George Sudarkoff

There is no Bug

[Angry rant alert!]

Author of the blog "Hyper Agile Thinking" (oy vey!) in his article "There is no Bug. It is not the Bug that Bends, it is Only Yourself" argues that:

Only when you realize that “there is no bug”, that the problem lies within, can you change your behavior (process) such that no bug is reported on the software that you deliver. I’m not saying that real software with zero bugs is an attainable goal, only that you consider a change of perspective in order to bend the spoon a bit.

...The problems lie within. Only when we acknowledge this and accept it can we hope to affect real change. Agile development is an excellent platform for seamlessly incorporating the required introspection and continual improvement.

Oh, there's no bug, you bet! But behind all those big words you are missing another important problem - there is no program and there is no process either. It is all an illusion (if you follow the original logic of "there's no spoon")! So, while I wholeheartedly agree that it is more accurate to treat bugs like something internal (and really, let's call them defects already?), it doesn't really change anything. Because bugs only "appear" when internal reality collides with external and there is nothing you can do about it. Agile or not, you still have to go outside and test your theories on the harsh real world. You know, by actually giving your shit to people and hoping nothing explodes.

And while I am at it, don't you think that "agile methodology" is an oxymoron?!

Pure idiocy

I was trying to install Adobe Illustrator on my MacBook Pro and got this error:

This is the support article I found on their website:

I couldn't believe by eyes! What kind of "solution" is that?! What the hell?! How do you design your software to not support case sensitive file system?!

Running weeks of Dec 9-15 and 16-22

Dec 9 - Dec 15

Runs: 2
Distance: 5.71 mi

Dec 16 - Dec 22

Runs: 2
Distance: 8.07 mi

I was on vacation for parts of both weeks. The last run was the first time when I used Forerunner 305 GPS watch and heart-rate monitor that my wife bought me for x-mass. The software that came with the device allows you to structure, schedule and upload workouts to Forerunner in advance. Then you just tell it to run today's workout and follow the instructions on the screen. Chest strap was quite comfortable - something I was worried about. Screen has just the right amount of information and is quite easy to read. All in all, I am very satisfied with this device! Oh, and the workout was perfect! The temperature was very nice - 50°F and I did a perfect 5 mile endurance run at about 80% of estimated Max HR.

Running week of Dec 2 - Dec 8

Runs: 4
Distance: 14.71 mi
Time: 2:43'00"
Pace: 11'04"/mi
Calories: 2.232
Avg Weight: 200 lb

It includes warm-ups and cool-downs, so the numbers are a bit misleading. I'll think on how to better present this (and possibly automate) later. You might recall that I used to have runner's log alongside this blog, but since I am hosting my blog on TypePad now, I will need to think of the alternative solution.

Webab

Webcal allows you to subscribe to other people's or public calendars. I wonder why there is no similar thing for address books (webaddr)? Or have I missed it? Imagine, if you could subscribe to your address book on some social networking website and never have to worry about phone numbers and email addresses being obsolete as long as your contacts keep their profiles current (and now they will have an incentive). Imagine, if you could update your own contact information in one place (perhaps, your local address book) and have it pushed to all your contacts automatically and unobtrusively. We already have all the bits and pieces in place, so the only task left is to repackage and popularize it.

Running, weekly mileage

In the last couple of months I've been slowly gaining weight and am now about 10 pounds heavier than I was just a short two months ago. Considering that I successfully avoided turkey coma this year and still have New Year's culinary temptations to navigate through, that is a lot of gain and a bit scary!

So I want to step my running up a notch and build my weekly mileage up to at least 30 miles. Since my current weekly mileage is only about 10 miles on average and I cannot increase it by more than 10% per week, it is going to take me about 16 weeks (or four months) to reach my goal. In order to not loose the track and to keep it interesting I will be publishing my weekly mileage reports starting Mondays.

Feel free to ridicule me publicly if I start falling behind.