Life Driven Development

The world is full of jerks.

2010-12-30T08:27:00.003-06:00

So the other day in Best Buy I'm waiting in line to pay for a gigabit ethernet switch because you know you can never have too many of those lying around. This guy in front of me is complaining into the air about the line and how they only ever have one cashier working at this place (they had 3) only he wasn't just complaining to himself he was talking on the phone with one of those little Bluetooth ear pieces.

My entire wait was listening to this guy ramble on for at least 3 different phone calls at the volume of "I-am-the-only-one-here-that-matters". Mostly I ignore him, although he had the lovely smell of cigarettes radiating from his person (seriously do people still smoke?).

Mostly I just ignore him and check out all the stuff along the line that the store would have me think I need last minute. It's possible that this guy just received this ear dongle for the holiday and doesn't yet realize how much of a douche it can make one appear to be upon use. Well that idea was short-lived as I followed him out of the store and see him get into his vehicle parked in a handicapped parking space. He was alone, he wasn't limping. he = douche.

I'm thankful for people who have respect for others.

until next time

Les

All exits are beyond the plastic.

2010-07-20T22:44:00.001-06:00

So they started the construction of our office remodel. Things are going to be pretty crazy around here for s few weeks.

It can be pretty hard too focus in all the chaos and noise.

Just saying.

This post written in swype.

Later.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.4.8

The enemy of my enemy.

2010-04-30T09:05:00.004-06:00

Since being involved in Web development for the greater part of the last decade I have to admit that Flash (once helmed by Macromedia now a part of the Adobe creative empire) has been a thorn in my side. Flash drives the majority of what I hate about the internet:

Obnoxious Advertisements
Flash websites
stupid holiday memes

Don't get me wrong, I'm not against online advertisements. I understand the value of free information and entertainment. But why you have to choke my bandwidth and interrupt my focus with some animated, noisy (before they got realistic and muted them by default) cartoons trying to get me interested in some completely irrelevant to me product? Lightweight adds can be just as elegant and communicate a product in a way that doesn't piss me off. If you piss me off I'm not going to be interested in your product.

Flash websites are the bane of the world wide web. Sure you can do some pretty cool effects and animations and page switching and all but if I wanted to play a game I probably wouldn't be coming to your website to find your information. I'd play a game. Hollywood has found that design companies who use flash are really good at marketing for their movies, and I can't say that's a completely bad thing, but if the bandwidth you use to communicate what you are presenting is almost the size of the bandwidth it takes to watch the trailer for your movie then please forgive me for finding your content on YouTube.

Holiday memes...

Recently though there is a huge brouhaha in geekdom about the choice of a particular fruit-logo'd company not giving Flash any love especially in regard to it's latest innovation of porn-on-the-go devices that has all the hipsters raving about how we've arrived.

Most people that know my technical, geeky side know my feelings toward the maker of the Mac. As such I have had to consider where I really stand on this issue. Not that where I stand really matters in the greater scope of things, but I needed to know.

I'll let you know. To be continued...

Until next time

Les

Google Chrome starting to get Serious about Extensions

2009-11-17T07:41:00.006-06:00

After opening the dev channel Google Chrome this morning I noticed a change in the info on the home screen:

If you look closely at the bottom you'll see a message notifying you of Google Chrome support for both extensions and bookmark sync. These aren't technically new features, but it is interesting to note that the link provided for extensions goes to a Google hosted link which at the time of this writing is not a valid link:

https://chrome.google.com/extensions

Also the jigsaw graphic in the corner connects to the same link.

With the rumors of the RSS feed extension for automatically detecting feeds in a web page being provided in the future as a default extension for Google Chrome this may be another sign that Google is ready to roll out full-fledged extension support, a feature which has been one of the main barriers to entry for hard-core Mozilla Firefox users.

Until next time

Les

Glipper: the clipboard manager for Gnome

2009-11-11T22:49:00.002-06:00

I like a clipboard manager. As a programmer I find myself needing to be able to keep track of a history of copied texts and codes for pasting at any given time (yeah yeah, call me a copy/paste programmer if you must, it is the number one form of code reuse :-P ). Anyway, I have been using Ubuntu almost exclusively on my personal laptop and mostly I miss ClipX. On my work machines I use Windows XP, just haven't taken the leap to Ubuntu yet with my Windows driven work life, but I have a common toolset which includes the aforementioned clipboard manager.

ClipX is a bare-bones, no nonsense clipboard manager. It is small and simple and does exactly what I need: keeps a history of my clipboard and allows easy access to those entries. I miss that when using Ubuntu. For a while I was using KDE and it comes with the standard KDE version: Klipper. Gnome though comes with no such default and this is a bit disappointing to me.

I finally found Glipper. It was constructed for Gnome in the tradition of klipper and is simple to use.

It's in the repos so you can find it in Synaptic or simply execute a console command:

sudo apt-get install glipper

It will install and then you'll go looking for it, but you won't find it... anywhere. This is because it's an Applet that can be added to your panel. To get it to show up in my Add to Panel... dialog I actually had to log out and log back in... but then upon launching the add to panel dialog I found Clipboard Manager (or something similar, just start typing clip and you'll see it).

I have to uncheck the option in it's preferences (found by right-clicking the icon on your panel and selecting Preferences) for the mouse selection/middle click option, I have a bad habit of selecting things I don't need when using a mouse and for some reason it was adding all that stuff to the history as if I had copied it.

Until next time

Les

Slides from my Wicket: Lightning Talk

2009-11-10T13:34:00.001-06:00

Competition and Innovation: Duh.

2009-10-30T10:55:00.003-06:00

So another release of Ubuntu is officially out in the wild and it is just another example of the credit due to Mark Shuttleworth and Canonical for making a head-strong push into bringing Linux into mainstream PC usage. But that's all I'll say about Linux because believe it or not I'm actually here to talk about Microsoft today... no don't go... crap!

Anyway, if you're still with me I want to discuss a bit about how competition has proven to get Microsoft off of it's laurels and into some innovative business thinking, even if the ideas aren't their own at least they're trying.

Bing! Though the TV ads are catching on I don't think the ad campaign is the innovation going on here. Let's think back to a few years back when Microsoft decided to start pushing a big ad campaign for it's own search engine (Windows Live Search) in order to try and win some customers over from the ever popular and ever growing do-no-evil giant of search, Google. What ended up happening was people saw the commercials and thought: "Oh look, that company that makes computers has a place on the internet to search for stuff." Because to the general public that is what Microsoft is, a computer manufacturer (and some might even thing they run the internet!)

Some of these people might have even tried this search engine. Those who had used MSN search before would think how it was nothing new and the new people coming from Google would think how it doesn't really work. Results aren't what I'm looking for. To the former I say "Spot on!". Live Search was barely even a rebranding with a bit of new CSS thrown into the web page to make it look more web-modern. To the latter I'd have to conclude that it's not that it didn't 'work' but that it was different than the results you were used to seeing with Google. They used different ways to determine what was relevant to your search terms, and on a behemoth of data such as the world wide web that can produce drastic differences in results.

So it seemed that Microsoft went off the grid as far as their new plans of search engine domination went. But then there were rumors... Something new was in the mix and it was rumored to be a new search engine from the company that brought us PCs, the internet, AND Windows Live Search. When it finally came out of hiding it wasn't a new version of Windows Live Search at all, it was a completely NEW product. Microsoft branding all but disappeared from the product and this new brand emerged: Bing.

But they didn't stop there. If you've paid attention to the TV ads yo probably noticed a difference in how Bing is being promoted. It's not a presentation of "Hey! we have a search engine too!" but more of a claim of "Bing is new, Bing is different, try Bing". Now even taking direct hits at Google int he ads by claiming a sense of feeling inundated with floods of info from Google (which I don't find accurate, but it's an ad folks) and how Bing brings different results (their slant on different being more of what the searcher wants.. again, just ad speak).

Do I think Bing will take the reigns from Google and begin dominating the web search engine usage? No. But I think Microsoft finally got something right. I think they realized that sometimes it's not good enough to just be Microsoft and have the Microsoft brand (in fact with today's viral market it's a bit of a detriment).

until next time

Les

The Making of Our House

2009-10-28T08:30:00.001-06:00

For those of you interested here are some shots of the house that we've taken throughout the building process. Enjoy!

Until next time

Les

Change: The Ever Present Constant

2009-09-25T17:15:00.002-06:00

Yes it's been more than a while since my last post here. I'm sorry but I won't be like all those other bloggers and start this post with an apology.

I just rounded off the end of a year doing government contracting. Eight months of which I can't say much (too soon), the last 3 months of that though were very interesting however to my geek side. I got to brush up on my .Net skills and check out the latest in C# technologies (impressive) and I also got to dabble a bit in Java Swing with a HUGE GIS application.

But that has come to an end and I've started a new chapter in my career working back in the private sector doing Java web development. I have to say hello again to Java 1.4, Websphere, Rational Application Developer, AND EJB 2.x

So I've got to get back in the groove of these things and while I'm at it see how I can contribute to maintaining and improving these web applications into a growing industry. I may be jotting some notes here (don't count on it) while I do some digging into the in's N out's of these things again.

All in all things are good.

Until next time

Les

Municipal Headache

2009-05-21T07:52:00.007-06:00

For the past year I've been very peeved at my city. I got a letter last summer stating that I had "tall weeds/grass" and that if I didn't mow all weeds/grass on my property I would be fined. What's the problem? My property was mowed. Come to find out the unkempt property was an empty field directly north of the property of my neighbors and my property. Last year it took care of itself with little more than headache from me as the proper owners took care of the property the same day I got the letter from the city. Convenient I say.

This year is a bit different. The owners of the property owns the house that is at the far west end of that entire field. They also are in the process of selling their house and, if I'm informed correctly, leaving the country [military]. No one has been taking care of the field, I got another letter from the city.

Here's what happens. The city 'code officers' drive around and find a lot that breaks the 'code'. They pull up their computer and go to the GIS map provided by the county. They use the nifty little tool to click a spot on the map that corresponds to the property in question and then generate a letter to the address signified according the mapping data.

Here is my property according to that county map:

See anything wrong there? Well according to the data that comes off the official legal document (the deed) This is the info about my property:

Of note you see "# of Bldgs: 1" and "Acres: .3100"

Now lets use the GIS tools to map out the plot in the pretty picture:

Interesting... 1.5 acres. Now I do NOT pay property taxes on 1.5 acres or 3 homes, as the GIS data shows. After talking with the County (Oklahoma County) authority, I was informed that the municipal authority could not use that GIS map as a legal means since the data was not correct and there was no guarantee behind it. However, the city 'code officer' tells me that according to state statutes they are supposed to use what the county provides, which to them means this GIS map.

What's the worst part? Here is the disclaimer you see (even the city sees this), when accessing the Oklahoma County GIS mapping tools (found here):

What? I asked the 'code officer' about that. He called the county, he tells me that the county told him that that site is publicly available and that the disclaimer is there for the public. That even though there is a disclaimer that says 'does not constitute a legal survey' the city is supposed to use this map.

I'm confused and on a mission. This is NOT acceptable.

Until next time
Les

a linux tip

2009-05-11T09:23:00.001-06:00

If you're considering switching to Ubuntu, or any desktop flavor of linux, the first thing I would tell you to do is this:

Find out what hardware you are running. Especially for notebooks.

Having probably used Windows (or even MacOSX) for any period of time has probably shielded you from the pain of having to deal with hardware issues. That is unless you've done a clean install of your OS, or maybe you've seen a glimpse of this frustration by trying to connect a printer to Windows Vista. =]

At first you may be thinking something like this: Windows takes care of that for me so it must be better.

Wrong. When was the last time you installed Windows from scratch? Well I got news for you. Windows didn't take care of that hardware compatibility for you. Do a little research and find out what an OEM is. Yeah, the people that put the computer together for you, they're the one who resolved the hardware issues. Just think, if there were more OEM's that would sell a linux OS out of the box how little then would these hardware issues be?

So, dig in and find out what you are running. A few of the most common gotcha pieces of hardware is:

wireless adapter (whether built in or external)
video card
sound card

Find out what you have, write it down somewhere for safekeeping. When looking into linux do a bit of research. Google is your friend. Search for your hardware with words like 'linux compatible' or 'ubuntu'. If there are problems then I can almost guarantee you that someone has already ran into them and resolved them.

