Somewhere in the last 7 years or so of playing with Eclipse IDE for U2 (Universe and Unidata), I have come up with a lot of ideas that did not pan out. Rather than go through all of them, let us focus on the one that was just introduced called continuous compile for our XLr8Editor.
I thought if you can see your coding errors while you type, it would help you to be a better programmer. I thought if you could see what variables are unassigned or functions you did not finish or even just bad code, this would be a game changer. I thought if programmers could save an hour a week which equated to 12 minutes a day; this would translate in a whole bunch of sales of our XLr8Editor.
Maybe the technology is too foreign or maybe the technology needs to be explained. Continuous compile does not compile your current code you are working on. It compiles a temporary version and maps the errors on to your current code every 500 milliseconds or when you stop typing. Most users of the tool do not know it even is happening until they have a typo or bad syntax.
Well, I have to admit it now, I was wrong. I thought those CIO's, IT Managers, Programmer Managers would be clamoring for tools that costs $49.00 per programmer per year including maintenance and support, but would save them hundreds of dollars per week or per month.
I still stand by the XLr8Editor for U2 databases as the only tool that really saves you money. So for those of us using this in my mind game changer we know, but the rest of you have no idea what this tool can do for you.
Monday, November 14, 2011
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Why Rapid Update Software
For many years we have made users or clients wait for updates. Whether we are trying to save those updates to roll into an update package or they are insignificant in our eyes, we have been very self-serving. Sometimes we will make a change in the client's account to fix a significant bug or problem, and then we will make the change in the base product. The latter is used on rare occasions.
We have to be responsive to user’s needs. When they say they want a new feature or a bug fix, we need to get on it right now. If we do not see the urgency of their request, we may not have that client in the future.
On incident comes to mind. We had a client that went to look at their competitor and spent some time looking at the competitor software. This client came back to U2logic and said they saw their competitor software do drag and drop dispatch. Then they asked the $10,000.00 question: Can you do that? Unfortunately, we answered the question with maybe given enough time and money. The better answer should have been: Yes! Then wait for the client to ask how much it will cost and how long will it take. Within in a year the client went somewhere else. We cannot tell you that the above was the only reason, but it did not help our case that we did not give them what they wanted.
Mozilla is releasing Firefox every six weeks. Users are complaining that this requiring a lot of work on their side to test their software to make sure it is compatible with the new release. In one of the developer’s blog he states: "If we want the browser to be the interface for the Internet, we need to make it more like the Internet. That means delivering capabilities when they are ready."
So our position is that users/clients that are waiting sometimes years for us to get a feature may cause them to look elsewhere. Our release schedule for our XLr8Tools is 3 to 4 weeks. Our applications software is now every 4 weeks.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Doc or No Doc, that is the question.
Doc is short for documentation. For most programmers it is not something we want to do are will do. Well then why not?
Let's look at what documentation is from MIT they say: "The formal description of a mechanical system or a technical process is known as its documentation. Documentation takes the form of technical and user manuals that accompany various technological objects, materials, and processes. Electronic hardware, computers, chemicals, automobiles all are accompanied by descriptive documentation in the form of manuals." Then they go to state that there are two types of documentation: user and technical.
There is another type, or sub-type if you will, that showing up all over. You will see as an installation manual with lots of pictures a very few words. It the equivalent of child's picture book. Yes, we have digressed to be very non-technical and show the user or technical person how to do something with screen captures and as few words as possible. But if that works so be it.
What it still surprising is that no reads or even looks for the the documentation if you create it. Even if it is the sub-type as described above, they do not look at. Maybe that is why in today's editors have documentation as you type because most do read the manual.
Next time read the frigging manual and see what it has to say. You might learn something after all.
Let's look at what documentation is from MIT they say: "The formal description of a mechanical system or a technical process is known as its documentation. Documentation takes the form of technical and user manuals that accompany various technological objects, materials, and processes. Electronic hardware, computers, chemicals, automobiles all are accompanied by descriptive documentation in the form of manuals." Then they go to state that there are two types of documentation: user and technical.
There is another type, or sub-type if you will, that showing up all over. You will see as an installation manual with lots of pictures a very few words. It the equivalent of child's picture book. Yes, we have digressed to be very non-technical and show the user or technical person how to do something with screen captures and as few words as possible. But if that works so be it.
What it still surprising is that no reads or even looks for the the documentation if you create it. Even if it is the sub-type as described above, they do not look at. Maybe that is why in today's editors have documentation as you type because most do read the manual.
