I saw a great post yesterday from CodeBetter that had a great quote…
in general, the .NET crowd overthinks and over-engineers just about everything
No matter how bad that sounds – you have to admit it’s probably true (though, im sure its not just a .net thing – it’s a developer thing). Over thinking and overdoing isn’t always wrong – that extra step may be ‘the next big thing’ or pushing the boundaries of what’s already been done. But in most day to day work, sometimes we could just be wasting our time.
His post actually references a post made before it – about jumping the 20% fence. While I didn’t feel that this was pushed in the article, I feel that a good chunk of the ‘bugs’ every developer faces can be from over thinking the actual problem. The more complex your project (as a programer, or any other profession really), the more complex the bugs can be, and the more difficult it can be to get to the root of the problem.
That’s not saying you have complex problems to solve. When solving thee problems, its amazing to look back and say ‘wow, I really did that, and it works!’. But one thing that has always helped me is to break everything down and look at it piece by piece. Develop each piece, and link everything together. Then This not only helps simplify the problem, but helps you to refractor your code as well. Once you know each of these pieces, refactoring is much easier, and helps you see the problem solved as a whole in the end. Finally, if even a ‘little piece’ is to complicated, theres a chance that it can be broken down even more.
I have found that focusing on each of these pieces, getting them done, and moving on – it really adds up. Taking a break isnt bad either – plenty of times I have felt ’stuck’ on a problem, got up to get something to drink, and came back to easily solve something I thought was near impossible just moments before.
Personally though, I think this may be one of my favorite quotes:
Simplicity is beautiful.
Took this while outside at the annual fish fry for our Freemason lodge. The iPhone’s camera shifted the colors a bit, but I really love how this came out.
As like years past, I wanted to recap some of my thoughts on today’s WWDC keynote. This time more than ever im actually becoming an Apple developer (again) by starting to learn a lot of Cocoa this year. But with Apple using this time to announce new products and services, WWDC keynotes are like any other Apple keynote now.
What was announced:
- New MacBookPros: My wife and I recently (about 3 months ago) purchased the base Aluminum MacBook, the one that was upgraded today to a MacBookPro. Im honestly not as upset as I thought I was once going to be about this. While its nice to have more power, some new features, and possibly a new display, our MacBook is still much closer to a MacBookPro that previous MacBooks. I always considered it to be closer to the 12” PowerBook it replaced. I am curious to find out though if the new 13” has a new “Pro” display as well at the new price point ($1199)
- Snow Leopard: As I mentioned last year, I felt Snow Leopard was one of the biggest announcements. I still don’t think many Mac users really understand how awesome of a change this is. And only for $29. This is going to breathe a new life into all Macs, which makes up for the ‘loss’ of my recent MacBook purchase already being bumped today. Snow Leopard covers SO much, but were going to see a faster, more stable OS. With Apple’s close Hardware/Software tie, I’m sure were going to see a new breed of machines next year as well.
- iPhone OS 3: I actually felt that this was probably the most boring part of the keynote. Honestly, everything they covered was recently covered in March at the small developer keynote they had. This time around we saw a few apps that have been made for it, and honestly nothing else. I was honestly expecting a few last minute features to be thrown in to 3.0, but it didn’t happen.
- iPhone 3GS: Not as show-stopping as the original iPhone to iPhone 3G, but still pretty awesome. You get a better camera, video capture, TONS more speed, voice recognition, double the space, and a compass. This time though, 3G owners do not get a cheap upgrade, you only get to upgrade if it’s the end of your service (which many original iPhone owners should be nearing now). Honestly while this is cool, not really worth it to any current iPhone owner. While I would love the speed bump (while OS 3.0 will knock off about half the time loading a large webpage, the 3GS will knock that in half again), I can’t justify the $500 upgrade.
I was hoping to upgrade to the ‘new iPhone’ if they were going to have a plan, but now really don’t feel like its worth it. I would love to get the new features, but not at that price. Also, with the iPhone OS update coming out next Wednesday, its like getting a new iPhone anyways!
