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This is a example of how there could a more efficient method, and how traditional techniques from passed down from unskilled staff to unskilled staff might not be the best. With 3G and 4G connectivity, it is not hard to SHH into a server and look at the logs directly. Such a method is very low bandwidth. The SHH client apps on the iPhone are very capable. Cat to view the change logs, diff to see the changes, and vi to edit.

You can do anything you set your mind to when you have vision, determination, and an endless supply of expendable labor.

Um, not so sure about Apple's expendable supply of labor anymore... check the headline (courtesy of Google's "great" Englese translation)

Looks like the whole company is gone ! ;)

You can do anything you set your mind to when you have vision, determination, and an endless supply of expendable labor.

There's always another choice...

http://despair.com/discovery.html

He must be a consultant.

If you're not a part of the solution, there's good money to be made in prolonging the problem.

I see your point. However, I think a bank teller and a gas station attendant are equally important as aerospace and software engineers.

And that's where the larger part of your disconnect from reality begins.

http://site.despair.com/images/dpage/potential03.jpg

More appropriately for Toyota and despair.com: http://despair.com/toyota.html

Toyota — once you drive one, you'll never stop.

"The race for quality has no finish line- so technically, it's more like a death march."

Not my quote, so I'll give them props: http://www.despair.com/quality.html

Oblig DespairWear plug.

If you keep failing, nobody is going to hear of you, unless you become such a huge failure that you are famous ;).

http://www.despair.com/priorities.html

By the likes of you, maybe , seeing as you are not even aware there is a governing body the the internet as a whole...i won't waste my time educating you any longer.

Ok we've got a real newbie here.

The Internet is a globally distributed network comprising many voluntarily interconnected autonomous networks. It operates without a central governing body.

You talk about credentials and yet you have this delusion that there is a governing body the the internet as a whole.
ICANN has some say over the DNS system and IP numbers but it certainly isn't a central governing body.

related to different technologies for the web, would have a clear understanding of what I am throwing at them, I see you do not.

So far you sound more like an arts student than a programmer.

My credentials speak for themselves...as for your ignorance in the accounting past of what I said, you should pay closer attention to what is going on in your own country.

The US is proposing a tv tax now, for you to enjoy your television, how do you propose they will collect that, from your door? Obviously not, the cable companies will get asked to add an amount to the bill they send you, and the government will do their diligent job of following the paper trail the cable companies set up for such a thing.

I. do. not. live. in. the. US.
I've seen nothing of your credentials other than a certainty that the impossible can be achieved.

There are those that have ideas, and those that don't.
The ones that don't are only as good as their critiquing.

http://www.despair.com/delusions.html

Ever seen that demotivational poster that says "It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others." ?

Well, that was me on my last project. I inherited a codebase of about 1.2 million lines of antequated C code, written by a dozen or so different people over the course of a dozen or so years, for half a dozen different projects. For your benefit, here are a few dos/don'ts that I learned the hard way:

1. DO NOT try to be a hero and learn the code inside/out all by yourself. Going in, I had a long history of doing exactly that on numerous smaller projects. Turns out 1.2 million lines was WAY beyond my ability to grasp just by pouring over the source code. The whole time I was trying to decipher this massive, seemingly amorphous blob of code all by myself, there were at least 2 or 3 of the previous developers sitting a couple floors up. All I had to do was ask for help, but for a variety of reasons (they are very busy people, I don't want to come off as being incompetent, my own overconfidence, etc), I didn't use that resource nearly as much as I could (and should) have.

2. DO NOT try to learn the code bottom-up, by diving straight in and trying to put it all together one piece at a time like a giant jigsaw puzzle. Get a good, solid big picture view in your head first. Draw it out. Data flow, logic flow, UML diagrams, whatever it takes for you to really understand it at a high level, before you start reading source code line by line, function by function, class by class.

3. DO NOT be afraid to make a few assumptions, at least initially. Yes, this may well mean that your high-level mental picture of the code may have some errors that you will need to fix later on, but you need to use your time efficiently. If you can reasonably discern what a given module, file, or function does without having to read every line of code, go ahead and pencil it in on your high level diagram and move on. If you see a source code file named reset_xyz_board.c, you can be reasonably sure it's resetting the "xyz" board. No need to fully grasp every little detail right off the bat. There will be time for that later, if and when it becomes necessary. But keep in mind that with any sufficiently large codebase, there are going to be numerous dark corners that you never end up seeing anyway. Why waste time meticulously mapping out every single one of those dark corners when, in all likelihood, you are only ever going to modify a tenth of the code, or maybe a quarter at the most? The more time you waste obsessing about every minute detail, the less time you will have to truly understand the code from a high level.

