try except finally

new hardware anthill

2011-03-20T14:21:00.000-07:00

There is a new version of VP8 made to be baked into hardware. Cool stuff.

mocks

2009-06-26T07:52:00.000-07:00

I am pretty sure I don't get mock or mocks whatever the right term is. I just read this post that had what I think is a reasonable example and I am still sure I dont get it. It looks like that the tests don't really do anything. Ah well. Maybe the mock people get it, I don't.

sqlite testing

2009-05-30T10:17:00.000-07:00

If you think you found a bug in sqlite... you probably did not. The test like crazy. Very cool stuff.

dont be like me

2009-05-10T07:46:00.000-07:00

I generally cannot use nor read anything on the web. Basically I am an idiot.
As proof, when I saw this link Pycon Podcast 1/3: Faster Python Programs through Optimization (Pycon 2009). I thought wow, 1/3 faster... cool. :(

nytimes article on homeowner bailout

2009-02-19T04:31:00.001-08:00

Here is a link to the NYTIMES article on the homeowner bailout revealed on Wednesday.
There is a quote from a republican in there

“Does your plan compensate banks for the bad mortgages they should never have made in the first place?” Mr. Boehner asked. “Will individuals who misrepresented their income or assets on their original mortgage application be eligible to get taxpayer-funded assistance?”

So yes the dipshit wants to pay the banks because they made bad mortgages. WTF!!!!
And then in typical republican fashion he of course implies that most of the problem was based on the people who lied to the banks.
What a jerk.

references are addresses

2009-02-18T05:12:00.000-08:00

This is a good article about C# and references. The author is trying to explain the difference in references and addresses.
And the problem is that your background as a programmer figures into that description in a non-trivial way. If you are a C/C++ programmer you already have a good idea of what is going on with a reference and you probably have a good mental model of the behind the scenes action.
If you are from Java the situation may not be so clear (neither would pointers be for that matter).
It is an interesting read.

joel and jeff on quality

2009-02-01T08:01:00.001-08:00

I am behind a bit but I finally read the transcript from podcast 38 by Joel and Jeff (link here). And I think they are correct.
I work in two worlds, one with so much process nothing gets done and one where there is no process and everything gets done. And I can say with some experience on the matter that unit tests are helpful but they are not the solution to everything. You will end up spending more time keeping the tests up than you will doing the real programming
Ultimately your code needs to work and do what you promised: that is it.

crontab

2009-01-08T17:50:00.000-08:00

So say if you are running crontab and testing... and you see something like this in /var/log/cron.log RELOAD That means that crond just reloaded you crontab. It does not mean that it is going to run your command yet. When your command is executed you will see a line like this in cron.log CMD (....) So when you are testing do not set your cron to just run the next min. Set it to run every min or at 2 min in advance of the current time. That way crond will load it on the next min and then run it on the min after that. crontab is sneaky like that.

newbs abound

2008-12-26T11:21:00.001-08:00

I am pretty sure if you have a tag line of "arrays, What's the point?" you are on a site with people who might not know how/why you program. Which even more proof that stackoverflow is a microsoft hangout... I wonder if that question came from a VB programmer?

why git is better than sex

2008-12-02T05:11:00.001-08:00

After looking at this site http://whygitisbetterthanx.com, it was all I could do not to go register http://whygitisbetterthansex.com. I probably should... it was a good article.

nice intro to factor here

2008-12-01T04:31:00.000-08:00

Here is a nice intro to factor. I bought the clojure book from pragprog this weekend (in beta). Looks like it will be good stuff.

lsof guide

2008-11-23T07:14:00.000-08:00

lsof is one of those tools that you must have. And this lsof guide looks like a great place to learn to use it.

amazon data sets

2008-11-22T17:35:00.000-08:00

I have not seen much on the newly released amazon datasets.
I think this is a great idea maybe even a game changing idea. Like huge. Anyway cool stuff.

good post odd host

2008-11-10T07:53:00.000-08:00

This is a really good post about the semantic web. Not so sure about the host name but the article is there and is a good read.
The page is bright freaking pink.
I like to read stuff about the semantic web but I am always a doubting thomas and some of the references from this pink page will be fun to chase. Good stuff.

python docs on ubuntu

2008-11-09T19:13:00.000-08:00

I do like Ubuntu. A lot but...
Why for the fucks sake is documentation in /usr/share/doc? I know it is a unix thing and Ubuntu is not to fault. Someone have some balls and move the docs to something like say /doc.
When I look at the default 8.10 install on laptop there are quite a few doc-like directories full of debian bullshit. I do not understand the purpose of it. I just need some damn python documents and not the whole problem of trying to figure out some purist bullshit...
So now I am now using synaptic to get the real docs and not 7 other directories of docs that arent docs.

online syntax highlighter

2008-11-03T15:59:00.001-08:00

Here is a cool online syntax highlighter.

creepy video

2008-11-01T19:54:00.001-07:00

this is a creepy video

bailing

2008-10-29T18:25:00.000-07:00

this post is about bailing to plug the hole. which is how i live at work really.
The only time I usually get a chance to really fix things are when the hole gets too big.

msys needs some help

2008-10-21T05:25:00.000-07:00

I have been working on windows mainly (yuch) and I have wrote something that needs to make it to github. The two options for git on windows are cygwin and msys. With cygwin being the larger download and setup I thought I would try msys.
I love mingw and have used that compiler for a long time with great success.
When you search for msys on google the first link is this link. There is apparently no way to actually get msys from this page. I am not sure why there is not a link for **download msys here** but there isn't.
And even if you make it a bit further and find the real page with msys you will see there is not a single package to really install, it is the standard programmer muck of download this, then install this type of thing.
Compare that to cygwin and cygwin wins hands down. Cygwin is a single file to download and it is clearly marked on the front page
Msys looks like it would be a good package, I just do not have the time to get through their disorganized web site to find the right download...

property files

2008-10-20T16:27:00.001-07:00

What a cool article about property files.
Really the whole argument is that they model data in like a really big way... good stuff. And something I have been thinking about for a while at work.

ruby does not do it for me either

2008-10-20T04:25:00.000-07:00

Check out this post on why ruby is not what you want to be debugging ten years from now.

yahoo application platform

2008-10-14T05:13:00.000-07:00

yahoo has a platform for the web too, called the yahoo application platform. It does not appear to be available yet. PHP appears to be their language of choice. it does look interesting

font porn

2008-10-12T07:23:00.001-07:00

I love fonts. I am not sure why but I do. And this article comparing fonts is heaven.

vain

2008-10-11T12:02:00.000-07:00

I am not sure why I am vain but I love sites like popuri.us. It lets me know at least one person out there like the blog.

bailout...

2008-10-01T18:40:00.000-07:00

The reports are coming in that the bailout was passed in the Senate.
What a sad day. The senate has bought up the horrible debt from wall street. I will never vote for anyone that supported this bill. Hopefully anyone that does will lose their job.
The people/companies who gambled should lose not the taxpayer. The companies should be allowed to go bankrupt. Now all that the Senate has done is let the american people how easy it is get something done in our government, just fill the bill with extra crap and the senators can be bought.
What a sad pathetic day for america and what a sad day for the senators who voted to bail out wallstreet.
I guess now the whores of the senate are now exposed.