Disqus - Latest Comments for jfcouture

Re: Why didn't Jack die in the "Heart of the Island" like Jacob's brother?

jfcouture — Thu, 27 May 2010 20:02:56 -0000

1st theory: It was one last f u from Jacob to MIB. Jack being good and not corruptible is why he didn't turn into another smoke monster, and it meant Jacob won his 'bet' against the MIB that not all men are evil.

2nd theory: Jack does get a fate worse than hell, eternity with Kate ;)

Re: The Key to Startup Hiring: Build a Magnet

jfcouture — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:55:28 -0000

As a ruby on rails developer here in Montreal, I've met a few startups in the last 2 months. I should probably write a full post about my experiences, but here's a few quick thoughts.

All your points are so very true. Startups, you need to market yourselves to prospective employees! It seems you expect developers to want to work for you, just because you're a startup. That's not how it works. And if you want top talent, guess what? Top talent probably has many other options too.

Also, if you're "under the radar" and have not built buzz yet, you need to tell me more about you want to build than just "it's about social networks". Working in a startup can be great, but you need to get me excited about the product.

Re: Marty Haught

jfcouture — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:29:17 -0000

I like what you're saying. However, I'd argue that what you're describing is still agile. The term agile has been so much bastardized in the past few years that sometimes I don't know anymore what people are talking about when they use the term.

Pair programming is just one practice commonly used in agile processes, as is storycarding and automated testing. Agile at its core is a set of values and principles. You can be agile without those practices. And adapting your process to the context is definitively agile in spirit.

I think the real point of your article is that for a small, 1 man, 3 week part time project, you don't need much process to deliver.

Re: To self. or not to self.

jfcouture — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 17:53:46 -0000

Actually, the reason I personally started using self almost everywhere is because of ActiveRecord. I use self to indicate that it's an attribute of the model that's defined in the database. I think I started doing it after inheriting a legacy app with huge models file. Everytime I needed to change something, I always had trouble finding where the method/attribute was defined or remembring if it was an attribute.

Re: Ruby Best Practices - Fun with Class.new

jfcouture — Sat, 02 May 2009 11:19:59 -0000

I'm sorry I wasn't clear. In general when defining errors class, 99% of the time you want to subclass StandardError and not Exception. You also generally don't want to catch Exception directly as this prevents from ctrl-c interrupt to gracefully exit. Also rescue => e only catches StandardError. Since this is a best pratice blog, I felt the need to point it out. It's a subtlety of exception handling in ruby that not everyone is aware of.

Re: Ruby Best Practices - Fun with Class.new

jfcouture — Sat, 02 May 2009 09:43:09 -0000

I think you want to use StandardError, like in the article, instead of Exception.

Re: Tips for writing your own Rails engine

jfcouture — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 16:48:00 -0000

Have you asked the core team if these issues are expected behaviour? It might be nice to have these the default in future version of rails.

Re: http://blog.rubybestpractices.com/posts/jamesbritt/2009-04-13-solving-the-problem.rc.html

jfcouture — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 20:16:30 -0000

to james and sandal:

As a developer, I totally understand why you'd want to roll your own solution! :)

I'm in the process of updating my blog so I'm looking at different solutions. I was wondering if there was something about Webby that made it seem like a bad choice for this site.

But probably the thing that confuses me the most is why you're using grit. I mean it's natural to use git to version the text files of the posts, but when generating the site, why do you need to access the git objects, instead of working directly with the files?

Re: http://blog.rubybestpractices.com/posts/jamesbritt/2009-04-13-solving-the-problem.rc.html

jfcouture — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 17:20:55 -0000

I'm not sure I understand why you built Korma. What's the difference between Korma and using Webby along with git?

Re: I'm Updating and Obsolescing Articles on My Blog — A Single Programmer's Blog

jfcouture — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 12:19:48 -0000

That's great. I think we should call this the Great Spring Cleaning!

Re: GiraffeSoft | Welcome to smarter web app development.

jfcouture — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 19:40:57 -0000

I said crappy analogy, and it's such a stupid point that I stopped halfway. But I did say that it was custom, which probably means the guy is gonna charge by the hour for his time. But maybe he's cheaper so it'll cost the same in the end. But if you need it quick, one guy will be better. (we could go on with the ifs, but the point is getting done efficiently, which in my example, would mean quicker and cost less for a carpenter).

