http://blog.sixlambda.com Thinking in Software Fri, 06 Nov 2009 01:21:30 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I have found that, for better or worse, those companies that are not headed by technical people themselves tend to think of programmers as cogs - maybe some are better than others, maybe some are more expensive, but at the end of the day, a programmer is a programmer is ... http://blog.sixlambda.com/?p=21 Okay, here's the scenario - your boss has a new project for you: A Web 2.0 Social Media Ajax Web Application for Managing Baby Pictures. So, as everyone starts writing out requirements and figuring out advertising deals with Gerber, it's your job to decide what technologies you are ... http://blog.sixlambda.com/?p=7 Today I'll highlight one of my favorite anti-patterns - "Forgot my keys" (aka "Storyteller" or "Grandpa Simpson code") in Pseudo-code: load variables; start loop     did I remember to load my variables? I better load them again.     oh yeah, I need to reset the counter first     output string     output other string     load more variables     ... http://blog.sixlambda.com/?p=6 At some point, every programmer has to dive into another programmer's code, and ends up wondering what the hell the previous guy was thinking. "Why did he do this? It could've been so much simpler, if he wasn't an idiot..." Idiocy aside, there are often good reasons why small, ... http://blog.sixlambda.com/?p=4