4. DO get help from your team! I don't mean the previous developers. If the codebase is large enough that you don't feel you can learn the code all on your own, chances are you aren't the only person assigned to the project. If you are the only person, and your bosses refuse to get you help, then good luck. Otherwise, enlist your fellow developers to help you figure the damn thing out, before you all go off trying to write new code. In my case, I was the team lead and started off with 3 other developers on my team. I was foolish enough to let my ego get in the way, thinking that it somehow wasn't "right" for a team lead to have to rely on his team to help him figure out the existing code (which I probably could have done if not for mistakes 1-3, but that's beside the point). I wanted to be the guru who had a better, clearer understanding of the code than the rest of my team. Why? Because I figured that was part of my role as a team leader, and I didn't think they would respect me as much if I didn't know more than they did. Let's face it, programmers are a meritocratic bunch. Ranks and titles don't equate to respect. Your fellow programmers will invariably treat you with a level of respect that is in direct relation to their estimation of your

Obviously the issue is the people who are doing the analysis... consultants...

This is the reason why this kind of thing is all screwed up:

If you're not a part of the solution, there's good money to be made in prolonging the problem

Alternatively, you could just use a fake book cover to read something that really applies to your role.

For example: http://despair.com/manageredition.html

That reminds me of this item from despair.com

That is so true!

That is so true!

That is so true!

That is so true!

Sigh.

Oh well, at least we don't have any money to pay for it....(not that it matters, apparently)

To link a poster from the geniuses at Despair Inc: http://www.despair.com/government.html

Priceless.

It seems as if all they did was to avoid gross stupidity. That must be a lot harder to do than you'd think.

I think it boils down to this (from a Despair.com poster):

None of us is as dumb as all of us.

Most companies don't understand this. The get a group of smart people together and assume that they'll come up with some really good ideas, but end up with a camel.

Obligatory demotivator

You had 38 CFL bulbs that all died in less than a year. Meanwhile other people (myself included) are seeing multiple years of life out of ours. As you note, it's can't possibly be something unusual in your case; you have electricl voodoo, and have a line conditioner. That's interesting.

For no particular reason, I'm reminded of the guy I know who complains that every single romantic relationship he's in ends messily. He's wisely concluded that it's impossible for any man to have a healthy, long-term relationship with with women. I'm sure there is some valuable lesson there.

Mmmmm, made me think of this.

when i start feeling down, i just take a look at my de- motivational posters and remember, it can always be worse.

Probably a very easy job.

http://despair.com/motivation.html

Because moderation isn't an exact science? I refer you to this nugget of joy.

Much love,
AC

Here's a couple about twitter: here and here.

Here's a couple about twitter: here and here.

What you say reminded me of a product poster at Depair

http://despair.com/government.html

Reminds me of a Despair, Inc. poster.

This reminds me of the "Broken Windows" theory. (Please, don't make the OS joke that is begging to be said.) A good explanation is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixing_Broken_Windows Whatever the original root cause, of course, the effect is the same once it takes hold: The lowest common denominator often is the expression of the group as a whole. (Barring a really great leader of some sort.) This is expressed most succinctly in the following: http://despair.com/teamwork.html So bad behavior (or making poor decisions) is virus-like. The question to be answered is: can good behavior (making good decisions) also be formed to be virus-like?

    Better order some extra bunnies for tomorrow. I'm having a good day today. :)

    I used to have a poster from despair.com on my office wall.

That might be his whole purpose in life.

Oh STFU, you religious nut.

Actually... I'm an atheist and I was referring to a slogan on a popular poster. Hope those meds work out for ya...

Sad enough to use a frowny. :-( (TM)

Tradition...

If you are proud of being a non-blogger http://www.despair.com/blogging.html

What?

Blogging; never before have so many people with so little to say said so much to so few.

(Apologies to Despair).

I think you were looking for this one... http://despair.com/innovation.html

http://www.despair.com/motivation.html/

Exactly. Maybe as a consolation prize someone could buy him one of these.

