Monday, October 22, 2007
Best Game Review Ever
I thought this was a highly entertaining and surprisingly accurate review of Halo 3. Enjoy.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
PITYS - Planned I Told You So's
I heard a great new term last week: PITYS - Planned I Told You So's
PITYS, attributed to Mark Russinovich, Chief Architect of Windows, is what happens when the concerns of engineers are glossed over by management or marketing or whomever and the clearly-flawed plan is put into play without any further consideration.
I can't tell ya how many times I've been in these situations in various big company environments. You try your best to shed light on the risks posed by a given plan, only to be assailed by fervent rationalization or told that engineers just don't understand the "big picture".
At this point, the experienced engineer knows that he has no option but to quietly resign himself to that the fact that the plan will proceed despite his concerns, and at some almost certain point in the future, he will be dragged into the resulting crisis and will be in the all too familiar position of saying "I told you this was a problem n weeks/months ago."
It reminds me of a scene from Austin Powers:
PITYS, attributed to Mark Russinovich, Chief Architect of Windows, is what happens when the concerns of engineers are glossed over by management or marketing or whomever and the clearly-flawed plan is put into play without any further consideration.
I can't tell ya how many times I've been in these situations in various big company environments. You try your best to shed light on the risks posed by a given plan, only to be assailed by fervent rationalization or told that engineers just don't understand the "big picture".
At this point, the experienced engineer knows that he has no option but to quietly resign himself to that the fact that the plan will proceed despite his concerns, and at some almost certain point in the future, he will be dragged into the resulting crisis and will be in the all too familiar position of saying "I told you this was a problem n weeks/months ago."
It reminds me of a scene from Austin Powers:
Dr. Evil: Scott, I want you to meet daddy's nemesis, Austin Powers
Scott Evil: What? Are you feeding him? Why don't you just kill him?
Dr. Evil: I have an even better idea. I'm going to place him in an easily escapable situation involving an overly elaborate and exotic death.
Dr. Evil: All right guard, begin the unnecessarily slow-moving dipping mechanism.
[guard starts dipping mechanism]
Dr. Evil: Close the tank!
Scott Evil: Wait, aren't you even going to watch them? They could get away!
Dr. Evil: No no no, I'm going to leave them alone and not actually witness them dying, I'm just gonna assume it all went to plan. What?
Scott Evil: I have a gun, in my room, you give me five seconds, I'll get it, I'll come back down here, BOOM, I'll blow their brains out!
Dr. Evil: Scott, you just don't get it, do ya? You don't.
Saturday, December 16, 2006
Saturday, November 11, 2006
Delighted
The new machine did arrive. The folks at the Apple Store were very helpful. I was dragged cussing and frowning into the next milenium.
And ... I'm delighted.
I've set up the new 2.66GHz Dual Dual-Core Xeon powered Mac Pro, and it's amazing. I've been blown away with the raw speed and capacity of this new machine. It makes light work of everything that I throw at it. And, even more surprisingly, Spotlight runs great! Who knew?? All it needs is a server-class machine, and suddenly it's a feature and not a nuisance.
I'm in the process of loading the heavyweight apps that caused me to want a desktop (instead of my PowerBook) in the first place. If there's anything notable after loading 100 GB of music and photos, Photoshop, Aperture, Flash, et al ... I'll let you know.
It was a long and frustrating few weeks, as you've read in the previous posts, but this story did have a happy ending after all.
And ... I'm delighted.
I've set up the new 2.66GHz Dual Dual-Core Xeon powered Mac Pro, and it's amazing. I've been blown away with the raw speed and capacity of this new machine. It makes light work of everything that I throw at it. And, even more surprisingly, Spotlight runs great! Who knew?? All it needs is a server-class machine, and suddenly it's a feature and not a nuisance.
I'm in the process of loading the heavyweight apps that caused me to want a desktop (instead of my PowerBook) in the first place. If there's anything notable after loading 100 GB of music and photos, Photoshop, Aperture, Flash, et al ... I'll let you know.
