The Wrong Decision by the Wrong Person
There is one thing about my industry that I still find truly amazing (and not in a good way). This is despite the fact that it has happened to me so many times that you think I'd be used to it! I'm talking about non-technical people making technical decisions.
For some reason, it's a very common practice for those people who don't have expertise in a certain field to make decisions for people working in that field. The best example I can think of off the top of my head is the answer to the question: "Which technology should we use?"
Let me take a step back in time for a moment.
I Don’t Need Your Frickin’ Framework!
How many companies have you worked with/for that have their own framework? How many have been in the process of developing their own framework? How many have been in the process of redeveloping their own framework? How many have taken another framework and hacked improved it?
When I attempt to answer the questions listed above, I start to shiver. I feel the need to burn my clothes and take a very long shower.
Always Question the Source (aka “Don’t Lock on Type Objects”)
For one reason or another, I recently found myself perusing some code based on the CSLA framework. While nosing around I came upon a snippet of code that I found rather disturbing. An example can be found here in the function called InitializeAuthorizationRules.
For those who are lazy, here is the particular snippet of code that caught my eye:
The Admin is an Idiot
Yes, and that admin is me!
I usually do a fairly decent job of keeping the server patched, up to date, and clean. Over the Xmas period where I wasn't really looking at anything online, something went wrong.
I logged on this morning only to find that the server wasn't responding. I could connect via SSH, but nothing was being served via HTTP. So I tried to reboot LiteSpeed to see if that would resolve it (as you do 
). The service stopped, but failed to restart!
HRM Revenue & Customs – Idiots!
Today I received a nice letter from HRM Revenue & Customs (yet another site that doesn't work without being prefixed with "www"). It states:
Notice of determination of penalty for a late Tax Return for the tax year ended 5 April 2007.
I did not receive your Tax Return by the due date so you are liable to a penalty.
Oh how nice! Upon reading further I found out the following information:
As a result the penalty imposed on you under Secxtion 93(2) of the Taxes Management Act 1970 is £100.00
This "fine" comes to around $217 Australian. Happy Easter eh!?
Reactivate? AGAIN!?
This is just a quick post to say how much Microsoft and their draconian OS licensing mechanism are pissing me off right now.
Last week my computer stopped booting. I didn't get around to looking at it until a few days ago because I had visitors over from the UK. Not just that, it is Christmas, and the last thing you want to be doing on your Christmas break is to be fixing computers.
Rancid Bloatware
I'd love to know what on earth got into Adobe's head when they decided to turn their PDF reader into a stinking pile of sluggish bloatware? Who here remembers the old days when the Adobe Reader download was less than 10MB?
Take a look at the details on their current download page (which I was recently forced to visit because of a security flaw in the Reader's functionality that has now been patched):
WTF: Random Memory Contents
If any of you out there are able to give me ONE GOOD REASON why anyone would do something like this, then please let me know. Below are "customised" realloc() and malloc() I recently stumbled across (yes, they get called. A LOT):
void *mcRealloc( void *P, int SIZE ) { int oldSize = _msize( P ); P = realloc( P, SIZE ); if ( P ) { for ( int i = oldSize; i < SIZE; i++ ) { ((char *) P)[i] = (char) rand(); } } return P; } void *mcMalloc( int SIZE ) { void *P; P = malloc( SIZE ); if ( P ) { for ( int i = 0; i < SIZE; i++ ) { ((char *) P)[i] = (char) rand(); } } return P; }
Is it just me, or is this a huge WTF?
Biosham ™
I can fully understand the desire a developer has to protect their creation from being copied illegally. I can understand why some steps would be taken to mitigate the risk of losing money due to piracy. What I can't understand is why some companies go so far with their anti-piracy measures that it starts to have an impact on the honourable, paying customers.
I have bitched in the past about how activation is a pain in the neck. But that example is nothing like what 2K Games have recently inflicted on the buyers of their latest creation, Bioshock. Rather than throw a few links to a bzillion blog and forum posts that have covered it already, let me just give you the short version:
- Bioshock comes with SecuROM.
- It requires online activation before it can be played.
- It can only be activated twice.
On the surface this might not sound so bad, but when you think about it a little deeper it becomes obvious why this is such a pain in the arse.