Archive for January, 2004
A kluge is:
1. A ramshackle, barely competent device, whether in hardware or software.
2. A clever programming trick intended to solve a particular nasty case in an expedient, if unclear, manner. Often used to repair bugs.
3. Something that works for the wrong reason.
from The Hackers Dictionary via Foldoc.
I’m not proud of my latest fix at work - it is definitely a kluge, but it works. A bug was showing up on multi-processor systems, and it turned out that multi-threading issues were a lot more serious than first expected. We hadn’t linked with the multi-threaded run-time, for starters. Fixing that problem uncovered a second issue, which turned out to be much harder to fix.
A string class embedded deep in our code was not thread safe, and wasn’t going to be fixed any time soon. The duct-tape solution was to place critical sections at all the entry points to the second component, thereby serializing all access to the component. This makes the code single-threaded, thus keeping it safe from thread errors, even on multiple cpu machines. We kill the performance, but the component is thankfully not on the critical path. Other things will crap out before the component.
Still - not really happy with it, but the entire thing will soon-ishly be replaced and re-written using new tech, so it’s not worth spending too much time on.
January 29th, 2004
Wow - combine two really bad wars, the US War on Drugs, and the US War on Terror, and you get this result:
Norwegian to be deported for 1993 drugs offence. Well and truly bizarre.
So if you’re wondering why I haven’t been to visit you in Boston, San Francisco or wherever, it probably has something to do with the fact that the US’s welcome mat seems to have been pulled in. Fingerprinting and electronic tracking data that’s to be securely stored for a century. Uh-huh. Riiight. I feel so welcome.
January 22nd, 2004
Got a worrying phone call yesterday. The bank called to check if I was flying out on Norwegian and on Sterling under assumed names. No - no I wasn’t. Someone’s ripped off my credit card. Bastards. The card’s cancelled - but apparently I still have to pay for my christmas shopping.
I don’t really know where they got my card number from, since I hardly ever use it. My guess is they either guessed, or it’s a taxi receipt (I sometimes use it to pay cab fares, when my debit card refuses to work).
Damn - it’s frustrating, even though I don’t use the card. My private space has been invaded by the invisible.
It’s also kinda cool the way the bank picked up on the strangeness immediately. Statistics and AI rock.
January 17th, 2004
It’s a week since I went boxing, and the aching has finally stopped. Went to body pump on monday and a whole new kind of aching has arrived.
The office is off to go tobogganing down the Corkscrew - the local winding forest road that doubles as a sled and ski track. We went two years ago and had a blast. This year I can’t go — I have to prep the teaching lab for tomorrows IIS6 training course. Lots of Windows Server 2003 installs to finish. I’ll catch up with the team for dinner at Cafe Møllhausen. Yum.
much later - Per Arne wrecked his back going down the track - it was bumpier than last time, and people were bouncing all over the place. Lots of bruising, but smiles all around. Late drinks with Helene and Jomar and his pretty friends. Much later than intended. I was planning to get home by midnight, since I’ve got to be at work by 8 am tomorrow for this IIS training thing. Urgh.
January 14th, 2004
Boxing workout - fun. Can’t slack off because you’re partnered with someone. Utterly exhausting. My thighs feel like tree trunks - stiff and solid and full of knots. I’m gonna feel this in the morning.
January 8th, 2004
I’m off to try the boxing workout at Elixia tonight. The xycling spinning hour on monday left me bowlegged and exhausted after a months of extreme sloth.
Work on the COM unit tester proceeds - it looks like I won’t be doing calls into subroutines in the first release. I can’t get the IDispatchEx interface on the loaded script to tell me which of the umpty ump names defined in the script are callable sub-routines, and which ones are variables and objects (which we can ignore).
January 7th, 2004
My active script COM testing application LIVES! The little darling said “Hello world”. I’d like to curse the devStudio wizard for hardwiring the release typelib into the registry, instead of the little conditional “debug or release as appropriate” code I’d put in. It only cost my a day and a few fistfuls of hair…
Now it just needs a GUI. I wonder how the tree control works?
January 4th, 2004
I’ve been playing this for a couple of days now. It’s beautifully put together - it uses literary techniques to layer the story: “Dick Justice” parodies the lone wolf vigilante aspect of your playing, while the in-game tv show “Address Unknown” comments on your paranoid delusions (or are they?). It’s like the Watchmen of video gaming.
But now I’m stuck - in the chapter 2 prologue where you work in the police station. I’ve gone down into the cells and talked to Mona Sax. I go back to the guard post to make the call to Alfred Woden, and a bomb goes off upstairs. The cops open the weapons locker and run upstairs. Now I’m supposed to grab a gun from the locker and shoot the cleaners coming through the cells, but the locker is empty… This sucks. It’s a bug. I upgraded with the 1.01 patch but this shouldn’t have corrupted the save game.
January 2nd, 2004
I had forgotten this little Dune-ism - until the third cup:
It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the beans of Java that thoughts acquire speed, the hands acquire shaking, the shaking becomes a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion.
- The Mentat Programming Mantra
A little prayer to say while waiting for the pot to steep. While looking for the exact quote I found this variation on the Christian Lord’s prayer which I hadn’t seen before:
Caffeine is my shepherd;
I shall not doze.
It maketh me to wake in green pastures,
It leadeth me beyond the sleeping masses.
It restoreth my buzz,
It leadeth in the paths of consciousness for it’s name’s sake.
Yea,
though I walk through the valley of the shadow of addiction,
I will fear no equal
For thou art with me;
thy cream
and thy sugar
they comfort me.
Thou preparest a carafe
before me in the presence of Thy Starbucks,
Thou anointest my day with pep;
my mug runneth over.
Surely richness and taste
shall follow me all the days of my life:
and I will dwell in the house of Mocha’s forever.
~Amen~
January 2nd, 2004
Agnostica! - December 14 - celebrating the birth of Quantum Physics. What a great idea…
January 1st, 2004