Notes About "Super Nintendo" by Keza MacDonaldA few months ago I wrote an article on De Programmatica Ipsum about Keza MacDonald’s awesome book “Super Nintendo: The Game-Changing Company That Unlocked the Power of Play”, and as I was reading the book I took some notes; here they go, in their entirety, and without any editing, and with the page numbers appended at the end of each for reference.
Open Source ForbiddenWhat I’m going to tell you today might seem incredible, but just the same way as LLMs are banned from many workplaces these days, or mobile apps were outlawed by many an IT department 15 years ago, I was consulting 20 years ago for a large firm (a very large Swiss firm, actually) in which… Open Source code was explicitly forbidden to ever be put into production.
On Writing and Grading Papers in 2025I’ve recently read two articles about the subject of how AI is quickly destroying higher education and what can be done about that; one on The New Yorker and another on The Chronicle of Higher Education, and they are quite similar in spirit: both quote similar sources, both deplore the current state of things, and both fail to provide any actionable idea at the end.
WFH in 1998The heated “Work from Home” debate of 2024 brought me back memories of my first programming job, when I joined a small “dotcom” startup in the outskirts of Buenos Aires, and for the first few months of my employment I quite literally worked from home… in 1998.
Farewell to Software EngineersI recently ranted on Mastodon (as one usually does) about a persistent phenomenon, one which I’m quite tired of seeing in this dear software industry I happen to make a living with.
Against Open SpacesRegular readers of my ramblings are well aware of my absolute aversion to open spaces, particularly in the context of software engineering.
Notes About "All-in on AI" by Thomas Davenport and Nitin MittalI’ve finished reading the 2023 book “All-In on AI: How Smart Companies Win Big with Artificial Intelligence” by Thomas Davenport and Nitin Mittal, and here go some notes I took.
Notes About "Welcome to AI" by David ShrierI recently read the 2024 book “Welcome to AI: A Human Guide to Artificial Intelligence” by David L. Shrier and here’s a quick summary of quotes and important points.
Notes About "HBR Guide to AI Basics for Managers"I recently finished reading the 2023 book “HBR Guide to AI Basics for Managers” by Harvard Business Review, and this post summarizes some of the most important ideas therein.
Notes About "The Coming Wave" by Mustafa SuleymanI finished reading the 2023 book “The Coming Wave” by Mustafa Suleyman and it’s been a revelation, and by far, one of the most interesting books I’ve read in a while.
MicrocelebritiesMy wife is a yarn geek. She knits beautiful garments, but she also dyes and sells her own yarn on her online shop. We often go to trade shows, with a literal truckload of hand-dyed yarns, to sell her products. And in those events I discovered that there are “microcelebrities” in the yarn world, just like there are in the software world.
Expecting People to Work for FreeBusiness literature is filled with myths and legends about famous entrepreneurs building empires from scratch. What those same books don’t say is that those empires are often built on top of free labor.
The Wordpress Market is a Red OceanAt some point in 2023 I asked online for WordPress experts for the remake of a website, and it felt like opening a fire hose.
Notes About "Who Says Elephants Can't Dance?" by Lou GerstnerI finished reading “Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance?” an autobiography of Lou Gerstner, CEO of IBM from 1993 to 2002, and I can say without hesitation that it’s one of the best business books I’ve read in decades. Here are some notes (quite a few actually!) I took while reading it.
Revisiting Ruby on RailsI’ve blogged about Ruby on Rails quite a few times in the past 18 years. I’ve delivered lots of Rails apps, I’ve used it for my own company, and I have been a historic fan of Rails against all odds and against all opinions.
Back to MonolithsSo Amazon Prime Video (of all people!) published a blog post about how they’re returning to monoliths, relayed by DHH, generating lots of noise, to the point that even Dr. Werner Vogels himself, CTO at Amazon, had to pour some thoughts about the subject.
Killer AppsThe D programming language lacked a “killer app” to break through. Another brilliant language suffered from this situation, objectively deserving a much better fate than the one it had; Smalltalk.
The Great Idea of Async WorkAs I mentioned last week, I’ve been in this industry for exactly 25 years. I started my journey as a software developer on Monday, October 6th, 1997. I’ve had the opportunity of sitting down and writing code for a living for a quarter of a century!
Microservices or Not? Your Team Has Already DecidedLet’s take a somewhat tangential approach to the subject of the Microservices architecture. Most discussions about it are centered around technological aspects; which language to choose, how to create the most RESTful services, which service mesh is the most performant, etc.
The New MicrosoftMicrosoft is a big, big, big name in our industry. No matter what they do, everybody notices. Whether it’s good or bad, useful or ridiculous, big or small, it never goes by unnoticed.
The Recruitment LotteryFinding a job as a software engineer is a lottery. You will find lots of contradicting advice online, and what I’m doing here is adding my grain of salt to this big cacophony that is the world of technical recruiting.
On Being a GeneralistThere is a lot of discussion online these days about the relative benefits (and drawbacks) of being a generalist software developer.