It was a long and frustrating few weeks, as you've read in the previous posts, but this story did have a happy ending after all.
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Bummed ( Part V )
Honestly, I never expected that there would be a 'Part V'.
I stopped into the Apple Store again late in the afternoon on Fri, Oct 20. I went straight to the store manager and asked that he find out the status of my repair. The shocker: they had decided a week ago that they could not fix the machine. They had called a wrong number on the 14th and the 16th to ask what I would like to do.
I was a bit surprised about the wrong number thing, because I had made sure that they had the right number when I checked the machine in for repair, and when I returned to the store on the 6th they had the right number on the repair order, so ... whatever.
I talked with "the admin" who handles these issues. She, very kindly, offered to replace the machine that cannot be fixed with a brand new Mac. No shit. That's cool.
She originally thought that she could give me a machine right away, out of the Palo Alto store's stock. There was some paperwork that she had to do, so she suggested that I come back in an hour. She asked if there was anything special about the old machine, and I told her that the only thing I cared about was that it was a G5.
I was really happy to get a new machine that same day, so I walked down University Avenue for 45 minutes until she called me back. I asked her to read me the specs on the replacement machine, and she began to describe the new Mac Pro. I politely pointed out that was an Intel machine, and not a G5. Surprised, she said that she thought that what I meant was that the machine was a tower, and that since the Mac Pro was a tower and more powerful than the G5 that it would be an okay replacement. Crap.
She had more bad news. After checking with "her superiors" she found that she would have to order a machine, and it could take as long as 2 weeks! Now, I kinda understand not replacing my busted refurb from store stock, kinda, but what I don't understand is why the new machine would take 2 weeks. It's got to come directly from the factory in Asia?
So, let's recap:
1) I originally bought the refurb because I wanted a genuine PowerPC on which to run all of my existing software that has been customized (with AltiVec code) to run great on the PowerPC. That machine is FUBAR.
2) Apple is graciously willing to replace my purchase with the latest desktop Mac, the Mac Pro. This is a helluva machine, with 2 2.66GHz Intel Woodcrest Dual Core processors (yeah, it's a quad), 250GB disk, yada, yada, yada. It's been ordered, but at this point, I kinda expect that it will never arrive.
3) I'm in this weird spot. The Mac Pro is a great value in this exchange, but it won't run my software as well as the G5 would have. I'm not sure that it will meet my needs.
Here's the technical discussion, for those of you who don't get this right away:
The high-end software that I use, like Adobe Photoshop, run great on a G5 because they have been specially built to take advantage of the G5 chip (AltiVec instructions) and the multithreading that is possible with 2 processors. Those programs will run on the new Intel-based Macs, they are compatible, but they won't run as well. You see, they were built for PowerPC. So, on the new machines they will run in an emulator known as Rosetta. The problem is that when run in the emulator, these programs cannot take advantage of the chip architecture for which they were built (and optimized), and because the emulator itself will run on only one of the processors, the program does not take advantage of the multithreading that you would expect. The result, the program runs without the special optimizations and runs on only one processor. So ... I can run my software on the new machine, in an emulator, on only one of the 4 processors, so it won't run as well as it would have on the old machine.
Oh, there's one more thing ... The Intel-based Macs require twice the amount of RAM that the PowerPC-based Mac did. I'm not exactly sure why, but I have verified this with my own independent testing. It takes nearly twice the RAM to boot the machine to the Desktop, and then nearly twice the RAM for the applications that run in Rosetta. So, I have to buy more expensive RAM for the new machine, and I have to buy twice as much of it.
So, after considering all of this ... I gave in to basic economics ... the machine that Apple is offering is flat out worth more on today's market than the one I originally bought, and I would be an idiot not to take it.
So, stay tuned ... Will the promised Mac Pro ever arrive? What will happen next?