Ways to find out your hardware:

from the distributor (toshiba, hp, compaq, dell, lenovo... etc.)
in Windows look under the Device Manager
if you're already in linux then just google it for your distro, some have simple ways, just don't be afraid to use the command line

Take your time and have fun. If you don't like it then don't use it.

later

Why I won't get a Mac

2009-02-25T11:16:00.000-06:00

A lot of people I know use Macs. They carry their shiny Mac Book Pro like a badge of honor, a talisman which embodies the measure of their master-geekery. It is quite funny how unknowingly religious such an iconic piece of shiny technology can make these latter-day geeks, but without many exceptions they are all very religious about it. Many times I find myself being invited to their Church of the Mac. I suppose they wish to save me from the evils Microsoft and protect me from the effort it takes to run an open source OS such as Ubuntu or Fedora. But I'm not interested. I believe in the seperation of Church and Tech.

What I find particularly interesting about this following, at least amongst the people I know, is that they are most big FOSS (Free and open source software) supporters. I ask them why not use an open source solution to their OS needs? Linux afterall is Unix based (like Mac's OS) and it's FOSS!!! But apperantly these master craftsmen, these warriors against the Big Corporation Microsoft find that using Linux distribustions to be a bit taxing on their patience. And apperantly, similar to Microsoft's Windows, Mac's OS is made to be a bit more user friendly.

What is the usual hold-up for using a FOSS operating system? In my experience it's been hardware support. This is getting better with every kernel release and distro update, but admittedly getting Linux to work with your particular hardware configuration can leave you a bit befuzzled. I happen to enjoy tinkering when I have the time, but I do realize the turn-off it can be when you just can't seem to get your wireless card to connect to the Internet of all things.

But Apple takes the fuss all out of that. They've got their proprietary, Unix-based OS that is very much like it's distant cousin's in the Linux world, but one HUGE caveat: Apple manufactures their own pricey hardware. In fact, if you read the EULA (you do read those from time to time right?) for your favorite Mac OS you'll see in plain text that it is an infraction of the Mac OS license agreement to run the OS on any other hardware than that provided by the manufacturer. Now I understand that Apple has found a niche market, but this wreaks of non-compete, monopoly-esque, the kind of stuff Microsoft get's taken to court for all time business. (Jeff Atwood, of codinghorror.com fame, compares it to the dongles of old.)

Sure Microsoft's dominance in many areas has led to product stagnation and other negative side affects, but you can take their products and run them on pretty much any hardware, manufactured by any company and it's fine. At what point of company growth will Apple no longer be able to get away with this. I'm glad their are companies like Psystar that are trying to keep Apple honest, but even they seem to be on the losing side.

So in the end, I don't see Apple as a Microsoft competitor, but more of an equal to them in their philosophies and business model. Sure they're competing with Microsoft, but only in a niche market. But they resemble that competitor more than their proponents want to admit.

For now I'll keep tinkering with Ubuntu and using Windows as deemed necessary.
Until next time
Les

Happy New Year

2008-12-31T09:25:00.002-06:00

As I type this there are parts of the globe already five and a half hours into the year 2009. It's just 9:26am here in the bible belt of the United States of America and I'm at work (blogging in my break of course).

I'm thinking about organizations and how they view success. Each organization is it's own ecosystem, and they all have their own forms of Darwinism. The key to survival of the fittest though is first to define what particular definition of fittest that particular system accepts. In some ecosystems in the business business world the fittest might be the achiever, while in many the case you see is that the achievers are the ones considered the weak, the ones that have to go. When the herd is moving toward a stable sense of mediocrity then the ones who get ahead will be the ones to find themselves victims of the hazards of that environment (typically some form of bureaucratic, executive management tyranny), and as in most any ecosystem, the individual weak or dumb enough to be outside the strength of the herd is the one that gets eaten by the puma.

Analogies aside, I wonder what it really takes to come into an organization and introduce true improvements and get the organization to see that those improvements are GOOD. Let's face it, it's not that you can convince people that what they're doing is WRONG, they've been doing it and it works (for lack of any other results that is). So the goal in my new year is to work on demonstrating the value of improvements, and make it show real value. Instead of trying to convince people that what they have is wrong, show them what life would be like with what they could have.

So if that can be summed up in a concrete resolution: As a software developer and business person I will find better ways to demonstrate value added practices, whether in code or business process, in order the introduce improvements into my work place.

It's right up there with my other resolutions:

eat better (suggested by my loving wife who, for some reason, wants me to live a long life)
use linux more
write some software non-work related (open or closed, just write it)

until next time, HAPPEH NEW YER!1!!1!
Les

The necessity of a daily stand-up.

2008-11-04T23:42:00.002-06:00

Latest post on Approaching Agile.

A daily stand-up would definitely make it easier to absorb and assimilate new developers to the team.

until next time
Les

My new blog project.

2008-11-03T13:00:00.003-06:00

In my new job I will be Approaching Agile. There is much work to be done, I'll try to fight the good fight and keep you all informed as I go.

Follow me if you're interested.

Until next time,
Les

TDD at M$??? Oh my!!!

2008-10-16T07:59:00.002-06:00

Phil Haack is one of the few Microsoft/.NET bloggers that I follow. He just reached a milestone of 1 year with the software giant working on many ASP.NET initiatives. What I think is great about this guy is his love for open source (yes, from a microsofty), and his passion for Test Driven Development. Here's a quote from his latest post:

I’ve also been involved in division wide efforts to help other teams understand Test Driven Development so that our products moving forward will take TDD into consideration in the design of their products.

It just gives me a warm fuzzy feeling to know that there are actually people inside Micro$oft who actually care about best practices like TDD.

Way to go Phil and congrats on 1 year with ~~the evil empire~~ Microsoft.

until next time
Les

Skreeming with foxytunes

2008-08-19T21:45:00.003-06:00

I was recently introduced to Skreemr (http://skreemr.com). An mp3 search engine that serves up mp3 from blogs. It's a neat way to sample music and check out stuff as you hear about it (among other nefarious things since you can download the songs as well.

I heard there was a player that would allow you to play a list of songs you retrieve in your search but I didn't want to download any new player. Then as I was checking out some Gorillaz tunes I saw that I had a little widget in my browser, when I started messing around with it I realized it was a part of one of my favorite Firefox plugins: foxytunes. It allows you to play all the songs in a web page as a single playlist. heres a screen shot:

until next time
Les

TDD: Prove what you know

2008-08-01T21:31:00.003-06:00

Accepting the concept of TDD (and yes I mean test FIRST development) was a tough task for me. At first I didn't understand the complete benefit, honestly I can't admit that I do completely now. But I've come around none the less.

When working on a project it is pretty much impossible to deliver code without having a bit of an understanding of what it is the end result of that code execution should be. The user doesn't care about implementation. All the end user knows is that when they submit this data in that field then something specific had better happen as a result. I didn't really grasp how that was a reflection of what test first meant.

Now I like to think of the end user and my unit test as the same thing. Both are simply executors of my code. I can't know what the system is supposed to do unless the end user tells me so. At first that was all I saw. The user says so and then I code the implementation, then add some tests. Now I see that if the user tells me what the requirement should result in I replicate that in a test, and that proves without a doubt that I understand the requirement. If you don't understand it enough to write a test for it then you sure as heck don't know enough to write code to implement the requirement.

Not only does this help you better grasp the requirement before diving head first into coding, it also gives you an upfront contract that is based on vernacular communication. That adds a quality check. If you write the test first based on what you understand the requirement to demand then you write the code to satisfy that test and hopefully you don't write any code outside that (unless necessary, remember to use your head but remember to prove any code changes with tests for quality assurance).

So as long as it's sane I'd like to set a rule for myself for future coding:

If I don't understand enough of what is required in order to write a test
then I don't understand enough to code period.

Keep me accountable.
Until next time
Les

Just Another Glance at Pair Programming

2008-06-24T20:23:00.003-06:00

I've always had issues with pair programming. It's not that I disagree with the value claims that people associate with it. I just have personal issues with it. Here are some of the things that have bothered me:

Watching someone else use a computer is like fingernails on a chalk board. I know I'm not perfect but seeing how other people get things done with the mouse and keyboard gets my egometer running and I just want to push them out of the way screaming "IF YOU CAN'T DO IT RIGHT DON'T DO IT AT ALL", but honestly... it's not about the right way to do things, it's about the way I do things.
Staying focused while navigating is an uphill battle. I'm used to working alone. I'm also used to thinking with my fingers attached to the keyboard. I've always had a hard time being the navigator for too long. I just have a tendency to get bored.
Having someone else tell me how to spell my variables names is punishable by death. I don't care if you think the variable should be fooBo when I type fooBO, next time you drive you can change it yourself.
Some of the old reasoning behind pairing is obsolete with the use of powerful IDEs like Eclipse, Intelli-J, and others. I don't need someone telling me I missed a semi-colon at the end of a line because eclipse does that for me.

Honestly I have to admit that some of those things are petty and just personal quirks. At the end of the day I have to think about my motivations and just maybe those things shouldn't be that big of a deal (as long as I didn't strangle someone). Other things may require a little understanding of what's really going on when two people truly, productively pair.

What is the point? I'm not going to dig into any text books or even reference wikipedia on this. This is just me stating things from the perspective of a lowly developer.

Pair programming helps keep individuals on track. When I work alone it's too easy to take that personal phone call or do some web surfing (yeah, even tracking down technical, java related web info has to be considered personal surfing). Pair programming increases the quality of code. It's not about missing semicolons or mispelled variables anymore (thanks Eclipse), it's all about checking in code that is clean and efficient and easy to maintain. When you have more than one person working on code it's much harder to make stupid mistakes. Yeah, I said stupid. And we all make those mistakes from time to time. Copy/paste mistakes. Unneccesary else mistakes. So many things that are too easy to do and really easy to overlook will more than likely be caught by a pair of programmers than a Han Solo cowboy coder.

What about staying engaged and focused? I do have a problem with that some. But I recently did some pairing in a way I hadn't thought of before. Once we understood the task at hand my pair wrote the first unit test (yes, we wrote the test first), then when it ran and failed he slid me the keyboard and told me to implement the code to fix the test. I did, then I wrote the next unit test which failed and he got to implement the solution... that was the fastest day of work I think I've ever had. I was very impressed. Personal conversations were cut to a minimum and we both stayed focused on the task at hand since we were both implementing the code in tandem.

I'm not saying that everyone should pair all the time, but I don't think it's a bad idea to do it a little more than you may be doing it already. Every programmer's goal should come down to delivering clean, quality, bug free code. I think pairing will definitely help you in achieving that goal.

Until next time
Les

Welcome to the Jungle (of extreme programming)

2008-06-22T19:24:00.002-06:00

This past week I changed teams at work. I went from a standard, cube oriented team to an xp (extreme programming), team room situated team. After 5 days I have to admit I'm very impressed. Things seem to just flow, and that includes the time in the day.

In my previous team we used a bastardized scrum process. What I mean by that is we worked from a log of broadly described requirements and we had a daily stand-up meeting (scrum meeting) where each person reported on their current workload. But between those daily scrums it was mostly cave time in each person's cube where they worked on whatever they pleased (which means a lot of personal, non-work related stuff). Except for 1 solid leader on the team and 1 or 2 others this was pretty common (guilty).

On the xp team it's more rigorous as far as daily tasks go. It's a mix of xp, scrum, and lean methods. Everything, and I mean everything, is done in a defined process. From the way the requirements (user stories) are defined and accepted (yes, accepted by developers), to the way tasks are maintained on a kanban board and everything is required to be done by a pair of programmers doing test first development. And even when a pair gets the task "done" it isn't officially done until it gets "accepted" by another pair (a process that when done properly guarantees almost zero bugs released post-development).

I know it sounds a bit legislative, and honestly I had my doubts as to how it would affect me. But the work load is easily divided and things get done. In a 5 day iteration we clear the board and if we need we can pull stories that are ready in the backlog. The only problem this team has had is lack of ready to go stories in the backlog (but that is changing with the addition of 2 in house Business Analysts).

So far I'm loving my new work environment, I really don't miss my cube (but yes Brian, I do miss you man, you should offer to take someone elses place :-) ). I want to get into details in later posts about the kanban board and some of the ways I've paired and also our use of Fitnesse which so far is mind blowing. I'm marking down week 1 as a productive week.