Next time read the frigging manual and see what it has to say. You might learn something after all.
Friday, September 9, 2011
Change before you have to
Sometimes in life we get to look back at what we have accomplished.
Sometimes in life we are up to our buttocks in alligators and our objective was to drain the swamp.
Sometimes in life we walk around and forget to smell roses as we are knee deep in UniBasic Code.
Sometimes in life we are doing the same thing and expect a different result.
Sometimes in life changes are inevitable.
Since 1993 the top person at Rocket Software U2 has been with Unidata, Ardent, Informix, IBM, and now Rocket Software. Starting out a technical support person and currently holding the title Business Area Executive whatever that means. As Jack Welch has said: "Change before you have to". Well unfortunately with the current leader at the helm of Rocket Software U2, that will never happen.
Change is hard.
Change can be debilitating.
Change can be invigorating.
Whether you start at the bottom or in this case at the top, change must happen. The Rocket Software U2 must look at themselves every so often and see where they are going which is more important than from where they have been. For too long we have watch the U2 market go no where. We hear speeches from the top how they are growing anywhere from 8 to 15%. If that was the case then by now the U2 division should be at 250 million dollar business. We know that is not the case. The top management at U2 is stale and no Power Point presentation will every change my mind.
We need somebody that can imbue the U2 division with energy, personality, and rigorous performance that this business demands. The stoic complacent nature of the top must go. In the process, this organization with its great talent will develop great products and show the world market how nimble and hungry Rocket Software U2 is for your business.
Let's get this ship righted.
Let's start growing at 15% or more in bad years.
Let's start growing at 50% or more in good years.
Let's have this Rocket U2 software company on pages of the Wall Street Journal.
Let's have this U2 brand is known in the boardrooms of the Fortune 5000 corporations
Sometimes in life we are up to our buttocks in alligators and our objective was to drain the swamp.
Sometimes in life we walk around and forget to smell roses as we are knee deep in UniBasic Code.
Sometimes in life we are doing the same thing and expect a different result.
Sometimes in life changes are inevitable.
Since 1993 the top person at Rocket Software U2 has been with Unidata, Ardent, Informix, IBM, and now Rocket Software. Starting out a technical support person and currently holding the title Business Area Executive whatever that means. As Jack Welch has said: "Change before you have to". Well unfortunately with the current leader at the helm of Rocket Software U2, that will never happen.
Change is hard.
Change can be debilitating.
Change can be invigorating.
Whether you start at the bottom or in this case at the top, change must happen. The Rocket Software U2 must look at themselves every so often and see where they are going which is more important than from where they have been. For too long we have watch the U2 market go no where. We hear speeches from the top how they are growing anywhere from 8 to 15%. If that was the case then by now the U2 division should be at 250 million dollar business. We know that is not the case. The top management at U2 is stale and no Power Point presentation will every change my mind.
We need somebody that can imbue the U2 division with energy, personality, and rigorous performance that this business demands. The stoic complacent nature of the top must go. In the process, this organization with its great talent will develop great products and show the world market how nimble and hungry Rocket Software U2 is for your business.
Let's get this ship righted.
Let's start growing at 15% or more in bad years.
Let's start growing at 50% or more in good years.
Let's have this Rocket U2 software company on pages of the Wall Street Journal.
Let's have this U2 brand is known in the boardrooms of the Fortune 5000 corporations
Friday, August 12, 2011
Dragged Kicking and Screaming to GUI
Once upon a time, a customer said we don't need no GUI. There is nothing wrong with our telnet (green screen) interface on our Public Warehouse Software you wrote in 1984. All of the enhancements you have made of last 15 plus years have kept the software meaningful. The software has all of business logic that truly reflects what we do. There is no need for any changes just keep supporting this for many more years to come.
In order to get a copy of your inventory from this customer you call them up and say I want an inventory. They print it off on the green bar paper. They take it over to the copy machine and shrink to 8 1/2 by 11. They then go over to the fax machine and fax it to you. Nevertheless, they would like to automate this task.
You are shipping in product to this warehouse and would like to get a confirmation back. When, the product arrives and is put away in the warehouse, the receiving document is copied, in order to get the driver's signature, and faxed to you. Nevertheless, they would like to automate this task.
You now ask them to ship your product. You have to fax them an order. They data entry the order. The pick sheet is faxed to the back of the warehouse, where they pull the product. The driver arrives and the product is loaded on the truck. They fax back a copy of the bill of lading and the pick sheet to their customer. Nevertheless, they would like to automate this task.
