Rick's World

Yeah, yeah, I know. I've been bad about this writing thing lately. I've been busy with moving all my stuff around in preparation for getting new carpet installed in my house. The carpet was installed yesterday and it's a huge improvement. It makes the house almost seem brand new. It's very thick and 'bouncy' to walk on too. I'm so happy to finally be rid of the dead carpet that's been in this house for the last 4 years - the entire time I've lived here. It's been bad since I moved in. Finally it is acceptable. Much improved! I still have some stuff to sort through, but most of the stuff is back where it belongs. I'm also getting a nice new computer desk delivered for my home office tomorrow night. That's why the main computer is still in pieces all over my living room!

I've also been busy learning how to play the guitar. I am really enjoying this! With my friend Dave's help, I'm progressing much faster. With only 2 lessons from him, and his answering many, many of my beginner questions, I feel like I've probably shaved months worth of trial and error learning off my efforts. It's amazing how a few well placed suggestions can help so much. I'm still a LONG way from being able to play much, but I've at least progressed to playing notes on different strings and I'm not totally screwing it up, so that's progress. I just need to work on doing it a bit faster and cleaner and I think I'm well on my way to actually starting to be able to call myself a musician. I've even started to study music theory in this effort. This effort to learn is rapidly beginning to 'eat me alive', and I like that. This to me is the best part of learning something new. It's that great feeling when you finally start to understand all the things you've seen over the years, and never really undersood. Dave's help has been a huge part of this. I really appreciate all his help with this. It means a lot to me that he is nice enough to do this. I hope that I can return the favor in some way.

And in case you are wondering why I don't have any pictures on my blog, here's why. I did not think that my blog software had any support for pictures... I just noticed that it does! (See what happens when you don't read the instructions!) Let's see if I can add my first little test picture here... Woohoo it works! Time to post some more pictures...

I spent most of yesterday afternoon hanging out with my friend Dave

We went to the music store and looked around. He bought me a book on the guitar there for my birthday (Thanks Dave!). There were so many things in that music store that it was a bit overwhelming. I had no idea what most of that stuff was, but it sure looked interesting! He gave me a few lessons on the guitar, tuned my guitar and generally in one day probably saved me weeks or months of hassles in learning the hard way on the guitar. After one day of him helping me out, I feel like I understand things much better than I did. I feel like I'm starting to make definate progress on this. Obviously I have a long way to go, but I think I'm actually starting to feel comfortable with the guitar, seeing as I can six notes on it now. I can't play them perfectly, but I'm doing pretty well for a guy who's only been doing this for a couple weeks now. I'm actually starting to feel like a musician now, that I can play enough notes that it's starting to sound like music! I'm really starting to like playing the guitar now.

Dave had come down yesterday to buy my Mac Mini off of me. I had recently upgraded to a PowerMac so I didn't need it any more. Dave has been getting very interested in the Mac as well, so he agreed to buy my Mac Mini and start his adventure on the Mac. I think Dave is going to really enjoy it. The operating system is a joy to use, there's some good music making software (GarageBand) that comes with it, and it has lots of potential as a programming platform. I look forward to reading about his adventures on the mac in his blog.

There have been some interesting 'upgrades' going on in my life lately. I recently came into some money at work, so I suddenly have the funds to do these things:

• New PowerMac G5! This thing is sweet! Amazing how in less than 2 months I went from never having owned a Mac, to buying a 'cheapo' Mac Mini, to buying a full blown PowerMac. This is despite the announcement that Apple is switching to Intel CPUs. That won't happen on the PowerMacs until 2007, so I figure I can still get two good years minimum out of this thing. Once the new 'Mactel' Powermacs come out, I plan on upgrading to one of those. Mac OSX is a positive joy to use. I've never had a dual processor computer before.

• Finishing the car stereo upgrades. This has been something I've been planning to do for almost 4 months now, ever since I bought the Accord. Tomorrow, I get the final upgrades to the stereo done. Tunes!
• New carpet for the house. On August 6th, all the carpet in the bedrooms of my house will be replaced. The carpet in my house has been in bad shape for 4 years, ever since I bought the place. It's got stains everywhere, a big iron burn mark, and has been trampled down into nothing. It was bad when I bought the place. It's bad now. I'm glad to finally get this stuff replaced.

