Oh man. I finally got around to installing PC-BSD in a VMWare image. For the most part I was hoping I wouldn’t like it. At this point I’m very happy with my setup and don’t need yet another distro I want to dig deeper into. Well that was far from the case.

Brainless install, so far it looks slick and from my limited time playing around it seems very solid and responsive. In the category of cheap eye-candy, it does that bouncy little icon thingy that mac’s do when they’re working. It’s simple but ya I like it.

I haven’t read it all yet but this is cool. An article titled ” The Five Things You Aren’t Allowed to Discuss About Linux“.

I have no clue who this guy is or if he has any idea what he’s talking about. He makes some good points though. Linux shouldn’t be compared to Microsoft. It’s a good point but are people actually comparing Linux to Microsoft? It obviously doesn’t make much sense. Anyway, I agree with his point, whether there’s any point to his point or not….”When we compare an operating system to another we should be comparing the specific distribution, which is a thing”.

I have a similar beef with the Apple ads. Take the video camera one. They make it sound like it’s somehow Microsoft’s fault that your hardware vendor didn’t put a video camera into the laptop you bought. Microsoft, in that context, is not a hardware vendor. Yes I know, he says “I’m a PC” not “I’m windows” but very few people make that distinction. People generally view these ads as mac vs windows…I think?

I’ve reached a point in this so called online existence where bots are my dearest friends. Sure they’re not real people, sure you look odd going out for beers with a bunch of bots but they say such nice things to me and are so encouraging. If you humans talked to me half as nice as bots then I think this world would be right.

Some quotes from my fans….

From a guy, I think he’s a guy, named download free verizon ringtones, “Thank you for creating this wonderful place on the web.”

free ringtone says “I love the website! It is crisp and full of information. I really like this site I visit it often. Keep up the good work!”

selena ringtone writes “We’ve needed something like this for a long-long time. Thanks for giving it to us.”

free sprint ringtone tells me “GREAT IDEA!!! Thanks and keep up the good work.”

Last but by no means least, ying yang twins ringtone “I want to thank you for doing so much for us. What you’ve done for us is long overdue.”

Wow, what an audience. Thank you bots. If not for you I’m really not sure I could keep this up.

I almost signed up for google adsense today. It was a hot topic at Mesh last year and I know only the mere basics about it.

My instinct, as evident by this site’s lack of advertising, is to steer clear of that crap altogether. I am curious though, how much are people actually making? Is it enough to pay the hosting bill? Are they annoying and intrusive? Does it impact the content generated on the site by getting you to write content which brings in more ad clicks? All questions I figured could only be answered by trying it.

In the end I couldn’t do it. Maybe tomorrow…

I got into a conversation today about code bases and building them to be flexible. An overly simplified example is constructors.

Let’s say we’ve got an object for a person called Person.cs. Person has a properties for Name and HairColour. Those properties have sets and gets. So conceivably we could make Person more flexible by adding upwards of 4 constructors:

So now you can use the empty constructor and set the properties, or call one of the other three. More flexible to use than having a single empty constructor. Flexible = good?

Sure, but flexible = expensive as well. It’s hard to imagine in this overly simplified example, however, by adding this so called flexibility we’ve increased the number of available code paths. All of which we’re on the hook to develop and support which translates directly into cost, ie cash.

As well, by creating more code paths, we’ve increased our ability to introduce more bugs, and more importantly we’ve made it more challenging to hunt down those bugs. Why? Again, a simple example:

Clearly path 1 and path 2 will produce identical results right? Well no, not necessarily. They’re unique code paths. The second constructor could be calling a private variable where Name is stored instead of using the set on the Name property. Someone may have incorrectly added name related logic into the path 2 constructor instead of in the Name set.

Bottom line, the more code paths available, the more expensive it is to build and the more brittle the application becomes. Brittle meaning easier to introduce bugs, harder to find those bugs.

So flexibility in a code base is bad? No, not at all. Flexibility is important when it adds to the overall functionality of the application. It’s great to have all those constructors on Person, however, it does not add any functionality. I guarantee you it’s cheaper to build and support that class with only an empty constructor and it has no less functionality.

If you’re using (N)Hibernate, or thinking about it, this is great little hands-on walk through of the various mapping possibilities and their impact.

I don’t often give CEO types much credit but anytime they’re using this much common sense they’re ok in my books.

CEOs say how you treat a waiter can predict a lot about character

“A person who is nice to you but rude to the waiter, or to others, is not a nice person”

Tom Peters has a similar post regarding treating your vendors like customers. His point is simple, give your vendors a little love to get good service.

I remember recently showing up late to a pub with some business associates and chatting with the waitress for a bit as I ordered a pint and some food. When I returned to our table I was asked by someone if my wife minded me talking to waitresses like that. My first thought was like what? Like another human?

While I’m sure, in the end, I annoy way more wait staff type people than the opposite, I do at least take a crack at treating them like people….I think…..oh crap, maybe not…..

I really don’t care much anymore when it comes to what language I work in. I’d be happy to work on non-MS stuff as most know. You’d be hard pressed to convince me that one language has something the other doesn’t. It’s like video game consoles, there’s always going to be a flavour of the day but they all watch and learn from each other.

If you want to know about a language then you need to look long term at the overall architectural direction of the language. Don’t get caught up in the day to day hype. Look at who’s leading the technology and whether their track record shows strong decisions that make sense over the long term, some of which may be to NOT implement certain hyped features? Sometimes the strongest decision you’ll have to make is one of non-action.

You’ll spend a lot of money buying new video games, and learning new controllers if you change video game consoles every year.

From slashdot, an incredibly details (10 page) review of one person’s experience of spending 30 days with Ubuntu.

I recently registered the domain ElasticOffices. The idea being office space that grows with your business. The simple first step is to get a coworking space running here in Guelph. Please add your name to the wiki if you’re interested in that.

It looks like the easyBoys are getting into the mix as well.