This is NOT the 80:20 Rule You Are Looking For

The 80:20 rule is based on the assumption that there is (often) an 80% (ish) subset of the realised value for a project that only costs 20% of the resources (e.g time) to complete. The rule, actually the Pareto Principle popularised by Richard Koch and others, like all rules of thumb, can be applied incorrectly.

It's not a license for doing things half-arsed.

Guy Steele Disassembles 40 Year Old Punchcard

Just a quick note to let all of you know who are not currently at the YOW! 2010 conference, some of the fun that you're missing out on.

Firstly it must be said that this is a world-class conference. The calibre of speakers is amazing. Dave Thomas and his team have done an incredible job of drawing this talent to Australia for this meeting of minds. I'll be posting more about this stuff later, but for now, here's a teaser photo from one of my favourite sessions, Guy Steele's "How to Think about Parallel Programming--Not!

In this photo, Guy is disassembling his own 40 year old self-modifing code, starting with a punch card and an old manual (which he admitted to still owning). He demonstrates his deserved bare-metal hacker street cred. Then half-way through the talk he shifts gears into real parallel programming in Fortress. I was quite exhausted after that one!

Computer Science Is All About Windows 7 For Dummies

Next Android OS Codename: Apple Pie

cc photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattmendoza

OMG Google has to do this.

With the Android OS versions getting code names like cupcake, éclair and froyo (which is, evidently, a word), the dessert namespace provides an opportunity too good to miss. Apple Pie. OM NOM NOM.

Of course the logo should be a white stylised piece of apple pie with one bite out of it. Or perhaps a rainbow version?

People, Google fanboys and Apple haters mostly, desperately want Android to DUHSHTROY iPhone in the market. Personally I don't think this is very likely. I know there are a lot of Android devices out now - more than iPhone I hear - but the fragmentation is really starting to happen. Just like MSX.

The code name of Apple Pie would trump the Eclipse Foundation's latest IDE version naming stunt, Helios, Ancient Greek for Sun, aka their competitor recently bought by Oracle who is now suing.. Google. Keeping up?

Why Bookshops Always Put Computer Books With Business

It's near-universal. Especially for those bookshops with large self-help or mysticism and occult sections and no science section. Computer books are put (and often intermingled with) business books.

Why?

To me it's like always putting cycling with business. Or painting.

Yes computers are used heavily in business, but they're used just as heavily in music or movies or writing.

When I look for programming books, sometimes I'm interested in the topics that combine businesses (or the needs of an organisation) with programming - generally topics like how to translate the needs of project sponsors into deliverable systems. But way more often than that I'm interested in topics that concern the creation of software using specific techniques, paradigms, or languages and frameworks.

I like programming. I would do it more on the weekends if I had time. I don't think it has anything in common with business but it seems that many non-technically minded people assume that the only reason someone would want to do programming is for business purposes.

Well plenty of people do it for fun. Just like cycling or painting.

Posted via email from chris mountford

Apple: I Was Wrong, Here's Your $200 Back

Previously on Chris Mountford's blog...

Genius: "Oh um ya that battery that split open like a stepped-on-banana.. that's expected behaviour"
Me: "You're kidding me? Should I expecting all other Apple products to do this?


The latest is, thanks to Mr Anonymous, Paul M and legion others like them, is that I have been refunded my $200 because, as a reasonable person would assume, the extended warranty DOES cover such explosive situations.

Exploding Macbook Pro Battery = "Expected Behaviour"

After booking my appointment with a Genius at the Genius Bar in Sydney's city Apple Store, waiting in line dutifully holding my AppleCare extended warranty stuff, packing what I thought would be an iron-clad case of Exploding Battery Obviously Defective Here's A New One Sir, I was rudely awoken by the facts.

Apple's official position, according to the lips of two courteous Genii, is that exploding is "expected behaviour".  The battery was bought with the computer in June 2008 (exactly 2 years ago) and it had been sitting for a couple of months looking like this before I got around to taking it in:
 

Well it's not behaviour I ever expected. And I say this with some experience with batteries, even lithium ion rechargeable batteries, that ranges roughly two fashionable Genius lifespans or near enough, judging by their fresh-faced appearance. I've never had anything like this.

