taint.org: Justin Mason’s Weblog

Work: I took a look over at Edd Dumbill’s weblog recently, and came across this posting on planning programming projects. He links to another article and mentions:

My recent return to managing a team of people has highlighted for me the difficulties of the arbitrary deadline approach to project management. Unfortunately, it’s also the default management approach applied by a lot of people, because the concept is easy to grasp.

The arbitrary deadline method is troublesome because of the difficulty of estimation. As John’s post elaborates, you can never foresee all of the problems you’ll meet along the way. The distressing inevitability of 90% of the effort being required by 2% of the deliverable is frequently inexplicable to developers themselves. Never mind the managers remote from the development!

I’ve been considering why my experience of working with open source seems generally preferable to commercial work, and this may be one of the key elements. Commercial software development is deadline-driven, whereas most open source development has not been, in my experience; ‘it’s ready when it’s ready’.

Edd suggests that using a trouble-ticket-based system for progress tracking and management is superior. I’m inclined to agree.

Tags: approach, deadline, development, dumbill, edd, experience, look, management, source, weblog, work

It seems alarm clocks may be responsible for more than just waking you up at unfriendly hours of the day — they may also make you hallucinate and imagine visitations from supernatural beings, according to Michael Persinger, a psychologist who’s been investigating the effects of complex electromagnetic fields on the brain’s perception. He says:

As a human being, I am concerned about the illusionary explanations for human consciousness and the future of human existence. Consequently after writing the Neuropsychological Base of God Beliefs (1987), I began the systematic application of complex electromagnetic fields to discern the patterns that will induce experiences (sensed presence) that are attributed to the myriad of ego-alien intrusions which range from gods to aliens. The research is not to demean anyone’s religious/mystical experience but instead to determine which portions of the brain or its electromagnetic patterns generate the experience.

So it turns out that Horizon, the BBC science programme, has just shown an episode about Dr. Persinger’s work. The transcript isn’t up yet, unfortunately, but some mails on the forteana list make it sound like it’ll be well worth a read when it is. (It’ll be here, apparently.)

One great find is this paper:

‘A left-handed Roman Catholic female adolescent with a history of early brain trauma reported nightly visitations by a sentient being. During one episode she experienced vibrations of the bed, an external presence along the left side that moved into her body, inner vaginal (not clitoral) and uterine sensations, and the sense of being impregnated by a force she attributed to the Holy Spirit. After the latter experience she felt an invisible baby superimposed upon her left shoulder. Analyses of the measurements for magnetic anomalies within her bedroom indicated an electric clock about 20 cm from her head while she slept. The complex form of the 4 microT magnetic pulses generated by the clock was similar to shapes that evoke electrical seizures in epileptic rats and sensitive humans.’

Also worth noting that Richard Dawkins has little aptitude for religious feelings, even magnetically-induced ones!

Tags: alarm, brain, clock, day, episode, experience, hallucinate, presence, psychologist, supernatural

Thank ghod this is one experience of SE Asia I missed. I came across this blog through some random blog-hopping last night; it’s two farang tourists blogging their backpacking trip through the region. All great fun until they both catch Dengue fever:

Dengue is commonly called ‘break bone fever’, and I found out why at about 2 AM on the train. I woke up with a 102 fever, in the most intense pain I can recall having in years. Everything hurt, but especially my back and legs. Harper later described the sensation as one of having someone scrape your bones with a knife, and that sounds about right.

Jesus. I am so thankful I missed out on that particular aspect (a mild bout of food poisoning with a fever of 104 was all I had to put up with!)

Dengue fever is endemic to many parts of the region, even Bangkok , the capital city of Thailand. It gets a lot less attention than malaria, since it’s not fatal in the vast majority of cases (unless you get the rarer haemorrhagic version), but it is excruciating by all accounts, and I’ve met quite a few travellers who’ve met someone who caught it. Unfortunately there’s not much you can do to avoid it but slather on the DEET, cover up, and hope for the best.

Tags: blog, dengue, experience, farang, fever, ghod, night, region, someone, trip

William Gibson, talking about why he uses all-caps book titles, gives a short history lesson regarding the rendering of book titles, back in the age of the mimeograph:

Much of my earliest typewriting experience had to do with mimeography, a pre-thermocopy form of reproduction once fairly universal in the world’s offices. You typed, once, on a waxed paper ’stencil’, clipped this over a silkscreen device with a moving pad or drum of ink behind it, and your mimeograph ran off (or silkscreened, really) as many copies of your document as you required. Owing to the physical peculiarities of the medium, though, it was unwise to underline too frequently on a mimeograph stencil: the single unbroken line was particularly prone to tear, producing leaks and smudging.