Some of the flops from today’s announcements:
- AT&T Sucks. Not supporting MMS and Tethering at launch is borderline unacceptable. They had as much time as all the other carriers (probably even more) to get their act together. And you want to bet whats holding it up – WHAT AT&T WANTS TO CHARGE YOU FOR IT. Yes, it may be more load on their network as well, but I think it relies more on how much fatter we need to make their pockets.
- Not allowing an upgrade plan like before. You have millions of users that gave you $200-300 last year for an iPhone 3G. Many of us would love to give you another $200-300 this year for a iPhone 3GS. Hell, I would even trade in my old iPhone to do this. While they don’t ‘need’ to offer this, it would have been nice if they did. Gizmodo had a post earlier (that they have now pulled) making it sound like there was a prorated upgrade plan available, so something may show up eventually.
- No real announcement on the AppStore issues. While Apps now have a parental rating – can nearly everything go into the store now? This honestly doesn’t affect me at all – im just tired of hearing so many people complaining about it.
- Not including more features into the iPhone OS 3.0 software. I wonder why the Voice Commands and Accessibility items are iPhone 3GS only. Both of those new features seem very software related, and no reason they shouldn’t work on iPhone 3G and be part of OS 3.0. They also don’t really seem to be major selling points of the new hardware either. Oh, and Voice Commands should have been in OS 1.0. My very first cell phone had this feature.
Finally, I think a lot of people are going to complain that we still haven’t seen an Apple tablet yet. I have two questions about that:
- Have any of these people WANTING a Mac tablet ever used a PC tablet? Its honestly not that awesome.
- Do people not already realize they already own an Apple tablet and/or Netbook? Seriously, think about that. Other than a bigger screen – theres not much more you would get.
I will be posting more on Jon’s Tech Talk later on, especially after the iPhone OS 3.0 release. My first things to cover will be what I am thinking about the new iPhone OS, as well as some points on why Mac OS X 10.6 is going to be so cool.
This past Saturday we decided to get out and enjoy some of the amazing weather we have been having in Richmond (except for right now – as I write this, its nearly pitch black and downpours and lightning everywhere).
It was great to see all these butterflies on top of the amazing blooms already at the garden. I was able to get quite a few great shots and really work on some macro shots with my XTi.
Its been over a month since I posted to this blog, which is actually very hard to believe. First of all – lets catch up:
- Work has been rather busy as of late, mainly due to everything going on. We are getting closer and closer to finishing this project, with so many others right around the corner too. But i’m not complaining – i’m loving every minute of it.
- While I prefer Winter, Summer is now here, and im very happy. I love cold weather, but eventually it gets boring sitting in the house and its so great to be outside now.
- With the crazy amounts of rain in Richmond, our yard has never looked better. Aerating, planting, and fertilizing last fall made me have an awesome looking yard right now. But it has an amazing amount of upkeep, which in some sick and twisted way, I love.
- I started a garden, and kept most of it living. We already have some green beans sprouting and a ton of tomato plants. Pictures and more soon, especially when we get to actually eat some!
- I started, and finished, Mirrors Edge. A great game, and got it for a great price ($10). Its trade in value is $12 still, so I actually made money playing a game
. I am trying to finish single player mode in Left 4 Dead now – just one more campaign. - I have a secret project I have been working on in my free time I hope to release this month. Im doing it to learn some web API’s as well as ASP.net MVC, but also to really make a cool product from start to finish – alone.
- I dropped one of my side projects for various reasons. While it was fun, I wasn’t feeling it much more and felt that it was keeping me too pinned down to something. But its ok, I didn’t loose anything either. I have started helping out a few old friends with various projects, one which I’m about to start that is REALLY cool.
- Ive been teaching myself more and more Cocoa, and started lining up some ideas for possible apps for the iPhone and Mac.
