Software, Silliness and Snow

Seriously about Software:
Joel Spolsky has written many good pieces on software development. This one is essentially saying "whatever you do, don't rewrite code from scratch." One way to renew your codebase is to tick the code regularly and often enough. It takes some time, but every ticking takes you closer to cleaner, more maintainable and extensible code. There's no magical solution, no shortcuts, no silver bullets and sometimes you have to make bigger, riskier refactorings. If you let development debt accumulate, you'll have to pay it back sooner or later. Just hope you can afford it. Ticking means paying the debt in smaller, perhaps weekly installments.

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From the Stern Fun dept:
Software developers are creatures of intellect. Smartness is highest on their values. You can hear that in their witty and wordy remarks (sure to make non-nerds (the word mundies use for these intellect-workers) roll their eyes in desperation), you can see it in their fashion sense and you can sometimes even smell it. Sometimes being smart, or thinking you're smart, makes you cocky. You consider yourself the best judge of how things should be done or code implemented. Asking for feedback is for losers, you think. All of us are imperfect, however. We are imperfect even in what we love or are passionate about. We might not want to admit it, but the software we produce, is never perfect. That's not the problem, managers and customers can't expect you to be perfect, that wouldn't be human. The problem is when you don't check what you've done, when you don't ask for help from your colleagues, because you think you know best, nobody can help you and besides, there's no time.

This picture shows well what happens when you do let somebody else take a look into your source code.

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The Weather:
It's been snowing here in Finland, but take a look at
Neil Gaiman and Cabal, the dog, near Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Clicking takes you to Neil's Journal Blog Thingie which has more pictures)

On The Rocks, or On Thick Ice

I'm currently in Oulu and I missed the real cold weather by one day. Apparently on Wednesday it was colder than -20 degrees centigrade here but on Thursday it was just a mild -9 degrees as we went to see the local ice-hockey team Oulu Weasels lose to Helsinki IFK. The game was quite even and ended 2-3 to the visiting team.
I did some skating myself earlier this week. I went to natural ide track on Näsijärvi lake in Tampere and spent an hour going around it. I visited the world's shortest lighthouse and took some pictures of the abandoned amusement park Särkänniemi.

Is this the world's shortest lighthouse?

I was literally standing on thick ice.

Am I taller than normal or has Näsinneula shrunk?

Desolate amusement parks creep some people out.

Talking about skating, I'm so proud of my god children in Finland. Both of them do sports and have fun at it. Emma is into figureskating and Eetu plays ice hockey. They've taken part in some competitions and their achievements were noticed in the local papers some time ago.

Emma won her series!

Eetu circled

Here is the whole happy family enjoying their time together by playing music. (Note: extended and constant clicking on the drums can drive the listeners mad. Enjoy "Rock Band" responsibly.)

The Band (Notice the extremely confident and therefore relaxed bass player

Now I have to dash to catch the train to Hämeenlinna!

A Public Service Announcement to Ornithophobes

I had no idea that some authors can be so highly valued. Take, for example, the horror genre. One of the most prestigious of its representatives is surely Edgar Allan Poe, the writer of "The Pit and the Pendulum" and "The Raven". Now witness me walking around in the city of Wroclaw, or Breslau, as the German name is. I'm looking for the Museum of Natural History, minding my own business and what do I see, when I look suddenly behind me?

This...
...and this!

In the poem "The Raven" E.A.Poe describes a crow that says "Nevermore!" most ominously. Are they stalking me? I decide to continue, I pick up the pace a little, but not enough to catch the nice red sports cars whooshing by me almost completely ignoring the afternoon rush hour.

No chance of catching up.

I finally find the museum, but it does not console me, I can't get in! Look, there's a huge bird guarding the door! Is there no safety in this city?

No way am I going to get in under those watchful eyes!

I better head down to the river, I need to calm down. The river flows quietly. But what is that sound? Let's see, it's coming just around the corner. Here's the view from the bridge (extreme closeup, look with care):

Birds in a feeding frenzy

There is no peace in this city. I better ask the little people for help. They are known to chase away big birds. They aren't too bright, though. Here you see two of them moving a rock, by both pushing from opposite directions. They've been at it for years. The rock hasn't moved yet.

Push, push, maybe one day it will budge!
Some of the little people take it more easy, especially when one of their brethren has gotten rid of the birds.
In the nighttime, some of the little people take out their broomsticks, climb on street lights and drive the birds away.

They can apparently turn large African animals to sheets of metal, too.
Rhinos are less dangerous in this form.

After my animal adventures in Wroclaw, I'm happy to return to literature, in the safety between the pages, where anything can happen, but nothing can happen to you. That's why the horror genre is so popular. It feels dangerous, but isn't.
I never knew writers could be so highly valued. To name a whole country. Wroclaw is a big city in Poeland, you know.