About Eric Hartwell's InfoDabble

-New- NewsStream: Summarized pick of the litter from my aggregated feeds

• "Patch it until it's robust"
• On Error Resume Next
• Saturn's Moons: Cassini Images
• The Legendary Pacifist's Guide to Halo 2
• Convergence in Academic Jargon Generation and Parsing

I've been using Radio Userland since the start of 2002, but as you can see I don't post publicly a lot. Mostly I use it as part of my toolkit for managing the information glut. When I see something interesting in my aggregator, I either "clip" the article or file it in one of my Radio categories, such as Tips. Radio stores posts in an XML database, which is about as generic as you can get. By the way, Radio also makes an excellent project log tool (see Multi-Author Weblog Tool). The fine control of which categories to upstream makes it easy to post to different private servers instead of this public server.

This particular page is also a handy place to collect assorted links for use when I'm away, such as my browser home page and 401/427/QEW traffic watch.

About Me

As it says in an earlier article, "Eric Hartwell is dedicated to finding and/or building the right tools to free his life from clutter and make room for the important things: toys and play." Let's face it: computers don't simplify your life or get things done faster. They're just tools to help you get more done in the little time you have. If they don't, then they're not working right - probably because of bad or missing design.

I'd call myself a "solutions architect" if that didn't sound like buzzword bingo. Call me a system architect, maybe. I believe that:

• The only software worth writing is software that has never been written before.
  • Re-use saves documenting, debugging, testing, and maintenance time as well as development time. Refactor where possible.
  • We have so much computer horsepower available these days that you need a really good reason to optimize code for the computer's sake.
  • Let the framework handle the details and concentrate your time on getting results.
     
• No technology is worthwhile if it doesn't address the business problem.
  • Just because it's logically or mathematically correct doesn't mean it's correct in the real world.
  • Just because it's automated doesn't make it better.
  • Sometimes it's wiser to involve a real person than to try and code for all the 1% cases (especially if nobody understands them).
  • If your company doesn't sell software then maybe you shouldn't be writing it.
     
• Try to get it right the first time.
  • Use the best tools available.
  • Let somebody else help you design, write and test.
    Use stubs for "fill it later" rather than "fix it later".
  • Build it so it's easy to change.
  • Document before you code.
  • Document details of coding, debugging, testing. Informal notes are invaluable.
      
• Don't rely on a single vendor, but don't count on decent support when you mix vendors.
   
• Don't mix business and religion.
  • Just because something [comes, doesn't come] from [company, organization] doesn't mean that it's [divinely right, evil].
  • No language/methodology/operating system/supplier is "better" for every purpose. They're all tools, and you need the right tool for the job. The more tools you can use, the better.
  • The tools are not as important as the result, unless you're a tool maker.

Articles on the Web

• Apollo 17 - The Blue Marble
  "The Blue Marble" is one of the most widely distributed photographic images in existence. NASA officially credits the image to the entire Apollo 17 crew - "The identity of the photographer is unverifiable." But is it really? A lot of detective work makes a strong case to identify Jack Schmitt as the photographer ... and produces a unique compilation of the full Earth photos taken during Apollo 17's coast to the moon
   
• 2006 Wall Calendars
  Why doesn't NASA make better use of their glorious photo resources? The official 2006 NASA wall calendar, as usual, focuses on manned space flight ... which is a little dull when there's not a lot of manned space flight going on. Anyway, since I couldn't find a decent Cassini calendar, I decided to make my own. Then a Mars Rover calendar. Then one for more of the robot explorers... which is, I think, enough. See them all here.
   
• NewsStream Pick of the litter from my aggregated feeds -- Summarized
• Please Don't Screen Me Out (PowerPoint)
• Outlook Mail Backup + HTML embedded images (Planet Source Code)
• Enhanced Flat ComboBox Control
• Exoware Tech Notes (Client's "MyApp" project 1998-2000):
  • Using the Custom ComboBox Control
  • Direct Communication with the HTML View
  • Issuing Commands to the HTML View
  • Setting HTML View Text Directly From a String
  • Using the CodeGuru HTML View Automation Classes
  • Using the HTML View Automation Classes
  • Implementing the ADO Plan Database

My Home Network (really)

Contact me

© Copyright 2005 Eric Hartwell. Last update: 4/18/2005; 1:16:24 PM. This theme is based on the SoundWaves (blue) Manila theme.