fuzzylizard

fusion94.org has an article on fixing a Firefox memory leak. This is done through the about:config page and involves setting a maximum for the amount of memory that can be used.

Aquafold has released version 4.5 of Aqua Data Studio. This is a good solid application for accessing multiple databases. Here is the run down on the new features:

• Database Script Generator for full database scripting, including schema DDL and data DML.
• Entity Relationship Diagram Generator to reverse engineer and layout, visual representations of databases.
• Procedure Editors to easily editing, compiling and running stored procedures.
• Visual Explain Whiteboard and Explain Plan enhancements for tunning and comparing explain plans.
• Enhanced Query Analyzer, Import Tool and Export Tool.

The ServerSide.com also has an article about the new release. This is where most of the above comes from.

I think I could probably blog about something from Kathy Seirra 365 days a year. The amount of good ideas and excellent content coming out of this one lady is incredible. And once again, she has another article on her site that bears mentioning. In this one, she is talking about how to Blow your own mind.

By this she means trying new things. New things can be little things like changing the bulb in your office lamp to a red one or moving the location of where you store paper clips to big things like going on an adventure vacation instead of to the cottage. The main point behind this is that in order for us to exercise our brains, we need to do things that blow away our brains. That makes our brain break out of its routine and force it to re-examine the world from a different perspective.

I like this. One example that she gives is turning photographs upside down. When I was in photograpnhy school this was a trick that we did all the time. It forces the brain to disassociate the graphical elements in the photo from what the photo is representing. Instead of seeing an office building, you are suddenly able to see the lamp post and the hydro lines that your brain removed when you first created the image.

Now to go move those paper clips.

This is a really boring post, but I really like this product. If you are not doing continuous integration and automated builds at your shop, then get with it.

CruiseControl is an incredibly easy way to add confidence to your build process. And in the end, that is what these tools offer. They are not a way to complicate things or to supervise your developers, but they are way to introduce a level of confidence into your development process. If you run CruiseControl every hour, or every time someone does a commit to CVS, then you have the confidence that something is watching the build. If something breaks, you know about it immediately and you only have a little bit of time and changes to go through to fix the problem. Without something like CruiseControl, when something goes wrong, how do you even know where to start looking?

Anyway, the point of this entry is to say that CruiseControl 2.3 was released today. So go check it out.

I found this article on digg.com that discusses Why Good Programmers Are Lazy and Dumb. The article has a lot of really good points in it. I think the main thing that I took away from it was that good programmers are those programmers who constantly realize that they don’t know what they are doing. Or, stated another way, good programmers are people who are not afraid to ask dumb questions and show that they do not have all the answers.

In addition, the author states that once you become a smart programmer you stop learning and stop being critical of the code that you write. This is probably true. However, I think the words used in this article are a little backwards. I understand what the author is saying, but I think it is too easy to get caught up in his use of “dumb” and “smart”. You really need to read these words in context. Perhaps better words could be “smart” and “vain” or “conceated” or even “comfortable”, I am not sure.

Bottom line is that this is an interesting article that should be read with an open mind.

How many people should be on a team for a first release? Well, the guys over at 37signals have posted the answer in a blog article entitled Three people for version 1. I find myself agreeing with their analysis. I am not sure that 3 is necessarily the magic number, but I definitely agree that a small team is much better than a large one.

At work, we are trying to do the first construction iteration of some software with a distributed team of about 20 developers, several team leads, a project manager, a database modeler, a DBA, an Oracle developer, and a few requirements people. You can image how quickly this project is being developed. We are already a week late on our first milestone and it looks like it will be another week before we reach it. Is this because we have too many people on the team, definitely. It is also because we do not have the right people on our team.

If you can’t build your version 1 with three people, then 1. you need different people, or 2. you need to slim down your version 1….But keep it in mind: three for version 1. Remember, it’s better to make version 1 half a product than a half-assed product. Three people will keep you closer to half a product and a cleaner, tighter, simpler base on which you can grow later

I definitely agree with these statements. Part of the problem at work is that we do not have the right people and we are trying to do to much. As such, we are failing on both points and the final product is going to suffer for it.

If you follow the link above to the article make sure you read through the comments as well because they help to reinforce the point that a small team will succeed where a large team will fail.

This is a cool idea!

Kathy Sierra, one of the inspirations (and authors) behind the Head First series of books posted an article on her blog entitled Build something cool in 24 hours. The whole idea is that you get a group of people—developers, artists, musicians, etc—together for a set period of time and have them produce something.

The key is the process–a process that forces you to supress the “inner judges” that stifle creativity, and gives you not just permission but an order to create as much as possible, as fast as possible… even if what you end up with is 97% crap.

I have been in an environment similar to this when I was in photography school. There we had a small group of students (20 in my final year) that all worked in this little area. This meant that we had to share studios, darkrooms, and computers. However, this sharing and the small space resulted in an incredibly creative environment. Everyone is creating, everyone is challenging each to produce the best artwork that they can and it forces everyone to produce—both the competition and the energy. It is something that I have always missed since leaving school.

I think, once I am back at school, that this is something I am going to try for a few of my assignments (well, at least the group assignments). I will get my group together well before the deadline and we will see what we can produce in 24 hours.