• Replace the closet doors in all bedrooms. My house has those cheap looking bifold closet doors. They are so old, they don't stay closed, they don't line up properly and generally they look terrible. I'm going to be replacing this with mirrored sliding doors.
• Bathroom upgrades. I hate the sinks in my bathrooms. The since sits on top of the cabinet top. The gap between the two is caulked but the caulk is wearing out and its generally looking like crap. Also, the faucet on the sink is one of those ones with a plastic handle. The plastic handle has partially broken. I plan on replacing the entire sink and counter top with a single piece where the sink is integrated into the countertop. No more caulking, no more mess. I also plan on replacing the faucet with an all steel one, so no more cheap looking handle that tends to break.
• New office furniture. The L-shaped desk I currently have in my home office is horrible. It's one of those cheap pressed wood Office Depot specials and it's a piece of junk. I plan on replacing this with a nice, solid wood wall unit.
• Painting. Several bedrooms in my house need painting. The bathroom also needs painting.

Well, I went and did it! A couple weeks ago I bought my first electric guitar! Its nothing fancy. It was part of a $300 kit that contained a Fender Squier Strat guitar, a case for the guitar, a small amp, several picks, a guitar tuner, an extra set of strings, and an instruction book.

Learning to play a musical instrument is a very new experience for me. Up until a couple of weeks ago, I've never played a musical instrument or taken any classes. I've been going through the book trying to master the basic notes on the strings. So far, I've gotten the first 2 of 3 notes down on the first string and I've just about got the 3rd note down. I have a long way to go before I'm even remotely capable at this thing, but that's OK. I have plenty of time. I"m in no hurry. My friend Dave has been giving me some good suggestions, web site links, etc. to get me going. (Keep 'em coming Dave!)

The way I'm approaching the learning of guitar is kind of how I learned to type many years ago. When I was learning to type, things started off pretty dull. First you have to learn where to position your fingers on the typewriter (that tells you how long ago it was!), then you start with a single finger hitting the same letter over and over and over until your finger 'remembers' where to go without you having to think about it or look at the keyboard. Then you progress to doing 2 letters at a time, then 3 and so on, until before you know it, your fingers are moving by themselves and hitting all the right keys. The way I see it, learning to play guitar is the same thing. First you have to learn where to position your fingers, then you start doing the same note over and over and over again until your fingers start to remember it on their own. Then you progress to two notes, then three and so on, until you suddenly are playing the guitar. It's funny when you are learning a new skill. You keep struggling and struggling on and on for a while until suddenly you realize that somewhere back there you started knowing what you were doing. It seems like you never really notice when that point of competency passes, it just does. I expect that this is how the guitar will progress. Someday I'll just suddenly find that my fingers are playing it.

Why did I go and suddenly decide to take up a musical instrument 36 years into my life? In short, I needed a new challenge. My main skill in life in computer programming. Over the years, I've conquered the challenge of programming. It's all easy for me now. I do it almost with out thinking. The same goes for typing. I've been doing it so long that it is easy. I'm at the point now where I type so fast that I tend to write 'books' whenever I write blog entries or send emails (as you've no doubt noticed from my long blog entries). I just sit here and type out whatever I'm thinking and I can practically type as fast as I think, so it's like I'm just having a conversation... I've never played a musical instrument before, but I've always been interested in the guitar. I spend my days doing programming that doesn't stimulate my mind much. I wanted to learn the guitar as a way of passing the time at night doing something constructive. Many people just come home from work and sit in front of the 'idiot box' and vegetate for the rest of the night. Not me. I'm the kind of person who craves knowledge. I always like to be learning something and tackling the guitar is a good way to challenge myself.

