Disqus - Latest Comments for Reg Braithwaite

Re: Brilliantly wrong

Reg Braithwaite — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 11:40:55 -0000

"While an Undo feature could be useful, isn't this just coddling people who should otherwise be paying closer attention to what they are doing?"

How shall I put this?

While a source code repository with version control could be useful, isn't this just coddling programmers who should otherwise be paying closer attention to what they are doing?

Re: Incubators, accelerators, and ignition

Reg Braithwaite — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 08:27:26 -0000

For those who are interested, yes I do advise startups from time to time on an informal basis. My observation is that typically I am approached by startups with a strong technology founder or founders. They know of me through my development activities, so they are motivated to seek me out and exchange ideas.

That's terrific, and technology-centric founder please don't stop: I love talking with fellow developers! At the same time, I have a sneaking suspicion that the technology-centric founders would do well to also seek out business-centric advisors and learn to manage the resulting impedance mismatch. Likewise, business-centric founders might benefit even more from bringing a technology-centric advisor on board to complement their strengths.

Re: State of Music Now

Reg Braithwaite — Mon, 12 May 2008 19:59:32 -0000

Thanks for the link love! You have an intriguing idea there: Labels transforming radio.

Reg Braithwaite's last blog post..Show, Don't Tell at http://weblog.raganwald.com

Re: Hexangular Gazebo

Reg Braithwaite — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 15:22:14 -0000

Going with the charitable interpretation, I'm going to say this is a "backless" design.

Re: Practice and perfection

Reg Braithwaite — Wed, 24 May 2006 09:44:09 -0000

Thanks for the link love! I look forward to reading more from "Outside the Box."

Re: Why You Have To Work For A Startup

Reg Braithwaite — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 21:58:00 -0000

"the experience you get creating stuff that hasn’t existed before is so much more useful than the experience you get implementing somebody else’s ideas or going over ground that’s already been thoroughly explored."

Giles, no truer words were e'r spoken. Or as Orson Welles put it, Always have a dream. Why spend your life building somebody else's vision?"

Re: Why You Have To Work For A Startup

Reg Braithwaite — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 06:51:00 -0000

John Jeese:

I am still very much impressed by how computers work, thirty-two years after I first started programming.

Is this any different than an Astronomer who is still impressed by how the Universe works after decades of research?

And Ruby is a tool like any other. True. But why do you suggest that tools can't be cool?

Re: Implementing the *ect methods in terms of inject

Reg Braithwaite — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 14:44:00 -0000

Thanks for the link love, terrific post. You might also find these mildly amusing:

http://weblog.raganwald.com/2007/11/really-simp...
http://weblog.raganwald.com/2007/11/really-usef...

Re: The Crunch Mode Paradox: Turning Superstars Average

Reg Braithwaite — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 14:13:00 -0000

Thanks for the quote and the link!

Controversial indeed... I myself do not always refuse the bidding of stake holders, even when I believe they are wrong. But I do insist that they understand the trade-offs they are making before trying practices I believe to be unproductive, such as sustained overtime.

It doesn't always help, but I often try to crack a joke to make the point. In the case of crunch mode, my standard line is:

"No problem. I can do almost as much work in seventy hours as I can in fifty."

Re: The Crunch Mode Paradox: Turning Superstars Average

Reg Braithwaite — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 16:05:00 -0000

I must admit I have trouble with the argument that "it's an emergency, it's critical." That makes it sound like an exceptional circumstance. Ok, if that happens on one project out of ten or twenty, fine. But when it happens on every milestone of every project, you have to step back and stop pretending there is an emergency and recognize that you are managing *for* this outcome.

Imagine, if you will, the question of performing open-heart surgery on an overweight forty year-old smoker with blocked arteries/aorta/whatever. Obviously, it's an emergency, get out the knife.

But if the same person is back in twenty-four months for more surgery, and they haven't lost weight, they haven't stopped smoking, what are you to say? Clearly this is no longer "emergency surgery," the patient is choosing a course of action that will end up with surgery.

Re: The Crunch Mode Paradox: Turning Superstars Average

Reg Braithwaite — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 14:13:00 -0000

Re: The Crunch Mode Paradox: Turning Superstars Average

Reg Braithwaite — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 16:05:00 -0000

Re: Check Email Address with JavaScript and Regular Expressions

Reg Braithwaite — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 23:37:41 -0000

I like the idea, but I would be hesitant to adopt this particular regular expression without description of which legal email addresses it does not accept and which illegal addresses it permits.

For an example of a regular expression that does a decent job alongside an explanation of which cases it does not cover, see this:

http://www.regular-expressions.info/email.html

My personal preference is to cover most of the simple cases and issue a warning for everything else rather than rejecting it. If Bob really want sto submit bob@com.museum rather than bob@museum.com, why not let him?

Re: Ruby Currying

Reg Braithwaite — Mon, 25 May 2009 16:23:41 -0000

The curry definitions given here mess with Proc#arity, don't they? In other words:

lambda { |x,y| x + y }.arity => 2

class Proc
def curry(*p)
lambda {|*args| self.call(*(p+args))}
end
end

lambda { |x,y| x + y }.curry(1).arity => -1

I would expect the 'curried' function to have an arity of one. Also, is this currying or partial application?