Jason's Notes About Stuff

Yesterday (well, today in North America) around noon, my birthday present to myself arrived. Direct from China, a mobile phone watch! I had reserved expectations, considering it was fairly cheap, but I must say I've been very impressed by the capabilities so far. It comes with a wireless Bluetooth headphone clip, capable of playing stereo music and two-way conversations. It's even smart enough to pause your music when there's an incoming call, then resume it when you hang up. Now, I did come across a bit of a glitch with the Bluetooth (USB and Bluetooth are so ubiquitous, and so flakey). It seems that when the AVCTP protocol (which lets you control the music player via the control stick on the clip) is active, the sound gets choppy and distorted. However, if you disable that (which isn't really needed), everything seems to work smoothly. The interface is a touchscreen that can be controlled: Using your fingernail -- surprisingly, you can do about 90% of what you nee...

How many mediocre programmers does it take to replace a good programmer ? The answer is: Trick question. No amount of mediocre programmers will ever replace a good one. Let's say your good programmer has a "productivity factor" of 1.0 . We'll take this to mean that he or she gets 1 "unit" of productive, production-ready software shipped per day. The reality is that even an average programmer might not have a positive productivity factor. If you look at their productivity over the long term, it might actually be something like -0.1 or lower, meaning that overall they cause more work for others than they actually complete themselves. They basically just slow the good ones down . Furthermore, every programmer you add to a project adds overhead -- both in communication and complexity of the code. So adding two mediocre programmers is even worse than adding just one. Software development is an extremely complex discipline that requires above-average p...

When will companies learn that ripping customers off is not a viable long-term business strategy? For instance, a bunch of cell phone companies have a little-known "must give 30-days notice" policy written into their terms. So if you call and cancel your service today, you have to pay them another 30 days for absolutely nothing . Seriously. Check the fine print. Meanwhile, banks keep adding random service fees that you never hear about until after they show up on your statement. Instead of retaining customers with reliable service, they lock people in with long-term contracts and insane cancellation fees. These companies dream up 15-page "terms of service" agreements specifically designed to trap folks into craftily-worded contracts, pay hidden fees, and provide no recourse when they fail to provide the product or service they're supposed to. Executives plot ripoff schemes and scams, then let their accountants loose to cook the books, spreading the money ac...

What did we do before the Internet? For all the spam, scams, and general junk out there, it still amazes me what you can do via the net. Moving half-way around the world is all of the sudden less daunting when you browse for house rentals as if you were there. Google Maps Street View (not yet available in Canada) also lets you zoom in and basically take a walk around the neighborhood to see what it's like. You have to admit -- the Internet is pretty cool sometimes.

No matter what mood they're in, or what has happened in the previous 5 minutes, if you dangle string in front of a cat for long enough, it will chase it . Even the laziest, most stubborn cat in the world will eventually give in. They can't help it. It's hard-wired . We humans still have a bunch of behaviours that are hard-wired in a similar way. The difference is that we can consciously think about and modify them -- if we choose to. That's what separates people from animals -- the ability to override obsolete , deep-rooted instincts based on logic and learning. So next time you say to yourself, "I just can't help it," remember that you're not a cat -- you can make whatever choice you want.

I was recently watching a series called " Ancient Inventions ". It is hosted by one of the guys from Monty Python and is reasonably entertaining and informative. It was amazing to see how many things were invented thousands of years ago, completely lost and forgotten, then re-invented recently. It got me thinking about all of the technological progress we've made in the past couple hundred years. There have been a number of amazing inventions that have changed the world, like trains, planes, cars, radio, telegraph, telephone, and many others. But what world-changing inventions and technologies have surfaced since the 60's? Computers? Ha. That's 1930's technology. The microwave oven? Mobile phones? 1940's . Solar cells? Fibre optics? That was way back in the 50's . But what about the Internet ? Nope. We were online in 1969 -- 40 years ago. What life changing technology has been invented since then? It starts getting really thin. Liposuc...

So today I received my Fido bill and noticed a new charge called "Other minutes." I was confused since I have a 150 minute plan and only used about 60 last month. I phoned in to customer support on my cell phone to inquire about the charge. The rep wasn't really sure, and had to put me on hold a few times to look things up, but guessed this was due to calls made "out of my zone." Now, I have a grandfathered plan from years and years ago (Sprint Canada before it was acquired) and I never used to have a "zone." Ever since Rogers acquired Fido, they've slowly (and without notice) modified my old plan to bring it in line with the current plans, which cost more and give you less . The hugely ironic thing: Just as she was starting to explain to me exactly my "zone" was -- the call was dropped . So I went to my online banking and paid the bill. Even if I wasn't leaving the country in a month, what could I really do? Switch to a new prov...