I hope you cashed in while Google was at its high because the stock is now down 40% from its high of $747. Is the bubble busting on the little text ad clicks market???
On a personal note, my wife gave birth to our first child Sunday morning at 2:06 am. She’s a beautiful 8lb 9oz 22in long baby girl! The posts to the ScarTech blog might few and far between in the next few weeks while I’m showering love on my little girl.
Ok. I don’t get it. Two of the blogs that are must reads for me are Coding Horror and Scobelizer, and they’ve both recently mentioned the tech job market in the US. Jeff (of Coding Horror fame) contends that there are plenty of jobs for developers right now.
The job market for software developers is hot. This is great news for programmers …
The above is from his post dealing with telephone interviews and getting them right. Now on the other hand, Scoble laments the recent layoffs at Yahoo and uses them to discuss how to find a job in a recession.
It’s sad to hear about layoffs at companies like Yahoo. Right now it seems like a bad time to be laid off. I’m here to offer some hope.
Both these guys live on the West Coast (northern California - I think), so why the big difference of opinion? I can’t answer that, but I think maybe they are both basing their opinions on anecdotal evidence. Either way, it’s always good to have an updated resume and to keep networking. You never know when those contacts will be helpful.
According to the most recent available statistics from the Department of Labor (Dec. 2007), the unemployment rate is 5.0%. Not exactly the Great Depression, but if you’re the one unemployed that’s no consolation.
Ok. In light of the release of the Mitchell Report, and in the interest of full disclosure I have an important confession to make. I’m guilty of using code enhancing substances: caffeine, sugar, and ibuprofen. There I’ve said it. It’s off my chest now. I’m not proud of it, but it needed to be said. Has all the coffee, Red Bull, Advil and chocolate help me write better code? Probably not, but it did help me write more code. More code doesn’t necessarily mean good code, so I’ll leave it at that.
It used to be nothing for me to down a grande Starbucks vanilla latte, 20 oz diet Pepsi, and a king size Reese’s Peanut-butter Cup all before lunch. Then in the afternoon, I would chase it all with a couple Advil to help with the backache I got from my cheap office chair.
I’m sure you’re wondering why I would admit to something like this, but I’m doing it for the children. I just don’t want any of you youngsters out there thinking it’s cool to sit in front of an LCD all day and night writing line after line of code. It took me years, but I was able to kick my habit. I’m actually able to spend time outdoors. Hell, I’ve even got a wife and baby on the way. It’s amazing what I’ve been able to accomplished while unplugged and not hopped up on caffeine.
So take my advice. Unplug, put the Jolt Cola down and get some fresh air! You’ll thank me.
The other day I read a blog post about the topic of whether developers should where headphones while writing code. I say a resounding yes! Sometimes it’s a necessity. I don’t have a private office, so headphones offer an easy way to block out the outside noises from the cube farm. I sit right next to the IT department for a facility of about 2000 users, so needless to say it’s busy and noisy. I’ve also found out that by simply wearing the headphones, I can cut out on a lot of interruptions that would otherwise happen if I didn’t have them on. It usually dissuades helpless users from asking me IT related questions (and me having to point them to the help desk folks).
I love listing to podcasts, but beside that here’s a sampling of what I like to listen to while coding.
I try to listen to a nice mix to keep from getting bored.
Tags: Music
That’s right. Wide is in this season. Fortunately I’m not talking about waist sizes. I’m referring to display size. Ever since I bought my new notebook and finally got a larger monitor at work, I’ve become a die-hard fan of wide-screen monitors. I’ve been completely spoiled by WSXGA+ (1680×1050). I can’t believe I was even able to use Visual Studio (or even notepad) at 1024×768 without going crazy. I’m actually able to leave open the solution explorer while coding. It may not sound like a big thing, but when I didn’t have to wait for the toolbar to slide out to view the explorer I saw the light. Now I’m able to use the display on my Thinkpad at work as a secondary monitor of sorts. Since its LCD is limited to 1024×768, it’s perfect for email. With this setup, I’ve got a nice dual monitor setup.
Wikipedia has a very good image showing the common video resolutions. Man, I’m drooling just thinking about 2560×1600.
Tags: Opinion, Resolution
When we last left our intrepid developer he was attending a local RA (Refactors Anonymous) meeting. Let’s see what’s happening this week:
Me: “Hello everyone. My name is Tim.”
Group: “Hi Tim!”
Me: “I write software.”
Group: “So do we!”
Me: “I’ve been writing software for over 6 years now.”
Group: “That’s great Tim!”
Me: “And I write bad software.”
Group: There’s nervous stares around the room, shuffling of papers and feet. No one wants to acknowledge the 500 pound gorilla in the room. They all write bad code!
