awake and alive

I made myself understand the factory pattern when I was taking Software Design during my fall 2008 semester.  That is, I understood enough to do well in the course.  Looking back I never really understood it; more importantly I didn’t see it’s usefulness.

This week I received the best explanation from my manager at work.  The best part was being able to see the real world implementation of the factory pattern.  I think the key thing that I was missing was that the factory will return an object that implements an interface, so you can have any number of implementations of the interface that will all be valid objects.  Add in some inversion of control and you have yourself an amazing dynamic system where you can drop in libraries at anytime (even runtime) and use them as though they were compiled with the system.

I was recently given a task at work where I had to move an existing project from one process to a totally different process.  The fun part was that not only had I never worked with the existing project, I had never worked with the new system it was being moved to!

So I have to learn 2 new things at once to be able to complete this project.  Kinda interesting…

It definitely gets me thinking about how to make this kind of system work  better.  There’s not much I can do for this particular situation since there isn’t any pre-project work that I can do on either unknown.  It seems like it would be helpful to have worked on both systems prior to this project.  I know as a new employee I will always have to be learning new systems, but it seems like everything would work a little smoother if it was one new system per project.

So, I bashed Apple the other day.  It was a good bash, and it is a great representation of how I feel.

And yet to be fair, I must admit that they are one of the most innovative companies out there.  Not only are they leading the pack with the iPhone, all of their products have beauty, usability, and technically wonder features.  They really think through their products and it shows.

In conclusion: please Apple, stop creating fanboys, just make your amazing products and encourage your customers to be loyal instead of being the most redonkulous people that could ever be redonkulous.

Splitting work and school so far has been alright, but I’m kind of worried about what it might mean later in the semester.

I am definitely learning a lot working at Jackson, but what happens when I have a lot going on at school?

Speaking of learning a lot, here’s a few things I have picked up so far at Jackson:

• Programming in “the industry” is quite different from programming at school
  • A solution isn’t necessarily the right solution just because it works and is fast
  • There are standards that are in place that are kinda like unspoken rules at a secret club
• I actually like programming in Java
  • It’s fairly similar to the languages I have been using
  • Eclipse makes learning the language much easier with autocomplete and syntax checking
• I will never know it all, and I need to rely on others
  • I have been put on projects where I literally know nothing
  • People higher up aren’t the only ones that have good answers, many times my peers know as well

Heh, I said duty…

So, working and going to school is a lot of work.  It doesn’t help that my class load has turned out to be a little on the heavier side, but at least I’m working on some cool stuff.

I wish I had more time for friends.

Maybe someday…

Okay, so this is one of those nerdy type posts, and it’s for my independent study at school.  Ignore it if you don’t understand…

