Stuart Hacking

At a certain point on the Bureaucratic scale, you may start using Outlook for more than simply the exchange of messages: Tasks/Todo lists, Appointments/Calendar, Notes.

Too bad Outlook isn’t very good at anything it does.

Here are a couple of things I’d like to say Outlook provides to make life easier (I use Outlook 2003, not by choice):

• I flag messages and categorize them quite often. One would imagine that when a message  is flagged that it becomes a ToDo item and is added to the task list. If a flagged email has a follow up date, shouldn’t it appear in the calendar? I guess integration of different services was never a primary goal.
• I’d like folders to be able to tell me the number of flagged emails. Currently they only show total or unread (but not both). I often use folders to store actionable bulk mail. It would be nice to see how many tasks I’ve woken up to.
• When you flag email in a personal folder it does not show up un the ‘Follow Up’ search folder. I guess this is just a bug?

Self email, integration, Rant, Software

An important person in the company (all praise the company!) has just attempted to send me an updated security certificate by email.

Oh, no, no, no, my friend! Surely you know that I’m running Micros~1 Outlook as my office mail client?

You see: Outlook knows what’s good for you, and apparently, security certificates are not. Indeed, Outlook will not allow me to access this file, or even give me the option of “Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing.”

[Here's a fun fact: The certificate was *sent* *using* *Outlook*. So, Outlook will happily send files that it deems to be unsafe, but the poor sap on the other end won't get to use it.]

Now, I tend to place a degree of value on others’ time. So it pains me to have to reply to someone saying “Hi, Outlook won’t let me open your attachment. Can you jump through hoops X, Y, Z to get it to me?”

Outlook used to simply be a poor email client. Now it has become actively counterproductive.

Self email, Rant, Software

Have a look at this documentation for a VerifyEvent in SWT:

void VerifyListener() {…}.verifyText(VerifyEvent e)
Sent when the text is about to be modified.

A verify event occurs after the user has done something to modify the text (typically typed a key), but before the text is modified. The doit field in the verify event indicates whether or not to modify the text.

Wait, what?

What we basically want is a simple predicate function that returns true if the Contents of a Text Field are still valid after a change. What SWT gives us is this awkward event model where we have to modify the event that has just been generated. (In my opinion, events should be immutable, since they represent a historical occurence.) Next SWT will have a peek in the event to see how to proceed.

SWT is full of weird bagbiters like this.

Programming Programming, Rant

The more I go through this cycle the more it amazes me that this is the development paradigm that won out. That back in the golden era people sat down and decided that this was the model of the future.

For large applications it’s a major pain – much time spent compiling, starting up the program anew and returning it to the state you need in order to test your latest fix. Even for a fairly trivial change or a bit of experimentation, this is a huge timesink.

And yet there is an alternative approach – incremental compilation, à la Lisp. When the Lisp environment hits a bug it pauses. It shows you the location of the bug, it gives you a full stack trace at the time of breakage. You can inspect just about everything. Here’s the kicker: you can fix the code while the debugger is waiting. Then you can load that fixed code right back into the running program and continue on your merry way.

Let me repeat that last bit: You compile only the code that needed fixed and load it into the running program. The running program then continues using the new code. No stopping, compiling, running, getting back to where you were, debugging.

This is special. It’s not even that new. Lot’s of hip, young, dynamic languages are attempting to copy it. Let’s now, in 2010, make an attempt to catch up to the technology of 50 years ago. We owe the founding hackers that much, right?

Self lisp, Programming, Rant

Here are two things about Eclipse which recently annoyed me. (I imagine it’s Eclipse’s fault, I guess It may be Java’s.)

1) When you reach an exceptional condition, the correct response in debug mode is to freeze the program and allow the developer a chance to inspect the current state. Stack, Heap, location, all that good stuff.

Throwing your arms in the air, screaming bloody murder and throwing away all the useful information when an error occurs is not useful. It turns debugging java into a game of “How close can you get to an error, without actually reaching the error.”

If you reach the error you lose the game, along with any useful data that might help you fix it.

2) You only seem to allow me to put breakpoints on lines on code. This implies that I already know where an error is. If I did, I’d probably fix it.

Why can’t you let me break on more useful things like when a particular variable has a particular value. This is similar to the previous point where I don’t want the program to drop everything and run away before I can look into it.