As you may know from reading my previous blogs, I bought a new Mac Mini a couple months ago. The last couple months since then have been a wild, but incredibly enjoyable adventure. I've talked in the past about why I felt that the Macintosh OS X operating system was superior to Windows XP from a software point of view. I have not talked in the past about the hardware side of things. Today that changes, due to a very important event. Earlier this week, I ordered a refurbished PowerMac G5 and yesterday (on my birthday!) it arrived. (Yes, Mom, I bought another computer!) Oh my God, this thing is the most beautifully designed computer I have ever seen! I am in love!

Apple has been known for pioneering the latest technologies in their computers, long before regular 'Wintel' PCs did. They were the first to go fully USB, They were the first to sell 64 bit computers, and they were the first to sell dual processor computers. Apple has been selling dual processor computers as standard equipment for several years now. Big name PC vendors like Dell are just now starting to come out with equivalent dual processor computers. Here are some things I've found only in my brief experience with a PowerMac that show how vastly superior its design is to regular PCs.

• A 'screwless' case design. With the PowerMac, you just flip a switch in the back and the side panel literally just falls off. No need to dig out the screw driver, remove screws, try not to lose them, no more sliding out the side panel. Very simple.
• Silent operation! My Athlon 64 computer sounds like a airplane taking off when it starts up. All the fans make a horrible racket. The PowerMac is totally silent when it runs.
• Solid construction. The PowerMac is made entirely of metal. It's very solid, very clean looking and very professional looking. Most PCs are an ugly mixture of metal and plastic.
• Very modular fan assembly. The entire fan assembly inside the PowerMac is a single large piece of plastic. It just slides in and out with no need to manually connect and disconnect power cables each time. The power is integrated into the fan assembly. Just pull it out and it unplugs the power. Just slap it in and it plugs in the power and lines up perfectly. To modify the fans in a PC usually requires removing 4 small screws per fan, disconnecting the power, removing the fan, replacing the fan, reinserting the screws, and reconnecting the power. Many possible points of failure there that could cause your fans to not work and have your entire computer overhead and destroy itself.
• Ridiculously easy hard drive installation. In the PowerMac, all you need to do to install a hard drive is grabe the four mounting guides (conveniently stored right next to where the hard drive mounts inside the case). Screw them into the 4 corners of the hard drive and slide the hard drive in. It locks into the case automatically with no screws. Then, once the hard drive is in, the data and power cables for the hard drive are already mounted exactly where they should be. There's no chance of error here. The data cable is located right underneath the data plug in the hard drive. The power cable is located right underneath the power plug on the hard drive. In a PC, you have to an elaborate procedure of setting tiny little easy to lose jumpers on the hard drive, finding the right screws for the hard drive, mounting them to rails, sliding the rails into the PC, running a data cable to the hard drive, running a power cable to the hard drive, hoping that you connected everything right and crossing your fingers when the computer boots up. Plus you tend to have these big ugly cables stretched all over the innards of the computer. Ugly!

After seeing how well this thing is designed, I question why I ever put up with PCs in the first place. OS X made me question PC software. The PowerMac made me question PC hardware.

Like my friend Dave, I plan to have a 'childish' weekend. I too will be picking up Harry Potter: The Half Blood Prince and reading this weekend. I also plan on seeing Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I enjoyed the original version a lot when I was a kid. It should be interesting to see what Tim Burton does with the story.

In a word: Wow!

This was a great movie! I *really* dislike Tom Cruise movies for the most part. His movies are usually nothing more than him walking around with the annoying grin of his, acting all cool. Ugh. Useless. This one was different. Fortunately we were only subjected to that damn grin for one brief moment at the very beginning of the movie. After the beginning, the movie gets so dark, so fast, it's jarring.

I have to say that I was impressed with this movie. At the same time it had a modern 'disaster movie' feel to it, and it also reminded me alot of the classic 50s style alien movies. The alien 'tripods' were very reminiscent of the type of aliens you would see in a 50s alien attacks movie. It was a very different kind of disaster movie though.

Most disaster movies fall into the stereotype of having big elaborate CGI scenes of famouse landmarks (New York, Washington DC, etc.) getting destroyed by aliens. This one did not. Everything that got destroyed in this movie was just typical 'small town' kind of things. Just generic buildings, homes, churches and the like. The movie also did a very good job of centering on one family (Tom Cruise's character and his kids), rather than wasting time with lots of unrelated scenes of death and destruction. All the death and destruction were immediately around him. Its as if the aliens were only attacking were he lived, and not the whole world. A nice touch.

