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2010-04-25T21:51:00.001+02:00

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Quality and perfection

2009-11-17T04:05:00.003+01:00

"The quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten."

"Strive for perfection in everything you do. Take the best that exists and make it better. If it doesn’t exist, create it. Accept nothing as nearly right or good enough."

Quotations: Sir Frederick Henry Royce (1863 - 1933) automobile manufacturer and co-founder of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

The New and Improved Test Drive!

2009-08-17T09:30:00.004+02:00

Did you know that you can try out the Tick-the-Code review method on your own and on your own code?

It is not only possible, it is free and only takes an hour! After it you can be sure to know that Tick-the-Code is useful for You.

Check out the new and improved Test Drive.

The enhanced web solution is much clearer than before and tab-based. It uses the tabs developed by Andreas Blixt.

Famous quotes about getting old getting old

2009-08-13T10:36:00.005+02:00

I use the personalized Google page daily and I find it quite useful. (Check iGoogle to setup one yourself.) I've collected all kinds of widgets on the page, news and comics and there's even one showing me a daily famous quote.
Today's famous quote was by George Burns:

"You know you're getting old when you stoop to tie your shoelaces and wonder what else you could do while you're down there."

, which is quite funny, but it made me come up with my own version, too.

"You know you're getting old when you see the famous quote by George Burns about getting old and tying your shoelaces and all you can think is why George doesn't come up with any new material any more."

Been...Away

2009-07-16T13:03:00.005+02:00

Now, you might have wondered where I've been all this time. This blog's been quiet for two months. I'm sorry but I'm under the strictest orders not to divulge any information with my dealings with this particular..erm..company. Let's just say that their software department needed help in the quality area.
All I can say is that I took a train to get there:

Wet of Clothing in Sophia Antipolis

2009-05-15T15:07:00.004+02:00

My web-titan send me a link to this webpage about Hope-Driven Development. There's a lot of truth to the story and it is no wonder that checking incoming variable values is a part of Tick-the-Code method. As a matter of fact, there are two relevant rules in the method; NEVERNULL and CHECK-IN.
NEVERNULL asks checkers to tick the first statement in a function to dereference a pointer without first validating it isn't NULL. Otherwise all hell breaks loose, when the system is executed. And that is the best case scenario. In a much worse situation, the system doesn't crash and seems to work fine. It does, however, hot work quite correctly and the longer it takes for the developers to notice, the harder it is for them to figure out what exactly is broken.
Pointers are special, because their side-effects and symptoms can be extremely insidious, but there are other components and values in source code, too. Variables of other types can also assume wrong values and if the developers assume that that never happens, chaos will ensue.

Assuming makes an ass out of you and me.

Rule CHECK-IN makes checkers in code review locate all places where a variable is used without first checking its sanity. Once again, not all variable values can be even roughly checked, but a conscious risk is preferable to ignorance every time.

---

The day started in Sophia Antipolis with a downpour of such intensity that cats and dogs are far too little and few in number to describe the dawning waterfall. Walking to a nearby bus stop with an umbrella was still enough to melt the creases off my trousers. The sloshing sound in my shoes became more of a squeak once I entered the customer's building, where I managed to perform a test ticking regardless. I had a strong sense of déjà vu - only appropriate, what with me being in France - that just two weeks ago I had wondered dripping wet the unknown streets of Sophia Antipolis, having stepped out of the bus six stops too early, without a map or an idea which way to go. The flu that had started to bother me the day before, didn't improve my situation. So much for first impressions, now was my last day in Sophia Antipolis, for now, and it was showing me its fluidier side.
It doesn't rain often in Southern France, but it rains a lot. You deduce how drizzly the rainshowers must be.

---

I'm now in Nice, although going to Cannes did occur to me. There's some kind of film festival there.

Software development revealed

2009-05-12T22:55:00.002+02:00

There's an interesting rendezvous between software development and real world taking place in the United States. In this case the supplier of breathalyzer code has refused to submit it for review in a trial case. This Techdirt article supposes that the code is too crappy and the supplier too embarrassed to obey the Supreme Court decision.

I will have more to say about an older case of breathalyzer code analysis. In that trial the supplier gave in and the code was found not to be proprietary after all. And crappy.

What's a breathalyzer?

Doctoral Dissertation: SW Checking Needs Improving

2009-05-11T11:06:00.003+02:00

It's been brought to my attention (thanks, Juha) that there's an interesting doctoral dissertation about to be accepted in Helsinki. Sami Kollanus has written about how the checking methods in software development should really be improved. According to this article (only in Finnish), his dissertation contains some suggestions on how this might be possible.