(5:12:07 PM) ehenry5: alright, can you explain the general idea behind ispdb?
(5:12:07 PM) ehenry5: it sounds like it stores more than just the email connect info…
(5:12:25 PM) bwinton: What else do you think it stores?
(5:12:33 PM) ehenry5: i couldn’t gather all of that
(5:12:38 PM) ehenry5: but when i was searching ispdb
(5:12:45 PM) ehenry5: there was a lot going on
(5:12:51 PM) bwinton: Also, do you have a blog set up? Cause I’m going to ask you to post the results of this conversation.
(5:12:58 PM) ehenry5: sure
(5:13:30 PM) bwinton: Where is it (so that I can subscribe)?
(5:14:04 PM) bwinton: So, lets start with http://svn.mozilla.org/mozillamessaging.com/sites/autoconfig.mozillamessaging.com/trunk/hotmail.com
(5:14:17 PM) ehenry5: ok
(5:15:39 PM) bwinton: So there are a bunch of domains that it applies to.
(5:15:52 PM) bwinton: A name so that you can see what it is.
(5:15:57 PM) bwinton: And then the connection info.
(5:16:06 PM) ehenry5: right on
(5:17:26 PM) ehenry5: so that’s all that’s stored?
(5:18:03 PM) bwinton: For now, yeah. At some point we might need an “owner” field, to let people update their own.
(5:18:20 PM) bwinton: Or an “accepted” field, if we go with submission-and-manual-approval.
(5:18:32 PM) ehenry5: so what is the work that needs to be done on ispdb?
(5:19:24 PM) bwinton: Well, I’ve hinted at a bit of it.
(5:19:37 PM) bwinton: User submitted email configs.
(5:19:47 PM) bwinton: Unit tests. A lot of unit tests.
(5:19:48 PM) ehenry5: right
(5:20:09 PM) ehenry5: because it’s all django and you want to be sure that it runs smoothly
(5:20:36 PM) bwinton: Yup.
(5:20:55 PM) bwinton: There are also some fixes, suggested by AndyM, to make it more Django-y.
(5:20:55 PM) ehenry5: but the functionality is mostly working?
(5:21:12 PM) bwinton: Yeah, most of the functionality is mostly working.
(5:21:31 PM) ehenry5: what about in thunderbird
(5:21:37 PM) ehenry5: does it use it yet?
(5:21:44 PM) bwinton: Almost, kinda.
(5:21:48 PM) ehenry5: lol
(5:22:01 PM) bwinton: We’re about to release Thunderbird 3.0 beta 4, which has the autoconfig in it.
(5:22:09 PM) bwinton: beta 3 also did, but it wasn’t very good.
(5:23:47 PM) ehenry5: who is/has worked on that part of tb?
(5:24:03 PM) bwinton: Me!
(5:24:14 PM) ehenry5: and it comes full circle…
(5:24:31 PM) bwinton: Ta-da!
(5:24:37 PM) ehenry5: so, i take it you also have other things to work on too?
(5:25:17 PM) bwinton: Yeah. Some of what I’ve been working on is at: http://moxie.fligtar.com/thunderbird/3.0b4-blockers//sort:bugsFixed
(5:25:46 PM) ehenry5: okay
(5:26:02 PM) bwinton: And now that beta 4 is out of the developer’s hands, it’s off to the rc1 bug list.
(5:26:27 PM) ehenry5: so, what would be best case scenario for ucosp in this project?
(5:27:30 PM) bwinton: We get the user-submitted autoconfig working.
(5:27:34 PM) bwinton: With tests.
(5:27:44 PM) bwinton: And it makes it in to Thunderbird 3.1
(5:27:55 PM) ehenry5: where would the users submit their autoconfig info?
(5:28:02 PM) ehenry5: is that something that tucows was talking about?
(5:28:08 PM) bwinton: Not quite.
(5:30:03 PM) bwinton: So the grand vision is the user types in their email address. TB tries to get the config from the database. If it fails, TB makes some guesses and sees whether they work. If one of the guesses works, a button/dialog appears saying something like “Would you like to submit this info back to Mozilla Messaging to help other people on the same ISP?”, and if they click Yes, the config is sent back to our database.
(5:30:32 PM) ehenry5: okay
(5:30:52 PM) ehenry5: so, are you going to be working on the c++ side and we work on the python side?
(5:30:57 PM) bwinton: Tucows also wants to be able to make an HTTP call to add a new domain to our database when someone signs up for their email service.
(5:31:33 PM) bwinton: We’ll see. I think there is probably not enough work on the python side for everyone, so some of you will switch over to the client.
(5:32:02 PM) bwinton: (Which is really mainly javascript. After three and a half months, I think I’ve only made one change that touched a C++ file…)
(5:32:51 PM) ehenry5: interesting
(5:37:44 PM) ehenry5: so of the items you’ve talked about, what’s the priority?
(5:37:50 PM) ehenry5: er priorities…
(5:38:22 PM) bwinton: Tests first, cause if we don’t have those, we don’t know if it works or not.
(5:38:28 PM) ehenry5: right
(5:38:42 PM) bwinton: Then probably Andy’s fixes, cause they should be quick.
(5:39:17 PM) bwinton: And from there, we’ll see what the other requirements are. (I’m expecting those to take up the next couple of weeks at least.)
(5:40:04 PM) bwinton: (And hopefully after that, we’ll have some email from Tucows and DavidA, with more stuff to do.)
(5:40:11 PM) ehenry5: right on
(5:40:48 PM) ehenry5: so getting done for next week is any unit test or one specifically for ispdb (or django)?
(5:41:28 PM) bwinton: If you can run ispdb on your local machine, feel free to add a unit test to it.
(5:41:35 PM) ehenry5: okay
(5:41:43 PM) bwinton: If you can only run django, and have created a test app, write a unit test for that.
(5:41:58 PM) ehenry5: okay