Over the winter of 2000, this software suddenly is transformed in to a 100% web application. The customers can log in and get their own inventory. Using Unidata's RedBack middle-ware this application is driven by IIS on a Microsoft server running Window NT using ASP pages.
You announce to this customer that the green screen is dead, long live Web GUI. They scream at you and say this web thing is a flash in the pan. They say you have spent a lot time do nothing for us. They say what were you thinking? They say no you were not thinking about us, only about getting more money from us.
You stand your ground and they prosper. You get a lot more headaches because you have four pieces to debug when things go wrong rather than one as before. And things do go wrong. RedBack won't stay up longer than a day or two. Transactions somehow get their wires crossed and end up on the wrong workstation. IIS need to be restarted as well do to memory problems and it gets slower and slower.
The customer reminds you that the telnet interface did not have this many problems. However, the customer no longer has to fax reports, their customers can print themselves. New enhancements are flooding in due the fact information is now at the finger tips of your customer.
Four year later you drop RedBack, IIS and ASP. Your replacement is an homegrown package called U2WebLink™ that runs on Apache Tomcat using JSP, HTML and JavaScript. The database is still Unidata but the middleware is written all in Java using UniObjects for Java. You and your team write these Eclipse based tools to build web pages and an object editor for the middle-ware. Since you have all of this free time you develop and UniBasic Editor, Dictionary Editor, a Universe and Unidata Resizer tool, and Software installer.
Thus ends the simple tale of one customer experience moving from green screen to Web. By the way they cannot imagine where their business would be had the not "decided" to move to the Web.
In order to get a copy of your inventory from this customer you call them up and say I want an inventory. They print it off on the green bar paper. They take it over to the copy machine and shrink to 8 1/2 by 11. They then go over to the fax machine and fax it to you. Nevertheless, they would like to automate this task.
You are shipping in product to this warehouse and would like to get a confirmation back. When, the product arrives and is put away in the warehouse, the receiving document is copied, in order to get the driver's signature, and faxed to you. Nevertheless, they would like to automate this task.
You now ask them to ship your product. You have to fax them an order. They data entry the order. The pick sheet is faxed to the back of the warehouse, where they pull the product. The driver arrives and the product is loaded on the truck. They fax back a copy of the bill of lading and the pick sheet to their customer. Nevertheless, they would like to automate this task.
Over the winter of 2000, this software suddenly is transformed in to a 100% web application. The customers can log in and get their own inventory. Using Unidata's RedBack middle-ware this application is driven by IIS on a Microsoft server running Window NT using ASP pages.
You announce to this customer that the green screen is dead, long live Web GUI. They scream at you and say this web thing is a flash in the pan. They say you have spent a lot time do nothing for us. They say what were you thinking? They say no you were not thinking about us, only about getting more money from us.
You stand your ground and they prosper. You get a lot more headaches because you have four pieces to debug when things go wrong rather than one as before. And things do go wrong. RedBack won't stay up longer than a day or two. Transactions somehow get their wires crossed and end up on the wrong workstation. IIS need to be restarted as well do to memory problems and it gets slower and slower.
The customer reminds you that the telnet interface did not have this many problems. However, the customer no longer has to fax reports, their customers can print themselves. New enhancements are flooding in due the fact information is now at the finger tips of your customer.
Four year later you drop RedBack, IIS and ASP. Your replacement is an homegrown package called U2WebLink™ that runs on Apache Tomcat using JSP, HTML and JavaScript. The database is still Unidata but the middleware is written all in Java using UniObjects for Java. You and your team write these Eclipse based tools to build web pages and an object editor for the middle-ware. Since you have all of this free time you develop and UniBasic Editor, Dictionary Editor, a Universe and Unidata Resizer tool, and Software installer.
Thus ends the simple tale of one customer experience moving from green screen to Web. By the way they cannot imagine where their business would be had the not "decided" to move to the Web.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Thank your Lucky Stars
Just a few weeks ago, we had the opportunity to bid on how long it would take to do a conversion from legacy telnet system to the web. We sifted through what little documentation existed and looked at the sample code. We looked at the dictionaries, the files, and the general flow. We had a good idea that this was a very complex set of programs that had lasted 15 plus years without much maintenance or updates.