- All in all, I have just been having a great time, and just too much to actually sit down and document all of it.
I have started setting some goals for the next month:
- Get new super secret project out the door and it least into the hands of a few.
- Get new REALLY cool project started, or at least discussed in detail.
- Blog more here, especially with the way I see this site going – as in, more mobile or photo posts.
- More posts over at my other blog.
- Continue to enjoy life and having a great time.
As part of our walk around downtown Richmond last Friday, we decided to talk a walk around Lumpkin’s Slave Jail, which has recently been in the news a bit the last couple of years, due to the work being done to recover part of that history. Obviously with having the possible ‘ties’ to the jail (if the name wasn’t obvious), I do love learning about local history.
I say ‘possible ties’, mainly because there’s no hard link (that one can prove) between my family name and this jail. Lumpkin’s Jail was run by a Robert Lumpkin, who then eventually married one of his former slaves, Mary. Mary eventually went to turn part of the land into a school for freed slaves, which eventually came Virginia Union University in 1899. You can read more on the Jail here and here. There were a few Robert Lumpkin’s alive at that time, which I do have known ties to. But the documentation does not go into detail enough about which (or any) were the particular Robert Lumpkin who ran the jail. From what I have read, we are considered not to be related. But then again, I also find it hard to believe that such a less-common name had more than one family here in Richmond around that time.
(UPDATE: The Smithsonian Magazine has a great article on the Jail on their website as well)
We took a walk around the area, just to see the start of some of the planned historical monuments down around the area. The entire ‘jail site’ is fenced off, and it doesn’t look like much work is being done around there now. But with a lot of the work being done around Shockoe Bottom, im sure eventually more of this will come to light again.
I know I moved technology off to my other blog, but I wanted to quickly post something about the recent Richmond Code Camp I went to, since it focuses more on a local conference than tech topics.
Last saturday, I got up early and went to Richmond Code Camp 2009.1, pretty excited about some of the sessions I planned on attending. I spent most of the day there, but left after the 3rd session, mainly to being bored out of my mind. First, let me state this – there are some BRILLIANT minds there, and it was a great oportunity to see people I knew and network with others. I won’t go into too many details, I doubt i’ll be wasting another saturday like this again. Obviously, keep in mind this is just my opinion, and that if you feel that even ONE SESSION is worth it to you, you MUST sign up.
Pros:
- Awesome topics, and if anything, you get to learn and discuss these in a social setting, which is often nicer than trying to learn it alone searching Google.
- Amazing people – I got to meet a few new people while there, but also got to hang out with an old coworker and catch up with her between sessions and during lunch.
- Very close – at least I barely had to travel for this.
- Free lunch.
- Most sessions demoed code in C#
Cons:
- To short of classes, or to broad of topics to cover. Only one of my sessions actually covered what they planned to discuss, while the others totally missed the spot. As in, told you about half the information, and didn’t even come close to tying it up. I heard this from many other attendees as well. Also, some presenters ignored the ‘end times’ for classes. One of mine was knocked about 10 minutes due to the previous presenter running way over time.
- To much reliance on PowerPoints. This is a flaw within itself, but why not also distribute the PowerPoints before (or as a handout) in the class as well, espc. if you won’t get to everything.
- Do NOT ever put XML on a PowerPoint and read it out to everyone. FOR. MULTIPLE. SLIDES. I am not kidding, one of my sessions was exactly this.
- If you are presenting, and have a personal blog, you may want to keep some thoughts personal. For example, dont talk crap about the session you were asked to present at, then advertise your URL. I know we all think it, but I feel that pretty much threw out any ‘professional’ idea I had about the presenter.
- In each of my sessions, which were about an hour long, at least 5-10 of that was spent talking up their personal companies, blogs, twitter accounts, almost like advertising before a movie. I understand this may be a perk of teaching, but I think thats digging a bit to far into the presentation.