This movie was certainly not without the violet images. DO NOT take young children to this movie! I have never seen a movie that more blantantly referenced the events of September 11th, than this one did. In this movie, the alien death rays would instantly incinerate people, turning them into a puff of ashes. There was a long sequence of the aliens attacking, and the people running and getting turned to ashes. By the end of the sequence, Tom Cruise's character is covered with ash - he is literally covered with the remains of the dead! This is very reminiscent of 911. As you will recall, there were many photos of people covered with ash after 911. Another disturbing reference to 911 was the scene of a massive wall covered with homemade 'missing persons' signs. This again, was very similar to 911. The other reference to 911 was when the aliens attack and the kids kept asking 'Is it terrorists?". Very disturbing stuff.

Go see this movie, but don't bring the kids...

Just noticed some interesting things you can find in the Windows environment variables:

In my previous blog, I covered how C# handles memory management. In this one, I'll explain how Cocoa handles memory management and why I feel it is a better way to do things than the C# way.

In C#, you allocate objects on the heap using the 'new' operator. This creates an object on the heap and returns a 'handle' to the object. This 'handle' to the object is really just a disguised pointer. The C# runtime is still using pointers, just like C++ does. The only difference is that C# 'hides' the fact that it's a pointer from the user. This is one of the reasons I emphasized so strongly in my previous blog about what makes a good programmer, the importance of understanding pointers. C# users are using pointers, they just don't realize it! Pointers are still relevant in C#, even though they don't appear to be there. They actually are. This pointer to the newly allocated object is then passed around (with it's true pointer nature hidden from the programmer) and the programmer uses the object however he wants. Then when the programmer is done with this pointer he simply stops using it somewhere. The C# runtime is responsible for figuring out when the object is not being used anymore. Once it figures out that the object is no longer used, it addes that pointer to a list of memory blocks that can be deleted. Eventually that memory block gets deleted during idle processing. (which can be a long time off in a cpu intensive application). Essentially, the C# runtime uses an internal reference counting system to keep track of the lifetime of the pointer. Whenever another copy of that pointer is used, the reference count is increased. Whenever the copy of that pointer is no longer used, the reference count is decreased. When the reference count reaches 0, the object is no longer being used and it gets put in the list of memory blocks to eventually be freed.

Cocoa does this differently. Cocoa's way is sort of a 'middle ground' between the very low level C++ way of memory management (do everything yourself) and the C# way of memory management (the runtime does everything). In Cocoa, all objects are reference counted as well, but the difference is that YOU are responsible for the reference counting. If you need to save a copy of the pointer, you increase it's reference count by calling the 'retain' method on that object. When you are done with the pointer, you call the 'release' method on that object. Whenever 'release' is called, if the reference count hits 0, the object is deleted immediately. You still create the object using the 'new' method, but you 'delete' it using the 'release' method. Essentially, the reference counting takes care of some of the lifetime issues involved in managing pointers, but ultimately, YOU control when an object is deleted. This makes for a much more efficient program when it comes to memory usage. Yes, the Cocoa way is a bit more work, but I feel it is a small price to pay for efficiency.

My friend Dave, wrote a blog a few days ago, commenting on what he thought made a good programmer. I thought I was respond by listing my own qualifications for a good programmer:

• Knows the basics. Know how to open a file, read/write to it, and close a file. Know how to write functions, know basic memory management. In C++, know the difference between 'delete' and 'delete[]' and when to use each one. If you are a programmer and you can't tell me why the following C code is bad, you don't deserve to be a programmer. char* s = "A"; strcpy( s, "This is a test" );
• Keep up with modern technologies. At least having a passing familiarity with some of the other common languages out there - C++, C, Java, C#, Perl, etc. Have at least a passing knowledge of some of the commonplace technologies used in softwae today. If you don't know what XML is, or what object-oriented programming is, you don't deserve to be a programmer.
• Does NOT write 'clever' code. Noone is going to care if you can use some bizarre language construct to write code. It's not going to impress anyone and its just going to unnecessarily confuse people. The code you write should be simple, to the point and easy to understand.
• Programs with maintenance in mind. Let's face it, the chances are very good that at some point in the future, someone else is going to look at your code. Why make their lives more difficult by writing oddball code (see previous item) or making the code unnecessarily obscure. Write nice, simple, easy to read, well documented code. Why make the next guy's life more difficult than it needs to be? For that matter, why make your own life more difficult than it needs to be? Chances are, 6 months to a year from now, you are going to have to go back and fix a bug in some old code you wrote. You likely won't remember everything you wrote. This means that you'll end up having to figure out your own code! Make your own life easier by making it easy to understand.
• Don't be arrogant. I've encountered many programmers over the years who have a superiority complex. They think they are better than the 'little people' in the company. I used to work in a company where they intentionally made the tech support department afraid of the development department. The head programmer would routinely 'talk down' to the tech support people. This is unnecessary. These people are just trying to do their jobs, just like you are. Don't make their lives any more difficult than they need to be. Everyone in a company is important. You are not any better than them, just because you make more money. Without the tech support department, noone would be using your software, and you'd be out of a job. Without the QA department, your software would be so buggy that noone would use it and you'd be out of a job. Your software provides them with a job, and their support of the customers allows you to keep your job.
• Test your code! Yes, you are a programmer and yes you are a smart person, but no, you are not perfect, despite what you may think. Test every line of code you write. Test every possible path through a function. Try throwing unusual data at a function and see what happens. Investigate organized testing development methodologies like Extreme Programming and put them to use in your every day development. Even if its not a 'company sanctioned' technique, use it and don't tell anyone. It will lead to better, more reliable code.
• Don't be offended when people find bugs in your code. You are human and you make mistakes. Live with it and learn from it. If someone in QA finds a bug in your code, be glad! It's better to fix the bug before it's released to the customers than after. It makes you and the company both look better. QA is there to 'cover your butt'. Let them and be glad they are helping you! Yes, it is a humbling experience when someone finds a bad bug in your code, but you must learn to accept it as a part of life. Use it as a learning experience. What did I do wrong here and how can I prevent myself from doing it in the future? Once you learn to stop being offended by criticism, you learn that this can be used to better your abilities in the future.
• Learn, learn, learn! This goes along with my previous item about keeping up with modern technologies. The computer industry changes VERY rapidly. You have to keep up with the times. Don't tie yourself to one technology too tightly. Always be reading up on new technologies. Try new things. Be open to new ideas. Considering how fast the computer industry changes, if you get too tightly tied to one technology, you could suddenly find yourself out of a job and with no prospects of finding a new one. I once told someone who was considering entering the computer field - "If you are afraid of learning new things, find another career. You are going to be learning something new every day. Every day there's going to be something you don't know how to do. You are going to have to figure it out!"
• Learn object oriented programming. Let's face it, object-oriented programming is here to stay. Learn to think in terms of objects instead of functions. Learn the concept of information hiding. Learn polymorphism. Learn what virtual functions are. Learn what abstract classes are. Learn what interfaces are.
• Learn socket programming. Let's face it, this is a networked world. Everything runs over the Internet these days. If you don't know how to send/receive data over sockets (or even what a socket is), you are in trouble.
• Learn the basics of database programming. Databases are everywhere. In any job you get these days, you will likely be interacting with one. Know what a table is. Know what an index is. Know what database normalization is. Learn basic SQL. Know what a stored procedure is. Know what the INSERT, DELETE, UPDATE and SELECT commands in SQL do.
• Write cross-platform code! Despite what Microsoft may think, there is more than one operating system in existence in the world. Don't write file formats that are locked to one operating system. Don't write network protocols that send/recieve binary data. Only send/receive text data. Every major Internet protocol uses text for all it's commands (HTTP, FTP, NNTP, SMTP, IMAP). There's a reason for this. These protocols are designed to work on any computer and any operating system.