I’ve always had some sort of beef with Apple.  It started off because I use PCs and they were different.  Then I started to use Apples and I thought “they’re not bad at all, you just have to get used to them”.  Then the whole fanboy syndrome started to get bad, and Apple does everything they can to encourage it (which is good for those that buy Apple, but not for those on the outside).  This whole syndrome has caused me to, in varying degrees, loathe Apple.  Then you tack on the fact that they are very often twice as expensive as their PC equivalents, and you come out with an unhappy me.

Now on to the reason for this post.  I want to buy and iPod shuffle.  I know, I shouldn’t buy from a company that I loathe, but the device is not that expensive and it is the perfect size.  Well, what do you know, it only comes with the stock Apple headphones that actually hurt my ears because of their size.  How much are the alternatives?  Seventy-nine dollars!  How much is the shuffle itself? Seventy-nine dollars!!!!  So I would be paying just as much money to buy the shuffle as I would be for the comfortable headphones? Yikes.

Acting as the negotiator that I would like to become, I fire up the chat to see if there’s something I can’t work out with Apple to make this deal a little nicer for me.  Here is the conversation that ensued:

You are chatting with Sophie S, an Apple Expert
Hi, my name is Sophie S. Welcome to Apple!

me: hello
her: Good afternoon.
her: How may I assist you today?
her: Hi.
me: So, I really like the ipod shuffle
me: but i really hate the headphones
her: I understand!
me: and your in-ear headphones that are more comfortable are just as much as the player!
her: Right!
me: is there any way to switch the headphones and not pay the whole $79 more?
her: No, sorry!
me: hmmm
me: so you’re saying that instead of getting any money from me for both items, it would be better to get nothign?
her: Sorry, you get what is included in the standard box.
me: can they do anything differently at one of the stores?
her: You would need to ask the store directly.
me: what about sending the heaphones back afterward for some sort of rebate?
her: I apologize but there are no rebates available for headphones.
me: that really stinks
me: so you’re saying you can’t offer anything to get me to buy these together? Not even a single dollar towards the “these headphones stink’ fund?
her: Unless you can buy another headset from another place that is comfortable and cheaper.
me: but the ipod shuffle has the special remote in the headphones
me: so you can’t really buy them from anywhere else
her: Oh, right. I use different headphones but it is for my iPod touch, sorry.
me: np
me: that’s the deal for me
me: i love the size and stuff for the shuffle
me: but the headphones literally hurt my ears
her: Yes, and the shuffle is so great and portable.
her: Yes, they are rather hard on the ears. I agree.
me: and i really want to buy a shuffle, but i don’t want to pay $160 for it
her: I really do understand. And it is a really good point!
her: I don’t have any authority to make deals though.
me: do you have a manager that i could talk to about it?
her: Let me check with my superior.
me: sure thing
her: Just another minute…
me: np
her: So sorry. I did try but we can’t do this.
me: alright, thanks for trying
me: i appreciate it
her: No problem!

Thank you for visiting the Apple Store. We appreciate your business. If you would like more help, please chat with us again.

Thank you for choosing the Apple Store. If you have any additional questions, please chat us again.

Nothing.  They can’t offer me anything to get me to buy the item.  And all I want is simple:  no stupid headphones.

Stupid Apple.

Who ever knew that vacation could taste so good?

Things have definitely been different than I expected.  Both in good ways and bad ways.  Working fulltime, my last in-between semesters summer, life in general…

I think that I am going to make a split to my blog.  Mostly that I am going to talk more about nerdy things, more about Jesus things, and possibly more things in general.

We’ll see what happens…

Is it weird of me to like school?

It’s not so much school as it is programming, I suppose.  And since my classes have programming projects, how could I not like them?  I’ll tell you how: exams.  If every one of my classes skipped the whole idea of exams and gave regular homework and projects, I would be a happy man.

I have stuff to do, but I keep distracting myself.