Writing code without errors can be done, and back in school, I used to do it all the time, but then again, school projects are fairly "trivial"
Back when (this is 20+ years ago folks) when I was taking into to machine language, we were allowed to work with a partner. I had a fairly good partner whos skills complimented mine. We'd get some assignment, due in say, 2 weeks. Next day, she'd ask me "did you start on it yet?" The answer would be "Nope - thinking about how to solve it" - and we bat around design ideas. This would go on every day for almost a week. The two of us refining the design - no paper, just talk (folks - my school still had PUNCH cards) The finally, she'd say "Have you started on the code yet?" And I'd say OK - and I'd sit down with a pad and pencil, and WRITE out the entire program, in Assembler, in ONE pass. Macros, etc - just filling page after page with code.
When I was done, I'd take 1/2 the pages, she'd take the other half, and we'd go type it in. I'd say on more than 50% of the projects, it ran, error free on the first try. Sometimes we'd get an occasional typing error, and other times there would be design problems that took tweeking over the next couple of days
So, it is possible to do. Then again, just about any CS1/CS2 program is by definition a simple program. Any project shorter than multiple man months is
Yep - you got it. I work in a company where about 1/2 the company is union, the other half isn't. What's MORE fun is that there are actually 2 differentnetworks and IT infrastructures - the one that is "Public facing" is unionized, and the one that runs the back house is not. EVERYONE wants into the front of house area, but the union is basically hereditory
The simple answer is the following 1)How much downtime can you afford due to lack of hotswap etc
2)Can the desktop box do the job? If your trying to do some massive process, the answer might be no
Lets face it - there are a LOT of "Mom and Pop" shops where if the server goes down for 1/2 day - it's not a major problem (Heck, I've worked at software shops like this - just keep working on what you already have out). Other places, your down for 5 minutes (of even 60 seconds) and the phones will be ringing (where I am now) - heck, with the project I'm on now, on "production day", there will be: The Programmer (me) The DBA The Server Admin (or 3) Network Infratructure Tech (or 3) Union electricians Consulting DBA Microsoft Level 2 Support
ALL sitting in the server room, watching the box(es), network traffic, server processes, database states, etc for the whole day. If we have more than 15 seconds of downtime at the wrong time, heads WILL roll.
The system is spread over 2 cities, 2 or more redundant servers in each, in sepearate data centers, being fed by T1s that go by different routes to the data source (yes, you can find out the routes, and pay for different routes)
We'll use the system for 2 days, and then all the hardware gets put to other use, and we do it again in 2 years - 6 months of testing, 3-7 days/week, all for one day
Of course some of us don't believe that the government should be in broadcasting at all - nor supporting the arts etc.
They shouldn't be paying for LOCAL/STATE roads, paying farm subsidies, running a Social Security program etc
" The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
When I want to tease my son slightly, (like when he starts to get bored on a car trip) I'll say "Moooo" (don't ask - my Dad used to Moo at cows on OUR car trips when I was a kid....) My son will say "Dad, stop saying Mooooo" (sometime he adds "Only cows say Moooo") - I'll then go "baaaa", and when he complains I move on to the "La-la-la"
Having worked at an electronics company, I'll tell you that almost ALL electronics can be washed. Yep, mild detergent and water - in fact, almost every PC board (usually called PWBs inside industry) goes through a glorified dishwasher!! (turn off the heat - don't use sanitize cycle), Don't run things like disk drives or fans through it (aka no mechanical parts) - but you should be ale to take the motherboard and wash it with soap and water - ditto the case, and the internal parts of the power supply except for the fan
Oh yeah - make sure the power is off and disconnected
I'd say go out and buy YOURSELF a copy of "peopleware" and read it. There are a couple of VERY important points made there
1)You can NOT build teams - They can form, and the BEST you can do is not to interfere. Don't TRY and force teams. Now you can setup an environment that will foster team growth, but that is about it
2)YOU, as a manager, will NEVER really be part of the team - period. You MIGHT like the team, the team might like YOU, and occasionally invite you along, but you are never REALLY part of the team. Even a team lead who does not have full management power is even slightly on the edge of a team. He/she CAN be a member, and in fact, can be the core, but that is in the same way that the hole in a doughnut is the core of the doughnut - he's not the same
Part 2 is why MOST managers HATE teams - they don't fully control them, and aren't really part of them, so they are afraid of them, so they break them up
One Hint from the book - if you are lucky enough for a team to form, feel lucky, and do your best to keep them happy
I've had the joy (and I'm NOT using that sarcasticlly) of being a member of a gelled team twice in 20 years. Each time the teams lasted, oh, around 2 years before management did something stupid, and broke up the team. We almost NEVER went out after work, MOST of the gang didn't see each other outside of work, and we had very diverse interests - BUT we all KNEW what the other folks (guys and gals) on the team liked/disliked
Another thing that I'll point out (not in the book) that I've noticed about every gelled team I've seen (not only worked on) - They were mixed gender and/or orientation AND mixed age. Best team I was ever on had folks from about 22 years old, up to about 50! (and that was for an 8 person team)
Another trick a friend did - Pulled all the decals off the bike - made it non descript. I've seen folks go as far as spraying the bike with primer, just to make it ugly!! (and yes, this was a nice bike)
Your right on this, and sometimes a bug just isn't worth fixing!!!
