This is the 2nd article in the Design Principles to Live By series. An interface is--for the purposes of this post at least--an abstract definition of the functionality of an object. It is the signature of a class divorced from its implementation....

This is the 3rd post in the Design Principles to Live By series. Coupling is the degree to which software components depend on each other. Tight coupling is a high degree of dependence. In practical terms, it means one component needs intimate knowledge...

Joel Spolsky suggests that we should have something called a BFA in Software Development . That is, a Bachelor's in Fine Arts focused on creating software. I think he's onto something. I've called for something similar in the past. Presently there are...

I was recently listening to an interview with Joel Spolsky . The main subject is interviewing and hiring, but in the course of the interview Joel touches on an interesting point. He says that there are two major types of software: Shrinkwrap and Custom...

Not a great start for 2008 out here in Seattle. We had a big fireworks display at midnight on the Space Needle. Unfortunately, there were some glitches. The fireworks were coordinated by a computer, but it had some " glitches " and eventually they had...

I just finished reading Wil Wheaton's "Just a Geek."  It recounts his struggles after leaving Star Trek.  Today Wil Wheaton is a prominent Geek.  He has 3 books, a popular blog, and was the keynote speaker at PAX 2007.  However...

I started On the Edge:  The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Commodore this summer but had to put it on hold as I went back to class.  Now that class is done, I have a few weeks to read what I want and finishing this was my first order of business...

Apparently Warner Music just announced that they were releasing all of their tracks DRM-free. That makes 3 of the big four giving the heave-ho to DRM. Sony is now the lone holdout against the future. How long until they give in to the inevitable? Next...

It took a lot longer than I expected but this is first installment of my Design Principles To Live By series:  Encapsulate Variation.  This is a quick tour through the principles behind the design patterns.  Following these allows will...

Here's my white Christmas:

Merry Christmas everyone. I hope you are all able to spend some good time with family and friends. I'm off to see what Santa brought me. [2 hours later] We finished opening presents and it started to snow! Not a little snow, but a lot of snow. Large...

I talk about it a lot, but I don't know that I've ever defined it. A reader recently wrote in and asked what exactly this was. I suppose that means I should give a better explanation of it. Long ago in a galaxy far, far away, testers were computer-savvy...

One of my team members, Matthew van Eerde, just joined the blog world. Check out his inaugural post .

Vista SP1 RC1 has just been released for public consumption. If you want to try it out, you can do so here . I'm running this on most of my machines without incident. This includes my Media Center at home. So, from my few data points, it seems quite stable...

Bill Crow, best known for his work on HDPhoto/JPEG-XR, has a great post about dynamic range and color spaces. If you are into photography or video, understanding this is important. As we try to aggregate video from more and more sources onto varying display...

Object-oriented design and design patterns can seem complex. There are a lot of ideas and cases to consider. However, there are a handful of principles that, if followed, will result in code that complies with most if not all of the patterns. These are...

If you're anything like me, you have way too much e-mail to read it all. To try to cope with this, I've resorted to a collection of rules that sorts my mail into a Byzantine structure of folders. This helps a little, but has the problem of helping me...

With my new Zune, I've started watching some video netcasts. Here are the ones I've found the most interesting so far: Tekzilla - Feels a lot like old TechTV. 1/2 hour an episode talking about everything from routers to Black Friday sales. The GigaOm...

Over the past few years I have become an avid podcast listener. I've been using Creative MP3 players until this point. I have owned a Zen Nano, Zen Stone Plus, and a Zen Vision M. The first was good its 1 GB size became restricting. The second was a good...

It is Thanksgiving today. My wife and I will be having a small gathering of about nine family members. I always enjoy getting some time to put work aside for a few days just hang out with family. I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving today and that...

Some resume advice from Steve Yegge. I don't agree with all of it but it's good stuff to consider when writing your technical resume.

Steve Yegge from Amazon offers his Five Essential Phone Screen Questions . It's an old post, but a good one. His advice is solid. It's always disappointing to bring in a promising candidate for an interview only to have them bomb. It would be much better...

Saw this over on {Codesqueeze}. He talks about the danger of self-organizing teams. When people aren't given clear responsibilities, things get dropped. If there is a task which belongs to everyone it will in the end be accomplished by no one. Everyone...

If you want digital audio in a computer, you have to get it from somewhere. Usually that means taking analog sound out of the air and turning it into the bits that a computer can understand. Ars Technica gives us another installment of the AudioFile....

Let me recount a story from the television show Babylon 5 . In one episode there is the description of guard posted in the middle of an empty courtyard. There is nothing there to protect. When one of the characters, Londo, questions why, he finds that...