Actually, we won't let it go. Just remember that besides the military, the government never succeeds in what it appears to set out to do. (the military is to kill people and destroy property, done well).

Just picture this.

"If you think the problems we create are bad, just wait until you see our solutions"
-Government Demotivator http://despair.com/government.html/

Two quick amendments.

I agree with you--Chicago is corrupt. But Blagojevich was the State governor, not the City's. For that, you'd have to turn to Daley and his corrupt cronies (convictions pending). If you're going to point out the corruption present in my great state, please at least point at the right people. :)

Second, you're right about the assumption that people who aren't willing to pay for insurance aren't likely to pay a citation mailed to them. However, in Chicago, it is now possible for your car to get booted with two outstanding parking tickets. My assumption would be that these insurance citations would apply to that total. And since the Chicago Department of Revenue (yes, they don't even pretend it's for public safety...) can access outstanding tickets much more easily than they can insurance records, the probability of getting the Boot would be higher. Perhaps more people would pay.

Stick one of these up on the wall, and just go with it.

I agree with you completely, but the problem is exactly what you say in the last statement, and that is my biggest concern, and this has been happening with an excess of technologies, policies, etc.

I think the real reason is a bunch of politicians doing a completely shitty jobs in general by being willing to violate their own ethics has translated to businesses doing a shitty job and violating their own ethics, and so forth down the road. I have a feeling every generation has dealt with this, we are not the last, and certainly not the first if history has anything to say about it.

I don't know what the cure is for that, since there is clearly enough nepotism for people to stretch their political career beyond retirement and beyond death, into their own children etc. I think this has been covered far more than enough already.

However, on the flip side in favor of being too careful is just as bad as not being careful in that both result in undesired change/errors/mistakes/people thrown to the wayside as innocent victims. There just isn't a balance at all, and this is evident in many cultures worldwide. It's just becoming more apparent because of the internet, or maybe it's just as apparent as it's always been. I don't know.

We the public are generally far too docile and naive. I recognize that almost all of our problems follow from this. I think it's because we have largely abandoned principle in favor of immediate convenience and gratification and that this has made us weak and timid. What immediate convenience would see as a gross overreaction to something small is what principle would see as stopping a problem in its early stages before it can grow and develop into a crisis.

We ignore the acorns that are planted and years later we wonder how the hell that giant mighty oak tree got there and we curse at how hard it's going to be to chop it down and at how much damage it's going to do when it falls. We act like it's so hard to know with certainty when we are on a wrong path and we think we need to go down each wrong path before we can see that clearly. Anyone who tries to tell us these things ahead of time is ignored, ridiculed, or is given some cop-out like "you're arrogant" or "who are you to judge?" The difference between true arrogance and speaking the truth with authority because you can see it with your own eyes is seldom appreciated.

I think that the answer to almost everything you have mentioned boils down to this flawed and unstated assumption in our society that people don't need to understand themselves and don't need to come up with their own understanding of the world. Most people have beliefs and worldviews, including strong ones, that are not the product of a careful evaluation of all available options. This amounts to programming. Regardless of age, I do not believe that a person is properly an adult until they have evaluated every last thing they think they believe with a willingness to reject anything and everything that does not help them grow as a human being. If this dynamic process of personal growth were the norm in our culture, if the average citizens were not a bunch of overgrown children, then the ethical violations of politicians and corporations would never be accepted for a moment. We have become weak and vacuous and they are moving in to fill this vacuum but they themselves are effects, not causes.

I agree with you completely, but the problem is exactly what you say in the last statement, and that is my biggest concern, and this has been happening with an excess of technologies, policies, etc.

I think the real reason is a bunch of politicians doing a completely shitty jobs in general by being willing to violate their own ethics has translated to businesses doing a shitty job and violating their own ethics, and so forth down the road. I have a feeling every generation has dealt with this, we are not the last, and certainly not the first if history has anything to say about it.

I don't know what the cure is for that, since there is clearly enough nepotism for people to stretch their political career beyond retirement and beyond death, into their own children etc. I think this has been covered far more than enough already.

However, on the flip side in favor of being too careful is just as bad as not being careful in that both result in undesired change/errors/mistakes/people thrown to the wayside as innocent victims. There just isn't a balance at all, and this is evident in many cultures worldwide. It's just becoming more apparent because of the internet, or maybe it's just as apparent as it's always been. I don't know.