My Biggest FailureAlthough not my preferred genre, there’s a few business books I’ve read that I reread a few times, and I keep recommending them again and again. “Leading Change” by John Kotter is one of those.
Open SpacesSomewhere in the 60’s, something terrible happened. Someone, out of hatred and ignominy, tore down the walls of his or her office, and showed to the corporate world a new way of working.
Efficient MeetingsIn this post you will find a collection of interesting book quotes about meetings, and how to make them suck less.
Technology WarsThere’s been plenty of technology wars in the software industry. Here’s a list of those that I got to witness in the past 25 years.
Things That Define Big Software CompaniesLooking at the software industry, it appears that most big companies usually share more traits than they would like to admit. Take for example their products: at any given time, big software companies all had at least one product of various similar categories, roughly grouped in three big areas.
Open Letter to SaaS AppsDear SaaS app developer, entrepreneur, marketer, CEO, etc; here’s a tip: don’t annoy users, particularly those who have paid accounts.
We Are FamilyHere is one of the most blatant lies I’ve heard in my professional career, and sadly, I’ve heard it at quite a few jobs: “We are a family”. For some reason, to compensate for otherwise abysmally dystopian work environments, founders and managers fall into the temptation of telling their staff that they “are like family” to them, or that the whole company “is like one big family”.
The Wrong QuestionI once had a second interview for a job at a small software engineering company. Instead of the common programming questions I was expecting, the person who interviewed me asked the following: “how much do you think a developer costs me?”
Managing Professional Decline as a DeveloperMy friend Gabriel Garcia Marengo shared a great article by Arthur Brooks a few weeks ago, and it prompted me to reflect on how developers cope with age. This is not a new subject for me; but it is one that, as I approach the glorious age of 50, becomes more and more present in my thoughts.
Steve Jobs vs Bill Gates on StageI have had the chance to attend keynotes by Bill Gates and Steve Jobs in person; their styles couldn’t have been more different. Here’s some memories from both. Of course I did not meet or talk to them; this is just my experience as another attendee in the room.
PlanningWhen James Patterson, one of the best-selling authors in the world, had the idea for “Honeymoon,” his 2005 novel, he started writing an outline. He iterated 5 or 6 different times until he got the right flow of the story, the right characters, the right bad guys, and the right conclusion. He showed the final version of his outline to publishers, and after some modifications he started writing the novel itself.
OpinionatedProgramming is a very opinionated activity. Unfortunately, those opinions are seldom based on facts, and most of them are futile, and lead to stupid arguments on Reddit or Hacker News or the comments section of a blog.
Job InterviewsIf you work in this industry for a certain amount of time you are certainly bound to suffer, at some point or another, the delicious experience of the programmer job interview.
The Greatest Unsolved Problem in the Digital EraThank you very much for inviting me to speak today. It is an honor and a privilege to be able to contribute to your event with some words that I hope, will trigger some positive thoughts and bring some new ideas to your brain.
Developers and PoliticsSome thoughts around the tensions between technical and business teams. TL;DR: I do not offer a solution in this text for political problems in software organisations; I just want this article to help developers not to feel alone in this struggle.
Eight Steps To Build A Better Swiss Software IndustryThe Swiss are the best at many, many different domains. Which is a rather surprising and seriously fantastic feat for such a small country with merely eight million people, divided in four quite distinct linguistic groups.
You, Founder, and your Secret AgendaSo, dear Founder of a much hyped techno bubble, you want my skills in your company.
Developers, Learn To Say NoAll change starts with a “No.” This morning I started my day with a dozen crashes all over the various devices that our technological life has sprinkled around us. First an app crashed on my iPad, then a web page stopped responding in Chrome, then Safari also had its hiccups, finally an iPhone app stopped responding. A couple of reboots followed.
akosma softwareThey say things come in pairs in this life. Yesterday I closed my company, akosma software, also known by the Swiss government as “akosma software - Adrian Kosmaczewski”, federal number CH-550-1058663-5.
Dropping support for iOS 5 and olderJust like last year, this year too we announce that all of our future projects will only be compatible with iOS 6 from now on.
Plan for a Brighter SmileEvery so often I decide to make what could visually be described as “cutting the fat” in my life.
Size MattersOne of the facts I vividly remember of studying physics in university (this was in the mid 90’s in Geneva, Switzerland) was a certain disconnection between Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. The former is a theory used to describe phenomena at macro level, like galaxies, planets, stellar systems, while the latter describes the interactions at micro level, the atoms, light, particles, energy at microscopic levels.
How we workWe have been in business for quite a few years, and we have found out several things that work and other that don’t in our activities. We have had our share of successes and failures, as any other business; and we hope to have learnt something along the way.
Dropping support for iPhone OS 3.xGiven our strong focus on iOS, and also to be sure to be economically competitive, we are continuously watching the market to know which OS version is used by the many potential users of the apps we make.
immedia: the leader mobile solutions provider in South Africaakosma software was born with the dual objective of providing world-class software solutions and technical advice to companies, all over the world. One of the most unexpected and delightful outcomes of our work in akosma is the incredible friends we find along the way, every day.
