If you were not addicted yet, please don’t click this link. Since it will lead you a Flash game, that is very simple, but highly addictive, difficult to win, hence highly addictive, did I mention you can get addicted? Right, where was I? One of the not so nice things about the game, is that you can’t stop playing. Wait, I already said that. Allright, you asked for it, but it told you:
Thanks to Lulkoek, you’re now addicted too…
Today I saw in the update-list of Feisty (the auto-updater) that Thunderbird had some new stuff. Some time ago (two weeks, not sure about that) Ubuntu‘s repositories finally had Thunderbird 2.0.x and I already upgraded. For some reason the new version did not pick up my mail-files I was using with a manually installed 2.0, so when starting Thunderbird, I managed via symbolic-links that MY version was started, not Ubuntu’s. Now the auto-updater installed the newer binaries, and after restarting Thunderbird I found myself looking at old mail. Darn.
After some puzzling, I found that my version was using mail-files in ~/.thunderbird, whereas the Ubuntu-version used ~/.mozilla-thunderbird. Copying files from one to the other was what solved the problem.
Oh, I created a backup this time 😉 After I got things in working condition of course.
When updating to the new WordPress, I hadn’t noticed I left the ad-rotator in the dark. Since it’s an old-style widget, it was in the widgets directory, whereas all plugins now find a place in the plugins directory. So I copied the file from the backup, and put it back where it belongs. And it shows Epiphany (the browser) too. Try it, you’ll be surprised how fast it is.
I’m a programmer. And as a programmer I know how to use some programming languages. Some more thoroughly than others, but that’s not the point. When not dictated by the assignment or by an environment, the programmer chooses the language that will solve the problem best. “Best” is defined as: in the least amount of time. Or with the most accurate result. Or without spending a truckload of money. “Best” is not defined as: we need it tomorrow. Neither “it must be done in ColdFusion” qualifies. Nor does “we need a team of three certified Java developers to get the assignment”.
Unfortunately, most of the time programmers have to deal with other peoples problems. Their employer’s, or the problems of a client of their employer. Most of the time, that means there is no room for choice. So you will hear something like “we want the problem to be solved in PHP”. Or the client is using an old database so “deal with it”. Or the other way around: we want a SOA, but you got to help us with these .NET and Java webservices: they won’t talk to eachother. *sigh*
Dealing with environments you did (or would) not choose, or where you can’t choose, makes you creative. To deal with new problems using so called “proven technology” you’ve got to work your way around certain less optimal scenarios or bugs. Hey, that’s why these hacks are called workarounds!
Working around bugs is often very time consuming. Working around other peoples lousy work is time consuming too, since you’re basically redoing their work plus your own. Waiting for the next version that probably will have this and that feature that might solve the problem is a no-no: new versions have to be thoroughly tested before going live.
So you work your way around things.
In a next project, your work is reviewed, and the next programmer will say: what a loser! Why didn’t he solve it this way, and then showing off by proclaiming to know about the latest features. New features you wanted to use but could not. But what all experienced programmers know is that this programmers fate is no other than yours.
What most assignments mean, is that you get paid to be there. You are not allowed to solve the problem, but you fabricate a workaround they have designed (most of these so called solutions are a brain fart of the internal designers or architects, not actually the people that know stuff) in an environment that’s dead anyway.
Programmers get a bad name this way. Why don’t people let us solve problems? We’re clever enough. We can do things you can not. If that was not the case, why hire us in the first place? We’re smart people. Who happen to like puzzles. Why care so much for the way to the solution? Lots of people use cars. They don’t all know how the engine works, now do they? Why does this attitude not apply to software development?
Don’t comment on this blog with “we all know what happens when we let a bunch of developers solve the problem without actually telling them how” (referring to projects not in time, not in budget, or just plain abandoned). You did not through a problem at them, but a solution. Now review your past projects and tell me I’m right.
I already upped the check-interval for the wp-hashcash plugin from 2 days to 999999999 seconds (approx. 11574 days) because of the unreliable connection to their site. No connection means that my weblog does not work.
Now the problems seem to be worse, since my weblog was unavailable again. So I disabled the automatic version check. Here’s how. Open WORDPRESS_HOME/wp-content/plugins/wp-hashcash/wp-hashcash.php and make the following change:
//$version = `$cmd`;
$version = '4.0.2';
As you can see, I hardcoded my version number of wp-hashcash. This has two effects: the command in $cmd is not executed and does not receive a timeout, and you are in control of which version you run. Be sure to check for new versions regularly now.
…to self: to install extra software/libraries in the Maven repository, find the pom.xml that comes with the software and type:
mvn install
I was looking at the Wicket framework, that recently graduated to an official Apache project. Reading some Wicket blogs I came across this entry, saying Scala is the new Java. And with these 12 steps you can judge for yourself.
Mind you, Scala is not created by another group of ignorant self-indulged hackers that know it better. The man giving Java generics and responsible for the current javac is on the team, so don’t be too ignorant on this new language….
When reading this I was wondering whether I was reading a weblog written by a grown-up. Who in the right mind cares whether Mr Burleson gets a high Google rank just by telling non-sense. Hey, most of the high-ranked websites are just that. Or is it that his Google rank is higher than yours? So? Ask yourself: what does a high Google rank mean? Does it mean he is smarter? No, it means he will get more hits. By who? Ever wondered who would click these links?
Right. I wouldn’t. Mr Burleson’s website or any comment he makes is just plain air to me. But of course I’m only an Oracle professional (started with Oracle 4 on 5 1/4″ floppy-disks on an AT286, now tell me again what version did you start with?) and I know that Mr Burleson is somebody to not listen to.
No real Oracle professional would listen to Mr Burleson or take what he says for granted (pun intended). Just the kids that are looking for The Oracle and got lost clicking on Mr Burlesons links. We all know that. Now how come you still make a fuss about it? Doug? You’d better keep to your promise: I expect some real technical stuff from you this weekend, so get your *ss (you seem to like words with stars in it) in gear!
Here’s another try with Flex Builder 3 beta. It shows my RSS feed in a datagrid, and when selecting one of the rows, the corresponding blog-entry will be show on the right. When clicking in on the title in the datagrid, the blog-entry will be opened in the current window, basically replacing the Flex application. This was just to test a custom itemrenderer (LinkButton) inside a datagrid. The date-column can be sorted, but not in the default Flex way (string-based), but via Actionscripting it sorts by date.
Basically what I created was a very simple RSS reader, with this exception: it only reads my weblog 😉
The right part makes use of an IFrame to render the HTML output. Read here how to do that.