Companies : Don't Rush & Ruin your Software!

Why do some companies do software backwards?  I'm not going to be talking about my employer, this isn't a comment about the work I do for them, it's a comment about a company which supplies us, and whom has provided subsystems for us.  Building blocks which we want to stick together into a product... A little like putting together a PC at home, you build the machine, but Intel make the CPU... I hope you're getting me so far...

The problem I have is the increasing number of vendors whom seem to see Software as either, at best, an after thought, or at worst, an evil necessity.

The software in your systems today are the glue which hold everything together, they coordinate the physical to the component level, if you make a great button to turn on a great machine that's fine; if it's mechanical; but if that button is driving a piece of software, a trigger, a service or just a PIC for heavens sake test it, think about it, write the software, try it yourself!

A great chef should never ever deliver a dish to a table before they have tasted it!  So you as a software engineer, as a provider of components, as a system integrator should taste test your own software!

The number of absolutely abysmal software packages backing up otherwise very good products is ever increasing, and it's not acceptable, either as a third party receiving such devices to re-package, integrate & push upstream, or as a consumer spending their hard earned cash on items which then go on to not work.

I review very many things, and many of them are let down by Software, and it's not acceptable; get quality Software Engineers into do your code, don't just pay the tea boy to bash up a script over a weekend!

And if you're not sure about your software offering, you think it might need work, post it clearly and neatly on github (or wherever) for the customer to take a look, don't obfuscate things, don't hide behind great massive Red Wood Tree style tall stacks of build tools.  Because as much as I like Docker & Yocto & CMake & Make & Gradle and all the others I've used right down to DOS Batch files or Bash Shell scripts, if they don't work for the customer, if they need their machine setting up a certain way, with a certain set of libraries DO NOT blame the customer when they turn around and reject your product because your documentation is utterly lacking in depth or accuracy!

Nature : Greenland Shark (and Trawling)

I'm a big fan of nature, I like it a lot, what I'm not a huge fan of is fish, as I suffer massively from ichthyophobia.  I'm also, incidentally allergic to shellfish & fish oil, so there maybe some link, whatever... 

My phobia aside, I read recently about their finding out the Greenland shark was the oldest living vertebrate, with an individual being at least 250+ years old.  And their not reaching maturity until they're at least 150 years old, hence at the moment we have lots of teenage Greenland sharks and very few babies out there.

The reason we need the babies is that they were over fished, back years ago, they were used to make very good machine oil.  Again I guess something I'm a little happier about, as they're no longer used for this.

But in the study they had to use part of the sharks eye for the study, and they got these eyes from sharks caught by accident in giant trawling nets.

All the news outlets have focused on the scientific discovery of the age of these amazing animals, but no-one, not a single place I've looked has covered the tragedy that they had accidentally caught, killed and butchered this magnificently long lived female shark.

It's dead... It is no more... It was dragged out of the sea in which it had lived since the late 1700's and it was slaughtered on the rolling grimy deck of a trawler, or it may have already been dead in their great massive water hoovering net.

WHAT AN ABSOLUTE ABOMINATION!

No-one talks about this, I find fish repellent, but even without that in my mind, are fish from the ocean farmed?... No... So we go out and destroy whole ecosystems, whole magnificent creatures, they focused on dolphins getting stuck in Tuna nets, they focused Amazon forest clearance for beef cattle, but not on the fact we land dwelling, tree evolved monkeys, go out to a place so alien to us that we evolved away from it millions of years ago, and we trawl it clean of life.

We even make heroic TV programmes, "Trawler Men" and "Toughest Catch" and "River Monsters", though I admit the latter seem to put things back, and we vaunt how difficult it was to catch these fish; no-one stops to think we're destroying these huge swathes of ocean.

We have tiffs with other countries (The Cod Wars with Iceland, the EU Fishing Rights with Spain etc).


Then there's the utter hilarity of some countries and communities claiming it's some historic right, Japan or the Inuit (they know who I mean) catching Wales!


It's all so ridiculous, my grandfathers spent a lot of time in two different world wars shooting Germans, does that give me the right to claim I can go shoot them in some tradition?... No, because I'm a rational, normal, law abiding human being.

And we should show some human compassion towards other species, like the Greenland shark, before we hove into view with massive massive metal ships and drag them out of their living rooms to their death.

I hate it, I hate the thought of it.

If you like fish, farm your fish, like we do Loch Salmon.  Don't go destroying wild eco-systems.

