Stevey's Blog Rants

Wikileaks To Leak 5000 Open Source Java Projects With All That Private/Final Bullshit Removed

2010-07-28T13:40:00.000-07:00

EYJAFJÖLL, ICELAND — Java programmers around the globe are in a panic today over a Wikileaks press release issued at 8:15am GMT. Wikileaks announced that they will re-release the source code for thousands of Open Source Java projects, making all access modifiers 'public' and all classes and members non-'final'.Agile Java Developer Johnnie Garza of Irvine, CA condemns the move. "They have no

Blogger Finger

2010-07-15T03:06:00.000-07:00

Well! I've sure had a nice relaxing blog-free year. No worries, no haters, no Nooglers wandering by my office and staring at me through the window as if they expect me to crap in my hand and hurl it at them. Not that I wasn't tempted.Nope, it's just been peace and quiet and reading and coding and practicing my guitar and stuff. It's been awesome.And now that everyone's completely forgotten

A programmer's view of the Universe, part 3: The Death of Richard Dawkins

2009-05-18T02:47:00.001-07:00

We're getting close to the end of my blog. After today's entry, I only have three left to write. After that, I'll only blog anonymously or (more likely) not at all.This is part three of five in my "Programmer's View of the Universe" series. I struggled for a while with how best to introduce the ideas in this installment, and ultimately opted for a short story.This is a science fiction short

Have you ever legalized marijuana?

2009-04-09T02:07:00.000-07:00

Over the holidays I read a neat book called Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, by Dan Ariely. The book is a fascinating glimpse into several bizarre and unfortunate bugs in our mental software. These bugs cause us to behave in weird but highly predictable ways in a bunch of everyday situations.For instance, one chapter explains why bringing an uglier version of

Story Time

2009-03-12T23:06:00.000-07:00

So I've got all these fancy blog posts planned. More than planned, actually — they're well underway. But it's also been a busy couple of months, so nothing's really ready yet.To make my schedule even worse, I kind of sort of got myself a little bit addicted to the writings of this one blogger. Normally I can't frigging stand blogs, including my own. Everyone always asks me what blogs I read,

A programmer's view of the Universe, part 2: Mario Kart

2008-12-27T03:32:00.000-08:00

This is the second installment of a little series of discussions. They're not much more than that, just discussions. And I hope I'm inviting discussion rather than quenching it. But I'll be honest — the goal of this series is to pound a stake through the heart of a certain way of thinking about the world that has become quite popular. If my series fails in that regard, I hope it may still

Fable II: Arguably Better than Getting Your Head Crapped On

2008-12-25T06:39:00.000-08:00

I finished Fallout 3 maybe six or eight weeks ago, and it was hands-down one of the best games I've ever played. A game like that gets you in the mood for more gaming, so I thought to myself: "Hey, I should plop down $160 for Fable II!"Actually that's not exactly what I thought, but it's what happened. I bought the game for $60, fired it up, got up to the part in the intro where a bird craps on

Ejacs: a JavaScript interpreter for Emacs

2008-11-16T22:19:00.000-08:00

So! I have all these cool things I want to write about, but I broke my thumbnail. Can you tell that's a long story?See, this summer I got excited about playing guitar again. I usually switch between all-guitar and all-piano every other year or so. This summer I dusted off the guitars and learned a bunch of pieces, and even composed one. I was prepping for — among other things — a multimedia

A programmer's view of the Universe, part 1: The fish

2008-10-28T21:52:00.000-07:00

I write a column for computer programmers called "Stevey's Blog Rants." It's basically a magazine column — I publish to it about once a month. The average length of my articles is about 12 pages, although they can range anywhere from 4 to 40 pages, depending on how I'm feeling. But for precedent, don't think blogs: think of Reader's Digest. The blog format sets the wrong expectations.Hence,

The Universal Design Pattern

2008-10-20T03:06:00.000-07:00

This idea that there is generality in the specific is of far-reaching importance. — Douglas Hofstadter, Gödel, Escher, Bach Note: Today's entry is a technical article: it isn't funny. At least not intentionally.Update, Oct 20th 2008: I've added an Updates section, where I'll try to track significant responses, at least for a week or so. There are three entries so far.Contents

The Bellic School of Management Training

2008-09-28T23:08:00.000-07:00

I haven't been blogging much this summer. Mostly it's because all my free time has been spent engaged in an important research project called "What Would Niko Bellic Do?" I've been enrolled in a high-quality Management Scenario Simulator with the unconventional name "Grand Theft Auto IV", probably some sort of inside joke, and I've been going through all its Developer Management training

