wroolie

Head First Design Patterns

October 2, 2007 by wroolie Leave a Comment

One of the perks of where I’m working now is being able to work with talented developers again. I don’t mind the occasional solo projects, but you can learn a lot more by working in a development team. One guy I’m working with is very big into design patterns and I’ve actually become very interested in them myself.

I tried to learn some design patterns for C# about six months ago, but found them to be very complex. I was also working with some people who didn’t really see the point of them. The last contract I spent trying to convince the developers that they shouldn’t be using inline SQL in a page source. So, I didn’t have much luck learning it on my own very well. Now, I got loads of code to marvel at and compile.

When I mentioned my difficulty picking up Design Patterns to my colleague, he told me he had trouble with some of the concepts too until he read “Head First Design Patters“. He recommended it as a first book on the subject.

Head First Design Patters is a book about Design Patterns in Java, but the concepts all work with C# and seem to be the same GangOfFour patterns used by .Net developers.

The book is very easy to read and a lot more eye-opening than a lot of the other computer books I’ve read. If you are interested in learning Design Patterns, let me pass on my friends recommendation and suggest this book.

Changing in the Stalls

October 2, 2007 by wroolie Leave a Comment

I’ve been riding the motorcycle into the new contract for a month now. The last contract was great–I could work in my boots and jeans and didn’t have to worry about bringing a change of clothes. Now, I’m back to the compulsory uniform (meaning suit and tie). I’m wearing jeans or wet weather trousers into work and keep my suit shoes and trousers under my desk. I get into work, grab my suit and change in the toilet stalls.

There’s an art to changing in the toilet stalls. I’m still getting to grips with it.

First, you have to find a clean stall (no drops on the floor) with a hook.

Second, you have to find a quiet time of the day to do it.

I had a very embarrassing situation last week where I tried to change in a toilet at a busy time of day. I went into my stall and pulled off my boots, took off my trouser and was just folding them up to put into my bag. A queue was forming outside the stalls. This is when all of the change fell out of my pockets and onto the floor. It all rolled out of the stall and into the growing queue of people waiting. Since I was in my underwear and socks, I didn’t really want to walk out and start picking up my change, so I put my hand under the stall and started feeling around for the coins. I knew I had some Â£2 coins and I was going to need those for lunch later–otherwise I would have taken the hit and avoided the embarrassment. Eventually, everyone started kicking the coins back under the stall door. I deepened my voice and tried to say something masculine like “Yeah, nice one. Cheers mate.” I waited until all of the other stalls emptied and the queue was gone before I left.

It’s not easy changing in the toilets. Luckily, at the bank I’m working at now, the stalls are pretty clean.

When I told a colleague how difficult I was finding it changing in the toilets, he commented that it worked for Superman. But Superman didn’t change in the toilets– he used a phone booth or a broom closet. I couldn’t see Clark Kent sneak into the bathroom and check all of the stalls for the cleanest one to change in. “This looks like a job for Superman. Let’s see . . . this one? No, too smelly. This one? No, someone didn’t flush. This one? Skidmarks,” he would say before resigning to the first smelly one.

My point? Brink back the phone booth.

An Impressive Tag

October 2, 2007 by wroolie Leave a Comment

I’m not really a great fan of graffiti, but you can’t help but admire some of it. In my area growing up, you saw of lot of it. There’s the tame stuff you find in toilet stalls or phone boxes which just seem to be a waste of time.

But some graffiti is truly impressive. I don’t mean impressive in a “Beat Street” sort of artistic way– I mean impressive because you don’t know how someone was able to do it. In San Diego growing up, you would see it on freeway overpasses which must have been very dangerous for whoever carried out the vandalism. Whoever it was, they weren’t thinking small.

For the last month, I’ve seen another impressive bit of graffiti from the train each morning in Reading on my way into London. It’s been there for at least a month. Someone has somehow painted the largest tag I’ve ever seen on the top one of the tallest buildings in the center of Reading. Have a look at the picture.

Like I said, it’s been up there for at least a month (probably longer) and I don’t know how the landlord will be able to paint over it without some pretty expensive painters with mountain climbing equipment.

But, really, how was someone able to do this without being noticed? I have no idea what it means and it isn’t that legible (I think it says “Stenc the CUP”?).

I would complain about it being an eyesore, but the reality is that Coca Cola (or any other big business) would put a billboard up there in a second if they could. If I had to choose, I would prefer it be this daredevil vandal instead.