This rant is at an end.



P.S. Yes I eat meat, but it's FARMED, smart arse, I don't eat wild plains buffalo, I eat animals kept in nicer conditions than some people, whom were bred, raised and put into the food chain for me, they did not destroy any wild infrastructure... (well a bit, but you know what I mean)

Office Life : Air Con

Someone remind me why this company dropped £35,000 on new air-conditioning earlier this year?... When on one of the few days of the year we need the damn thing, it's hotter in here than it was outside yesterday!

Yes, that's 25 Celsius in here... 77 Fahrenheit for those of you still in the 1970's.

This is warmer than Tahiti today, the same as in Cannes and hotter than it is outside (24 by the weather, 22 by my thermometer)...

It utterly sucks in here right now...

Failed Windows versus Linux Rant

I'll be honest, I was coming to write to you all today to give windows another well-deserved roasting.  Unfortunately, I found the same issue in Linux.  Well, when I say issue, perhaps this is my own expecting something more logical from a system.

Lets take a look at the folder I'm talking about:

  

It's any folder you like, within it, I've created a folder called ".example", another without the leading period "example" and then a file which includes the word "example" within it's file name.

When I go to search this directory, with the explorer search bar within the window presented, I expect it to work by using exactly what I type...

So, if I search for "txt", only the "example.txt" file should come up, and it does...

But if I search for "example", I'm getting three results, as they contain the word, therefore I aim to be more specific and search for ".example"... The result of this last search:

Yup, I still get all three results.  Clearly only one item matches ".example", and this annoys me.

And I jumped to Linux to take screen shots of this not working this way, but I found ls does work this way too... To be more specific I had to use "find":

This annoys me, I want the search to be specific, unless I add wildcards like "?" or "*" then I want what I type to be what it searches for, and if they have to put dumbed down searches in there, make it obvious that what you're getting is not an exact match.

The reason?... Imagine you have 300,000 files and you select 2,49 of then based on an exact filename search, and you give it a cursory glance, assume it to be correct, select all and delete?!?!?!

Yes, you end up deleting a load of stuff you didn't intend.

And I know, I know, I assumed what it was doing, and I know assumption is the mother of all fuck up, but still....

Even more annoying however, whilst setting up this example on windows, I did find something minor to moan about:

You can't create a folder which starts with a period in Explorer...

But you can with DOS/Command Prompt!

Embrace C++14 Please Mr Developer

Today I've had to spend sometime setting up a Xenserver, to host some virtual machines, the moment I was done, of course the first request I had was for a developer to have a Linux machine running a compiler.

I was quite excited, in a C# & embedded C strong company to hear "C++" as the reply to my query "what language are you going to use?"... However, my excitement quickly evaporated when I asked, "What version of C++ do you need?"... And he replied "There are different versions?"

After I had explained, yes, yes indeed there are... I took a look at his code for him, and pointed out naked pointers:

char *something = new char[28];
memset (something, 0, 28);
delete something;

I quickly explained, as kindly as I could, that this code is not only wrong, but very very old hat, and I introduced him to the standard library:

#include <string>

std::string something;
something.resize(28);
memset(&something[0], 0, something.size());

And his eyes opened a little... He asked what version of C++ is this in???... C++98... and his crest fell again, realising it was very old tech, which he had no idea about.

So I pointed him to C++14 and explained smart pointers as something for him to try out:

#include <memory>
#include <iostream>

namespace Xelous
{
class Test;
using TestPtr = std::shared_ptr<Test>;
class Test
{
public:
void Hello()
{
std::cout << "Hello";
}
};
}

int main (int p_argv, char** p_argc)
{
Xelous::TestPtr instance = std::make_shared<Test>();
instance->Hello();
std::cout << " World";
}

So, once this was done, I left him reading a copy a Tour of C++ by Bjarne, and told him to read all of Scott Meyers books.

This is a sad state of affairs for a programming & technology environment, especially when I know the chap earns more money than me, and as polite as I was I did want to just ask him to get his coat, and I'd slip into his salary grade & comfy company car (a perk I don't get).

Not least because I think the chap whom sent me off to speak to this fellow treats me a little more like a trained monkey, and they've themselves no idea about virtualisation, servers or development, beyond say using Turbo C++ from the command line in DOS 6.22... And unfortunately, things have moved on a lot since them...

