The SquizLogKeith Pitty takes a squiz at the world. |
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The SquizLogKeith Pitty takes a squiz at the world. |
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That's the question my wife, Lynda, asked me the other day.
It was in reference to my brief entry about the slips cradle our cricket club is purchasing. To her it seemed pointless. My answer was that it was a convenient way of me saving the link to the slips cradle site.
It set me thinking about the question: why blog?
Charles put it well in his introduction to blogging when he suggested the following reasons:
The audience of a blog is interesting to ponder. Often I find myself blogging for an audience of one: myself. It can simply be a useful way of collecting links to sites that interest me.
But then, as someone put it, blogging is like shouting from the top of a mountain - you don't know who is going to hear.
My local cricket club intends to buy a slips cradle in the very new future. This could be the one.
For an Aussie cricket lover, the Boxing Day Test at the MCG is always something to look forward to.
After over-eating on Christmas Day, it's traditional to put your feet up, turn on the TV and watch the Aussies take wickets and pile on the runs when the Test starts the following day. This year there has been added interest in the Test series against India. For the first time in many years, Australia is actually behind in a home series. We need to win the remaining two matches to reclaim the Border-Gavaskar trophy.
And after Virender Sehwag spanked the Australian bowlers around the park on the first day, things didn't look good with India 4/329 at stumps.
But today was a different matter. First the Indians lost their last 6 wickets for 16 to be all out for 366. And then Matthew Hayden and Ricky Ponting combined in a very timely partnership, both scoring centuries. So now there is renewed hope that Australia can win this Test and set up a potentially thrilling finale in Sydney.
Update: They won! With the series now level, I eagerly await the Sydney Test.
Developing software is a creative activity that involves immersion in the task.
That is something that I have been acutely aware of recently. Work has been busy, which is why I haven't written anything about software development for a while. It has been tiring too. One of the main reasons for that tiredness, apart from my life as a commuter, is the dual role I have been playing that has necessitated frequent switching between thought contexts.
One role I have been playing, and I'm hesitating about the best way of describing it, is as a disseminator of domain knowledge. I started on the project earlier than the other developers and was involved in defining the scope and documenting the use cases. So I acquired more detailed knowledge of the requirements earlier and, despite efforts to capture a reasonable amount of that knowledge in written form, it is natural that others have been asking me for clarification.
And I'm happy to provide that clarification as best I can.
At the same time I have been cutting code. It is a test of patience when you're just immersing yourself in an activity, thinking through what you need to do next to extend the software and... a polite "excuse me" interrupts your train of thought. You have been thinking in isolation, often analytically, and now you need to change contexts. You need to switch to listening, understanding another problem that someone else is describing and engage in finding an answer.
Often, when I've finished such a discussion, I return to my coding task with the words: "Now, where was I?".
I'm certainly no expert in how the brain functions, but it occurs to me that this style of working that involves switching thought contexts necessitates switching between using different parts of the brain.
And right now my brain needs a rest... time to return to Christmas drinks!
Naomi Klein, of nologo fame, explains why the US administration wants Iraq's debts cancelled but Argentina's paid in full. An interesting perspective. Via Danny Yee.
Learning more about how the human brain works is something I find fascinating.
Via kuro5hin, the 2003 Reith Lectures entitled The Emerging Mind by Professor Vilayanur Ramachandran provide an opportunity to do just that!
I just had a good laugh at the following joke relayed to me by my Dad:
George Dubya, in conversation with the Queen about the status of the USA, suggests that it should become a kingdom.
"Can't", replies Her Majesty. "You're not a king!"
"How about a principality?", suggests Mr Bush.
"Can't. You're not a prince!"
"I've got it. We should be an empire."
"Can't. You're not an emperor!"
And before the President has a chance to get another word in, the Queen remarks: "You know, I think you should stay as you are. You're doing quite well as a country."
Yes, I've notched up another year on the planet!
Today I turn 43. Which means I've lived through a year of being the same age as the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything...
I don't have anything deep and meaningful to add here, but I might even treat myself to the Collectors Edition.
Placing social values above self-interested economic ones does not seem to be in vogue these days.