Until next time
Les

Lone Star Software Symposium - Day 3 Recap

2008-06-09T07:21:00.004-06:00

Meanwhile, back at the Ranch...
So the conference has come to an end and several hours driving and a short night's sleep in my own bed and now I'm back at work. This was a great experience for me. I would definitely go back to a NFJS conference if I got the chance.
The final day was no let down. The four sessions I attended were great.
The recap:

Design Patterns in Java and Groovy

I know I've gone on and on about Groovy, but this class really got my attention. This was my first session with Venkat Subramanium. Venkat is the author of several books (one of which I already have) and a very charismatic speaker. What he did in this session was present several common design patterns in Java, discuss the complexity, and then write the same functionality in Groovy right there. This was an excellent session to see some Groovy in action and see just how simple and easy it makes very robust Java tasks.

Caring about your Code Quality

This was more of a speach presentation than a coding presentation. But with Venkat back at the helm that's not bad at all. This session covered why Code Quality is important and why caring about your own code quality is important. He shed light on a lot of common coding fallacies and practices. This is a very important subject that encompasses every facet of Software Engineering, not just the Java world. Great stuff.

Agile Test Driven Development With Groovy

This and my last session were both presented by Jeff Brown. This was an interesting class to me. It started differently than I expected with a background of unit testing and TDD. But once Jeff got into the coding section and really greased the testing wheels with some Groovy goodness it was really interesting. The simplicity of your code that Groovy provides really makes some remedial testing tasks almost too easy (compared to what it takes to do those tasks in Java).

Powerful Metaprogramming Techniques With Groovy

This session really got into the mud with the meta-programming capabilities provided in Groovy. His examples were pretty cool. He made several builders (xmlBuilder, outlineBuilder) and showed how simple it is to manipulate compiled classes on the fly to empower your code to really do what you want it to do, not just what your framework wants it to do. He explained a bit about the ExpandoMetaClass which is a very powerful tool in Groovy (and a tool that came from the Grails project). Again, good stuff.

Conclusion
This conference was very useful to me and my colleagues and I have decided that Groovy is going to be a tool we use in our framework. We'll start small using it as a helper for our unit testing, then we'll see where we can take it from there.

Until next time
Les

Lone Star Software Symposium - Day 2 Recap

2008-06-07T21:17:00.004-06:00

Here I am at the end of Day 2 and I'm miserable. There are several reasons for that, but they don't have anything to do with the Conference itself. One reason is that I miss my wife and my son. Another, and probably the biggest, reason is that I'm stuffed beyone enjoyment on BBQ from Red Hot and Blue because I have mostly no self control when it comes to BBQ.
Here's the wrap up:

Filthy Rich Clients with the Google Web Toolkit, Part I

Overall this is a very interesting toolkit. It allows you to development heavy, ajaxian, rich, javascript based web apps by writing nothing but Java code. Google has written a compiler that takes the Java code and compiles it into multiplatform, crossbrowser Javascript. It's really slick and I could definitely see using it to throw together some personal projects. The session wasn't horrible.

Real World JSON

This was another course by Scott Davis and I really enjoyed it. JSON (Javascript Object Notation) is basically the best alternative to XML (the 'x' in AJAX). JSON let's you express objects and lists of objects as plain text (and what's more light weight than that?) and process it right in your web page without have the heavy, cumbersome syntax of XML to grind through. I could see using JSON in future web endeavers. Good presentation.

Grails - Agile Web 2.0 The Easy Way

This got me back on track with my new trend in self study. It was presented by Jeff Brown and he did a really good job at showing the quick and dirty of what Grails really is. This was really a repeat for me since I attended Davis's Grails session yesterday, but he added fresh light to areas for me so it wasn't a waste. Good presentation and a good primer for the next session.

Advanced Web Development With Grails

So this was the best session of the day. It was Jeff Brown's second session and it really dug deeper into the workings of Grails and building real world web apps with it. He showed us the power and EASE of creating custom tags in Grails (as opposed to the painstaking process it in the JSP world). He demonstrated some remote calling and object relationships (managed right in your bean object and persisted on the fly to the Database, yeah, that's right). I definitely think that the entire Groovy/Grails paradigm could change my programming landscape for good, if only I could get it accepted at my job.

As I said to begin, overall I'm enjoying and learning. I would recommend this conference to any, ANY Java based developer.

Until next time
Les

Lone Star Software Symposium - Day 1 Recap

2008-06-06T22:01:00.002-06:00

Without going into detail regarding the trip to Dallas and the typical checking into the hotel I'll just say that for the most part today is what you might expect from the first day of a conference. I really enjoyed the sessions I attended today. All three of the sessions I chose were led by Scott Davis and all things revolved around Groovy.

The Blue Pill

The first session was Groovy, the Blue Pill, and yes that is a reference to The Matrix and the next session carried the reference further. The Blue Pill was basically a crash course in Groovy. What it is. How can it be used. What are some basic features that make it so groovy and not just Java without the semicolons (which is optional). It was a good track for me as I'm still fairly new to Groovy. Sure I didn't really get a lot of "new" out of this one since I've been reading a lot of intro to Groovy stuff lately, but it was refreshing.

The Red Pill

The Red Pill was just a continuation of the Blue pill. After the intro course he was now able to present more nitty gritty Groovy functionality. It covered closures, metaprogramming, and much more. A very good session for me as this is where I'm standing on the Groovy landscape.

Grails for the Struts Developer

This was a very interesting session to me. He began and spent a large part of the course talking about Struts. It's origins and it's benefits. Much praise was discussed for what Struts had implemented in it's day. But then came the current state of development on the Java platform and some negative topics regarding Struts were breached. Then he introduced Grails and talked about how you can simply use Groovy over your current Struts apps. Then he rolled up his sleaves and created a Grails app from scratch. With scaffolding doing all the work it was a matter of minutes before he had 3 CRUD apps up an running. Not a lot of new stuff for me, but a good refresher preparing me for my session on Grails tomorrow.

Keynote

Interestingly enough to me, the keynote speach at the end of the day was almost the best part (not taking anything away from Scott and his Groovy kool-aid). It was an awesome presentation about the state of software development and how long it's been this way and where it will likely end up going (which looks bad from here). He talked a lot about development anti-patterns that are common and I swear the man must be camped out or video taping our department because the first six patterns he discussed were common every week practices for us. I wasn't really shocked, but hearing it all explained so pointedly really made me wonder how much longer I can put up with it (as if I wouldn't run into the same issues elsewhere).

Conclusion

Overall the first day was very enjoyable and full of information. I'm looking forward to tomorrow's sessions.

Until next time
Les

Numbers the Groovy way

2008-06-05T10:19:00.003-06:00

So far I'm still at the beginning of my journey into the wonderful world of scripting with the Java based Groovy. I'm seeing a lot of neat things, but still I'm just scratching the surface. One thing that I see so far that is really useful is the way numbers are handled.

In Groovy, everything is an object. There are NO native primitive types such as Java (which is Object Oriented with a handful of primitive exceptions to the rule). So in early iterations of Java you had to manually box your primitives into objects to work with them in Collections and other Object based processes.

Groovy has that covered. In Groovy you can reference a number just like an object (because it is an object). Then if you need to make a List of int's it's boxed on the fly because there is no int but everything that would be a Java int is and Integer (auto-boxing to the extreme).


// using the Groovy built-in function .times you can
// simply say you want to do something a number of times
// without having to setup a full fledged for loop
10.times
{
 println "my line"
}

That's just one sample, but I hope it show's you how simple it is to work with numbers in this groovy scripting language.

Until next time
Les

Lone Star Software Symposium - NFJS

2008-06-02T10:20:00.002-06:00

This weekend is the No Fluff Just Stuff (NFJS) conference in Dallas and I actually get to go. I'm pumped about this since last year I missed out when it was in my back yard (almost literally) and this years OKC area conference got canceled. I will be posting nightly (no promises) about what is covered but I wanted to go ahead and give a heads up on what I plan on attending for those who care and those who don't.

Day 1:

Groovy, the Blue Pill: Writing Next Generation Java Code in Groovy -Scott Davis
Groovy, The Red Pill: Metaprogramming, the Groovy Way to Blow a Buttoned-Down Java Developer's Mind - Scott Davis
Grails for Struts Developers: A Groovy Alternative - Scott Davis

Day 2:

Filthy Rich Clients with the Google Web Toolkit, Part I - David Geary
Filthy Rich Clients with the Google Web Toolkit, Part II - David Geary
Grails - Agile Web 2.0 The Easy Way - Jeff Brown
Advanced Web Development With Grails - Jeff Brown

Day 3:

Design Patterns in Java and Groovy - Venkat Subramaniam
Caring about your Code Quality - Venkat Subramaniam
Agile Test Driven Development With Groovy - Jeff Brown
Powerful Metaprogramming Techniques With Groovy - Jeff Brown

I'm really looking forward to it.
Until next time,
Les

Feeding with no RSS

2008-06-01T20:58:00.004-06:00

So I recently came across an online tool while reading my feeds called Page2RSS. From their site:

It is a service that helps you monitor web sites that do not publish feeds.
It will check any web page for updates and deliver them to your favorite RSS aggregator.

I did see a warning that mentioned not using a page that get's updates by the minute since this site will crawl the page every 10 minutes and that will really get your reader down.

Having the tool tucked in the back of my mind I didn't really have a site to use it on at that moment, but I figured it would come in useful eventually. I was right. My church maintains a web page with sermons (mp3 links) posted (no Bubba, I'm not getting preachy, I really am just talking about the tool). They update it about every week, sometimes every 2 weeks. I like to keep an eye on the sermons they post since we miss a lot and don't go to evening services. Instead of having to check the page I used the handy Page2RSS tool and now I get updated when the page does.

It just crawls the page and checks it versus previous versions so I wondered how it would look. Here is a sample I got tonite (here is the sermon page)

As you can see it adds new entries from the page into the feed from top to bottom just as they added it to the page. And since the changes in question have links to mp3 files it adds those links as well without posting the URL as text and dirtying up my page.

Pretty cool by me.
Until next time,
Les

What's so Groovy about Grails

2008-05-23T10:08:00.003-06:00

If you haven't heard of Grails or Groovy maybe you have heard of Ruby and Rails. Basically Groovy is a Java based Ruby (grossly oversimplified definition), and Grails is just Rails for Groovy.

What's it all about? I'm in the process of figuring that out at the moment (in between work and family and my recurring tours of duty in Modern Warfare). I'm reading Groovy in Action and going over some online tutorials for developing web apps with Grails and it's very impressive (this coming from a guy with no prior experience with Ruby on Rails).

Grails is a web framework that is grounded on Convention over Configuration. In other words, we all know what a web application should do, and most web apps are built in a similar fashion, so why not just say "this is the way it should be setup" and then set it up that way. So in Grails I can type one command and BOOM a web app is generated right in front of me without any configuration from me, all I have to do is add the information that makes it my application (mostly domain stuff). Unlike struts I don't have to spend mindless time configuring and reconfiguring XML files just to get a single web page to display. I get to do what programmers love best: program.

I don't know a lot about Groovy yet, but I'm working on it. Will I be able to use this in my work? Maybe not. But I might find ways to use it in my daily work on my own workspace. We'll see.

Until next time
Les

Paine Management Redux

2008-05-04T20:34:00.004-06:00

Lead, follow, or get out of the way. - Thomas Paine

As a follow-up to my previous post I'd like to pose a better team building thought. Instead of management asking:

"How do you handle being on a team with members who aren't as
up to speed or as skilled as you are?"

I say a team should be driven with this question, and it should be addressed and accepted and enforced with ALL team members:

"If you are found to be the least skilled on the team or you are not
as up to speed as the rest of the team what will you do about it?"

The team will constantly look within itself and address the weaknesses and if individuals are open to being honest and responsible for their skills then the team as a whole can better take care of each other. I understand though that this is a perfect world situation.

Until next time
Les

Paine Management

2008-04-18T07:29:00.009-06:00

Most people who know me are aware that I am harsh in only a few situations. Most of the time I'm a fun loving, gullible, happy-go-lucky kinda guy. One of the things that really gets my skeptic radar turned on is lower to mid-level management and the use thereof. Maybe this is because I worked for myself a couple of years after college. Maybe it's just the fact that I've always been a little rebellious against authority figures.

My view of the role of management especially in IT is an oversimplified cliché:

Lead, follow, or get out of the way. Thomas Paine

That makes 3 possible categories to delve into, but really I only want to discuss two distinct middle-management types. While in a morning enrichment session this morning with some of my closest colleagues I made a allusion to two particular management style from the abyss that is my imagination. There are givers and there are takers (leeches).

