While you’re waiting for your Natty Narwhal…
August 26th, 2010
Waiting for a Natty Narwhal to come and save us.
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“Ah, this is so un-Agile” or Agile People Still Don’t Get It
August 22nd, 2010
Early in the development cycle, it’s perfectly acceptable to go for a policy of “zero bugs” and “100% tests”. But as the deadline looms, these choices need to be reconsidered all the time and evaluated while keeping a close eye of the final goal. Very often, Agilists simply forget that their job is to produce software that satisfies customers, not software that meets some golden software engineering scale.
Worthy article written by someone who understands stuff. Read it.
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Java Forever
June 25th, 2010
…from creators of Javatar and .NOT…
— Mom? I have a confession to make. I use Java.
— What the hell are you talking about?
— I want to use a programming language which doesn’t only run in Windows.
My, this is so full of win!
— Hey, what are you guys up to?
— We are just enjoying some porn…
— Hope you’re not doing Java and open-source!
Watch it. Now. Try not to laugh to loud (I failed that quest). It’s hilarious and simply brilliant.
P.S. it features Scala Johansson, William Windows and a new start Lenny Linux!
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Remote madness
June 15th, 2010
Tried to assist my sister with filling in an online payment form to her summer college in London. I couldn’t make TeamViewer (which is great by all means) to work on my laptop (it just keeps failing and closing), so I had to make an SSH tunnel to my home iMac via my NAS, forward VNC ports so I can connect to it, start TeamViewer on it and actually assist my blond sister. That was gross.
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Bodean’s BBQ: treating your customers fairly
May 3rd, 2010
One thing about dealing with clients, who pay you money and you give them something back instead — is that disasters happen. They really do, and this is a sort of a natural law to me — if they didn’t, the whole concept of customer service could become an abstract. But how would you deal with the disasters — this, in my opinion, pretty much defines the way company treats customers in general.
Today we had a table booked at Bodean’s BBQ at Westbourne Grove for 8PM. When I came there 5 minutes early, I was warmly greeted by firmly closed door and a hand-written note, that due to a power failure, the restaurant is closed, the closest one is in Soho, sorry so much for any inconvenience caused. Draw me surprised. Draw me astounded.
Next thing I, righteously infuriated, called an only number which seemed to answer — Bodean’s at Soho. After I finished complaining about my ruined evening, a person who picked up the phone asked me to wait as she’ll ask her manager. Next thing happened — a manager, someone Glen, was talking to me.
First thing, he apologised. Then he listened for my rant again. After that he did what surprised me so much that I am writing this post: he suggested to book me a table at Soho branch and pay for a cab from Westbourne Grove to Poland st.
Draw me amazed. Draw me astonished. I have never seen anything like that.
Food was excellent. Service was on a par. Table was — indeed, the best table in seriously overcrowded restaurant. Now, that is how every restaurant should treat their clients — and not only a restaurant. That is an admirable example of conducting a business. That is the way to make sure, that every damn friend of mine will find out about this fact and should opportunity arise, will be dragged into this restaurant, just to show that this is for real. I applaud to you, Glen. This was a fantastic evening, and you have saved it in every possible way.
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Google Fast Flip — have you seen it?
April 19th, 2010
I didn’t — and now it occurs to me it’s a nice way of browsing through news. Granted, it isn’t the most productive way if you need to find what’s going on in the world — quickly, but can certainly be used to kill some of that invaluable resource we all love to waste so much :)
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How to answer a question, without actually answering it
April 19th, 2010
An absolutely brilliant bit which I came across on T-Mobile’s website:
Can I use the internet on my phone or mobile broadband in Europe without buying a Booster?
We have boosters to buy so that you’ll always know exactly how much you’ve spent and know that you won’t get any unexpected bills. Using the internet on your phone or mobile broadband in Europe without a booster would previously have been charged at £1.50 per MB, so 50MB would have cost you £75. With a booster a 50MB allowance is only £10 so you’re getting much better value with boosters. You can buy as many boosters as you want and the cost of it will come out of your balance or added to your monthly bill but you’ll know exactly what you’re paying.
To me it looks absolutely beautiful. Fine, maybe this is the way it’s being done in England and English people are used to it — then please forgive a clumsy foreigner, but something tells me this has got very little to do with English customs and traditions :)
On the other hand, I cannot praise enough very fair international data tariffs — £10 for 50MB is nothing to worry about, really. Unfortunately, it only works as long as you stay in Europe — but it is still way better I could’ve expect while being locked in with an O2.
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Easiest way to login to your home Mac
April 6th, 2010
Well, there’re few prerequisites to this method:
- You should have a DMZ’ed (or accessible from outside world in some way) server running in your home network which you can SSH into.
- Your home Mac should be on (you can use etherwake command from within your network to wake it up first).
As long as these two criteria are met, you simply do:
laptop:~ kirillov$ ssh -p19322 -L59000:imac:5900 user@home.selfip.org -fN
The bit
-p19322
you need only if you’re running your SSH daemon on a non-standard port (or your forwarding is set from a non-standard port); either way, it is highly recommended. This piece
-L59000:imac:5900
says “I want to forward all requests coming on port 59000 of my localhost to host imac in the target network, port 5900” (which is a default VNC port). Finally,
my_home_username@myhomeserver.selfip.org -fN
is pretty straightforward, “-fN” says “go to background right after asking for login and password if they are needed”.
After you’ve done that, all you need to do it to hit ⌘K in your Finder (or start a dedicated VNC application) and do:
After that you’re likely to be asked for login and password, which, by coincidence will be login and password from your home Mac. And you’re in!
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Stephen Fry about iPad
April 2nd, 2010
Guess who — and what is this about?
After he leaves, I am finally left alone with an iPad. Finally I get some finger time. I peep under the slip holder, and there it is. When I switch it on, a little sigh escapes me as the screen lights up. Ten minutes later I am rolling on the floor, snarling and biting, trying to wrestle it from the hands of an Apple press representative.
That is not strictly true, but giving up the iPad felt a little like that. I had been prepared for a smooth feel, for a bright screen and the “immersive” experience everyone had promised. I was not prepared, though, for how instant the relationship I formed with the device would be. I left Cupertino without an iPad, but I have since gotten my own, and it goes with me everywhere.
…
It is possible that the public will not fall on the iPad, as I did, like lions on an antelope. Perhaps they will find the apps and the iBooks too expensive. Maybe they will wait for more fully featured later models. But for me, my iPad is like a gun lobbyist’s rifle: the only way you will take it from me is to prise it from my cold, dead hands. One melancholy thought occurs as my fingers glide and flow over the surface of this astonishing object: Douglas Adams is not alive to see the closest thing to his Hitchhiker’s Guide that humankind has yet devised.
Either Apple has paid Mr Fry a whole lot of money … or they didn’t. It could also have something to do with the fact that he’s got an iPad now — before the official launch. Anyway, this is quite an amusing article with a bits of interview with yet another Steve — the one on the cover; worth reading (on of a very few of such kind in Time magazine). Read on.
The iPad Launch: Can Steve Jobs Do It Again?
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