There. I’ve admitted it. I write bad code. I don’t intend to, but it just happens. At least that’s what it looks like to me. Every time I look back at a completed project, I can’t help but think I could have done this better or that better. Usually I have to fight the urge to go back and rewrite code just because I know think I can make it more efficient and more elegant. Then I remember that I need to keep making progress on current projects, and my dreams of incessant code rewrites goes up in smoke. So I go on writing more bad code, and the cycle continues.
I prefer to think that I’m becoming a better developer as I complete more projects, instead of thinking that I wrote bad code on older projects. I can think of specific tasks that caused problems for me at one time that I’m now able to easily handle. Does that mean I’m not writing bad code anymore? Probably not, but I’m writing better code than I used to. Shouldn’t that be our goal anyway? We should be continuously improving our skills and becoming better developers. That’s the 500 pound gorilla in the room. We all think we write good code, but there’s always room to improve. Especially in the tech industry because it changes so quickly, and there’s always opportunity to learn something new.
Now I want to know who’s going to clean up after the gorilla. I’ve got code to rewrite.
Tags: Opinion
Ryan Naraine of ComputerWorld compiled a list of the top 10 web annoyances. I know this is too easy, but my number one web annoyance is top 10 lists. I just did a quick google search for top 10 lists, and I got back 1.5 million results. It’s like everyone is taking blogging advise from Casey Kasem.
So now without further ado, the top 10 reasons I hate top 10 lists:
Tags: Opinion
Ah yes. It’s that time of year again. Daylight Saving Time is ending, and I’ve got to VPN into work to make sure the time change goes off without a hitch tonight at 2:00 am. Or is it 1:00 am? I never remember.
Anyway, I’m not responsible for some old legacy system. It’s several Windows 2003 servers, but they’re not the problem (for a change). It’s an internal process that uses a time stamp to create serial numbers, and since tonight we’ll be “falling back” an hour there’s a chance for problems.
There will inevitably be others working on code your writing. Do them a favor, don’t make your systems dependent on arbitrary factors external to the system. It’s just not very smart. You’ll introduce the possibility of bugs that are difficult to track down or duplicate not to mention the testing nightmare.
Like David Bowie said in “Changes“, Time may change me. But I can’t trace time.
Tags: Time Change
While reading Jeff Atwood’s excellent Coding Horror blog entry today about branching and source control I had a flashback to my childhood reading Marvel comics. He mentioned the What If series, and it just got me thinking of other what if tech scenarios. The first what if I want to discuss is the iPhone.
What if the iPhone was unlocked? When I say unlocked, I’m talking about using the phone on the carrier of my choice. How nice would it be if I could go down to my Verizon store and get a new iPhone at the same time my brother goes down to his T-Mobile store and gets his. I know one is CDMA and the other is GSM, but I can get a RAZR on Verizon and T-Mobile so I know it can be done. Apple can make the iPod shuffle, nano, classic and touch so why not two different iPhones? I know that Apple gets a cut of the subscription fees from AT&T, but I’m sure they could have worked out similar deals with the other big carriers. Maybe I spend too much time writing code and not enough doing business deals, but I fail to see how tying the phone exclusively to AT&T is the best option for Apple. We know it’s not the best option for consumers.
Apple seems to be wielding a heavy hand when it comes to the iPhone in general. You need to use iTunes to update the phone which means you’re out of luck if you’re not on the Windows or Mac platforms. Unlike Microsoft’s Windows Mobile, there’s no SDK available for third part application development or a means of installing applications onto the phone. I’ve heard some claim that keeping third party apps off the phone preserves the user experience that Steve Jobs Apple intended, or that it keeps users from unknowingly breaking their phones causing nightmares for support. Neither of those arguments make sense to me. If I buy a nice new MacBook I can install any non-Apple applications I want and still get support as long as I haven’t done anything to break my Mac. Shouldn’t you have the same freedom on your phone? If you do something dumb and brick your phone. That’s your problem, but don’t artificially limit what I can do with my own property in an effort to “protect me from myself”. If I drop it in a puddle of water I don’t expect Apple to replace my phone, and if I do something else to brick my phone I don’t expect a replacement either. When you get to the heart of the matter, the iPhone is just another computer. Why not treat it as such?
Here’s an analogy. I just put new tires on my truck. Ford recommends a specific size tire, but if I choose a bigger size I don’t have to worry about the truck not starting the next time I bring it in to the dealer for service. I also understand that if those bigger tires cause a problem, I’m probably not going to be covered by the warranty. How come this same logic can’t be applied to the iPhone? It’s because the cell phone market in the US mistreats its customers, and Apple fell right into the status quo with the iPhone. That’s why Apple’s choice to lock the phone into AT&T and it’s adversarial stance against unlocking has been such a disappointment.
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