WAY back when, in the dark days of 386s and early 486s, I wrote an application that was the best selling product in it's (admittedly) small nitche vertical market.
One day, we get a call - there is a bug in printing that NO one else could duplicate. It took me a week to run down the following
It required you to: Be running on an IBM PS/2 Model 80 (Yes, the Microchannel one) Be using an HP Laserjet II Be using a MICROCHANNEL HP "Jet Direct Card" (a card that allowed the raster rip to be done on the PC instead of the HPIIs memory for greater speed) Be running with a particular resolution
As the Model 80 was never a BIG seller, and neither was the Microchannel Jet Direct Card, we determined that it just was NOT worth fixing - we DID offer to fix the bug is they would send us the hardware. If the guy used the printer port, it worked fine (I assume it was a strange driver "feature" I would have had to work around)
The client I wrote the software cheerfully offered the end user a full refund on the software.... The client decided to keep the software, and use his printer port. We never did fix that bug, and NEVER got a call from anyone else reporting it (PS/2s were going away already)
OK, the guy works in Word Development. The "disk full" error is being reported by the OS - He MAY have ASKED the OS group to put in better error messages in some future SP of Windows, but I'm sure he's NOT allowed to do it himself
Another thing that works suprisingly well is a cold chisel! I used to work for a place that used a lot of steel cable. We would wrap the cable with tape (to prevent frayed ends), put the cable on the floor, take out the cold chisel and a 1 hand sledge (or large Ball Pein hammer) and give the chisel a whack - one cut cable - faster than the disk grinder that we used to cut hardened hoist chain with
Still remember when my now Brother in Law lost the keys to his U type bike lock. The bike shop said it would take hours with a power hacksaw to cut. I drove over with the cutting torch and removed it in about 15-20 seconds once I setup the torch - which took longer than making the cut
Cutting tools? Those I have - along with the rest of a machine shop.....
And the sec or someone gets one or two of those, they get a court ruling that you were not in the spirit of the law, and away we go. Or they get the law changed
I know that "back when" (read 10-11 years ago, I was working for an insurance company. There are/were VERY specific rules on keeping paperwork. I was involved with a project to keep claims letters - they had to be retrevable for 7 years from the date they were sent. Fun job, and until that point, they had NOT trusted computers. We kept a complete set of revisions to each letter type (Receipt of claim, approval, denial, etc), a scan of each claims person signature, and all the details of the fill in the blank
The project cost a fairly large amount of cash at that time, but saved a fortune - not in labor, but in RENT. Even with moving "dead" records to offsite storage, you still end up with stacks of filing cabinets - when you figure that floor space can cost up to $800/sq foot, and that filing cabinet takes up say 5 square feet, that file cabinet costs $4000/year!!! Now figure a couple of hundred file cabinets.....
Well, that depends doesn't it? From what I understand about libel law (IANAL) in the USA, the party claiming libel has to PROVE the libel. In Great Britan, the party who is accused has to prove their statement
Wow, another old hand who's done GPIB!! That's actually how I got my start as a professional programmer - we were running a bunch of gear that used the GPIB bus, either off of some HP controller (which ran HP Basic) or some old Tectronics terminals
We used some CEC corp IEEE-488 (aka GPIB) cards and an emulator to emulate that old HP basic. Then, as the programs were in BASIC, the natural progression was to the Microsoft BasComp compiler, then to the PDS. Then windows and VB came along, and us old hands at HP basic (a DEAD language) and the Old Microsoft Basics became hot properties, and some of us caught the front end of that wave. It's been a hell of a ride, where I've seen a lot of really bad code, and seen some real nice stuff. I still miss controling BIG machines with my little computer
Again, see my other post - almost all pacemakers are variable rate. And yes, most bypass/heart opertaion folks end up with memory problems due to the operation - my Dad is a case in point, but it's a hell of a lot better than being dead
What? Almost all current generation pacemakers are rate responsive - they have a minimum rate, max rate, and rate curves, and they use various sensors (usually activity (movement) from what I understand, but also breathing rate) to change from one setpoint to another.