Givers
Few people in IT get to work for givers. The giver is a contributor. Maybe they don't write code, some do and hopefully they're good at it. Givers are ready for change at any moment in the project life cycle and make sure that their influence on the project does everything it can to move the project toward progress. The giver only asks questions when absolutely necessary. The giver will lead when required, but knows when to get out of the way of the people actually doing the work. True givers may only exist in a vacuum of the IT space.

Leeches
Most IT workers have come into contact with some sort of middle-management leech. They do what a leach does best: take. It's usually hard to spot a leech when you start somewhere. At first they seem very helpful and very productive. They spend their time being in the act of being busy. Soon though it's easy to notice that they're helpfulness is a little too helpful. Helpful to the point of no helping. Leeches use classic phrases like:

Far be it from me to get in the way of progress, BUT.

or:

You guys know what you're doing, BUT.

or:

I'm just like you guys, BUT.

Are you seeing a pattern? Leeches come in with the appearance of wanting to contribute. Wanting to help. BUT they always have some aside that they have to share because the powers that be (someone that we never get to meet) has decreed that there will be beatings if you cross this imaginary line. The leech will not get out of the way on any issue. They want to be right in the middle of it so they can either take credit for a job well done or hand out the "I-told-you-so"s once something goes wrong. And it's the possibility of failure that drives the leech to constantly add friction to progress.

At one interview I had I was given a few minutes for a pseudo-interview with lower-mid-managers (basically they were designated the same as Project Leaders). It was less of an interview than than it was a get to know me session. I did most of the talking. One thing that I was asked was:

"How do you handle being on a team with members whose skills aren't as advanced and who aren't as up to speed on the platform/language/project as the rest of the team?"

I took the question at face value and answered it with elegant clichés and tried to show how much of a people-person and team player I am. After working there for a while I realized the importance of that question. It was a proof of what I experienced at this job. They wanted to know what my view was because their view was that they weren't going to do anything about those people. They expected no improvement from those employees. They were afraid they would rock the boat and their happy little family of developers would turn on them. They managed with tied hands whether self-imposed or not.

To me this is classic leech management. When it comes to managing people they're impotent, but if something comes up dealing with a change of tool or a new implementation or process where they can enter their contributions/ideas/endless list of questions, they will. And somehow their contributions seem to suck the motivation right out of the group. Most of a leeches contributions will actually improve the quality of work-life for people who don't help the project progress. That's been my experience anyway.

What's the best way to deal with leech management? It should be as simple as dealing with real life leeches. Just pull them off and discard them. But I can't say that I have a solution that is viable. I guess that will be for another post probably years from now when I've had enough experience to make suggestions on that sort of thing.

Until next time
Les

The bottle thing

2008-03-26T09:20:00.003-06:00

If you follow my tweets then you got this from yesterday. Well here is a pic:

He has really been able to hold his bottle for quite some time, but I guess he didn't feel like it. But lately he is really taking care of it without much coaxing.

It's a sad and happy day. Sad because that's one more thing that is now just going to be a memory. Happy because I can finally just give him a bottle and not have to hold it until he's finished.

Oh and by the way, the chicks really dug the hat. :-)

Until next time,
Les

Why the DMV won't improve

2008-03-21T21:28:00.003-06:00

Annette had to get her driver's license renewed today. She has a Commercial Driver's License (CDL) so she can drive a school bus if needed. Well, since it's a CDL she can't just go to the Tag Agency and renew; she has to go to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and get everything processed there THEN she gets to go to the tag agency to get the new license.

So at the end of our day she is telling me of all that went on. She was there for 2.5 hours just waiting to get to see someone. Being a teacher she is always looking for ways to make things more efficient. I guess having to deal with snot nosed prepubescents really makes you think of ways to improve processes that speed up any kind of standing in line.

Well, she starts explaining to me how they could have had multiple receiving lines for more specific purposes instead of just one general purpose line (i.e. she wants a line for inquiries and a line for tests and a line for renewals etc.). And I remember that the Social Security office is exactly the same way. Long, general purpose line and a wait that takes way too long.

Why is this? They've been running things the same way for long enough it would make since that they come up with more efficient ways of managing their daily lines of people. And then I remember. These places don't have to improve their process. They don't have to worry about "customer service" because they don't serve customers. They handle a captive audience. People don't have a choice about standing in line. It's required by law to be there and do what you are doing (for the most part) so you can't just decide against it if they're not nice to you.

The rest of us don't have this power. We aren't working government jobs with mandated requirements. We deal with customers of some type. And if we don't please those customers then they go somewhere else. Those government bastards are lucky.

Until next time,
Les

Over stating the obvious

2008-03-19T07:49:00.002-06:00

Playing

2008-02-25T22:02:00.003-06:00

So I've reached Level 55 (Commander) in Call of Duty 4 and I'm not currently planning on going Prestige mode. Besides, it's not even available yet since I have to earn it as if it were Level 56. Prestige is a mode (or rather 10 modes) of reseting all that you've earned in the multi-player mode and starting over like new. The only thing you're left with to claim your badassness is a special medal next to your gamertag in-game. 10 prestige modes means 10 medals, but you have to go level 55 each time.... I don't think so.

The game is still fun. I haven't been let down since getting to take part in the Beta back last September (07). The single player is a solid play, action packed and a decent story and an ending that I thought was better than BioShock's (sorry Nathan). But really the most awe inspiring moment of the single player game was about half way through. If you played it you know what I'm talking about.

But the real crack addition that this game offers is the multi-player. It's fast paced and hardcore. There are 16 maps and enough game types to keep this casual gamer pleased for hours without pause. Sure I'm ready for the DLC coming next month, but that will also be competing with one of my FPS first loves:

Rainbow Six: Vegas 2. I've been a fan of Rainbow Six since I played the original on my PS1, although I didn't play any after that until Vegas on my 360. 2 comes out on the March 11th and I've decided to rid myself of Assassin's Creed for it. After all I did get all the gamer score out of that one and there really is no replay value in it for me. I thought there might be, but that would really just be a waste of time.

Until next time
Les

You're perfect! Don't change a thing

2008-02-08T11:04:00.000-06:00

In our group's architecture meeting recently we (developers) were given a warning about code changes effecting (or is it affecting?) production. To sum it up we were told: "do not make changes unless they were absolutely necessary or be aware of consequences". And I'm wondering are there really any of us sitting at our workstations trying to think up changes to the system that aren't necssary? That aside though I'd like to examine the paradigm that this kind of warning is really introducing.

One thing to always remember as a software developer is that anytime you make a change to any system you are taking a chance of adversely effecting said system. Yes, there is a chance you could break something since no one and no system is infallible. So what do we do about this? Avoid doing our jobs? I guess before we can address that we have to define what it is we do as software developers.

Developers have a simple job. Write code to deliver software that performs requested functionality. No matter where you are or what you are developing this applies. It's simple I know. Too simple. But there are so many strings attached to that job description that you really can't sum them all up in a job posting of any sort. You have to consider that the code being written on day 5 is not going to 100% valid and in scope on day 35. Imagine the difference between requirements on day 5 and day 605. Software is a process. It has to grow which means it has to change. Scope changes. System requirements change. User requests change. The older a system gets the worse the code smells; no exceptions. So while a developer is in charge of delivering functionality they also have to consider these things: scope change; code maintainability; scalability; stress handling; and even the probability of the application surviving a complete system failure (or being usable after a zombie attack).

That being said, a developer knows that systems are going to require change. There are going to be changes that are directly related to user request and then there will be those changes required due to the need to *gasp* refactor (thank you Martin Fowler).

Sometimes its as simple as updating or migrating to a new tool in our application. A couple years ago we switched from using EJB2 to using a Spring container for our framework, it wasn't a user request, but we needed to change from using EJB2. That needed to be done for many reasons which I won't go into here. It required a lot of sweeping code changes. There were a lot of hiccups along the way some of which we're still running into. But it didn't end the world as our application knows it.

There are other changes though. Changes that aren't directly linked to upgrading or migrating tools. For instance, your application has been in development for 4+ years and is still growing. There are parts of the framework that are duplicated due to original configuration and short sighted development choices. Or even just the fact that code pool x is just to freaking big to manage and needs to be broken into smaller more manageable components. These changes won't offer any direct value to the end user (on the surface anyway), but they contribute to a cleaner more efficient code base. And a cleaner more efficient code base helps keep an application running smoothly, contributes to easier maintenance of the application, and also helps keep good developers sane (which is a good thing, insane developers do insane things like blame their tools for all their problems).

So, do we avoid these changes for the sake of what is stable now? If we do that it only helps those stable apps for now. What happens when that currently stable application in production needs a new feature or has a bug that needs fixed. Now you have to work in the mess that should have been cleaned up months or even years ago. Now making what should be a simple change is like trying to add a new floor to a four story building, but you have to add the floor in the middle of the building, not the top.That means that the chance of introducing more bugs into the system is multiplied (the risk is already there just because you're making changes in the first place). The change will probably take longer than it should. And on and on we could go with this.

Developers write code. Developers make changes to make the system better (for performance and maintenance). It is risky. That's a risk we're willing to take.

Until next time,
Les

Dev vs. Dev

2008-02-06T13:44:00.001-06:00

Playing around with Google Presentation. Enjoy!

RSS Reader of Choice

2008-01-29T13:15:00.000-06:00

I recently switched from using Bloglines(new beta version) to Google Reader for my RSS needs. I like Bloglines, but I thought it was time to hand Google another piece of my online lifestyle.

I like how Reader integrates easily with my GMail account and some of the added features (like my "Shared" items). What I wish Google had that Bloglines offers is anonymous email accounts.
With Bloglines I could generate a random email address (@bloglines.com) that would be added as a subscribtion in my feeds and I could use that address to sign up for services that require an email (if I didn't want to give them my real email). Also, I used that to subscribe to some user groups email newsletters, so I got to read them like feeds instead of having to mess with them in my inbox. Maybe Google will add this eventually, but for now I'll keep using Reader.

Until next time
Les

2008-01-15T10:59:00.000-06:00

Just like any other geek I have always aspired to someday write a book. I guess the key there is "someday". So as long as I'm still alive I can dream that dream. I've often wondered what I should do to begin. I actually have started a couple of time on different projects. As I typically do though I start strong but then fizzle out. I guess it can't just be some off the cuff random thought, I have to find something that actually means something to me to make it work. As the saying goes I have to find my muse.

So where do I look for inspiration. When taking on a project such as this there are all the usual suspect resource pools to dip in for inspiration: personal history/beliefs, current events, or just mere imagination. I've tried the imagination thing. Wrote about one and a half chapters and hit writers' block. The pool of my imagination is pretty shallow it seems. So I've been thinking how about mixing it up a little bit. I could write based on my geographical background and use what other people imagine about that particular region. This could be interesting if done correctly since I come from an area that most people seem to associate with the movie Deliverance, which actually took place in Georgia, but Southeastern Oklahoma tends to have a reputation for being equal to the local of that story.

If I could find the right literary hook, add some plot to it, twist, and actually find the right audience I might be able to get it going. But let's face it; it's hard to produce a truly original idea since almost everything has already been done to the nth degree. So for me it's really a fear of having any potential audience just shrugging it off as if it's a rip off of something they're already familiar with.

Regarding the medium of delivery, I've actually considered starting a new fiction blog and write chapters at a time. Register it with creative commons and try some brute for self promotion on wikis and forums. This might be a better way to start for me but only if I could get a following that would put me in check when I stop posting chapters. But would I be able to sell a product that has been readily available for free on the information waves of the world wide web? I guess I could get a following (assuming I self promoted good enough to generate some buzz), I could then cut off the blog with a final post stating "To be continued in a bookstore near you!" But that would be a dangerous move especially for someone who from societies perspective is a no one. Don't piss off the audience, not until you've got a big enough name and pay roll to get away with it.

This needs more thought and obviously I would have to develop a working story line before any of this is even viable. So...

Until next time
Les

Guy stuff

2008-01-04T09:54:00.001-06:00

One of my favorite all time guy movies is Desperado, the Robby Rodriguez flick with Antonio Banderas.
I started listening to the soundtrack today for the first time in probably more than a year and it reminded me I need to watch it again just to reaffirm my manliness (as if I needed to do that). Well, I can't. I own it you see, but I own it in the out dated format of VHS. For you kids that read my blog that's what we used to watch before teh DVD became the thing and the internet was way too slow to download video (I know this is arguable). Anyway. I don't have a VCR hooked up in my house (that's the machine that plays the VHS). So, for my manliness' sake, I need to go pick up this movie on DVD.

