Makesites Insider

At Makesites we value simple solutions and open standards. In the Insider podcast we distil the mindset that fuels our development and try to present it in a series of essays. Join us as we try to analyze a particular subject on each episode and touch base with technical and theoretical issues around application development for the Web.

The Everlasting Code

Every line's been accounted for and tested… The community has voted with their applications and contributions… When all's said and done, there's a piece of software left, a monument, testament to the effort and ability put into creating a working solution. Now, lets make sure it stays relevant and delay the inevitability of becoming a relic of the past.

08-10
05:40

Don't stop committing

You did it. You started your own project, delivered a working solution, even got traction from the community. It's all happening, and it's happening pretty fast. All your hopes and dreams came true. The feeling of relief should be imminent, but there are no signs of that happening any time soon... The journey has only just begun.

07-08
06:04

Nothing source matters

As software is dominating our modern society in all regards, there are various practices, methodologies and business models surrounding its evolution; although the holy grail of software development could be open source. The community, the personal success stories, the historical paradigm shifts that have changed the world many times are all very compelling for young and ambitious developers alike. Open source may seem as alluring to some as it is unobtainable to others...

06-07
07:15

Performant

A made up word conceived by developers to describe software that performs well and communicate how to achieve performance improvements.

05-09
06:42

Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish

In what is one of the most memorable "borrowed" quotes of Steve Jobs, this piece of wisdom echoes true across the ages. It is well suited to rekindle our interest and appreciation for it with this brief walkthrough, possibly highlighting less obvious aspects of its meaning, coinciding with the 40th anniversary of Apple.

04-07
04:52

A Developer Revolution

We have to make our tech community great again. We have to rebuild our industry. And we have a long way to go. We are just in such serious trouble because we've gone down the wrong path. I am so sick of the 1% getting all this preferential treatment. Enough is enough. We need to unite and work together if we are going to get through this.

03-08
10:03

Creation is Art

Drawing on cave walls was one of those definitive moments where our ancestors showed superior intellect. Since then, art forms have been an integral part of our expression as a species, translating the human condition into tangible objects and experiences. It’s interesting to look into those attributes that elevate a simple creation to a form of art and investigate the parallels with application development.

02-08
04:47

The Dark Side of Open Source

The road is long, with many a winding turn, as the song goes. And the experience of open source development holds more than a few painful surprises: Failure, betrayal, discredit, shaming, envy... Time to reflect.

01-09
07:04

History lessons for the Disruptors

How many apps have come and gone? How many developers have had their moment, shining under the public spotlight as an example of ingenuity and achievement, only to be absorbed and forgotten by the monolithic machine we call “big business”? What is excellent one day becomes obsolete the next. As a result, users experience our products on a superficial level and have no problem discarding in an instant what might have taken years to create. Is this the only way things can be?

12-10
07:23

The Little Server That Could

A cautionary tale about machine intelligence and how it can aid in sustaining the Web; the importance of automation in our professional lives and a foresight in embracing the next evolutionary step in our human/machine relationship.

11-13
05:24

Collaboration Generation

For the first time in history we have a connected society where people can work together from the edges of the world, in real time. This powerful way to cooperate comes with a lot of caveats, gray areas and necessary adjustments in our best practices for "getting things done".

10-09
05:11

Byte, Bit, Bitten

A free form deliberation on digital currency, its effects on contemporary events and how it relates with all things online…

09-06
05:17

Values of the 21st century Web

We live in a century of change. But so was said for the 20th and the 19th century… Every era has a different focus, either it may be socio-political change, economics or industry. This century seems to have a focus on high tech, especially computerized tech. The Web is a high profile product of our computerized tech, leading innovation in all its parts. It is our responsibility to go through this time with a foresight of what we want to achieve and how we’re going to get there.

08-07
06:04

OS Independence

Next year will be the year of Linux, said for 2004. Since then we’ve been up and down the media hub bandwagon, the smartphone revolution and the cloud-based services. So much shuffling around for something so personal; our digital lives

07-05
05:12

Components are a-Comin

Web components have been around for a while and they’ve been making the rounds in developer circles, showing off their unique properties and potential. Their application in production has had a slow start as we’re all still trying to gain familiarity with this new interface and assess how it fits with our current web development process.

06-08
05:12

Misconceptions of an eager mind

Developers are often driven by their desire to make a difference in the world through their work; and with that enjoy a life of substantial purpose. Money, fame and recognition are mere consequences of doing good and helping people. What a perfect way to end our story there; but like many occasions in someone’s lifetime, the “happy end” is just the beginning…

05-07
08:27

Architecture through iteration

We live in a fast world and our development culture reflects that. We want our apps to be up and running as soon as possible, bug-free. Everything needs to show exponential growth, otherwise what's the point...

04-07
07:57

Introducing: Internet, in a can!

Have you ever had that bittersweet feeling of crossing paths with a special someone and knowing that if you don’t act now any chance you had to relate will be gone and lost forever? That’s where we are, humanity as a whole, facing the Web today...

03-18
07:13

Surviving Virtual Reality

We’ve heard the news, we’ve seen the demos. Now we’re wondering how is VR going to affect our lives. Here is an in depth analysis on how the human spirit could cope in a virtual environment… vastly based on our human nature and common psychology rather than scientific predictions.

02-11
09:37

The "real" developer

In the 90s you would often hear on MTV the phrase ”keep it real”. Basically it means “be true to who you are”; it was the normal attitude when alternative rock was at the forefront of popular music. But what does all this have to do with developing?

01-07
07:00

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