Random Thoughts on PartnershipsA couple of months ago I had a very interesting conversation with a friend of mine, who happens to be a close business partner in many different ventures. During this conversation, one of his phrases, probably the simplest of all, struck me and stayed in my mind:
Danske Bank iPhone Applicationakosma software is proud and honored to announce a joint collaboration with Trifork Switzerland GmbH and Trifork A/S in the development of the Danske Bank iPhone Application.
Welcome to the Company!Many people have asked me why, when I was an employee, I used to change jobs so often. The answer stands in between my own curiosity to take on new challenges, and the various assholes I had to deal with through the ages. Just as an example of this last case, here goes a true story, one that stands between being a candidate story for The Daily WTF, or as sample material for The No Asshole Rule book by Bob Sutton. You decide.
How to buy iPad apps outside of the USSo you flew and bought an iPad, you live outside of the US, and you would like to buy iBooks, Pages, Numbers and Keynote (as well as many other amazing apps) from your own country, huh? After all, as Scoble said, “the iPad without apps is pretty lame, actually”.
Making Traveling Enjoyable AgainIf there’s only one good thing we could take from the global grounding of planes all over Europe, it might as well be the possibility to enjoy traveling again. Even recognizing that the airline industry has been able to dramatically cut costs and times of travel, one can’t deny the fact that it has done nothing to increase the pleasure of traveling. Quite the opposite, as a matter of fact.
Reflexions on the Software BusinessThere are basically two things you can do to earn a living when you write code:
Who Do You Want to Work With?When you are a kid in Argentina, there are invariably three questions that you’ll always get asked whenever you meet a grown up person:
akosma software has a new websiteThis is something I should have done much earlier, but hey, better late than never: akosma software has a new website and I’m happy to invite you to take a look at it.
Myself on the Swiss PressThis is something that does not happen that often to me, so it deserves a blog post of its own: here’s two appearances of yours truly in the Swiss press last week. The first one is an article in the Tages Anzeiger of last Wednesday (full text available online), and the second one is an article (with photo) on the SonntagsZeitung last Sunday. Since the SonntagsZeitung article is not available online, here’s the scan of the article.
iPhone Font BrowserOne of the most common questions I get when working with clients on iPhone apps is this one:
iPhone Conference 2008 GenevaThose of you who have been following this blog for the past years know that I have somewhat reduced my “writing rhythm” these days, and many factors have caused this. For the past 3 months I’ve been not only finishing my Master’s degree, but I started working as a full-time, independent iPhone developer, and soon some of my code will be available on the AppStore.
Saving a Failing ProjectIn 2006 I had the opportunity to work as a “project leader” into a small failing project. Three developers were working in an ad hoc basis, creating a software application for an important client (a government office in Lausanne), without any kind of detailed formal specification, without any kind of design documentation, and with strong pressure from the management to release the application, even if not in an usable state. Needless to say, the project was also beyond budget.
Deliver. Now.Every time I talk with people about Ruby on Rails in Switzerland, I almost always get the same comments, no matter what is the background of the person I’m talking to:
Rethinking the Corporate WorldIn Buenos Aires I’ve studied corporate management (I did, shame on me), and as part of that, I had to learn about all the different identified types of organizations: matrix-based, pyramidal, military, organic, etc. Afterwards, books like Peopleware made me rethink these concepts, particularly when seeing the pityful state of some software development companies here and there.
Riding the Rails AgainIt feels soooooo good to :) Let me introduce you to Parking Friend. This website, which I had the pleasure to design and develop, belongs to some friends of mine, currently starting their own valet parking service in Geneva.
Schedule Issues in Software ProjectsTime is the ultimate dictator: “Time is also the one variable that has the least amount of flexibility. Time passes no matter what happens on a project.” (Schwalbe, chapter 6, page 202). As a result, any problem regarding the schedule of a project is likely to be the most difficult one to manage.
About Corporate PoliticsPolitics are part of our daily life. Nevertheless, the word has got a bad reputation in the IT world (and elsewhere, too), thanks to famous failures and managed disasters, but the truth is that to succeed, projects need politics - and project managers should know it well.
15 Startup Commandments by Mark FletcherYour idea isn’t new. Pick an idea; at least 50 other people have thought of it. Get over your stunning brilliance and realize that execution matters more.
Offshoring QualityIT offshoring is a highly controversial topic nowadays; organizations from medium to large sizes choose to have their projects developed overseas, usually in countries where the cost of software development is lower than in Western Europe, Japan or North America.
MDA, Thales, Nestle, and MicrosoftI haven’t blogged for a while; I must admit that this has been a busy month. In fact until June I will be working inside one of the biggest companies on Earth: Nestle. My task, as a Software Architect, is to set up the overall architecture of a worldwide, distributed application, whose details I shall not lay down here (for I have signed a non-disclosure agreement). But I can say that this is, by far, the most exciting time of my professional life; this architecture is already the biggest challenge I have ever faced.