FUD...

...Fear, uncertainty and doubt. I think what's happening in the economy is certainly a classic example of FUD in action.

Every day the headline news is more doom and gloom in the economy as the 'recession' ramps up. I always knew there'd be trouble ahead (see my previous post, long before it hit the mainstream media...) but I also believe that we can 'talk ourselves into' recession. Sure, the 'credit crunch' kicked it all off, but if we're not careful, all of us, and the media in particular, are only going to make things far worse than they perhaps would have been.

TTFN

Disclaimer: The views and opinions I post are the views and opinions of me, and me only, and do not reflect views or opinions of anyone or anything else. Views and opinions are subject to change without notice!

When is 'Server' not the same as 'server' ?

...when you're working with Unix software, that's when.

Recently I've been working with a flexible batch management system on Windows 2000 Server. I've been setting up a test system which mimics exactly that which is currently in a production system, using a VMware virtual server environment.

All has been going exceptionally well, but one thing (the batch handling system) remained a problem. Strange things were happening. Some things worked, others didn't. Strange apparent corruptions were in the database, despite them being a direct export/import from the production system to the test system. Wierd. Nothing obvious was wrong.

Then I had one of those light bulb moments. I remembered that the batch system running on Windows 2000 Server was a port from an original Unix application. Unix, as you may or may not know, is case sensitive. So when you refer to a system's TCP/IP name as 'Server', it's not the same as 'server'. Windows doesn't really care either way, but Unix does, and this original Unix application did care, even when running on Windows! A reasonably good explaination of Unix case sensitivity can be found here.

So, I quickly tested out this theory and renamed a machine from 'Server' to 'server' (I'm using false names here to protect the identity of the real server...) and it worked. Panic over.

TTFN

Disclaimer: The views and opinions I post are the views and opinions of me, and me only, and do not reflect views or opinions of anyone or anything else. Views and opinions are subject to change without notice!

Never Assume...

It always annoys me when folk make assumptions about things that they have absolutely no knowledge or information about.

What annoys me even more is when those incorrect assumptions are posted on a public website for all to read which then gives the immediate impression that they know what they're talking about and try to appear to be the authority on the subject.

Those types ought to know better!

TTFN

Disclaimer: The views and opinions I post are the views and opinions of me, and me only, and do not reflect views or opinions of anyone or anything else. Views and opinions are subject to change without notice!

Priceless...

The Mastercard ad...

"knowing you`ve earned every moment of it ........... priceless".

...implying that you've earned the money, so book your holiday with Mastercard. The reality is that they want those who haven't yet earned the money to book a holiday with their credit card. I bet those who haven't yet earned the money, and maybe can't afford the money, will be tempted by this bullshit. Clever.

You know when you have earned it when you have paid for it, and Mastercard want you to pay more for it. It's your choice, ... "you know you are worth it" ...but only if you can pay for it, or you think you can pay for it...

"Because you're worthless...". Nah, wouldn't work.

At the risk of sounding pro-credit-card-debt (which I'm not - credit cards are for using as an easy means of payment, not for abusing, in my opinion), what else could they say ?

"Why put it off - Put it on! Because you can't sodding afford it, you mong!".

Ok, if the gas boiler's just exploded, you've got no cash handy at the moment, you know you can pay it off in a couple of months then fair enough, but buying a holiday, or yet more £5 cups of frothy coffee you could make at home for a fraction of the price, is just bloody retarded.

TTFN

Disclaimer: The views and opinions I post are the views and opinions of me, and me only, and do not reflect views or opinions of anyone or anything else. Views and opinions are subject to change without notice!

Times are Changing...

...or rather they have changed. It's been a while since my last post, but lots has been going on. This time I turn my attention to the economy since it's something that everyone seems to be talking about at the moment.

