Posts by Kevin Runde
“Lets make it modular” has become one of my new most hated phrases.
1) Non-technical people say it to mean do what I want it to do in the future with out me knowing what that is now.
2) Genericises the design which often leads to solutions that don’t fit the problem.
3) Creates lots of unneeded code and tests. (You do test right)
* Overly complex design (more layers)
* More code to learn, understand, and test
* More test cases
*LOT more places for things to go wrong
* Each layer ends up having it’s ownDTOs (also known as VOs, DAO, etc) to call it which creates more code and tests
Filed in: Team Member Blog
December 17, 2009 · by Kevin Runde
Learning new things
One of the topics I have always found interesting is how people learn. I’ve read several books on the subject and really like what the Pragmatic Programmers says about learning. Their book Pragmatic Thinking and Learning: Refactor Your Wetware does a great job of explaining this. I highly recommend reading that book and doing the exercises in it. While the book is writen by programmers, anyone can read it and get it. There are a few jokes and references that non programmers may not get, but those do not get in the way. My wife read the book and she loved it. I am always surprised that schools don’t teach kids how to learn. They just cram information into kids and expect them to figure out how to learn. I know I struggled in school until I read my first book on learning. I guess learning skills are not on a standardized test some where. Thus are not taught. Still that doesn’t seem right to me. How do you learn?
Filed in: Team Member Blog
November 14, 2009 · by Kevin Runde
Well I just spent several hours chasing down a stupid Mac / Apache / SSL update issue.
[error] Server should beSSL-aware but has no certificate configured [Hint: SSLCertificateFile]
So after a lot of bashing my head into the wall saying, but I didn’t change anything, I noticed the version of Apache was update by the last Apple security update. Apache is now version 2.2.13 which changes howSSL configuration works and finally allows separate SSL Configuration per virtual host. This means you have to put your SSL configuration each virtual host too. So I copied the virtual host config section from my /etc/apache2/extra/httpd-ssl.conf into all of my other virtual hosts that use SSL (aka port 443) and now they all work.
-Kevin Runde
Filed in: Team Member Blog
Today I received an email from MSN telling me they now recommend using IE 8. I was shocked when I read that. IE 8 has been out since March 19, 2009 and MSN is finally recommending IE 8. It only took them about 6 months. That got a friend and I thinking about IE 6 and the many issues companies will have MS finally stops supporting IE 6. What do I mean? Many companies have internal “Web Applications” that work only with IE 6. I say “Web Applications” because they are not really a web application. Sure they use the browser, but most were written in ASP and rely on specific IE 6 “functionality” that does not work with other web browsers. A real web app is cross platform compatible in my opinion.
This is yet another perfect example of someone trying to take standards and add their own propriety extensions so you have to use their product rather than another standards compliant product (Vendor Lock In). The pragmatic in me hopes these companies will learn from their mistakes when they are finally forced to rewrite all of their IE 6 specific application, but the realist in my realizes they won’t. Worse yet Microsoft will cut support for IE 6 and all of their newer OSes will only support newer versions of IE so eventually companies will have to upgrade or move to a different OS. UnlikeCOBOL which IBM and others are perfectly willing to still sell you systems to run your legacy COBOL. So in my opinion IE 6 is not a COBOL-like Legacy situation. It is actually much worse.
-Kevin
Filed in: Team Member Blog
September 27, 2009 · by Kevin Runde
I was working on a new Ruby on Rails project and needed some standard JavaScript UI elements like modal windows, tabs, tooltips and such. Until recently I had never found any good library to add on to prototype that handles these. jQuery, EXT JS, YUI and others have these so why doesn’t prototype. Well recently I stumbled across LivePipe. This is exactly what I have been looking for. The documentation is just enough so you can figure things out. There needs to be a better newbie guide. Maybe I’ll start working on one after I have more experience.
So if you are using the Prototype JavaScript then take a look atLivePipe.
-Kevin Runde
Filed in: Team Member Blog
Podcast Length
Recently, I have come across podcasts that are an hour long or longer! Most of the podcasts I subscribe too are 20 minutes or less. That is way to long. Now maybe if I was listening to podcasts for entertainment I would like them being longer, but I listen to podcasts mainly to keep up on developments in the programming world. Also most of those hour long podcasts feels like they are just trying to fill up time so their podcast is an hour long. If you want to see how a podcast should be done check outThe Rails Envy Podcasts. Those guys know what they are doing. Yes, their content can be immature at times, but there podcast packs a lot of good solid information. Unfortunately it sounds like the Rails Envy Podcasts may be coming to an end. I hope the will be continued in a different form. If you are developing screencasts than you should go look at Rails Casts. Yes these are both rails related and in my mind these are part of the reason the Rails community is doing so well.
-Kevin
Filed in: Team Member Blog
Programming Language Generations
What ever happened to program language generations? When I was going to school I always heard about how C and C++ were a Third Generation Programming languages and there were new Fourth Generation Programming Languages like Power Builder coming which would make programming SO much easier. Then Java came out and the focus on programming changed from Client Server or Desktop Applications to Web Apps. When that happened I stopped hearing people talk about programming language generations and instead focused on extending current languages with new APIs, specs and plugins. So what happened? People didn’t stop creating programming languages. In reality several great new languages have come out like Python and Ruby. Both are relatively new and are significantly faster to develop in.
Filed in: Team Member Blog
Railscast Rocks!
I am sending out a big thank you to Ryan Bates for taking the time to do Railscasts. These are the best screencasts I have ever seen. Ryan always has a new episode every Monday morning and the quality is always amazing. The content is always relevant. If it is not related to something I am working on now or some topic that I am hearing about a lot in the community then it ends up being something I am glad I learned about in two weeks. The best part is its free!!! If you are programing with Rails and not watching Railscasts then you should be. This should be required viewing for any class on Rails. Even if you are not programming with Rails I recommend watching these screencasts.
So Ryan:
Thank You!
-Kevin Runde
Filed in: Team Member Blog
