nsfyn55

Is git/mercurial poor version control in your opinion? OP demonstrates exactly why. imagine a block with 25 variable assignments. All variable with 3 letters now you add a variable with 4 letters. You have to edit the 25 preceding lines with a space to accommodate the new letter. Now all diffs from here to eternity spew this out.

Not to mention you've now greatly increased the surface area for merge conflicts. I mean what if someone else added a 5 letter variable?

Ah "readability" the favored haven of those with no clear objective criteria.

There is one clear justification OP can provide for this style element. HE/SHE/THEY THINKS IT LOOKS PRETTIER! Just say so, call a spade a spade. If OP is honest with themselves then they can seek help for their terrible editing choices. Otherwise you just end up with the the tired cycle below.

1. Trot out your aesthetic preference.

2. Speciously connect it with something that has merit(e.g. lining up numeric values in spreadsheet, which BTW has value because those numbers are in an nXn space delimited grid where position implies meaning.)

3. Use the 2 steps above to make a pitch for forcing everyone to use your tool du jour or to shove this as a style guide element down your dev team/projects/friend/significant other's throat.

From my experience this silly style element serves one purpose making that one person with OCD feel better. For everyone else its a headache. It causes source control to lose its mind, it makes block editing trickier, all while simultaneously providing no tangible benefit.

I think critical programmers from every generation back to Ada Lovelace have made this observation. When the solution has started costing more than the problem...stop.

This article is a breath of fresh air. I can't how many times I've encountered the dogmatic TDD adherent. I write more tests than anyone I know and what I have learned is TDD is great except when the cost of TDD outweighs its benefits. I've seen a dev spend 8 hours fiddling around with Mocha/Chai trying to test if a button changes color in response to a successful callback. Sometimes its good enough to click the button and see if it changes color.

I like it but on boarding is about more than how quickly you can get a person to where they can commit. I'd like to hear more about how and more importantly how long it takes for you get a person to a place where they are committing.

The "C" in CMS is misleadingly thought to stand for "Content" when in many cases it stands for "Control". I have been asked on several occasions to build a site on a CMS when it was completely inappropriate usually prodded with the phrase "I don't want to rely on developers for every little change." When I dissect this I realize what they are actually saying is "Developers belong to a shady international cabal and they intend to hold my site hostage I have to prevent this."

I didn't say Albert started the business. I said that Albert was the reason starting the business was a good idea. What I did say is that either Alice or Zola would be better served by having elements of both Albert and Zip.

I would consider hard to find a decent software engineer that would introduce 20 unproven tools to for something allegorically related to "plumbing" like say your web server.

Additionally, a lot of this is based on perspective. If I suggested standing up a web infrastructure on "nginx" am I an Albert or a Zip. I mean "Apache" has a much longer track record...right? By this article's logic we should write everything in FORTRAN and use single-tasking operating systems. Those have been around since the 50's ... rock solid.

Net out is "proven track records" and "best practices" are convenient stop gaps for ignorance. They are a way for people that don't know any better to manage risk. "I don't get it ... but it worked for her". Being competent and knowledgable, having good risk management skills, and understanding the problem will serve an organization much better than being conservative in your choice of tools.

The cases presented in this article are contrived.

1) There are room for both boring and cutting edge technology in any business. Albert didn't drop the ball by choosing cutting edge tech. Albert exhibited poor risk management skills. Alice wouldn't be complaining if Albert took a controlled risk and installed a next generation flash fryer that gave a clear competitive advantage over Zola in terms of personnel and order-to-delivery time.

2) Good ideas require both Albert and Zip. Zip keeps the lights on and the costs down for all the mundane BS required to run a business. Albert is the disrupter. He is the reason starting the business was a good idea. He is an iconoclast that looks at the state of the world and said "I can do this better".

The title of this article should be Boring Systems Build Benign Businesses

I like to keep a running TODO list in a vim buffer or in OSX's notes app, or evernote. I check off every little thing that I do. As things come to mind I add them to the list. This keeps me from getting overwhelmed. Once I finish something the next step is clear. Go to the TODO list and choose the next item.