In a nutshell, lots of people are worried - and so they should be. Call me a clever dick if you like, but the cracks have been appearing for well over a year now, and I saw them coming from miles away, but most of my friends and acquaintances it seems have had their head in the sand for too long - they've been in denial - and only now have they suddenly realised that what I have been telling them for the past year has been happening under their noses.

Call it the 'Credit Crunch' if you will but this is a term only recently given to the effects of the global financial crisis also affecting, suprisingly, the UK. It's been there for all (who were interested) to see for a year and more in the USA and many other countries, but good old Blighty by and large thinks it's immune!

Two main things affecting the average 'Joe Public' at present include the ever apparent increase in costs (utilities, food, fuel, taxation etc) and the rapid tightening of lending criteria allied with increased lender interest rates.

Add in to this mix falling house prices (finally the bubble has burst ending the silly house price speculation that has carried on in earnest for the past 7-8 years, but that's another story...) and suddenly those in debt (and even those that arn't) are finding they can no longer afford to pay ever increasing costs and can no longer release equity (if there is any...) from their falling property value due to the fact that lenders won't lend.

Another nail in many-a-coffin will be the end of borrower's fixed term low interest mortgage deals, which means that their mortgage repayments for their over-priced properties will suddenly increase as they move back on to their lender's standard variable rates (which are a lot higher than they used to be).

Am I gloating ? No, far from it. I would consider myself in a much better position than most, but this is going to affect everybody. Make no mistake, there is trouble ahead, so position yourself now to weather the storm, because it ain't going to be pretty.

TTFN

Disclaimer: The views and opinions I post are the views and opinions of me, and me only, and do not reflect views or opinions of anyone or anything else. Views and opinions are subject to change without notice!

Why oh Why ?

I won't beat about the bush. The stupidity of some people/organisations sometimes astounds me. This post relates to a previous one (here) which basically suggests that people and organisations should be honest and upfront about something instead of trying to butter people up and reel 'em in setting false hope and expectation in the process.

For this to happen once is almost excusable - but for the same thing to happen again a matter of weeks later is just totally inexcusable, and in my opinion is nothing short of lies, and at the very best, sharp practice.

Most who read this won't know what or who I'm referring to - and most wouldn't care if they did, but I have to get it off my chest! In all honesty I don't know who is to blame in this particular instance (there are potentially a few possible culprits) but I bet it's the same person/organisation as the last time it happened - all I'll say is that it is not a very progressive way to work.

TTFN

Disclaimer: The views and opinions I post are the views and opinions of me, and me only, and do not reflect views or opinions of anyone or anything else. Views and opinions are subject to change without notice!

Data is Key

Since this is a software development blog, I thought I should at least once in a while write something remotely related to software development;

Picture the scene... You have some real-world GIS data. You know that the data you have is amongst the most accurate and best quality of it's type, anywhere in the world. You have some third party tools from an SDK which is designed to take such data in one form or another and produce some other kind of output. Great, all's well, only it isn't.

What happens if this fantastic data you have contains values or parameters you're not aware of or has errors that are not apparent ? What happens if the format of your data is not acceptable to the tool(s) you have to process it ? What happens if the tool(s) you're using to process the data produce results that are unexpected or it simply doesn't work and crashes ?

If you are familiar with these questions then most likely you're working in Flight Simulator scenery development! And the answer to all these questions is a resounding "it doesn't work!".

Now, since you neither created the data nor wrote the tool(s) you're in for a rough ride most of the time. Occasionally the cause of a problem will be fairly obvious. Occasionally it will be extremely difficult to track down, requiring huge effort and an inordinate amount of time to finally get to the point you wanted to reach. In some cases it will require code level knowledge and programming skills to develop your own intermediary tools to pre-process the data to make it acceptable to the third party tool(s). [Edit] If this is not your bag, then as a colleague has just said "if it doesn't work for me then there's no writing a clever bit of code ... its down to getting my hands in the bucket of crap up to me elbows".