After coming up with our estimated hours, we asked our would be client what the competition, in this case a Microsoft SQL shop, how many hours they thought it would take to convert as well. Since we were not asking for the pricing the client gave us those hours. We thought it would take about 1000 to 2000 hours to convert this Universe application to the web. Our competition thought the number of hours was between 4000 and 6000 hours. Now that is what you call a major difference between our bids. Hopefully we will know soon whether we will be getting the business.
We are sure blessed with a wonderful database that is allows changes to the database without a DBA and allows us to program within the U2 database using the UniBasic language. We should be thanking our lucky stars that we can produce or upgrade software for pennies on the dollar compared to the other guys and gals. Just think if we had a marketing budget of 10% of Microsoft's for 2011, wow how sales would take off.
After coming up with our estimated hours, we asked our would be client what the competition, in this case a Microsoft SQL shop, how many hours they thought it would take to convert as well. Since we were not asking for the pricing the client gave us those hours. We thought it would take about 1000 to 2000 hours to convert this Universe application to the web. Our competition thought the number of hours was between 4000 and 6000 hours. Now that is what you call a major difference between our bids. Hopefully we will know soon whether we will be getting the business.
We are sure blessed with a wonderful database that is allows changes to the database without a DBA and allows us to program within the U2 database using the UniBasic language. We should be thanking our lucky stars that we can produce or upgrade software for pennies on the dollar compared to the other guys and gals. Just think if we had a marketing budget of 10% of Microsoft's for 2011, wow how sales would take off.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
The Red Headed Step Child
U2 databases Universe and Unidata are like the red headed step child. U2 has had a lot of suitors from Informix to IBM and now to Rocket Software and still not much as changed. The growth rate is double digits, but the software is still not well know. There are approximately 35,000 customers with 2.7 active maintenance licenses around the world.
Rocket/U2 does not really have sales people that sell software because the have none to sell. All of the sales are driven by U2 VAR's that package the database in with their software. The time to change this model is now.
When Oracle started in 1977 selling its signature database and middleware it only took 9 years before it started developing business application software. In the intervening years it spent billions to purchase software companies like PeopleSoft, Siebel Systems, and Hyperion solutions to name just a few of the 100 or so acquisitions.
So Rocket needs to loosen the purse strings and start acquisitions that help sell the databases licenses just like Oracle and Microsoft are doing. Then those sales people will not be writing sales orders from the VAR's, they will be out on the street, so to speak, making those sales. The growth rate could be 10 times better instead of a 120 million dollar business that should be a billion dollar business.
Think about would you rather buy your software from a VAR or the company that makes the database? Easy answer in Q4 of 2010 Oracle had 7 billion in licenses and 13.1 billion in software services.
Rocket/U2 does not really have sales people that sell software because the have none to sell. All of the sales are driven by U2 VAR's that package the database in with their software. The time to change this model is now.
When Oracle started in 1977 selling its signature database and middleware it only took 9 years before it started developing business application software. In the intervening years it spent billions to purchase software companies like PeopleSoft, Siebel Systems, and Hyperion solutions to name just a few of the 100 or so acquisitions.
So Rocket needs to loosen the purse strings and start acquisitions that help sell the databases licenses just like Oracle and Microsoft are doing. Then those sales people will not be writing sales orders from the VAR's, they will be out on the street, so to speak, making those sales. The growth rate could be 10 times better instead of a 120 million dollar business that should be a billion dollar business.
Think about would you rather buy your software from a VAR or the company that makes the database? Easy answer in Q4 of 2010 Oracle had 7 billion in licenses and 13.1 billion in software services.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Startups and U2
After watching the fantastic ride of Facebook, LinkedIn, and many others, we have to question whether a bubble is going to burst or do these startups have something U2 software companies need to do? The overall differentiator is those startups are that their programming departments are functioning at or near 60 to 80% R&D. The overall percentage as report in 2009 for software companies on the internet is around 13.6% and we can safely say U2 shops are no where near that figure.
Think about this for a minute if we have 1,000,000 in sales we need to spend 136,000 in R&D to be just on the industry average. So those companies you are doing business with spending that kind of money? Sorry people, they are not!
For a while U2logic R&D percentage was around 4% until around 2009 when the economy and our business tanked. From that point on our R&D percentage went to 40% or 60% depending on what we need done for the next 18 months. This was like throwing out the software baby with bath water and expecting that the software baby was still working which was not always the case. However, it was not until about 10 months into the spending level that our products started to reflect the changes we had made to them.