Professor Tervonen, who acts as the opponent, is familiar for his work in software inspections and I've bumped into his virtually a couple of times. In 2006 I found out that he specializes in inspections and that they had some studies going on in the Department of Information Processing Science in the University of Oulu, so I sent him an email with the faint wish to be noticed. I did receive a friendly reply, but that was that then. The second time was just this year as I took part on an online lecture course and professor Tervonen was one of the lecturers. It was a treat to hear about the current research directions in software inspections.

I can't wait to get my hands on Kollanus' dissertation and read what kind of things he has studied and what kind of suggestions he has for improvements.

---

Tomorrow, I'll be in Sophia Antipolis, France. Again. This time I know where everything is and I'll rent a car, because walking everywhere was truly difficult. Possible, but difficult and slightly dangerous. Not sure that driving with the French is any safer, though.

Dilbert and Simpsons

2009-05-01T11:50:00.021+02:00

As I seem to be stranded in Sophia Antipolis because of the bank holiday, what better way to while away the boredom than to post a blog entry. Only I don't have anything of substance. The Dilbert today caught my eye.

If you miss attending good training, how do you think I feel as training provider?

---

For the Battlestar Galactica fans, here's a treat. I give you "Battlestar Simpsonica":

French cuisine, despair and hope

2009-04-29T20:14:00.004+02:00

How could I have anything bad to say about French cousine? Me, the tastebudless Finn, here, in Sophia Antipolis. For lunch on the training day on Tuesday we went to the local restaurant, which was serving Thai food. I had two rolls of something with lettuce and mint. I was assured that the rolls contained rotten fish and I have to think that it wasn't a language issue. The rolls were absolutely delicious and I have to now ask my Thailand-visiting friends. Have you come into contact with rotten-fish-rolls? They might be called Nem or not.

In the evenings I'm not eating at restaurants, but instead I cook in my hotel room. Well, if you can call nuking cooking. Here's an example of misleading marketing, if I ever so one. The potatoes were a sad sight:

I was feeling miserable on Monday as I arrived. Here's my first impression of Sophia Antipolis, standing in wet shoes and jeans, having dragged a wet suitcase up an endless seeming hill, without the slightest clue as to where I'm supposed to go or how far it is, finding an obscure map indicating that the street I'm on is circular and that if I continue up the hill, I'll soon be coming down the hill back to where I started from and it's not the street my hotel is on:

Luckily the next morning made more than up for it, look at the perfect blue sky:

What if tourist leaflets only used the sunny pictures and the reality was more like my first impression? Would we put up with it? No, that's why travel agency broschures always tell the truth and show also rainy and cloudy pictures...HEY, wait a minute!...that can't be right. Marketing is based on the X-tian principle of turning the other cheek. If the first cheek doesn't look good in the sales picture, that is...

