Category Archives: Computers & Science

Free Kevlin Henney event

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In a recent rant, I was talking about my ability to suggest better solutions than the existing. Since I’m arrogant but not completely without self-recognition, I laughed my ass of when Frank sent me this Kevlin Henney quote:

In software development, developers, architects and managers often like to think of themselves as rational and clear thinking, not prone to the chaotic and contradictory thinking they see at home, in politics or in the world of business. Although it is possible to get further from the truth than this, it is not likely.

Kevlin is sharing his insights at an event hosted by Cybercom. The event is free and will be held at November 10. 2011 in “Danish Design Center“. You can read about the event here and register for free here

and Steve has left the building

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Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

-Steve Jobs.

Singing your source

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…and while I’m at it. The following piece of code, which Sam Aron presented at the goto; conference (I don’t know where he got it from) is also the lyrics of a christmas song.

better watchout
better !cry !pout
lpr why
santa claus <north pole > town
cat /etc/passwd > list
ncheck list
ncheck list
cat list | grep naughty > nogiftlist
cat list | grep nice > giftlist
santa claus <north pole > town
who | grep sleeping
who | grep awake
who | egrep ‘bad|good’
for (goodness sake) {be good}

Friday puzzle

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My good friend Frank just sent me this email (I did translate to English though). I had never seen the algorithm before, so it gave me a good laugh. Now I need to share it. It’s written in Groovy:

If you just need to get some blood through the neural cells after the pork roast, try to figure out the code below.

Hint: a classic sort algorithm, but which one?

—————————————–

import java.util.concurrent.*

def list = new CopyOnWriteArrayList()

def task = { n ->
t = {
sleep(n);
list.add(n)
} // job in a closure
t as Callable // return block as a callable }

def workers = []

[5, 3, 7, 2, 1, 1, 3, 4].each { n ->
workers.add(task(n))
}

def executor = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(workers.size());
def futures = executor.invokeAll(workers, 10, TimeUnit.SECONDS);

println list # the sorted list


So, what is it? Eh’? Eh’? :o)

I am not a blogger. I am a developer

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I am not a blogger. I am a developer, and to be honest, not a particular skilled one. I would score myself to be about avarage.

Like most developers, my day job is solving problems. This is done by analysing real world problems, acquiring deep understanding of a certain domain and building mental constructions that can be used to grasp and model the real world.
In this process, developers often find real world things that are… erhm… sub-optimal or things that would be modelled easier, if only they where slightly modified. I think the latter occurs more often than the former, though.

As a result of this, most developers have a strong opinion about how things should have been, what is wrong and why their way of doing things is superior. I am no different, except that I tend to be louder and more verbose in my rants. That tends to piss of management.

But wait. There is more: I am without people skills and I am fairly arrogant, failing to understand how other people can miss the obvious, exploiting every chance of pointing that out. That tends to piss of management even more.

But I have made a promise to myself. No more rants at work, only constructive criticism (whatever that is). Unable to rant at work, I need a vent somewhere. I was thinking this blog should be it.