Demos that had been ho hum turned out to be much better received at the same companies we had given them a few years ago. The new companies we showed our wares to were suitable impressed with our new look and capabilities that sales started to increase.
We learned that besides spending 40% or more on R&D in a bad economy is very risky, is that our products needed the boost and the little time and money we spent on them showed every time we attempted to sell to a current customers or a new one. We need to have the drag-and-drop, contextual menus, multiple skin support, and a consistent look and feel for all our plethora of products such CRM, SMB Accounting, Payroll, Public Warehousing, Distribution, and our transportation packages called MoveNet.
Even our tools division that runs on Eclipse IDE has been reworked, re-engineered, refocused for our Unidata and Universe users. Our XLr8Editor, XLr8Resizer, XLr8Installer internet sales that were tiny took off.
Take it from a U2 boutique software company: improve your software by investing in it.
Think about this for a minute if we have 1,000,000 in sales we need to spend 136,000 in R&D to be just on the industry average. So those companies you are doing business with spending that kind of money? Sorry people, they are not!
For a while U2logic R&D percentage was around 4% until around 2009 when the economy and our business tanked. From that point on our R&D percentage went to 40% or 60% depending on what we need done for the next 18 months. This was like throwing out the software baby with bath water and expecting that the software baby was still working which was not always the case. However, it was not until about 10 months into the spending level that our products started to reflect the changes we had made to them.
Demos that had been ho hum turned out to be much better received at the same companies we had given them a few years ago. The new companies we showed our wares to were suitable impressed with our new look and capabilities that sales started to increase.
We learned that besides spending 40% or more on R&D in a bad economy is very risky, is that our products needed the boost and the little time and money we spent on them showed every time we attempted to sell to a current customers or a new one. We need to have the drag-and-drop, contextual menus, multiple skin support, and a consistent look and feel for all our plethora of products such CRM, SMB Accounting, Payroll, Public Warehousing, Distribution, and our transportation packages called MoveNet.
Even our tools division that runs on Eclipse IDE has been reworked, re-engineered, refocused for our Unidata and Universe users. Our XLr8Editor, XLr8Resizer, XLr8Installer internet sales that were tiny took off.
Take it from a U2 boutique software company: improve your software by investing in it.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Innovate or die
There has been a lot of soul searching lately with several people questioning the continued fanatical support for the U2 (Universe/Unidata database) market when there are limited jobs and many unemployed programmers. The problem in my belief is two fold.
First, are there companies you work for or have worked for changing for better or giving lip service? The latter is probably more like it. They think green screen entry worked in the 80's and the 90's it should work today. Why spend the money refreshing the interface when it does not change the underlying code. They could not be more wrong. As they say in the food business: presentation is everything. You don't look at a runway model and look at his or her brain, of course not. So why are so many managers so obsessed with the latest thing when they have the greatest database and software in front of them? Because, we have not changed the front end in thirty years. Let us gussy up the character interface with a lovely browser interface with tabs, grids, hypertext links, colors, and drag and drop features. Watch those manager eyes go bonkers when they see what you can do with Universe and Unidata databases.
Secondly, we the worker bees are happy to be employed and not worrying about what we produce. How many times have you been given a project to fix or create and hacked the code rather than re-write? Just guessing here but there have been a lot that I know of. Take one of the projects you are given, find a open source tool or free trial, and write it on your own time with a browser front end. Show your manager you have this amazing skill set and what applications can look like. Of course, it may fail, but you have try in order to fail.
I have been pushing U2logic since 1998 when I knew that if we did not change from being a contract shop to an innovated shop we would be dead in the water. I started with, which turned out to be an awful idea, to take a green screen application and remake in wIntegrate GUI. Then we moved on to RedBack IDE which was okay at the time as long as you had IE 4. From there we moved to RedBack Open using Microsoft IIS server.
The year is 2004. I look around and the current owner of U2 have done nothing with the database or the tools they have acquired like SB+ and RedBack. There have been just incremental improvements nothing radical to capture the market excitement. So what's a boutique software house to do: create their own tools. Yep, that is what we have done. We have a middleware called U2WebLink that replaced RedBack. We wrote XLr8Designer and XLr8Object editor to allow you to create web pages like no other software company in the world.
I believe we have been on the innovated treadmill and we have been pushing the limit as well with our new feature of continuous compile for our Eclipse based code editor called XLr8Editor. U2logic is not on the bleeding edge but we are very close.
