There were a lot of buzz about self-documenting code a while ago, and there will probably be much more. I'm not that big fan of it (neither am I a fan of anything but music), but it is really helpful sometimes.
Do you hate lack of documentation as much as I do?
Plenty of languages are more self-documenting than they seem to be. On the other side, the thing that seem self-documenting, aren't always like that.
Take php. Imagine there's a torrent tracker software written in php:
function announce($passkey, $info_hash) {
//plenty of code here
return bEncode($resp);
}
Pretty obvious, isn't it. Sure. But.
But what?
It is so obvious only if you use some framework to route HTTP requests to your classes and methods. It that case yes, any (awaited) GET parameter has a corresponding function argument, and you can easily see what is passed to /announce.
But what if the application is built like “old-style”: one atomic action – one file? I have to admit, that this style has it's advantages, among some weaknesses.
The worst thing about it is that you have to document it. If you don't – you forget what should be submitted to this particular script. Or, if you remember, a serial killer who reads your code, doesn't know what input does this piece of code wait for.
Use MVC frameworks if you are too lazy to write comments. Please!
I am a huge fan of that “how many somebodys does it take to change a light bulb” stuff. I'm sure, everyone knows this one already, but still it's one of the my favoutive:
Q: How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Only one, but it takes a long time, and the light bulb has to really want to change.
I am planning to launch a website with lots of such stuff both in Russian and English. Someday. I've even registered a domain name for that. Unfortunatelly, I rarely have enought free time.
What I want to do now is a little contest.
You may have noticed already that there are now Links section in my sidebar. This should be soon changed. And one of those links could be yours forever absoulutely for free.
Just win my little contest.
See the title of this post? Sure, you do. I still do not have any answer to this question in my collection. That's awful, isn't it?
So, the person, who would propose the answer I'd love most, will get a link to his site in my sidebar. Forever and ever and ever.
Well, not actually away. Just didn't have much time to post. I had to pass two more exams to continue my education at University, and had pretty much work to do (soon to announce that project here, just waiting for my client to register domain name and rent a server), so I was pretty busy with all that. And there are also great changes in my private life (not too inspiring, but I'm trying to be optimistic), so I should confess, it was a hard time.
Anyway, I'm here now with lots of thing to tell you about. Be prepared for plenty of posts here. Here comes a brief summary of what is coming next.
Gone Ubuntu
I've been a die-hard Gentoo geek for 2 something years, but... Yes, you see it. :)
I'd probably never change my distro, but there were several things that made me think of it first and forced me to try a bunch of them later. I've seen FreeBSD in action and was amazed. I ruined my Gentoo system and had to get working system ASAP, so I've chosen the best available distro. The best available, not the best distro. I'm not too satisfied with Ubuntu.
I got CentOS 5.0 DVD and I'll try it in some near future.
Gone subversion
I didn't need any version control system for ages, but finally I've grown out of just everyday backups. I need to track work done, I need to know what exactly and when did I change in my code, I need to put milestones and track bugs. The latter is too much for SVN on it's own, but trac perfectly fits my current requirements. I even think of running trac in my sandbox and giving my clients access to it, but I don't know how to limit access for different users and afraid that tracking tickets could take too much time.
Gone single
Alas. Love ins't enough to stay together. We tried hard, she even kept trying when I gave up, but still there were too much thing we couldn't take over. Odd feeling, you know. You work so hard to be able to rent an apartment that would be a place for two of you, and suddenly you don't need it all and you don't know what to do with all of it.
Anyway, you're great, Annie, and I those 6 months were just wonderful.
Almost get employed
East is East and West is West, and I'm damned for freelance forever and ever, but I found a forum post about that vacancy and decided to try it out. My experience is more than sufficient for that work. I could become tech support engineer at local web hosting company, but they decided to hire a student (yes, I'm student, too, but I've got my last year in University, while he's second or third year one) with smaller experience, smaller ambitions and smaller salary.
I don't blame them, I'd do the same if I were them. And it's not the right job for me. Although I could do a lot for that company, they don't really need that right now, so they did the right thing.
Bud, God! It was in the middle of August, when it was hot like Hell and they do have an air conditioning in their office!
Got to give my code away
It was the first time when I had to stop working on a project to take a more important one and needed to prepare my code for other developer. Interesting experience and definitely I'm going to share it. Later.
