Monthly Archives: January 2008

Anger Management

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If you haven’t seen Anger Management, then I suggest you download it as a matter of priority. I don’t think I suffer from TAS (Toxic Anger Syndrome), but I do find myself frustrated by other people’s inability to just live their lives, or even to just stay out of my way whilst I live mine.

If you know me, then you know that I find it difficult to stop my brain from vocalizing my frustration with such people. Imagine then, my frustration that my Grandad was unable to be released from hospital today because he can’t see. Let me clarify.  Any person who goes into any sort of home has to be assessed, even if they were previously in a home and only went into hospital for a matter of days, they must be reassessed. Actually, I think this is a good thing, as it stops the eager beavers at the NHS from turfing people out of beds before they are ready. Now, the lady from the home came to reassess my Grandad today, only to be informed that he would now need his blood sugar level tested twice a day. Since the home is not a nursing home, they are unable to test his blood, so could not take him back. Stalemate. So the nurses decided to get my blind Grandad to try and learn to use the blood sugar level testing machine. HE IS FUCKING BLIND, YOU MORONS!

He is going home tomorrow. The district nurses are going to stop by the home to test his blood. Now why couldn’t they just have done that in the first place!

I feel pretty,
Oh, so pretty,
I feel pretty and witty and gay…

Update: The home have asked us to start looking for somewhere else for my Grandad, because they feel that he needs a greater level of care than they can provide. St Dunstan’s can’t take him directly from his current home (they have a crazy rule that they only accept people who have been living in their own home for at least two weeks). The hospital don’t care where he goes, as long as he isn’t in one of their beds. Oh, and the social worker thinks my Grandad could easily live on his own at home and that we are forcing him into care.

Goosfraba… goosfraba…

iStatSlow

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Just a quickie, but for a while now I have been experiencing really slow boot and shutdown times in Leopard. I looked on all the forums and lots of people seemed to be having the same problem. I consulted the system logs and found lots of scary looking errors, but after searching the forums again, I decided that the stuff in the logs was, in fact, normal.

The official Apple advice for this issue is to do an “Archive and Install”, something which I had not wanted to try, but last night I did it. No difference at all, except my Apache web server configuration went hinky and had to be restored. Then about ten minutes ago, I found an entry on a forum which suggested that iStatPro was causing the slowdown in some cases. I ditched the widget and things are *much* faster. iStatPro, more like iStatSlow!

OS X Cougar

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That’s right Steve, I just high-jacked your blog subject! How do you like me now! No seriously, Steve’s post got me to thinking about what features I would like to see from the next iteration of OS X and quite a list ensued.

  • Ability to set Google search widget in Safari, to use .co.uk instead of .com.
  • Extension of the ability of TextEdit to read/write MS Word 2007 format files (this feature is possibly another argument for ditching MS Office altogether).
  • Config tool for the built in Apache web server. This would enable noobies to set up a webserver without having to learn Vi – we don’t want to scare them off.
  • Screen with a camera built in to the centre. This would mean that you could actually look at the person you are talking to, instead of appearing to be completely uninterested in the conversation.
  • Built in FTP application, something akin to CyberDuck.
  • GUI standardisation. Have you noticed how some of the apps have square buttons and some have “pill” shaped buttons? Sort it out Apple.
  • A replacement/rebrand/breakup of iTunes. iTunes is no longer just for ‘choons’, it is effectively a feature rich, media focused, version of Finder (which curiously has inherited some features of iTunes itself). Oh, and it has some built in iSync support. I would prefer to see iTunes and Finder munged together and rebranded.

What do you think?

Mac fanboy in tha hizouse!

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I stumbled upon this article today, I think it rather neatly explains why Mac users are so standoffish when it comes to discussing security. The argument that Macs are less vulnerable to attack because they are fewer in number and therefore, less appealing a target, is tired and short sighted. OS X is inherently more secure than Windows, full stop. No operating system is un-hackable, but comparing OS X and Windows (pick XP or Vista, whichever you prefer) is like comparing Fort Knox to my garden shed.

