Archive for category Ranting & Ravings
Formats
Posted by Andrew Flanagan in Geekiness, Ranting & Ravings on January 8, 2009
I’ve been hitting this wall a lot recently. Just think about writing a document… Let’s start with a simple document — I just need section headers and simple wrapped paragraphs of text. No images, no tables, nothing complicated. I can do this in any simple text editor (Notepad, TextMate, SciTE, whatever). This works great at first. I can keep some notes in this format easily enough. It’s easy to use — nothing special to fiddle with.
Then something changes and I need some “special” formatting. Maybe some graphics, tables, more focus on things like margins, etc. We have a million options now. Convert it to Word? To Pages? (that’s Apple’s word processor for those unfamiliar) How about simply converting to HTML? I despise Word documents (especially because of the oddities associated with their formatting). Pages is nicer in a way (it doesn’t get in your way while you’re writing documents) but has many of the same problems. HTML is too loosely defined to display the same universally (on Firefox it will look great but something will inevitably go wrong on Safari/IE).
In the last couple years, I’ve started to use simple, consistent markup languages like WikiText, reStructuredText, etc. These have mostly been implemented on Wiki sites (like MediaWiki) but in theory, you could write a local application that used the same notation. These intermediate markup languages provide things like header formatting, table layouts, graphic alignment, etc. but don’t tend to focus on the “page” related details like margins, headers/footers on printed output, and other details. They translate the result into a fairly rigorously tested standards-oriented HTML. This works fine for anything I don’t intend to print into a glossy handout. Notes to myself, development and design comments, and many other daily working documents work well here.
But then, after several weeks of tweaking a design doc, the PHB decides that he wants to see a copy of my design. He wants it printed. Printing the wiki-based version and handing it to him results in the comment “this isn’t using standard headers/footers on each page is it?” So now I’m stuck. I paste the output into Word and spend far too long formatting it for his consumption. He marks up the Word copy and I had to merge my changes back into the wiki.
What a pain.
At work, I’m mostly stuck with Microsoft tools so I tend to use Word if I have to use anything complex. However, elsewhere I typically take an additional step: converting my Word/Pages output to Adobe PDF. It’s sort of the universal printable format and it works for most things.
Wiki’s have definitely answered my need for most documents. The only link that’s missing is how to enable Wiki’s and other screen-displayed documents to be able to be easily converted to printable documents (with header/footers, page numbers, etc.). Ideally, there could be some meta-tags that did this sort of thing. The problem currently is that while a slightly varied HTML rendering is acceptable when viewing on a screen, the printable layout MUST conform to a strict standard. Maybe someone will (or already has) put together a plugin or something that will let this happen easily. I eagerly await the day…
Update: I will mention here that under the leading of a certain Coder, I was able to help build at least a partial tool that did this exact thing for my last position. It parsed MediaWiki content and converted to Word format. This was nice but it was a little limited. I’d like to see a more generic solution in place — especially one that would allow output from the browser without having to have Word at all.
George Orwell on Writing
Posted by Andrew Flanagan in Ranting & Ravings, Somewhat Random on November 28, 2008
Not that I follow these rules, but I’ve had this excerpt kicking around for a while in my notes and figured I’d post it somewhere I could reflect on it:
- Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
- Never us a long word where a short one will do.
- If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
- Never use the passive where you can use the active.
- Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
- Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.
“These rules sound elementary, and so they are, but they demand a deep change of attitude in anyone who has grown used to writing in the style now fashionable. One could keep all of them and still write bad English, but one could not write the kind of stuff that I quoted in those five specimens at the beginning of this article”*
From George Orwell, “Politics and the English Language”, 1946.
*To see the full context of what he was talking about, you can take a look at the entire essay here.
How I feel at work these days…
Posted by Andrew Flanagan in Ranting & Ravings, Somewhat Random on November 20, 2008
I’ve had a heck of a time staying productive this week. I don’t think that it’s been helping that I’ve been trying to do a lot things on the side. But something about this week felt different. I have clearly defined tasks but I’ve been procrastinating an awful lot more than usual. I tend to have 25 things to do and continually shuffle the top 5 things. I finish them and instead of hitting things farther down the list I substitute the most interesting next 5 things that I can do. So a backlog is typical. My problem is that recently I’ve been feeling guilty about tasks way down in the 20’s and spend a lot of my “free” time trying to focus on that. So instead of knocking out high-priority tasks, I’ve been ineffectively working on low-priority things.
