Juixe Techknow

From time to time I just blast tweets about software development, project planning, team dynamics, or whatever else comes to mind. Here is a synopsis of recent tweets and rants.

Programming

• JavaFX Script is a zig zag cross between Java class system, JavaScript vars, XML declerativeness, Groovy Builders, and Ruby duck typing.
• JavaFX Script has multiple inheritance and the extends keyword is overloaded to mean implements too.
• Tread.sleep(UNTIL_TOMORROW)
• Some software developers don’t know how to develop end-user focused application so they overcompensate and write an enterprise application.
• One of the pillars of Ruby on Rails is convention over configuration, but it is not always backward compatible.
• Codepath Uncertainty Principle: Debugging, and often times logging, code can change it’s behavior.
• Current development meme: Jeff Atwood (@codinghorror) is wrong!
• Running Find Bugs plugin for Eclipse… An out of memory error occurred, you think it found any bugs?
• The most recommended fixes from Find Bugs are inefficient obj creation of nums and bools, and !static inner classes, !final static fields
• I’m a programmer not a short order cook, scrambling bits is not the same as scrambling eggs.
• The most common bug, next to null pointers and objects, is not escaping special characters from XML, SQL, strings, or expression languages.
• Autoboxing an object reference to a primitive can cause NullPointerException that are hard to track down.
• In the zone, in the machine, in the debugger, in the code looking out my window and thinking I rather be outside!
• There will be blood, there will be bugs.
• Can’t sleep so i’m hacking memories into dreams, counting tweets instead of sheeps, drinking tequila instead of warm milk.
• Instead of counting backwards, a good sobriety test for a nerd is to recite the Fibonacci sequence or prime numbers or powers of two.
• Haven’t seen a version control do a good job of with renaming/moving a file. At best they delete old and add new file without the history.
• Each dev here wears too many proverbial hats, it often feels like we are a team of one man bands mixing it up with too many cooks.
• “It’s snowing in NY and server is freezing to death!”

Business

• Some entrepreneurs don’t know how to bootstrap a profitable business so they fund venture backed corporations.
• Some productivity metrics seem like modern alchemy and pseudo science for dogmatic middle manager to put in powerpoints slides and charts.
• I want to do the software startup version of Hell’s Kitchen… you donkey.
• User Generated Content is one way to have users do work for sub minimum wage/free.
• If you’re running a web service whose sign up page asks for birthday, you best be prepared to send me a birthday gift.
• Companies should not require paying customers to sign up or register to use all features of a product or received upgrades.
• Just because a store is going out of business is no reason for false advertisement.
• Eventually everyone sells out, if not to the establishment then to the anti-establishment.
• Will Open Source apps, like Open Office and GIMP, gain more traction in a down market? Will Open Source contribution retract?
• Asking five questions get you closer to the truth than merely asking one, and yet most people don’t ask questions, they demand answers.
• You don’t want your boss to speculate that you are dead.
• Sometimes you have to rethink the problem, other times you have to retool the solution.
• For the average commuter in our office, working from home can save about $20 (gas, toll, wear & tear, food) and 1.5 hours travel time a day.
• Companies should get a tax incentive for having employees work from home.
• Is the bailout a new liquidity event? Some bankers are using the bailout to cash out.

Products

• The Flip is a point and shoot sort of camcorder.
• I wish my life would upgrade every year just like iLife.
• The game Age of Empires or Monopoly should come out with a social media version.
• Spammers are the terrorist of my inbox. I wish that instead of ‘delete’ the spam GMail provide the option to bomb, rip, shread, incenerate
• The problem of drawing a great piece of art with the Pulse Smartpen is that if you forget to turn it on you have to draw it all over again.
• Looking at my iPhone properties, it says I have taken 10,487 pictures.
• Vista needs to warm up on start up just like my old ’69 skylark, I need to let it run for like 10 minutes before I can get up and going.
• Wii Fit is brutally honest
• If Microsoft is the new IBM, then is Google the old Microsoft?
• Just spoke with Amazon customer support for the nth time, they still don’t got my white Google phone in stock. Been waiting for a month++.
• Huge food lines at costco, you’ve think it was a soup kitchen…
• I wish the funnies of my Sunday edition of the local newspaper had a syndication of LOLcatz.
• Publisher not in Action: If Manning Publications makes available PDF versions of their books, why don’t they have Kindle editions?
• Why would anybody buy a technical book from the publishers own website when Amazon undersells them anywhere from 15% to 30%?
• Since when does Amazon charge for a restocking fee?
• If Apple power adapter cost nearly $80, I don’t think Apple will come out with a sub $300 netbook.
• Playing Portal, I think I have two more levels to go. It’s very addictive, I want to keep going but I need to teleport to tomorrow.

Interview Obstacle Course

• Just helped a super senior software engineer how to change the printer ink cartridge. How did this guy get through our vetting process?
• Maybe the interview/hiring process should include some hands on, live technical trouble shooting obstacle course.
• How can a self respecting engineer not know how to change the printer ink cartridge, get the coffee machine going, or read a python script?