Archive for the tag 'eureka'

Designed to be thrown!

amit March 15th, 2006

When radical change is part of the plan, “Use and Throw” is an effective policy. Agility and adaptability afforded by such policy are not only defensive traits in the face of a rapidly changing environment, but can easily be harnessed to gain significant competitive advantage. “Use and throw”, might precipitate the idea of waste, but on the contrary, software designed with such an objective would minimize exactly that - waste.

More times than not we tend to over estimate the useful life of software, consequently investing more than we really should, and ending up doing a trapeze act; trying to balance between taking advantage of technological advances, improved processes etc and hoping for a decent return on our investments. This is how “legacy systems” are born. The infrastructure that was supposed to liberate us, binds us. We can talk about being scrupulous in our investments and light weight in our designs to ad nauseam, but nothing drives the point more forcefully and eloquently than the simple concept of “Use and Throw”. It is with this conviction that I would like to explore few idioms to built software so cheaply that it is designed to be thrown.

  • Use generic components and resist the urge to ‘personalize’; Googled an open source component, or a third party inexpensive toolkit, plug it in - use it as is. Innovate (read work around) beyond its shortcomings. Remember we can’t spend months building something that will last weeks. Make it work - now.
  • Move to high level languages; use Python, BPL or workflows whatever. Get more done with fewer lines of code. However be cautious of vendors who advertise few lines of code at the top but require esoteric libraries at the bottom, run far from .dll’s and .so’s, understand your underlying infrastructure. Finally for God’s sake, please don’t compile.
  • Try and use time tested, widely deployed or easily available resources. Shun the “latest and greatest”, you can do without it. It is my contention that if similar application and energy devoted to learn the latest advances is applied to make do with what’s standard, better software would be produced faster. Think about building on top of the file system, http, html etc. Try to be platform agnostic, but if you can develop quicker for a specific platform by all means do so.
  • Don’t generalize, remember this is going to be thrown - simply try to solve the problem at hand. You don’t need a configuration file. Hard code, it’s not always a bad practice. And if you are thinking interfaces, or three tier class hierarchies be reminded - the fact that a refrigerator and a dryer are both Object is of no use at all. You cannot chill your beer in the dryer.
  • Strive for transparency; this is another reason to shun compilation. Let your users see the code, if need be, a bug fix could be as simple as asking your user to edit a simple text file. Alright if you have to be fancy you can mail it to them. The same goes for configuration, if you absolutely need configuration - put it in code. This is a popular scripting idiom, users can change config.py just as easily as they can change config.xml. Here is an example config.py. 
    config = {}
config['LANG'] = 'ENG' // options GER, FRN or SPA
config['TEL_NO_FORMAT'] = 'xxx-xxx-xxxx'
config['ERROR_CHECK'] = 'YES' // option NO
config['DEBUG'] = 'FALSE' // option TRUE
  • What is the most effective and also the most popular form of code reuse? Ctrl-c Ctrl-v, use it, it works all the time.

The only thing predictable about the future - is that it is unpredictable. Change not only takes place, unfortunately it takes place at an ever increasing pace. In my view the era for “Use and Throw” software is here, and sooner we start thinking about it the better. Of course not all software is “Use and Throw”, but a lot of it can and should be. Besides which problem would you rather face?

(a) How to extend the life of an application that was built cheap, designed to be thrown?
(b) How to make use of this enterprise software (read, worth thousands) designed to exchange data with a supplier you don’t like?

I guess you could always wear deodorant if your supplier stank.

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Dealing with Mr. Tima

amit October 10th, 2005

It is dark, gloomy and raining. I have nowhere to go, no one to meet, absolutely nothing to do. It’s the perfect weekend afternoon. It’s time to indulge, search for the path of greed and riches, comprehend the essence of capatalistic America. It brings joy to my heart and a smile to my face.