But your reply sheds some light. You take things too personally. I did not assume you are inefficient. I said that you missed the point. This article is not about getting things done. It's kinda pointless to type 60 wpm and write a novel when you should be writing a program. The 4 points kinda assume that you are delivering working software. They're about moving from good to great. Also, another subtlety you have missed, if you reread the last paragraph, is that they did not say that you absolutely have to do these 4 things, or that they are the only 4, to be great.

This is the blog of a consulting company. They care about being as efficient as possible.

Re: GiraffeSoft | Welcome to smarter web app development.

jfcouture — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 17:26:56 -0000

And I will go to my grave wondering why so many seemingly intelligent people get by in life without basic reading comprehension skills. :P

Nobody is saying to learn every shortcut of your text editor.

And getting things done is nice and all. However, maybe you will one day realize that there is a step after getting things done: getting things done efficiently.

And since you want to bring the hammer into play, I'm going to go along with a crappy analogy: let's say you want a custom piece of furniture. You visit two carpenters. Both have great things on display. However, you get a glance at how they work. One nails each nail in one hit. The other has shaky hands, needs to slowly hit not to hit beside the nail, and needs 2 mins for each nail.

And I want to sincerely apologize for being so snarky in this post. I just hate it when people dismiss something by mischaracterizing it.

Re: Plugins I've Known and Loved #2: has_finder

jfcouture — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 14:37:00 -0000

has_finder is f awesome. I'm glad to hear it might make it into rails. When you start using it, there's no going back.

Re: Plugins I've Known and Loved #2: has_finder

jfcouture — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 14:37:00 -0000

has_finder is f awesome. I'm glad to hear it might make it into rails. When you start using it, there's no going back.

Re: Introducing resource_controller: Focus on what makes your controller special.

jfcouture — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 14:47:00 -0000

Interesting.

What's the difference between this and the make_resourceful plugin you presented at montreal on rails (except from a different api)?

Re: Testing Misconceptions #1: Exploratory Programming

jfcouture — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 22:44:00 -0000

Good article. A small nitpick however:

"Nobody is suggesting that you write your acceptance tests first."

Why not? I'd argue that acceptance tests are easier to write first as they are at a much higher level. While you may start with some exploration at the unit level for your design, you should already have an idea of what your customers expect from the application before hand.

Re: Universities Need To Develop Entrepreneurs

jfcouture — Tue, 22 May 2007 22:23:56 -0000

I may have been a bit harsh about intellectual curiosity, but I still have a hard time explaining why I couldn't convince more than 10% of the students in software or computer engineering to go to CUSEC. I shouldn't even have to try.

But this makes me think that a good portion were interested in the gaming industry. Maybe the problem is that when they hear news about technology in Montreal, it's generally about a big company opening a studio here in Montreal (Ubisoft, EA). Maybe there just needs to be a couple of hot Montreal startups all over the news so that they can see entrepreneurship as a viable solution instead of working for one of the big ones.

Re: Universities Need To Develop Entrepreneurs

jfcouture — Tue, 22 May 2007 13:32:11 -0000

Some would argue that universities should start by teaching real world skills. I've had this discussion many time in university with faculty staff, and I guess the answer depends on what you think the role of universities is, or should be (professors would say it's research).

Most universities already offer most of the things you propose. At Polytechnique, there's a four course entrepreneurship option you can follow, they have a service to help students convert their school work (mostly for masters and doc) to a company. There is the HEC entrepreneurship center that gives conference on all subjects related to starting a company. Starting last year I think, all program require at least one internship. And there is already a contest that rewards the best idea for a company with some startup money. I guess the part they fail right now is experimenting with new technology, although some professors try from time to time in one of their class.

I think most student just lack intellectual curiosity. It's tough to try and convince most of them to come to a conference such as CUSEC, that is in their city, costs almost nothing (50$) and gives them world class speakers. And of those that do decide to come, half aren't bothered to take 5 minutes to check about a subject they don't know about, and they decide to not attend some very interesting talks.

I think Mat may be on to something about it being a cultural thing.