Until next time,
Les

Encino man

2007-12-14T07:47:00.000-06:00

Well, we are now working on our 5th day without power. It's cold, we've been staying with friends and family. I think we'll be lucky if we're turned on before the middle of next week. All the houses in our neighborhood are back online. All except our little street with 5 or 6 houses. You'd think something small like that would be a no-brainer and they'd just send someone over to get it going, but OG&E has a policy to go where they can do the most for less effort first, so five houses in the middle of Midwest City probably doesn't even make a ping on their radar yet.

Oh well, could be worse I'm sure.
Until next time
Les

----------------
Now playing: Foo Fighters - Times Like These
via FoxyTunes

What goes in must come out.

2007-11-13T17:13:00.000-06:00

The key to good entertainment is a combination of a hook and a yank. Pardon the fishing analogy, but I think you can easily understand. My son is just now 6 months old and he has this down to perfection. For example...

We took Reid to his first basketball game; middle school basketball. I had a feeling it would be an experience the first time since basketball gyms tend to be very loud. To top it off we had had Reid's 6 month well baby visit earlier that day and he received 5 shots so he was already off his game.

Well, about 2 minutes after we arrived the crowd got loud and the buzzer went off. Reid started screaming. It wasn't just a cry, it was a loud, high pitched wailing sound. The hook. We decided that part of his continuing anguish could be partly attributed to pain from the shots he had received that day. So we decided to give him some children's Tylenol.

A bit of the medicine started dripping from his mouth, being six months old he drools a lot. Well I was about reach for a burp rag when it happened. The yank. I heard the patented "SPLURP!!", and at almost the same exact moment I felt warm, soured, regurgitated milk gush into my ear and run down my neck and shirt. And don't forget we had an audience since he'd pulled off the perfect hook earlier with his crying.

Ah, parenthood is strangely rewarding. Why rewarding? Because somehow in it all I didn't even feel a little embarrassed.

Until next time
Les

Countdown to Modern Warfare

2007-11-01T06:14:00.000-06:00

Deploying November 6 2007

until next time
Les

2007-10-24T15:29:00.000-06:00

Well, I called Xbox support last Thursday night. My 360 went on the fritz and stopped showing a picture, wouldn't you know the thing is almost useless without a picture.

Anyway, it's Wednesday of the next week and I just received the shipping coffin. I packed it and took it to the UPS store across town. It's a 3-day shipment and support told it will take 3-4 weeks to get back to me. I only assume that means 3-4 weeks after they receive it.

We'll see how long this one takes to get back. And yes this means I'll be late playing Call of Duty 4.

Until next time,
Les

Bioshocked: PTSD

2007-09-20T06:14:00.001-06:00

Well I made it through Rapture. I fought my way past each and every splicer, security bot, and Big Daddy. I also did something I've yet to do with a game on my 360: I unlocked every single achievement for a whopping 1000 pts. added to my gamer score:It was worth the time (and I know Annette will be glad I'm finished with it). This is a great game. Good story. Nice plot. And as I mentioned in my first Bioshock post, the graphics are awesome.

Until next time
Les

Measuring Developers

2007-09-10T11:02:00.001-06:00

I need to get back on track and talk about programming. There is a lot that has been on my mind lately but I've been to lazy to put it together. I've been thinking about developers and what makes one good and another one bad. In the end developers are people, and the nature of people is very obscure and random so no two people can really be measured with the same rules. Everyone has different strengths. Not everyone is going to be a quick study and natural tool-smith. So it isn't fair to say "so and so can pick up anything quickly, so they are worth more to my team than oh slow Joe over there".

I guess it comes down to responsibility. Sure you may not be the strongest Java programmer on the team, but how are you being responsible for what you do work on? How are you committing yourself to the tasks at hand? Can your team count on you or are you a quitter/winer?

There is way more on this and I don't have time right now.

Until next time
Les

Modern Warfare

2007-08-27T06:09:00.001-06:00

This weekend I was lucky enough to get an early invite to the Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Multiplayer Beta (wow that's a mouthfull). It's pretty nice, at least it kept me up a couple nights this weekend. There's 3 maps and up to 4 modes, although I only played free-for-all (every man for himself with respawn) since my gaming is rather recreational and low priority. Playing team games requires communication and time, I don't have much of either when it comes to gaming.

I've leveled up to Corporal II so far and unlocked a few perks and other goodies. Today (Monday August 27th) is the official opening of the Beta, so if you read this in time (2pm central time) and you have a 360 and xbox live Gold go to http://charlieoscardelta.com today and try and sign up under the beta section.

Until next time
Les

Bioshocked: Redux

2007-08-20T06:35:00.001-06:00

So I've had time to sleep and think it over. I have to admit maybe I blogged too soon. Maybe I really just needed to finish the demo a few times to get a true grasp of the mood. After all this, I can't deny, I want to play Bioshock. I've decided that maybe what creeped me out the most is the setting. It seems to me that the devs did an awesome job of taking me into the depths of the ocean and leaving me for dead. The first time through the demo I really had a sense of hopelessness.

What helped take me there? Well I've already mentioned how I thought the visuals are great, so I'll leave that alone. The sounds. That's right. From the 1950s soundtrack playing to the eerie sounds emanating from around all corners. I feel like I am there, wondering if I'm going to run into some new impassable threat. I don't want to die here. That's what I feel.

Things I've found that I really enjoyed in the demo: hacking. You can hack any electronic security device. So I was able to make a security camera work for me (instead of constantly sending security bots after me it sends them to my enemies). I revived a busted security bot and it hovered around like a guardian angel warding off foes who would come after me. I didn't hack the turret gun, so I may play the demo once more just to say I did. To shanghai a device you basically have 2 options. 1) Hack it. To do this you get a simple version of a pipes game. Make the flow of energy get from 1 point to another by revealing tiles and arranging them to the proper flow. 2) Buy them off. You collect money throughout the game, you can use it to pay the device to work for you, so you don't have to chance hacking it (if you fail to hack a device in time it will blow up in your face).

So budget wise I still will not buy this game. But I have to retract my statement and say now that I am sorry I won't be playing this game this week. Maybe one of my friends will loan it to me when they're finished (Rainbow Six:Vegas is on the table). I do have to say though that I would try to open the achievement Little Sister Savior not for my conscience but rather for the hope of obtaining all achievements.

Until next time
Les

Bioshocked

2007-08-16T12:23:00.001-06:00

I've recently played the Xbox 360 demo for Bioshock. The game is nice in the since of visuals. I'm a huge fan of games developed with the Unreal Engine and this one doesn't disappoint. The graphics are simply awesome.

The location is interesting. You find your way to a city enthralled in chaos hidden deep in the ocean. The scene is 1950ish and the setting definitely takes you there. All along the way you get hints and info on what this place is and what has happened.

I won't be getting this game. For one it doesn't fit into my budget (time and money). More importantly though, for me, is the feeling I get from playing this game. It gives me an eerie and creepy feeling. It's not so much the amount of visual darkness they submerse you into. It's the sense of: Something here is wrong and I'm going to have to do something wrong to survive. I enjoy the visuals, but the aftertaste of this game is creepy so I won't miss not owning this title.

Don't get me wrong. I'm all about shoot-em-up games. But I like a better defined line between what is and what shouldn't be. I have no problem battling the digital hordes of Locusts in Gears of War because I feel that the sides are well defined and I don't feel bad about the side my character represents (this only applies to campaign mode, multi-player is a non-issue for me). In Rainbow Six: Vegas I know I'm fighting for what I feel is right as I take down terrorists trying to do harm to American soil. So overall I don't have particular problems with digital violence in games, after all it's just digital images following the code's instructions. I just don't want to feel creeped out by what's going on. end rant

I wouldn't say don't play Bioshock, I'm just not going to get it.

Until next time
Les

"Travel well."

2007-07-24T08:26:00.001-06:00

Watched Apocalypto yesterday and I must say that though I was a bit skeptical at first I really enjoyed the film. It was a bloody flick, but not in a way that I would consider it a gore-fest, but in that way that an ancient people without proper modern hygiene would be bloody. I thought the cinematography was excellent, I enjoyed the way the camera took you into the jungles of the Yucatán. I know it's not the first time that has been done, but as far as this movie goes I was pleased.

The story wasn't all that intriguing or even unpredictable, but it was entertaining enough that I watched it to the end. You do have to be okay with subtitled films to really enjoy this one though, because just like Gibson's Passion of the Christ it is completely spoken in the setting's vernacular and only translated into english in the subtitles (which by the way were easy to follow, some films do jump around too much with dialogue to be good subtitle films).

That's it for now.
Until next time
Les

Google Notebook

2007-07-17T08:14:00.001-06:00

I decided yesterday that I would try using Google Notebook. It's a handy little way of keeping up with clips/notes/scratch while surfing the interweb. They have a neat little plugin for your browser (Firefox and Inferior Explorer) that let's you clip notes and addresses as you surf. This is really handy when you're doing research, as it helps you not have to copy/paste things from your browser to another window.

Until next time
Les

Most used firefox extensions

2007-07-09T07:04:00.001-06:00

Others have posted their favorites so here are my most used Firefox extensions, I use many more, but these are my top extensions lately.

FoxyTunes

TwittyTunes (you have to be know twitter to get this one)

GCalQuickTab

IE Tab

ScribeFire (used to publish this and most of my blog posts)

Gmail Notifier

let me know if you have one that I should be using...

Until next time
Les

UPDATE: Google Maps

2007-06-29T08:36:00.001-06:00

I just learned that you can now reroute your directions on Google Maps just by dragging the blue line... awesome!!!

Until next time
Les

That's not how it's done

2007-06-29T07:54:00.001-06:00

Growing up as an aspiring guitarist I used to take my acoustic to school and play on the lawn during lunches. It was fun. I always enjoyed playing. Trying to tackle new riffs or old ones, it kept me busy. Sometimes the funnest thing to do was take a song I'd been hearing a lot of and make my guitar play the same notes. Of course there were always tabs which were a very easy way to learn any song. But sometimes it was more interesting to work it out just by ear.

One song I learned by ear was a popular one from the Goo Goo Dolls. When I was playing it at school one day a friend stopped me mid-intro and said.... "That's not how it's done." I stared for a second and asked what he meant. He informed me that he had the sheet music from that album and the way I was playing wasn't the way that was written in the book. I asked the rest of the group what song I had just been playing and they all agreed it was the song in question that was coming from my guitar, but my friend wasn't interested in what it "sounded like", he was learning to play based on the exact way the artists themselves played. Forget music theory or the fact that there are multiple variations of the same notes/chords across the fretboard of a guitar (same as any other instrument). He wasn't really interested in understanding music or the instrument, he was only interested in understanding the way the artist played it.

Exit the world of rock guitars and enter the world I'm currently in: software programming.

Many coders don't have a grasp on what it is that a programmer does. The funny thing about that is that in many businesses the 2 types are paid pretty much the same compensation. For the coder it's only relevant to know that a piece of code is written in comparison to any other code they can find to copy from. Their only true requirement is that it meets user requirements. A programmer is more of an engineer. It's not good enough to just borrow code that meets requirements. The programmer has to know more. Why does the code do what it does? How does it work? Can it be made better?

Oh yes, the coder will take pride in the claim that they know the business requirements but they can't explain why they can't deliver successful products in a timely manner with quality rock solid code. By knowing the business requirements the coder can easily find other code that meets those requirements and voila they've written a program by use of a few right clicks of their mouse.

What does it take to separate yourself from these copy/pasters? For one, have a growing knowledge of your tools. By tools I mean the platform you're developing for, the language you're using (including libraries and the way the language works with the machine), and even the IDE you'll be using (i.e. Eclipse). If you're going to work in this industry you have to be a nerd and that's not as bad as it seemed when you were in high school. Now that we're in the real world a really good nerd can bring home a way better bottom line than the most popular jock in your high school (who's most likely working in a local factory pulling in just over min. wage or working at his uncle's auto dealership). So don't worry, be a little nerdy. Spend some time reading technical books and articles that help you immerse yourself in your craft (although don't forget to take the time to do other things you enjoy, like spending time with family and friends, because nerds do have friends here in the real world).

end of rant
Until next time
Les

For the record

2007-06-27T09:12:00.001-06:00

I don't know if you are a Harry Potter fan or not, but I've been sucked into the series like a trailer park into a twister. So in 2 weeks the 5th movie hits theatre and yes we're going on opening night... and we're going to the Cine Capri in Bricktown. But really what I'm anticipating is the release of the final book, The Deathly Hollows.

