Category: General

At times it is useful to send a text message…
Some friends keep asking how i manage to send text messages to their cell phones even though i don’t have one myself.

Well, here’s the secret… (oh nooo, i can see all of my faithful geek readers yawning)

I use the text services at sms.de and web.de.
Both sites are also useful to store telephone numbers and addresses.

I’m not a power user ( = 1-2 text messages per day) and I don’t know how the rates compare with T-Mobile, Swisscom and Co.

History of text messaging: 1

SMS was supposedly invented by engineers at Ericsson that needed a way to communicate on the network while they were working on the voice channel.

The Economist on software development.

the problem:

30% of all software projects are cancelled, nearly half come in over budget, 60% are considered failures by the organisations that initiated them, and nine out of ten come in late

the solution:

better software tools and processes

The three big industry trends—lifecycle management, testing and open source—come together in a movement known as “agile” programming. This approach to software development was codified in a meeting in February 2001 in Utah when a group of programmers declared its allegiance to doing things quickly, using common sense and simplicity.
[…]
The main principle of agile programming is that developers must talk to each other often, and that they must talk to the business people setting requirements equally often.

via http://www.j2eegeek.com/blog/

It’s Sunday evening and I can’t think of anything blog-worthy to write. Feel tired and restless.

Weather has been unusually warm for January. Yesterday felt a bit like spring. Beautiful sunshine and about 15 degrees warm.

For those of you that are waiting for snow, here’s a snow photo I took 3 weeks ago:

or maybe it’s a snapshot from my recent journey to the moon? Small step for man, a giant leap for mankind…

Stuff I did this weekend:

• Upgraded my WordPress installation to 1.2.2
• Went jogging for the first time in 2005 – about 3 kms.
• Did usual weekend chores like washing, shopping, cleaning.
• Paid bills.
• Talked on the phone and sent lots of SMS.
• Answered emails.
• Watched the relief effort in SE Asia.
• Spontaneously decided to visit a friend only to find out that nobody was at home.
• Surfed aimlessly thru the net and read online articles at Weltwoche, Spiegel and Focus.
• Developed chronic back pain to the point that I think I might go to the doc tomorrow.

interesting read:

Joe Winchester’s JDJ article, Who Needs “Hardship Programming”?

quote:

Let’s take cars, for example – my attitude is that when they break I take them to the mechanic; what’s fun isn’t so much tinkering with the engine myself and gaining some kind of machismo pride in doing so, it’s the journeys I take in it and what I do when I arrive. Likewise with writing software – the purpose is to create a good user experience for someone else who wants to solve a particular problem in a more efficient way. I once had to explain to a customer why we were late shipping a particular software release and he replied that we were just polishing the inside of a tin can and he didn’t care. He was right – we were upgrading operating system releases and migrating to a new language version mid-release cycle. However, there was no business value to it and we’d just taken our eye off the target and onto our navels.

Is the problem with software and tooling one of a master craftsman with his favorite chisel and simply that people are reluctant to change something that makes them most productive, or is it just that people have a built-in desire to belong to a herd and gain social acceptance from their tribal peers from where they can collectively mock progress and other languages and technology changes as being for the folks on the other team? Is the super-league of programmers occupied by folks who take apart game boxes and have wireless networks in their kitchen, or is it by those who would rather play some fun games on the box it was designed for and then enjoy a nice meal in the kitchen afterward?