In honor of Christmas, I wanted to put up a little script I wrote for a family holiday tradition. Every year, we each pick a name at random and fill their Christmas stocking. There’s a few rules to this little game, but the one that applies for the purposes of […]
Year: 2012
Want to unleash innovation and jump-start the economy? Hire drug cartels!
Well, obviously, this is going to fall in the “Shenanigans” portion of “Software and Other Shenanigans”, but with the election over and the country’s attention (presumably) turning back to spurring innovation and economic production, I’d like to offer my humble suggestion. Namely, we need to start hiring, encouraging, drug dealers. […]
A more useful guide to getters and setters
While perusing the Internet, I stumbled on some question about getters and setters and why people are supposed to use them (which of course I can’t find the link to now, even with the help of the mighty Google). After reading the question, I realized something. Holy crap, a lot […]
With documentation that’s easier and (theoretically) better for all
I’m sure there are lots of ways to handle documenting things (design documents, release notes, requirements, etc.) in a software development environment, but I’ve only ever seen 2: a corporate wiki, and something from Microsoft (I forget the name of it, all I really remember is that it had a […]
Virtually handy
Maybe it’s just that I’m slow on the uptake, but I didn’t get the whole hype over using virtual machines for development up until I actually started doing it. After all, why use virtual machines when you have a perfectly good physical box sitting right there and ready to go? […]
Why can’t all this stuff just get along?
We all have our own personal Kryptonite, that little something you encounter as part of your job that just never seems to go right no matter what you do. For me, that Krytonite is server configuration. It doesn’t matter how clear you make the how-to directions, I will find a […]
Phone season 2012
So all of the new phone line announcements are in and the comparisons, snarking, and general smuggery are underway in earnest. Apple and Android fans are still Montagueing and and Capuleting each other, and Microsoft fans totally understand how Rodney Dangerfield felt. Since Apple and Nokia (aka Microsoft’s phone division) […]
What’s in your box?
For the first time in my professional career, I’ve found myself working without any type of laptop. I can still work from home on my own machine, but given how easy it is to telecommute as a software developer, it struck me as odd that my work machine would be […]
When it’s time to put old features out to pasture
When a friend of mine made a Google+ post a while back asking StackExchange what happened to the links to post your question on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc., he learned that the links were removed because they were hardly being used. This led to a brief back-and-forth thread between him […]
When I Get Filthy Rich: Open Source Software Foundation
Like everyone else who’s ever wanted money at any point in their lives (i.e. like everyone else on the planet), I’ve put a little thought into just what I’d do if I ever go so obscenely rich I could stop worrying about money. Now, since definitions are important, I’ll define […]