Programming's Dirtiest Little Secret

2008-09-10T16:59:00.000-07:00

"And as for this non-college bullshit I got two words for that: learn to fuckin' type"— Mr. PinkThis is another one I've wanted to write forever. Man, I've tried a bunch of times. No ruck. Not Rucky. Once again I'm stuck feeling so strongly about something that I'm tripping over myself trying to get my point across.So! Only one thing left to try: bust open a bottle of wine and see if that

Business Requirements are Bullshit

2008-08-12T00:57:00.000-07:00

Some CEO emailed me the other day. I don't remember who it was; people mail me all the time about their blah blah yawn product service thingy, and on the rare occasions I bother to read mail from strangers, I don't usually remember anything about the email, even if I respond to it. I can remember broad categories of questions I get, but everything else is just a blur. That's senility for

Done, and Gets Things Smart

2008-06-16T18:44:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: I do not speak for Google! These are my own views and opinions, and are not endorsed in any way by my employer, nor anyone else, for that matter.Everyone knows and quotes Joel's old chestnut, "Smart, and Gets Things Done." It was a blog, then a book, and now it's an aphorism.People quote Joel's Proverb all the time because it gives us all such a nice snuggly feeling. Why? Because

Rhinos and Tigers

2008-06-14T14:11:00.000-07:00

I will once again plagiarize myself by transcribing a talk I gave.First: be warned! I offer this gesture of respect to you — yes, you! — when I say that this is at least 20 minutes of reading. This is long even for me. If you're surfing reddit, gobbling up little information snacks, then it's best to think of this entry as being more like a big downer cow. Unless you're really hungry, you

Dynamic Languages Strike Back

2008-05-11T21:11:00.000-07:00

Some guys at Stanford invited me to speak at their EE Computer Systems Colloquium last week. Pretty cool, eh? It was quite an honor. I wound up giving a talk on dynamic languages: the tools, the performance, the history, the religion, everything. It was a lot of fun, and it went over surprisingly well, all things considered.They've uploaded the video of my talk, but since it's a full hour, I

XEmacs is Dead. Long Live XEmacs!

2008-04-28T04:01:00.000-07:00

"We're going to get lynched, aren't we?" — PhouchgAnd you thought I'd given up on controversial blogs. Hah!PreambleThis must be said: Jamie Zawinski is a hero. A living legend. A major powerhouse programmer who, among his many other accomplishments, wrote the original Netscape Navigator and the original XEmacs. A guy who can use the term "downward funargs" and then glare at you just daring

Settling the OS X focus-follows-mouse debate

2008-04-24T17:59:00.000-07:00

I recently switched to using OS X full-time for all my client-side computing. Still using Linux on the backends, of course, at home and at work, but I now use Macs for my client machines.I'm not a Mac fanboy. I'm sort of a wannabe Mac fanboy, but I'm not familiar enough with the OS yet (either as a user or as a programmer) to really rave about it. I will say this: it was kinda fun turning off

js2-mode: a new JavaScript mode for Emacs

2008-03-30T20:51:00.000-07:00

I've written a new JavaScript editing mode for GNU Emacs, and released it on code.google.com.This is part of a larger project, in progress, to permit writing Emacs extensions in JavaScript instead of Emacs-Lisp. Lest ye judge: hey, some people swing that way. The larger project is well underway, but probably won't be out until late summer or early fall.My new editing mode is called js2-mode,

Four console games you might like...

2008-03-16T20:42:00.000-07:00

I only play a handful of games a year, so I haven't written a game review since my post on Oblivion a year ago. But since then I've played a few unusually good games, including one awesome PS/3 title last weekend, so I figured it's time for another review.First, here's my gamer profile, so you can decide now whether reading any further is worth your time. I'm a console guy. I don't play games

Get that job at Google

2008-03-12T18:16:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to write up some tips on interviewing at Google for a good long time now. I keep putting it off, though, because it's going to make you mad. Probably. For some statistical definition of "you", it's very likely to upset you.Why? Because... well, here, I wrote a little ditty about it:Hey man, I don't know that stuffStevey's talking abooooooutIf my boss thinks it's importantI'm

Portrait of a N00b

2008-02-10T20:21:00.000-08:00