French bussing

2009-04-27T15:56:00.004+02:00

- I am in Sophia Antipolis.
- Sophia where? Are you in Greece?
- No, just the name of this place is Greek, but it's actually in France. The closest French town is Antibes and Antipolis is the Greek version of it.
- Far out, man!
- Yes, this is the Silicon Valley of Europe!
- La Vallee de Silicon?
- Well, yes, there are dozens of startups and bigger IT companies here!
- How come?
- They built it and the companies came.
- Eh?
- Sophia Antipolis is a constructed city nearby Nice. A little bit like Las Vegas?
- I thought the casino was in Monaco?
- It is, but the city feels very made-up, very artificial. You can hardly walk anywhere...
- Because of the dog pooh?
- No, because there are no sidewalks. You are supposed to have a car, or use busses.
- They must cost a big penny?
- No, I paid 1€ for the bus trip from Nice Airport to Sophia Antipolis, which is about 30 km.
- That's value for money!
- Yes and had I not jumped out too early, I would have enjoyed it more.
- You had a premature ejection?
- No, my instructions told me to step out in the middle of nowhere, although the bus would have continued to the right direction. And it was raining. That's when I noticed, you can't walk anywhere.
- What did you do? (I'm shivering with excitement, does he eventually find his hotel room and a working Wi-Fi connection to write his sad and wet story on his blog?)
- I walked for a while getting wet. I thought it made no difference as my luggage was wet already when it came out of the plane. Maybe this time Air Berlin was trying out an external luggage transport system.
- You're kidding, right?
- When I ran out of sidewalk, I had to take a bus. The bus driver took no money. He just said it's free.
- You're pulling my leg!
- No, it's all true. I stepped out at a roundabout. Only one roundabout too far, this time.
- Oh, no!
- Oh, yes. Some time later, I resolved to taking a bus the other way and the driver was extremely kind and told me that the next stop would be my roundabout and that he was going to stop at it. The timetable didn't mention the stop on his line, though.
- What do you mean roundabout?
- Yeah, they have roundabouts everywhere. And they have their names. You can find Carrefour (that's roundabout in the local dialect) de Garbejaire, which is the one too far and Carrefour (there's that word again) de G.Pompidou, which is closest to my hotel. When I got there, my mind was a bit sunnier. Only the weather wasn't. It started pouring down, but now I had a goal.
- The hotel?
- Yes, now I knew where I was and I would get to my hotel room in daylight.
- Did you?
- Well, I'm writing this blog entry on my bed, in my hotel room, with the radiator blasting as hot as can be to dry out my shoes, socks, jeans and jacket. They are wet because I was wearing them in the rain.
- Well, how else do clothes get wet?
- By being in a wet suitcase being dragged for mails in the rain. My three shirts are all patchy with water and one of them is downright dirty. It's a blueish-white shirt and the patches are far too visible. I'll need to do some laundry soon.
- Boy, you must be exhausted.
- No, I'm energized to get back on track.
- What about your contacts in Sophia Antipolis? Are you going to visit many software houses?
- The current plan is to just go knock on some doors on Wednesday and Thursday. The problem is that the companies don't seem to have doors, but gates and knocking on gates is maybe easy but it's also pretty ineffective.
- What are you going to do?
- I'm still trying to deliver my message about Tick-the-Code to as many companies as possible. It is after all a win-win I'm selling.
- The customer benefits because his developers write better code, which they can extend quicker and without so many errors..
- Wow, you know my stuff!
- Yes, I've been reading your writings on www.qualiteers.com/downloads.php. Have you written anything new?
- As a matter of fact, I just finished a paper on software maintainability. I call it "Software Maintainability in Practice: A Good Riddance of Internal Defects!"
- That's quite a name.
- Charles Dickens used it first.
- Dickens knew software?
- No, he used the phrase "a good riddance of" to mean that getting rid of something was a blessing and that we were better off without it.
- Ahh.
- In it I list code examples of how to improve source code internally, without touching the functionality.
- Isn't that called refactoring?
- You're absolutely right. Martin Fowler's book "Refactoring" made the term famous and I mention the book and XP in the paper.
- You show Windows code as example. Isn't that like taking candy from a child?
- I don't mean Windows XP, I mean Extreme Programming, the mother of all agile methods! That's where refactoring is part of a day.
- Ahh.
- So, anyway, in the paper I come to the conclusion,..
- Yes?
- ..that manual code inspections are inevitable. Testing and static analysis tools (or any kind of tool, for that matter) can never cover all internal defects. Modularity issues require human ingenuity and to know whether a comment is a good one or a bad one, one needs to understand what it says. No machine understands.
- No machine understands.
- Machines can repeat, associate and seem understanding, but they are not.
- They are not.
- Just like you, mere programs can be entertaining, but they lack that spark of creativity that makes humans humans.
- Isn't that a bit redundant?
- See, right there, you jumped to the conclusion that I was being repetitive, when I said "humans humans".
- Isn't that a bit redundant?
- If I keep doing that, you'll be the repetitive one. You cannot truly understand humans, humans do.
- Isn't that a bit redundant?
- Good bye.
- Bye bye! (Isn't that a bit redundant?)

Software, Silliness and Snow

2009-02-20T09:56:00.005+01:00

Seriously about Software:
Joel Spolsky has written many good pieces on software development. This one is essentially saying "whatever you do, don't rewrite code from scratch." One way to renew your codebase is to tick the code regularly and often enough. It takes some time, but every ticking takes you closer to cleaner, more maintainable and extensible code. There's no magical solution, no shortcuts, no silver bullets and sometimes you have to make bigger, riskier refactorings. If you let development debt accumulate, you'll have to pay it back sooner or later. Just hope you can afford it. Ticking means paying the debt in smaller, perhaps weekly installments.

