Lazyness is a good trait in programmers. May 13, 2008
Posted by hunterp in Uncategorized.add a comment
I just thought up a new interview question:
“Why is it good if programmers are lazy?”
Lazy programmers tend to fix problems and not symptoms. They also tend to write scripts instead of repetitively do things. I would think that its laziness that causes programmers to write the least amount of code to solve a problem. The less code, the less there is to maintain, and the more healthy a project is.
Portable audio players are the wrong sex. April 22, 2008
Posted by hunterp in Uncategorized.add a comment
Except for this Ipod shuffle,
All portable audio players that I am aware of are female, eg they require cables. This is clearly an easy, and subtle way for a little extra profit to be made.
When a player can work right out of the box with no cables, that seems a LOT easier than the other way around. How is this not blatant profiteering at the expense of usability perfection?
Discuss: code within the view layer. December 29, 2007
Posted by hunterp in software.Tags: software engineering
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I’ve encountered quite a bit of idealogical density when it comes to how to implement model/view/controller architectures. If you read Martin Fowler’s Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture, you’ll get one idea. If you look at ruby on rails, you’ll see one way this architecture is enforced.
Generally, the view is an entire layer with its own code. Some people like to make a further separation within the view, between programming language code eg java and presentation code eg html/jsp. I tend to believe that this is an arbitrary and counterproductive approach in a small organization.
Maybe people that enforce such coding standards believe that this will help them with scaling the company by saving a few dollars by hiring “cheap” labor that works on the code that you painstakingly spent so much time to prepare for their arrival. But I tend to think that there are a lot of other things that will scale a company besides being strict on this line.
Especially given an editor like Intellij that actually allows you refector code even if its made its way all the way into the jsps.
So what I’m saying is, I believe that for most small companies trying to make it big, that its painful to make a rule regarding what I just discussed in a framework that does not enforce separation of code within the view layer.
State of 64 bit linux. June, 2007 June 20, 2007
Posted by hunterp in Uncategorized.add a comment
I run 64 bit debian linux at work. The following things have proven a real pain: I can’t even compile some basic things like firefox (which i have to do because iceweasel IS NOT firefox). Java web start (javaws)…not supported. I had to download eclipse 3.3 beta in order to get some basic functionality to work. This makes me believe that running a driver for any video card will be an extreme pain…
This has all been a good lesson though. I think that at the moment, a mac is the way to go for my computer that I am physically connected to. And I still prefer the flexibility of a debian system for a personal dev station.
Drag and drop Screenshots in linux? June 8, 2007
Posted by hunterp in linux, mac, UI.1 comment so far
Taking screenshots are an intensely valuable asset in a computing workforce. On a mac, I can press ctrl-alt-shift-f4 and drag my mouse to take a screenshot directly into the clipboard. Then in a mail, or IM program I can directly paste it. This is basically two steps.
In linux, I have to take a screenshot. Crop it in gimp. Then manually include it in an thunderbird, and I can’t even see the image. This is way to many steps.
So is there a way to do this on linux?
A free cancer drug….maybe. See update. April 19, 2007
Posted by hunterp in cancer.2 comments
There is a very promising cancer medicine that none of the big companies want to touch because the researchers did not patent it.
I just donated $25 to the researchers at http://www.depmed.ualberta.ca/dca/ They still need 1.4 million dollars. Please spread the news
Update:
Have yet to process this:
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2007/01/in_which_my_words_will_be_misinterpreted.php
Getting closer to universal healthcare. April 17, 2007
Posted by hunterp in alternative medicine, big problems, health, universal healthcare.add a comment
I just read a story of a woman that sued her employer to cover her $30,000 neurosurgery bill for carpal tunnel syndrome.
I also just heard former senator Bill Bradley on Bill Maher’s show unite Democrats and Republicans behind universal healthcare. He said the big problem would require a combination of collective efforts and individual responsibility.
As for my comments: I feel that alternative medicine can reduce a lot of traditional medical costs. Take this woman with carpel tunnel syndrome. I would not be surprised if she had not investigated an ergonomic keyboard, mouse, and chair. I also doubt that she tried massage therapy, acupuncture, and some movement class such as yoga or group movement.
I feel that there are a lot of people that are against universal healthcare because of money reasons. But, I believe that these people would embrace the money saving aspect of alternative medicine. And this would be a huge step in and of itself!
Indexed aka nested aka array http input parameters April 11, 2007
Posted by hunterp in code, HTTP, PHP, Spring Framework.add a comment
http://www.springframework.org/docs/reference/validation.html -> 5.4.1. Setting and getting basic and nested properties
is the same in php as receiving form values in an array. AKA <input type=”text” name=”something[1][2]“>
Here’s another article on how to do it in spring.
http://opensource.atlassian.com/confluence/spring/display/DISC/Guide+to+Porting+From+Struts+to+Spring
I combined the mapping technique with the bean property so I’m doing name=”something[index].someValue”
==
Mitt Romney…bland. April 4, 2007
Posted by hunterp in Politics, Quagmire in Iraq, republicans are dangerous.2 comments
After reading Mitt Romney’s positions on the issues, I just sent the following letter to the Romney campaign:
Start with a quote from Mitt Romney:
“And if you believe that as I do, that our source of strength is our people, then when America faces a new generation of challenges like we do today you don’t look to government. You don’t look to make government bigger. You don’t look to make government stronger. You look to make the people stronger. Because that has always been and will always be the source of our destiny. And when we need to call on the strength of America we look to strengthen the American people …”
Private corporations stay alive because money is the bottom line. Private corporations have less soul than the government.
Nuclear nations in the middle east ARE INEVITABLE. Take pakistan for example.
How are you guys not war-loving corporate pork enthusiasts?
We should be able to choose why we shed blood. March 8, 2007
Posted by hunterp in Politics, Quagmire in Iraq.1 comment so far
I think we need to make it top priority for us americans to be able to individually vote on wars.
