About coding styles
I wish I had a penny for every time my colleagues thought I was crazy for re-formating their code before I started reading it. It wasn't because I didn't like their coding style, they just didn't have any. And for classroom projects, they could get away with it.
What really puzzles me is how on earth did they manage to get to the final year of the computer science faculty (FIVE years of study) and still not realize the necessity of readable code.
Well, from now on, I'll have this article to point them to. (Here's the local copy in case the original link goes rotten). If you've written as little as two screen-fulls of code, read it. If you already have a good coding style, you'll have a warm fuzzy feeling. If you don't, well, maybe you should wake up and smell the coffee. ;-)
posted Friday, January 28th 2005 at 23:21 | permalink
The Ubuntu CDs are here!
I didn't expect this to really happen, but it seems there are good things left in this world after all.
Without any further ado, the Ubuntu CDs I've ordered from South Africa are here! So, if you know me, and you are in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, and want to get one, contact me. Of the 10 CDs I've ordered, I still have about 4 without an owner. And, maybe I'll order some more, they were free after all ;-)
posted Monday, January 17th 2005 at 13:29 | permalink
Burning the midnight oil
Martin Michlmayr, the Debian Project Leader, blogged about working late in the night. After a week of sleepless nights, I really know what he means. Last night (if you can call it "night", at that hour), I've submitted my project at 06:53, after a 36-hour hackathon (with about 6 hours of sleep in between). At that hour in the morning, boy, did I wish it were only 22:22!
Eh, I guess I'll sleep when I'm 80. ;-)
I've just realized that it wasn't obvious from the blog entry, but the "reflexes" I've been talking about are caused by fatigue, not by some mental illness, or by the corporate mind programming we are exposed to. Don't even get me started on those. ;-)
posted Sunday, January 16th 2005 at 19:21 | permalink
Pavlov-like reflexes
It seems that I'm slowly becoming a robot. Apparently, between the time I push the key-combination that starts Firefox and the time it actually appears on the screen, I forget what I started it for. (Although it takes only about 3-5 seconds). Then, driven by an invisible force I automatically (and unconsciously) type <Control+L> sd <Enter>[1] which takes me to slashdot. By the time I realize what I'm doing, the page is already loaded and I can almost hear the productivity crashing through the floor.
... maybe I need a faster[2] computer. :D
[1] <Control+L> -- activates the "address bar"
sd <Enter> -- my keyword / shortcut for slashdot
[2] I currently have a dual P III @ 600MHz which seems ok for 99% of the applications in Linux.
posted Friday, January 14th 2005 at 15:22 | permalink
Linus and the future of society
Well, the title is a little bit misleading, but that's what this article is about. And it's interesting too. :)
And while I'm at it (posting links, that is), the discussion over the slashdot poll this week generated very interesting comments. Although slashdot is very U.S.-centric, the slashdot readers aren't. And it's nice to see what they have to say about the differences between various cultures, and how the U.S. see them. Really interesting indeed.
And finally, I've ran into an old Usenet posting telling the story of the beginnings of the Usenet trolls, and how Rob Pike (one of "ye olde UNIX wizards") used Markov chains to make fun of the unknowing posters.
posted Friday, January 14th 2005 at 01:41 | permalink
.ch
It seems to be a funny day today. :) Here's a gem:
Rearranging the letters of 'Confederatio Helvetica' (official name of Switzerland) gives: Verified: neat chocolate!
I'm starting to think that .ch stands for .chocolate. ;)
posted Friday, January 7th 2005 at 16:09 | permalink
Parenting
This is hilarious! :)) (although I'm not sure the rest of the site is). Thanks to Amaya for the tip.
posted Friday, January 7th 2005 at 15:50 | permalink
Happy New Year!
Since this is the first blog in 2005, I'd like to wish you all a Happy New Year!
Now, that we've got that out of our way, I want to mention here the movie Brazil, which I've just seen last night. It reminds me of 1984, only it's a bit less frightening. It's still sad, though. It makes you think what could become of this world if people keep accepting more and more compromises... On the whole, it's a film worth seeing.
And, the last noteworthy thing that happened to me today was that a piece of a building I was passing near by broke off and hit the ground a couple of feet from me. It could have squashed me flat. Now I realize how right I was when telling my mother that the chances of having an accident in the mountains are lower than getting hit by a car (or by a falling piece of a building, in my case), in the city. Well... I'm just happy to be all in one piece, now. :D
posted Tuesday, January 4th 2005 at 18:54 | permalink