---

From the Stern Fun dept:
Software developers are creatures of intellect. Smartness is highest on their values. You can hear that in their witty and wordy remarks (sure to make non-nerds (the word mundies use for these intellect-workers) roll their eyes in desperation), you can see it in their fashion sense and you can sometimes even smell it. Sometimes being smart, or thinking you're smart, makes you cocky. You consider yourself the best judge of how things should be done or code implemented. Asking for feedback is for losers, you think. All of us are imperfect, however. We are imperfect even in what we love or are passionate about. We might not want to admit it, but the software we produce, is never perfect. That's not the problem, managers and customers can't expect you to be perfect, that wouldn't be human. The problem is when you don't check what you've done, when you don't ask for help from your colleagues, because you think you know best, nobody can help you and besides, there's no time.

This picture shows well what happens when you do let somebody else take a look into your source code.

---

The Weather:
It's been snowing here in Finland, but take a look at
Neil Gaiman and Cabal, the dog, near Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Clicking takes you to Neil's Journal Blog Thingie which has more pictures)

On The Rocks, or On Thick Ice

2009-02-05T15:38:00.011+01:00

I'm currently in Oulu and I missed the real cold weather by one day. Apparently on Wednesday it was colder than -20 degrees centigrade here but on Thursday it was just a mild -9 degrees as we went to see the local ice-hockey team Oulu Weasels lose to Helsinki IFK. The game was quite even and ended 2-3 to the visiting team.
I did some skating myself earlier this week. I went to natural ide track on Näsijärvi lake in Tampere and spent an hour going around it. I visited the world's shortest lighthouse and took some pictures of the abandoned amusement park Särkänniemi.

Is this the world's shortest lighthouse?

I was literally standing on thick ice.

Am I taller than normal or has Näsinneula shrunk?

Desolate amusement parks creep some people out.

Talking about skating, I'm so proud of my god children in Finland. Both of them do sports and have fun at it. Emma is into figureskating and Eetu plays ice hockey. They've taken part in some competitions and their achievements were noticed in the local papers some time ago.

Emma won her series!

Eetu circled

Here is the whole happy family enjoying their time together by playing music. (Note: extended and constant clicking on the drums can drive the listeners mad. Enjoy "Rock Band" responsibly.)

The Band (Notice the extremely confident and therefore relaxed bass player

Now I have to dash to catch the train to Hämeenlinna!

A Public Service Announcement to Ornithophobes

2009-02-05T13:42:00.013+01:00

I had no idea that some authors can be so highly valued. Take, for example, the horror genre. One of the most prestigious of its representatives is surely Edgar Allan Poe, the writer of "The Pit and the Pendulum" and "The Raven". Now witness me walking around in the city of Wroclaw, or Breslau, as the German name is. I'm looking for the Museum of Natural History, minding my own business and what do I see, when I look suddenly behind me?

This...
...and this!

In the poem "The Raven" E.A.Poe describes a crow that says "Nevermore!" most ominously. Are they stalking me? I decide to continue, I pick up the pace a little, but not enough to catch the nice red sports cars whooshing by me almost completely ignoring the afternoon rush hour.

No chance of catching up.

I finally find the museum, but it does not console me, I can't get in! Look, there's a huge bird guarding the door! Is there no safety in this city?

No way am I going to get in under those watchful eyes!

I better head down to the river, I need to calm down. The river flows quietly. But what is that sound? Let's see, it's coming just around the corner. Here's the view from the bridge (extreme closeup, look with care):

Birds in a feeding frenzy

There is no peace in this city. I better ask the little people for help. They are known to chase away big birds. They aren't too bright, though. Here you see two of them moving a rock, by both pushing from opposite directions. They've been at it for years. The rock hasn't moved yet.

Push, push, maybe one day it will budge!
Some of the little people take it more easy, especially when one of their brethren has gotten rid of the birds.
In the nighttime, some of the little people take out their broomsticks, climb on street lights and drive the birds away.

They can apparently turn large African animals to sheets of metal, too.
Rhinos are less dangerous in this form.

After my animal adventures in Wroclaw, I'm happy to return to literature, in the safety between the pages, where anything can happen, but nothing can happen to you. That's why the horror genre is so popular. It feels dangerous, but isn't.
I never knew writers could be so highly valued. To name a whole country. Wroclaw is a big city in Poeland, you know.

AND WINTER CAME

2009-01-14T13:07:00.008+01:00

After two weeks Christmas holiday in Finland we were ready to return to Bochum, expecting rain. In Finland there was snow, not enough though (never enough for me I guess) and it was quite cold. Most of the days the temperature was around -5∘c, but one morning I got to enjoy temperature of -18∘c, which was nice. Anyway, back to Bochum. As we took the taxi from the airport around noon, it was dry, gray and too warm to wear our winter coats - outside I mean. After two weeks without heating our apartment was cold enough for wearing winter coats inside the house.

