Q: What’s the fastest way to run a project into the ground?
A: Ask the team how long it'll take, then give them a shorter amount of time to complete it.
Recursive Failure
Once upon a time, I worked on a project that had the stink of death about it. It was old code, had dozens of hacks scattered throughout, known bugs…
Hi,
Just some background for context:
My partner and I got Revolut cards to come to the US last week. We'd both tried to use the cards online to verify they'd work (to pay for the ESTA fees) and all seemed to be well.
At the airport, I tried to use the card to pay for food and it failed due to an incorrect PIN. My…
Dear Software Development Managers,
I've been lucky enough to work with a fair few development teams over the years, both here and in Canada (you'd have to ask them if that feeling is reciprocated). As well as getting involved with some good projects and taking part in a multitude of technical discussions, I've also…
I'm pretty lucky (from what I hear) in that our company operates a flexi-time system. I used to work strict 9:00-5:30 years ago but it never real fit well with software development. It’s not often that you’ll get to the end of a task bang on finishing time so you find yourself either working late (not good for you),…
Over the past few months, I’ve been helping out with recruitment for one of our offices by putting together a coding test and then marking the results. It’s been eye-opening. Also part soul destroying and tear inducing. At one point I stopped to look for the hidden camera, expecting a ghostly Jeremy Beadle to appear…
And the winner of this week’s most horrifying code goes to this snippet:
Dictionary<string, Dictionary<GeoDirection, Dictionary<bool, List<Route>>>> routes = new Dictionary<string, Dictionary<GeoDirection, Dictionary<bool, List<Route>>>>();
Generic, eh.
When you're tasked to make changes to a legacy 3000+ line JavaScript file, seeing this at the start doesn't inspire confidence:
// ErrorMessage
this._EventLocationControl_JS_NoClientDataHolder_ErrorMessage =
…
Today’s code discovery:
_user = userRepository.GetUserByEmail(UserName);
Genius.
So, here’s the process as I go:
Pre-Launch
Back up stuff I don't want to lose on my phone (photos, call records etc.)
Take screenshots of all data connection info and home screen layout.
Charge phone completely.
Update Time
Launch Kies. It crashes.
Launch Kies.
It tells me a new version is available and asks me if…
I wonder if the person who wrote this had any idea of how much trouble it'd eventually cause?
catch (Exception ex)
{
// TODO: log?
}
Some handy pointers for those new to the game.
Reaching the bus driver is not the time to start thinking about where your ticket or money is. You should be ready by the time you get to the front of the queue.
If it’s not your stop but you find yourself on your feet and moving seats, you're doing something…
So, I finally got the Facebook mobile app update that forces a list of "top stories" to the top of the update list without any option to disable it.
At the moment, mine shows a mixture of 23 items: 23 jumbled status updates from Monday to just now. If I just want to read what’s been posted recently, I need to scroll…
So, while my wife was away for the week, I took the opportunity to move one of our couches to about 7ft away from the TV and set the surround sound speakers up all around it.
It was magical. Blu-ray films crisp, sound everywhere. The first couple of films had me reaching for the remote to kill the sound a couple of…
So, for the past umpteen months, I've been planning to sit some sort of Microsoft accreditation. When I first looked at it it was the *new* .NET 3.5 web stuff and we started working on it as a group at work, getting together every Friday. That lasted about 2 months before we got out of sync and got pulled away working…
Welcome to O2 live chat. Someone will start chatting with you soon.
You're through to Jay.
Jay: Hi there. My name’s Jay I am an O2 sales advisor, how may I help you today?
You: Hi, I was just wondering if the data bundles for smartphones include the hotspots in various shops etc.? I think this used to be the case a…
Sometimes playing Master League Online on PES2011 is a fun experience. Pitting your skill against other human beings can be satisfying in a way that running rings around a computer opponent’s defence just doesn't match.
This is the experience about 20% of the time.
Other times you have issues with lag. And, when…
Not that you should notice, but I decided to move my site’s code to ASP.net MVC 3 with Razor. Initial impressions are that it’s far easier to work with than the webforms view engine although the lack of automatically resolving objects' namespaces is a little annoying.
There’s no change that should be visible (apart…
So, I just got a call from "Dell Customer Services" to let me know they were getting notifications of lots of viruses on my system. "OH MY GOD!" I thought to myself, "What can I do?".
Luckily, my helpful advisor was at hand to offer me a solution to this devastating turn of events.
First he directed me to right-click…
Hi,
I'm emailing as suggested to provide feedback on the customer service I received when I called in last week (Friday 9th April).
The issue I had was that a laptop I had ordered was delivered DOA (I was unable to power up or charge the laptop).
I went through some technical tests with the advisor (Priyanka) and she…
So, after having the DVD box set of Star Wars since it came out but not yet watched the special features stuff (as I was avoiding anything that might be to do with EpIII) I finally planked myself down to watch Empire of Dreams.
Everything was going swimmingly until the 67th minute when the DVD ‘sticks'. So, I tried…