Wednesday, May 08, 2002

Dealing with Platform Bugs Versus Writing Your Own Code Software development is really, really funny today.  We work with smaller code fragments than ever before (at least for web development) but those fragments do more than you'd expect.  Here were my two coding tasks this morning: Get NetCrucible's XSLT Opml Viewing Working Write a DB cleansing tool for my opml application.  I didn't do a very good job on the initial opml parser so I needed a clean up tool.  The results were _interesting_.  Here I was trying to just a) display data in the first task and b) write a network aware data cleanser and parser that also updated a database.  Here is the length of each script: a) display - 31 lines of code w/o the really pretty error page.  Basically this script does the following: Grabs the data Does some basic error handling Sets a mime type Adds an XSLT reference Outputs the data b) cleanse - 164 lines.  This script does the following: Select only the unique urls from my opml table Loop over the urls Fetch the Instant Outline data Parse the Instant Outline data to extract the head elements like ownerEmail, title, etc Update each database record with the cleansed elements Add new meta elements for status and size so that InstantOutline "meta metrics" are captured Generate output to the screen so I know that it's still processing (the full run handles over 400 Instant Outline urls so this is important). b) is a lot more complex than a).  b) has to get input from an RDBMS (MySQL), do network IO, parse data, calculate metrics and update the database. Guess which took longer?  a) Just displaying the data! - approx 2 hours versus b) 35 minutes And why you ask?  Fighting with XSLT bugs in Internet Explorer 5.5.  It turns out that Microsoft has mucked up the XML engine at least once and even if you download IE 5.5 then you also have to separately download the XML engine update and then some wacky little registry modification tool.  Something's really, really wrong when dealing with platform bugs takes a lot longer than writing your own code.  I should rant, I should vent, but, you know what, I wasn't even surprised and that's the saddest part of this tale. [The FuzzyStuff Weblog] 7:22:50 AM    comment []

Why 'Convergence' Is Like Teenage Sex. "Canadian author and columnist Jim Carroll provided the annual congress of the International Newspaper Marketing Association with the following reasons why media 'convergence' is like teenage sex: No one knows what it is but thinks that it must be great. Everyone thinks that everyone else is doing it. Those who say they are doing it are probably lying. The few who are doing it aren't doing it well. Once they start doing it, they realize that it's going to take them a long time to do it right. They'll also soon start realizing that there is no 'right' way to do it." [E-Media Tidbits: A Group Weblog] After rediscovering this blog, I'm going crazy quoting from them, but it's such great stuff. Check out the blog for yourself because almost every post will be of interest. But why no RSS feed? Argh! Voidstar RSSify, bay-bee! Consider it peer pressure - every Blogger site should do it! [The Shifted Librarian] 7:06:16 AM    comment []

You might've had a bad job review in the past, but it couldn't have been as bad as these supposedly real quotes from U.S. Federal employee performance evaluations. :) "Since my last report, this employee has reached rock bottom and has started to dig." "His men would follow him anywhere, but only out of morbid curiosity." "I would not allow this employee to breed." "This employee is really not so much of a has-been, but more of a definite won't be." "Works well when under constant supervision and cornered like a rat in a trap." "When she opens her mouth, it seems that it is only to change feet." "He would be out of his depth in a parking lot puddle." "This young lady has delusions of adequacy." "He sets low personal standards and then consistently fails to achieve them." "This employee is depriving a village somewhere of an idiot." "This employee should go far, and the sooner the better." "Got a full 6-pack, but lacks the plastic thing to hold it all together." "A gross ignoramus - 144 times worse than an ordinary ignoramus." "He certainly takes a long time to make his pointless." "Doesn't have ulcers but is a carrier." "I would like to go hunting with him sometime." "He's been working with glue too much." "He would argue with a signpost." "He has a knack for making strangers immediately." "He brings a lot of joy whenever he leaves the room." "When his IQ reaches 50, he should sell." "If you see 2 people talking and one looks bored, he's the other one." "A photographic memory with the cap over the lens." "A prime candidate for natural de-selection." "Donated his brain to science before he was done using it." "Gates are down, the lights are flashing, but the train isn't coming." "Has 2 brains, one is lost, the other is out looking for it." "If he were any more stupid, he'd have to be watered twice a week." "If you give him a penny for his thoughts, you'd get change." "If you stand close enough to him, you can hear the ocean." "It's hard to believe that he beat out 1,000 other sperm." "One neuron short of a synapse." "Some drink from the fountain of knowledge, he only gargled." "Takes him 12 hours to watch 60 Minutes." "The wheel is turning but the hamster is dead." [The .NET Guy] 7:02:19 AM    comment []