Spaghetti, Ravioli, or Lasagna Code?

In a comment on another blog site I had written:

Poor programmers create spaghetti code.

Average/Good/Agile programmers create “ravioli” code… Thousands of little objects.

Architects (especially ones that plan more over longer time frames) create the ideal: Lasagna code, which is a layered architecture.

Choose your pasta wisely

A few people had wanted me to blog about it so they could link to it.

I just wanted to expand on the ravioli aspect because different people have different feelings about what ravioli code is.

To some people  – ravioli code — is encapsulated spaghetti. Eg, it’s spaghetti on the inside but it looks like an object on the outside. I would call this “spaghetti stuffed ravioli”.

I feel ravioli code is the “spaghetti like interaction” between the various ravioli objects…

Eg, from the outside, it’s hard to tell which Ravioli is stuffed with lobster, which one with cheese, etc.

Jordan

Further reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghetti_code goes into all the code models listed above not just spaghetti.

A Flattened Cost of Change Curve: An economic analysis

Much has been written about how a lowered cost of change curve is a benefit. And it certainly is a benefit.

However, change is still costly, in terms of both time and money, even with this lowered cost of change. In fact, even with a fairly flat cost of change, change is expensive.

C# Developer/Architect Telecommute

I am available for Telecommute C# Projects… Experience in all areas of C#/WPF including LINQ, WCF, WPF, Silverlight and more. Based in San Diego California. Please email me at jordan.bortz@gmail.com for more information

Getting 24p/5:5 Pulldown from DVD, Netflix, and Cable on your 120Hz or 240Hz TV

One of the nice things about Bluray is that it can output 24p to modern TV’s, resulting in a cinema like playback without the annoying 3:2 “Judder” long associated with playing back movies on standard TV’s.

But, there aren’t many BD discs out there compared to DVD.  Can we get this smooth playback from DVD and other sources like Netflix?

The answer is Yes — and you don’t need to buy any new player hardware to do it - to learn how keep reading!.

Are you charging too little?

I found a great little list over at Freelance Switch.

http://freelanceswitch.com/humour/top-ten-signs-you-may-be-charging-too-little/

One of my favorites:

Number 6:
Clients pay your invoices in cash from their wallet.

 

Also check out:

http://freelanceswitch.com/humour/top-ten-signs-you-may-be-charging-too-much/

Number 9:
You’re still living off a job you finished in 2005.

Losing space on Drive C? Check your WER ReportQueue

I had been losing space on Drive C for awhile and it seemed odd to me as I rarely store things on Drive C, therefore the space should not be going down.

It ended up I had 255 GB (!) of files stacked up in the Windows Error Reporting Service queue in C:\programdata\microsoft\windows\wer\reportqueue

Definitely worth checking from time to time if you have apps that crash a lot and use Windows Vista.

To find out more about this subject, as well as instructions to disable it entirely, please see this link

http://www.walkernews.net/2007/08/13/how-to-disable-vista-error-reporting-feature/

Offshoring: Fool’s Gold or Real Savings?

One thing that amazes me is that some startups still consider offshoring a cost saving option.  Offshoring will almost certainly guarantee that your first implementation will be a failure and a huge amount of time and money will be wasted. The notion that some people still think offshoring will lead to cost savings means they simply haven’t tried offshoring before.

Even sillier is venture capital boards who encourage their young companies to offshore rather than hire US Based developers.