People who liked books, and frequently wrote letters, on typewriters, to other people who liked books, tended, free from the constraints of an academic stylesheet, to render titles in all-caps. People who wrote about books for publication in amateur journals (mimeo was an authentic medium of the American samisdat) rendered titles in all-caps in order to avoid stencil-tears. At various times, I was both.

It’s such a pleasure having this kind of stuff to read every day!

Tags: age, book, experience, history, lesson, medium, mimeograph, mimeography, rendering, stencil

Looks like my extensive Laxo and Publin experience will come in handy, if things get tight.

Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2001 15:15:33 -0500
From: “Damien Morton” (spam-protected)
To: “Jason Borum” (spam-protected)
Subject: RE: Programming position?

Dear Jason,

Thanks for your interest in employment at Dennis Interactive. These are indeed tough times, but its always good to hear from someone with as broad and varied experience as yours. Im am particularily impressed with your familiarity with Xwad and Verible. You time at E*pregnate must have been an interesting one.

Whilst we arent currently looking for T and T++ programmers, your experience with PROBOL and XVRT suggests that the transition to our in-house programming language, BABEL, would be a relatively painless one. We will certainly keep you on file for a later date, should we have an opening for someone of your calibre.

Thanks again for your interest.

---

Damien Morton, Technical Director, Dennis Interactive

The glass is neither half-full nor half-empty. Its too big.

—–Original Message—– From: Jason Borum
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2001 2:24 PM
To: Damien Morton
Subject: Programming position?

Hi there:

I realize that in the current economic climate, jobs are scarce. But I believe I fill a programming niche overlooked by many employers. Please take a look at my attched resume, and let me know if you think I’d be a good match with Dennis Interactive.

Thanks! \jason

---

Jason Borum (spam-protected)

Goal: A position that will utilize my knowledge of programming languages,
operating systems, software products, and programming methodologies

Description: I have work-experience in a broad range of programming
languages in a number of different industries, and I believe that I have my finger on the pulse of the latest technological developments. I’m an ‘out of the box’ thinker willing to learn any and all new technolgies. My motto is “whatever it takes to do the job”.

Programming Languages: T+, T++, PROBOL, TSP2, TSP3, RSP, XVRT, XEL, XSM, AHP, EVML, NOML, QML, YML, LOGO

Development Tools: EUnit (EX, SX, SI, TI), Verible, SR Promoly, WevCan, WevCan SE, WevCan Pro, EyePopper 2.0, PluTo, Xwad, Spelunker

Databases: DuBase(4,5), NuQL, MyNuQL, XKSBase, WooferBase

Operating Systems: Eunichs, Firewater NT, Publin, Raxin, Laxo (FUI, TNP/TNT)

Experience: 06/1999 - Present E*Pregnate Senior TSP Engineer

-Developed OMP methodology for TSP reporting -Implemented XJIB based server-side reporting utilizing PluTo shell -Created SR Promly reports with UFML Port and XPO -Programmed multi-tier MRAF based on DuBase 4,5 -Engineered blocked WIML procedure with Laxo Connectivity

04/1998-06/1999 PolyAnemic.com RCSC Analyst

-Ported Publin 1.8.x content from legacy Raxin system -Utilized DMP 1.3/1.4 for EDE triggers -Secured KYB connection with ESS (XK, XL) -Analyzed RCSC driver with XLUnit, FoGrois

08/1997-04/1998 Bendix & Formalade IHML Developer

-Developed IHML surface for PROBOL, XSM EEIU system -Designed TNP/TNT FUI for ROP -Made coffee -TSP4 driven DCV System with PIO Connectivity -Created copies of documents using a P&H KX43400 ML Series photocopier

04/1997-08/1997 Orange Julius Customer Service

-Prepared Orange Julius drinks -Prepared and servered hot dogs -Answered phones -Took out trash -Swept and mopped

http://xent.com/mailman/listinfo/fork

Tags: date, experience, interest, laxo, looks, position, programming, publin, someone, tue