- I think the topics are to far reaching as well. Obviously some of the topics chosen are near impossible to discuss within an hour. Why even waste the time on them? The best use of this time would be to 1) split the topics up more, 2) find easier or more direct topics, 3) maybe even include more group discussion time rather than teaching.
- Groups of topics should even be more separated. For example, tracks for: Project Management, DBA’s, Developers, Web workers, other. Then, really narrow down those groups even more. For example, some of the PM topics should be so focused, that a developer should not need to go. A DBA session should be so focused that a Web Developer doesn’t need to go to it as well.
I still admire everyone that spoke at the event. Ive been there, done that. Its not fun, and it can be very stressful. Espc. for ‘geek types’, where public speaking scares the hell out of you (at least it does for me).
This event really seems on the cusp of being something great. It felt like this could have easily been a conference they could charge (though it would go against the rules of a Code Camp). But with becoming so large, so quick, it just feels very ’Busch League‘. This events size really dilutes the information you can get from it.
I also don’t get that with SO many people attending, there is VERY little being Blogged/Twittered about it. Yes, there was some chatter, but not as much as one would expect from an event so large. Heck, I decided NOT to twitter nearly at ALL during the event, since it seemed like no one else was! Why be so quiet. There’s so much GREAT THINGS going on there, why not share?
I do plan on going to the first WordCampRVA next weekend, and can not wait. Im expecting this to be a HUGE event with some of the people speaking. Its pretty awesome that we have so many opportunities to share so much knowledge in this wonderful city.
For the first part of our vacation (or really, staycation), Deb’s and I went and hiked Old Rag mountain. I haven’t done this since probably middle school or early high school, and she has never been.
I didn’t get to take to many pictures, mainly because I was to busy walking. I actually felt great going up the mountian (for being so out of shape), but really felt like crap coming down. I hope to go back in the not to distant future, to get all the way up the mountian. The weekend we went was just too busy, and so when we got to the ‘rock scramble’, it was just to much of a wait to get through.
Today my wife and I celebrate 3 years of being married! Its so hard to believe at times. It’s also crazy to think that this fall, we have been together for 10 years!
We are spending most of this week around town, and I plan on posting a lot of pictures of our adventures in the coming days.
I have a strong love/hate relationship with this time of year. Its great because you can get back outside and start doing stuff after being crammed in the house all winter, but my allergies will destroy me for the next few months.
I didn’t let that stop me this perfect weekend to get a lot of things done OUTSIDE of the house. While Debs and a friend went off to run some errands, I went by Lowe’s and got what I needed to start a small garden at our house. While we both had small gardens at some point growing up, we have never made one on our own. With the continued high price and crap quality (EVEN AT UKROPS) of produce, we decided to grow our own, and save a few bucks. I planted Basil and Dill (which are right in the foreground of the above picture), Tomatoes, Green Peppers, Green Beans, Zucchini, and Yellow Squash.
I also started a compost bucket (which is living in the blue trashcan off to the right). I have no clue how this will turn out, but at least its going to be a fun experiment. Finally, I put out a truckload of mulch around our house we got for free from the Henrico Landfill. The quality was actually better than the stuff we have previously purchased from Lowe’s, and also had a much nicer color. And its FREE!
Sunday started off with a trip through Hanover (Route 1, down Route 54, and then back up Route 301). I personally have not been around that area, but Debs and I drove through it when taking Toby to the dog park a few weeks ago. I thought it would be fun to take a quick drive through there again to get a few shots. Most of these were shot while we parked at the Hanover Dog Park. Finally, we stopped at my Grandmothers grave (which is right on 301).
You can see the rest of the set here on flickr.
We are looking to buy some bikes, and plan on possibly riding through this area again soon. Having a car really limits you to being able to pull off the side of the road to get a few shots (for example, the railroad crossing on Rout 54).
Hopefully this coming Spring and Summer I’ll get to spend more time outside than I have in the past few years, which is something I have really missed!
