Category: Programming

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Stupid Is As Stupid Does

Today I got a reminder as to why I love programming.  It boils down to the computer doing exactly what you tell it to do.

I’ve used C to further develop an application for reading UHF RFID tags on a custom display and relaying that information to a web server running on an embedded device for processing.  I was troubleshooting a particular problem and, upon discovery of the PEBCAK** issue, I started laughing.  The application simply wasn’t doing anything at all other than displaying some debug output.

I had introduced an error in my code that kept the application from doing anything at all useful for as long as the application was running and it was all my fault.  The code that I’d written was doing exactly as I asked it to and it was me, the human in the equation, that had screwed up.

There’s two sides to that coin as the results of creating a working application that does real work for a client is a real badge of pride because it’s you, the programmer, that did the work and created the logic to get it working that way.

This is distinctly different from project management where you can only create the plan; you then need other humans to execute that plan.

If I have properly described my passion for programming, it’s probably readily apparent why project management doesn’t blow my skirt up but I’m spending time developing algorithms that might help in allowing logic to reign through out my project plans.  Maybe sometime I’ll be just has happy watching a project schedule unfold as I am while writing code for a compiler to chew on.

**Problem Exists Between Chair and Keyboard

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PROMOTED!!!

Ok, so if you’re not into Battlefield 3 or 4 then the title of this post is probably nonsense.  I’m embedding the video below for some context.

Funny.

I’ve worked at SAIT for several years now.  After graduation, I was lucky enough to get in with the Commercial Services department which allowed me to gain even more experience with the internal workings of an educational institution as well as spend time working on some of my less ‘programmy’ skills. This included acting as a contracted manager for a medium-sized project creating the groundwork for an internally branded and operated RFID based commerce card.

Continue reading “PROMOTED!!!”

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(Web) Development Sucks, and It’s Not Getting Any Better

(Web) Development Sucks, and It’s Not Getting Any Better.

I’m not a web developer; theoretically (of course) anyone with a programming background can pick up Javascript and EVENTUALLY get the hang of it and become proficient.

The author of the above link talks about the stagnation that is JavaScript because it really is stagnant. We’re introducing all kinds of new tools and the like but nothing really new; eventually, when you’re programming for the browser, you’re using JavaScript.

I’ve always been quite big on the more traditional languages for code. Data Typing has always been pretty important when I’m thinking about solutions to problems. OOP has the ability, nay the flexibility, to solve almost any problem out there. So why are we all still stuck on this one scripting language for the Browser? When will someone build a better mousetrap and allow the coder to move away from this damnable scripting language?