via vimeo.com
Moore characterizes simplicity as a force that must be applied instead of a passive goal. And he's right – all too often, I see developers failing to make the hard choices necessary to keep their applications simple. It's easier to just say yes to everything.
via codinghorror.com
Steve has posted another epic rant on Google+ about the Software Engineerings own political axis. My favorite part it the characterization of the Conservative View as Fred from Scooby-Doo and the Liberal View as Shaggy. The views are highlighted below
Conservative View
- Software should aim to be bug free before it launches.
- Programmers should be protected from errors.
- Programmers have difficulty learning new syntax.
- Production code must be safety-checked by a compiler.
- Data stores must adhere to a well-defined, published schema.
- Public interfaces should be rigorously modeled.
- Production systems should never have dangerous or risky back-doors.
- If there is ANY doubt as to the safety of a component, it cannot be allowed in production
- Fast is better than slow.
Liberal View:
- Bugs are not a big deal.
- Programmers are only newbies for a little while.
- Programmers figure stuff out amazingly fast when their jobs depend on it.
- Succinctness is power.
- Rigid schemas limit flexibility and slow down development.
- Public interfaces should above all else be simple, backward-compatible, and future-compatible.
- System flexibility can mean the difference between you getting the customer (or contract) vs. your competitor nabbing it instead.
- Companies should take risks, embrace progress, and fiercely resist ossification
- Premature optimization is the root of all evil.
Excerpted from "Notes from the Mystery Machine Bus" by Steve Yegge
I'm pretty sure the concept of a hidden file was an unintended consequence. It was certainly a mistake.via plus.google.comHow many bugs and wasted CPU cycles and instances of human frustration (not to mention bad design) have resulted from that one small shortcut about 40 years ago?
Keep that in mind next time you want to cut a corner in your code.
As well considered Unix always seemed to be, the notion that hidden files were an unintended consequence of a "quick hack" is amusing...
Slowgrammers are like poison to a team. Just like that old saying “One bad apple can spoil the whole bunch”, One person within a team can bring the team down to their level. The team can sometimes only go as fast as their slowest player.via sparkoverflow.com
As for Borodin, he didn’t seem particularly concerned about what Apple does next. Asked if he was afraid about what Apple’s response to him directly might be. “No,” he replied, adding, “I’m a happy user of iPhone 4S … I think they will hire me.via macworld.com
Absolute cojones!
Chubb climbed 1.52 percent in the five years through yesterday after adjusting for price swings, beating every stock in the 22-company Standard $ Poor’s 500 Insurance Index, including Berkshire Hathaway Inc., according to the BLOOMBERG RISKLESS RETURN RANKING.
via sfgate.com
I'm happy that Apple is finally considering podcasts first class
content by separating them into their own app. What I'm not happy
about is the shockingly poor shape in which it was released... I
have a number of podcasts that I listen to weekly, between 15-20. I
would not think that this is an unusually high number but whenever I
start the new podcast app it hangs and is unresponsive for what seems
like minutes. It's not unusual for it to crash after hanging, which
seems to be happening more frequently recently.
which should be in any podcast app's first release. First of which is
the ability to sort the list of all unplayed podcasts... I like to
listen to the podcasts in the order they were released. The unplayed
list is sorted newest first with no way to change this. Apple does
let you change the sort per podcast if you select a specific podcast,
but I almost never have more than one episode outstanding for a
podcast. I like to just fire up the unplayed list and listen FIFO. Another simple feature is a single synchronized set of podcast
subscriptions across my devices. For the company that launched
iCloud it is inconceivable to me that I have to create a subscription
lists on each device. There are also bugs throughout... Duplicate podcasts mysteriously
show up on my list. There is a blank empty podcast on my subscription
list and there seems to be no way to delete it. Who tested this
thing? Are we the beta testers I would much rather have had the above features in the app, fully
tested, than the faux reel to reel tape animation... How many hours
did the developer spend on getting the tape to feed through with real
physics... Watch the capstan when you start and stop the podcast.
Watch the realistic bounce. As the podcast processes the tape
gathers progressively on the take up reel. When the podcast artwork
is up, the background is translucent like smoked glass. It allows you
to see the tape animation behind it. The developer really wants us
to see his handy work. This is a big fail. The animation is chrome
that should only be added when the app is feature complete. Give me
the features that make the app useful before you give me the eye
candy. This app feels like it was released early by mistake. It was released
with no announcement like it snuck out the back door of school during
recess. My only hope is that when iOS 6 is released in the fall, the
real apple podcast app will be released with it, feature complete and
fully tested. [Frustratingly sent from my iPhone 4S]
This explains everything that has happened to both the computer and phone industries over the past five years. The iPhone is not and never was a phone.1 It is a pocket-sized computer that obviates the phone. The iPhone is to cell phones what the Mac was to typewriters.via daringfireball.net
Demand is “simmering compared to where it was at the beginning of the year, when it looked like the recovery, at least from our perspective, would have been pretty robust,” said Jeff Pederson, the new chief executive officer of Berkshire’s CORT Business Services Corp., the world’s largest provider of rental furniture. “It’s not flat-lining, by any stretch of the imagination, but it has slowed down."
via bloomberg.com