I just want to go on record, until I read the final book and am determined incorrect, that after the details given in book 6 I believe that Harry himself is the final horcrux and must either die to defeat Voldemort, or he could possibly have some loop hole of salvation which provides that if he sacrifices himself willingly for the better good then he saves his own life... a Christ-like twist that I'm sure isn't overlooked by any other person willing to make a guess.

There, I said it, now to wait for the truth.
Until next time
Les

Which are you?

2007-06-26T06:24:00.001-06:00

a blogger named Danah Boyd has made some serious observations regarding social networking and the 2 major camps (Facebook and Myspace). She's taken a lot of flack for her words...

check it out here:

http://www.danah.org/papers/essays/ClassDivisions.html

Which are you more prominently on?

Until next time

Les

New systems of management

2007-06-21T08:11:00.001-06:00

I found this little post pretty humorous yet frighteningly accurate:

@$$hole driven development

Whatcha think?

Until next time
Les

Memories

2007-06-11T07:30:00.001-06:00

Isn't it funny how the human memory will work. For instance I always associate music with an event or time of my life. I don't ever remember trying to associate things... it just happens.

If I listen to any music from the album Hybrid Theory by Linkin Park I'm instantly reminded of Syphon Filter on the Playstation, I clocked a ton of hours on that game in my dorm and jammed that album while doing so. When I hear anything from August and Everything After by Counting Crows I'm reminded of the journey of Jack Sawyer in the novel The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub. It's wierd how fresh those memories are just with the sound of that music.

So, what reminds you of those memories past? A sound, a smell?

Until next time

Les

Who's the expert?

2007-05-31T07:46:00.001-06:00

Google is taking their online office apps offline... plus it seems like you can use this tool for other sites of choice (if you have proper access). Could be interesting...

(check out pics of Reid at my picasa photo album).

Until next time
Les

The time has come!

2007-05-09T18:54:00.001-06:00

Well, we've been checked into the hospital and sometime tomorrow or later I'll be able to hold my son!

Until next time

Les

Additional Update

2007-05-07T08:41:00.001-06:00

I've recently taken to using Digg.com, it's actually been informative and entertaining. So I've added "Digg This" buttons to my posts just in case any of you peeps who read this do the digg thing.

end of update

Update

2007-05-07T07:43:00.001-06:00

So lately I've been busy.  Just random stuff, but mostly getting the house ready for the baby (we're at DEFCON-1).  I've been playing Rainbow Six: Vegas, I finished the story mode, which is fairly short but fun.  Now I'm working on what they call Terrorist Hunts, which are basically games setup on the multi-player maps where you have the objective of clearing the entire map of enemies.  There are 10 maps to clear to get the achievements, and I'm doing them on Realistic mode which will bag me 2 achievements, I've got 4 maps left to clear.  Here's my gamertag as is:

My Gamertag!

Recently watched The Departed.  I was really impressed with this flick.  I liked the parallels presented with the snitches on both sides of the law enforcement camps.  Not a flick for the kiddies, but if you've got a night to waste check it out, you won't be disappointed.

Work is work.  Still just plugging along on the point of sale system using Java.  No complaints really.  I'm ready for a break, but with the kid on the way I'll get what I ask for there, then I may want to get back to work.

until next time

Les

Technorati Tags: general, video games

Rant #{random}

2007-05-01T06:54:00.001-06:00

I know I have deadlines and so much to do, but I have to rant about this. My therapist says it's good therapy, or at least if I had a therapist that's what I would pay them to say.

So we've been given a very strict end of year deadline on our project, you know, the whole 5 gallons in a 2 gallon bucket bit. Anyway, this morning I'm checking my email and from one of our managing Business Analysts I received a note regarding something that just blows my mind. This person is wondering why in some functions in our web app the text box for the login ID is bigger than in other functions...

Yes you heard me correctly. They are pushing a goal that is unreachable and they want to penny whip us with stupid discussions about textbox size. UNBELIEVABLE!

until next time

Les

Perspective

2007-04-19T06:27:00.001-06:00

Have you ever been around any of those people that seem to see the bad in everything?  Just the other day it was announced at our company that the vacation policy had been revised and for the most part there were across the board increases in vacation.  Along with that they added an accrual policy for our yearly vacation earning.  Simply put, each time your vacation year starts you have accrued zero of your vacation days, each month you work that year you accrue a percentage of your vacation.  You can still use as much of your vacation right off the bat if you choose, the way the accrual comes into play is if you quit or get terminated for a reason.  Which means the company only owes you vacation you have accrued for that year and if you used over that you owe it back to the company. If your job is terminated due to layoffs the accrual does not apply and the company will pay you for all your annual vacation days.

Now don't forget that first I told you that this policy increased all employee vacation time across the board.  The other day I actually heard someone say:  "Did you see how they screwed us on our vacation?" And I thought "what the crap?".  How on earth did the company screw any employee in good standing by increasing vacation days? 

These people don't look for positive things.  Whenever something happens they immediately go into defensive mode and try to find how they are getting screwed.  I feel sorry for them.  That kind of living can only lead to paranoia.

Until next time

Les

Technorati Tags: ramblings

Quick statements

2007-04-18T06:44:00.001-06:00

Groceries

The other day I was getting some essentials at my friendly neighborhood Walmart.  at the checkout there was one lady in front of me.  When she reached the register and the lady was ringing her up she informed the cashier that she would be using her food-stamp card and if she had enough she would add a bag of potatoes that she had in her cart.  Well, she did get the potatoes, but she did have a bag of green bell peppers in her cart that she didn't announce.  Then I noticed it wasn't an over site, once she got some of her things bagged she cleverly placed the bags over and around the produce.  Observation: it's not enough that she has to use government assistance for her sustenance (which isn't bad if it's a true need) she also has to steal for it

Gaming Trends

Gears is getting more fun online.  I'm still not boss, but I can hold my own if I don't run head first into the enemy.  Rainbow Six Vegas is still fun, not much to report there.

Technical

I've decided that to be truly agile in your day to day workings it has to be like learning a language, i.e. it isn't enough to just know a ton of German words and phrases, you actually have to think in German in order to be able to use the language.

until next time

Les

Technorati Tags: random, video games, agile

Currently Reading: Practices of an Agile Developer

2007-03-22T06:08:00.001-06:00

Recently picked up this book.

Info

So far it isn't a bad read. I figure if I'm going to chat about things such as agile in this forum then I should at least educate myself a bit.

Maybe I'll do the whole book report thing on it.

Until next time

Les

Feeding the Machine Part 3: buzz words and tech speak revisited

2007-03-19T11:46:00.001-06:00

Sometimes my grumblings lead those around me to believe I may not be a person who is very agile-friendly. I know I come down hard on terminology at times, and for good reason: terms don't a finished product make. Now, I know that I've talked on some of these subjects before, but as long as blogging is cool the topic should be ripe.

My biggest concern with the whimsical world of agile practices is that in my time (which is a limited base of experience I know) I've seen more preachers than practitioners. This is probably just due to my lack of experience and such, but it still keeps me skeptical.

Take the example of a small town church having what is referred to as a "Revival" (common term to those raised in small town churches). Usually you bring in some big name preacher who knows how to put on a show and really entertain the congregation. He usually goes over his interpretation of evangelism and instructs accordingly in a way that just wows the audience. Then in a week he goes to his next venue (or back home) and he's done. He came, he preached, he left.

That's what I see a lot with agile and related topics. Many sensational people stand on their many platforms and evangelize for the cause. Most of which are consultants. And at the end of their contract they move on and spread their teachings to the next victims clients. Their words were all well and good and actually could lead to a good thing, but there was no practice, and usually when they go their methods go with them.

So I guess really my pretension isn't with the process of agile or becoming agile, but with the evangelists who go around preaching the good word but not doing much in the way of practicing what they preach. Since I'm a practitioner of learning by doing I need a doer to come in and do so that I can join in, not so much a teacher coming in to tell me how it should be.

Until next time

Les

Can you reason?

2007-03-13T10:12:00.001-06:00

My wife recently wanted to get a logic puzzle for her classroom, just a little something for the kids to mull over. In her Googling she found "The Zebra Puzzle" (quite often referred to as "Who owns the zebra?"). You can Google it and wikipedia it if you wish to cheat, but for those out to sharpen their minds here are the clues we were given.

Supposedly only 1-2% of the population can figure this puzzle out. I doubt that is valid, but for what it's worth we figured it out in less than a half hour of joint work while watching Futurama.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There are five houses.
Each house has its own unique color.
All house owners are of different nationalities.
They all have different pets.
They all drink different drinks.
They all smoke different cigarettes.
The English man lives in the red house.
The Swede has a dog.
The Dane drinks tea.
The green house is on the left side of the white house.
They drink coffee in the green house.
The man who smokes Pall Mall has birds.
In the yellow house they smoke Dunhill.
In the middle house they drink milk.
The Norwegian lives in the first house.
The man who smokes Blend lives in the house next to the house with cats.
In the house next to the house where they have a horse, they smoke Dunhill.
The man who smokes Blue Master drinks beer.
The German smokes Prince.
The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
They drink water in the house next to the house where they smoke Blend.

So, who owns the Zebra?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

enjoy

Until next time,

Les

Best Practice

2007-03-07T19:31:00.001-06:00

I won't be the first to offer argument against doing things according to so called "best practice". I feel that if a methodology is adopted as a "best practice" then it probably would be worth my time to follow. I would however put my 2 cents in and say that if all else fails, do something right.

Best practices are exactly what they claim to be: practices. Sometimes we (especially as software developers) get so caught on following the latest best practice that we fail to deliver the most important thing: the product (and yes I am insinuating that these best practices change and often).

It's not so much that best practices aren't worth their salt (it's an expression, look it up) that they are constantly replaced, but practice can only be based on current knowledge (scope if you will). You can only practice what you currently know, and as you practice you may learn better or quicker solutions that you can practice later.

But while I'm honing my skills as a master methodoligist I need to remember that at the end of the day I still have to deliver a product (in my case software) and even if I'm the best at perfecting a practice if I don't deliver software then I don't pay the bills.

this rant brought to you by the letter b

Until next time

Les

What I'm doing (revisited):

2007-02-15T10:06:00.001-06:00

Since I have nothing else to report, here's an update from last post:

Final Fantasy III - completed, all characters at level 99, and all characters mastering at least 2 jobs -
Crypto-Nomicon - um... call that a false-start -
Final Fantasy V - decided to wait a while until I play this -
Mario Kart DS - I think I lack 3 unlockables now. -
Big Brain Academy/Brain Age - fell off the wagon, my poor brain -
cleaning the garage (work-in-progress) - cleared off enough space for the wife's car, no more accomplished -
writing Java code - still going. -

Until next time

Les

What I'm doing:

2006-12-27T13:37:00.000-06:00

Final Fantasy III
Crypto-Nomicon
Final Fantasy V
Mario Kart DS
Big Brain Academy/Brain Age
cleaning the garage (work-in-progress)
writing Java code

Until next time
Les

It's a boy!

2006-12-21T17:44:00.000-06:00

Until next time
Les

Where did I put that...

2006-12-18T13:05:00.001-06:00

Oh! Hi there. I didn't realize I hadn't posted about anything substantial
in a while. Well, after today that will still be the case...

Things of note:

a new version of Java was officially released. Doesn't really mean
much to the general populace, but if you let it auto update on your pc
then beware of strange things in your old apps (at least just be aware
that problems could occur
If you haven't played Gears of War and you get a chance you should.
Beware though, this game is not for the kiddies (which the rating on the
box will plainly show). As far as shooters go it is a very nice game,
took me a bit to get used to the controls and the view (it is a 3rd
person view), but once you get your sea legs it's a fun ride.
Looking to get a new vehicle, have to get rid of the pickup, it was
inevitable
The company is moving us around again, playing leap frog cubicle style
is a pain, but we have an excuse for being unproductive and it's the
companies fault :-)

That's not much and it's not very important but it's a busy time of year
and I haven't got a lot of tech brainstorming going on right now.

Until next time
Les

Tis the season.

2006-11-27T13:08:00.000-06:00

The Sooners clinched the Big 12 South title this year and will face
Nebraska saturday for the Big 12 Championship. Could be a good game with
the history behind these 2 teams and their previous rivalries.

Thanksgiving has come and gone, but the pounds didn't do as much going as
the holiday did (holidays are just festivals for overeating). Now it's
time to get in official Christmas mode. Ready or not, here it comes.

Picked up 2 things for myself this week. The newest Splinter Cell novel
(Checkmate), and the latest release in the Final Fantasy handheld series,
but this time it's for the DS (Final Fantasy III). Haven't started playing
or reading either of them yet, but I will.