Update: What do you think of this!

Further update: Set your phasers to smug!

Frank Sinatra, Ashton Kutcher and the Anointing of the Sick

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Call One – 7:30PM Sunday:
I was only ten (virtual) minutes into a match between FC Ballstars and Celtic last night, when the call came in. After my Grandad’s latest rally, he had suffered a suspected major stroke and was moments from death. When I arrived at the home, I realised that this was likely it, he was moaning and groaning and unable to talk. I took my brother home, as there was little we could do – my Mum, Dad, Sister (relative), Sister Nolan (Nun) et al were there with him.

Call Two – 8:30PM Sunday:
My Dad phoned to say that my Grandad had been read The Last Rites and that he was as comfortable as possible.

Call Three – 11PM Sunday:
The doctor had been called and had diagnosed urine infection number three. He had prescribed some anti-biotics and paracetamol.

The next morning – 4AM Monday:
More fucking comebacks than Frank Sinatra. My Grandad is up and about like nothing ever happened! I half expected Ashton Kutcher (read Jeremy Beadle if you don’t know who Ashton is) to jump out from somewhere and tell me I’d been Punk’d. Unbelievable!

What does the ‘V’ in DVI stand for?

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I got a couple of PS3s the other day and after one day of Pro Evo 2008, my Uncle cracked and decided he wanted one too.

Lets fast forward to him phoning to explain that he could only get sound, or picture from the PS3 (even after following the instructions that the nice folk at COMET had given him – argh)! I established that he was using an HDMI to DVI converter for the picture (I did not know he had got a TV with DVI instead of HDMI, I would have stopped him) and the standard AV cables for sound. I realised that this meant picture on one channel and sound on another, something that said folk at COMET had failed to appreciate.

The proposed solutions:

  1. Use the standard scart connectors and forget about ever experiencing any HD goodness – couldn’t do it. He couldn’t even see the players on PES2008 in SD.
  2. Optical cable for sound – TV did not support this.
  3. Composite HD connection – TV did not support this.
  4. New TV – Too expensive.
  5. Special HDMI to DVI and sound connector – far too expensive.
  6. Route sound through HiFi – hasn’t got one, too expensive to purchase.
  7. Route sound through Surround Sound System – hasn’t got one, too expensive to purchase.

I finally snapped and got a “Y-splitter” cable to pipe the AV sound outputs into the DVI sound input. Fingers crossed, eh, because otherwise my Uncle will be playing the special “Silent Movie” version of PES2008.

Courier sucks!

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OK, I know this is probably going to be a silly thing to ask, but what font do you prefer to use when coding and why? I want to know about the font only, is it monospace etc, and why. I do not want to know about the colour setup you use (that may be the subject of a later post).

This post has been precipitated by my own search for font perfection, I will be personally testing all of the different fonts you suggest (so don’t bother going with Wingdings) and might even announce a winner!

Here is your chance to change my mind about something, don’t squander it!

++C++

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My last post has ignited a lively debate, so I am going to continue the theme:

Starter: I think that the relative merits of compiled and uncompiled code come out about even. Mistakes that would have been picked up by a compiler are only picked up when the code is executed, making it difficult to debug. However, compiling can take a while, especially using a language like Java which doesn’t have separate header files.
Main Course: I don’t think that I have explained my problem with rapid prototyping properly. I don’t like waterfall/V model development as it presupposes that the requirements capture phase will be 100% right. Bollocks to that, it is the customers prerogative to change their mind on a minute by minute basis. This argument can also be applied to the design process whereby copious amounts of UML are produced before the first “{” has been typed. My weapon of choice would indeed be rapid prototyping and I am in favour of the prototype becoming the finished product. My point is that this process still needs to include a formal design stage, feedback needs to be sought from the end user after each iterative step and the timescales need to be realistic. Skipping or skimming over the design stage is likely to lead to an incorrect design which, due to the time constraints, will have to be bodged to get it to meet the requirements. Likewise, spitting out prototypes without getting proper feedback is likely to lead to wasted effort and bodging, i.e. if the end user decides that the code needs to be changed at step D and the development team has already spit out steps E, F, G and H, either the subsequent steps must be ditched, or bodged to fit with the new requirements. Some will argue that the commercial realities of business mean that you cannot follow the process that I have outlined, my answer to them is that I think that the commercial realties mean that you must follow this process. If you quote unfeasible timescales to your customer, you will only succeed in doing one of two things:
  1. You squeeze each step of the process to meet the deadlines and produce bug ridden code which is impossible to maintain. The code is then bodged repeatedly thus further exacerbating the issue.
  2. You afford each step the time it requires and completely miss your target.

The result is the same in both cases – you piss off your customer. Great business model buddy!

The subsequent debate will centre on getting the customers in in the first place, i.e. if you quote twice as many man hours as the next guy you are unlikely to secure the contract. This is true, but how long will you stay in business if you match the quote of the next guy? I would not expect a new company to make a profit immediately, initially, I would expect the company to focus on building a reputation such that customers come to understand that it produces quality code, on time and on budget. I know this is slightly utopian, but it worked for my Dad and his company!
Desert: Documentation can be useful! I am absolutely against producing reams of box-ticking documentation. If it doesn’t help the development then don’t do it (the proviso to this would be where the documentation is officially required, i.e. to fulfill ISO-9001 obligations). Wherever documentation is completed it should be done properly, i.e. not after the fact to appease the box tickers!
What do you think?

++C

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When I graduated from university I wasn’t naive enough to think that I was a complete Software Engineer, however, I didn’t appreciate just how little I really knew about programming in the real world. I can only liken it to learning to drive. Driving instructors don’t teach you to drive, they teach you to be able to make a car go and stop, you don’t learn to drive until after you get your license. Programming is the same, when I left university I knew how to write code that would compile and run, but the code I was producing was poorly commented, inefficient, wordy (i.e. not dry) and…well, you get the idea. The best example I can think of is the postfix/prefix increment operators. When I joined my first company, every for-loop that I had ever seen, or written, had always used “i++”. The guys at work were quick to challenge this, they asked why I used “i++” instead of “++i” – considering the latter is at least as efficient as the former*. My answer was that I didn’t know and had never really considered it. Two and a bit years later and I am now just as passionate about keeping code dry as the people who challenged me at work.

Some companies will not hire graduates for the simple reason that they will have to put them through the same initiation that I experienced. This seems a tad unfair on the graduates, even if it is a sensible decision to take. I think that software companies should have a greater part to play in shaping graduates, because at the moment things are tailored to the universities e.g. the incredibly verbose commenting style that makes it easier to grade a squillion reports in a couple of hours. Chris, if aworka doesn’t work out, maybe you can start a course called “Programming in the real world”!
*Some compilers will evaluate “i++” to the same as “++i” if the return value is not used.

It’s back!

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For a while there I didn’t think it was gonna happen, but on the way home from work tonight I turned off my iPod (16GB Touch – holla at the kid) and there it was. At first I thought it might be tinnitus, A7X albums should come with a warning – oh wait, they do. Next I thought I was zoning on the fumes from my screen wash. Then came the realisation – it was back, the music was back.

I haven’t experienced the music since July of last year, so this was much more of a gap than the intermittent Nige induced Whigfield blips. Oh yes, many were the days where the following monologue was conducted in my head: “Oh no…what’s happening…DEE DEE NA NA NA…Noooooooooooooooooooo!” I hate that fucking song Nige!

Stella had her groove, Austin Powers had his mojo, I have the music. What can I say, I’m a whiteboy with base.