Comments on C++ from Charles Bloom's online journal

I link to Charles Bloom's non-blog and hop over every couple weeks to catch up. Today I saw he wrote up a little piece i felt i really could identify with.

This was one that hit a nerve with me, being able to articulate how people think about complicated things, that their opinions tend to have less to do with that theat thing actually is and more importantly their familiarity wth them. i've found this true in how i relate to lots of things in my life from risk to friends to wine to all things technical. Unblog link here.

Charles Bloom:
03-14-07


"...In hindsight I see that at each point my view was not based on logic, but just on what I was familiar with. When I was totally anti C++ it was really because I didn't know C++ at all, and I didn't want to go from being a bad-ass C coder to being a crappy C++ coder. Then as I learned it more, my aversion was based on working with bad C++ coders and working in bad C++ code bases where complex features had been used badly and turned into a mess. I saw that ugly mess and the problems with them and didn't really understand the systems and just wrote those features off as evil without really understanding them. I still think that many of the C++ features are scary and need to be controlled carefully in the development environment.....Unfortunately, some of the things that make the overheads of C++ almost free on a modern processor (large caches, out of order execution, complex load-store units) have already disappeared from current consoles and may be disappearing on future PC's....this thought process makes me doubt the common assertions like "Perl code is an unmaintainable mess". Yeah, maybe, but I believe that largely because the Perl code I've seen is an unmaintanable mess. Maybe I've just seen bad perl code? I've certainly never tried to write a large clean app in Perl, so maybe you totally could and it would be fine if you had a strong style guide, etc....(I guess the best way to compare language speed is to look at those contents where people write speedy algs in different langs). "

Gears of war to become a movie!

From here: "Lead game designer Cliff Bleszinki collaborated with screenwriter Stuart Beattie to produce the script. Gears of War is set on the fictional planet Sera, and the players is tasked with protecting the planet's inhabitants from creatures known as Locust Horde, which come from the center of the planet"

Sera had a unique look and feel. Should be interesting to see how this turns out.

How to treat your software engineers...

Gives us something to measure against:

http://www.fogcreek.com/About.html

"Good software development talent is scarce. The really great developers — the ones who change the world — are hard to find, attract, and recruit. Yet when we looked around, we discovered that the very companies that whine about not being able to find developers have working environments so bad they make Dilbert's cubicle-land look like paradise.

It starts with the physical environment (with dozens of cubicles jammed into a noisy, dark room, where the salespeople shouting on the phone make it impossible for developers to have a creative thought). But it goes much deeper than that. Managers, terrified of change, treat any new idea as a bizarre virus to be quarantined. Napoleon-complex junior managers insist that things be done exactly their way or you're fired. Corporate Furniture Police writhe in agony when you tape up a movie poster in your cubicle. Disorganization is so rampant that even if the ideas are good, it's impossible to make a product out of them. Inexperienced managers practice hit-and-run management, issuing stern orders on exactly how to do things without sticking around to see the farcical results of their fiats.

And worst of all, the MBA-types in charge think that coding is a support function, basically a fancy form of typing.

Who wants to spend their days there? It's no wonder they can't find developers. "

Coffee Shop in Newport News, WOW and espresso

Last night we stopped by the Aromas coffee shop and got a latte. I commented that it was really good. The same barista is their the next day and I order a double espresso. No kidding, I’m sitting here with like 6 ounces of straight espresso. Guess its one of those ‘compliments get you far’ kinda things. I’m just gonna be a bundle of joy to deal with in about an hour  .

Unrelated to this observation, there are 3 guys in here all playing WOW on their laptops. They are sitting near each other and occasionally chat back and forth while playing. Thought it was cool. I’ve seen folks playing WOW but it was always on their own and such. This is the first time I’ve seen so many people together like this. Thought it was neato. Until we started to compete for bandwidth anyway.

New Hotel Annoyance

I’m sitting in my hotel room and the maid is knocking on the door. She wants to come in and turn down the bed, drop a few chocolates off, bother me after I’ve just spent 9 hours talking and talking and talking. Its as if they just hang out in the hallway waiting for guests to return to their room. Maybe this is a new way to try to get a tip out of the patrons. It is so annoying. I just want to be left alone. This is all in the name of service I guess. Do the people that run these places NEVER go on business travel? When you get back to your room, the last thing you want to do is interact with ANYBODY. And every night at this doubletree the maid service comes ‘knock knock knocking’ to spend 15 minutes fiddling about the room. I have phone calls to make, haven’t checked my email all day, and instead I have to deal with this situation. I tell her through the door, ‘thanks, I’m busy’. I said the same thing yesterday and I'll say the same thing every day.

Smelly Breweries in Chapel Hill, NC

Spent the week at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Computer Science Dept. doing recruitment. Went to both of the breweries at different times and experienced the same gross smell at both entrances. Having been a dishwasher for about 5 years I recognized it right away. Its suprising they haven’t done anything about it though because its awful, but everyone acts like there is nothing going on, its that rubber barmat from behind the bar smell. Ugh, its so bad. It doesn’t smell like that in the rest of the restaurant, but just at the doors. Weird. Had some excellent porkchops at Top of the Hill. Absolutely recommended.

Portland Aerial Tram

The Portland Aerial Tram opened today. Cost overruns aside this is going to be a nice addition to the neighborhood. Welcome Jean and Walt, the names for each of the trams.

Chubby Bunny

In the middle of winter in the pacific northwest the days are short and the rainy nights are long. To pass the time a variety of pasttimes have been adopted. One of them is called Chubby Bunny. The goal of Chubby Bunny is to stuff as many marshmallows into your mouth as possible. The winner is the one who has the most in their mouth for the longest period of time. Some recent photos of the action on a rainy weekday night are here.

Arbitrage via iPod le canada!

Using iPods the worlds currency movements are predicted here.

Fantastic Cabernet Sauvignon

Since committing to avoiding the Trader Joe's wine aisle and all wines with animals on the logo I've been exploring some of the regional wines at the local Fred Meyer. I have found a fantastic 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon from Columbia Winery in Washington. The reason I think its so delicious is it has a perfect balance, low tannin taste. This is not a peppery or particularly bold wine, just incredibly smooth and drinkable. Total gem. David Lake (no known relation) is the winemaker at Columbia and is known as the Dean of Washington Winemakers.