I've been with my Dad when they check the programming of the resting and exercise rates on his pacemaker, and set them, and the transition point - It's all done with an inductive coil that is places over the main module of the pacemaker - they can even check the settings by phone
You are right - they are/were actually closer to bacteria, but I stretched a bit to link viruses and bacteria - Just like comparing computer viruses to real viruses is a stretch
Yep, there is/was a virus that has infected your ancestors LONG ago, that gave you an advantage - to the point that it has been handed doen from Mother to child for millions of years.....
I go to 2 eye Drs - My "Normal" optho, and one who specalizes in eye surgery including lasik and glaucoma - I have slightly high eye pressure, and they wanted it monitored - turns out NOT to be a problem in my case (stable pressure after 3 years of checks every 3 months)
Anyway, I asked him about lasik - he said, sure, we can do your eyes, but your 40, your glasses don't seem to bother you. He also said - Notice that I'm your age, and I'm.... Wearing glasses. He would only have to walk over to his partner to have it done, and he has not.
Tells me something
That said, he says the advances have been HUGE in the has 3 years or so
I have fun with this one - One person who visits a neighbor has a car that trips the alarm is you transmit on 144.390 Mhz - Other hams will know what this frequency is - APRS (Automatic Position (or Packet) Reporting System) - I run an APRS station at home - every few minutes it digipeats some inbound packet, and off goes the guys alarm. Luckly, the guy turns out to be another HAM! We worked and fixed that one. Only happened if he parked right in from of my house - 2 houses away stopped the problem
I've also seen it happen in parking lots - I'll key my radio, and someone's alarm will go off - just a bad alarm setup - I've had MY signal checked, and I'm running perfectly legal
Slashdot Mirror
I finnaly had an office where I was too cold - last week - checked the temps - it was 58
Writing code without errors can be done, and back in school, I used to do it all the time, but then again, school projects are fairly "trivial"
Back when (this is 20+ years ago folks) when I was taking into to machine language, we were allowed to work with a partner. I had a fairly good partner whos skills complimented mine. We'd get some assignment, due in say, 2 weeks. Next day, she'd ask me "did you start on it yet?" The answer would be "Nope - thinking about how to solve it" - and we bat around design ideas. This would go on every day for almost a week. The two of us refining the design - no paper, just talk (folks - my school still had PUNCH cards) The finally, she'd say "Have you started on the code yet?" And I'd say OK - and I'd sit down with a pad and pencil, and WRITE out the entire program, in Assembler, in ONE pass. Macros, etc - just filling page after page with code.
When I was done, I'd take 1/2 the pages, she'd take the other half, and we'd go type it in. I'd say on more than 50% of the projects, it ran, error free on the first try. Sometimes we'd get an occasional typing error, and other times there would be design problems that took tweeking over the next couple of days
So, it is possible to do. Then again, just about any CS1/CS2 program is by definition a simple program. Any project shorter than multiple man months is
Yep - you got it. I work in a company where about 1/2 the company is union, the other half isn't. What's MORE fun is that there are actually 2 differentnetworks and IT infrastructures - the one that is "Public facing" is unionized, and the one that runs the back house is not. EVERYONE wants into the front of house area, but the union is basically hereditory
The simple answer is the following
1)How much downtime can you afford due to lack of hotswap etc
2)Can the desktop box do the job? If your trying to do some massive process, the answer might be no
Lets face it - there are a LOT of "Mom and Pop" shops where if the server goes down for 1/2 day - it's not a major problem (Heck, I've worked at software shops like this - just keep working on what you already have out). Other places, your down for 5 minutes (of even 60 seconds) and the phones will be ringing (where I am now) - heck, with the project I'm on now, on "production day", there will be:
The Programmer (me)
The DBA
The Server Admin (or 3)
Network Infratructure Tech (or 3)
Union electricians
Consulting DBA
Microsoft Level 2 Support
ALL sitting in the server room, watching the box(es), network traffic, server processes, database states, etc for the whole day. If we have more than 15 seconds of downtime at the wrong time, heads WILL roll.
