Some time back, well I can place it between Oct 1997 and mid 1998, I went looking for information about 'smilies,' or 'emoticons' as the are now often called. The internet was a much smaller place, so finding information was (in some ways) easier; but equally, search engines weren't everything we might expect today, and so finding information was (in some ways) harder [www.altavista.digital.com was my weapon of choice, tho' I used others].
In 1995 a friend had printed on A4 the symbols *:O) and stuck it to her fridge. This was my first encounter with the idea of making faces using ASCII. Whilst I had known about Bulletin Boards and the like, they weren't something I'd had much opportunity to play with; though I was computer minded, I had not been exposed to various esoteric elements that we now take for granted.
So there I was, on a dull Friday afternoon, working for Seele (UK) Ltd, looking after their network at the London Fruit and Wool Exchange (lovely place, actually); I dialled up to wander the web, something that wasn't really a common thing to do. I typed in Penny's hieroglyphic to see what else there was about of a similar format. Scott Fahlman's Smiley Lore page already existed, which was a good read - this was before the concerted effort by Microsoft and others to find his original post in 1982 which suggested :-) as a way of highlighting that a thought should be taken lightly.
I also found a few pages which listed out known derivatives - those we know well, like wink ;-) tongue out :-p etc, but also a collexion of many and varied peculiar and artful items. However, I saw a gap. Something was missing. Thus I submitted my contribution to the smiley world, and it made it on to a number of pages which have long since disappeared.
It was 'Davy Crockett'
Q:-)
I give it again in support of all those whose frontiers are wild - may they become kings (and queens) in such places.
Saturday, 25 September 2010
Friday, 24 September 2010
Heck is other people's code
It's been a couple of weeks since my last post, so whilst Bill Bruford's Earthworks captures my aural attention, I will vent a little about one of the main hassles that can beset a jobbing programmer - received code.
I am currently engaged in 3 projects (yay! I have some work!), two of which are longer standing than my recent redundancy. But all three are causing me grief in one way or another...
In most lines of work, one can generally pick up where another has left off. One will mumble and grumble about certain things that have been done before, or be pleasantly surprised by other bits of what is found. A clerk might despair of their previous incumbent's filing incompetence; a solicitor may be pleased to see the last person to touch a case made a note about an often overlooked piece of law; handymen will often have little praise for the last person to lay hands on the items that they have been called to 'fix.'
Software is little different from any other discipline in this respect. When one starts a new project, or returns to work on something that one hasn't touched for a long time (even six months can be a long time in programming), there can be many "err.. Qu'est-ce qui se passe?" moments (I'll refrain from the more common exclamations..). Equally there can be a number of 'oh, that's pretty neat' epiphanies, but they are generally fewer and farther between.
So I have three projects. The latest I have received generally seems of a reasonable standard, and certainly does what's its supposed to (it's code for two products which have been on the market for some time); however, getting the thing to compile on the various platforms for which it's specified has been a challenge, and one I have not been able to get through without some very gratefully received help. Most places I have worked, the received code will at least have the decency to be able to construct itself if you tell it where to look for its component parts. Alas this one has been an uphill struggle; it's almost there, but not totally done yet, hence taking a break to reflect here just to regain some clarity.
The other two projects are conversion projects of work I have previously undertaken (MIDI Madness and a vocal plugin written for the NTrack software studio). Both pieces of kit work well and are 'in the wild', but the respective clients asked me to make them available for the Apple Macintosh [a 'mac' for those unaware of the history ;-)]. This has meant a complete ground-up rewrite for one, and a switch of libraries for another. Dealing with my own code is alright, here and there I notice things and wonder what I was thinking, (let's call it a 'QQSP' moment, or maybe just 'QSP' for brevity); but getting it to grips with yet another person's (or company's) idea of how something should 'work' and how I can stitch something that was perfectly solid onto can be.. well, a long and quite windy road. The odd thing is that at the end of the day, both these projects will just do what they did before!
Right, well, back to it...
I am currently engaged in 3 projects (yay! I have some work!), two of which are longer standing than my recent redundancy. But all three are causing me grief in one way or another...
In most lines of work, one can generally pick up where another has left off. One will mumble and grumble about certain things that have been done before, or be pleasantly surprised by other bits of what is found. A clerk might despair of their previous incumbent's filing incompetence; a solicitor may be pleased to see the last person to touch a case made a note about an often overlooked piece of law; handymen will often have little praise for the last person to lay hands on the items that they have been called to 'fix.'
Software is little different from any other discipline in this respect. When one starts a new project, or returns to work on something that one hasn't touched for a long time (even six months can be a long time in programming), there can be many "err.. Qu'est-ce qui se passe?" moments (I'll refrain from the more common exclamations..). Equally there can be a number of 'oh, that's pretty neat' epiphanies, but they are generally fewer and farther between.
