Mobile analytics, Terrastore and getting off your butt
According to releases from both companies on 12/23, Pinch Media and Flurry are merging. I’m using both providers and have been pleased with both of them. I’m really looking forward to combined company and the new products that they will bring to market over the next year.
I still haven’t tried out Google Analytics for mobile yet. I’ve got a small project that I’m going to do soon, so I’ll use GA for that one to see how it works.
I’m anxiously awaiting the next GA release of Terracotta. Based on the buzz I’ve been seeing from the Terracotta big dogs on 3.2, the performance is greatly improved over previous versions. As a user of Terracotta for over a year, it’s only gotten better with every release. I’m not expecting any less in this upcoming release.
Speaking of Terracotta, there is a new NoSQL-ish like product using Terracotta at it’s core called Terrastore. There was a really good writeup on it this week at High Scalability. The project is being run by Sergio Bossa (@sbtourist). I’ve been looking at MongoDB for some solutions, but I’m seeing Terrastore as a potential solution for a number of other situations.
Sergio made a great tweet earlier this week:
.@antirez @jboner Everything has its use cases: redis, mongo, distributed databases .... that's the beauty of polyglot persistence ;)
— Sergio Bossa (@sbtourist) December 31, 2009
Sergio is right on track. Over the years, I have had clients ask me, “should we use tool A or tool B to solve this problem?” My answer has always been “it’s not either-or, it’s probably both or neither.” I know this answer can drive people crazy, but honestly, pick the right tool for the the problem you are trying to solve. If you only know Java, you are going to gravitate towards Java to solve your problem even though the same problem could be solved with a piece of hardware or a 1-line PHP program.
<rant>
What’s does it boil down to? Basically, grow up and take responsibility for yourself and your career. If you are unwilling to step back and think for yourself and even potentially (gasp) learn a new language or skill on your own without your boss telling you to, GET OUT OF THIS BUSINESS!!! You’ll be doing yourself (and the rest of us) a huge favor. Find out what you are really meant to do and go do that and quit taking up space for the people that are willing to think for themselves, not be whiners and to do whatever it takes to get the job done.
</rant>
ok. . .that’s out of my system. . .for now
I finally finished reading Ship It and also read Confessions of a Public Speaker. Now, I need to go back and re-read Career 2.0 this weekend while my rant is fresh on my mind.
You thought I was ranting at you? Ok, maybe partially, but I was really ranting at myself. Career 2.0 is a great book to kick you square in the butt and the new year is a great time to take that kicking.
I still have to get to Algorithms of the Intelligent Web, but right now I’m in the middle of The Art of Scalability. So far, it been a really good read so far and I want to get through it this week.
I’m still working on putting together some iPhone training videos soon. Once I take care of a couple of things on Friday, I’m going to lock myself away and map out what I want to get done in my business in the first couple of months of 2010, and the iPhone videos are near the top of that list. (First on the list, closing out the 2009 tax year. Gotta keep my CPA happy!)
I’m waffling right now on what platform/language I want to really tackle this year. I was leaning towards Clojure, but with a lot of uncertainty in that space, I’m considering sticking with my mobile slant and really stepping up my iPhone dev skills along with my Android skills. I’m still trying to shake out the details, but I’m really wanting to go to the Android bootcamp at Big Nerd Ranch in February. I’ve been doing some Android development and I feel comfortable, but now is the time for me to get some formal training and unlearn some bad habits before they become too deeply ingrained. This is the way I learned iPhone development and I’ve found it’s the best way for me to learn.
As I sit here on New Year’s Eve, we have a house full of teenagers to ring in the new year. I’m sitting here with my Roku box watching some random TWiT and Revision3 shows. I’m finishing up this post and I’m thinking about where this year has gone. It seems like it just started. I’m really looking forward to 2010.
For all of you that read this blog, thank you. That’s something I don’t say enough. If you haven’t told your family, friends and co-workers thank you, make that one new year resolution that you really try to keep. Trust me, it will go a long way.