-- to be continued --
I stopped into the Apple Store again late in the afternoon on Fri, Oct 20. I went straight to the store manager and asked that he find out the status of my repair. The shocker: they had decided a week ago that they could not fix the machine. They had called a wrong number on the 14th and the 16th to ask what I would like to do.
I was a bit surprised about the wrong number thing, because I had made sure that they had the right number when I checked the machine in for repair, and when I returned to the store on the 6th they had the right number on the repair order, so ... whatever.
I talked with "the admin" who handles these issues. She, very kindly, offered to replace the machine that cannot be fixed with a brand new Mac. No shit. That's cool.
She originally thought that she could give me a machine right away, out of the Palo Alto store's stock. There was some paperwork that she had to do, so she suggested that I come back in an hour. She asked if there was anything special about the old machine, and I told her that the only thing I cared about was that it was a G5.
I was really happy to get a new machine that same day, so I walked down University Avenue for 45 minutes until she called me back. I asked her to read me the specs on the replacement machine, and she began to describe the new Mac Pro. I politely pointed out that was an Intel machine, and not a G5. Surprised, she said that she thought that what I meant was that the machine was a tower, and that since the Mac Pro was a tower and more powerful than the G5 that it would be an okay replacement. Crap.
She had more bad news. After checking with "her superiors" she found that she would have to order a machine, and it could take as long as 2 weeks! Now, I kinda understand not replacing my busted refurb from store stock, kinda, but what I don't understand is why the new machine would take 2 weeks. It's got to come directly from the factory in Asia?
So, let's recap:
1) I originally bought the refurb because I wanted a genuine PowerPC on which to run all of my existing software that has been customized (with AltiVec code) to run great on the PowerPC. That machine is FUBAR.
2) Apple is graciously willing to replace my purchase with the latest desktop Mac, the Mac Pro. This is a helluva machine, with 2 2.66GHz Intel Woodcrest Dual Core processors (yeah, it's a quad), 250GB disk, yada, yada, yada. It's been ordered, but at this point, I kinda expect that it will never arrive.
3) I'm in this weird spot. The Mac Pro is a great value in this exchange, but it won't run my software as well as the G5 would have. I'm not sure that it will meet my needs.
Here's the technical discussion, for those of you who don't get this right away:
The high-end software that I use, like Adobe Photoshop, run great on a G5 because they have been specially built to take advantage of the G5 chip (AltiVec instructions) and the multithreading that is possible with 2 processors. Those programs will run on the new Intel-based Macs, they are compatible, but they won't run as well. You see, they were built for PowerPC. So, on the new machines they will run in an emulator known as Rosetta. The problem is that when run in the emulator, these programs cannot take advantage of the chip architecture for which they were built (and optimized), and because the emulator itself will run on only one of the processors, the program does not take advantage of the multithreading that you would expect. The result, the program runs without the special optimizations and runs on only one processor. So ... I can run my software on the new machine, in an emulator, on only one of the 4 processors, so it won't run as well as it would have on the old machine.
Oh, there's one more thing ... The Intel-based Macs require twice the amount of RAM that the PowerPC-based Mac did. I'm not exactly sure why, but I have verified this with my own independent testing. It takes nearly twice the RAM to boot the machine to the Desktop, and then nearly twice the RAM for the applications that run in Rosetta. So, I have to buy more expensive RAM for the new machine, and I have to buy twice as much of it.
So, after considering all of this ... I gave in to basic economics ... the machine that Apple is offering is flat out worth more on today's market than the one I originally bought, and I would be an idiot not to take it.
So, stay tuned ... Will the promised Mac Pro ever arrive? What will happen next?
-- to be continued --
Friday, October 06, 2006
Bummed ( Part IV )
Ok, so it's Oct 6... The day after the estimated completion date.
The status on the Apple support site hasn't changed since the first day I dropped off the machine.
So, let's recap:
I'm going to go to the Apple store in person today to talk to the store manager and try to get some answers. At this point, I'm pretty close to simply asking for a refund.
