2007 January 03 « Pale Musings

Lowering the Cost of Space Flight

On November 13th, 2006, Blue Origin had a successful test flight of a vehicle that is one step towards development of a launch / landing system for future spacecraft. According to their sight they are “working, patiently and step-by-step, to lower the cost of spaceflight so that many people can afford to go and so that we humans can better continue exploring the solar system.”

That is, in my opinion, a goal that is both noble and large. I wish them the best of luck. I would love to travel into space in my lifetime, although I doubt that technology will move fast enough for that to happen without winning the lottery! Thanks to people like those at Blue Origin my son and daughter may have that opportunity in their lifetime and that brings at least some satisfaction.

January 3, 2007 Posted by palehorse | Science, Space | Leave a Comment

What Skill is Most Desired?

A colleague recently asked my opinion of the most desirable skill I looked for in a software engineer. Without hesitation I replied with the ability to learn new concepts, technologies and code. Basically the skill to “figure it out,” whatever it is.

This is an ambiguous answer, I know, but it’s valid. The ambiguity comes from the skill itself. It means having the ability to analyse a situation, be it a requirement, bug, or problem not yet solved, and come up with the mental plan to learn what you need to accomplish the goal. It is similar in mental processing to the way a running back decides to spin left away from his blockers, or the quarter back who decides to throw to the 3rd receiver underneath because most of the defenders have dropped deep with the wide outs.

Football anaologies aside for now. let’s examine what I’m trying to describe. Suppose you are give the task of writing a function that receives the path to a compressed file and a destination path and the function simply uncompresses the contents of the file to the destination. Sounds easy enough however you have never done that before in code and to add to the requirement, the files will all be using the gzip compression format. How do you go about it?

Of course I’m not going to go into detail, but this scenario should spark in your mind the steps you would go through to identify the libraries you need to to perform the function. The question is how did you know these steps, or did you know these steps?

This is one of those skills that is hard to teach. Of course you can ask someone, but the answer you get may not help, or the person asked may not have the time to help any more than “check out SharpZipLib” leaving you to figure it out.

This may seem to be common sense, and in truth it is, but it is still a skill and needs active development for improvement. How do you do it? Returning to the football example, the same way the running back or quarter back develops their vision of how to run or throw of course!

Practice!

One of the best practice methods that I have used for years is simple. Always keep a side project going. This project should have a few qualities.

It should be something relatively small.
It should not be too important. Many of my side projects end up getting thrown out once I’ve learned what I wanted to from them, while others have evolved into great utilities.
It should be something that is useful. It is always easier to work on something that you can see value in rather than something that is just a test bed, even if that usefulness is never completed.
It should not be one of your primary projects.
It should contain an aspect that forces you to use a new technology, pattern or library. Sure, you may be able to accomplish that decompression by using Process.Start() running a command line utility, but you should not do it! Force yourself to learn how to use that library to do it elegantly!
You should abandon it after you have learned what you needed to unless the value in completing the project is large enough. This lets you move on to learning something new.

That last step is optional and it depends on the time that you have to put into it. In my situation it seems like there is never enough time, something I am sure a lot of people feel. I do not feel the need for closure on many of these small projects that I start. Frequently I know of or discover some utility or macro that is already available and stable enough to suite my purposes which frees me from taking the time to finish off the project and move on to learning something else.

Of course this is all the opinion of one humble developer. What do you feel is the most valuable skill for a software engineer. I would love to hear what you think is important.

January 3, 2007 Posted by palehorse | Development | 3 Comments

Mediocre Extremes: The Phenomenom of an Execution

The past few days have seen a flurry of articles and videos on the execution of Saddam. While I admit it is newsworthy, my opinion is that it is being blown way out of proportion. I am not surprised by that fact considering the state of our society. We are a people of mediocre extremes.

That may sound like an oxymoron, but bear with me for a minute. When you look at the things that gain our interested and “raise our blood” it is usually something that involves death or the possibility of death in some fashion. Tragedy makes us behave better towards our fellows for a time, but it is brief in the scheme of things. Hurricane Katrina, for example, brought out some of the best in people through charity in many forms. But why did it take such a disaster? There are and have been many in dire need throughout the world before and since that we, as a society, tend to ignore. Some people, bless them, live in the spirit of charity. Most do not.

I include myself in the list of those that don’t, so before you call me a hypocrite realize that this “rant” is aimed more at myself than anyone else. In truth that is not what ths post is about.