If this all sounds a bit vague then it probably is, but the point I am making is this :-

Data is key. If your process begins with data (of any sort) then that data had better be good or you'll be in with a battle. The old adage Garbage in, Garbage out applies to any process involving data.

Working on scenery is certainly an exercise in deferred gratification and unpleasant surprises. I write a lot of code before I see any results. When people post screenshots of my scenery I am usually surprised by what it looks like, because I spent most if not all of the development time working on code and not playing with the final product.

The unpleasant surprises come from the size of the data sets I'm working with; Given how big and varied the scenery is (and how unreliable data can be at times), there will always be locations where the particular local data causes something to break or produce bogus results.

So spare a thought for the poor software developer working on scenery the next time you're doing circuits at your local airfield or admiring the magnificent views whilst flying through the valleys of Snowdonia!

TTFN

Disclaimer: The views and opinions I post are the views and opinions of me, and me only, and do not reflect views or opinions of anyone or anything else. Views and opinions are subject to change without notice!

Site for Sore Eyes

Bit of fun, but interesting nonetheless :-

Mind Puzzles

TTFN

Disclaimer: The views and opinions I post are the views and opinions of me, and me only, and do not reflect views or opinions of anyone or anything else. Views and opinions are subject to change without notice!

Simmer for 2 hours

Jamie Oliver was on TV last night, and although I'm not a fan of his (although my wife is) I did see a few things that made me think;

The first was a cracking puff pastry pie made from beef, guinness and a few other nice things - looked very tasty.

The second was his insistence that one should "Simmer for 2 hours" the pie's filling before baking it in the oven. "Simmer for 2 hours" he said again, stressing how important that aspect of the process was.

I got thinking. When was the last time I was a "Simmer for 2 hours". Those of you who know flight simulation as a hobby will know what I mean by this. And those of you who don't will have to Google to find out more about it!

Anyway, the last time I was a "Simmer for 2 hours" was a very very long time ago. In fact it's something I don't really ever do anymore, largely down to working in the industry where every waking hour spent in front of the PC ends up being "work" rather than "play".

This just has to change. After all, it's the reason I got involved in the industry in the first place, right ? All "work" and no "play" makes for Jack (or rather Chris in this case...) a dull life...

TTFN

Disclaimer: The views and opinions I post are the views and opinions of me, and me only, and do not reflect views or opinions of anyone or anything else. Views and opinions are subject to change without notice!

Don't Bullshit Me!

It's barely three weeks since my last post, and already I'm being badgered to do another one. Well I was going to do one anyway so don't think you've won!

Have you ever seen the TV ads for the Nationwide Building Society ? There's one where a chap enters a bank and asks why he's no longer getting the high rate of interest he was getting when the account was first opened. The bank responds, "Ah, that's a special rate for brand new customers only - designed to real 'em in and get 'em hooked". Here's a similar video (the actual one can be found here but sometimes it says you need to be a member to view it).

Well, I find life's like that all over - not just with banks. There's too much telling people what they want to hear rather than telling them how it is. As a Quality Assurance auditor once said to me, "Say what you do and do what you say", this certainly should ring true for life in general.

People are just as much to blame for this as any organisation though in my opinion. I'm sure we've all been drawn into things thinking that they'd turn out better than they actually did at some point. But why ? I think it's just a general overriding will to get on and do well, as most people are genuinely trusting, but there'll be some element of greed from many I'm sure.

So, what's the solution ? I don't know! But I think everyone in the world should at some time say "Stop! Hold on, lets get this straight, tell me how it is and don't pull the wool over my eyes, then we all know what we're dealing with and can put it right."

It's certainly something I shall subscribe to from now on...

TTFN

Disclaimer: The views and opinions I post are the views and opinions of me, and me only, and do not reflect views or opinions of anyone or anything else. Views and opinions are subject to change without notice!

First 'Proper' Post ? - Perhaps...

So soon ? Well, just been thinking in general about software and the best ways to achieve things (on a Sunday morning) and a few things spring to mind;

What makes a Professional ?