Anyway, this leads me to tomorrows post, which I'm drafting, I set this C++ developer on the path to C++14, and installed him a Ubuntu 14.04 virtual machine on my little server... He was amazed, until he wondered over to me and pointed out that he had to manually add -std=c_++14 to the build options, and that sometimes the code-completion crapped out on him... Seems older Codeblocks instances fall on their face, and the default version of gcc/g++ on Ubuntu is 4.8.x and we need 5.x for C++14.  The next post will cover going through setting this up from the command-line.

Road Rage #1

To the woman driving the Black Audi TT out of the QMC, down Leen Gate, Nottingham at around 9:55 today... You're very lucky I don't have a dash cam, you're very lucky we met in traffic outside my place of employment and there is a decorum mandate for staff, you are very very lucky indeed, because I really felt like driving into you, dragging you out of your car by the roots of your silly greying blond scag wig and smashing your face in.

Lets, analyse why everyone, I turned into Leen gate following an RLMS lorry, as I work here I know RLMS would be pulling up on the left of the road soon enough, so waited behind it, a van passed, a car and then I peeked out, a red car was pulled up on the right of the road, way up level with the Bellfruit factory gates, and the road was then clear, so I pull out around the now parked lorry.

A black Audi TT appears at the hospital end of this row... It passed the Bellfruit factory gates, passed the pulled over red car, and as I'm now level with the rear of the RLMS lorry, this Audio is approaching the lorry itself.  It's no where near the lorry, there's a dozen meters between where the Audi is and where I am by this point,

I am mid manoeuvre around a parked vehicle,  I am already across the median and moving (checks highway code) yes, so the other car did not have right of way, I've already waited for other vehicles, so it is approaching a moving car, and should be aware of me, should give way, I'm already out into the movement, but the Audi is bearing down on me, "here we go" I think, it's a car make and type which seems to empower dick heads to drive like idiots, so I figure this is another... and as it's getting closer and closer I can see it's bonnet is not dipping, the Audi is not braking... and I could see the woman driving by now, see her demographic, and yes, she's a fucking hooray henry, a "I'm driving here" type, and I bet she's the type who can never be wrong, who can never be told, and thinks she's made it in life because she's been so forthright, I can see her now...

I'm now trying to turn left sharply to get back in front of the parked lorry, so I'm over steering to get in and out of her path of potential destruction, without slowing down she comes past me and pulled a face at me!

This stupid, pig eyed, wig clad pig of a woman pulls a face at me!

For her idiotic, in correct, highway code violating drive!

I really, honestly, felt true anger boil, I wanted to chase her down and break her false teeth all over her steering wheel, I wanted to chase around and smash into her, to drag her pathetic limp corpse down the road from my bumper, like some macabre bonnet trophy.

But, of course, this is reality and one can't do that, one can't even joke about it I guess (though I just have), so in stead I wish I had a dash cam, though in this case I'd need 360 degree coverage, and I'd have taken her plate, taken the stupid face she pulled and I'd have blown then up and pasted them all over the internet.

See how her employer, or employees, liked to see that; see how her Insurer would like to know how crap a driver she really is.  For my part, I'm fuming, but I'm done, madam you had the upper hand, driving around today you are anonymous, you can get away with being a dangerous idiot like this, you and your ilk driving like idiots however you've had your day, and once technology in cars to monitor and report such flagrant obtuse abusive and idiotic driving as yours is available, the better!

Working with Taiwan Twinglish Embedded Development Kits

You know sometimes, I wish people would just write a manual.  I've just come across a chap who wants to sell a development kit to the company I work for, he's in Taiwan and very excited, he knows all about his kit, and he's been on the phone bulling it up for the boss.

He has ticked all the boxes with the boss, and they've gone a head and ordered the extortionately priced item, and it's arrived on my desk.

I took one look, and asked "Where's the manual", there isn't one.  Because this is a development kit... Right, what power does it take.. No-one knows, the only way to tell has been to look at the chips and see what the lowest possible power feed should be to the lowest value chip.

Which prong was the negative?... Only could tell that by tracing - by eye - back from an obvious earth plane and a couple of large caps and checking that the line was the negative rail.

This level of just basic documentation, being lacking, immediately makes me worry about the whole bundle.

They're trying to sell this, but I think they're actually trying to get a native English speaker - i.e. me - to write their manual for them.

Next thing, how do I build software to run on this kit?... They don't know... Seriously, this is what the chap has said to me, "It in C, write in C"... okay, what compiler you got?... "We no got compiler"...