As I stated, there has been an extraordinary amount of online content concerning the execution of Saddam. The videos have leaked left and right as you would expect in this information age we are in and the emotions caused have been varied and diverse. Some people support the execution, some do not. Some are appalled by the availability of the video and audio whereas others are eager for it. Reading through many of the opinions has lead me to the realization that we are still moved deeply by things of this nature. The difference is that we do nothing about any of it.

In reading the blog of Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, he posted a humorous bit on the execution. Some people took it as he intended as humor, other were deeply offended and went so far as to leave comments that they will never read his blog again. These people think they are doing something by leaving this comment, that they are making a difference. Wrong.

Here in the States, we have so many different groups that support this or are against that. Using an easy example, we’ll talk about those sides that disagree on the U.S.’s involvement in the Middle East and specifically Iraq. Many pick one side or the other. You probably do, as do I. What are the sides doing however? Blogging about it? Setting up websites to tell others our onions? Who is listening?

Turn the clock back 40 years. The country was divided. They people did not have the medium of blogging and websites to voice their options so they did what the constitution has allowed for over 200 years. They gathered. They voiced their opinions in a venue that got the attention of the people. Sometimes they went too far and violence ensued, but that is what happens when passionate people come in contact with each other.

Today we write our little blog posts and hope that someone reads it. Some are fortunate enough, like Scott Adams, to have a large following, but in truth most of the people that tend to read the online opinions do so with an like mindset already. The government certainly doesn’t hear about it. Oh sure, there are “protests” but nothing like the gatherings of the 60′s and 70′s. Nothing that the government really has to pay attention to.

Having typed all of that it seems like someone may have an idea where I stand on issues. In truth I have tried to muddle the issue enough on both sides because my point has nothing to do with Iraq, Saddam, or the price of fuel at the local Chevron station. It has to do with the change in our perception of how we go about affecting change in the world around us. It has to do with the the decline in our true passion.

It has to do with the mediocre extremes.

January 3, 2007 Posted by palehorse | Blogging, Humor, Internet | Leave a Comment

More thoughts on the Wildcard game

It should be no surprise that the Hawks are scoring less per game this year than last. Mike Sando has figured the numbers and presented them in Seahawks Insider – ’05 Hawks favored by 7 1/2. He notes that that the Hawks are 7-2 when they score at least 20 points. Looking further into that we can see that the Cowboys are averaging 26 points per game this year and in 2 of their last 3 they’ve scored 31, so the Hawk’s job this week is going to be tough.

The other item of interest is that the analysts on ESPN that I’ve heard so far favor Seattle at home. I guess it is my pessimistic side coming out, but when everyone picks them to win it worries me. I still think they’ll do it, but my confidence is a little lower than it was yesterday.

January 3, 2007 Posted by palehorse | Seahawks, Sports | Leave a Comment

Phishing with Flash

In F-Secure : News from the Lab – January of 2007 describe sites that are popping up ising Flash to illicitly gain information about you. This technique (the illicit information gathering, not that it is using Flash) is called Phishing, and while it’s been around a while I am still amazed at the number of people that do not understand what is going on.

The trick is for the Phisher to create a website that looks exactly like a site you would trust complete with a URL that is close enough to the real one to seem legitimate. The website simulates something such as a PayPal login. Some are sophisticated enough that they pass you off to the real site after you have attempted to login, but by then it is too late! The Phisher has your account information and before you know it, your money is gone!

If you, as I, are among those that understand this threat then I encourage you to take the responsibility to educate your family, friends, and when the opportunity presents itself others that you meet or know. If you are having a conversation that is related to computers or the Internet, actively guide it to bring out the facts about Phishing! These Phishers are illegally stealing information from people, and who knows, the next person could be your mother. Add to that the fact that they are becoming more sophisticated all the time and it is a scary thought.

According to the F-Secure article on why Phishers are moving to use flash;

Probably the main to reason to do this is to try to avoid phishing toolbars that analyze page content.

That makes sense. They are immoral punks, but they are also smart punks. Why do they do it you may ask? Because it is big business! They make a lot of money doing it. It is hard for the authorities and the legal system to make a difference, it is just too easy for them to avoid prosecution. A few do find their way into the courts, but it is obviously not much of a deterrent. The best way to fight them, in my opinion, is to make the practice not profitable. Let’s do that by educating people! Tell the ones you know and love about the dangers and how to avoid them! Make a difference!

January 3, 2007 Posted by palehorse | Internet, Security | Leave a Comment