Until next time
Les

BEDLAM!!!

2006-11-25T16:56:00.000-06:00

BOOMER SOONER!

Enough said.

Les

Turkey day in the sticks

2006-11-25T11:15:00.000-06:00

So you know that you've gone off the grid when you make it to a place where the state newspaper doesn't have a delivery route. Growing up in Battiest, OK I never realized this, but the Daily Oklahoman is delivered by mail. Thus, when it is a holiday, you don't get your paper. Well, the wife loves the Thanksgiving edition of the paper because it has all the adverts for all the stores with sales on black friday. So, being the take care of my family type alpha-male that I am (cough, cough), I made a trek to the nearest daily stocked newspaper box which was in Hochatown, about 20 minutes from Battiest.

After all that my wife was very dissappointed to find out that the Daily Oklahoman editions that were delivered to McCurtain county don't have the usual adverts. I believe they had sections for Atwoods and JC Penney. Considering that the nearest glimpse of a shopping mall to Battiest is 3 hours away in another state that shouldn't be too surprising.

Until next time
Les

Holidays and Football Chances

2006-11-21T19:27:00.000-06:00

Well, it is officially the holiday season. Turkeys are being prepared for
the ovens and fine china is being dusted (except for the smart folks who
use disposable dinnerware, don't forget to recycle...). Commercials are
all about the coming gift holiday (also known as Christmas). I really like
this time of year, the weather suits me and football is in full swing.

Speaking of football, the Sooners still have a chance (slight though it may
be) to make it to the Big 12 Champoinship game. They just have to hope
that Texas A&M has a little Sooner Magic on friday and upsets the
Longhorns, then they have to make a little magic of their own against their
in-state rival the cowboys (Sooners are only favored by 6 this year).

We'll see.

Until next time
Les

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Metrics...

2006-11-14T16:49:00.000-06:00

Once at work I was working with another developer and he was approached and addressed with the following question:

How long does it take to write a class?

The first thing that popped into my head was my high school senior English Lit class. We were assigned essays every week, and every week we would pose the same question to the teacher:

How long does it have to be?

Well, he would smile very crookedly (sort of devilish as was his way) and say:

How long is a piece of string?

That was how I would have answered the question were I the one being asked, how long to write a class. You can't really even tell me that that is a valid question. You can't time that. You may can break it down and say something like, "How long to write a basic POJO?" And then I might discuss how many fields? Obviously if I have 100 fields on a POJO it will take longer than if I just had 10, even with my super cool IDE (eclipse) that allows me to generate getters and setters, I still have to type out the types and names for my fields if I want them to represent my business object properly.

All this to say that you can't measure everything, and when you try to you end up wasting time. And then you'll have to come up with a way to measure that.

Until next time

Les

Coffee anyone?

2006-11-08T07:06:00.000-06:00

Which Caffeinated Beverage are You?

Typical survey thingy, gotta go get more coffee now.

Until next time,
Les

When too much is TOO MUCH

2006-10-30T20:35:00.000-06:00

I've just got back online at home today. My PC has been waiting on a new power supply until today, got it in and all is well. Updated to Firefox 2.0 and all is grand.

I've decided that the people who run the famous teeny site TheirSpace should really control the level of content their users can post on a page. I'm serious. People don't know when they've reached a level of I have enough content on this page. What's that? You want to add something new to your page? Well then, replace something that has been on their for a month or more, no one will miss it.

Why do I complain? I have super high speed cable internet. I can surf (with my handydandy Firefox browser) at the speed of type and I don't want to be slowed down by even the faint reminder of my old dial-up days. I've recently been to a couple of old friends sites at that space and it takes for-freakin'-ever to load.

I say we should petition to have the profiles squeezed for bandwidth or stop visiting those friends' sites until they figure out that they need to clean it up.

Oh and by the way, thank goodness for AdBlock in my Firefox, it helps cut out some of the trash in that space and other ad driven sites.

Until next time
Les

Content is King

2006-10-30T12:22:00.000-06:00

Revver puts money where its talent is: "YouTube was sold for $1.65 billion, and not a dime went to the content creators who helped make the site famous. While the founders of YouTube pocket perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars"

This article actually raises a valid point for any content provider out there. When can your creation make someone else lots of money and not get you a dime? Really makes me wonder how much money the blog authers at blogger were paid when Google bought Blogger from Pyra. Video, music, text, lyrics, and even custom recipes. There are places all over the net that offer ways to share this info freely, but since you get to use a free service you also get no financial return on that input. That's not that big of a deal, but something to think about anytime you put your baby out there for the world to see. You never know when you'll be the next Star Wars Kid.

Until next time
Les

Signs of World Series

2006-10-25T06:49:00.000-06:00

Ok, fans are fans and sometimes they can make a fool of their team, but sometimes they really pull through and make you realize just how much you wish you were there instead of at home watching.

Here's a couple of signs from fans at World Series Game 3 (won by the Cardinals 5-0), [images are AP photos compliments of Yahoo!]:

Now if you have to ask then you obviously missed Game 2 and live under a rock. It was noted during the first inning that the Tigers' hot pitcher Mr. gambler (Kenny Rogers) had a bit of a dirty hand. After being asked by the home plate ump he cleaned it up before inning 2 and went on to pitch well the rest of the game.

I'm not going to belly ache about the game, he pitched well after the cleaning, but I will say I don't believe his hand was just dirty.

Until next time
Les

Feeding the Machine Part 2: agile or nimble?

2006-10-16T16:57:00.000-06:00

Some people have heard me come down on xp (eXtreme Programming) and assume that I am also anti-agile. At first glance that may be true, but that's just because I'm not a big fan of any method that takes more than one book and 2 seminars to grasp (I already have a degree, unless you plan on giving me a Masters I'm done with the seminars). But overall I'd say I'm a fan of Agile practices. I'm a big fan of doing things the easiest way, even if that means for now it's a pain in the neck but I know that next year I won't have a problem working with it. I believe people should make themselves better, but most of all I wish they'd just do a good job.

I'm not going to sit here and go over the agile manifesto with pros and cons and my 3 cents on them. I will say though that it wouldn't be a bad thing to go over from time to time and see if you can apply to known problem areas you have. But don't let it be your only compass, far be it from any sane, logical person to think that that little list of suggestions is the only resource that can be used to improve your daily work routine.

I'd say that overall I'm a very agile developer, but don't try and weigh me against the text book, it won't add up. I do like test-driven-development and think that all code written for any framework should have a living contract in the form of a unit-test that proves it does what you expected it to do. I even think that if you can you should use test-first development, but I can't presently go into my thoughts on how that isn't always the best thing to do (in other words that's too many words for an aside in this post). I like iterative development; but seriously, it only works if you have iterative testing going on in tandem with integration, otherwise you have an iterative waterfall that may as well have been waterfall but upper-level management prefers the buzz words so iterative development it is (with waterfall testing).

Don't get me wrong, I know I'm relatively young and new to the programming world, but in my brief stint between college and my current job I did some web development with a small company (small being the guy who started the company and me, and .... oh right, that was it). I did several small business web sites/apps that I was lucky enough to have time to start and finish there. They were pretty much all attacked from a waterfall standpoint, but I tried to get iterative use from the clients when I could. One app in particular that was a very prime cut for a young coder such as myself was almost more than I could handle, but one of the best teachers I could have had in my young career. It was a billing application for a ... well, no details please.

Needless to say it was a way for this company to manage clients and to allow their clients to log in and submit their clients for billing. It had a reporting function that printed out these neat little mail outs that I was so proud... right, I said no details. Well, on the technical side it was an ASP (classic, none of that dotnet stuff) app with VBScript talking to a MS SQL Server in the background. Starting the development process we had to right idea: meet with the clients, go over the way their system currently works (all paper and fax machine), get base requirements and client direction, fill them in on what our abilities and vision were and get the thing started.

Well, upon meeting with the clients we found that they had less time and interest in sharing their app features with us than they needed to have. It seemed all they really wanted was for us to write their app and they would use it, end of story. So we mostly had email correspondence and the occasional phone conference, but really these people didn't want to be reached. Why didn't we drop the project at this point? Well, for a 2 man company, 1 guy straight outta college and the other teaching college courses on the side, we couldn't let the project price we had all agreed on slip away (which looking back was way too cheap for what we did, 'doh!).

So what we had was a shabby set of here's what we do and a goal (the good news was no real deadline). So I took off, designed the database wrote screens, tied it all together with VBScript and I was rolling.

We got a working product going, we knew it wasn't finished, but we thought we'd accomplished a ton. Finally setup a meeting with the ever elusive clients and show off their new rig.

They're not pleased. It doesn't do this, and this isn't supposed to work like that, and why can't we see this? Being young and broke and stupid I didn't realize devastating that meeting was. So I went back to the drawing board. Re-worked the database to make all the relational data more relational and tore my app to pieces and used what was left to code what our latest meeting went over.

Again, working product. Present to clients. Go over why it's not what they wanted.

You see the pattern. It was a waterfall going dry and if I hadn't been so young in the business I would've talked the partner into giving them what we had and taking what little money we could and shake the dust off. But I worked it until it was finished and acceptable. But really, should it be that hard? No. Although, I think that with those clients I could have tried to enforce more methodologiesand tighter contracts but I don't think we would've landed the contract either. So we did what we had to.

Looking back on that I do have to say that I love a handful of agile practices and think that we could all use a refresher on how to make ourselves better programmers. But we can't forget that at the end of the day it isn't about how well we followed the process, but "how well did we write the program?".

Until next time,
Les

Feeding the Maching: buzz words and tech speak

2006-10-15T13:23:00.000-06:00

Watch out! You've recently been swept into a post Cobol tech job and you find yourself being bombarded by catch phrases and buzz words that are supposed to make your job easier and healtier. When in fact the main people being supported by such sensationalistic terminology are the very same people asking you to pay out the {explitive here} at thier latest and greatest seminars and conventions. Yes you guessed it, I'm referring to consultants, but as a disclaimer I'd like to say here I don't think this applies to all consultants, but there are those out there that have made a bad name for themselves and alas the good ones as well.

Before getting all up in arms about what I've said, let's dig a little into the logic (in my mind) behind what i've just penned. Sensational tech speak is an easy thing to get caught up in. Heck, I've been there myself. Throwing out the buzz words from the latest technology/framework like I was serving up franks at the world series. But lets face it. Who has the most to gain from such sensationalism in the tech world? Is it your job/framework/daily routine? Or is it the companies and authors who have made it their money maker to sell such ideas? I would say the latter.

Come on, in the long run does a pass and go consultant really care how successful your framework will be 3-4 years down the road? I understand the good ones will since they're probably in that line of work for the long run and hope that word or mouth will get out that they've done a stand up job. But really, how many books and seminars about the latest craze (which will always be everchaning) can you attend before you finally start doing a good job at writing software? And honestly, who's to say that some other way isn't just as productive? Come on, there's more than one way to make a meat loaf.

So, we have to understand that these people don't always care so much about offering a good product, but they do care about making money. So as long as it is profitable to write books and hold seminars and teach people how they should carry out daily tasks and emphasize how important it is to stand up during daily status meetings, the someone will be there to sell it. Whether or not it is a good product.

Today's rant is brought to you by me and the thoughts and expressions expressed here are the sole oppinions of me, myself, and I and can be shared as so.

I'm working on some more stuff along these lines if anyone is interested, I'm not yet sure if it will make it to press, but really who reads this blog anyway?

Until next time
Les

My Nintendo Top 10 minus 5

2006-10-02T09:22:00.000-06:00

At work I started trying to put together a Top 10 of the most popular Nintendo Characters of all time. I really wanted to find characters that had begun on the Classic NES and continued to be successes on each Nintendo platform. What we found when trying to do a top 10 was that it began looking like a Who’s Who for the Super Mario franchise, so after some thoughtful consideration I trimmed it down to a Top 5 and left it at that. It’s a pretty easy list, but for what it’s worth:

5) Donkey Kong
One of the classics, I’d say the only reason old DK is not higher on the list is that this was a popularity contest, and kids these days just ain’t what they used to be.
4) Samus Aran
If you don’t recognize the name it’s probably because you’ve referred to our heroine only by her franchise name, Metroid. Since it’s inception on the classic NES there has been a popular Metroid game on all (or most all) Nintendo platforms. Samus is that female bounty hunter you get to play.