I tend to mix my personal goals, chores, continuing education, and regular work all into the same priority pile. I find it hard to segment it any other way. Unfortunately that means that at the office sometimes I’ll blow time on things that aren’t work related meaning that now I have to work evenings, stay late, take vacation, etc. This would ideal if I was working as a consultant and could make my own hours. I’ve never felt like I needed a boss to motivate me and enjoyed the shorter-term goals of contract work and the variety of experience that they innevitably demand.
Here’s a list of things that I’d like out of work:
- I’d really like to be able to work with companies and individuals that need services that I can offer.
- I’d like to be able to excel in providing these services to the point that my value is clearly seen.
- I’d like my work to offer me the opportunity to be creative — not simply implementing known entities.
- I’d like to be location-agnostic for much of my work (i.e. telecommuting should be an option for 90% of the time).
- I’d like the project sizes to be such that I can cycle to new projects or new clients every 6 months.
As a software engineer, I feel much more like a [traditional brick-and-mortar] architect than a manufacturer or general contractor. What I do should be bigger than simply implementing a known solution — it should be validating, improving, and refining a requirement and then implementing an innovative solution that may be somewhat unexpected. I know that’s a lot of buzz-words, but it seems accurate. I don’t want to help people install Microsoft Word on their computers, I want to help them think about the problems of word processing, document management, collaborative editing, world-wide publishing, and the myriad of associated goals and put whatever solution in place that makes sense for them (hopefully it’s not Microsoft Word).
Anyway, enough angst-filled longing for today.
…Back to the ever-fun-and-exciting C++ experience…
Cell Phones
Posted by Andrew Flanagan in Actual Events, Geekiness, Ranting & Ravings on November 17, 2008
Well my new position has been keeping me busy writing software for Symbian, Nokia’s primary phone operating system. I hate it. It’s fun to learn new stuff and it’s probably a good thing to be learning. But it’s still awful. Documentation is terrible. Developer forums have lousy support. Two unique programming elements: descriptors and the cleanup stack just make life agonizing.
I’ve never appreciated C# so much.
On the bright side, it’s drawn me back into C/C++ coding which I haven’t done in years. That part is fun. It’s funny how many things I take for granted with C#. I’ve even gotten lazier considering some of the wonderful upgrades to C#Â 3.0. For example:
List<string> list = new List<string> { "Susie", "Lucy", "Bobbie" }; |
This makes sense to me. It’s easy and straightforward. It saves [development] time.
At work things have been interesting because I’ve been working with developers firmly set in an embedded mindset. They think in terms of saving bytes. My .NET programs take up 20MB of RAM just in basically displaying a simple window with a few controls. It bugs them.
I don’t know — I see the point of using assembly, C, even the horrible descriptors of Symbian for situations where you are highly concerned with efficiency. However, it does seem that you’re going to be forced to spend more development time (by a huge amount) and the code will almost by necessity be much more difficult to maintain. When there’s no clear single way to convert a descriptor to a char * every developer will do it differently and the code will be more and more complex and incomprehensible. It might run fast, but it’s not flexible.
In the world of mobile development, optimization for speed seems important but if you take 6 months to update your application when new feature sets become available, your product likely isn’t selling.
Along these lines of thought, I’m considering pouring a bit of time into iPhone development. I’ve always shuddered at Objective C but I need to bite the bullet and get into it. My assumption is that I’ll be happy with it since from what I’ve heard it balances maintainable, understandable and easy-to-write code with reasonable performance/stability.
I’ll keep you posted.
Christ Church, Victoria, B.C.
