Setup - Dymo LabelWriter 450 on Mac OSX

The clinic software requires the ability to print labels adhoc and by event. This requires that the client be able to initiate the labels. There are no requirements that the backend server be able to print labels. Thank goodness. That requires something akin to a fulfillment center and probably integration with a 3rd app. Welcome: disparate stand-alone boxes.

Install App and Drivers

Good job guys. You get a big thumbs up for having a brew recipe.

Text Search - Django Model Fields

Django has a pretty flexible ORM, but sometimes clients need a free-form text search to get down to the content that you are looking for. It is beyond the capability of most engineers to build a comprehensive search tool and shoehorn it into an existing application. There are people working on these problems for years.

This does remind me of a senior boss that asked me to add a fuzzy search field to an application and that it was “super simple”. He said “you just do a LIKE statement against all the fields we care about!” and proceeded to pseudo code it for me. He should read my post about how not to F’k up your engineering staff.

Checking Memory

I don’t know why this has to be as hard as it is.

Fixtures are a Messy Mess

It is quite a pain to maintain fixtures it seems. I am not sure why yet. Maybe there hasn’t been quite enough time on this piece of the product for it to mature.

Django dumpdata

I tried several different variations to dump the data. I’ll include a few of them here since they might actually work for someone else.

python manage.py dumpdata > fixture.json

I kept getting various key errors.

Why Not GitHub

GitHub is Great

Don’t get me wrong. I would recommend using this service for a number of reasons that are not fiscally motivated. It isn’t whether GitHub.com is good or not. There is a matter of economics at play though.

As a startup I just don’t have the extra 25/mo to throw into GitHub business account. It looks cool that I have an organization there and there are more badges. But it doesn’t work at 12 X $25 = $300/yr. Bottom account. Bronze I think it is.

What Does a Data Scientist Do

Uncovering the Key Capabilities of a Data Scientist

Are you thinking of pursuing a career as a data scientist? It has been published that being in this field could mean you will be in-demand for many companies. So, it is not surprising if the number of individuals turning to data science is fast increasing.

But being a data scientist will also bring you huge responsibilities. You will cover various roles from different industries and organizations, with academia, finance and government being just some of them. Some of them will differ from each other. The skills and duties that you will carry, as a data scientist, will hugely vary from each other.

Health, Medical Interconnectivity and The Coming Data Revolution

Johnson Davis’ Walk

Six red indicators breach the serene layout of the medical information dashboard. Gauges, charts and graphs provide human cues concerning the information flowing through the Intra-Medical Services Accountability Pipeline. The IMSAP emerged in evolutionary form as various government, education and enterprises started the race to consume the calculus of living data. And now these machines of data consumption interpret the flow of what some consider the representation of that thing which connects life and machine.

Leadership Checklist for Non-Technical Managers

How do you build software that provides value to both clients, owners and engineers?

This list has started as a list of notes that I kept over the last few years. Yes, this is the abbreviated version of Management For Quality Software.

Executive Leadership

• Bloated and ugly products are born at the top, but a good engineering environment may begin there
• The three ways business leaders can add value is with numbers, numbers, numbers
• Put your name on the product

The Business Requirement

Write a business requirement that reflects specific details about a problem that the business is solving based on market research numbers. A full description is beyond this terse scope.

This started as a list of notes for my boss on how I see the best way to manage technical professionals. I am trying to provide non-technical managers with the resources to direct technical teams in a way that will produce quality software and keep the engineering staff engaged and moving.

How do you build software that provides value to both clients, users, owners and engineers for the years to come?

This essay is not an attack on the people who claim membership to a philosophical outlook, but an exposition on the inherent difficulties which exist in maintaining traditional systems.

Let us begin with the needful: term definition.

Term Definition

Conservatism as a political and social philosophy promotes retaining traditional social institutions in the context of the culture and civilization.

This is the definition found at Wikipedia and I find it to be a pretty good summation of the idea. Conservatives are those who hold the belief that there is value in the current institutions and that change will have negative effect on the systems of value that the previous generations have passed forward.