October 2005 Archives

Being a software developer myself, I have to speak up. This device is evil. Very evil.

:-)

(Via Microsoft Monitor.)

Seth Dillingham (Via inessential.com.):

‘Never spend an hour doing by hand what you can spend four hours automating.’

I would advocate:

1. Do the task manually once - will save you 3hours now
   
2. After the same task came up again sometime in the future - automate it
   

Minimizes the risk of YAGNI.

Excellent post by Dave Astels: Violating Encapsulation.

OOP isn't about coding an algorithm based on the methods an object provides, it's about asking an object to get a specific job done.

Als führender Asterix-Experte des Wahlkreises "Vorderpfalz Süd" erlaube ich mir das Wort zu ergreifen, um den öffentlichen Diskurs wieder in sachliche Bahnen zu lenken.

Nachdem nun die Feuilletons aller führenden deutschen Tageszeitungen über den neuen Asterix-Band hergezogen sind (Tenor: "Der Himmel ist uns auf den Kopf gefallen"), wird es Zeit für eine differenzierte Betrachtung, wie sie zum Beispiel hier zu finden ist.

Ich kann mich der Meinung dieses Kollegen durchaus anschließen. Zweifelsohne hat das neue Heft nicht den Charme & Esprit der großen Bände, die aus der Zusammenarbeit von Goscinny & Uderzo enstanden. Ich gebe allerdings zu bedenken, daß ein ganz wesentlicher Erfolgsfaktor der "alten" Bände die liebevoll-satirische Beschreibung der Bewohner des jeweiligen Gastlandes war (Goten, Normannen, Korsen, Spanier, Belchier, Briten, Schweizer - um nur einige zu nennen). Leider ist die bekannte antike Welt von Asterix ausgeschöpft, so daß nun - seit einigen Bänden bereits - neue Schauplätze und Themen gefunden werden müssen.

In diesem Sinne verdient die Idee Uderzos, das Thema "Comics" zum eigentlichen Thema des Asterix-Bandes zu machen, durchaus Respekt - und eine genauere Durchsicht des Bandes.

Auch wenn die sprachliche Qualität des Bandes nicht auf Augenhöhe mit den klassichen Bänden ist, folgendes Zitat zu "Shwor-Zis" hat was:

Den muß man tatsächlich ganz neu konfigurieren.

Pop-up Potpourri: Arcade Edition.

I like

If you choose to continue, do you wish to continue? [OK]

best. That's a question which justifies some rather in-depth philosophical thinking...

My dad (70 yrs) has finally gotten himself PocketPC including a GPS-based mapping application. He was rendering account on how the first week of using the gadget in his car was working out for him. Of course, he was using it on well-known routes first to see how it performs. The conversation went something like this:

Dad: "So I was using this thing to get me from Kandel (a town nearby) to Jockgrim (his hometown) and it was guiding me quite OK back to our house..."
Mom: "Well remember that it guided us through this very narrow street in Kandel where you can't even pass a cyclist..."
Dad: "...yes, this didn't make sense."
Me: "Maybe you set it to shortest route instead of fastest route and that's why it chose the narrow street?"
Dad: "I set it to shortest route, sure."
Me: "Shortest route isn't necessarily the fastest route..."
Dad: "Yes, sure. If I would have chosen fastest route it would have guided me right over the autobahn."
Mom: "...but it guided us through this very narrow street."
Me: "Yes, of course, because it is part of the shortest route..."
Mom: "...but this doesn't make sense. Nobody would use this lane..."
Dad: "Yes, it doesn't make sense. You can't even pass a cyclist in there."
Me: ...

Talk about a mismatch between user expectations (or the users model) and the software.

Over here. Lot's of useful information.

Joel on the slippery slope from shrinkwrap to consultingware.

Loic Le Meur:

"We have to stop complaining about globalization and focus on the future rather than protecting our past and our comfort."

Loic nails it. Plus, complaining about globalization is not a french problem. Germans are even better at complaining than our french neighbours. In fact, we invented complaining and whining.

