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January 7, 2008
by justin
3 Comments

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:

The previous code does suck
The new team has better ways of doing things over the previous team
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.

January 1, 2008
by justin
3 Comments

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.

October 13, 2007
by justin
1 Comment

Why We Care So Much About Sports

Last night I watched my beloved Arizona Diamondbacks drop another game in the NLCS to the Colorado Rockies to go down 2-0. I find myself getting really upset and the play by the Dbacks so far in this series. Cursing, punching the air and couch cushions, and disbelief are just a few things that I do when we lose big games. During the Dbacks World Series run in 2001, I had a migraine up until Luis Gonzalez’s hit won it for us. This gets me thinking about why I get so emotional about all of this.

In all reality, the outcome of sporting events shouldn’t have any bearing on my life or my day to day actions. But they do. If the Diamondbacks go on to win 4 in a row and go to the World Series or drop the next 2 and end their playoff run, my life will probably go on exactly the same. Probably also exactly the same had they not even made the playoffs. But I have a great interest in them. When they win, they bring the community together. People who would never talk to each other, have something in common the minute they see each other in Dbacks colors. After the World Series win over the New York Yankees in 2001, anyone wearing Diamondbacks stuff was your best friend and vice-versa. This even happens when they lose. There is nothing better than fans talking about “what could have been” with other fans. Look at the Chicago Cubs. They have probably some of the best and most loyal fans of any sport and they haven’t won a World Series in 99 years now. They are the lovable losers but they never have to worry about not packing Wrigley Field.

To some people, sports are just as much a part of life as anything else. Football fans will sit in a parking lot several hours before the game just to hang out with friends and other fans just like themselves. Why? For the love of the game, rooting on your team, and sharing stories (both of winning and losing) with others. Fans will devote an entire day to sitting in the parking lot tailgating for several hours, then spend 3 to 4 hours inside the stadium watching the game. Once the game is over, time to go home and sit around with buddies and discuss the game.

Sports brings people together in different ways that many other things can. A team is something that many different people from different paths of life can share. Sports can also be used to help heal. This is best shown with the Virginia Tech home football opener this season. It was the first time since the tragic shootings there in April that the school had come together like that for something not related to the shootings. While those who were lost were mourned, it was a chance for the community to come together and realize that as tragic as that event was, they are still a strong community and they showed it at the game.

So people who ask why you care about sports may not be able to understand. You can’t really explain it. It’s not like anything else out there. We care about the team, win or lose. We rush home at night to catch a game on TV. We wait in line to buy playoff tickets. People who don’t get it don’t do those things for whatever it is that they love in place of sports. Just like they might not understand our love of sports, I cannot understand their “lack” of love of sports.

So what I’m trying to say is that I can’t tell you why we care so much about sports. What I can say is that it is there and for most of us, it’s not leaving anytime soon. Like it or not, sports are part of the American landscape. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten goosebumps at a live sporting event watching the team and crowd interact. I was at game 1 of the NLCS and to see all the crowd act in unison and wave their Dbacks towels was amazing. Either you are moved by that or you aren’t. I’m a true sports fan and I am proud to admit it.

October 9, 2007
by justin
2 Comments

Pandora Radio Review

I came across something the other day that I am really enjoying. It’s called Pandora and it’s a personal, online radio station. What’s cool about it over others out there is that you start by picking a band or a song and Pandora will make a radio station for you from songs and artists similar to what you picked.

I had just seen Muse in concert (awesome by the way) and so my first station was Muse naturally. You can find it here. It’s really starting to know what I like and I’m not having to give songs thumbs down as much.

There are no ads, just music and I don’t think you can find that anywhere else. At least I can’t. I don’t know how they do it but the music seems to go on and on. So go check it out at www.Pandora.com and let me know what you think of it.

October 6, 2007
by justin
0 comments

Congratulations Arizona Diamondbacks

Hey I know that this is a bit off-topic but I am a HUGE Arizona Diamondbacks fan and I have to say congrats to our boys for sweeping the Cubbies tonight. We get no love from any major media outlets because we are on the West Coast. We did have the best record in a tight National League and did hold on 2 worthy contenders to win our 4th National League West crown in 10 years of existence. All but 2 “expert” writers for ESPN picked the Cubs to win. The closest they got was a base-loaded situation tonight and they choked their way out of that.

It’s about time we get the respect we deserve. The Yankee$ and Red $ox are good but I’m tired of seeing them all the time on national TV. Now it’s time for the nation to see that the young Dbacks are a force as well.

CONGRATS ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS!!!!!!!!

October 4, 2007
by justin
0 comments

My Fun with Ubuntu

Well I wrote a couple of weeks ago about getting a dual-boot set up with my existing Windows XP box with Ubuntu on top. As I wrote here, that didn’t work out too well. Since then, I have been trying a couple on things but in the end, I think it was Ubuntu’s dislike of being on the second disk on my computer that did it in. I tried to let go of some of the free space on my first disk but apparently that isn’t happening. I still don’t know what is wrong with it.

A couple of days ago, I was introduced to the idea of running Ubuntu off of a VMWare image. I can’t believe that the thought never crossed my mind but it is so simple. I don’t have to mess around with any funky OS install and if I want to uninstall it, I can very easily.

So now I have Ubuntu running perfectly without any issues on my machine. You can get the image here. Give it a shot if you’re interested. I am really happy how this turned out for me and hopefully it will save you trouble in the future.

