Checked Exception

Why story points are a more accurate estimating unit than hours

2011-08-26T00:11:00.000-04:00

If you've been a developer for very long you've more than likely been on the project that is over due, over budget, and is nowhere close to being done. There is no light at the end of the tunnel, the client is mad, management is mad, tempers are short, and no one is having very much fun. I'm not going to pretend I have the answer to that. If I did I'd be writing a book instead of a blog and all

x2x beats synergy in a 2 computer configuration

2011-08-25T12:37:00.003-04:00

I have used synergy for years so when my laptop is on my desk I can easily use one keyboard to control both my desktop and laptop. However, either through recent changes in X windows or changes in synergy, I often have issues where left clicking and keyboard operations are simply broken. Enter x2x. There are a number of limitations, not the least of which is an inability to share clipboard and

ActiveInbox makes Gmail perfect

2011-03-30T00:15:00.000-04:00

I am a huge fan of GMail. I use it for almost everything and I have since it really was in beta. I use it for personal mail, I've set up my whole family on it for their mail, and I even use it as a viewer for my mail at work. They aren't cheap, they'd buy me Outlook, but besides the fact that they don't make an Outlook for Linux, I like GMail's tools better. Google has it's hooks in me for

Perl 9 from the wife's perspective

2011-03-24T12:01:00.000-04:00

In case you missed the not-so-recent interview on linuxformat.com, there was a fantastic and hilarious response from Gloria Wall(Larry Wall's wife) that I thought could be highlighted. LXF: You said that Perl 6 was your one chance to break backwards compatibility. Do you think Perl 9 might be the same thing again?GW: There's not going to be a Perl 9. Larry went on to talk about how Perl might

There's no going back now - A.K.A my newfound love for git

2011-03-16T14:25:00.000-04:00

I have toyed with version control systems for years now, seeking a way to have a single process that can accommodate the way I need to work with version control for different projects and applications. I have done my time with sccs, CVS, SVN, ClearCase, and so on. I've also had a brief affair with bazaar. But so far I think I've found the one to settle down with... and that is git. My

How to extract ISBN from PDF e-books

2011-01-06T23:20:00.001-05:00

Here's a super simple script to extract the majority of US/English ISBN numbers from a pdf file in Linux. The dependency, if you don't already have it is pdftk... but if you do anything with pdf files, you probably have it. If you need to look for other formats or you have suggestions for improving the script, please feel free to comment. for file in $(ls) do echo --- $file pdftk $

A mono-free Ubuntu desktop

2010-12-20T09:29:00.000-05:00

An interesting thing turned up with the latest release of Ubuntu. The replacement of f-spot with shotwell along with the ppa for Synapse has freed me from my mono dependency. Previously there was no way I was giving up gnome-do and I have a love-hate relationship with f-spot. However, since I couldn't find anything I liked better, f-spot it is. Now, no one is going to confuse me with RMS as

Why does agile need a label?

2010-10-13T20:58:00.000-04:00

Image via WikipediaScrum, LEAN, XP.... for many years people have attempted to apply these types of labels to the art of agile software development and delivery. In fact, one could even go so far as to call the meta-label of "agile" in the same way. Each of these communities have devoted followings of people who believe they have the best way to deliver software. Can we just extract some

A way for Linux to succeed as a gaming platform

2010-10-09T20:11:00.000-04:00

If there's one thing where I have to concede the superiority of Windows to Linux, it is in the gaming world. Not because DirectX is so much better than OpenGL or because the engines are better or anything fundamental to technology. It's a 100% business decision, no one is willing to spend millions of extra dollars in game development, possibly to the detriment of gameplay, for the game to be

Did I do anything today?

2010-08-08T15:03:00.001-04:00

Ever get to the end of your day and ask yourself that question? I often have that sinking feeling that I just got nothing done because I have nothing to show for it. I may have spent the day doing useful things like helping a colleague accomplish a task or giving direction or helping with sales, but if there's nothing to show for it at the end it's tough to know what just happened. In the

How to set up Exchange synchronization with Gmail

2010-06-17T12:42:00.000-04:00

For many of us, we prefer the tools in Gmail to the tools in a client like Outlook. I love the organization tools in Gmail and the fact that I can pull up my full email environment anywhere. A a linux user, Microsoft's web interface doesn't work nearly as well as it does in IE, a fact which I am more than prepared to live with given the fact that I like the way Gmail automatically and more

The devil you know...

2010-06-08T18:56:00.000-04:00

For all of my chest beating and pontificating about how much Verizon sucks and how awesome the Evo 4G is and so on... last Sunday I went out and bought a Droid Incredible... selling myself and my family to Big Red for 2 more years. The shame. Don't get me wrong. I still hate Verizon Wireless. I just don't hate them enough to pay $200 more in up front fees and $40 more per month in service

Google TV ... SWEET!

