Real programmers code in LOGO!

Remember that turtle you moved around on the screen? Well, I just learned that LOGO is a pedagogical adaptation of the LISP language. So much for being viewed as a toy language! See this example as proof. Read Jeff Atwood's blog post to learn more.

Being a software architect

So what are the roles and qualities of a software architect? Read on Joe Duffy's most excellent article. I made this my professional life's resolution to try to reach those goals.

Color IQ

This is a small test to see how well you distinguish color hues. I scored 4 (lower is better), which is more a compliment to my screen and the calibration software than anything else. I wish they would point out which color squares were not in the right position.

Lazy error messages

I hate lazy error messages. I really hate them. I really *really* hate them.

PLEASE fellow programmers, don't be lazy and make our life easier.

Exhibit A:

Error message
An unhandled exception occurred in the user interface. Exception Information: OSearch (AccountName)

Translation
User name not found. Please use the "domain_name\user_name" format when you enter an account name in the User name field.

De quelle couleur est le cheval blanc de Napoléon?

C'est pas nouveau, c'est de l'humour, c'est des cas isolés ... ouais je sais tout ça. Mais tel que vu à Montréal: les Québécois pure laine et la géographie.

Et vous, connaissez-vous votre géographie?

A miracle !!!

Sorry, I meant the stupidest bullshit I have ever seen. It's called Miracle Manna Loaf. Oh the crap we can see on TV late at night...

Wake up!

Opéralia

The 2008 Operalia was held in Québec City this year, as a special event for its 400th anniversary. I went to the demi-finale today and all in all, it was pretty solid. I was looking at how fluid the voice is and how well we can feel the emotions. Not that I am an expert or anything, but I do listen enough to classical music to have developped my taste.

So, a few good surprises, in particular William Berger, who was singing "Largo al factotum" from Il barbiere di Siviglia. His acting and voice control was top notch. That said, 3 hours of overly dramatic italian arias is a bit hard to handle. If you ever participate in this kind of competition, it will be a service to us and to yourself to pick something original and less heavy ;)

Case study on migrating to .NET 3.5

A very balanced and pragmatic record of how Ythos, a Healthcare product company, migrated its .NET 2.0 client/server application to .NET 3.5, including WPF, WCF and LINQ. It is particularly interesting to see that they used LINQ to SQL as their data access technology, instead of say, NHibernate or the new Entities framework. Also worth noting is the process based architecture which has been used since the beginning of the project, a couple of years ago, even before SOA was getting momentum.

Let's not forget WTL

From the Joys of WTL, by Simon Steele:

The Windows Template Library (WTL) is MFC on template-based steroids - after a successful stretch on the slimfast plan. WTL provides the user-interface frameworks that we need to write proper GUI applications without resorting to the bloated MFC or complicated pure Win32 API programming. A number of the "must-have" classes from MFC are also available as WTL utility classes too, welcome back your old friends CPoint, CSize, CRect and most importantly CString! WTL produces small executables that do not require the MFC run time libraries - in fact if you stay clear of the Visual C++ runtime functions (strcpy and friends) you can dispense with msvcrt.dll as well - leading to really small programs, which run fast too.

The last release of WTL (8.0) includes full support for Windows Vista!

• SourceForge project
• WTL Yahoo Group (still Active with 4500+ members)
• WTL on Code Project by Michael Dunn
  
  • Part I - ATL GUI Classes
  • Part II - WTL GUI Base Classes
  • Part III - Toolbars and Status Bars
  • Part IV - Dialogs and Controls
  • Part V - Advanced Dialog UI Classes

Insanity

Insanity: "Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

When will they learn that DRM (Digital Right Management) simply does not work ? You really have to think that after 10 years of consumers telling the labels and studios what they want, and then voting with their feet when they don't get it, it would have sunk into even the head of the thickest RIAA/MPAA dinosaur. In the annals of colossal stupidity, the last 10 years of IP wars will have to rank pretty near the top.

The music and movie studios are attempting to develop a new type of DRM that would allow customers more flexibility in playing content on multiple devices. The Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE) would establish a list of devices in your personal "domain" (unrelated to web domains), and minimizes or removes restrictions within that domain. TechCrunch summarizes DECE and notes that many of the big corporations have decided to support it.

The ecosystem envisioned by Singer et al revolves around a common set of formats, interfaces and other standards. Devices built to the DECE specifications would be able to play any DECE-branded content and work with any DECE-certified service. The goal is to create for downloads the same kind of interoperability that's been true for physical products, such as CDs and DVDs. Where it gets really interesting, though, is the group's stated intention to make digital files as flexible and permissive as CDs, at least within the confines of someone's personal domain. Once you've acquired a file, you could play it on any of your devices -- if it couldn't be passed directly from one DECE-ready device to another, you'd be allowed to download additional copies. And when you're away from home, you could stream the file to any device with a DECE-compatible Web browser.

