The thing that has got me motivated enough to write this as a post is this article on the BBC website. It’s got a provocative title, “Green food report favours home-grown curry,” so of course I checked it out. The real meat of the story is that a commission in the UK has just turnedContinue reading “Fallacies Everywhere”
Author Archives: pirateguillermo
I Didn’t Geddit
I just got an email from Yammer announcing that Yammer has been acquired by Microsoft. I had a couple of Yammer accounts because some people I wanted to play nice with have Yammer accounts, but I confess: I just don’t get why Yammer is something I should want. It doesn’t solve any problems I have.Continue reading “I Didn’t Geddit”
New Project
This seems to happen to me all the time. I’m wrapping up whatever I’m working on and I have a plan for what comes next. Then, before I have finished the current project but after all the real decisions have been made, I start coming up with all sorts of new projects. I haven’t reallyContinue reading “New Project”
PDF::API2 and Landscape
I’m currently working on a way to generate a custom PDF of a Bugzilla record (which, in turn, contains a bunch of custom fields). One of the requirements of the spec is that the PDF is targeted at US letter size paper in landscape orientation. I’m looking at using PDF::API2 and PDF::Table but one ofContinue reading “PDF::API2 and Landscape”
Prime Factorization – Actual Code
I finally had a little time free and put together a solution to the prime factorization problem. As with the tic-tac-toe program before, there are lots of opportunities to make this program better. This only runs once, rather than looping. The number being factored is a constant so you have to edit the program toContinue reading “Prime Factorization – Actual Code”
I Hate Your Favorite VCS
Whenever I have to start working with a new software package to do a task I already know how to perform using a different software package, I feel a little frustrated. I’m sure everyone can relate to this. Programs that do similar things are often unnecessarily differentiated. It’s as if DeWalt and Makita made cordlessContinue reading “I Hate Your Favorite VCS”
Hey, I Built a Thing
My new job involves hacking on Bugzilla and part of that involves email. Bug email, system administration email, yadda yadda. I wanted a way to test that email without it ever leaving my development system. We had a mechanism in place where the emails would just get written to a plain file, but that doesn’tContinue reading “Hey, I Built a Thing”
Always Ask One More Question
Badb just asked me if I could show her how to calculate the square root of a number. I cast my mind back to 7th grade and tried to remember going up to the blackboard and calculating arbitrary square roots. “Um, yeah, but let me go look it up. It’s been a long time andContinue reading “Always Ask One More Question”
Time Out for SQL
Basic SQL is pretty simple, really. It’s only when I start dealing with big joins and group functions that I start to lose track of what exactly is going on. I’m in that situation now, so I’m constructing a small data set with short table and column names so I don’t have to type asContinue reading “Time Out for SQL”
Factorize, More Boxes
Boxes and arrows, I know, it doesn’t look like a program yet. Still, it all is going somewhere, I promise. Let’s take a minute and talk about how factorization works. It’s pretty straightforward: either a number is evenly divisible by some other number (a factor) or it isn’t. Let’s look at an example: 48. WhatContinue reading “Factorize, More Boxes”