Category Archive: rants

Apr 11

I am not a Mindreader: a mini-saga

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I must confess a severe failing on my part. I am not a mindreader. I am not privy to the thoughts in your head. I do not know your needs or desires. And I am certainly not aware of your expectations. This is why requirement documents exist. Please use them.

Oct 01

Sales Technique or Economic Indicator?

Recently I have been getting emails from sales people saying “I’m following up again” or “In case you didn’t see my email”. Is it a sales technique? Is it indicating that the economy is slowing? Or just people desperate to meet quotas? If the first, I find it really annoying.

Sep 12

Minimum Viable Configuration (a mini saga)

Balance. 3D. Out of Balance

Too many believe that bigger is better; elaborate systems, multitude layers, and diverse architectural patterns demonstrate a maturity of design. Unfortunately they aren’t called at 3am when it breaks. I prefer the simplicity of less — kissing Occam’s razor; trimming away until perfection… when there is nothing left to take away.

Sep 03

Power Loss (a mini saga)

Virtual presence doesn’t work too well when the power is out. It is hard to see in the dark and TCP/IP is pretty slow over semaphore or pigeon. The huddled masses hover over their phones and laptops, hoarding the last few precious voltamps of power, praying for Light’s return. (Over 36K customers lost power in …

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Sep 01

Design Patterns are a Distraction (a Mini Saga)

Design patterns should emerge like leviathan. Software is not bonsai or a square watermelon; don’t try to force it to a shape. The GoF are not prophets. There is no One True Way. Return to the basics. Grok your data and how it flows; a watershed leading to the sea.

Apr 15

Raspberry Pi and First World Problems

And now, dear reader, a brief intercalary segue….. Stating the obvious, I’ve been doing a lot of work recently with the Raspberry Pi. In truth, I’ve been trying to discern and/or work around its limitations. Consequently, I’ve caught myself wishing for just a little bit more bandwidth — thus far I/O is the limiting factor …

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Mar 17

Lost in a Maze of Twisty Little Java Classes: How often is “infinite scalability” and extensibility really needed?

But look, you found the notice, didn’t you? Yes yes I did. It was on display at the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying Beware of the Leopard. — Mr. Prosser and Arthur Dent, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy While digging through …

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Jan 13

It’s a Trap: Losing Faith in Protex

Protex snippet match does not behave as expected.

Jan 12

Part of what makes Open Source analysis “interesting”

You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension: a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You’re moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You’ve just crossed over into… the Open Source Zone. — Not Rod Serling Consider a …

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Jan 11

Desperately Seeking Open Source Governance

At the end of the day Open Source is here to stay. I believe that this is a good thing. However, there still needs to be some thought given to licensing obligations and how individual Open Source projects are used in an application. This governance needs to extend to work-for-hire produced for a company.

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