First, are there companies you work for or have worked for changing for better or giving lip service? The latter is probably more like it. They think green screen entry worked in the 80's and the 90's it should work today. Why spend the money refreshing the interface when it does not change the underlying code. They could not be more wrong. As they say in the food business: presentation is everything. You don't look at a runway model and look at his or her brain, of course not. So why are so many managers so obsessed with the latest thing when they have the greatest database and software in front of them? Because, we have not changed the front end in thirty years. Let us gussy up the character interface with a lovely browser interface with tabs, grids, hypertext links, colors, and drag and drop features. Watch those manager eyes go bonkers when they see what you can do with Universe and Unidata databases.
Secondly, we the worker bees are happy to be employed and not worrying about what we produce. How many times have you been given a project to fix or create and hacked the code rather than re-write? Just guessing here but there have been a lot that I know of. Take one of the projects you are given, find a open source tool or free trial, and write it on your own time with a browser front end. Show your manager you have this amazing skill set and what applications can look like. Of course, it may fail, but you have try in order to fail.
I have been pushing U2logic since 1998 when I knew that if we did not change from being a contract shop to an innovated shop we would be dead in the water. I started with, which turned out to be an awful idea, to take a green screen application and remake in wIntegrate GUI. Then we moved on to RedBack IDE which was okay at the time as long as you had IE 4. From there we moved to RedBack Open using Microsoft IIS server.
The year is 2004. I look around and the current owner of U2 have done nothing with the database or the tools they have acquired like SB+ and RedBack. There have been just incremental improvements nothing radical to capture the market excitement. So what's a boutique software house to do: create their own tools. Yep, that is what we have done. We have a middleware called U2WebLink that replaced RedBack. We wrote XLr8Designer and XLr8Object editor to allow you to create web pages like no other software company in the world.
I believe we have been on the innovated treadmill and we have been pushing the limit as well with our new feature of continuous compile for our Eclipse based code editor called XLr8Editor. U2logic is not on the bleeding edge but we are very close.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Is it a fact...
I have often wondered why we have the love for this database. Come on, it is just a way to keep track of data that we pump out in reports for a user or government. I have worked with other databases throughout my career. Why is this one so special?
Is it the fact our queries are more English like than SQL like? Or is it the fact that before there was a NoSQL there was UniQuery or Retrieve natural language? Or is it the fact our database engine does not just store and retrieve data but allows us to interact with it? Or is it a fact that when we write a few lines of UniBasic language takes 5 to 100 times more lines in code in Java? Or is it the fact that we can put a whole system together in weeks versus months for other databases. Or is it the fact that we do not have a database administrator on staff at most of our Universe or Unidata sites? Or is it a fact that we can make program changes in minutes while other systems take days or weeks? Or is it the fact that we can interface with any system and we try to figure out which way is best rather than which way can we? Or is it the fact that we be using it so long we don't know there might be a better alternative.
Although fact sometimes get in the way of good decisions, remember all the companies that have tried and failed to replicate what Universe and Unidata database do best: Make the business run efficiently from a cost stand point and from a users perspective.
Is it the fact our queries are more English like than SQL like? Or is it the fact that before there was a NoSQL there was UniQuery or Retrieve natural language? Or is it the fact our database engine does not just store and retrieve data but allows us to interact with it? Or is it a fact that when we write a few lines of UniBasic language takes 5 to 100 times more lines in code in Java? Or is it the fact that we can put a whole system together in weeks versus months for other databases. Or is it the fact that we do not have a database administrator on staff at most of our Universe or Unidata sites? Or is it a fact that we can make program changes in minutes while other systems take days or weeks? Or is it the fact that we can interface with any system and we try to figure out which way is best rather than which way can we? Or is it the fact that we be using it so long we don't know there might be a better alternative.
Although fact sometimes get in the way of good decisions, remember all the companies that have tried and failed to replicate what Universe and Unidata database do best: Make the business run efficiently from a cost stand point and from a users perspective.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
I feel the need for speed
Moving out to the country from the city was an eye opening experience in many ways not just from the Internet point of view. The wind blows out here constantly. There is no such thing as delivered pizza. A run to store takes 2 to 3 hours. People like plumbers, electricians and others for your home takes a lot of work to find them and to get them to show up. Oops, too much digression.
In the city we had originally we had dialup at 56K, if we were lucky and the stars aligned. Next we moved up to an ISDN at 128K which we thought was amazing speed. A cable modem at 1 Mbps was unbelievable even though it was a shared medium. The last upgrade was a DSL modem at 3 Mbps was so fast we did not know we could use that much bandwidth.
