Fifteen minutes 21 Jul 2003
Charles Miller on the "fifteen minute test":
One of the reasons I switched from Linux to OS X as my primary platform was because I don't have time to play around with software any more. I want it to work in predictable, obvious ways, and OS X (mostly) does that for me… Still, I think I'm more tolerant than most. So if you're coming up with the next big paradigm shift that will change the world, ask yourself: "How can I pass the fifteen minute test?"
Totally agree. After having spent an evening tinkering with drivers and comms software on a PC for my wife ("Plug and play"? Oh yeah??) I couldn't agree more. I know computers pretty well, and can could fiddle with the best of them. But I don't want to any more. Programming is enough tinkering for me!
In the past few months, on my home machines which took a few hours to set up, I've had programming grief with ODBC, Java, Domino, MySQL, the Notes C++ API on Windows and Linux. On top of that, University has me in pitched battle with OpenGL (*cringe*), CORBA (*cringe more*), AI algorithms with C++ (*wail*) and SQL (*pfff*). And just about nothing works until you've kicked something across the room.
When things *do* work, it's the most satisfying feeling in the world (which is why we do it, I suppose), but generally as a programmer it feels like I'm a cat covering crap on a marble floor.Colin Pretorius#
MS continues to create more IT jobs by perpetuating this mess - and creating complex hard-to-manage stuff like AD (we won't even go near SharePoint, BizTalk or CMS).
More work = more jobs = more IT staff = more IT budget = more IT power = more MS revenue.
No-one wants this boat rocked !
On the other hand it could just be mass masochism. "See how clever I am making all this poxy stuff work together" they say.
I'm over it.Justin Knol#
Justin, I've heard that M$ argument before, and I think you have something there… the mass buy-in must mean there's more than a little masochism going on though ;-) Ben Poole#
How To Write Unmaintainable Code
Via Tom Duff
I've linked to Roedy's site before, he has some good stuff there, including his Java & internet glossary.
Ben Poole#i have to say, (since i'm tossing out my two cents as usual) i disagree with the vaunted gladiator pretorius. (please don't run me through!)
;-)
i generally feel incredibly sorry for people doing hardware stuff. their jobs seem so boring. when they have an issue, they seem to solve it by consulting a manual (something someone else created) or by calling support (a thankless task for all involved) or by surfing the net until they find the parameter they have to tweak or whatever.
as a programmer if i have an issue with my own code or even someone else's, i find great satisfaction in creating a solution by writing more (or better, which might be less) code.
i am completely comfortable with this situation. hey, everyone who writes code has bugs that come up, its not just me. hardware is buggy too… the difference (it seems to me) with writing code is that i'm not working on something that someone else has created, i'm creating. the fact that something is unpredictable is a good thing, imo. jonvon#
I was being a bit facetious - I just think that hardware is easier than software - I love solving problems, but sometimes (especially after lost weekends when absolutely nothing works using a new tool/platform/API), I just wish I could spend more time solving *my* programming problems, instead of the problems API and platform builders create
Btw, we've been using Domino/Linux since late '99, and I have to say we love it to bits. If anything, we're not Linux gurus because we just install, configure, and leave the boxes running for months without worrying about them. I can't say NT/Win2k is awful, but I plain prefer Linux. It's powerful, stable, clean and most of all, you feel like it's there to serve *you*, which is something I don't really get from using M$ software. These days I'm trying to do more and more work (and development) on Linux, and while there's a learning curve, the rewards are definitely worth it.Colin Pretorius#
And, thank God, I got that machine's network card up and running. Lowest common denominator in the end: HyperTerminal to transfer the drivers over frm my XP machine. I am posting from a Win98 machie running IE 5.0! And hey, my site looks OK!
Don't even get me started on how M$ royally fecked up direct cable connection between Win 9x and 2000 / XP. Now I know why I'm such a Mac zealot. Jesus…Ben Poole#
I started out my 'real' computing life with an old Powerbook 520C, running MacOS 7.6. I loved that machine… I was heartbroken when I had to get with the rest of the world and move to Windows. That was part of the original appeal of Notes -- it wasn't M$. So Domino, and now Linux is a continuation of my long tradition of resenting M$ for being more successful than Apple :-)Colin Pretorius#
wow, the world is smaller and smaller. i have an undergrad degree in finance. worked for chase manhattan for two years. did number crunching type stuff and wrote my first ever programs inside excel. lots of lotus 1-2-3 formula stuff too… hehe.
i understand steve castledine is also a former finance guy. who knew? interesting ben, you started as "an arty-farty literature, politics and history sort of bloke", which is now what i am endeavoring to become, in odd moments sometime between 6 and 7am. well, excise the politics and history part, george bush rants aside. ok, so i'm working on one lousy short story at the moment.
ahem.
i actually bridged the gap between domino programmer / web developer with a stint as a tech writer. i think this is where my distaste for doing uncreative things stems from. not that tech writing doesn't involve creativity, but i realized at some point that i was documenting things that other people were creating. that became frustrating after a while. i think its probably analogous to doing translation work, as in, translating something from english to french, or whatever. i knew someone who did a lot of translation work and she had the same take, very uncreative and in some ways very unsatisfying work. again, not that translating something doesn't involve creativity, but you aren't generating something original. its different somehow, and for the way i'm wired i can only do so much of that sort of thing before i get the itch to move on to something else.jonvon#
Auditing is seriously soul-destroying. You're like a traffic cop; nobody wants you there and you and the client both know it. You compile the 'audit files', they get reviewed by a manager and partner, and filed away. The next year the auditors take a squizz at what you did the year before, then the files are archived, and forgotten about unless there's a lawsuit. And then you go to the next client and do the same thing over again…
I started out consulting with Lotus, and even the consulting got me down eventually, because you write software, give the customer version 1 on a deadline, and then you move on. The variety is great and I know a lot of people enjoy it, but at this point in my life I'm happy to not give my software over to someone else :-) Myself and another developer take care of all the software at our company. We 'own' it, the systems are like our babies - we're constantly tweaking, improving, expanding it. The work I've done the last few years is like an 'opus'. To me, that's been the most rewarding work I've done so far.Colin Pretorius#
But now I'm veering waaay of topic… er, yes, hardware sucks ;-)Colin Pretorius#