iPod Touch versus iPhone – Part Three

Back in October, I wrote this article discussing the iPod Touch versus the iPhone. Well I did in fact purchase a 16GB iPod about a month ago and overall, I have to say that I like it. There are some things that I’m not in love with but the pros definitely outweigh the cons.

The pros about it are basically the same as they always have been with a few additions. I have always liked the iPod line and the Touch is no exception. I really enjoy the Safari browser on it and the ease that web pages display on it. In my last post, I have written that I wasn’t looking forward to that too much but I was wrong. It blows away anything my Dash can do. I also really like that iTunes is nice enough to transfer any songs that I purchase from my iPod to iTunes. For some reason, I was thinking that was going to be a huge pain.

For the cons, I have a few. The most glaring is that on my home computer (64 bit) cannot find my new iPod correctly because Apple won’t allow it. I’m totally fine with that but I’m not fine with the fact that my 2 older iPods work perfectly on it. Apparently someone at Apple decided to take a crap on the new iPod and anyone who uses Windows 64 bit OS’s. That’s what I can’t get. I even submitted an email to Apple on their site about a week ago but still no answer. Oh well. Just sucks that I can’t use my iPod on my home computer. I also just attempted to upgrade my iTunes to 7.6 and was told that the installer requires that I use Vista 64-bit rather than XP 64-bit. Kinda funny since every version up until now has worked.

I also do not like the fact that I had to jailbreak the iPod to get it to add extra programs. That’s something I should be able to do anytime. I’m pretty sure on Macs that you are allowed to add new programs whenever you want. I should be able to do that on my pocket Mac/iPod.

Just yesterday, Apple announced that it was adding 5 new programs to the iPod Touch. Mail and Google Maps are the only two that concern me too much (Notes, Weather, and Stocks are the other 3). I was excited about this only to learn that for being such a good customer, I get the fun of spending $20 for those. Thanks Apple. Even if I wanted them, I can’t because iTunes won’t work on my computer. But above that, someone will offer them for free in a week I’m sure. so I’ll wait until then

Overall, I give my iPod Touch a 7/10. It still is an excellent music player but if Apple is going to tease me with extra features, I’m going to expect them.

Why Code from Other People Always Sucks

I’ve worked on quite a few projects in the time I’ve been in working in development. I’ve noticed a couple of similarities between all projects when a project is inherited from another group. Not too long after the developers get to look at it, something universally is always said by one or more members of the team. “This code sucks.”

I’ve said it myself before but I got to wonder if others do this. There are only a few reasons this could happen:

1. The previous code does suck
2. The new team has better ways of doing things over the previous team
3. The code doesn’t suck, but it’s just what is said when inheriting new code

Now I seriously doubt that most of the code out there sucks but it is a perception that most developers seem to have. Everyone has their own way of doing things and most times, one is not all that better than another; just different.

This is also caused by progress in my opinion. Something that might have seemed correct a few years ago is now seen as obsolete. Also over-thinking a project can cause this. I worked on a site a few years ago that was written using many PHP include files. That’s not such a bad idea but it was overdone because many of its includes had includes of their own and it was a really tough project to maintain. In my opinion, it was a good idea gone overboard.

Occasionally there will be a site that truly “sucks”. I was part of a team that inherited a site that was in dire straights. The code made no sense, the design wasn’t appealing at all and no one visited it. We were lucky enough that the client was aware of these things and we were allowed to start from scratch. Now I wonder if the people working on that site now think that it sucks. Probably

There are many different characteristics that programmers look for in “good” code. The issue is that these characteristics differ between groups of programmers and what is the bread and butter for one team will be nothing more than garbage and a hassle for another. Because programming is such a subjective art, not everyone will agree on the right way to do things because what is right for one person, might not be right for someone else. Everyone and every team has strong and weak points and the idea is to code using your strongest abilities. In turn, that will make your code better.

My goal when I come across new code is to not jump on it and say how horrible it is, but to rather spend some time looking at it and try to understand why certain things were done that way. If you are able to step outside your comfort zone and think of things a different way, you might learn something that you hadn’t thought of before.

So before you announce that the code you just inherited “sucks”, take a closer look at it and try to get into the mind of the previous programmer. If you still can’t make any sense of it, it’s because it probably sucks.

New Year and New Things

Hey everyone. I have neglected this blog for too long. I apologize for that. But I have made it a resolution to try to blog more about things that I have been doing at work (Facebook apps) and other things that I feel like talking about.

I’ve got a couple of posts in the hopper that I am still working on so look for those. I also have a follow up to the popular iPod Touch vs iPhone posts a did a couple of months ago.