kungfooey

The only thing you're not including in this equation is votes. Union leaders simply need to convince lawmakers that it's in their best interests to pass favorable legislation limiting the adoption of new technologies. It's certainly been done before.

As a developer, I'm not so sure that I buy this. I mean, I get it, developers are going to know how to deal with the bugs much quicker than a customer would. But does it scale well? If I was constantly interrupted by a loudly ringing code I can assure you that my code is going to be a poorer quality than if I had been able to work on it undistracted. So distractions lead to bad code leads to more distractions... that could be a really vicious cycle.

As someone else pointed out, you have to judge the process by its fruits. It looks like it's working for them, but it would drive me crazy.

I suggest checking out this talk at Nashville's Barcamp '09.

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/2370164

Christopher did a good job talking about his approach to teaching a group of kids how to game. Syntax isn't as important at first - if you get them hooked on something simple like processing (http://processing.org/), then they will learn syntax later. Most kids just want to see results as quickly as possible.

It's just a side project (mainly to become familiar with the Rails dev environment and tools).

Originally it was going to be "Who Read It?" but then I realized that the domain name could be creatively interpreted. Hence, just Read It. When I say it myself, I pronounce it "reed", probably due to the similarity to reddit (which I don't find to be particularly bothersome).

I tried readernaut but felt it did too much. I just wanted a minimal way to keep up with what I've read, not add reviews (that's what Amazon is for), add friends (we all use Facebook, right?), or create lists.

There's also http://goodreads.com/ and http://www.librarything.com/

You got it. Just a minimalist reading diary - there are other sites that handle reading + networking (goodreads, readernaut, etc) but I find them all too cluttered. The 'about' page tells more about what I was aiming for.

I guess that's what the "about" link in the top right-hand corner is there for. I suppose it needs to be more obvious?

Edit: probably need some sort of boilerplate on the front page to explain it succinctly. Thanks for the pointer.

Thanks! Nope, no recommendations yet. I'd either have to build in recommendations or (preferably) somehow yank that data from Amazon. Might be something I try to do next, since I've had a couple of users ask me about it.

I started out with Java, but I've worked in PHP for a few years now. I dabbled with Django, but this is my first attempt to build anything useful in Rails. It uses the Amazon API to gather book data, and obviously authlogic + facebooker for Facebook Connect.

That was the single largest plot hole of many others.

"Nuke it from orbit."

Working on an ultra-light mashup to help track books that I've read. It's my first Rails project, hosted on heroku, mashes up Amazon+Facebook Connect.

http://readit.me/

'Go' is 100% longer than C.

Obviously, the movie "Idiocracy" is a source of scholarly learning.

I think the kind of company he's referring to would be something like RightScale.

More streaming: http://somafm.com http://etn.fm

I agree. The first time an employer screams at me will also be the last. It is unprofessional and abusive.

The headline is a little misleading. This seems to be more about making sure you're aware of the problems that occur when you allow users to have vanity URLs.

I just had a daughter born yesterday morning, so this article made me very happy to think that one day I can hone her gaming instincts into a formidable weapon.

Good point, that hadn't occurred to me.

I'm quite familiar with the research ("Code Complete" is a book I constantly reread) and with the arguments for good design. As another commenter pointed out, the argument wasn't so much for "perfection" as it was for "good code" (which I can't argue with). It's still somewhat arbitrary, thought, and the more "good" it is the more you edge into diminishing returns. There's some point where the trade-off for "better code" trails off.

Design, however, is a whole 'nother ball game. As you pointed out, research has shown that most of the problems, and indeed the most expensive problems, are caused by requirements. (IIRC)

My wife knew about this site, and she tells me that for a long time growth was somewhat hampered by their inability to scale. They had to manually allow users into the site in chunks (you email them your info, they email you the following Friday when you can finally post on the boards). He obviously had some hiccups, but he managed them well and learned as he went. That's an admirable quality.

I completely agree with patio11's comment about the other half of the population being under-served.

I'm going to call BS on this one. As a business owner, I realize that sometimes there's a balance between "perfect code" and "getting to market." You can't be a pragmatic business owner and a perfectionist.

Artists can afford to be perfectionists. A software artisan may wish for perfection, but this sort of tripe is exactly what I was referring to in this post: http://dailytechnology.net/posts/3

If you want to perfect software as an art form, then great, take this advice. But if you do it for business, then you realize that there is a trade-off when you aim for perfection. You may write the most stable, secure software in the world, but if nobody uses it, then who cares? You painted the Mona Lisa, and it's in a basement somewhere. Congrats.

Unfortunately, many other companies are already doing this (Time Warner/Earthlink/Road Runner). Comcast is just following a growing trend.

Nashville, TN

This has been around for a while, but it's still pretty cool. I have a poster-size printout of "Enter The Dragon" that I printed out about five years ago, and it still looks great.

But... that's not agile!

It doesn't sound crazy at all. This (particularly in the software development world) is exactly the sort of situation I had in mind when I read and posted the article. It seems to be a particularly acute problem in an industry where those responsible for who gets promoted know little about the technology involved.

What exactly is involved in relocating across international borders? Perhaps I should post this as a Q. I would love to relocate to another country for a while, but I find the paperwork to be intimidating.

#38 was the first podcast I had listened to, and before doing so, I had not heard of Uncle Bob. Now having read his blog post, he comes across as a pretty sour fellow with a bone to pick. As others have pointed out, his nitpicking at this particular statement is not very fair. He also implies that J and J give bad advice and shouldn't be trusted with your business, which just reinforces the idea that they guy maybe just has a chip on his shoulder.

He appears to be selling his services as a consultant, so it makes economic sense for him to belittle his free "competitors" with this sort of nonsense. I don't buy it.