Baboon Placenta

A fun, secret game to play by yourself...

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 15:13:48 +0000

Pick a movie and try to work in as much dialog from that movie over the course of one day.

For example, today I'm choosing the Star Wars films. The trick is to not make it so obvious to people that you're doing it.

For example, here's some Star Wars dialog that 1) isn't easily worked into conversations and 2) will get you busted:

- "Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid."
- "That's wizard, Annie!"
- "Ootini!"
- "Yub yub."

The Soul of a System

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 15:08:27 +0000

I'm currently going through the same transitional phase that many senior developers face, and that is trying to figure out what comes next. Do I go for management? Hell no. That pretty much leaves the "architecture" path.

There's a lot of talk right now about exactly what a software architect is. My take on it is this: It is your job to give the project a soul.

When you're a software architect, your user base includes not only the end-user of your software, but also every poor bastard developer that will ever work on your system. So do right by them.

Also, the overall quality of your system will affect the lives of the tech support troops who will put out the countless fires that come once your product is released. Do right by them, as well. Bugs and annoyances will be introduced, and subsequently fixed, by developers. Bugs happen...but a bad framework is forever. A good help desk is all about morale. Support guys can deal with bugs quite happily, but if your project has no soul they won't make the heroic efforts to save its life.

I spent a few years in the tech support trenches and saw how disconnected the developers and their managers can get from the user's reality. I've developed a lot of empathy for my users and I have always tried to get as close to their experience as possible. Now, as I step into the role of architect, I'm trying to extend that empathy to the people that will implement my framework/design/vision/crazy dream.

Cellphones in the Bathroom

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 18:36:38 +0000

I was doing my business in the "big stall" a few moments ago, and heard one side of a phone conversation that went like this:

"Hello?

*mumbled*

mmOK.

Sounds good.

Bye."

I politely refrained from making any noise. Next time I'm going to grunt, groan, make plopping and farting noises, and flush 25-30 times.

Keep your goddamn phones out of the restroom.

A New "Modest Proposal"

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 22:00:24 +0000

Two of the problems making headlines in the US right now are childhood obesity and high energy prices. I say we can make some progress on both of those fronts. Put treadmills in every school, and have kids walk on 'em for 30 minutes to an hour a day. Turn their mechanical energy into useful power for their communities. They get exercise, while the rest of us get electricity. Top performers earn bonus incentives.

MediaWiki: file upload problems in IIS / Windows

Fri, 17 Nov 2006 19:21:16 +0000

i was having trouble getting files over 100k to upload in the wiki at work today. the first error said "It is recommended that images not exceed 100KB in size." When you click the button to upload anyway, it would then give you an error - "The file you uploaded seems to be empty."

after about an hour of googling and trying different config settings, i finally dug through the includes/DefaultSettings.php file and found a config setting called $wgUploadSizeWarning set to 150000.

i put $wgUploadSizeWarning = 15000000; in my LocalSettings.php file, reset my wiki web site in IIS and now the uploads work fine.

i think that the uploaded file name or data is getting lost somewhere between the error page and the upload confirmation page. anyway, this new setting avoids the error page entirely so there's no wonkiness.

Loituma - best musical surprise EVER

Fri, 20 Oct 2006 20:51:24 +0000

Mix ABBA's crisp Nordic voices, Manhattan Transfer's harmonic talent, and DCD's mysteriousness minus the pretense and glossolalia (both of which i'm big a fan).

Don't let the fun and sillyness of the leeksong.com tune keep you from giving these people a serious listen. Loituma is a frickin' goldmine of both fun and depth...an absolute delicasy for yer ears.

This is the coolest time to be alive.

Fri, 20 Oct 2006 18:31:20 +0000

A Fraggle Rock movie is in the works, with Ahmet Zappa at the helm.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Movies/10/20/film.fraggle.reut/index.html

This, along with the upcoming Transformers movie, is proof that this is indeed the absolute COOLEST time in human history to be alive. (Well, that is if you're a fairly well-off caucasian living in an American suburb and you happen to like geeky 80's retro stuff being turned into major motion pictures. AND I AM!)

lol I hate it when people do this lol

Fri, 20 Oct 2006 15:24:56 +0000

I find it really irritating when people end all of their sentences in IM with "lol" as if it were punctuation. It's even worse when they do the "lol sandwich", starting and stopping their sentences with that inane acronym.

"lol" is not a tag! It's not a sentence delimiter! when was the last time you actually laughed-out-loud at something to which you replied "lol"? If you actually laughed-out-lout, I'll bet you used "roflmao".

lol is easy to type, but ACTUAL PUNCTUATION is even easier.

....!!!!,;

lol!

How to Succeed as a .NET Systems Architect

Mon, 11 Sep 2006 18:49:18 +0000

1. Say "cache" a lot.
2. Keep saying it.
3. "Cache" should be the answer to all questions. "Cache" should be the subject of all conversations, the topic of all meetings and the primary discussion point of all presentations. If you find yourself in a meeting, conversation or presentation where cache is not discussed then you are doing something wrong.

Cross-Browser Compatibility: Be less specific!

Tue, 29 Aug 2006 15:07:59 +0000

Here's an interesting thing I've noticed when building websites that are usable in multiple browsers...

The more specific you are, and the more you follow standards, the more likely you're going to have problems. This is especially true with regards to building with Microsoft tools, because the IntelliSense tends to favor IE compatibility.

For instance, try referencing a JavaScript file in your code using the