<img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatars/8ca7425c8a9da807b9bf6934f10d59fa.jpg?d=monsterid" alt="" />

You can specify values like monsterid, wavatar, identicon, or retro here and Gravatar will generate a unique avatar image corresponding to the MD5 hash of the user's email address. You've seen these all around the web:

There are just a couple problems with these sets of generative graphics:

Continue reading >>

But first, the answer to said riddle:

Continue reading >>

VP$IP is arguably the most common statistic in online poker. It appears in strategy discussions across the internet and, increasingly, in books. Along with PFR and AF, it's one of the "Big 3"^[1] statistics whose shorthand notation has confused newbies on Two Plus Two and Pocket Fives since time immemorial.

Continue reading >>

And I quote:

Continue reading >>

Well, another $5 down the drain. The other night I stopped by Blockbuster to rent a copy of Battle: Los Angeles. Blockbuster is a bit of a ghost town these days, the sort of place that makes you think:

Huh, wonder what my first move would be if the undead attacked, right here, right now.

I was in a hurry and I kept imagining the clerk would morph into a zombie and I'd be forced to defend myself with stacks of $5 previously-owned titles from the bargain bin. So in my haste/nervousness I ended up grabbing a copy of what looked like Battle: Los Angeles, but was in fact Battle OF Los Angeles. Silly me.

Continue reading >>

Case In Point

A few weeks ago Feedburner started sending out duplicate emails to people on the Coding the Wheel subscription list. Instead of getting one email per post, subscribers were getting one email per post per day. Well, that's annoying. Certain unlucky readers got seven or eight copies of stuff like A Platitude on Software Failure. Gah!

So a sincere and humble apology to the folks who had to put up with that (if any of you are still reading). Coding the Wheel is a small site, so it's not like hundreds of thousands of readers were affected. But the readers we do have hate spam the way hipsters hate hipster bear traps. When we started getting friendly "WTF" emails...

Continue reading >>

Exhibit B: Five-String Serenade, a song in the key of G. Released by Mazzy Star in 1993.

Once you strip away minor differences of tone, tempo, and transposition, the guitar accompaniment in both songs is note-for-note identical: a specific (and memorable) broken chord pattern on a rising I - ii₇ - IV progression. It's pretty blatant, but in music this kind of borrowing is sometimes tolerated. Listen to Nate Harrison's fascinating account of the Amen Break, a.k.a. the most widely-sampled drum beat in history.

Continue reading >>

Still, there's a sort of Prisoner's Dilemma at work here.

Online poker sites often feel like they have to resort to outlandish measures in order to win users. They either don't know or don't care that every user they acquire in this way costs the industry two, or ten, or a hundred new users down the road. Nobody would call a poker site irrational for marking to the fullest extent. But in the aggregate, when every site does it, you get a garbage heap of toxic promotional spam and cheap affiliate marketing that damages the image of the game, hardens opinion against it, and can actually repel new users.

In other words, there's a secondary audience here of people who are actually confused, daunted, overwhelmed, and annoyed by the aggressive wall-to-wall marketing style of online poker. This secondary audience is called "The World". Online poker will continue to harvest its share of new players from this seconary audience, like any other game. But those players will be fewer in number, and quicker to churn, than they could've been.

Advice to future generations of online poker sites (because the current crop has proven they won't listen): focus on a rock-solid client, prompt deposits and cash outs, and friendly customer service. Cultivate the image and the reality of utmost professionalism befitting a steward of the game and a de facto banking entity. And leave the rockstar marketing to the "Jack-Offs".

Continue reading >>

* * *

It's true that most software projects fail. It's in the nature of software projects to fail. You might even say that software projects want to fail. Failure is what you get by default. Failure is the status quo. From the minute you begin the development process, failure waits behind blind corners, ambushes you from dark alleys, sidles up to you with a wink and a toothy smile.

"Go ahead," it grins. "Hit me with your best shot."

You can hire the best and brightest people, give them a budget that would beggar Croesus, evolve a methodology that makes Agile look like a clumsy attempt to rub two sticks together, producing fire. You can give your programmers triple-monitor setups, juggernaut CPUs, hard drives measured in terabytes, free all-you-can-eat sodas and snacks everlasting. You can choose the perfect language, the perfect platform, the perfect toolset. You can scrawl Goetic symbols on the dusty floors of the computer lab and dance widdershins around a burning copy of Code Complete, for all anyone knows or cares.

When you put your clothes back on (perhaps wondering how they got off) and snuff the candles, failure will still be there.

Waiting.

Picking its teeth with the dessicated bones of software projects long forgotten.

Continue reading >>

I haven't had time to polish it, but the website is basically a glorified heroism video playlist with some over-the-top technical analysis, Google Maps, and Chuck Norris voting widgets thrown in for good measure. The logic behind the last was straightforward: our research indicated that most users, being lazy, aren't inclined to vote. But further research revealed that Chuck Norris doesn't need any stinkin' votes. Chuck Norris simply flexes his biceps, causing you to collapse into the fetal position, sobbing like a two year old. Then he TAKES your vote. And your woman. And your dog.

Continue reading >>