thoughthaus

Future of Fish on nytimes.com

Kyle — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 18:35:36 +0000

I’d rather eat wild cod once a month and sardines once a week than farm-raised salmon, ever

Mark Bittman, A Seafood Snob Ponders the Future of Fish

Transient to TDD

Kyle — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 03:43:38 +0000

I like to ask developers who do not do TDD whether or not they ever write programs to test their software at all. They always say: well. yes. a little. Then I’d argue that they should start to invest just enough effort to make those one-off transient tests something that they could run over and over again. This is kinda where I am at. I’m not quite TDD freaky on everything I write. But I don’t write transient tests. At least when I do write one I have this golden rule: it must be re-runnable.

Very Short Introductions - Books about everything

Kyle — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 03:30:47 +0000

I was at a party tonight and looked at the hosts’ book shelf. Not sure if that’s courteous or not. Anyway the guy had a bunch of these
Very Short Introductions. Each book is a brief overview on an interesting topic. Topics are mainly philosophical or history or art. Good stuff.

Certifiably Dependable Software

Kyle — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 14:05:52 +0000

Committee on Certifiably Dependable Software Systems of the National Research Council published a book last year called “Software for Dependable Systems: Sufficient Evidence?“. A free pdf download is available.


Software for Dependable Systems: Sufficient Evidence?

Read this FREE online! PDF Summary

Rode my Bike

Kyle — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 22:07:25 +0000

I rode my bike to work on heavily salted, ice-free roads this morning. It was perfectly clear at 15 degrees Fahrenheit. I wore my new goggles. It was exhilarating.

Parallels for Mac

Kyle — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 21:43:47 +0000

I got a MacBook a while ago. Ironic but the most fun thing I’ve done with it is setup Windows XP with Parallels. It went pretty slick after I polished up my scrated windows XP home upgrade cd with some toothpaste.

steps:

1. install demo version of parallels (downloaded from their website). I’ll have to pay $70 bucks for it later.
2. create new virtual machine image using express setup for windows XP
3. place xp setup disk in MacBook cd drive
4. watch in horror as installation complains about unreadable files from the cd
5. listen to strange clicking sound.
6. pull disk out using “reboot with mouse clicker button pressed” trick as regular eject button didn’t work
7. observe scratches on disk (are they new?)
8. polish disk with toothpaste.
9. go to another computer and make images of the disk ( make image of old windows ME disk too as this is an upgrade installation)
10. move disk image .iso files to the MacBook via usb external drive
11. restart parallels software, create new virtual machine image
12. attach xp setup disk image file to the virtual machine cd-rom
13. when xp setup asks for older version of windows cd attach ME setup disk image file
14. when xp setup asks for the xp setup disk reattach the xp setup disk to the virtual machine CD-ROM
15. watch the rest of the setup go pretty quickly.

Now I can run windows on my MAC. cool. I do have to uninstall windows on my old PC. But I planned on doing that at some point anyway.

Now I can use the MacBook to watch instant view movies from the netflix website which only supports IE on windows XP. Also I can run my company’s silly vpn software on my laptop. Doing late night deployments in bed rather than in the home office.

So the number one take away: treat the windows install CDs like gold. Don’t use them. Make backups or image files and use those instead. You can get replacement media from Microsoft but seems like a hassle best avoided.

I’ve also learned that I want to protect my investment in the Apple hardware by getting a AppleCare extension to the warranty on the MacBook. I’m still in the first year warranty so they are going to replace the Super[Broken]Drive in the MacBook.

New Game: Ticket to Ride

Kyle — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 20:48:55 +0000

My wife got me this great board game, Ticket to Ride, from this cool site that specializes in “gateway” games. These are proven games that get people hooked on designer board games.

bike stuff

Kyle — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 15:19:11 +0000

Need to get some stuff for the bike.
here is a site: http://www.nashbar.com

Ice biking: http://www.icebike.org

Saving lives with a checklist

Kyle — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 17:21:17 +0000

The Checklist, another one to read. This one is about how stupid little checklists are saving lives in ICUs across MI.

Rules vs. Code

Kyle — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 17:14:20 +0000

Need to read this: “Business Rules Process Management”