3) In 2010, the best way to debug a Java program is to pepper it with Print statements. This is sad.

Self error, fun, Programming, Rant

Hurray! Apple fanboys should be pleased with the release of OS X, version 10.6. Snow Leopard panders to their desire for an all Apple platform. For the rest of us sensible users, Apple have screwed the pooch.

Okay, we have new shiny toys like Quicktime X and – well, that’s about the height of noticeable changes. I’m all for enhancing the user experience, but in this case, in my opinion, it has come at the expense of developer comfort.

What I’m referring to here is the lack of Java support in the new XCode 3.2. I’ve always felt that XCode was a fairly elegant environment for writing all C/C++, Java and Objective-C projects. So- why, Apple, would you arbitrarily drop support for a language? Out of spite? You didn’t even drop support – you just made it frigging irritating to use. Do you enjoy kicking your users in the nuts with each new release?

I’m not even surprised at this stage. I guess I could add the XCode templates back in manually but I’m more in favour of adopting a more portable command line build process… It seems the best way to get away from Apple’s user abuse.

Programming Computers, error, mac, Programming, Rant

Right! This is a rant. I currently work in an Open Plan office. This is designed to encourage a better atmosphere where people can discuss things and collaborate? Or is it easier for a boss to keep an eye of who’s slacking off? Whatever the intention, I notice the following effects:

• All barriers for sound are removed. This typically make the office very noisy. You are likely to hear: One half of a conference call, One half of a heated discussion about insurance or heating installation, sighs, coughs, yawns, shuffles, footsteps, coffee slurping, chairs creaking, necks cracking, fingers typing. If, like me, you tend to shift your attention quite rapidly it becomes a cacophony.
• At any given time, there is at least one pair of eyes looking at you – and you are guaranteed to look back. This causes that awkward social phenomena of “mutual paranoia” wherein both parties stare at each other wondering how long the other has been watching.

What’s the alternative? I think individual cubicles is the other extreme. It encourages isolation (The geek in me just had a brief moment of excitement as I typed that, but the human in me wants to cling to the hairline cord of social adeptness). At Microsoft, I think they had a fairly good solution. The office was separated into cubicles, but each cubicle had 3-4 people… usually on the same projects. This means that sounds from elsewhere are well muted and you can still lean round for a chat with your colleague.

Well, the company I work for are hoping to move to new premises at some point in the near future. (Deliberate vagueness avoids trouble). I really want to suggest a move away from open plan but I don’t think the idea would be taken seriously: Next to MEETINGS it’s the best excuse for the lack of productivity!

Typed at 1am- please forgive spelling/grammar.

Self life, Office, Rant, social

As of Monday 26th March Ulsterbus raised their prices yet again. However, I figured from experience that this information would not yet be apparent on Translink’s website. I was surprised to find that indeed they have already updated their site with the new ticket consessions – however they are still advertising the student return ticket at the old prices.

Seeing an opportunity I decided that I would only pay £4, no matter how far I had to fight it!

The bus driver was the first obstacle. I handed him the £4 and said “Student return to Belfast, please.” He punched it in – £4.10 came up. Undaunted I told him that the translink website was advertising the student return at £4. He replied “Well, this machine says £4.10.” A slight argument ensued and his finishing move was to tell me that either I pay £4.10 or I stay in Ballyclare. The offer to take it up with an inspector at the depot was presented.

On arriving at the depot I tell the driver that I will only be a minute. I approached the office and stated my case. The inspector responds that maybe the website just hasn’t been update yet and asks when I checked it. Calmly, I inform him that it was only about 20 minutes ago; that the ticket prices had been updated on the website, and finally that the student return was still being advertised at £4. He spent that next 10 minutes on the phone to customer services.

I was next told that since the Ballyclare depot has no internet access my claim cannot be backed up, a rather lame counterpoint I thought and the inspector made no false inpression that he was in any way impressed by my quest for a 10p refund on my ticket.

This is the situation at the moment: If I can produce a printout of their website showing this falsely presented information then Ulsterbus will gladly write me a cheque for 10 pence.

I just want to say at this point that I’m not doing this for the money, but more for the reason that Ulsterbus will gladly defend their right to present inaccurate information and expect the consumers to put up with it.

fun, life Rant, stubborn, transport