Pascal Hakim

What could possibly go wrong?

As we all know, the poor programmers that work on critical life support systems have very strict development methods with lots of reports and triple redundancy everywhere. This is how you know that the software in planes is probably not going to crash.

Sounds reassuring right?

Rodney Gedda

iLike the iPhone and iLove competition

Love or hate Apple, the iPhone is only good for the mobile industry.

Caleb Brown

Locking considered harmful.

Seriously. Locking is counterproductive to writing fast websites. Any process that meets a lock that is already locked, waits. It waits until it is free. And waiting means that the page being generated goes nowhere until the lock is free again. Locking is not good. Really. So stop using them.

Rodney Gedda

The notebook second coming, didn’t anyone predict it?

How one product can dramatically change an existing market for the better

Pascal Hakim

Why camera phones aren't as bad as you think they are

I often think that camera phones are a useless gimmick and that I would be happier with a bit of extra battery life on my phone. Phone ads are always full of people taking pictures of life defining moments on their phone. They're all wrong.

Caleb Brown

Commenting out code is evil

If you are a software developer you probably use some kind of version control system like subversion, git, or maybe Bazaar, everyday at work. And if you aren't you should be.

When using version control there are some bad habits that need to be broken to get the most from it. One bad habit that really needs to be broken is the habit of commenting out dead code instead of deleting it.

Pascal Hakim

Fun with code profiling

I am always amazed at how rarely people actually profile their code. You can get some amazing insights into what's happening in your code with some simple profiling tools.

Pascal Hakim

Touch my screen and die

I've tried a number of techniques over the years to try and stop people from touching my screens, most of which have been unsuccessful. Why do people think it's ok to touch screens?

Caleb Brown

I heart Instant Messaging

Pasc's last post reminded me about a couple of recent conversations I had with some friends regarding office communication, in which I stated my preference for using Instant Messaging for the majority of communication. As it turns out, this opinion isn't particularly popular (probably because many companies block access).

Pascal Hakim

The great MSN conspiracy

Is MSN refusing to take your messages? Are they censoring us?