So let me rephrase Loics statement slightly:

We have to stop complaining about globalization and focus on how to shape globalization in the future and how to take advantage of the opportunities globalization provides us.

.
How about that. Stepping off my soapbox and getting back to work on interiorCAD now.

Here's the essence what Apple's all about:

(Showing remote controls for Windows Media Center and for Apples FrontRow.)

(Screen Capture taken (without permission) from QuickTime stream of the Apple Special Event on Oct, 13 2005).

Hint: It's not about the size.

Check out the NNAs (completely revamped) homepage for details. Congratulations to the team!

ColorBlender - Very cool.

(Via Lifehacker.)

Impressive thoughts in this presentation by Adam Bosworth. Worth pondering if and how Intelligent Reaction can be implemented in more traditional desktop application.

...of TDD.

At the Airport. This could have been me. Most embarrassing.

Don't laugh yet. Garfield (way back in the 80s) used to say: "I'm talking about you, chubby..." :-)

Oops, looks like there's a post dealing with me.

:-)

...Sketchup models on Google Earth.

Give it some thought. This is a major announcement.

This book is neither about extreme programming per se, nor about C# or .NET.

Instead, it provides a unique opportunity to look over the shoulders of a great Ron Jeffries to watch him create an (albeit simple) application, learn from the mistakes he makes, learn how he tackles problems, learn about how to improve the design of a software - and learn a few words of wisdom along the way.

Excellent read. Highly recommended.

Signal vs. Noise: Less as a competitive advantage

Interesting thoughts on Avoiding "Blank Page Syndrome".

The first question our users asked when confronted with a non-blank document was:

"How do I remove this stuff?"

So the jury is still out on that one. Labelling the "default" sample content as "Example" plus describing that this is only default sample content and will go away requires the users to read (quite a lot) & understand what's written.

Judging from my experience, this spells trouble.

Yup, a podcast on worm poop. Wurm Scheiße. Listen to it. It will be worth your while. I shit you not.

Venturevoice is a great source for podcasts (mostly focussed on software/technologiy companies - not poop).

James Shore on Five Design Skills Every Programmer Should Have.

I don't subscribe to François' theory, but he certainly has a very valid point about owning ones data.

...pretty interesting.

Für alle Lucky Luke Liebhaber: Schikane in Quebec. Achdé & Gerra sind würdige Nachfolger von Morris & Goscinny. Und dazu noch sehr gut übersetzt. Sehr empfehlenswert.

Stumbled about that one while desparately trying to work through my "flagged-but-not-read-blog-posts" list.

Stupendous.

Read it. Now.

Michael Tsai responds to Will Shipley's now infamous Unit testing is teh suck, Urr.

Here's one important aspect of TDD Michaels well-balanced post is not elaborating enough:

Unit-Testing is about design (& specification of behaviour) as much as about testing, as many proponents of TDD point out (check Dave Astels blog who's taking this aspect of TDD to the extreme).

While I'm at it, Michael states:

If you need a new class or method, I think it’s a waste of time to write a test that simply checks for the existence of the class or method, then write a stub, then run the tests, and then then flip back and write the real tests.

I beg to differ. If you intend to write a unit test anyway, there's no time wasted doing it with tiny little steps like mentioned above - in fact, I would argue to use the tiniest steps possible, asking the compiler/linker/runtime for help as much as possible). Plus, it saves precious spare brain cycles for those really hard problems. Of course, you're smarter than me, so you probably have brain cycles to spare :-)

Don't let the somewhat "girlie" graphics & colors fool you. Creating passionate users is a great blog. One of my must-reads.

A rather elaborate must-read by Tim O'Reilly: What is Web 2.0. Don't let the title fool you into thinking it's about Web Development exclusively.

Alay Francis:

"I think the language we choose to use also shapes our development methods and practices."

Coming at this from a slightly different angle: Don't let the development language you use (and it's culture) limit your thinking & learning of development techniques. Think (and learn) outside of the box and look for ways to apply what you learnedto your current development environment.

Interesting post on Configuration Hell- The Case for the Plug and Play User Experience.