Just a quick and funny link to a comparison between prison and work. (via Digg)
The 21 Biggest Technology Flops by Computerworld
Computerworld published a 21 items long list of the biggest technology flops. Most of them I remember, some of them were gone even before I realized there was a technology world. I even remember thinking that some were good ideas at the time. It’s an interesting read.
It’s amazing how Microsoft Bob gets a spot in these “flops” lists :) (via Digg)
Google Maps Offers You To Swim The Ocean. I Think It’s A Nice Touch
Lately, it was published that if you ask Google Maps to show you instructions on how to get from one place to another, which is across the ocean, Google Maps will offer you to swim. For example, here’s Google Maps’ instructions on how to get from Mountain View to Zurich. Note that instruction 36 says:
Swim across the Atlantic Ocean, 3,462 mi
Google Maps is offering you to swim 3,462 miles (5,571.54893 kilometers, I used Google Calculator for this) across the Atlantic Ocean in order to get to Zurich.
While this is funny, I also think it’s a very nice touch by Google. Obviously, the swimming part can be replaced by:
- detailed flight information, or
- an error saying the route cannot be computed.
While the error option would have been much easier for Google, they chose to put a placeholder until (I’m sure) they’ll have integrated flight information for their directions part of Google Maps. So why, really, emit an error when you can be funny?
The Browser OS – Using Online Instead Of Desktop Applications
lifehack.org (main website link) posted an article on how they use online applications instead of desktop applications, the idea being that it doesn’t matter any more which operating system is running on your computer since you can have all your applications online including Office-type applications, backup, file management and so on.
I believe it’s an over-simplification, but the idea is appealing. I do think that we will have more of our applications online and maybe in the near future all our files will be online, but currently the desktop experience is still important to most users. Generally speaking, I adopt Jeff Atwood position in his post Are Web Interfaces “Good Enough”? (via Digg)
My Programming Lessons – #1 – Learn When To Quit
I decided to start the “My Programming Lessons” series with a lesson I don’t consider the most important but still important enough.
Learning when to quit programming is hard. You have a deadline, you’re stressed and things aren’t going well – maybe the compiler complains about something you don’t understand or maybe the program doesn’t print “hello” even though that’s the first line being executed (or so you believe). This is the exact time you should let everything go and simply head home to rest.
You should let go because when you’re in this state you’re probably more destructive than constructive. The next day, if you’re like me and you re-examine your code often, you’ll probably replace all the crappy code you wrote with smaller, better code that will work first time around. And that’s the good scenario. The bad scenario is that you’ll keep trying to rework that crappy code until it seems to work and this almost always means a bug is hiding in there somewhere.
It takes some insight to learn when the right time to quit is. For me, now that I have a few years of programming experience, I usually know when to quit before I’m destructive. If this time of the day arrived and I still feel like I have to work, I usually do other (not as critical) work like documentation.
It’s April Fools’ Day on The Internet (also In Real Life, but Who Cares)
April Fools’ day on the Internet begins with Google’s Gmail Paper initiative. Have your emails freely distributed on paper by Google, who will add some advertisements on the back of the paper. Great joke from Google. See for yourselves.
UPDATE 1: Google continues with Google TiSP, the broadband system for your home, going right through your toilet to a snorkeling PHD (Plumbing Hardware Dispatcher) person in the TiSP access node, who will connect you. You have see the installation instructions to understand.
UPDATE 2: Slashdot also started posting April Fools’ day articles, one of which is that the Mozilla Foundation is suing Microsoft over tabbed browsing, which causes Microsoft to contemplate shipping a special version of IE7 named IE7 NT (No Tabs) :-)
12 Ways To Pimp Your Office
I posted before a list of cool offices design concepts and here’s another one called 12 ways to pimp your office. While I enjoy looking at some of these awesome designs, for me a good work environment mostly means having a good screen, keyboard and chair. For a nice example, check out Jeff Atwood’s setup.
Interview With Raymond Chen (Audio)
I’ve written about Raymond Chen and his popular blog a few times before. He’s a brilliant Microsoft employee, who writes about “serious” stuff like how to use some of Windows’ API, while also including nice stories from Microsoft’s past (plus some other stuff, which always shows how much you can learn from him).
This time I’m writing about him because there’s a podcast online where you can listen to him getting interviewed about the blog, his new book and Microsoft.
Did you know that every copy of Windows XP includes Microsoft Bob (Wikipedia definition)? I didn’t. If you have an original Windows CD and you can pound on your keyboard with your hand in a very specific way, you can get to the Microsoft Bob installation on the CD :)
I guess you have to listen to the podcast to know why I’m saying that.
UPDATE: Raymond Chen was interviewed previously on another show. It’s also very funny for Windows developers with a bit of sense of history. Here it is.
Demetri Martin’s “The Jokes With Guitar” Video
I love Demetri Martin’s humor, so although I posted some videos of his shows before here’s another one. (via Digg)
Motorola Asked Me To Remove References To Them
Today I got a call from a former manager of mine in Motorola. He kindly asked me to remove references to my work at Motorola.
Since they chose the high road and decided to ask me this personally with a friendly voice (as opposed to using a lawyer) I agreed to the request and removed almost all mentions (except for very general ones) of Motorola and my work there.