-- to be continued --
The status on the Apple support site hasn't changed since the first day I dropped off the machine.
So, let's recap:
- I bought the machine 2 weeks ago.
- It arrived in a barely usable state.
- Apple's had it back for 12 days.
- I can't get any information about the repairs in progress.
- I'm getting a bit pissed off about the whole thing.
I'm going to go to the Apple store in person today to talk to the store manager and try to get some answers. At this point, I'm pretty close to simply asking for a refund.
-- to be continued --
Sunday, October 01, 2006
Bummed ( Part III )
I stopped by the Apple store in Palo Alto Saturday afternoon. I was hoping to get some details on the progress of the repairs to my new machine. Instead, I got stonewalled.
The only answer anyone in the store would give was, "We'll call you when it's ready."
I asked if all the parts had arrived, if there was any update to the estimate (Oct 5 -- 10 working days), if there was any additional information at all that they could give me. The response: "We'll call you when it's ready."
That's really unsatisfying. Maybe I can talk to someone at work about changing that policy.
When someone brings their new machine back to the store and is told that the repairs can take as long as 2 weeks, we should have more to offer them than "We'll call you when it's ready." Especially in the era of overnight delivery, 2 weeks seems like a ridiculous amount of time to ask someone to wait.
-- to be continued --
The only answer anyone in the store would give was, "We'll call you when it's ready."
I asked if all the parts had arrived, if there was any update to the estimate (Oct 5 -- 10 working days), if there was any additional information at all that they could give me. The response: "We'll call you when it's ready."
That's really unsatisfying. Maybe I can talk to someone at work about changing that policy.
When someone brings their new machine back to the store and is told that the repairs can take as long as 2 weeks, we should have more to offer them than "We'll call you when it's ready." Especially in the era of overnight delivery, 2 weeks seems like a ridiculous amount of time to ask someone to wait.
-- to be continued --
Monday, September 25, 2006
Bummed ( Part II )
After talking with someone in India for about 25 minutes, it was decided that I should take my computer to the Genius Bar at the Palo Alto Apple store for warranty service. It turns out that I had already done all of the diagnostics and had already attempted all of the repairs that they recommend over the phone. Makes sense. Next time I'll just start at the Genius Bar.
The guy at the Palo Alto store was really good. He listened well, he knew his stuff, and he found another problem with the machine that I hadn't noticed ... the FireWire ports weren't working!
Ding!
That makes sense. The FireWire controller is an integral part of the main logic board. Several of the panics that I saw were during disk activity that could have been accessing the FireWire controller. This could be the cause, or it may just be another symptom, but either way, Apple is replacing the main logic board under warranty.
I feel pretty good about this outcome. I'm not sure that we've pinpointed the cause of my trouble, but I'm really happy to have the main logic board replaced for free. There's a really good chance that this will fix the problem.
It's lucky that the FireWire ports weren't working. That provided a solid reason to replace the main logic board and made it easy to get the machine in for warranty repairs.
The only catch ... is that I really don't know how long it will be before I get the machine back. The repair estimate said Oct 5. That seems kinda ridiculous. Hopefully, they can get the part and do the repair this week.
Either way, things are looking up. This story may have a happy ending after all. If I'm really lucky they will replace the main logic board that I had with the other one -- the one with 8 RAM slots instead of 4 -- which would be great.
-- to be continued --
The guy at the Palo Alto store was really good. He listened well, he knew his stuff, and he found another problem with the machine that I hadn't noticed ... the FireWire ports weren't working!
Ding!
That makes sense. The FireWire controller is an integral part of the main logic board. Several of the panics that I saw were during disk activity that could have been accessing the FireWire controller. This could be the cause, or it may just be another symptom, but either way, Apple is replacing the main logic board under warranty.
I feel pretty good about this outcome. I'm not sure that we've pinpointed the cause of my trouble, but I'm really happy to have the main logic board replaced for free. There's a really good chance that this will fix the problem.
