Review: An Entrepreneur Story from CrowdTrust to Bowery Farming

As I was learning more about Bowery Farming (which I'll blog soon about), I learned that the founder Irving Fain had created another company called CrowdTwist beforehand.

CrowdTrust

But what really caught my attention isn't the company or the product (at least not for CrowdTrust), but the story entrepreneur Irving Fain in starting his first company. He was working a good job in a corporation and had an idea with one of his colleagues. Together they took a risk and got accepted into the TechStars NYC program where they actually got funded for a few months to *prepare* to pitch their prototype.

TechStars NYC

Wait? They possible accept teams with new ideas but without even a prototype of their product? Well, that's what I understand, surprisingly. See, here's a snippet from the TechStars NYC website:

Learn more about TechStars by watching this video.

Irving Fain - Successful Entrepreneur

I also learned a lot from his interview on Cornell Tech.




Yep, and just like that, I'm a fan of Irving Fain. Great thinking and doing, Mr. Fain!!

Bowery Farming

Now, back to Bowery Farming.

This is definitely changing the future of food and I'm looking forward to it. It is even going to change how people grow their own gardens at home.

An Employee's Story Inside Bowery Farming

Rethinking the entire Food Supply Chain

Good, healthy stuff - thanks, Mr. Fain!

References

• https://www.youtube.com/user/techstarstv
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pFVvjJPhR0 (TechStars Atlanta 2017 Program Overview)

Review: From Testing to Transparency

I like this article although this message seems to never get old. I like this author's point that could help businesses with socially-conscious cultures. #transparency

"A better first step could be providing more transparency to consumers, with publicized details on testing standards and processes for various new tech products. In other words, how was this product tested, and how many iterations did it go through? What were the results? This way, if consumers choose to buy a poorly tested product, they at least know the risks going in—and companies that do spend the extra money and take the extra time for more thorough testing get rewarded with higher customer appeal, even if they’re late to market."

https://thenextweb.com/podium/2019/07/30/better-testing-could-solve-most-tech-problems-so-why-arent-companies-doing-it/

Recode: SpringBoot vs other frameworks

I'm coding up another backend application for an outdated system and using the recommended SpringBoot since the client's demand is in Java. I don't know a lot about any specific framework, but I'm learning a lot about SpringBoot during this project. Having already worked on other frameworks and creating my own fun samples at home in JavaScript and Python, I can't help but wonder why this Java framework doesn't already have something so essential during today's programming: a component generator.

Most frameworks that I've used in JavaScript, Python and even Ruby (Rails), have a component generator via CLI. I notice that SpringIO has a Spring Initializr, but it's GUI doesn't provide options to create a standard web application with security for users. I won't go too deep here, but the point is - I'm tired of creating an MVC (where the View is actually just a API page). I just want to generate components from a list of known models and be done (so I can start having design meetings about what the client really wants me to program).

Anyhow, I just wanted to say this on a black and white page. It's another reason why I think need to look for software development opportunities outside of the Java world. But then again, I just need to do some more research. Hey, maybe even try JHipster and see what the hype is all about!

References:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDhumjWApl0  (Spring Initializr - YouTube)
https://raygun.com/blog/popular-java-frameworks/

Review: Google's Byteboard (A New Way to Interview Tech Talent)

Many developers, technical hiring managers, and even recruiters have heard of "Cracking the Coding Interview" by Gayle Laakmann McDowell. From my experience of interviewing for coding and testing jobs, I've learned that the recruiting process will change as the demands for talent also change. Naturally, it's time to see this process change with the landscape of new talent (even if big businesses continue to lag behind). With many new start-ups and small businesses looking to take their share of the market, the next generation of talent should consider their opportunities and no longer feel intimidated by recruiters or the recruiting process. In my opinion, the interviewing process has always been talked about mutual benefits but in reality have mostly, if not always, benefited the interviewer. But, how would talented interviewees shift more of the benefits to their side of the scale in an interview process?

Taking quizzes on HackerRank is cool. Throwing up all over a Whiteboard to showing code matching algorithms for problem solving is classic. Flexing a GitHub of finished projects is nice. However, none of these show a developer's team chemistry on a new feature which is now essential. And, many technical interviews are now happening online (rather than in-person). Teams don't automatically increase productivity due to talent alone. So, could Byteboard be the answer that talented teams and developers are looking for? Time shall tell.

Read Article

https://www.blog.google/technology/area-120/byteboard-interview-measures-for-essential-engineering-skills/

A Comedy Skit on Job Interviews - Enjoy!

References

• https://youtu.be/d_MZgNSv2Fk (Purpose of Job Interview by Derick)
• https://youtu.be/BN0B4mOtwX0 (Tips to Coding Interviews by Gayle)
• https://youtu.be/zhUgaKb0s5A (How We Hire @Google)

Reminder: Security is actually implemented, or not, by Developers

This is a good article from a Security Engineer at Microsoft. I agree with this author that any security in an application should be the responsibility of the development team and not the security team. The security team is to *help* and *guide* network implementation, application development, and programming of operating systems. Now, if we can only get users to be aware of this.

https://msrc-blog.microsoft.com/2019/07/16/a-proactive-approach-to-more-secure-code/

Review: New Director of Paul Allen's School of CompSci and Eng at UW

The University of Washington's Computer Science School is already well known. Having a strong partnership with Microsoft (thanks to Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft) has been a tremendous boost to this institution's recognition as a prestige and innovative. Once again, this incredible school blazes a new trail by promoting internally a new director: Dr. Magdalena Balazinska

Read Article

https://www.geekwire.com/2019/univ-washington-names-veteran-data-scientist-lead-booming-computer-science-school-new-era/

Review: Insight into developing Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)

Beautiful insight into Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) development and one's career in software development at Microsoft sparking a new shift in advancing technology for developers! Thanks, Tara!!

https://medium.com/microsoft-open-source-stories/when-linux-came-to-windows-204cf9abb3d6

References

• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/faq
• Get Ubuntu on Windows