I think the elephant in the room is that while the fine print may say that the extended warranty doesn't cover batteries, this is a major manufacturing defect and Apple know it. I was virtually told as much as I was assured my 1 year old Macbook Pro with the built-in battery would not suffer the same fate since it is a non-nickel based lithium polymer construction. I was invited to attend the Apple battery page: http://www.apple.com/batteries/ which keen observers will note contains nothing of Apple's expectation of explosions.

Looking further the Apple battery replacement page says:

However the AppleCare Protection Plan for notebook computers does not cover batteries that have failed or are exhibiting diminished capacity except when the failure or diminished capacity is the result of a manufacturing defect.

Right so, who says this is not a manufacturing defect? Shouldn't a manufacturer's expectations about common failure cases be published on thier main information page? If it really is not a manufacturing defect where is the information about this expected behaviour on their written material?

The battery still holds a charge as demonstrated by the indicator lights on the battery. Also, although it doesn't properly fit the case due to it's unsightly bulge, it was powering the laptop fine until I took it out. In fact the reason I did so was because the bulge was pushing the back of the mouse button, preventing it from clicking. None of this stuff appeared to be news to the Geniuses. Just another exploding battery.

So $199 later, I purchase a new battery which, I carefully confirmed, would be expected to explode in roughly 300 power cycles (which I assured the young Genius my existing battery had not experienced).

Has anyone else had luck in getting their battery replaced as a part of Apple extended warranty? I see plenty of talk to this end:

http://www.appledefects.com/?cat=27
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=909217
http://www.tuaw.com/2006/12/25/battle-of-the-battery-bulge/

Aussie Censorship Error

As a father of three young kids the thought of child porn disgusts me.

If only an Internet filter imposed by the government would be effective against it.

As a professional software engineer I can't help but acknowledge that the proposed filter will be 100% ineffective at stopping child pornography and that hundreds of millions of dollars could be better spent elsewhere.

The proposed censorship by senator Steven Conroy does not propose to stop most material that is unsuitable for children and it does not propose to stop the most common channels of illegal content on the Internet (bit torrents).

Finally any VPN will effectively go straight through the filter so anyone who wishes to can circumvent it using current technology.

Titanium Reinforced Self

For those of you I know personally, you've probably already seen my impressive X-rays, but for the rest of you I'm announcing that I have recently had cause to become hyper human.

Not content with collar bones constructed of mere bone matter, which I ably demonstrated can break with the aid of a single mountain bike and a spot of bad luck, I opted for hyper human augmentation.



I can wholeheartedly recommend the procedure should you be advised that it's necessary for adequate bone knitting. It completely stopped the disconcerting clunk that occurred in my shoulder on certain movements for the 36 hours prior to surgery.

The only down side was, apart from the usual recovery and healing process, I discovered much to my surprise, morphine is quite disgusting. It certainly blankets almost all pain but at the expense of almost all cognitive ability.

Further, morphine causes the sensation of hanging upside down in a vat of warm butter after having skulled a salmon milkshake. With an automated IV drip, that feeling was only a button press away should I become convinced that it was better than post op pain.

Now I'm back on the bike but my shoulder does not have 100% strength or mobility and my muscles feel wasted and weak all over. So if you happen to pass me on a hill, this is going to be my standing excuse.

More Cowbell in One Line of Groovy

Sometimes you just need more cowbell.

It is for those times that I wrote this:

groovy -e 's=javax.sound.midi.MidiSystem.synthesizer;s.open();c=s.channels[9];c.noteOn 56,99;Thread.sleep 99;c.noteOff 96;s.close()'

I do often find myself needing more cowbell, such as when invoking a maven comannd which inevitably downloads the internet, like mvn clean. So get this puppy on your PATH and you can do this:

mvn clean && cowbell

...for an audio cue that tells you the internet has been successfully downloaded with a modicum of funk.