The system is spread over 2 cities, 2 or more redundant servers in each, in sepearate data centers, being fed by T1s that go by different routes to the data source (yes, you can find out the routes, and pay for different routes)
We'll use the system for 2 days, and then all the hardware gets put to other use, and we do it again in 2 years - 6 months of testing, 3-7 days/week, all for one day
BEST COWORKER STORY EVER
Of course some of us don't believe that the government should be in broadcasting at all - nor supporting the arts etc.
They shouldn't be paying for LOCAL/STATE roads, paying farm subsidies, running a Social Security program etc
" The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
la-la-la
When I want to tease my son slightly, (like when he starts to get bored on a car trip) I'll say "Moooo" (don't ask - my Dad used to Moo at cows on OUR car trips when I was a kid....) My son will say "Dad, stop saying Mooooo" (sometime he adds "Only cows say Moooo") - I'll then go "baaaa", and when he complains I move on to the "La-la-la"
Having worked at an electronics company, I'll tell you that almost ALL electronics can be washed. Yep, mild detergent and water - in fact, almost every PC board (usually called PWBs inside industry) goes through a glorified dishwasher!! (turn off the heat - don't use sanitize cycle), Don't run things like disk drives or fans through it (aka no mechanical parts) - but you should be ale to take the motherboard and wash it with soap and water - ditto the case, and the internal parts of the power supply except for the fan
Oh yeah - make sure the power is off and disconnected
I'd say go out and buy YOURSELF a copy of "peopleware" and read it. There are a couple of VERY important points made there
1)You can NOT build teams - They can form, and the BEST you can do is not to interfere. Don't TRY and force teams. Now you can setup an environment that will foster team growth, but that is about it
2)YOU, as a manager, will NEVER really be part of the team - period. You MIGHT like the team, the team might like YOU, and occasionally invite you along, but you are never REALLY part of the team. Even a team lead who does not have full management power is even slightly on the edge of a team. He/she CAN be a member, and in fact, can be the core, but that is in the same way that the hole in a doughnut is the core of the doughnut - he's not the same
Part 2 is why MOST managers HATE teams - they don't fully control them, and aren't really part of them, so they are afraid of them, so they break them up
One Hint from the book - if you are lucky enough for a team to form, feel lucky, and do your best to keep them happy
I've had the joy (and I'm NOT using that sarcasticlly) of being a member of a gelled team twice in 20 years. Each time the teams lasted, oh, around 2 years before management did something stupid, and broke up the team. We almost NEVER went out after work, MOST of the gang didn't see each other outside of work, and we had very diverse interests - BUT we all KNEW what the other folks (guys and gals) on the team liked/disliked
Another thing that I'll point out (not in the book) that I've noticed about every gelled team I've seen (not only worked on) - They were mixed gender and/or orientation AND mixed age. Best team I was ever on had folks from about 22 years old, up to about 50! (and that was for an 8 person team)
Another trick a friend did - Pulled all the decals off the bike - made it non descript. I've seen folks go as far as spraying the bike with primer, just to make it ugly!! (and yes, this was a nice bike)
Your right on this, and sometimes a bug just isn't worth fixing!!!
WAY back when, in the dark days of 386s and early 486s, I wrote an application that was the best selling product in it's (admittedly) small nitche vertical market.
One day, we get a call - there is a bug in printing that NO one else could duplicate. It took me a week to run down the following
It required you to:
Be running on an IBM PS/2 Model 80 (Yes, the Microchannel one)
Be using an HP Laserjet II
Be using a MICROCHANNEL HP "Jet Direct Card" (a card that allowed the raster rip to be done on the PC instead of the HPIIs memory for greater speed)
Be running with a particular resolution
As the Model 80 was never a BIG seller, and neither was the Microchannel Jet Direct Card, we determined that it just was NOT worth fixing - we DID offer to fix the bug is they would send us the hardware. If the guy used the printer port, it worked fine (I assume it was a strange driver "feature" I would have had to work around)
The client I wrote the software cheerfully offered the end user a full refund on the software.... The client decided to keep the software, and use his printer port. We never did fix that bug, and NEVER got a call from anyone else reporting it (PS/2s were going away already)
RE: Fix the Error Message.
OK, the guy works in Word Development. The "disk full" error is being reported by the OS - He MAY have ASKED the OS group to put in better error messages in some future SP of Windows, but I'm sure he's NOT allowed to do it himself
Another thing that works suprisingly well is a cold chisel! I used to work for a place that used a lot of steel cable. We would wrap the cable with tape (to prevent frayed ends), put the cable on the floor, take out the cold chisel and a 1 hand sledge (or large Ball Pein hammer) and give the chisel a whack - one cut cable - faster than the disk grinder that we used to cut hardened hoist chain with
Still remember when my now Brother in Law lost the keys to his U type bike lock. The bike shop said it would take hours with a power hacksaw to cut. I drove over with the cutting torch and removed it in about 15-20 seconds once I setup the torch - which took longer than making the cut
Cutting tools? Those I have - along with the rest of a machine shop.....