Country living, we can see the DIA tower, had our phone company offering us dialup when we transferred our phone. Oh come on, my last PC that had a modem in was 8 or 10 years ago. We searched a found another alternative that used satellite service was very expensive and not much faster than 128K.
Eventually, we found a line of sight dish service using Motorola technology. The speed is not consistent but we get about 1.5 Mbps. If it snows, you better clear you dish off. If you have a tree growing in the line of sight you better get it trimmed. You have to unplug you dish receiver every month or so, because the errors accumulate and service slows down. The electrical plug is the weird purge mechanism.
Just this week our phone company called us and said the have laid fiber about two miles away. We got excited and signed up for 3 Mbps DSL service. They said the may even have 7 Mbps service within a year. So there is a speed angel looking out for us.
BTW: The title is taken from Top Gun starring Tom Cruise in 1986.
In the city we had originally we had dialup at 56K, if we were lucky and the stars aligned. Next we moved up to an ISDN at 128K which we thought was amazing speed. A cable modem at 1 Mbps was unbelievable even though it was a shared medium. The last upgrade was a DSL modem at 3 Mbps was so fast we did not know we could use that much bandwidth.
Country living, we can see the DIA tower, had our phone company offering us dialup when we transferred our phone. Oh come on, my last PC that had a modem in was 8 or 10 years ago. We searched a found another alternative that used satellite service was very expensive and not much faster than 128K.
Eventually, we found a line of sight dish service using Motorola technology. The speed is not consistent but we get about 1.5 Mbps. If it snows, you better clear you dish off. If you have a tree growing in the line of sight you better get it trimmed. You have to unplug you dish receiver every month or so, because the errors accumulate and service slows down. The electrical plug is the weird purge mechanism.
Just this week our phone company called us and said the have laid fiber about two miles away. We got excited and signed up for 3 Mbps DSL service. They said the may even have 7 Mbps service within a year. So there is a speed angel looking out for us.
BTW: The title is taken from Top Gun starring Tom Cruise in 1986.
Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, nerd?
Well we do feel lucky? Yes we do!
We work in either Universe and Unidata databases with our programming language called UniBasic. We can write in a few lines of code what Java programmers and C# programmers take hundreds of lines of code. We have a very simple language with no scope that allows us to do amazing things. UniBasic allows the manipulation of strings and data with unprecedented ease. Ask the companies like Nordstrom's, IBM, Petco, Dell, and many more if they use these databases.
Our team at U2logic, is currently taking a legacy applications actually written in R83 Basic that we thought was a rather large application. We ported to Unidata about 10 years ago and the amount of code stayed the same. We are currently porting it to the web under Unidata. It was originally 200,000 lines of Basic code and is around 50,000 lines of UniBasic code. We reduced the number of lines in UniBasic by removing the UI (User Interface) and moving it that to HTML and JavaScript resulting in just the business logic.
Our XLr8Developer tool that was written in UniBasic. We decided about 5 years ago to move it to Eclipse IDE framework. The code ended up being 30 times as big and functionally it was the same except it is written in Java.
But is that a fair comparison. Maybe but it points out how our brethren in Java, C# and others have to work a lot harder to get the same results. Wow, we should really feel luck.
BTW: The title line is taken with liberties from a very famous movie in 1971 with Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry. The full quote is great:
I know what you're thinking. "Did he fire six shots or only five?" Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?
We work in either Universe and Unidata databases with our programming language called UniBasic. We can write in a few lines of code what Java programmers and C# programmers take hundreds of lines of code. We have a very simple language with no scope that allows us to do amazing things. UniBasic allows the manipulation of strings and data with unprecedented ease. Ask the companies like Nordstrom's, IBM, Petco, Dell, and many more if they use these databases.
Our team at U2logic, is currently taking a legacy applications actually written in R83 Basic that we thought was a rather large application. We ported to Unidata about 10 years ago and the amount of code stayed the same. We are currently porting it to the web under Unidata. It was originally 200,000 lines of Basic code and is around 50,000 lines of UniBasic code. We reduced the number of lines in UniBasic by removing the UI (User Interface) and moving it that to HTML and JavaScript resulting in just the business logic.
Our XLr8Developer tool that was written in UniBasic. We decided about 5 years ago to move it to Eclipse IDE framework. The code ended up being 30 times as big and functionally it was the same except it is written in Java.