Miska finally found use for all my candles. Hundreds of them.. Slowly the apartment started to warm up. I decided to visit a friend and as I was leaving, I noticed it had begun to snow. After three hours as I was returning home, there was 10 centimetres snow! Bochum was all covered in this magical white stuff that makes the world so soft and silent. I dragged Miska out for a walk and enjoyed the winter weather, my weather. I was hopping in the snow, kicking it, throwing it, loving it!

It was winter in Bochum. Even more than it had been in Finland. After 9 years it was really winter and it lasted almost for 10 days. And now it's gone. It's raining. I can see the green grass again. But never mind, it was here! What, you don't believe me? Check out the photos from 5th of January.

PS. Terveiset Lahteen Hennalan perukoille: Jumala on lumet luonut!

Business Reason for More Software Quality

2009-01-09T14:36:00.007+01:00

In a world where most code is unnecessarily complex, much of the time of any software developer is just plain wasted. Assuming that a developer uses two hours daily going through some mysterious source code isn't too far fetched. The code can be his own, the details of which he has long since forgotten, or as in most cases, the code might be written by somebody who hasn't quite followed the Good Principles of Coding and instead has produced a confusing pile of programming language statements thrown carelessly together in the desperate hope that testing will take care of any problems in it. The code could have been simple and easy to extend, read and understand, but - alas - that is once again not the case. How come I'm not the least bit surprised? If we had a way of making the source code simpler, our poor developer would probably only need one hour instead of two for achieving the same. With an hourly rate of 50€, we are talking about a monthly saving of 1000€. For each developer.

Tick-the-Code is such a way and DayTick is the training course for it.

How much would you be willing to pay for a training course that saves you 5,000-10,000€ each month? (For a group of ten trainees.)

Need a hobby besides software development?

2009-01-07T20:19:00.003+01:00

Here's a delightful hobby for a software developer or computer user: writing haikus.
First, check the rules of the game, see wikipedia.
Then choose a theme: hmm, computer problems. Yeah, that's it.
And voilá: Haiku error messages (link sent by Kaj)

Then just exercise your creative muscle and push out your own:

Page not available
Has the server crashed or what?
Client and user annoyed, both

In a World of Simple Men, Complexity is King

2008-12-17T09:14:00.002+01:00

Dealing with software you must have noticed how complex the matter can get. And you are right, software source code is without a doubt the most complex achievement of the human race, so far. Software that has been developed over the years reaches often such complexity that maintenance becomes a nightmare or impossible. Sometimes even young software succumbs to the siren call of complexity. In a world of increasing demands on performance and features, complexity reigns as king. Teams and teams of testers have fought many a battle against this despot and killed mountains of bugs - and still lost the war. Complexity rules - not ok.

Complexity causes bugs
Essential complexity is caused by real difficulties in the application area. Time pressure, carelessness, not having the right skills or the right motivation, and existing complexity cause complexity, too. This latter kind of complexity is inessential, accidental and - to make the obvious obvious - unnecessary. The software becomes almost unmaintainable when you combine a demanding application area (for example, real-time) with hurried developers. Bugs will find endless hiding places in the resulting source code. No matter how much the testers try to fight it, the end result will be far from flawless.

Learning is key
The only people who can really influence the complexity of the source code are the software developers. They need to prioritize complexity above all else. Luckily, there are ways of achieving this. Create a workflow where the developers notice the complexity and understand how harmful it is. With that feedback in place, all you need are clever people who learn. The single most important aspect in the fight against complexity is to make sure the developers learn. Learn from their own mistakes and from the mistakes of others. That way you can reverse the usually prevalent Vicious Circle of Busyness*.

* _{The Vicious Circle of Busyness states that "the busier you are, the busier you'll get".}

Summer feelings from Finland and Germany

2008-08-14T18:21:00.011+02:00

SUMMER IN FINLAND:

Summer night in Tampere.

Night by the lake in Mankala.

Miska playing frisbee in Tampere.

SUMMER IN BOCHUM:

Virpi enjoying a nice meal in the Bochum Culinary -happening.