My quest – a get rich scheme; an easy way into the bulging pockets of the average American consumer. Initially my mind is clouded with strange ideas maybe I should travel, interact with diverse people, get a different perspective, hone my skills with a degree in management. Then I focus. First, I don’t want to destroy my pleasant afternoon with thoughts of activity, and second, its the twenty first century, quest means search and search means Google. Simple.

Google has never disappointed me, not only can I find anything, I can prove anything. It’s right there on The Internet. Sure enough within minutes I find this poll on The Internet.
What does an average American household spend more on?
a) Grocery
b) Gadgets
c) Pets
d) Traveling
This brings a knowing smile to my face. It has to be gadget’s and me being an engineer, it clearly sums up to millions in my bank. This is where things start heading south. I pick the obvious and check the results - 85% for (c). What the hell! “Pets! dogs, cats and monkeys - these stupid, callous Americans how can they ignore all the suffering in the world and spend their money on monkeys. Glad am not one of them.” Then to make matters worse, that dastardly Mr. Tima shows up. I just hate the guts of the guy.

Mr. Tima : “Aha! so the Americans do live up to their reputation, spending more on pets than even on traveling. One would think that seeing the world would help them be more cosmopolitan and understanding of world affairs.”

Me: A bit circumspect, one can simply not trust Mr. Tima even when he appears to be on your side. “Yeah! even if they don’t want gadgets they could at least spend on traveling. But No! that would make them realize how fortunate they are, and how insensitive they can be to those who have nothing. They would rather waste their money on a monkey.”

Mr. Tima: “Yup! if only someone would educate them of all the charitable and humanitarian aspects of spending money on jumping off planes, eating in restaurants even though you hate the food - just to avoid cooking, or to ..”

Me: (Thinking) Is it too much to ask for the simple pleasure of criticizing people without having fingers pointing back at you. I hate this moron.
(Loud) “Hold it. Hold it. No reason to get personal here. Besides you obviously haven’t heard of a certain Mr. Charles Darwin and his Theory Of Evolution. You can’t compare spending on monkeys and my higher tastes in life.”

Mr. Tima: Smiling and agreeable as ever. “Of course not. Thanks for educating me about the evolved human tastes of being lazy, indulging in activities like skydiving that benefit none, not even the doer and coveting more than you need. Now I know what they mean, when they say God made man in his own image.”

Me: “It may be true that we have our weaknesses but even you wouldn’t deny that humans are the most gifted of all His creations. We are not only the most intelligent of all beings, but exhibit the highest degree of higher emotions like love, kindness, generosity, joy and compassion.”

Mr. Tima: “I couldn’t agree more. Humans are gifted and intelligent indeed. All of God’s creation’s are imperfect, including man, just as you said. But man on the other hand has created the omniscient, omnipotent entity with absolutely no shortcomings.”

Me: (Thinking) Uh! Oh! I don’t like where this stupid conversation is going. Is he trying to shake my faith now.
(Loud) What do you mean? Man created who?
(Thinking) Damn it. Shouldn’t have said that.

Mr. Tima: “Oh! God of course. You do realize that there is not ONE proof of God’s existance that is bereft of human subjectivity. Be it the books Bible, Koran or Geeta, or the prophets Jesus, Mohammad or Buddha. But I must say a most wondeful and glorious creation. It provides strength, hope, a reason for virtue and convenient way to dismiss responsibilty.”

Me: (Thinking) God, a human creation. Have I been keeping my hands of the candy jar - even when nobody was looking - for nothing. My whole life, all those candies. Damn it! I want my freaking heaven. Of course there is God, and good things happen to good people and all those things. What does this moron know.
(Loud) “You !@#$. Bloody heretic. God will punish you. You will burn in the fires of hell - forever. In fact I am surprised why lightning hasn’t fallen on you this very moment. You should NEVER, EVER entertain such thoughts.”

Mr. Tima: “I agree entirely.”

Me: “That you should burn in the fires of hell!”