But is that a fair comparison. Maybe but it points out how our brethren in Java, C# and others have to work a lot harder to get the same results. Wow, we should really feel luck.
BTW: The title line is taken with liberties from a very famous movie in 1971 with Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry. The full quote is great:
I know what you're thinking. "Did he fire six shots or only five?" Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Long live the Revolution
With all that is going on in the world today, it amazing to see these changes. Whether you a for them or against them or just want status quo, we live in changing times. This reminds me a quote by comedian George Burns: "It's hard for me to get use to the changing times. I can remember when the air was clean and sex was dirty."
There is a lot of things that are changing in our U2 World, but are the evolutionary or revolutionary. There is a new tool like U2DataVU that builds on it sister tool that Rocket Software created a few years ago. But the question remains, it is evolutionary or revolutionary. This tool is no different that BIRT that has been around for years. U2DataVu is an extension of current technology not intensive breakthrough.
We, at U2logic, just finished upgrading our XLr8Resizer to reduce the complexity and take advantage of the Eclipse framework more. This was definitely a extension of the technology and there was nothing revolutionary here.
But it got us to thinking. Have we merely extended the technology of Universe and Unidata to the Eclipse IDE to allow non-administrator types and those that do not have in depth understanding of U2 files, the ability to resize files. Of course, the answer is yes. Did we make it affordable? Of course the answer is yes.
We think our approach is revolutionary. This is nothing to load in Unidata or Universe. Just download the tool and point to your U2 files and you are ready to go. Nonetheless, unless you give it a try, we won't know for sure whether this is our revolution of the pain of resizing the U2 databases.
There is a lot of things that are changing in our U2 World, but are the evolutionary or revolutionary. There is a new tool like U2DataVU that builds on it sister tool that Rocket Software created a few years ago. But the question remains, it is evolutionary or revolutionary. This tool is no different that BIRT that has been around for years. U2DataVu is an extension of current technology not intensive breakthrough.
We, at U2logic, just finished upgrading our XLr8Resizer to reduce the complexity and take advantage of the Eclipse framework more. This was definitely a extension of the technology and there was nothing revolutionary here.
But it got us to thinking. Have we merely extended the technology of Universe and Unidata to the Eclipse IDE to allow non-administrator types and those that do not have in depth understanding of U2 files, the ability to resize files. Of course, the answer is yes. Did we make it affordable? Of course the answer is yes.
We think our approach is revolutionary. This is nothing to load in Unidata or Universe. Just download the tool and point to your U2 files and you are ready to go. Nonetheless, unless you give it a try, we won't know for sure whether this is our revolution of the pain of resizing the U2 databases.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Color of your Company
Just the other day we had a discussion about color of companies. When we think of IBM we think blue, Microsoft is blue, Oracle is red, or John Deere is green. Of course it got us thinking are just big companies a single color or what.
Facebook is blue and whats up with Google. Google's logo is blue, red, yellow, and green. They use the blue twice, red twice, yellow once and green once. What are they try to say with colors? We have not figured that out yet, but we know they make a lot of money.
Intel is blue with their competitor has a black background, white lettering and green logo. AMD is not using a single color. We wish we knew what's up with that.
In our U2 market Rocket Software the primary color is black and U2 color is blue. Pretty straight forward. A U2 tools maker called DesignBais is red and blue. Another U2 tools maker Entrinsik is two shades of green.
Our U2logic logo is considered a three color logo. What we thinking? Of course, the question is rhetorical. We have blue, brownish gray, and little green. Except for Google's and AMD's logo most are a single color. Maybe that's why our U2 market is so small. We do not understand we must have logo's with a single primary color. Or maybe that's all investors see is primary colors.
Facebook is blue and whats up with Google. Google's logo is blue, red, yellow, and green. They use the blue twice, red twice, yellow once and green once. What are they try to say with colors? We have not figured that out yet, but we know they make a lot of money.
Intel is blue with their competitor has a black background, white lettering and green logo. AMD is not using a single color. We wish we knew what's up with that.
In our U2 market Rocket Software the primary color is black and U2 color is blue. Pretty straight forward. A U2 tools maker called DesignBais is red and blue. Another U2 tools maker Entrinsik is two shades of green.
Our U2logic logo is considered a three color logo. What we thinking? Of course, the question is rhetorical. We have blue, brownish gray, and little green. Except for Google's and AMD's logo most are a single color. Maybe that's why our U2 market is so small. We do not understand we must have logo's with a single primary color. Or maybe that's all investors see is primary colors.
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