“My definition of an expert in any field is a person who knows enough about what’s really going on to be scared.” - PJ Plauger

It doesn’t get much simpler than that! You can always spot the inexperienced programmers in a meeting saying “Oh yeah that can be done. That’s easy!” That’s when you know to be terrified. I know, I've done it, thankfully though not too often and not in recent years. I've always come up trumps though, but it can be a very hard slog if you under-estimate something in this industry.

The reason I'd been thinking about achievements in software is that one can often not only under-estimate what it will take to achieve something, but under-estimate one's achievements when something is completed. I find lots of projects like that - you begin to think about the processes you've been through to get to the 'end result' and then think to yourself "Good grief, wouldn't want to go through that again!" - but of course you do anyway ;-)

In addition, those who end up with the 'end result' of course don't usually appreciate what's been required to get it - they can't, unless they're programmers themselves, and even then some may still not grasp the complexities involved.

In all of this, the one thing that I hate the most is often at the design stage of a project (or rather the lack of a design stage). Things often just start off as an idea, and then gradually progress into a requirement. As the idea and requirements grow, more and more people get involved and the requirements get woolly or ill defined because everyone has their own idea of what they want and how it should work. Then as is usually the case the project becomes urgent and programming has to start before the requirements are fully defined and documented (if at all). This is were we end up with the dreaded 'feature creep'. I've had to deal with this on almost every project I've ever worked on, to the extent that I almost consider it to be normal.

Before you know it the project turns into something that has to be all things to all men and yet still needs completing within original timescales and budget. It can't happen though, and I usually say that unless a project's scope is properly defined and costed in the first place, you can only ever have two of the three key aspects :-

1. It can be on time and in budget but won't have all the required (and undocumented) fancy features.
2. It can be on time and have all the fancy features but won't be within budget.
3. It can be within budget and have fancy features but won't be on time.

Of course this is just a generalisation, and you often end up with a permutation of all three, but you get the idea.

I suppose I'm looking for that utopian project that probably will never exist :-|

Well, that's all for now, catch you all later.

TTFN

Disclaimer: The views and opinions I post are the views and opinions of me, and me only, and do not reflect views or opinions of anyone or anything else. Views and opinions are subject to change without notice!

First Post - Don't expect too much...

Yeah yeah, I know, nothing much to see here in this post, but hopefully it'll be one of many. Can't commit to writing on a regular basis though - life's too busy for that, so don't get on my case if it ain't updated regularly. We'll see how it goes.

So what's this blog all about ? Software Development of course, the trials and tribulations of, and the general mental state a software developer has (or gets!) during his working life.

Actually, I've just been asked by one of my colleagues what the hell I'm going to write about. I've even tried to get him to do one (a blog, that is...) and he said he didn't really know what he'd put on such a blog. Then I thought to myself, what am I going to write about ? Well, I don't know either, surprise surprise, so I'll write on here all that springs to mind, about anything that springs to mind, but it'll be largely software related since that's where I seem to spend most of my life!

I suppose one reason I decided to make a blog (on top of the suggestions (read 'demands') from others that I should make one) is that I can say what the hell I like (within reason). Web Forums are ok (and there are many that I frequent where I often simply have to keep my mouth shut) and one has to maintain a certain level of conduct/decency on them - a blog doesn't have those limits I suppose.

Anyway, if he does make his own blog, I'll give a link to it here and you can then all gain some insight into both our worlds (or have a laugh at our expense).

One thing I'd like to point out before I go any further (and I hope somewhere that there's a way to make this 'sticky' or something) is that the views and opinions I post are the views and opinions of me, and me only, and do not reflect views or opinions of anyone or anything else.

So folks, sit back, read at your leisure and enjoy the ride!

TTFN

Disclaimer: The views and opinions I post are the views and opinions of me, and me only, and do not reflect views or opinions of anyone or anything else. Views and opinions are subject to change without notice!