Sideways Approach
April 17, 2008 11:56.55 PM
Shout out to my cousin Mark.
Sideways Approach
April 2008
Bachelor for life
April 17, 2008 11:19.29 PM
So, there are some guys out there(not me) who occasionally want to swing the bat a few more times than others and don't really care about what the ball is really made of, who threw it, or most importantly, where it goes after you hit it. Here's my graph revealing the truth behind the minds of these guys.
Subversion = Sex!
April 07, 2008 05:25.19 PM
I work in a place where they like to lock down EVERYTHING. I can't install subversion nor subclipse so I have a hard time checking out some of my projects that I'm working on outside of work during my lunch hour or breaks. One thing I could do was navigate directly to our subversion host and look at the files there. This was only helpful for reading things but it was better than nothing.
That changed!!!
I apologize for the crappy image. Unfortunately, I had to use MSPaint since we don't exactly have the best software.
Trials and tribulations of a mysqldb install
April 06, 2008 08:46.31 PM
I moved my development environment off my server to my laptop in case I travel plus it's a more efficient approach when using Django since the local server deploy is awesome. Here's the steps I had to take:
- Download MySQL binary .dmg and install
- Download MySQLdb source
- Install entire XCode package. You'll need gcc, universal SDK, and the developer packages only but for some reason I couldn't get it to work so go with the entire install.
- Create a symbolic link for gcc -> gcc-4.0
- Go to mysqldb folder and run python setup.py build
- Go to mysqldb folder and run python setup.py install
finalllyyyyyy
Macs have slugs inside
April 06, 2008 02:35.37 PM
You know when you see that great looking landscape and there's a huge rock, some flowers, and a tree? It almost looks so good you don't want to touch it. For some reason, you have to flip over the rock and see dead spiders, 30,000 slugs, and a severed hand. You wish you never touched it huh?
That's how I felt yesterday after trying to open up an IBook G4 to analyze some problems. Number one, in addition to the million screws, it was glued together. I could barely get it apart. I don't know if this is how it works by design but I will definitely not be attempting this too often. Dells are like LEGOs to me anymore so I'll stick with tearing apart PCs.
Never personalize the code
April 03, 2008 11:33.36 PM
This one little phrase digs much deeper than its literal meaning. It doesn't just apply to the nerdy world of programming. In a general sense, the meaning behind it can teach everyone a lesson. So first, let's define code:
CODE:the symbolic arrangement of data or instructions in a computer program or the set of such instructions
From that definition, whether you agree or not, we're going to infer that the computer program is something that's complete, actively working and the code is the glue that holds it together or tells it what to do. Everyday, something goes wrong on a software project, whether it's the color displayed to the user or that null pointer Joe Schmo forgot to check for when he was calling that method. You can react two different ways:
- Blame Joe Schmo in front of everyone
- Document the issue and FIX it
It's sad and amazing that so many people are quick to blame and completely miss the concept of a team. Rather than take one for that person who screwed up and fix it, they exploit them. Now here is what that person is missing by taking that route. First off, when you fix something that you didn't break, you get what is called recognition. Everyone wants it, everyone needs it. Another thing you've established is your expertise in fixing that problem. You're no longer expendable to the project in case these things happen again. This is where you've established security. The last pillar you're going for is trust. You've earned some major SEAL points by covering Joe Schmo's ass.
As I said above, this doesn't just apply to programming. You may work on an assembly line dish washing team. If Joe down at the end accidentally put through the aluminum pans that deteriorate in the machine, you hurry up, pull it off the racks, and tell Joe never to do it again. Another example is a planned trip to Las Vegas with your friends. If the one guy forgot the necessary $100 to get in the door, you give him that $100 and don't let anyone know. Sure, you'll end up the go to guy for scam artists within your friends, but at least you provide relevant code to that program.
Remember, next time someone calls you out, tell them to stop personalizing the code.
This was somewhat of a joke in honor of Wakky