Hafenfest in Carolinensiel

Enjoying the good music played and sung by Duo Sunset in Bochum

[EDIT: drawing added]
And here's Miska's view of the duo:

The Band by ~mishiltu on deviant ART

KESÄN RIEMUJA

2008-06-11T12:25:00.008+02:00

Näin kesäloman kynnyksellä on syytä miettiä kaikkia niitä hurjia vaaroja, joita mökkeillessä (tai joskus jopa kaupungissa) voi kohdata. Ja yksi vaarahan on ylitse muiden. Ampiaiset! Allekirjoittanuthan vietti toukokuun 4. päivänä kolme tuntia teho-osastolla ampiaisenpiston seurauksena... ja tämä siis TAVALLISEN ampiaisen piston seurauksena.

Tänä keväänä, ja jo viime keväänä, sain huolehtivilta perheenjäseniltä ja ystäviltä varoituksen jättiläisampiaisista (herhiläinen), joita on alkanut ilmaantua Suomeen viime vuosina. Kukaan ei tietenkään milloinkaan missään ollut itse sellaista vielä nähnyt, mutta lehtiartikkelit kuvineen toimivat varoituksen sanana.

Siis, kerrataan: Jättiläisampiaisia on Suomessa. Niitä on syytä varoa mökkeillessä. Kukaan ei ole niitä henk.koht. nähnyt.

Tämän tietäen siirrymme viime viikon keskiviikkoon. Tilanne: Olen yksin kotona, kerrostalossa, kaupungissa, Saksassa. Makuuhuoneen verhon takaa kuuluu omituisen kovaäänistä pörräystä. Ja siinä se sitten on. Herhiläinen!!! SUOMEN luontoon kotiutunut otus, jollaista KUKAAN ei ole vielä nähnyt.

Paniikki. Hengitys nopeutuu, veri pakenee päästä, kyyneleet kihoavat silmiin (tuttu pelkoreaktioni, ks. hammaslääkäri). Epäuskoista mutinaa "eihän tuollaista ole olemassa". Viesti Miskalle Suomeen... (Niinkuin se nyt mitään auttaisi.) Miskalta, joka oli juuri pari päivää aiemmin tutustunut uuden hätäpakkaukseni käyttöohjeisiin, tuli kuitenkin oiva neuvo: " Ota se adrenaliinipiikki, poista sokka ja lyö se nasevasti herhiläisen yläreiteen. Ei pyllyyn. Varo refleksinykäystä. Pidä 10 sekuntia paikoillaan, hiero sitten osumakohtaa ja lopuksi menette yhdessä lääkäriin."

No ainakin paniikki helpotti hetkeksi nauramiselta. Jopa niin, että uskalsin ottaa valokuvan tästä luonnonoikusta.

(Verhossa oleva kuu on leveimmältä kohdaltaan n. 3 cm)

Myöhemmin tutkin netistä kuinka vaarallinen tämä herhiläinen oikein onkaan. Se on onneksi rauhaa rakastava, eikä lainkaan niin kiukkuinen ja päällehyökkäävä kuin tavallinen ampiainen. Allergisiakin rauhoiteltiin, ettei myrkky ole sen voimakkaampaa kuin tavallisenkaan ampiaisen - sitä vain on KOLME KERTAA ENEMMÄN!!! Todella rauhoittava tieto. Kaiken lisäksi tämä otus on ainakin Saksassa rauhoitettu, joten en sitä tappanut (= en uskaltanut mennä niin lähelle).

Löysin myös oivan neuvon kuinka tällaisen otuksen voi näppärästi toimittaa ulos: Kastetaan sormenpää sokeriliemeen, sitten viedään sormi lähelle herhiläistä ja kas, sepä makealle persona hypähtää iloisesti sormenpäähän istumaan. Sitten vain kuljetetaan se ulkotiloihin, ravistetaan sormesta irti (ja toivotaan lujasti ettei se tällä välin älyä pistää sitä myrkkysatsiaan siihen sormenpäähän).

Ja kuinka tarina päättyy? Ei, en kastanut sormeani sokeriliemeen. En yrittänyt yhteistä kävelyretkeä herhiläisen kanssa. Enkä todellakaan tappanut sitä (sehän on kiellettyä), vaan soitin paikalle ystäväni, joka rohkean prinssin lailla kiirehti hätiin... vain todetakseeen, että otus on mennyt ulos omia aikojaan. Koko makuuhuone tutkittiin läpikotaisin, eikä mitään löytynyt. Siitä huolimatta nukuin seuraavan yön sohvalla, varmana siitä, että tuo ovela, vaikkakin rauhaa rakastava, otus oli sittenkin piiloutunut sänkyyni odottamaan hetkeä, jolloin pahaa aavistamatta pujahdan peiton alle.

Sen koommin emme ole Hugh Hornetin kanssa tavanneet.

