Uncategorized

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So my mother calls me at work for something “Important” that probably fits in the 3/10 or 5/10 buckets, which is a blocking I/O event when you’re trying to debug code, eh? This is something anyone out of grade school should understand by now:

  1. Walking in
    • In addition to calling (see below), blocks visual input if face is turned to look at you.
  2. Calling (E.g. phones, Skype calls, etc).
    • Blocks other tasks requiring conversational or non-automated mental function.
    • Suitable for urgent matters that demand a response time under five seconds.
    • Signal and local state issues may get you ignored to /dev/voicemail.
  3. Rolling conversations (E.g. from a desk away, over TeamSpeak, etc).
    1. Blocks either tasks requiring conversational output (responding) and reading comprehension (listening).
    2. Suitable for when a response time under 15 seconds is okay and you can repeat something.
  4. Messaging (E.g. instant message, text/SMS message).
    1. Suitable for when response time under 5 minutes is ideal but not urgent.
    2. Temporarily blocks text output ON writing a response.
  5. Electronic post (E.g. e-mail, forum PM, etc).
    1. Suitable for when response time of 2-5 hours is okay.
    2. Minimal obstruction when response is uneeded and notification can wait.
  6. Snail Mail
    1. When it involves something you can’t digitize.
    2. Risk of being ignored is acceptable.
In most cases, “Response time” in the above can be replaced with time of notification as well, should you be conveying news. Case for 1: the building is on fire! Case for 5: you need to do ${task} tomorrow.
This is what it is like to deal with someone exercising grey matter. Programmers, copy readers, writers, etc.
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It is a bit slow IMHO, but after a months of actually using the search key in Android, I can’t help but think this should be integrated into PC’s as well.

Or at least, I find it rather useful when mated with Android apps that can make their data searchable 🙂

Tales from the debugging session: I hate you

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This week, I finally wrapped up an annoying bug that basically is a heisenbug at heart, that pretty much lead me to use shotgun debugging to trap the problem, and once I found it’s control flow, I stimulated it with something like this:



try {

    // block of code under test

} catch(ugh) {

    alert("I hate you!");

}

And gradually reduced the block size until I found where the code was, fixed it to not make Firefox 9.0.1 croak at the old code. Then I committed it and marked the bug accordingly in our tracker.

Then when I was shutting down to leave work, my team leader IM’s me….oopsie, it turns out that I forgot to remove my “Affection” for Mozilla before commiting! I’m really glad that my boss has a sense of humour, and I think I was laughing for at least 45 minutes……lol.

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Now that I’ve got a dock for my ASUS Transformer Prime, and have had my tablet for a good while, I think I might do a review, perhaps even against the original Transformer, which has served me so well….even while being battle damaged so to speak, lol.

A Day Made of Glass 2: Unpacked. The Story Behind Corning’s Vision.

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This really is our future, although I expect it will be over 100 years before it can be fully realised, perhaps closer to the year 3000.
  • The tablet already exists and recently has reached a point where this is practical in the near term
  • Cars with such displays are already in progress, although it will likely be within the next 20 years or more before this becomes the universal normal—like power windows and locks. Damn, I still remember manual everything.
  • Being able to so seamlessly transition between closet doors, class room walls, etc is the Jetsons of the mobile software world….I long for it.
  • The glass room, is the Jetsons of todays digital work flow.
    • This is what the first world will look like someday, if we don’t nuke ourselves back into the dark ages first.

    Random idea towards battle mecha

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    In that ever so fluctuating nature of my brain fluttering across wikipedia, from Android Police, to the Tata Nano, to wing mirrors, to various car and hydraulic topics, something occurred to me…

    What if we could combine some type of dual purpose fluid that could serve as both an effective coolant, and as a suitable hydraulic fluid, and use a set of tubing to work it into a system where moving helps provide the circulation of coolant, and develop some kind of nanotubes that can be contracted, by having a computer control the application of electric current…

    Thus, big ass robot moves by shocking some hoses, that in turn pump coolant around. I can’t help but wonder, if engineers have already tried this, in a bit, something smaller than and less robot like than a Mackie, but still suitable to prove it can be done. Like wise, I can’t help but wonder if after a golden age in engineering, could we also achieve some kind of hydro-electric power generation around this, that can be kept going, and just require something like a battery assisted jump start?

    I’ve always had a bit of an interest in figuring out how to make giant mecha actually work >_>.

    The trouble with ice cream

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    I brought some Eddy’s ice cream while we were waiting at the pharmacy, because it was the early Grand brand that had Neapolitan. When I opened it this morning, I couldn’t help but notice there was only like 15% Strawberry, 1/3 Chocolate, and the rest was vanilla!

    On the up side, it is very decent ice cream:).

    Are companies like Facebook Internet cowards?

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    Some people in this country, still concerned over the whole SOPA/PIRA bit seem to have been mild in their  blackouts, and it makes me wonder, if they are against the bills are they cowards then?

    Sites such as Amazon, Dropbox, and TwitPic have added bumper stickers to their U.S. site, Flickr is supposed to be extending users the option of blacking out pictures but has otherwise chickened out on striking. Google is operational but blacked out their doodle, in proper Google fashion, so they’re still doing something.

    Then, there’s a few that are apparently not concerned enough in the the Internet that keeps them viable in business, to risk even that little a public display – Facebook, eBay (and thus PayPal), and Twitter for example.

    One could argue that businesses shouldn’t take part in such things or politics at all, and that’s reasonable enough IMHO, except when the freedom of the Internet is a huge part of their business. Then it’s your head in the same noose that all of us are. If Facebook and Twitter are as big as it is reported and they care about this, they surely could have joined the effort…the amount of  suicides and ensuring bad press is obvious enough reason to not go on strike but come on at least a bloody bumper sticker! They make profit off part of the Internet, and provide service that can help people change the world and in Facebooks case probably make higher profits than we can dream of while they are at it. Yet if they have so little back bone over something like SOPA and PIRA now, what would they do if a bill came down the pike, that would mandate everyone censoring free speech off the internet? Write a memo saying we don’t like that implementation and count the cash as long as they still make profit out of the deal? Cowards!

    I believe that if people fifty years ago were like Facebook is today: people of dark skin would still be getting forced to the back of buses in this country, and nearly two hundred and forty years ago… there would be no United States of America today.

    Companies like Facebook, eBay, and Twitter need to grow some bigger balls.

    How to make your own buttonhook cheap

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    When working a while back on my private tactics compendium, I summised that we probably call the Button-hook technique after the use of a real buttonhook. Well, my new work shirts are a pain in the ass to button at the collar, so on the way to the office this morning, I thought about how to make one. Yes I’m cheap and I like solving problems here and there lol.

    Unfold a paper clip like so:

    And you have yourself a buttonhook for like a penny versus $5-$15 out of a store!

    Plus if you push the little end closed, you have an ear clip just like my father would make. Those are the most awesome way to clean ear wax out of your ears—qtips are no good.