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Would like to see this offered by dropbox itself, but could make an awesome service even more awesome
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On by default in firefox, opt-in via CSS for Safari nightlies & Chrome.
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A great example of how not to log errors
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Steps for unlocking 3's mifi device for use with other sims
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I agree with @jazzatola – Best. Trailer. Ever.
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Handy looking tool for digging out creative commons images from Flickr, and importantly generating attribution.
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The ideas behind Jon Hick's excellent fluid-width website
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Rolf and Andy talking about the importance of fast, bullet-proof releases at one of our quarterly technical briefings
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Incredibly impressive stuff from Jon Hicks – a fluid width website which scales from one to four columns depending on the available width of the browser. Want one!
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I wonder if this works for Mosquito's too?
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Nice syntax for defining tests. Still, I'd settle for support for plain-old clojure.test in Intellij!
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Perl script to count lines of code
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Freeware opensource Source lines of code counter. Not easily redistributable like the Perl cloc though
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Awesome. Absolutely awesome
A friend of mine is suffering from a nasty, progressive condition called Motor Neurone Disease. There are many forms, all of which share the common trait of affecting the motor neurons which control walking, speaking, breathing and general movement. In the US it is often called ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Prognosis varies, but the average time from diagnosis to death is 14 months.
The exact symptoms will change over time, getting progressively worse. The problem is that treatment and care provided in the UK rarely keeps pace with the pace of the disease. The Motor Neurone Disease Association is organising a petition calling for a national strategy for MND – at the core of which is an attempt to redefine the type of care required, rather than relying on the same services who provide care for the elderly. You can get more involved if you wish, but at the very least taking a couple of minutes to sign the petition may well help.
A few years ago, I was sharing a drink with a friend of mine. He was about to become a fully qualified architect. In the UK, one cannot call themselves an architect without having carried out the full, three part course, which takes at least seven years. Typically, as the course involves working in the industry, architects often took more than seven years to complete their ‘part three’ – my friend completing it in the minimum possible time made him one of the youngest qualified architects in the country. As he was about to be fully qualified, he was explaining the need to get indemnity insurance, as his opinion as a qualified architect made him liable for the quality of advice given, even advice given informally down at the pub.
There has been a short history of various individuals, companies and professional bodies within IT attempting to define and issue certification. By and large, they have not caught on. There is no belief that software delivered by ‘certified’ individuals is any better than that developed by uncertified individuals. Nor is there any evidence that in terms of getting jobs that certification counts for anything other than in specific, narrow (mostly vendor specific) technical domains – something that few serious software professional would consider worthwhile.
So, in general, why does certification exist? Societal pressure determines where certification is essential. It is important that key individuals in positions of power are properly vetted – and recognised – for the role they play in society. Which is why there are laws governing who can call themselves a lawyer, architect, engineer, surveyor. Which is why certified profesionals have responsibility placed upon them regarding the veracity of information and quality services they provide as a member of that profession.
In terms of architecture – in similar terms to medical doctors for example – society has deemed the roles they play as being important enough that certification carries with it legally enforceable expectations regarding their competency. With this responsibility, comes recognition – and a clear understanding as to how the profession is valued by society as a whole.
Certification in the land of IT is not being driven by a need for society to ensure that we are doing our jobs properly – to ensure that only competent individuals call themselves ‘programmers’, ‘sysadmins’ or whatever. Nor is it being driven by a societal desire to recognise our contribution to society as as a whole. It is being driven by IT itself – at best as a misguided attempt to recognise an ability in a certain set of skill, at worst as a way of generating money. As such, certification in the world of IT is a toothless concept, lacking in any sense of legitimacy, and distracts us from the more worthy goal of understanding how we contribute to the world around us, and how we grow competency to the point where we can even consider ourselves a profession at all.
It has come to this. After many years of mis-directed mail, I have finally decided to put pen to paper (well, photon to monitor, but you get the idea) and state that I Am Not Sam Newman.
World, here me now. It is possible – nay likely – that more than one person has the same combination of first and last names as another individual. We know for example that there are at least 54 Dave Gormans in the world. That bloke went to the trouble of creating an entire TV series about the fact that the whole first name/surname thing doesn’t not guarantee a unique identifier for human beings. The Chinese, to their credit, have worked this out a while ago.
Now I’m trying to be nice about it. I have decided not to publish the emails from people asking me if I want to do documentary voice overs, well-wishers hoping my testicles get better soon (well, I think they meant prostate), or the offers to speak on the corporate circuit about my hilarious non-pc anecdotes about how I once called someone a monkey. Others, in a similar position to me, have very much gone on the offensive in this regard, but I’m not quite as funny as Tony Hawks (the comedian, not the skateboarder).
So, oh blogosphere, here my cry – I Am Not That Sam Newman – the controversial Australian sports personality. And for the record, despite the fact that I live in the UK, I’m not the other Sam Newman either – the Actor known for his voice over work, appearances in Holby City and the forthcoming lead role of Prince Andrei in War & Peace starring Brenda Blethyn and Malcolm McDowell.
I Am this Sam Newman.
But yes, I am related to Paul Newman. Feel free to forward on any royalty cheques my way.
There is a rustle in the posit-in notes. The water cooler ripples. USB-powered missile launchers inexplicably fire, whilst nerf guns jam mid-battle. There is the smell of sulfur in the air. The Great Rewrite Approaches.
The signs were there. Grumbling from the developers – sometimes new to the project. “This code is horrible!”, “Completely unfit for purpose!”, “If only we could start again…”.
Delays to new functionality are laid at the door of the code. The one and only solution now on offer is to rewrite the entire codebase – nothing short of this will help. Eventually, managers are won over, and The Great Rewrite begins.
It is an epic undertaking. Some poor fools have to stay behind and look after the existing system, whilst others forge ahead into a brave, new world, leaving the horrid, old, decrepit and so uncool system behind.
Morale soars – the developers have a spring in their step. The business, initially, is confident. “Don’t worry – the new version is right around the corner!” they are told. Meanwhile support for the existing system is suffering – the team maintaining the existing codebase is a fraction of the size it used to be, and most of the senior technical people have to be on the rewrite.
The natives grow restless – the system they use, day in, day out, isn’t moving on. Feature requests seem to disappear into a black hole. “Soon” they are promised. “Soon, all your dreams will come true! Once The New System is launched, what you want is top of the list!”.
Months pass. And still, the rewrite continues. But it is closer now – inching towards readiness. Finally, long overdue, The New System is ready. The users are excited – all the recent troubles are to cease, as The Great Rewrite is over.
And now, the launch day.
There are bugs. Things that used to work, don’t work any more. There are few, if any new features. The system is new, but doesn’t offer the users anything new – but they have to learn to get to grips with The New System. The disgruntled emails start.
“Don’t worry!” says the Project Manager. Now The Great Rewrite has finished, the new features will arrive any day now!
And some of them do. Initially, at least, new features are easier than before to create, and ship. But after time, the same problems with the code base emerge. It turns out that having the same group of people building the same old system without changing their approach or ideas doesn’t lead to a different type of system. They never had to deal with the old issues head-on, they just sidestepped them, pressing on into the greenfield.
More time passes. Features take longer to ship, the code is harder to deal with. And once again, talk turns to another Great Rewrite…
magpiebrain 