News and views from a software developer's perspective
Monday, April 08, 2002Press Play to Access the Future
Its success has far outstripped expectations, and as a result of the DVD's booming popularity since its introduction in 1997, the audience's relationship to movies has changed. The home video was merely a small-screen version of a movie. The DVD is interactive--so much so that to the studios' alarm, technically sophisticated film buffs with a little determination and access to the Internet can relate to a movie in ways that were impossible only a few years ago, including moving and removing scenes and characters from a movie. [CalendarLive]
I love DVDs. I love being able to buy favorite movies at Walmart or Target for $15, $20, or $25. I think that at those prices, they offer real value to consumers. Compare the cost of a DVD to the cost of taking a family of four to the movies, which probably costs more than $40 easily, if you buy any popcorn or sodas.
Exception: I hate many Disney DVDs that try to force you to watch 4-5 minutes of previews.
A unified theory of software evolution
"Less and less effort is spent on fixing original design flaws; more and more is spent on fixing flaws introduced by earlier fixes," wrote Brooks. "As time passes, the system becomes less and less well-ordered. Sooner or later the fixing ceases to gain any ground. Each forward step is matched by a backward one. Although in principle usable forever, the system has worn out as a base for progress." [Salon]
Personally, I found that refactoring is a hard sell to managers. Refactoring means that no new features are added, while parts of the code are cleaned-up, even re-written, followed by a retesting of features. It's the "no new features until" part that managers have a problem with. Because most managers won't agree to an occasional two-week (or longer) period of refactoring, many (but not all) developers try to accomplish some refactoring during a time when they are assigned to add new features. When no refactoring happens, code eventually reaches a point where adding a new feature always adds a lot of new bugs. And often it is the developer who added the new feature who is credited with the bug, even though the bug may be more fairly credited to another developer who wrote code months earlier.