“Hello Chainsaw”

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Yet another (probably Photoshopped) strange Hello Kitty object. Amusing, but I really prefer the assault rifle. (Yeah, I’m getting to this a couple months late, I’m catching up on old posts.)

Most amusing comment:

That’s what I’m talkin’ about. Just because a girl wants to kill zombies in a gruesome, effective manner doesn’t mean she doesn’t want to feel pretty at the same time!

“Domino’s: Why We Reinvented Our Pizza — and Then Promoted How Crappy It Used to Be.”

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I haven’t seen the new ads that this piece mentions,* but I can attest to the (lack of) quality of Domino’s Pizza in the Newport News, Virginia, area in the eighties. We called it “cheese on cardboard,” and it lived up to the name. I’ll have to try the new recipe and see just how much better it actually is.

* What can I say, I’m too busy to watch much TV, and have been for years.

“Software Discovery is Broken”

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How do you find good software? Industry veteran John Dvorak (no relation to the keyboard layout of the same name 😉 ) says you can’t, barring personal recommendations from other users. There are too many scammers out there.

I’m sorry to say that I have to agree. I haven’t gone looking for much software by Internet search for a long time, but even I have seen it. These days, if I need a program, I drop by forums and ask what other people like, then check out the four or five most recommended titles. I don’t always find what I need that way, but if it exists, the chances are pretty good that I will.

It only takes one busy scammer peeing in the pool to contaminate it for everyone, and there are many of them out there, all peeing enthusiastically. I don’t see a solution on the horizon. I don’t agree with Mr. Dvorak that app stores are the solution, because they have to make money somewhere to pay their costs, and that opens them up to corruption too.

Apple, with its iPhone app store, might be immune… but if so, it’s only because they’re making more money on the hardware than scammers can offer, and letting scammers in would damage that income stream. If ever they can’t make the large profits that they’re presently enjoying with the iPhone and related devices, look for their app store to suffer the same problems, as some middle management guy with his eye on a promotion goes for short-term profits at the expense of long-term profitability. Steve Jobs won’t be around forever to prevent that kind of stupidity, and long-term thinkers are in very short supply in the business world.

The problem isn’t going to go away in the foreseeable future. But I have faith that someone will figure out a solution in time.

“How to Teach Yourself Programming”

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Tongue-in-cheek, but all too true. Sure, you can learn the syntax of a programming language in twenty-one days, but not how to write readable, maintainable code that isn’t riddled with bugs. That takes experience. It took me the better part of fifteen years to get to a decent level, and it was only in the last couple years (over twenty years after I started) that I reached the point that my code is “beautiful.”

I’m sure I could have cut that time greatly if I’d had a mentor for most of it, or even if I’d just followed the good advice I read in programming books. But I only had a mentor for a few months when I first started, and I’m too stubborn to follow advice without understanding the purpose behind it, so I had to learn everything the hard way. On the plus side, I think that has made me a much better developer.

Today’s developers can probably learn a lot faster, with the availability of the Internet and far more mature programming languages. But you still need experience to write good code.