This is why I don't have kids. So I can irresponsibly and irrationally fight the good fight. Sorry for your loss.

I didn't like it. Like most TV shows about professions it felt like a big bundle of crude stereotypes. Maybe its because I am an east coaster, but I couldn't relate to any of the characters or scenarios.

Pomodoros! Half the battle is getting started. If I don't know how to start I type steam of consciousness into a buffer until things start to congeal. Once your moving it's all downhill.

I don't understand why people think rebasing destroys history. It doesn't "destroy" anything.

Have you ever had an argument that was just mediocre? But later you think of a witty retort that would have been just perfect. Thats what rebasing is. Its re-structuring the conversation the way you would have liked it to go.

What is the significance of Lou Reed?

Obviously I use the term "abuse" facetiously. However, no one buys the memiore about the individual that coasted into prosperity with the love and support of everyone around them.

> Not everyone wants to get to the "top" sure, but how about you let them make that decision rather than taking the liberty of handicapping them in advance.

>They certainly sound better than environments full of mental/emotional abuse. Why can't we create abuse-free environments in the real world, too?

Sure but they will need to compete against the environments filled with vicious, agogi-bred cutthroats who are there by choice.

My experience in the professional world is that its full of assertive, aggressive individuals men and women included. There are only so many slots at the top and the ones not occupied by the CEO's nephew belong to thick skinned individuals who have endured a careers worth of mental/emotional abuse. How many times have your heard someone utter the words "My boss/colleague/lead is an idiot." Is it a disservice to create these mushy teeball environments where everyone gets to be an astronaut?

ClearSwitch - Philadelphia, PA

http://clear-switch.com

We are a newly minted startup in Center City, Philadelphia. Our goal is to help consumers make better decisions about where their energy comes from. We have an excellent, seasoned leadership team and we are hiring developers.

A few details: - Our code base is tiny. Lots of room to make a big impact

- Our stack is Backbone, Python/Flask, MySQL deployed on Ubuntu(AWS).

- Our need is a few passionate software engineers who want to work in a lean software outfit in the city.

If that sounds like your bag we can offer competitive salary and benefits plus we just moved into a great spot in the heart of Old City.

more details: http://www.clear-switch.com/careers

contact: careers@clear-switch.com

ClearSwitch - Philadelphia, PA

http://clear-switch.com

We are a newly minted startup in Center City, Philadelphia. Our goal is to help consumers make better decisions about where their energy comes from. We have an excellent, seasoned leadership team and we are hiring developers.

A few details:

- Our code base is tiny. Lots of room to make a big impact

- Our stack is Backbone, Python/Flask, MySQL deployed on Ubuntu(AWS).

- Our need is a few passionate terminal ninjas who want to work in a lean software outfit in the city.

If that sounds like your bag we can offer competitive salary and benefits plus we just moved into a great spot in the heart of Old City.

contact: careers@clear-switch.com

I mean theoretically the old candy bar phones are much simpler than the iPhone. 10 numbers, #, *, call, hangup.

There is simple and then there is too simple.

Java world -> Aren't checked exceptions just error codes that use types instead of arbitrary values and compiler gaurantees?

And wasn't the thought that checked exceptions would be better for critical code because the compiler guaranteed that they were handled.

I'm no fan of java's error handling, but I think that the insinuation that the lack of any formal error handling makes you write less error prone code is bordering on the absurd.

Detail oriented individuals write robust code given the constraints of their environment. If its arbitrary strings that indicate error state they use strings if its integer return codes they use integer return codes.

This is the same uninspired crap that Microsoft always puts out. M$'s problem is not their marketing its their leadership. They keep making superficially changes and marketing them as huge leaps. XP-->Windows 7 = some gui changes. I launch the system program and tada its exactly the same as it was in Windows 98. The most innovrative thing they've announced in a long time is locking down your install completely to prevent install of unsigned software. Apple makes new products. Google takes real risks to change the way things are done. Microsoft is way to risk averse for the space they are trying to play in.

Step one to a good rebranding effort. Change what it is your selling. You can rebrand a turd as a chocolate lollipop and expect me to drop what I'm doing to rush to the candy store.