MUKAVAA KESÄÄ KAIKILLE toivottelee pian kesälaitumille kirmaava Virpi

SofSW: The SW Basics (6/6)

2008-05-25T22:56:00.001+02:00

The Sleeping Girl has risen and is looking around disoriented. She’s in a park under a tree with a light breeze blowing. Kids are playing football with their shirts as goal posts, their happy voices echo through the air. A bird, perhaps a robin, sings on the tree. She feels happy, it is safe here and although she’s tired, she feels pure bliss just lying there on the blanket. Her picnic basket is next to her, there are no ants crawling on her half-eaten sandwich. Her boyfriend has gone to fetch a corkscrew from the car parked out of sight. She can’t believe this place is right in the middle of the busy city. It is so tranquil compared to the middle-city hectic she has to endure every day. Wake up in the morning much too early, take a quick shower, put on some make-up, grab a busy cup of coffee and run for the bus. Catching the bus gets her on time for the underground station overcrowded with similar people heading for their offices. After a trip on the underground that is too short to fall asleep but too long not to be bored, she has to join the March of the Sardines. Every last one of them gets out of the tin can on the central station and they head in unison up towards the ground level. The wind of the tunnels pulls her to a semi-woken state, but all she sees around her are heads with cold and expressionless fish eyes. There are no smiles, no grins, not even frowns, just dead fish faces. Every morning.

The noise becomes louder and louder as the school approaches the ground. On the street the noise is unbearable. Before crossing the street, she looks to the right, there are no cars coming, only benches. The benches are not moving. She turns her head, there’s more benches on her left, still no cars. She’s not standing at a city street at all, she’s sitting on a bench. There’s a man looking at me, she thinks and suddenly she’s wide awake.

This is the airport.

Toukokuu, tikkauskuu

2008-04-23T20:34:00.004+02:00

Ennenkuin pistän ohjelmistotieteen kirjani seuraavan jännittävän (?) luvun näytteille, kerron toukokuun suunnitelmistani. Matkustan puolesta kuusta Suomeen ja pidän siellä kolme julkista DayTick-koulutusta. Ne ovat todella mainio tilaisuus tutustua Tick-the-Code -menetelmään pienemmälläkin ryhmällä. Jos yrityksestäsi ei löydy kokonaista kymmenen hengen ryhmää, nyt voit kaverisi kanssa tulla kurssille silti. Julkinen kurssi sopii juuri sinulle, joka etsit ammattitaitoasi parantavaa koulutusta, muttet ole mikään aloittelija. Erityisen hyvin tämä sopii yrityksille, jotka eivät vielä ole varmoja menetelmän hyödyllisyydestä. Kurssille lähetetyt pari kiinnostunutta "tunnustelijaa" saavat varmasti tarpeeksi tietoa vakuuttuakseen menetelmän sopivuudesta.

DayTick-kurssi parantaa taitoasi tehdä ylläpidettävää koodia, laadukasta koodia. Se on hyväksi sinulle, tiimille jossa työskentelet, yritykselle jonka palkkaa nautit ja asiakkaalle joka odottaa koodiasi. Toista tällaista kurssia ei ole.

Toukokuussa tällainen mahdollisuus avautuu
- Jyväskylässä (Jkl Open 23.5.),
- Espoossa (Hki Open 26.5.) ja
- Tampereella (Tre Open 30.5.)
Tarkemmat tiedot. Jos et itse pääse tulemaan, kerro toki työkavereillesi. He tulevat kiittämään sinua.

Niin että Kaj, malta vielä pari päivää.

Post number 270

2008-04-18T13:40:00.003+02:00

Virpi is back from Ireland.

She brought me a chocolate bar named Moro. Hilarious!

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Suomeksi:
Moro, moro kaikki tamperelaiset!

Trip Report - Easter 2008 + BIG NEWS!

2008-04-16T11:57:00.005+02:00

Now that I finally have some news to report, I almost forgot!

I went to Finland before Easter and trained a group at Espotel. At Easter I did the traditional Peurunka gig, which meant sports, good food, games and karaoke in well-proportioned. This has become one of my favorite times of the year, as many of the nice people who are there I only see there. Another similar time is summer holiday, but more about that later.

After Easter I went to Oulu, had three training sessions, one with Ardites, but the other too were nice too. Here's a press release explaining why I've been so keen to be in Oulu.

