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jarnoldon Rails and Merb Merge

More links:

http://weblog.rubyonrails.org/2008/12/23/merb-gets-merged-in...

http://yehudakatz.com/2008/12/23/rails-and-merb-merge/

http://rubyonrails.org/merb

http://merbist.com/2008/12/23/rails-and-merb-merge/

http://brainspl.at/articles/2008/12/23/merb-is-rails

http://loriholden.com/archives/2008/12/23/16-merb-is-rails-3...

http://mornini.wordpress.com/2008/12/23/rails-2x-merb-1x-rai...

http://splendificent.com/2008/12/the-merb-rails-merger-annou...

jarnoldon New iphone costs $27.94 more than the old iphone

A dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow. (You can buy something else, invest it, etc.) All things being equal, it's better to defer payments rather than all at once.

People are carping that the new iphone might be $200 cheaper, but then you have to pay $10 * 24months = $240 more in monthly payments. (Difference of $40 dollars more for the new iphone.)

The math is wrong, you have to discount future payments. I choose 5% as a conservative interest rate.

jarnoldon Ask HN: coding challenges as part of interviews: yes or no?

I think taking some time to sit down and _read_ some code is one of the best and least used techniques during an interview. I think it's more of an indicator for job performance than writing some green-field code. After all, on the job, more time is spent reading and understanding code than writing code with no preexisting context.

jarnoldon Making an indie movie is now too cheap - there aren't enough viewers to support them

"Making a web 2.0 site is now too cheap - there aren't enough users to support them"

jarnoldon Is the popularity of unit tests waning?

It takes as long to master TDD as it does to master a new language. I didn't get good until I had been doing it for a few years. @ardit33 is dead-on about the coolaid analogy. You either get it and can't imagine programming any other way, or there are significant roadblocks you don't want to overcome (UI) / just can't TDD fast enough to justify the time.

I haven't hit a point where I've invested too much into the quality of the software. It's fine with me if TDD isn't popular. I'll just keep using it as a tool in my arsenal to beat the competition.

jarnoldon A Fully Buzzword-Compliant Development Blog Post

Ya, it comes across like that. David Anderson is super-smart though. He's brought a lot of original thought to _how_ to do software development for large development teams. His ideas scale down. I've used a lot of his ideas for groups in the 10-20 ppl range. His thoughts on using kanban systems have really worked well.

He is a controversial person in the Agile community.

jarnoldon Ask: Where to get good feedback /prior/ to launch? Friends not competent enough to use mouse.

Find lowest common denominator to get feedback. It sounds like your friends are perfect.

jarnoldon Ask YC: How important do you think it is to have a blog?

Blogging for mortals is to show who you are, how you think. When someone is interested in you (interviewer), they will read backwards through your past blog posts until they get bored. That's it. Post every month or so when you have something interesting to say.

jarnoldon Web 3.0 Demo

I can't wait until the Web 4.0 demo