Mr Tima: Smiling, “No, that we cannot entertain such thoughts. Man needs God to protect him from his own shortcomings. He needs him till he is strong to virtuous by himself.”

Me: “Whatever. Let’s just step back to where we were. So you were saying that wasting money on those damn monkeys is comparable to spending or rather using money for our own enjoyment.”

Mr. Tima: “No! You are interpreting this all wrong. I am simply ’suggesting’ that maybe you should teach these people worthiness of self indulgence over love for a pet or shall I say ‘monkey’ in your terminology.”

Me: “Mr. Tima I am going to be frank with you. You are an obstinate, moron with weird ideas. So instead of arguing I am going to offer a truce. Let me have my canopy, an airplane and the modest pleasure of a sky dive and you and all your monkey loving friends can have their monkeys .. err.. pets.”

Mr Tima: With that annoying all knowing grin on his face. “Ok!”

Me: (Thinking) Phew! I wish there was a way to get rid of Mr. Tima once and for all. The bastard spoiled an excellent afternoon. Now where was I, the get rich scheme. Maybe I should think of a product for the monkey loving crowd…

If you have never made your acquaintance with Mr. Tima, you are truly blessed. You should avoid running into him at all costs. He has many aliases, is easily found in the company of certain people, stay away from them. If you have found a way to get rid of him or at least wipe out that smirk from his face. Spread the word, there is no greater service.

P.S: Mr. Tima has since convinced me that heaven is not the goal. The goal is to realize the strength (which exists in all of us) to make our own heaven. I don’t regret keeping my hands of the candy jar. :)

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I am a believer … a proud Pastafarian.

amit September 29th, 2005

"We have evidence that a Flying Spaghetti Monster created the universe. None of us, of course, were around to see it, but we have written accounts of it. We have several lengthy volumes explaining all details of His power. Also, you may be surprised to hear that there are over 10 million of us, and growing. We tend to be very secretive, as many people claim our beliefs are not substantiated by observable evidence. What these people don’t understand is that He built the world to make us think the earth is older than it really is. For example, a scientist may perform a carbon-dating process on an artifact. He finds that approximately 75% of the Carbon-14 has decayed by electron emission to Nitrogen-14, and infers that this artifact is approximately 10,000 years old, as the half-life of Carbon-14 appears to be 5,730 years. But what our scientist does not realize is that every time he makes a measurement, the Flying Spaghetti Monster is there changing the results with His Noodly Appendage. We have numerous texts that describe in detail how this can be possible and the reasons why He does this. He is of course invisible and can pass through normal matter with ease.

I’m sure you now realize how important it is that your students are taught this alternate theory. It is absolutely imperative that they realize that observable evidence is at the discretion of a Flying Spaghetti Monster. Furthermore, it is disrespectful to teach our beliefs without wearing His chosen outfit, which of course is full pirate regalia. I cannot stress the importance of this enough, and unfortunately cannot describe in detail why this must be done as I fear this letter is already becoming too long. The concise explanation is that He becomes angry if we don’t.

You may be interested to know that global warming, earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking numbers of Pirates since the 1800s. graph"

Excerpt of the OPEN LETTER TO KANSAS SCHOOL BOARD from the "Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster".

I have finally found the answer to the quest of my life.

When in the sequence of creation or evolution was the midget created??
When by whom??

It amazes me how people get stuck in details ignoring the larger picture. Why would you care if it was evolution or creation?

The Spaghetti Monster said
Let there be a mountain … and there was a mountain.
He said Let there be a tree … and there was a tree.
And then He said Let there be a midget … and there was a midgit.

Now I am enlightened. And by the grace of the Spaghetti Monster you too shall be enlightened.
- Ramen

Like any self respecting pastafarian I cannot ask you to believe - the truth my friend is revealed to the seeker through logic. I implore you to please consider these arguments and evidences put forth by esteemed academics.

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