Vanessa Hudgens
Who the heck's Vanessa Hudgens?
I have never taken GetAFreelancer (GAF) too seriously. Most projects there are “clone a site”, “data entry”, “register XXX gmail accounts”, or just the projects that aren't interesting or too cheap for me.
Yesterday GAF did something that a) makes me treat them as a more serious company; and b) lets them attract more possible service providers and, consequently, buyers. The concurrency is good for a professional (I already have a draft of article about that, will post it sooner or later), so I guess, I'll pay more attention to jobs listed there.
But let's get back to the point of this blog post. GetAFreelancer announced that they partnered with Payoneer and will now provide pre-paid MaterCard debit cards for their payments. I couldn't find any commission charges mentioned on their site yet, though. Probably there'll be just regular payoneer commission on every withdrawal.
Anyway, that is great news. While RentACoder promises to start iKobo (another pre-paid debit cards system) payments for more than a year without any result, GAF intoduced this kind of payment. Probably that will finally make RAC move.
Well, quite a pretty lot of posts today.
Roger Glover. I love him, really. As a musician, of course, but even more – as a great guy. He's probably the most charismatic of my favourite musicians (who are numerous, believe me, one day I'll make a list). He's kind, nice, fun, I love him most of all Purple dudes. I'm terribly sad about missing his autograph session a couple years ago in Nizhni Novgorod.
Why am I telling you all this? Because I am:
- Listening his records all the night.
- Got to his site and found biography there. Hi describes different stages of his life including band and artists he was listening to at those moments. Like that:
Smoke On The Water (1973) becomes one of the biggest hits of the decade. The band starts to disintigrate but manages a final album, Who Do We Think We Are (1973), containing the single Woman From Tokyo (1973). RG and Ian Gillan leave the band, for different reasons, to be replaced by Glenn Hughes and David Coverdale respectively. Buys his first house in Iver, Bucks. In a state of physical and emotional exhaustion, finds himself returning from the last Deep Purple tour to find that Nazareth are high in the charts with his production of the single Broken Down Angel (1973), taken from the album Razamanaz (1973) - the first of three albums they will make together, the next two being Loud'N'Proud (1974) and Rampant (1975). Listening to Stevie Wonder, Taj Mahal, Joni Mitchell, Marvin Gaye, Van Morrison, Traffic, Free. Supremes, John Lennon, Edgar Winter, George Harrison, Walter Carlos, Mountain, Paul Simon, Chicago, etc.
And what is he listening to during 2003–2004?
Listeining to his iPod
Love him
I've actually written this article a couple day's ago, but due to changes in my blog engine I tried to make, it was lost (yeah, I'm a loser, I know it) and I didn't want to type it again at that moment. But finished all the work for today, read lots of everything and still sleepless, I decided to try to post it again. Wish me good luck! Well... at least some luck, please!
We love so much speaking of been overworked and underpaid.
I work so much and so well! I should have been paid more!
And, hell yes, we love speaking of our families who do not value your work.
I work so much to give them everything! Why don't they understand, I'm working now! Do they really need to bother me so many times a day? I do that for them, and they cry for attention!
Recognize yourself?
Are you really that busy? Yes, I know that myself. I am, too. Are you tired? Sure! Staring at your monitor all day round! Oh, our poor red eyes!
Are you tired of working? Are you sure? Are you really working? How do you spend the day?
Checking email every 10 minutes. Updating rss feeds four times an hour. Endlessly reading and commenting and writing and surfing and downloading and searching for something else to download. A lot of time. And your eyes! And your neck! And your spine!
Updating your software. Every single day. Every single piece of software you use and some pieces that you used only a couple times and even a few pieces you never ever used! Then googling and reading and commenting and reading again to solve problems appeared after upgrade. Your eyes. Your nerves. Your fingers!
Chatting with your good old friends online. Yeah, yeah, they're friends, you need them, they need you, you're having fun. You should be relaxing, why do you pretend you're working?
How much time do you really have for your actual work after all those things? That's why you work so much and get paid accordingly. That's why your family scream and should and want you to turn you face to them.
So please, guys, STOP fooling me and yourselves. Work, bastards! If you need more money, work more and better and for those who can pay more.
Work when you have to work. Do not pretend you're working when you're not. Kiss your wife or girlfriend. Don't miss your son's first step and your daughter's first wedding.
When have you seen your parents last time?
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