Posted by Andrew Flanagan in Actual Events, Ranting & Ravings on October 10, 2008
We saw this church in Victoria, B.C. and it truly was amazing (and I believe God-centered and glorifying in its design). It’s a pity that churches are often just like business offices or other “ordinary” places. I guess some would disagree but I think that a return to “great” architecture in church buildings is a wonderful thing. The UMC and some other denominations seems to have gone through a period of uglification in their architecture — somehow trying to modernize or reinvent something that wasn’t in need of an update. People in general seem to be less willing to spend the big bucks on churches than on other things like the poor and the needy. I know other issues can’t be ignored, but worshiping God in a place like this seems to really help put things in perspective. Just like the robe, the solemnity of the service, and the order of the liturgy, the architecture seems to be a huge aid in the worship. I’m sure like all things in the Christian life and even those things in worship, it can become an idol but I have a hard time believing it’s wasted money or effort. The Temple was a truly glorious place; a feeble attempt at showing the glory that will be revealed in heaven, but a worthy attempt. As Christians we carry out the creation mandate to bring order out of chaos in the world. A building like this that’s built not to commemorate its long-standing members, nor to enshrine saints, but to stand as a place of worship — a place set apart.
I know it’s far, far away for our small group (and even a large and prosperous church like the above took over 100 years to get where they are), but I look forward to the beginning of such an effort.
Update: Regarding Dave’s comment — I wasn’t very specific about what “like this” I think is good… I think it’s architecture that reflects attributes of God and his nature. So yeah — creative is a good thing but I think that awesome and majestic is important too… Obviously some of these characteristics are a little subjective. I hadn’t really thought of it so much but Dave mentions the re-using and revitalizing of buildings; this seems perfectly to reflect the transformative power of God’s Kingdom. Thanks Dave. 🙂
I’m getting old…
Posted by Andrew Flanagan in Actual Events, Geekiness, Ranting & Ravings on June 13, 2008
Today on the way back from work I stopped at the wonderful oasis of Fry’s. I was kind of stressed out from a long and not terribly rewarding week of work and I figured that for once I’d actually just buy a game.
Well, I ended up with two games! I drove home, slightly faster than usual. After some much-needed mowing in the back and dinner I figured I’d get down to installing them. But wait, the computer I intend to install them on is in pieces after I’d tried swapping some parts around. 45 minutes later it’s all assembled (I had to reattach the motherboard and everything) and booted it up. But wait, I had Ubuntu on these disks, not Vista or XP so I’ve got to install the wonderful Microsoft product before I can start. Vista installs quickly (I was actually sort of impressed. But not that much.) But wait, although the video card is detected and installed, the audio drivers aren’t. A hardware scan doesn’t even see them I power off and pop in a spare sound card that I have lying around. The audio drivers get installed and the game begins. I start with the tutorial. Patrick (who has been very patient this whole time) is interested. He especially likes when the guys I’m controlling open fire on an opposing team. Explosions, gun fire, this is great stuff. We finish up the tutorial and start the first mission. Within 30 seconds the sound card starts crackling and 10 seconds later the sound dies. I check the connectors and then check the software settings. When I try to save the software settings, the game crashes.
So, despite being home by about 7:45pm, it is now 11:45pm and I’ve barely even started playing the game since I’ve been too busy working (again). How depressing.
The worst thing is that the game felt a little confusing and difficult (I’m sure it’s not — it’s just me getting old). I’m pretty sure that Patrick understood it. If I’d let him, I’m sure he’d be on there for the rest of night.
Or maybe the worst part is that I just spent the last 10 minutes writing this blog entry. So much for crazy wild 7+ hour gaming sessions. I’m lucky if I can clean out my inbox.
I’m exhausted. Time for bed.
Personal Blogging
Posted by CoderGuy in Actual Events, Ranting & Ravings, Somewhat Random on May 28, 2008
Whole Disk Encryption Insecure
Posted by Andrew Flanagan in Actual Events, Geekiness, Ranting & Ravings on February 21, 2008
Hmm… well this is kind of a blow for the security departments that have been relying on this. My “work” (notice the parentheses) laptop has whole disk encryption and it’s terrible. For some reason it usually (like 4 out of 5 times) does not ask me for my password anymore (and it really does seem random) and it takes noticeably longer to do anything on the machine (which is why I barely use it and didn’t even take it with me this trip). Now it’s revealed that it apparently doesn’t even really protect anything!