3) Link
Again, you may only know this character by franchise. But, altogether the Zelda name has made this little guy one of the most welcome character on any Nintendo screen. One of the most demanded names in all video-game-dom (sorta opinionated, but I still just put him at 3 since our next 2 are probably way more popular as far as house-hold names go).

2) Pikachu
To my surprise those little “Gotta Catch ‘em All” Pokémon were the brain-child of our good friends at Nintendo. And with the popularity of the franchise as a whole I’d say you could walk into any K-8 public/private school in the US, maybe even the world, and have at least half of the students who are very friendly with our mild mannered little yellow pocket monster.

And without further ado…..

1) You guessed it: Mario
It was the game that came with the console that helped save the video game world from the biggest draught it ever experienced. Super Mario Brothers. And I’d say that not only is it popular among the populace, but I’d say that since this is Nintendo’s very own mascot that they definitely go out of their way to insure that this funny little Italian plumber gets front row on every platform they work on.

--
Well, that’s that, let me know if you have any differences. And if you can make a top 10 (from Nintendo created characters) without it being a list of Super Mario friends, then lets have it.

Until next time
Les

Just one more view on Agile Development

2006-09-28T05:35:00.000-06:00

I really found this article interesting and I love the quote:

~Stevey's Blog Rants: Good Agile, Bad Agile: "Up until maybe a year ago, I had a pretty one-dimensional view of so-called 'Agile' programming, namely that it's an idiotic fad-diet of a marketing scam making the rounds as yet another technological virus implanting itself in naive programmers who've never read 'No Silver Bullet', the kinds of programmers who buy extended warranties and self-help books and believe their bosses genuinely care about them as people, the kinds of programmers who attend conferences to make friends and who don't know how to avoid eye contact with leaflet-waving fanatics in airports and who believe writing shit on index cards will suddenly make software development easier."~

Until next time
Les

34% White and Nerdy

2006-09-26T05:31:00.000-06:00

Gave this survey a whirl, found out a little more about myself. You know the drill.

How White and Nerdy Are You?

Until next time
Les

My first Nintendo WFC experience.

2006-09-25T13:59:00.000-06:00

To those not yet privy to the info, I now have a DS (the Onyx DS Lite I mentioned a few posts back). For now I've only picked up one DS game (I still have the option to play all my GBA games on the DS), Metroid Prime Hunters, which is not a bad game (albeit getting used to the handheld/touchscreen controls was hard at first, but once you get used to it it's a breeze). I've mostly been playing the adventure mode, but today, being home sick I decided to try and connect to my wireless internet connection and find some challengers out on the interweb to face.

Connecting wasn't hard at all. I have WEP enabled on my router (I know, it isn't very secure, but it gives me that warm feeling inside) so I have to configure my WEP key in along with my wireless SSID (if those don't make sense to you don't worry, obviously you don't have to mess with them). Once that was accomplished it was a snap to get the game to find challengers (just a few moments of time while it went off to search).

Game-play wasn't that much different from any first person shooter you might have played multiplayer with before (any of the Bond games or Perfect Dark are comparable). But I will say that not knowing your opponent does make for an unsocial environment. I told the DS to find players along my same ranking, figured since I haven't played multi-player mode before it would see me as a novice and find some novice for me to play. WRONG! Maybe I'm the only novice out there, but needless to say every opponent I found was ready and willing to kill me on sight (I understand that is the way it is played, I even had the same aspirations, but I couldn't execute as well as they did).

After playing several matches with 3 groups and getting slaughtered mercilessly I took a break. Not a bad experience, I just have to learn how to cheat. :-)

Until next time
Les

Deja Vu?

2006-09-16T21:19:00.000-06:00

Wow! Was that Texas Tech all over again? What a nightmare of a game. It makes me feel all gloomy, but I know as a sane person that it isn't the end of the world and it isn't even the end of the Sooner season. We still have conference play to get to (and I am still optimistic).

Don't worry, I won't be going around saying that the officials cheated us out of the game. No, I'll say the same thing I said when we lost to the Red Raiders (Texas Tech) last year:

If the Sooners had played 100% the entire game and not made so many stupid mistakes with the penalties (senseless penalties) then the officials couldn't have cheated us out of the game by making 2 or 3 bad calls.

It's true that we were cheated out of those two questionable calls within the last moments of the game. But had we earned the win from the beginning it would have been Boomer Sooner resonating after the last second ticked off the clock.

So there, I said it.
Until next time
Les

Fall is at the door

2006-09-09T19:24:00.000-06:00

Okay, OU pulls out another win (2-0) after a shaky first half. And if you watched the first few seconds you were probably wondering when the Sooners would decide to go forward (I know I was). But going into the half tied they came back after the break and dominated, not allowing another Washington point until close to the end of the 4th.

So far my NFL fantasy team is favored by 3 going into week one, but after my defense only got 5 pts for me I don't know if that will pan out (I went with the Dolphins since they were going up against the Steelers minus 1 Big Ben, big mistake). We'll see how my first ever fantasy team does.

Until next time,
Les

DS Lite gets Colored

2006-08-25T05:37:00.000-06:00

Nintendo Onyx DS Lite

The DS Lite has two new colors (being released 9/11), onyx (my fave since it matches my GBA) and of course for the female DSer(and I guess certain types of male) coral pink.

Until next time
Les

Nitpicker

2006-08-22T05:49:00.000-06:00

I'll admit, when it comes to using the web I'm picky. But honestly with so many solutions for each problem out there that isn't necessarily a bad thing. One of the areas I'm most picky is my online mail account. I'm currently a GMail fanatic. I love the layout (actually it's more of the lack of banner ads that I get all warm and fuzzy about), clean and simple. I've had a Yahoo! account since I was in highschool (I graduated in '99 if you're keeping score). I actually used it for a while, even into my freshman year of college. I originally used Hotmail, but it didn't keep me (I can't even remember my address with them).

I still use my Yahoo! account for junk, you know, things that require email confirmation and you just know they're giving out your email to their marketing departments. Yahoo! has always been too cluttered for me though. The majority of the pages you see are ads, and not just text ads, banners and flash movies are all the rave with Yahoo!. Which brings me to a side point. Everyone is marketing to someone. Yahoo! just happens to be marketing to a young audience that loves the flashy movies and the 'meet your perfect mate' opportunities that Yahoo! offers.

One thing about Yahoo! mail that is a nice change (although they still haven't gotten rid of the banners) is thier new beta (does that word even mean anything on the web anymore?) mail interface. It's all ajaxified and desktop-app-like. But again, it isn't marketing to me. For instance, if you've used the new Yahoo! Mail Beta you may have noticed this little bouncing guy when waiting for your mail to load:

Link to Bouncing Liam

Now don't get me wrong, I'm a sucker for an animated Gif (I pronounce it with a 'g' like good unless I don't) just like the next person. But really, what does this little guy (they call him Liam in the file name) have to do with checking my email? Not a freakin' thing. This is just another example that they are marketing to the kiddies. A young audience is all about little images moving on the screen, it stimulates their young minds I guess. But for me, it's just annoying. I want functionality, even above aesthetics.

Until next time
Les

SysAdmin Song

2006-08-19T18:45:00.000-06:00

Pretty funny (although I'll admit that it isn't the funniest thing I've seen).

The Sysadmin Song (Google Video)

Until next time
Les

RAISE YOUR HAND IF YOU LOVE THE CAPS-LOCK

2006-08-17T11:57:00.000-06:00

As if they couldn’t find something better to do. Now someone is out there trying to rid us of the accursed caps lock key. They are coming to our rescue, but do we need rescuing?
Is it time to permanently retire the Caps Lock key? Pieter Hintjens thinks so.

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,71606-0.html?tw=rss.index - Hintjens, the CEO of iMatix, has launched the Capsoff organization in a campaign urging hardware manufacturers to ditch the oft-abused and misused key. Hintjens' plan is to build the entire infrastructure for the movement using only freely available tools from Google. He's already set up a Blogger Capsoff blog and a forum at Google Groups.
"The Caps key is an abomination," Hintjens writes on his blog. "It's a huge key, stuck right there where the Ctrl used to be, and as far as I know, it's only used by 419 scammers and Fortran programmers."
Zealous net newbies have also subjected the Caps Lock key to overuse, composing e-mails and newsgroup posts entirely in capital letters, an ugly and inelegant style of communication akin to screaming. In fact, the Capsoff organization's slogan is "STOP SHOUTING!"

Until next timeLes

My Way News - Surviving Teen Describes ID Mix-Up

2006-08-14T08:04:00.000-06:00

This is why they wore 2 sets of dog tags in Vietnam, one around the neck and another on your foot. If your head got lost your foot would identify you. On a tech note, this may end up being a footnote for an RFID case.

My Way News - Surviving Teen Describes ID Mix-Up: "It was 'strange to find out my family and friends had a funeral for me,' says Whitney Cerak, the young woman who was wrongly identified as a dead college classmate after a van crash."

Until next time
Les

One writers views on the History of Modern PC-dom

2006-08-10T10:34:00.000-06:00

I found the following to be interesting enough to share here.

The great PC 'what-if' CNET News.com: "In 1981, IBM executives made either a brilliant or a boneheaded decision: They allowed a little company providing the operating system for their new PC to sell that software to other companies. "

Until next time
Les

Prolog anyone?

2006-08-08T11:39:00.000-06:00

Took one of those online quizzes that know so much about you. Turns out I'm a language I've never used:

Which Programming Language are You?

Until next time
Les

Smart Mouse - sorta

2006-07-29T21:51:00.000-06:00

Thought this was interesting. I always wondered when I should let go of the mouse:

http://news.com.com/2061-10801_3-6099980.html

Until next time
Les

Code is not the problem

2006-07-27T05:49:00.000-06:00

When most people think about software engineering/computer programming they think mainly of long, encrypted pieces of sequences of numbers and letters that make up code.  But honestly, that mysterious code that is written throughout the lifecycle of an application is one of the more simple aspects of what software engineers do.  So what’s it really about?  Problem solving.

For a while now the signature for my personal email has had the quote, “learn to code if you must, but first learn to solve problems”.  I’m not sure where that came from.  I don’t remember reading it anywhere, or hearing anyone say it.  But I don’t think I can take credit for it completely because I’m sure I heard/saw something very similar that inspired me.  Since college I’ve felt that I would have benefited from that statement a lot during my education.  I always seemed to approach assignments as tasks in learning to write code.  And if that is all I got out of it then all I could say on my resumé that college taught me to write C++ code.  Though to the inexperienced ear that may sound like a hirable trait, it doesn’t get you very far in the real world.

Writing code is no different than writing a simple paragraph.  Typically a well defined language is used.  All that’s needed is a little knowledge (heavy emphasis on little) of the syntax and reserved commands/words and voila; you’ve got code.  Why should I play down such a big part of software engineering?  Is what I do not that important?  If all I do is sit and write code then I’m not really doing my job.  Trust me I’ve seen some code out there that looks like it was written just so someone would have something to do.

What am I getting at?  Oh yeah, problem solving is the point.  Typically people approach coding as the puzzle.  And that leads to bad code.  Coding should just be a task, but a task that can’t be carried out until the problems at hand have been properly addressed.

There are many approaches to good problem solving, so I won’t go into that here.  But proper problem solving techniques are what help the software engineer make coding a simple task.  And remember, coders are a dime a dozen, problem solvers are the ones who get it right.  Coders are the people you work with who are afraid to even look at a different language/tool.  Problem solvers will address the need and figure out what language/tool should be used when the planning is finished.

Until next time
Les

Dog days...

2006-07-20T07:17:00.000-06:00

Well, it is official. The dog days of summer are here. Not saying that it is as hot as it is going to get, but if we hit the zenith and headed down from here I promise I won't complain.

Well, the company is notifiying people at work that internal audits have shown that we are running Firefox and we need to uninstall it to meet company standards. Yes you heard me correctly. We are not allowed to use Firefox at work, we have to use the inferior Internet Exploder with all it's glorious security risks and lack of usability. Oh well, no use crying over it.

Caught Superman Returns last weekend. Not a bad show, although it didn't turn me into a Superman fan, he's just not my style of fictional hero.

Java is keeping me busy. Whether it be in my cup or on my screen I keep it flowing (I'm not going to comment on quality :-p ).

Until next time
Les

Hola

2006-07-18T20:20:00.000-06:00

Can't believe it has been over a year now being with Hertz. It was a great journey and experience to have come this far. We started out as the "Gang of Ten". Now, we are only the "Gang of Nine". What other surprises will we see...

One Year!

2006-07-08T17:18:00.000-06:00

Happy one year, gang!

Les