Graham Glass, etc.

Coding, Military Style

I've always thought that a good piece of software should be a work of art, ideally with the kind of sparse elegance associated with products like the iPod. Because I've reviewed a lot of code, I can tell you that beautifully written code is rare. Aside from the deep thought that must go into a good design, I firmly believe in rigorous coding standards. When this is properly enforced, every piece of code you view looks as if I was written by the same person. Thanks to improvements in Integrated Development Environments, achieving this is becoming progressively easier through the use of editor templates. In the past, it was achieved only by encouraging a strong sense of discipline in every developer on the team. Interesting enough, one of my friends Bill Eisenhauer recently posted this entry in which he remembers working with me and found that this approach was infectious. On reflection, I think that rigorous coding standards has a more fundamental effect which is to instill a military-like sense of discipline and order in the team. I have had nothing but good experiences from mandating this practice, and encourage it without hesitation.

Kitty Kat Kafe

In Manhattan, you can now take your cat to the "meow mix cafe", which caters exclusively to our feline friends. In the following video, owners are seen carrying their furry friends into the cafe to enjoy "filet meow" and other purr-licious dishes. I believe that the Roman empire experienced this level of decadence just before its downfall.

Olympic Walking: Bizarre?

Is it just me, or is Olypmic Walking just plain bizarre? I'm watching the women's 20K walk on TV right now, and it looks so artificial. The main rule of walking is that you must keep both feet on the ground at all times, so the walkers waddle as fast as they can without actually running. Competitors in other events seem so fluid and uninhibited. Maybe there is a way to justify this sport, but as a spectator it just seems weird.

Comfy Couch Academy

Here's another story about the rise of home schooling, which in this article is refered to as the "Comfy Couch Academy".

I Like Lik

I was recently in Cairns, Australia, and happened upon an art gallery of photos by a guy called Peter Lik. The photos, large and framed, made an immediate impact on me, especially the ones that looked like alien landscapes. I ended up purchasing two of them, both in fact shot in Arizona desert.

Antelope Canyon:

Shadowland:

They should look fantastic when hung on large, stark white walls.

Which OS are you?

When you fill in this fun questionnaire, it lets you know what kind of operating system you are. When I filled in the forms, here's what it told me:

Couldn't agree more!

Developer Sleeping Habits

When I entered college, I started to go to sleep later than usual, and this trend peaked a few years ago when I was working on Glue for The Mind Electric. At that time, I went to bed at 6 am, woke at noon, worked on design and code through the afternoon, evening and night until the birds started chirping which meant that 6am had come around again. It was an awesomely productive time that is often required for a startup but unfortunately very hard on romantic relationships. When I polled a developer team at webMethods, most of them prefered to wake up late in the morning and work into the night, just like me. My theory is that when a developer works on code and "enters the zone", it creates such a powerful rush that only mental exhaustion is enough to permit sleep. Since a healthy human can survive on 4-6 hours a night for months on end, a developer in the zone will tend to work into the night, where there are few interruptions, and then crash when fatigue sets in. After 4-6 hours have passed, the cycle is repeated. I'd love to see a broad survey of waking hours to see what percentage of the population fall into the "Night Owl" category.

Chick Lit

I read a lot; right now, I've got 5 books going at the same time. For some bizarre reason, I've been reading a fair amount of what is called "chick lit", which is generally light reading about champagne-swilling high society women and how they spend their days. Two examples of this are Here Kitty Kitty and Bling. I don't wish that I knew women like the stars of these novels, but it sure makes for interesting reading!

Dallas, Texas, Part 2

One of my friends sent me a link to another great example of inexpensive Dallas real estate. This one is around $800K. When I visit Dallas this weekend, I'm going to check out some of these properties and drool.

The Art of Start

The web site Change This is a clearinghouse for manifestos. One guy, Guy Kawasaki, just published a manifesto called The Art of Start which describes five key elements of starting a business. Based on my own experience, they're pretty accurate. The most important thing, by far, is to do something you're passionate about. Starting a business usually involves long hours, low pay, financial risk, and plenty of stress. Without passion, the trade-offs are hard to bear.