Psychotic Leisure Music

Psychotic Leisure Music

This blog exists as a mean to share challenging, but difficult to find, music. To my knowledge, the music presented here is out of print. My goal here is to spread music, but not to hurt anybody, especially the artists involved.

Brain cells observed summoning a memory

Quoting from the NYT article:

Scientists have for the first time recorded individual brain cells in the act of summoning a spontaneous memory, revealing not only where a remembered experience is registered but also, in part, how the brain is able to recreate it.

[...]

"This is what I would call a foundational finding," said Michael J. Kahana, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, who was not involved in the research. "I cannot think of any recent study that's comparable."

"It's a really central piece of the memory puzzle and an important step in helping us fill in the detail of what exactly is happening when the brain performs this mental time travel" of summoning past experiences.

Translating a resume

Is there a more pointless and boring task? I love French, but I sure wish people would universally accept English as the de facto business language.

Sarang music group

A dear friend of mine made me discover this group. It's really wonderful and inspiring music where emotions can almost be touched.

Credit card business model and history

I found out a Frontline and NYT documentary on the credit card industry sector. Somewhat biased in the way information is presented, but for people unfamiliar with the CC business, it is enlightening nonetheless. As a matter of fact, it is one of the few documentaries available, thanks to effective lobbying done by the concerned companies ;)

Template documents for your business

Score provides many great templates for entrepreneurs. They also offer counseling, at a price.

Something

You got to be kidding me...

http://www.something.com
http://www.quelquechose.com
http://www.algo.com

Looking for an excuse?

Blame it on your genes! I'm sure she will understand ;)

Martine

Open source group sues Québec over no-bid Microsoft contracts

First on CBC, then on Slashdot, and then on Ars Technica, the motion filed by FACIL against the Government of Québec is making it into the big news.

Hopefully it will have some positive results on current bidding practices and open up the mind of some decision makers (which sadly are not always able to make decisions, but that's another story). That said, with so much invested into current IT infrastructure, both money and expertise, I would rather not face the situation where the government is scraping every .NET projects to date. If it can save licensing cost for client desktops, fine, but beyond that, thanks but no thanks.

I am in awe

Besides taking a walk in the forest, seeing a sky full of stars is probably what I miss most from the countryside. So you will understand my enthusiasm about the World Wide Telescope. It is truly inspiring to simply navigate around, pick a point and then zoom zoom zoom, and then pick another telescope (e.g. infrared light) and see the same thing in a whole different way. I wish we could go there. I really do.

Reality better than fiction

Election time always brings great discussions. This is not one of them. Live from your typical forum, I read this gem:

first off... I have left my own blood on foreign soil in defense of the American Flag and have earned the RIGHT to say anything I feel about the country I risked my life to defend.....

Someone from Canada's opinion on any subject related to my beloved country matters about as much as dog piss... even if they stumble on a few correct facts.... nothing worth mentioning has ever come out of Canada and as of this thread (that hasn't changed). If Canada was so fucking great, it would be American soil by now.... but obviously our forefathers knew its worth and left it alone.

We have done more in 200 years than any society in recorded history (in the same time frame) but that doesn't make us immune to the same flaws that caused all of them to crumble.....

Our American political system needs to be shaken up.... we need young fresh ideas and some damn hard REAL focus on our own internal problems while continuing to keep some balance in the rest of the world.

As [user] stated, if we don't provide some real solutions here at home its not going to matter for the youth of America.... China will have pissed away most of the natural resources of the world, killed a good portion of world population with inferior goods and completely killed the sex drive of any male not chinese (have you seen these chinese women??) OMG can you imagine the world filled with these trog looking women.... the only way you can tell the difference tween them and the male counterparts is they wear their hair long..... (and trust me, I have been to bejing and shanghai and you are seeing the prettiest faces they could find on tv... cause the rest of the country all look alike)

[ok, I got enough]

War on Terror - the boardgame!

http://www.waronterrortheboardgame.com

The board game The War On Terror is a satirical game in which George Bush's 'Axis of Evil' is reduced to a spinner in the middle of the board, which determines which player is designated a terrorist state. That person then has to wear a balaclava (included in the box set) with the word 'Evil' stitched onto it.

My kind of twisted humor :) It's been around since 2006, but I just learned about it.

A digital collection of 78 rpm records

http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/08/one-mans-quest.html

Thousands of recordings that had been largely consigned to the realm of prehistory in the digital age have gained a new life, thanks to the tireless efforts of one man.