So I have three projects. The latest I have received generally seems of a reasonable standard, and certainly does what's its supposed to (it's code for two products which have been on the market for some time); however, getting the thing to compile on the various platforms for which it's specified has been a challenge, and one I have not been able to get through without some very gratefully received help. Most places I have worked, the received code will at least have the decency to be able to construct itself if you tell it where to look for its component parts. Alas this one has been an uphill struggle; it's almost there, but not totally done yet, hence taking a break to reflect here just to regain some clarity.
The other two projects are conversion projects of work I have previously undertaken (MIDI Madness and a vocal plugin written for the NTrack software studio). Both pieces of kit work well and are 'in the wild', but the respective clients asked me to make them available for the Apple Macintosh [a 'mac' for those unaware of the history ;-)]. This has meant a complete ground-up rewrite for one, and a switch of libraries for another. Dealing with my own code is alright, here and there I notice things and wonder what I was thinking, (let's call it a 'QQSP' moment, or maybe just 'QSP' for brevity); but getting it to grips with yet another person's (or company's) idea of how something should 'work' and how I can stitch something that was perfectly solid onto can be.. well, a long and quite windy road. The odd thing is that at the end of the day, both these projects will just do what they did before!
Right, well, back to it...
Monday, 6 September 2010
Signing
Thursdays will be my day for signing on at the DHSS. My first was last week. I attended as requested and was asked what I had done to find work. I listed the things I had done - trip to Reading, phone call with Rough Diamond Productions, a few job sites, etc. The lady seemed happy with this, typed it into her PC and handed me a slip to sign.
The previous day I had spent 5 billable hours playing with some source code, attempting to get it to build with some (but not enough to call 'moderate') success. I was quite happy to tell her, however the subject never came up, I was free to go after putting my pawprint to paper. I thought that it a little odd.
From 1993-1994 I signed on and did temp work. Each alternate Wednesday I attended the DHSS in Staines and declared my hours worked, and the payment received for my labours. Rarely was I asked what I had done to find more permanent work. I seem to recall every 6 or 8 months there was an interview to chat about it, but largely they were happy with the fact that I was getting work, and that they were able to support me during the more lean weeks. But last Thursday they seemed more interested in my pursuit than my success. Maybe it's because of the volume of folk seen in a post-industrial city compared to a smaller suburban town that time must be condensed to crunch the queues; maybe the focus is more on getting folk off the lists rather than helping them through; maybe the lady didn't think that anyone would sign if they'd been working; maybe she just forgot.
It was a pleasant enough experience, but there was something missing I'm sure.
The previous day I had spent 5 billable hours playing with some source code, attempting to get it to build with some (but not enough to call 'moderate') success. I was quite happy to tell her, however the subject never came up, I was free to go after putting my pawprint to paper. I thought that it a little odd.
From 1993-1994 I signed on and did temp work. Each alternate Wednesday I attended the DHSS in Staines and declared my hours worked, and the payment received for my labours. Rarely was I asked what I had done to find more permanent work. I seem to recall every 6 or 8 months there was an interview to chat about it, but largely they were happy with the fact that I was getting work, and that they were able to support me during the more lean weeks. But last Thursday they seemed more interested in my pursuit than my success. Maybe it's because of the volume of folk seen in a post-industrial city compared to a smaller suburban town that time must be condensed to crunch the queues; maybe the focus is more on getting folk off the lists rather than helping them through; maybe the lady didn't think that anyone would sign if they'd been working; maybe she just forgot.
It was a pleasant enough experience, but there was something missing I'm sure.
Investment
So my redundancy money came through... Must confess, there isn't a great deal of it left, I've been investing.
Firstly a set of drum-mics, 7 mics, I'll still need a couple more to completely mic my own standard kit (7 piece), but I also have the roto-toms which, well, one day..!
Then there's been a matter of a couple of guitars, a PRS SingleCut in Grey/Black, and a Yamaha BBG4 (blue, as pictured). The bass needs the pot on the neck pickup replacing, but that's not a complicated job.
There's been a few sundry other items, a WiFi dongle for a PC, plus a graphics tablet to come. I've set up an account on RedBubble for some graphic work I intend to sell [on the subject of RedBubble, my friend Nicola (also recently redundanted from the same establishment) has various cards and posters avialable - go look :-)]
So there it is. There was a 6string fretless bass available as well, which I can't quite justify the expense of, tho' it would be most exceedingly nice to have..
Firstly a set of drum-mics, 7 mics, I'll still need a couple more to completely mic my own standard kit (7 piece), but I also have the roto-toms which, well, one day..!
Then there's been a matter of a couple of guitars, a PRS SingleCut in Grey/Black, and a Yamaha BBG4 (blue, as pictured). The bass needs the pot on the neck pickup replacing, but that's not a complicated job.
There's been a few sundry other items, a WiFi dongle for a PC, plus a graphics tablet to come. I've set up an account on RedBubble for some graphic work I intend to sell [on the subject of RedBubble, my friend Nicola (also recently redundanted from the same establishment) has various cards and posters avialable - go look :-)]
So there it is. There was a 6string fretless bass available as well, which I can't quite justify the expense of, tho' it would be most exceedingly nice to have..
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