And it would appear that I am not the only one with this opinion. In today's Sydney Morning Herald, two thought provoking articles appeared in the Comments section. Jenni Russell lamented the short-sighted selfishness that is so prevalent in society's attitudes whilst David Little laid the blame for the public hospital crisis fairly and squarely with us, the public whose apathy has allowed it.
In this season of supposed good will to each other, isn't it about time we challenged ourselves to place values like kindness and health above aquisition of material possessions?
Sometimes there's a temptation to refactor too much.
You're into the groove of improving the code, the good old JUnit bar is staying green and... you can see how you can further improve the quality of the code with just a little more refactoring. You could go on and on down the path to code quality nirvana. But, when is it appropriate to stop? Who is paying the bills?
Then there are other times when you know that some substantial refactoring is the right thing to do, without question. To use XP parlance, the code doesn't just smell, it pongs! Time to prune, or even pull some code out by its roots and plant some healthier seeds.
Like when you've inherited a codebase and spent the day wrestling it into a healthy enough state to work with, and you come across code like this:
public PointlessClass execute() {
return (PointlessClass) null;
}
A trivial example I know, but it does leave one wondering what were they thinking?
In her acceptance speech, this year's Nobel Peace prize winner, Iranian lawyer Shirin Ebadi, has criticised the US for ignoring basic human rights principles.
Fair enough, too.
Years ago when my wife and I were travelling in Europe (before serious commitments like kids and a mortgage), Iceland was one place that tempted us. But we didn't get there.
Lynda still yearns to see Iceland one day. I'm sure that Danny Yee's South Iceland Travelogue will accentuate the lure.
My own game of cricket may have been washed out yesterday, but today I had the pleasure of watching my charges win another game in the NSWDCA Cawsey Shield competition.
As their coach, when they are playing well, it is easy to lap up the congratulatory comments. Today was their fourth win in a row, this time against Manly who, as the second placed team, were hoping to knock the Central Coast team from their perch at the top of the table.
After 25 overs, Manly had restricted Central Coast to 2/62. But an ominous partnership was developing. Young Tristen McDonald, the skipper, and Jason Hayward took the game out of Manly's reach with a magnificent partnership of 135. Tristen was finally out for 65 whilst Jason batted through to be not out 85.
5/182 proved to be well beyond the reach of Manly who were all out for 130.
Ah, it's great when "my boys" make their coach look good!
I've just had the pleasure of a good long yarn with my close friend Andrew via a telephone link to his home in St Louis, Missouri. We've known each other for about 30 years and I always find conversations with Andrew refreshing, often mixing humour, intelligence and wisdom.
Apart from catching up with each other's news, at one point we became quite philosophical. We were talking about how one's mind can become cluttered with thoughts that are completely unhelpful at that particular time. Like when you find yourself awake when you'd much prefer to be asleep. It reminded me of the Buddhist Eightfold Path philosophy, in particular right mindfulness and right meditation.
Andrew mentioned that some of these ideas are expressed differently in The Six Perfections. But, as he said, eight things and six things are not always so easy to recall. He prefers the following simple philosophy:
Sounds like good advice.
From The Linux Journal, another Python success story.
One of these days I'll get around to doing some serious development in Python. Perhaps I'll make it a new year's resolution.
As Tim Fanelli points out, the manifest of a jar file is crucial when it comes to classloading in a J2EE runtime environment.
Resolving ClassNotFoundException problems can be a frustrating experience.
Reminder to self: remember to check the manifest if there is no obvious cause of a class not being found.
"Don't you bloody birds know what time it is?"
That's what I felt like saying to the chattering feathered creatures outside my window this morning well before dawn. Normally I sleep very soundly, but this morning I couldn't get back to sleep. I'm not sure if it was the birds that woke me. If that was the case, then I reckon I wasn't sleeping as deeply as usual. Those that know me well would attest to the fact that I have been known to sleep through disturbances much louder than a few bird calls. Cracking thunderstorms have failed to arouse me from my slumber in the past.
But this morning was different for some reason. Perhaps it has something to do with the feeling I have that I need a holiday. Too many things on one's mind can lead to restlessness.
Anyway, now that I've been awake for a few hours and the train I'm on is just a couple stops away from Wynyard, the ironic thing is that I now feel the need for a strong coffee to start the working day.