthy to see the patterns throughout our industry, and in our news. While I will refrain from talking politics, it is important to note that everyone is selling something, consciously or not. Our job is to help create and improve products that help enable our clients and customers be part of safer and better prepared flight crew, no matter their individual role.
So with this in mind, I hope these links help expand our vision and product expertise.
Happy Holidays to you all.
M
1. RxSwift Introduction
We start this week with a post written by our very own Kwan Cheng, Lead Software Engineer. Kwan recently led a lunch and learn session where he gave us an introduction to RxSwift and how to get up and running. He wrote up this blog post summarizing his work, but ping him for more information. Nice work Kwan. 🙂
“Early software developers were not very far removed from the computer hardware. Programmers entered one byte at a time directly into the computer’s memory using toggle switches. Computers execute from the first instruction to the last and terminates. Suffice it to say that program complexity and size were severely limited by toggle switches. The following decades, innovations in computer languages largely focused on allowing the programmer to manage larger programs, culminating in the Object Oriented Design and Programming (OOD/P) paradigm. Programs are now components, allowing our brains to offload some details by assume certain qualities of an Object. We don’t need to know how a car works, but we know how to use it. However programs more or less still execute from a start to a finish.”
http://uxd.flightsafety.com/rxswift-introduction/
2. Quit Social Media. Your Career May Depend on It.
“I’m a millennial computer scientist who also writes books and runs a blog. Demographically speaking I should be a heavy social media user, but that is not the case. I’ve never had a social media account.”
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/11/20/jobs/quit-social-media-your-career-may-depend-on-it.html
3. Apple Abandons Development of Wireless Routers
Interesting take on focus. Remember in the 1990’s when Apple had scores of products and Steve Jobs’ first act upon his return, was to slash all of the non core products?
“Apple Inc. has disbanded its division that develops wireless routers, another move to try to sharpen the company’s focus on consumer products that generate the bulk of its revenue, according to people familiar with the matter.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-11-21/apple-said-to-abandon-development-of-wireless-routers-ivs0ssec
4. InVision 101
We have been using InVision more and more here at FlightSafety. It’s an amazing tool with loads of powerful features. These videos will certainly help you ramp up your InVision skills.
https://projects.invisionapp.com/d/main#/learn/design-feedback
5. Rieko Yajima: Reconstructing the Scientific Paradigm (from Tony)
Tony: “This is an excellent example of how design can enhance a traditionally non-design field (protein folding) and create better results by leveraging a well understood audience.”
“How might we reflect on our research practices to address scientific problems more effectively? Design-based practices can complement scientific investigation through reframing and co-creation approaches. Rieko Yajima discusses efforts to build a shared culture between scientific and design researchers.”
Rieko Yajima, Artist, Research Scholar, Center for Design Research, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUcgGgPpR_8
6. Microsoft is bringing Visual Studio to the Mac (from Felix & Dan)
Kwan: “Hell Hath frozen over, here come the flying pigs… “
“Microsoft has announced it’s launching its primary coding interface, Visual Studio, on Mac computers. The news may sound uninteresting, but it’s been a long time coming, and is a big shakeup for the company, which has previously preferred to lock developers into its platform by keeping coding tools Windows-only.”
http://www.theverge.com/2016/11/14/13621116/microsoft-visual-studio-coming-to-mac
7. Stripe: This startup wants to solve the ‘unease’ and ‘unrest’ felt by programmers everywhere (from Dan)
“Something funny is happening in Silicon Valley. Lots of hot tech companies, like $5 billion startup Stripe or the $3 billion publicly traded Twilio, don’t really have a “product,” in the traditional sense of the word. What they sell is a little more intangible: The ability for a software developer to easily add extensive new capabilities to their apps and software, by way of what’s called an “API,” or “application programming interface.””
http://www.businessinsider.com/andreessen-horowitz-a16z-invests-in-rapidapi-2016-11
8. Meteor Spyfall (from Nate)
Nate: “I found the most fun mobile game I have experienced (ironically it’s a web app, but it’s a great mobile party game all the same)
“Spyfall is a party game unlike any other, one in which you get to be a spy and try to understand what’s going on around you. It’s really simple!”
https://github.com/evanbrumley/spyfall
Nate: It’s a straight rip of this boardgame: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/166384/spyfall”
9. Buffett’s Berkshire makes bet on U.S. airlines (from Kwan)
Kwan: “7 days late, saw United Airlines’s CEO on CNBC this morning. Looks like potential for our business next year.”
Nov 14 (Reuters) – Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc on Monday said it has bought shares in the four biggest U.S. airlines: American Airlines Group Inc, Delta Air Lines Inc, Southwest Airlines Co and United Continental Holdings Inc.
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/14/reuters-america-buffetts-berkshire-makes-bet-on-us-airlines.html
Have something to share? Please send it along. Let’s hope for the best over the next four years.
Mohit
