Some developers nowadays still think that putting an exclamation mark in their log entries adds to the visibility of their entry. When other developers notice this, they will add even more exclamation marks so their log entries are even more visible. I compiled a few examples of bad log entries and some pointers for you to improve your log entries.
Like any good software company, when a project starts, we sit down with the client, and talk about what we can do to help. The result is usually a more or less complete SRS (Software Requirement Specification). The SRS serves as input to the design fase (we usually already have an architecture sketch when the SRS is made) and those two documents are used to brief the developers and keep everybody posted on what to build. If all done correctly, this should then result in a perfect piece of software right?
As you may know, Norton and Symantec were originally rivals in the anti-virus software market. Then, Norton bought Symantec and the two anti-virus products merged into Norton Anti Virus. Yes, I know, I’m talking PC here. Bare with me on this one.
Google calendar is the new “Cool” in the calendar world. Or at least, the guys at work seem to think so. For me, a 100% online calendar is not always a good solution, because I can’t take it with me. Getting Google calendar to sync with iCal would help, because that syncs to my phone and iPod. I tried BusySync and Spanning Sync to do this. One of them succeeded.
The new marketing “trick” seems to be to give a product a nice name, which sounds “expensive” and “design” like. So the marketing boys come up with a nice name. Compaq for instance has been using “pressario” for a while now. But when I say that I have a “pressario”, do you really know what kind of computer I have? Do you know which computer to buy when you hear my praise on my great new computer?
… invented for people who order size 12 pants for their size 18 butts.
Every age has it’s tools. Many, many years ago, in 1976 to be exact, squinty-eyed nerds with a social deficiency ruled the computer world. They talked to eachother in a secret code, wore geeky clothes and made sure that everybody thought that computers were magic. To make sure that nobody could ever use a computer to edit a file, they all swore to never ever use another editor than… <scary music> vi </scary music>.
Last week a collegue of mine did an introductory talk about RUP (Rational Unified Process). It was an interesting talk about how RUP can be applied in projects, what the philosophy is behind RUP, and lessons learned during her first RUP workshop.
After the talk, we discussed how RUP looked a lot like DSDM, Agile and XP. In all these methods, developers are arrogant enough to “demand” customers to conform to their process. Sure there is a lot to be said for consulting the customer often, and having lots of pre-releases, but the customer is still the customer, not your in-house QA department.
This morning I thought I had way too much tasks, way too much paper on my desk, a messy inbox, and a cluttered schedule. Then I made a terrible mistake: try to solve this with more tools. You don’t always solve “more X” with “more Y”.
Hello kids. Yes, if you are writing applications for consumer companies, there’s a good chance I’m talking to you. We need to have a talk, urgently. It’s about a whole new way of doing things, and it’s a new word in your dictionary. The word is “secure” (linked to Webster’s for your convenience.