DeutschExporting table data in web applications as CSV or Excel files
In business applications being able to export data to Microsoft Excel is a very common requirement. In most business environments Excel is the go-to tool for business analytics and quick-and-easy data processing. Hence, being able to communicate with Excel is an essential feature for most kinds of business software. The usual approach for meeting that requirement is generating a CSV file on the server. However, while simple this approach can come with a few downsides: While CSV is a useful, accessible plain text ... Read more
Co-create
Half a house is a 99% Invisible (a podcast about anything design and architecture - highly recommended if you haven't subscribed yet) episode about a housing project in the Chilean town of Constitución. After an 8.8 magnitude earthquake in 2010 the people of Constitución were in dire need of affordable housing. The solution the Chilean architecture firm Elemental, who were tasked with the project, came up with is equally radical and beautiful. It epitomises the spirit of co-creation and design principles like Wabi-sabi. ... Read more
The Blockchain’s Potential to Change Business And Society
I'm fascinated by the blockchain and in particular the potential it holds for decentralising and disintermediating business processes. Though certainly intriguing as well I'm not so much interested in the implications the blockchain and Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency that's built on the blockchain, have for payment and financial systems. My area of interest rather is with how the blockchain enables us to rethink business processes that until now required some sort of third-party intermediary to establish trust between parties. Think of transactions in ... Read more
Golan Levin on Software (as) art
I'm very interested in generative art and creative data visualisation techniques by designers and artists such as Mike Brondbjerg, Jared Tarbell and Joshua Davis. In this 2004 TED talk media artist Golan Levin showcases some of his brilliant work that uses software to generate sound and accompanying visuals: Read more
Googling For Developers
I sometimes jokingly say: "I’m not a good programmer. I just know how to use Google effectively." When programming and being confronted with an unknown error, stack trace or a specific exception message I usually turn to Google in order to find out how other developers with similar problems previously approached these issues. While at face value this might sound easy this requires experience. You have to know enough about software development in general and the environment (language, framework, library, you name it ... Read more
© Björn Wilmsmann 2021