After a tough icehockey match in Oulu (well, our follow-up was tough!), I returned to Tampere to curse over a new computer. It was just as well we didn't have Vista on it, there were enough problems with Windows XP. I noticed two problems, which would have been left unsolved by a layman. There was even one installation mistake, which we noticed when we opened the machine. Finally everything was running well. Well, as well as things run on Windows. I hate the uncertainty of the operating system. Sometimes it would say "a driver has not been installed. The device may not work correctly." may? MAY? Doesn't the system know that for sure? Seems very unreliable. Should the user know that better?

The household also got a new Nokia mobile phone and I decided to install PC Suite to connect the phone to the PC. On the first time I managed even to make a connection and move a picture from one device to the other over a cable. Then I apparently did something which I shouldn't have and it was no longer possible to connect the phone! I removed the PC Suite installation, the application it had installed on the phone and tried by reinstalling. Still no connection! How difficult can that be? My guess is that the removing of the application didn't remove everything, there's an entry in the terribly complicated Windows registry just stopping the connection. That's such a basic thing you'd expect to work, and when it doesn't you really feel powerless. There's nothing you can do. As far as I know, the problem is still unsolved. Maybe try with Bluetooth?

Mylab read my article in Pitkyn Piiri and did not hesitate in contacting Kilosoft. Good thing too, as I was still in Finland and we could organize a training in less than a week. The initial contact was on Friday, I talked about over the weekend and on Monday it was clear that Thursday would be the training day. And it went well, despite the rather exotic programming language, which I hadn't seen before.

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Suomeksi:
Pääsiäisreissu meni hyvin. Espotel-koulutus ennen pääsiäistä, pääsiäinen Peurungalla TODELLA mukavien ihmisten seurassa, sitten Ouluun, jossa kolme koulutusta ja jääkiekkomatsi. Kouluttajakoulutuksen lisäksi solmin Ardites Training Services Oy:n toimitusjohtaja Sami Varpeniuksen kanssa lisenssisopimuksen, joka mahdollistaa Ardites-konsernin sisäiset Tick-the-Code -koulutukset. Ohessa lehdistötiedote. Viikonloppuna asentelin ohjelmia uuteen Windows XP:llä varustettuun tietokoneeseen, hampaita kiristellen aina välillä. Mylab tilasi vielä yhden koulutuksen ja saikin sen vajaan viikon järjestelyillä. Tuollaista molemminpuolista joustavuutta ei satu usein.

SofSW: The SW Basics (5/6)

2008-04-08T13:49:00.004+02:00

So if the mass of a program measures its external observable effects, we can make some conclusions. If we take a program with a set of features and functionality with a mass m0 and divide it into two pieces, we’ll get two programs. It’s like cutting a worm in two. Because worms have no brains, or central nervous system, they can function without their “heads”. As a matter of fact, worms don’t have heads, they have the input hole and the output hole around which the worm forms a kind of pipe. Some programs are like that too, they have no central point of control. Far from being brainless, such programs are actually very useful. They normally consist of fairly autonomous parts, which you can easily reuse in other programs for similar purposes. Reuse is an extremely valuable property of source code and often much too undervalued for its worth. Software developers want to do everything from scratch like anybody with too large an ego for their head.

Anyway, dividing a program into two parts gives us two sets of source code. If the source code is well enough designed, the two programs even function. The original mass m0 is divided into two masses, m1 and m2. There are now three possible situations: either all the functionality is in m1 or all features are included in m2 or the third possibility that some of the functionality is in m1 and some in m2. Mathematically these three situations are like this:

(1) m1 = m0 AND m2 = 0
(2) m1 = 0 AND m2 = m0
(3) m1 < m0 AND m2 < m0

It is possible to cut such a small piece of software that no feature is affected. It means that the little piece doesn’t do anything either. If the mass of a program is zero, it doesn’t do anything observable. This happens in the first two cases. In the third case both programs have external effects but neither will do everything that the original program does. If we want to combine these three states, we can make our first real conclusion. Conclusions are results we can use later without proving them because we have already done that. Our first conclusion says that the sum of the masses of any two programs is at least zero but at most m0. More specifically,

0 ≤ (m1 + m2) ≤ m0

This has the strange effect that if we put together just any two carelessly crafted programs, instead of getting a total set of features like m0, we might end up as well with a completely non-functional program with zero mass. That’s at least what the formula allows and the thought has some intuitively pleasant qualities. That’s simplistic maybe, but the foundation must be simple in order to have any possibility of understanding the inevitably more complex construction built on it. Another way of thinking about the formula is that when we split a program into two parts, some of the functionality might be lost because of the cut. Therefore the sum of the parts can be smaller than that of the whole.