I’m thinking about our program and how it relates to the world. The real goal of our program (in my opinion) is two fold. First, it really helps me (and my group members) learn databases. Second, it might be a platform to start designing our own database software. If we can keep the program general and adaptable, we may be able to adapt it to many different applications. Then we can sell our services for real dough. That’s what really gets me excited…

Project management involves keeping track of various tasks in a project. To complete a project, all tasks must be completed. Programming takes a lot from this field and is all about task management.

In the engineering world, usually the management or team leads take care of project management. In construction, it is even higher up, it is the general contractor. With programming, the project management is usually all the way down at the lowest level. Programmers need to manage their programs. That is the essence of programming.

The power of the modern computer is it’s ability to handle lots of information. Databases make it possible to handle and organize a lot of information. Just about every business I have ever worked with can benefit from the power of a database. Something I recently learned.

In my mind, success is defined as reaching a goal. In this case, to reach success, it is simple, define a goal and reach it.

When it comes to programming, sometimes a common goal may not be in mind. The first thing to do is to define a goal. Then reaching the goal becomes a lot simpler.

Define the goal!

Again our group has passed the issue of complexity. To me, complexity has it’s one advantage, it gives the program more power. However, customization almost always makes things harder to use. More complexity also makes things much harder to program.

There is a nice solution, elegance. Ways to make a simple interface that can be used in complex ways. Our program looks like it will be nice and elegant. Easy to program plugins that leverage the power of java.

In any profession, interpersonal relationships are extremely important. When it comes to business, sales, or engineering, each profession deals almost exclusively with/for people. Without these interpersonal relationships, people can’t work as well and provide as much value. Working together is the basis of society!

In programming, I think it is especially important. Software only does one thing, transport information. Information is only valuable to humans and their interpretations. Software almost exclusively deals with people, so then why do computer science people try to be hermits all the time?

I have a computer that has Windows XP Professional. I just updated it for security. The update went normally until reboot. At reboot, the system continually reboots before getting to the logon screen. The system goes through the bootloader and starts initializing drivers, demons, etc. I believe it’s a driver that throws an exception (handled or unhandled) and causes the system to crash and reboot.

This represents a hazard with updates, especially with Windows. So many thousands of drivers and hardware possibilities, it is a wonder this stuff doesn’t happen more often. It is just not possible to test all hardware possibilities. And murphy’s law states “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.” For software, this can’t be more true. Especially if you are distributing to a couple million computers, every exception will be tested at some point.

To make better software, reduce the possibilities. Do this by simplifying the system. Simple systems always have fewer problems.

This is the first post on my blog (duh)!  Of course, in it has to be a hello world post.  What else would be better?

This blog is here to make my site seem a little more alive.  It seriously is pretty dry, so the blog gives me a chance to lighten it up a bit.

So clean code co is a new company I just put together.  The idea came when my friend almost got hired to a company to clean up some nasty, uncommented code that nobody knew how to use.  He said “Heck no, I don’t want to do that boring job!”  Well me being the business person recognized the opportunity to start a consulting firm.  Not many programmers like commenting, however, there is a huge need for it to be done.  So I decided to start learning about it to help solve this major problem.

So this blog describes my learning process.  I already have a good idea of what to do, but like any consultant, I’m still not the best I can be.