Architect’s Standpoint

This is the fantastic piece of excerpts I gotta from one architecture website…so relevant bits for me….

I just have to share Charlie’s response to my “seeds” piece:

“It is an architects’ job to be a systems thinker, a bridge builder, a diplomat, and a change agent. One interesting thing is that many hiring managers don’t quite understand this. They see an architect as a senior technical leader of a small development team. As a result, the architect can easily find him/herself in a position of little leverage. Archimedes said, “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.” There’s a third, unstated phrase in this quote – the position of the fulcrum. If it is too far from the object and too close to your hands, you can’t use the lever to move anything.”

Charlie Alfred, personal email, 2/13/08

The lever image is such a helpful one! We have to help our managers understand where that fulcrum needs to be placed!

A Short Story

Hi !

Since a long I had not posted anything.Just now my manager sent me a story.I think its very good if i would share it with you.

A giant ship engine failed. The ship’s owners tried one expert after another, but none of them could figure but how to fix the engine.Then they brought in an old man who had been fixing ships since he was a young. He carried a large bag of tools with him, and when he arrived, he immediately went to work. He inspected the engine very carefully, top to bottom.

Two of the ship’s owners were there, watching this man, hoping he would know what to do. After looking things over, the old man reached into his bag and pulled out a small hammer. He gently tapped something. Instantly, the engine lurched into life. He carefully put his hammer away. The engine was fixed!

A week later, the owners received a bill from the old man for ten thousand dollars.

“What?!” the owners exclaimed. “He hardly did anything!”

So they wrote the old man a note saying, “Please send us an itemized bill.”

The man sent a bill that read:
Tapping with a hammer………………….. $ 2.00
Knowing where to tap…………………….. $ 9,998.00

Effort is important, but knowing where to make an effort makes all the difference!

Difference between Abstraction and Encapsulation

This question is most common in interviews for programmers and many people are surprisingly very confused in their mind.I have found that following image says it all.No matter whether you are a programmer or not this will remain in your head.Bravo to my find!!