And the sec or someone gets one or two of those, they get a court ruling that you were not in the spirit of the law, and away we go. Or they get the law changed
I know that "back when" (read 10-11 years ago, I was working for an insurance company. There are/were VERY specific rules on keeping paperwork. I was involved with a project to keep claims letters - they had to be retrevable for 7 years from the date they were sent. Fun job, and until that point, they had NOT trusted computers. We kept a complete set of revisions to each letter type (Receipt of claim, approval, denial, etc), a scan of each claims person signature, and all the details of the fill in the blank
The project cost a fairly large amount of cash at that time, but saved a fortune - not in labor, but in RENT. Even with moving "dead" records to offsite storage, you still end up with stacks of filing cabinets - when you figure that floor space can cost up to $800/sq foot, and that filing cabinet takes up say 5 square feet, that file cabinet costs $4000/year!!! Now figure a couple of hundred file cabinets.....
Well, that depends doesn't it? From what I understand about libel law (IANAL) in the USA, the party claiming libel has to PROVE the libel. In Great Britan, the party who is accused has to prove their statement
Wow, another old hand who's done GPIB!! That's actually how I got my start as a professional programmer - we were running a bunch of gear that used the GPIB bus, either off of some HP controller (which ran HP Basic) or some old Tectronics terminals
We used some CEC corp IEEE-488 (aka GPIB) cards and an emulator to emulate that old HP basic. Then, as the programs were in BASIC, the natural progression was to the Microsoft BasComp compiler, then to the PDS. Then windows and VB came along, and us old hands at HP basic (a DEAD language) and the Old Microsoft Basics became hot properties, and some of us caught the front end of that wave. It's been a hell of a ride, where I've seen a lot of really bad code, and seen some real nice stuff. I still miss controling BIG machines with my little computer
Anything 64? How about if the 64 Refers to the Comodore 64
As I said before, Impossible Mission, Jumpman and a few others - Of course Zork and the other adventure games
For the c64? How about Impossible Mission "Another visitor....."
http://heartdisease.about.com/cs/arrhythmias/a/pac emakers.htm
I know Dad's pacemaker is variable rate, and that was, oh, 3-4 years ago
Again, see my other post - almost all pacemakers are variable rate. And yes, most bypass/heart opertaion folks end up with memory problems due to the operation - my Dad is a case in point, but it's a hell of a lot better than being dead
What? Almost all current generation pacemakers are rate responsive - they have a minimum rate, max rate, and rate curves, and they use various sensors (usually activity (movement) from what I understand, but also breathing rate) to change from one setpoint to another.
I've been with my Dad when they check the programming of the resting and exercise rates on his pacemaker, and set them, and the transition point - It's all done with an inductive coil that is places over the main module of the pacemaker - they can even check the settings by phone
You are right - they are/were actually closer to bacteria, but I stretched a bit to link viruses and bacteria - Just like comparing computer viruses to real viruses is a stretch
Yep, there is/was a virus that has infected your ancestors LONG ago, that gave you an advantage - to the point that it has been handed doen from Mother to child for millions of years.....
Mitochondria
I go to 2 eye Drs - My "Normal" optho, and one who specalizes in eye surgery including lasik and glaucoma - I have slightly high eye pressure, and they wanted it monitored - turns out NOT to be a problem in my case (stable pressure after 3 years of checks every 3 months)
Anyway, I asked him about lasik - he said, sure, we can do your eyes, but your 40, your glasses don't seem to bother you. He also said - Notice that I'm your age, and I'm.... Wearing glasses. He would only have to walk over to his partner to have it done, and he has not.
Tells me something
That said, he says the advances have been HUGE in the has 3 years or so
I have fun with this one - One person who visits a neighbor has a car that trips the alarm is you transmit on 144.390 Mhz - Other hams will know what this frequency is - APRS (Automatic Position (or Packet) Reporting System) - I run an APRS station at home - every few minutes it digipeats some inbound packet, and off goes the guys alarm. Luckly, the guy turns out to be another HAM! We worked and fixed that one. Only happened if he parked right in from of my house - 2 houses away stopped the problem
I've also seen it happen in parking lots - I'll key my radio, and someone's alarm will go off - just a bad alarm setup - I've had MY signal checked, and I'm running perfectly legal