Dave Platt will be giving his 4 day Composite Application Block Workshop at Idag Ltd on 11-14/11/07. To register contact Sigal at 09-7747785 or by email at sigalm@idag.co.il today!
This month’s meeting will be another joint meeting for the IVBUG, IVCUG, and .NET Architects User Groups so that we can all participate in a lecture given by our special guest speaker – David Platt.
About the presentation:
Users think that today's software sucks. It's unsafe, unreliable and hard to use. These problems are not technical. We've been able to solve them for many years, but instead we've gotten a paper clip with eyebrows. Why? Software sucks because developers forget (or never knew) THE bedrock principle of software development: KNOW THY USER, FOR HE IS NOT THEE. For example, what do your customers come to you for? Hint: it's not software. For another example, do you think your users care about your application? They don't. Never have, never will. They care about accomplishing the task that it does. They don't want to think about you or your application at all. It's your job to care about them anyway. The talk will show good and bad examples from commercial software and web sites, those that understand and help their users, and those that treat users with contempt. For example, consider the ads for Microsoft Office that show non-upgrading users wearing plastic dinosaur heads. Developers fear looking like dinosaurs by not having the latest technology, but ordinary users fear breaking an installation that currently works, or having useless junk like dancing paper clips slow down their computers so they need to buy new ones. Your user is not you. We put this nation on wheels not by training the entire population as mechanics, but by improving cars so they didn't often need mechanics. The same transition needs to happen to the software industry. This talk provides sound design principles so that your software won't suck. Learn how blindness will improve your vision.
About the presenter:
David S. Platt teaches software development at Harvard University Extension School and at companies all over the world. He is the president of Rolling Thunder Computing (www.rollthunder.com), an education and consulting practice. He is the author of eleven books on software development. His Introducing Microsoft .NET, Third Edition, introduced thousands of programmers to that environment. Even today, four years after its last release, it is outselling Tom Clancy’s Every Man a Tiger on amazon.com, which tells you what kind of geeks buy their books there. His magnum opus, Why Software Sucks ... and What You Can Do About It, points out ways in which software MUST improve if it wants to accompany humanity into the twenty-first century.
Dave is famous for his engaging presentation style. "He's the only guy I know that can actually make an article on COM's apartment threading model funny," said one student. Microsoft designated him a Software Legend in 2002.
Dave holds the master of Engineering degree from Dartmouth College. When he finishes working, he spends his free time working some more. He wonders whether he should tape down two of his daughter's fingers so she learns how to count in octal. Dave lives in Ipswich, Massachusetts.
To register to this user group event, please go to http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032358422&Culture=he-IL
See you there!!
Wednesday, November 14, 2007 (
Download to Outlook).
Location:
Eshkol Pais
Hachil 46, Raanana (החי"ל 46)
http://www.raanana.muni.il/מוסדות+ואתרים/מוסדות+חינוך/מרכזי+העשרה/אשכול+פיס.htm
17:30 - 18:00 Assembly
18:00 - 19:00 “Why software sucks?” - David Platt
19:00 - 19:15 Break
19:15 - 20:15 “Why software sucks?” - David Platt
Thank you and see you there!
Don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions or requests.
Yosi Levy.
yosi@consiv.com