Archives for April 2008

A Good Pair of Socks

Not all of us can live in a bungalow, or drive a BMW, or go to London for holidays. But there is one way in which virtually anyone can immediately improve the quality of his or her life: wear the best socks you can find.
Unlike shirts, for which expensive ones may suck and cheap ones […]

17 April 2008 | Uncategorized | 7 Comments

Converting ASP.NET Web Applications from .NET Framework 1.1 to 2.0 and Above

When converting an ASP.NET web application from version 1.1 of the Microsoft .NET Framework to version 2.0 and above, the Visual Studio Conversion Wizard will convert your web application into what is termed a Web Site. In Framework 2.0 and above, ASP.NET apps come in two flavours: Web Site and Web Application Project [1]. The […]

16 April 2008 | Software engineering, ASP.NET | 1 Comment

Javascript Super Mario

You think Javascript is only good for popping an alert if the user didn’t fill in his form properly?
Check this out. Use left, right and up keys to move and jump.
When I was told that this was implemented purely in Javascript, I was like, “wha ..? how ..?“
After I took a look at the source […]

15 April 2008 | Software engineering, Javascript | No Comments

Petroleum Subsidies and Renewable Energy

My cousin is an environmental engineer by training and she argues that there shouldn’t be subsidies for petroleum. The artificially low price of petrol only makes people consume more of it, and more importantly, takes the focus off other, renewable, sources of energy.
The government had actually been doing the right thing by gradually reducing petroleum […]

11 April 2008 | Uncategorized | No Comments

The Battle Against Entropy

By Matt Buonomano, Software Architect

Software over time:

 
1
(so pure in the beginning)

 
1 + 2x
(randomness enters …)

 
1 + 2x + x2
(randomness dominates …)

We must refactor:

 
(1 + x)2
(complexity not removed, but managed …)

10 April 2008 | Software engineering | No Comments