It's lucky that the FireWire ports weren't working. That provided a solid reason to replace the main logic board and made it easy to get the machine in for warranty repairs.
The only catch ... is that I really don't know how long it will be before I get the machine back. The repair estimate said Oct 5. That seems kinda ridiculous. Hopefully, they can get the part and do the repair this week.
Either way, things are looking up. This story may have a happy ending after all. If I'm really lucky they will replace the main logic board that I had with the other one -- the one with 8 RAM slots instead of 4 -- which would be great.
-- to be continued --
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Bummed ( Part I )
I'm a geek, so I'm all about the toys. This is the story of a broken toy -- a toy that was supposed to be really cool, but instead turned out to be an expensive time-consuming hassle I didn't need.
What the hell am I talking about? My new G5 tower.
On Friday, I received a refurbished Dual 2GHz G5 tower. I was pretty excited. I planned to use the tower to do a whole bunch of fun stuff at home that I don't like to do on my PowerBook, because these things need more ... er ... power than the PowerBook can muster. Typical projects include: fun with GarageBand, Photoshop, Flash development, RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, etc.
Friday night I rushed home and started setting up the G5 immediately. It came with Mac OS 10.4 pre-installed, so I started downloading the latest from Software Update. The download seemed to be unusually quick, so I opened Activity Monitor to check out the download speed. Got bored with that pretty quickly and launched Safari, and ... SPLAT! System panic. Crap.
I ran the Apple Hardware Test on the machine, and the RAM test failed. Great. They sent me a machine with bad RAM. Well ... ok. I wanted to add RAM anyway. I went to Fry's, got 2GB of compatible RAM Saturday morning, and tried the tests again. All tests passed. Cool. A few hours wasted, but I'm up and running. Start installing a few apps and ... SPLAT! Another panic. Crap.
Maybe the System software is bad, I thought. I mean ... all of the hardware tests passed. I can't remember the last time that I ran on the system that was pre-installed. Maybe that's the problem.
So, I rebooted from the restore disc, erased the hard drive, and re-installed a clean version of Mac OS 10.4.4. Then, I tried a few things. Ok. Good so far, I thought. So, I ran Software Update again, and began downloading the latest software. Shortly before the big MacOS X 10.4.7 combined update finished downloading ... SPLAT! System panic. Crap.
Huh, I thought, being unusually optimistic. Maybe this is some problem fixed by 10.4.7. I'll just finish the download, reboot into 10.4.7 and ... SPLAT! Ok. This is really getting to me now. Another reboot and I'm into 10.4.7. Things seem ok. Let's try something to stress-test the system.
I started a drag-install of RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 (copying files in the Finder), thinking that the demos would be a good stress test. Turns out copying the files was enough to panic the system again!
That was it. I re-installed the original RAM DIMMs, put the machine back into the packaging and into the shipping box, and set it next to the door.
Tomorrow will be interesting. I don't know what to expect. I think that I will probably simply return the machine. I don't know what Apple would try to repair on the system, because all of the hardware tests pass. But, now a few strange details start to make sense. The RAM DIMMs that Apple originally shipped in the machine were really scratched up. I bet that the machine was originally returned due to these panics, and someone had tried re-seating the RAM several times. Because the hardware tests all passed, the refurb group probably thought it was all set to re-sell.
-- to be continued --
What the hell am I talking about? My new G5 tower.
On Friday, I received a refurbished Dual 2GHz G5 tower. I was pretty excited. I planned to use the tower to do a whole bunch of fun stuff at home that I don't like to do on my PowerBook, because these things need more ... er ... power than the PowerBook can muster. Typical projects include: fun with GarageBand, Photoshop, Flash development, RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, etc.
Friday night I rushed home and started setting up the G5 immediately. It came with Mac OS 10.4 pre-installed, so I started downloading the latest from Software Update. The download seemed to be unusually quick, so I opened Activity Monitor to check out the download speed. Got bored with that pretty quickly and launched Safari, and ... SPLAT! System panic. Crap.