So much for “corporate security”.
Multi-Function Printers that Work
Posted by Andrew Flanagan in Geekiness, Ranting & Ravings on February 10, 2008
I’ve been looking for a multi-function (print, scan, copy, fax) printer for the last few months. I’ve been really disappointed with what I’ve found.
What I want to be able to do is the following:
- Print documents from any modern operating system across the network
- Scan documents/pictures from an auto-document feeder or a flatbed and in some way have this data end up on whatever system on the network I want
- Copy documents/pictures by standing at the printer unit itself
- Receive faxes and send faxes from anywhere on the network
I know that there are problems with some of these — specifically Scanning and Faxing. I see multiple issues with these:
- Storage (where does the scanned or faxed document get stored physically?)
- Notification (even if a fax is stored, how does a user know when it arrives?)
- Configuration (the above should ideally be accomplished without configuring anything on the end-systems)
I see a solution but I’ve not found a sub $1000 printer that accomplishes it. Some of the high-end “counter-top”-sized systems (that run $10,000 and above) have something similar but are usually way overblown.
- Storage would be provided by flash memory (something as simple as 1-16GB Compact Flash card).
- Sharing of this storage would be accomplished by using a Samba server running on an embedded Linux kernel (similar to the sort of functionality that currently exists on home routers).
- Samba shares would be exposed to Linux, Mac, and Windows systems by using something like Avahi (or whatever the Linux version of ZeroConf is that works best at the time). Bonjour could be used on the client end if you’re running Apple to easily see these auto-configured shares but it would have to be installed specially on Windows clients.
- Notification could be accomplished via email. If a simple SMTP setup is configured once on the printer unit itself, it could automatically route emails to a specific user, multiple users, or different groups depending on the fax number used or other variables. There are many other alternatives using things like the XMPP or even SMS for notification.
- Configuration — as mentioned this would work like magic on a Mac and slightly less magically (and unfortunately much less beautifully) on a Windows PC. Any system on the network could access recently scanned or faxed documents or perhaps be only restricted by a username/password (heck — even tie it into an LDAP server if you’ve get centralized directory services). Basically, this largely gets rid of the need for client software other than just the printer driver itself. In reality, I’m not clear why we even need a specialized print driver when a web interface (again, hosted on the device) could likely provide any custom features (software-based maintenance, looking at the queue, etc.)
So why isn’t it out there?
An Essay on essaying
Posted by Andrew Flanagan in Actual Events, Ranting & Ravings, Somewhat Random on January 30, 2008
There’s always so much to do. Every task that is completed falls into the category of “repeating event” that will simply have to be performed again as entropy sets in (cleaning, cooking, personal hygiene — such as it is, etc.) or “nice try” which was simply an imperfect and increasingly simplistic appearing attempt at a solution. To some extent you’re stuck with the repeating events and must simply hurry and do them well enough to at least stay in place like the Red Queen in Alice Through the Looking Glass. For everything else, there’s a sense of struggle to churn out something that’s really superior. You want the best and you constantly strive for it. But you make imperfect relationships, imperfect software applications, imperfect decisions. As time goes by you can review (if you’re depressed) the imperfections that trail behind you. The farther away ones are usually laughable, considering that at one time that was your best shot. The closer ones still seem reasonable but somewhat lacking. But of course as time goes by and they recede into the past as well you’ll start to chuckle at them too.
So are things really getting better? Is the stress of “getting better” actually creating better results? The problem seems to be that the perception of your abilities on a continuum slides backwards at the same rate at which progress occurs. The more you learn and grow and “better yourself” the more you realize that you had previously overrated your knowledge, experience, and skills.
I don’t think this means that we shouldn’t try. But we should try to keep in mind that perfection is unattainable (here on Terra Firma at least) and if we’re humbled by looking at our mistakes from 1 or 5 or 10 years ago, then consider that 1 or 5 or 10 years from now we’ll likely be just as humbled looking back to what we’re doing or thinking or speaking (or writing in a blog) right now.
I know this isn’t much of an “essay” but it made for a cutesy title. I’m sure I’ll think better of the idea later.
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