October 2, 2007
by justin
10 Comments

iPod Touch versus iPhone – Part Two

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote an article about the iPod Touch versus the iPhone. I’ve done a lot more reading and research on this and have decided on the iTouch (I can’t call it the iPod Touch, too long, and sorry for the perverse name). I’ve heard all of the reviews saving it is lacking but they all say the same thing. That if the iTouch had come out first, people would be blown away by it and in awe of it. Well it didn’t come out first, the iPhone did. People need to stop all of the bitching about that it doesn’t have this or that and realize that it is a pocket media player. Its purpose is to play music and videos. Done, it does that. All of the extra items to me are bonuses. Now don’t get me wrong. I will totally take advantage of all of its cool features like the WiFi but it’s not necessary. I have that already on my phone. I have WiFi, camera, calendar, email, etc. right there on my trusty Dash. Why would I want that all again so I can carry around two things that basically do the same thing?

So sorry for my little rant there. Some was for the people that I hear bitching online but honestly, it was mostly for me. Even though I have set my mind on the iTouch, I still have thoughts about “Why not the iPhone?” and “Maybe the iPhone will be cooler”. I don’t understand why I even think this but what can you do? I am going to get the iTouch and a review will be found here shortly after.

Since I apparently need the confirmation, let me know what you think. Am I making a good move? Speak Up!

September 25, 2007
by justin
0 comments

WordPress Error

As I was saving that last entry, I received a WordPress error. It read like this:

WordPress database error: [Table 'wp_post2cat' doesn't exist]

Apparently if you are using an old version of the Google Sitemaps Generator plugin for WordPress, you should upgrade to the newest version as that is the cause. Here is the link:

http://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/google-sitemap-generator.3.0.zip

Hope that this helps some of you out there like it did for me.

September 25, 2007
by justin
1 Comment

BlogRush – What is it?

The other day a co-worker, Scott, tells me about this new blog syndication network called BlogRush. It’s a simple widget that you place on your site and it will show blog entries of other blogs. How is works simply is for every time the widget loads from one of your pages, you earn a credit. That credit in turn will buy you a spot on someone else’s widget. You show a blog, your blog is shown. A simple one-to-one exchange. So sites that you have no affiliation with whatsoever can potential drive people to your blog. How cool is that?

They also have a pretty nice referral system where the impressions on the sites of people you refer also earn you credits. Could be really cool if you get a lot of people to use you as their referral.

I’ve had it running for about 4 days now and so far it says I have 173 credits. I don’t really have any confirmation that my blog showed up on any other blogs but why would they lie? So far I would have to say that I like it.

On negative thing that I have noticed is that it seems that my site is running slower since I installed it. I actually read that on another blog about BlogRush today and that’s what made me realize it. In fact, their site is slow currently and I hope that this is not an indication of how things are to come, but rather a sign of growth exceeding projections. Hopefully they will straighten this out soon.

So go out there and add it to your blog. And while you’re at it, it can’t hurt to refer me so check them out here. Also if you have tried it, let me know what you think. I would love to hear other experiences with it. If you haven’t, give your opinions on it.

September 18, 2007
by justin
7 Comments

Installing Ubuntu on an XP Box

I was online tonight and after reading a couple of articles and thinking about this for some time now, I have decided to install Ubuntu on my home computer and dual boot it with my XP that lives there now. I should have done this as a play-by-play blog entry but I think after an hour, I can catch you up.

10:15pm-ish: Burned Ubuntu disc onto CD and shut down computer to boot from CD.

10:20pm-ish: After turning on the computer, it boots straight to XP without regard to the disc sitting in its drive. I wonder how this is…

10:22pm-ish: Changed boot.ini file to have just the default info according to Microsoft’s site. Shut down

10:23pm-ish: XP immediately boots up. YAY!!!!! I’m beginning to wonder what’s going on.

10:45pm-ish: After several changes to the boot.ini file followed by several shut downs, I have no clue. Keeps booting directly to XP. There is no stopping it. I add this “/REDIRECT” to my boot.ini and…

10:46pm-ish: Not sure if it was the “/REDIRECT” or me randomly pushing F-keys while the boot happened but I got to the BIOS info. I can’t see anything in there that specifies booting from the CD drive. I’m not an expert in this at all but I thought it was right there. Ended up not doing anything.

11:00pm-ish: More restarts and more XP screens. Starting writing this down now.

11:20pm: Finally found it buried in the BIOS. BTW, if you push F8, F11, F12, and DELETE, one of those opens the BIOS. Good for me to know.

11:24pm: I have seen the Ubuntu install screen. Happiness is here finally.

11:27pm: The OS seems to be loading. I am answering the questions as to where I am and how I want my drive partitioned.

11:29pm: Used default partition and it took about 10 seconds.

11:31pm: I am asked if I would like to import any accounts from my Windows login. This is really cool. I pick my browser settings for IE and FF and move on.

11:33pm: I have to say that this is pretty easy. I get a “Ready to Install” window. Cool.

11:34pm: Official start time. Let’s see how long this actually takes.

11:44pm: Install done and restarting computer. I hope this works.

11:47pm: I am loading Ubuntu now and am very happy that I finally got this to work.

11:50pm: Downloading and installing updates. Everything seems to be working. I can connect to the internet perfectly. This has been a really easy process once I got past the initial “How to boot from a CD” fiasco.

I’ll have more to come once I get a change to bounce around in here.

UPDATE – I got it installed and everything working. I went to check to make sure XP would load correctly and it did perfectly. I did receive a hardware found message that I read I would see. It finished what it needed to do and did a reboot. This is where the trouble started for me. Upon the load, I see a GRUB Error 17 (or something to that matter) on the screen and nothing happens. It just stopped in its tracks. I push the power button to shut it down and start it back up and same thing. It will boot Ubuntu with the disc in but no Windows. I read online that I need to put something called SuperGrubDisk so I go to its site and get an ISO for a bootable disc. Thing is, my Ubuntu CD that I have in the box won’t come out because it’s running the OS currently. So I’ll burn it from another computer and load it tonight when I get home. But as of now, my computer is a nice paper weight.