I ran the Apple Hardware Test on the machine, and the RAM test failed. Great. They sent me a machine with bad RAM. Well ... ok. I wanted to add RAM anyway. I went to Fry's, got 2GB of compatible RAM Saturday morning, and tried the tests again. All tests passed. Cool. A few hours wasted, but I'm up and running. Start installing a few apps and ... SPLAT! Another panic. Crap.
Maybe the System software is bad, I thought. I mean ... all of the hardware tests passed. I can't remember the last time that I ran on the system that was pre-installed. Maybe that's the problem.
So, I rebooted from the restore disc, erased the hard drive, and re-installed a clean version of Mac OS 10.4.4. Then, I tried a few things. Ok. Good so far, I thought. So, I ran Software Update again, and began downloading the latest software. Shortly before the big MacOS X 10.4.7 combined update finished downloading ... SPLAT! System panic. Crap.
Huh, I thought, being unusually optimistic. Maybe this is some problem fixed by 10.4.7. I'll just finish the download, reboot into 10.4.7 and ... SPLAT! Ok. This is really getting to me now. Another reboot and I'm into 10.4.7. Things seem ok. Let's try something to stress-test the system.
I started a drag-install of RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 (copying files in the Finder), thinking that the demos would be a good stress test. Turns out copying the files was enough to panic the system again!
That was it. I re-installed the original RAM DIMMs, put the machine back into the packaging and into the shipping box, and set it next to the door.
Tomorrow will be interesting. I don't know what to expect. I think that I will probably simply return the machine. I don't know what Apple would try to repair on the system, because all of the hardware tests pass. But, now a few strange details start to make sense. The RAM DIMMs that Apple originally shipped in the machine were really scratched up. I bet that the machine was originally returned due to these panics, and someone had tried re-seating the RAM several times. Because the hardware tests all passed, the refurb group probably thought it was all set to re-sell.
-- to be continued --
Monday, May 29, 2006
Obsession
Ok, so I guess I'm obsessed with the idea of making computer games out of board games and card games. You've all heard me talk about this at one point or another, but I'm beginning to think that I just have to take some time ( like a year or two ) and try this out. It can't be any worse that building software that I don't care about for people who don't care what I think.
So, first of all, I'm not talking about making another computer version of Solitaire or Checkers. I'm talking about taking games like Guillotine ( a card game by Wizards of the Coast ) or Pirateer ( a board game by Mendocino Game Company ) and making compelling computer versions of games like that.
I really like playing these games with people, and I realize that the social nature of playing these games in person is an important element for almost everyone who enjoys these games. I'm not looking to replace that experience. There are lots of times when I'd like to play one of these games and my friends are not available. There are other times when I'd like to try out some new strategies or explore the different scenarios possible in the game.
There have been many times that I had wished that there were good computer versions of these games that I could play, either with strangers on the 'net or against AIs. I think that there might be a significant number of people "out there" who must feel the same way. Take Settlers of Catan as an example. There is a whole community of people who have developed a computer version as a project on SourceForge.
As a child of the Atari generation, I have always wanted to develop games. I understand that the "game industry" is a bad scene, that the annoyances I have seen at Adobe and at Apple pale in comparison to the ridiculous antics of execs at game studios or game publishers. I think, however, that as a cottage industry, indie game development is really interesting, and I'd like to try it. I think I'd like to learn to develop Flash® and see what I could do with the technologically simple but really fun to play games that we play on "Game Night". I'm pretty damned sure that I'd enjoy that a hell of a lot more than what I'm doing now. I'm sure enough that I'm thinking that I'll try it for a year or two and see where it leads. I've been working for other people for the past 20 years, and I've achieved my all of my goals in that regard. Now, it's time to try something else... or maybe it's just a way to recharge... either way, I'm ready for a change.
