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A Picture Is Worth 1000 Words
When building technology, you need to think about not only what problems you're solving, but also what problems you're creating. 'Nuff said.
Posted to
A Curmudgeon in Redmond
by
jim
on 02-09-2009
Filed under:
Computers
,
Rants
,
Design
On Minimum-Change Programming
Think about how easy it is to make a change to a shiny new, clean, well-designed system. Now think about how hard it is to make changes to a fifteen-year old system that has been under constant maintenance. Why the difference? Once upon a time, your fifteen...
Posted to
A Curmudgeon in Redmond
by
jim
on 08-30-2008
Filed under:
Computers
,
Rants
Garbage-Collection, Finalizers and Dispose: What Every C# Programmer Should Know
Because C# is garbage-collected, I don't need to worry about cleaning anything up. Not. If you've ever wondered why your C# application is so bloated, this post is for you. The garbage collector in .NET ensures that you don't have to worry...
Posted to
A Curmudgeon in Redmond
by
jim
on 08-28-2008
Filed under:
Computers
,
Rants
,
Garbage Collection
,
.NET
Performance Rant
I've often seen code with performance problems, and watched people struggle to improve it. I've also seen people struggling to achieve optimal performance while writing code. In both cases, I've witnessed lots of folly committed in the name...
Posted to
A Curmudgeon in Redmond
by
jim
on 08-24-2008
Filed under:
Computers
,
Rants
,
Performance
Cleaning Up After Your Program
You've got a big, complicated computer program and it's time for that program to exit. The user just chose the Exit menu, or he clicked on the close button of his main window, or your service has been asked to stop. What do you do? In my experience...
Posted to
A Curmudgeon in Redmond
by
jim
on 08-22-2008
Filed under:
Computers
Filler
She: You're so picky you stay awake at night wondering whether to spell anal-retentive with a dash. He: It's not a dash ; it's a hyphen .
Posted to
A Curmudgeon in Redmond
by
jim
on 08-20-2008
Filed under:
Humor
MapPoint and GPS: Another Stupid Pill
MapPoint is a Microsoft product that's a lot like Streets & Trips, with additional features. Most interestingly for me, it includes interfaces to programmatically control it, plus an embeddable ActiveX control. Since I was putting a computer into...
Posted to
A Curmudgeon in Redmond
by
jim
on 08-17-2008
Filed under:
Computers
,
Rants
,
MapPoint
Scott Hanselman on the Difference Between Developers and Designers
I just became acquainted with Scott Hanselman's ComputerZen blog. Lots of good stuff there. His Developer != Designer article is short and sweet, and captured my attention. Money quote: The difference between a Designer and Developer, when it comes...
Posted to
A Curmudgeon in Redmond
by
jim
on 08-15-2008
Filed under:
Computers
,
Link
Where Is Bob?
Check out the Where is Bob? blog. If you've ever worked for an antisocial, inept, incompetent, lying weasel, he's nothing compared to Bob. While presented as fact, I suspect this blog is mostly fiction. But that doesn't detract in the least...
Posted to
A Curmudgeon in Redmond
by
jim
on 08-14-2008
Filed under:
Link
,
Humor
Hacking the I/O Redirection Bug
Warning I'm about to talk about modifying a Windows system in a manner that most decidedly does not meet with Microsoft's approval. I did it to a few of my systems for fun and for the educational experience; feel free to do it to yours for the...
Posted to
A Curmudgeon in Redmond
by
jim
on 08-14-2008
Filed under:
Computers
,
Hacking
Book Recommendation
The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't , by Robert I. Sutton. Executive Summary: Life is too short to spend it working with assholes. So don't. If you do, you risk becoming one yourself. So don't....
Posted to
A Curmudgeon in Redmond
by
jim
on 08-12-2008
Filed under:
Books
System.WeakReference: Solution in Search of a Problem
.NET has a WeakReference class, whose semantics appear to have been borrowed from Java. As nearly as I can tell, they're both useless. A WeakReference is an object that holds a reference to another object. However, it holds a special type of reference...
Posted to
A Curmudgeon in Redmond
by
jim
on 08-11-2008
Filed under:
Computers
,
Garbage Collection
,
.NET
Plagarism Blog
Check out the blog Todd's World . (Go ahead, I'll wait for you to come back.) There's lots of neat content there. Trouble is, as far as I can tell, not one word of it is original. It's all stolen from other places, including my own blog...
Posted to
A Curmudgeon in Redmond
by
jim
on 08-11-2008
SmartLabs Takes a Stupid Pill
There's a simple maxim taught in Business Management 101; Commoditize your complements. That is, whatever other people sell that makes your product more useful should be as cheap and ubiquitous as possible. Selling cars? You want there to be gas stations...
Posted to
A Curmudgeon in Redmond
by
jim
on 08-10-2008
Filed under:
Rants
,
Home Automation
Computer Security At Home
When I start thinking about system security at home, I find it useful to consider the lock on the bathroom door. It's an extremely weak lock, and any ten-year-old knows how to defeat it. However, in practice, it's quite effective on a wide variety...
Posted to
A Curmudgeon in Redmond
by
jim
on 08-09-2008
Filed under:
Security
,
Computers
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