CodeMash 2018 (Part 4 - The Hidden Emotional Requirements of Software Design/Development and Demystifying Ethereum - my case for EOS - to Build Your Own Dapp)

This is one of those days where I just don't want to write, but I will complete my #challenge30days in spite of my desire to just climb into bed with my earplugs and stumble into dreamland.

Overview of CodeMash Day #2

Today was the second and last day of the Precompilers and it was incredible. I was challenged, saw some old faces from the previous 6 years and met some really cool new friends. It's funny how every year we see new themes. One year there was a huge focus on testing, another year was the year of Javascript frameworks, last year was Microservices. This year there is a lot of talk about crypto. I'm sure some of that comes from me, because I can't help but bring it up whenever I sit at a breakfast or lunch table. But it's not all me. There were a few talks going on around me at different times where I heard crypto being discussed, before I was involved in the conversations. Yeah, I do insert myself into conversations when the topic is about something I'm interested in. I don't consider myself an extrovert, but I guess I've learned some decent social skills over the years :)

Tomorrow starts the shorter, higher level sessions that are about ¾ hours each. @jfollas says 1000 more peeps are registered for these next two days; That is on top of the 1400-1500 (correct me if I'm wrong on those number Mr. Follas). It's going to go from intense long days, to chaotic and intense days of room jumping. I'll be ready for a couple days of sleeping in once we get home. It's awesome though if you're mentally prepared.

First Workshop - The Hidden Requirements: Exploring Emotions with Placebos

This was a talk I would personally title "The Hidden Emotional Requirements of Software Design and Development". It was put on by Damian Synadinos from Ineffable Solutions, and it was pretty darn good! The first couple hours was spent defining terms and making the case for how important a users emotions are towards the software they use. The last part was practical ways to test for results.

From the talk description:

All software is intended to help solve some problem, and both problems and solutions evoke emotions. Software requirements are simply wants or needs, which often stem from core emotions. Research shows that emotions can affect the acceptance or rejection of software. The way we feel about software is important and should be considered!

Defining Terms

In order to have a good conversation, you have to agree on terms. A couple of the terms we defined were "Problems" and "Solutions". Problems are simply an undesirable state that differs from some desirable state. Solutions are the exact opposite. Software should be designed to affect emotions because it's going to cause an emotional state anyway. We want to create a desirable state for the end user.

Game Design Research and Principles

A lot of Damian's research came from game design principles. Damian and I had a little sidebar discussion about this fact. Games are completely optional programs that people have to choose to use. There is usually no business reason for people to play a computer game. It's completely voluntary and the game designers know this. The good game designers are looking to create an emotional reaction from their players that is in the Goldilocks range of stimulation; challenging enough so it's not boring, while not being too difficult as to put the player in a state of stress. Either will drive the players away. This is also called Flow, and I've blogged about this in a previous post. We as game developers want players to lose themselves in the game; Total immersion where they forget about the world around them for a time.

In Closing

There was a lot more in this talk but my eyelids are really feeling heavy and I need to move on. If you are looking for a speaker at an event, I highly recommend Damian. Thank you sir.

Second Workshop - Demystifying Ethereum to Build Your Own Decentralized (D-app) App Using Blockchain

This one is going to be harder to justify to my managers back at the office. The only thing I can come up with at this point is, "Distributed apps with immutable data are the future of the world." I hope that is good enough for now ;)

The Blockchain

This talk was put on by Abhiram Ravikumar. He did a pretty decent summary of blockchain technology, though I think a few things were not quite how I understand them. I'm not saying he is wrong, I'm saying it was a bit different than how I understand things. One of us is wrong, I'm just not sure which yet.

Development Environment

After the summary of blockchain, we started into setting up our development environments for deving our voting dapp. I never did get it all setup on my Windows 10 laptop, but I had a really cool guy sitting next to me who had a MacBook Pro. He let me look on with him so I was able to do some over the shoulder pairing. Thanks Andrew.

So I'm going to be going with Ubuntu after I get home. I don't know if I'll do a dual boot setup or just make the switch on my personal laptop and force myself completely into the Linux world. I know I'll be doing a lot of Ubuntu development for @SFEOS, so I better just make the switch. I have plans to write about that adventure in the future for others who might be making the switch.

A Working Dapp

By the end of the workshop we had a solidity app compiled and running on a RPC local test net and had our node web app talking to it. It was pretty cool.

Transaction Fees

Throughout the workshop people kept asking about the gas fees of the network. That is the biggest thing that has kept me from embracing Ethereum. You can argue for Ethereum all you want; For me this is probably one of two of the greatest arguments I have against Ethereum gaining mass adoption as a smart contract platform. The second is speed/scaling of transactions.

The Case for EOS

At the end of the talk Abhiram asked if we had any questions or comments. I made a quick shout out to the 100-200 devs in the room. I said something along the lines of, "Something else you should be checking out if you're interested in dapp development, is EOS. There are no transaction fees and it should scale." Maybe I didn't say anything about scaling. I can't remember it exactly. After that conversation a few of us retired to a quiet corner and discussed crypto and EOS specifically. It was an awesome end to day 2.

The Synergy of the Two Sessions

In order for crypto (software) to gain mass adoption, it's going to have to put people in a positive emotional state. Currently it doesn't do this for a majority of your everyday people. We need to change that. In my opinion, technology like Steemit and EOS have the potential to make this happen.

Potpourri of Potential Future Posts for #challenge30days

• The Phoenix Protocol - I might do some more brainstorming on this.
• Tribute to my Uncle Raymond (98 years old and we just went to his funeral Jan 2nd)
• The addictive dice game my wife and I play at the kitchen table now that our kids are growing up and doing their own things.
• SFEOS - Developing a Crowd Founding Platform and Network of Gamers from the Ground Up.
• EOS Development (Learning on the Test Network - both local and public test net)
• Codemash 2018 (A yearly developer conference I attend in Sandusky Ohio) - Probably multiple posts on this. My family has been attending with me the last few years. They have fun doing the water park while I geek out with my peeps.
• My life as a traveling gospel teacher.
• My Personal Fight for Economic Freedom for Everyone through Crypto
• My struggles to stick with things over the years on a consistent basis… This one is going to hurt a bit and not sure how much I'll share.
• Adventures in Sailing (well learning to sail)
• Adventures in Weight Loss (More details on how the winter season is affecting my weight loss)
• Anything else I can think up...