So, first of all, I'm not talking about making another computer version of Solitaire or Checkers. I'm talking about taking games like Guillotine ( a card game by Wizards of the Coast ) or Pirateer ( a board game by Mendocino Game Company ) and making compelling computer versions of games like that.
I really like playing these games with people, and I realize that the social nature of playing these games in person is an important element for almost everyone who enjoys these games. I'm not looking to replace that experience. There are lots of times when I'd like to play one of these games and my friends are not available. There are other times when I'd like to try out some new strategies or explore the different scenarios possible in the game.
There have been many times that I had wished that there were good computer versions of these games that I could play, either with strangers on the 'net or against AIs. I think that there might be a significant number of people "out there" who must feel the same way. Take Settlers of Catan as an example. There is a whole community of people who have developed a computer version as a project on SourceForge.
As a child of the Atari generation, I have always wanted to develop games. I understand that the "game industry" is a bad scene, that the annoyances I have seen at Adobe and at Apple pale in comparison to the ridiculous antics of execs at game studios or game publishers. I think, however, that as a cottage industry, indie game development is really interesting, and I'd like to try it. I think I'd like to learn to develop Flash® and see what I could do with the technologically simple but really fun to play games that we play on "Game Night". I'm pretty damned sure that I'd enjoy that a hell of a lot more than what I'm doing now. I'm sure enough that I'm thinking that I'll try it for a year or two and see where it leads. I've been working for other people for the past 20 years, and I've achieved my all of my goals in that regard. Now, it's time to try something else... or maybe it's just a way to recharge... either way, I'm ready for a change.
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Thursday, March 16, 2006
Game Industry Pundits Pontificate
Some interesting (and sometimes crazy) statements from video game industry experts. I especially love the one about single player games. [article]
Monday, March 13, 2006
Making Better Games with Test-Driven Development
Most of us work with
* UI
* complex libraries and frameworks
so this paper on TDD may be more relevant than other TDD literature. It also gives the clearest explanation I've seen yet on what a unit test, well, tests.
* UI
* complex libraries and frameworks
so this paper on TDD may be more relevant than other TDD literature. It also gives the clearest explanation I've seen yet on what a unit test, well, tests.
Friday, January 20, 2006
Hooked On Classics?
This video of a kid playing Canon in D on his guitar is pretty cool. I'm not sure whether to call this "Hooked on Classics" or "The Return of Progressive Rock" but I like it.
Monday, December 19, 2005
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
How to stop filesharers from stealing hotel bandwidth
Funny things you can do with network skillz: [link]
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Atari 800 Laptop, Oh Yeah!
I know some of you will find this of interest. A crazy man^H^H^H enthusiast has made a laptop out of an Atari 800. It was actually a fairly elaborate project since he appears to be obsessive compulsive. You have to read it to believe it. [article]
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
"Someday, no one will march there at all"
And so now every April, I sit on my porch
And I watch the parade pass before me.
And I see my old comrades, how proudly they march,
Reviving old dreams of past glory,
And the old men march slowly, all bones stiff and sore,
They're tired old heroes from a forgotten war
And the young people ask "What are they marching for?"
And I ask meself the same question.
But the band plays "Waltzing Matilda,"
And the old men still answer the call,
But as year follows year, more old men disappear
Someday, no one will march there at all.
The last Australian veteran who saw action during WWI died yesterday. Guess now that line will have to be "And now, no one will march there at all".
And I watch the parade pass before me.
And I see my old comrades, how proudly they march,
Reviving old dreams of past glory,
And the old men march slowly, all bones stiff and sore,
They're tired old heroes from a forgotten war
And the young people ask "What are they marching for?"
And I ask meself the same question.
But the band plays "Waltzing Matilda,"
And the old men still answer the call,
But as year follows year, more old men disappear
Someday, no one will march there at all.
The last Australian veteran who saw action during WWI died yesterday. Guess now that line will have to be "And now, no one will march there at all".
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
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