So I have to go to the chip vendor and ask for their compiler?... These people throwing this kit together don't have a compiler?  And don't have any recommendation of which compiler to use?....

Luckily I can look at the board and see the processor, so I know what architecture I'm going to target, but I was about to ask "What's the architecture", and I'm pretty sure he'd not know.

How to get the software as built onto the kit, also seems a mystery, there's no obvious portable slot, no ethernet, no USB, no serial... I can't believe I have to burn EEPROM's and plug them in... In this day and age, I've been told "Firmware take your software in, firmware do it"... but not been told how.

I swear, I could pull the last shreds of my hair out with this, not least because I have to appraise this for use by our whole UK arm before this guy jumps on a pre-booked plane ticket from Taiwan over to here.... Gah

WoT - Cockbites - Pushers

I am continuing my TD kicker, and I've been doing well, 5 wins in a Row just now... That was until I ran into this prick... "xuxinha" in his Type T-34... now this prick came and parked his arse in front of me, but was worst than useless sat whilst there, shots on two targets never took them... and then when I moved to get the shot he pushed me off a cliff...

And called me noob... So lets have a look at his comparison with me?...

http://www.noobmeter.com/compareplayers/eu/all/xuxinha/xelous

And this waste of skin had the balls to call me a noob... Here's the footage in all its gruesome detail... And yes, I shot the useless retard on my way down... But have to laugh as two of his point blank shots bounce... What a douche he is.

Why?

You know those times when you have to stand back and think why?  Well, I've got one of those going off with the whole world today...

The car park here at the office, is subject to the whole Nottingham City parking tarrif, so we have to pay to park at work, and if there are stray cars in there the company gets fined, so the public are not welcome.  This is a problem as we're basically right across the street from a public municipal building which has sadly lacking parking arrangements at the moment.  So we're getting all the waifs and strays in our car park.  This morning there was one chap blocking the road, and he was adament I wanted to go into a completely other car park than the one he was blocking... "No I want to go in that one, thank you"... The stream of expletives this fuck-tard threw at me, because he had to move.  Why?

Our next door neighbour is having new windows put in... She never opens the windows, never opens the curtains, never cleans the house, never uses the windows... so why replace them?... Why?

We're selling our house, we've had several offers all for far too little... one lass sent the message "We've watched all the property programmes, we know to make a cheeky offer"... "Cheeky yes, but 15% off the asking price... WHY?"

WHY WHY WHY... that's all I've been asking myself today... and I have a feeling its going to continue.


Addendum... It continued... Why?

Backwards Play Lists - A YouTube Annoyance

Today I have mostly been doing COM work in the office - yes COM - I hate COM... but enough of that, in my personal time I've also been doing some 2D OpenGL, not sprites either, I've been using real quads to do things, blending them and playing about, I'm thinking about little scrolling game ideas to put my 2D graphics to the test.

I've also come here to rant a touch, because I'm so so sick of people on youtube - and there are dozens of them who do this - not looking at their content, these are people with sometimes swish content, cool intro's, 1000+ views per video - which is good going... but then they do the little things wrong, things like.... They have a play list, and the list is backwards!

What do I mean "Backwards"?... Well lets say its a series of uploads, and they're numbered "Episode 1", then "Episode 2", it'd be freaking nice if they bothered to add them into the play list in that order... I know its probably a real fiddle to remove all the videos from the play list and then re-add them all again, because the YouTube folks don't seem to have spotted this problem themselves.

But to us the viewer, where content is king, having to stop move to the player and click back down the list to find the "next" to play is a fucking ball ache.

Insulting Bastards in World of Tanks

Just thought I'd post this, as it pissed me off, the other night I was playing this very map on World of Tanks, my first ever time on the map so I did on it what I had seen Quickie Baby do, I took to the hill and passage on the left.

In my Stug, I was fast and got there and tried to block the passage, but the M4A3 got me in the side, tracked - in a stug - I was eaten alive.

But, as far as I can see it was the right place to be, I see successful moves always lead through there for the northern forces... 

The trouble was, I was alone, not 100% sure and killed fast trying it... And then - and this is why I come to post - I had an utter and total wanker calling me names in the game.

Guess what you fucking cunt, Quicky Baby does the same shit as I did and it worked for him, because unlike me, he has a decent team with him... I just had you sitting there in the spawn calling names rather than playing, all you did was criticise others and sit farming defence points by tapping enemy coming to cap.  Wanker.