http://blog.dev-scene.com/abscissa My futile attempts at rationalizing my unreasonable reluctance to call my site a 'blog'. Also, this is where I vent. Sat, 09 May 2009 10:48:27 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Just what the internet needs, another random Joe's worthless opinion on it: (Disclaimer: I've always liked Star Trek, fuck, I even liked the animated series. So it's not like I'm a trek-hater that, unsurprisingly, hated it.) Saw the first two scenes. Roughly ten minutes. That's it. That's all I could actually take. First ... http://blog.dev-scene.com/abscissa/2009/05/09/star-trek-2009xicrappy-non-googleable-name-first-impressions/ After falling into a lake 5 miles southeast of the much more well-known Jusenkyo spring, I now turn into a foul-mouthed anthropomorphic walnut every time I get splashed with a three-week-old coffee/martini blend that was mixed by a near-sighted ambidextrous midget wearing a striped goatskin bikini and chanting "I'd like ... http://blog.dev-scene.com/abscissa/2009/04/14/this-is-what-years-of-web-development-and-tax-season-stress-have-done-to-me/ Code snippet support in an editor can be very useful, but it does seem to carry a certain risk of discouraging advancements in DRY practices. For example, I was just working on a Haxe class (I refuse to use the goofy "haXe" capitalization) that has 14 (and that number is ... http://blog.dev-scene.com/abscissa/2009/03/25/code-snippets-vs-dry/ Implicit variable declarations (ex: Visual Basic without "Option Explicit") can seem like a good idea if you look at them a certain way. I can understand what language designers are probably thinking when they decide to implement implicit declarations. "Let the computer do the work for you." That's a favorite mantra of ... http://blog.dev-scene.com/abscissa/2008/09/16/the-problem-with-implicit-variable-declarations/ (I wrote this a while ago, but didn't post it for some reason. So I'm posting it now.) I've been very vocal about my distaste towards many of the features of various dynamic programming languages (at least for the purposes of any non-trivial program). Recently, while reading the first chapter of ... http://blog.dev-scene.com/abscissa/2008/09/16/putting-the-engineering-back-into-software-engineering/ In the extremely hypothetical case that somebody were to wonder why I go through "futile attempts at rationalizing my unreasonable reluctance to call my site a 'blog'", here's why: As far as I'm concerned, a "blog" is two things: 1. A really stupid-sounding word. 2. A site where some kid yammers on about ... http://blog.dev-scene.com/abscissa/2008/04/21/why-a-not-a-blog/ Anyone stupid enough to design an interface where the "Close" button minimizes to the system tray instead of closing, deserves to be fired and then restricted to never being allowed to do anything other than cleaning toilets. That's really all there is to say about it. UPDATE (4/24/08): A quote: "If you ... http://blog.dev-scene.com/abscissa/2008/04/21/close-means-close-dumbass/ Here's a new language rant for me: If the .NET Framework has had an IComparable interface since version 1.1, why in the world does it still not have an IArithmetic? Or even operator constraints. We're now on version 3.5, and there's still no sign of this stuff. What in the ... http://blog.dev-scene.com/abscissa/2008/03/10/i-want-my-iarithmetic/ I've complained about weak and dynamic typed languages before. But damnnit, I'm just so crotchety I'm gonna do it again: Weak and dynamic typing are bad because type safety is good. Weak and dynamic typing are bad because compile time errors are better than run time errors. Obviously, weak typing and dynamic typing ... http://blog.dev-scene.com/abscissa/2008/03/10/type-systems-and-indentations-are-weak/ This pretty much encapsulates exactly what is wrong with the field of Human Resources: "I don't know anything about programming, but I'm very good at identifying people who are good at it." That is a real quote. I was actually told that by a recruiter I met with a few months ago. ... http://blog.dev-scene.com/abscissa/2008/03/10/human-resources-the-expert-novices/