2010-05-22T12:50:00.000-04:00

So I can get a web browser and online tv content and my photos and audio all in one thing. Thats so AWESOME! Well, it would have been in 2005 anyway. The fact that you can already do this on PS3, MythTV, Apple TV, Boxee, Windows Media Center, and a number of open source projects, one has to wonder, "What's the point?" The only benefit I see is that Google has the power to bring in the

Block selection in Eclipse Helios M7 - FINALLY!

2010-05-20T13:28:00.000-04:00

If you are used to having block selection in editors like vi, jEdit, TextPad and so on, it's probably been grating on you for years that you can't use those tools in Eclipse. Those days are over... block selection is here. To toggle it on, use Shift+Alt+a. Vwrapper doesn't yet work with shift+v but I'm sure that's just an update away. Finally, some real text editing tools in Eclipse!

Who needs broadband? Uh... everyone.

2010-05-20T02:58:00.001-04:00

A recent Scientific American article outlines the National Broadband Plan and asks the question, "Who needs high-speed broadband". The answer is, a lot more people than need digital TV. Ok, maybe 100 Mbps for rural and 1 Gbps might be a little high, but what can we do with such a network? It means we can forget cable, satellite, and over-air TV; all content can be available 24x7 anywhere you

Moblin: The 'Almost there' GUI for Netbooks

2010-05-10T11:08:00.000-04:00

The guys at Intel have one thing right, the average netbook user is probably going to be more interested in social networking, status, and media than writing papers and such. It's just the nature of netbooks. With Moblin, you are getting a very nice operating system with a lot of very smart things built in. That said, I think another review of Moblin is redundant. What I think is more

Why you should NOT use a web framework

2010-04-27T07:53:00.000-04:00

I honestly can't believe I just wrote that. I have been a huge proponent of using frameworks for a long time now and I still think they are valuable. There is great value in frameworks and proponents have written about why you should use them ad nauseum. Every conference you attend will invariably have a session or two on the state of web frameworks, new web frameworks, and how they are fixing

How to pick a log level

2010-04-15T22:01:00.002-04:00

While I, in no way, feel that I am the expert in this area this is how I select which log level I use for a message. The number of applications that fail to have a coherent strategy for this is mind boggling. Logging should not be a second thought or something that doesn't matter. Especially when fixing a bug is extremely time sensitive, the more information you can concisely pack into a log

James Gosling leaves Oracle

2010-04-12T17:59:00.000-04:00

There's not really much good that can be inferred from Gosling leaving Oracle and his comments don't do anything but solidify that inference. "As to why I left, it's difficult to answer: Just about anything I could say that would be accurate and honest would do more harm than good," he said. Really? This doesn't give me great hope for the direction Oracle is steering Java. If mod_plsql is

10 Useful Google Spreadsheet Formulas

2010-04-07T00:59:00.001-04:00

Ran across this one in my reader today and I realized I could probably replace half the crappy software built for investors today with a Google spreadsheet and the Google Finance functions. http://woorkup.com/2010/02/19/10-useful-google-spreadsheet-formulas-you-must-know/

Staying on topic - an off topic rant

2010-04-06T16:20:00.000-04:00

Why is it so difficult for bloggers to stay on topic? At CheckedException, I really try hard to keep the posts focused on technology because that's what I said I was going to talk about. To me, it's like a contract... I tell you what I'm going to say, you decide if you want to read. You may read a few times and think I'm full of crap, but at least I've fulfilled my contract with you and, of

Joel Spolsky expounds on the virtues of distributed version control

2010-03-18T11:48:00.000-04:00

Not one day after I decided to unsubscribe from joelonsoftware... one of the first blogs I started reading regularly, he came up with a beauty right after announcing he was "retired" from blogging. You can read his thoughts here. By the way, am I the only one who thinks Joel's new puppy looks a little like Joel? I'm no fan of geek-worship. There are a bunch of geeks out there who seriously

Sprint + Nexus One? Goodbye Verizon!

2010-03-17T16:51:00.000-04:00

Image via WikipediaToday a colleague(and would be contributor to CheckedException) passed me a link to some beautiful news. Nexus One is coming to Sprint and soon. In an official press release(more than has come from Verizon I might add), Sprint officials have verified that Sprint will get the Nexus One with availability being announced "soon". And with that, it's adios to Verizon. I can't

Using MS SQL from Linux

2010-03-12T21:45:00.001-05:00

As a programmer who works primarily on Linux machines, both on the desktop and server, I have found the number of free clients for SQL Server to be sparse at best. There are a few... Squirrel SQL comes to mind as one. Oracle SQL Developer works as well. However, each of them have their difficulties. I have had weird crashes with Squirrel and I can't use any of the advanced features in SQL

More on Apple, HTC, and competition

2010-03-05T11:30:00.000-05:00

The more I have thought about this issue, the more it stinks. Patents were invented to prevent competitors from stealing invention from the original inventors for a reasonable period of time so the original inventor could recover the cost of R&D. The truth is, Nexus One and iPhone are not competitors. Why would I make such an obviously insane statement like that? I mean, look at them, there