Author Archives: patrick

Low business tax utopia myth

Posted on October 23, 2014 by patrick

Really how important is business taxes? Here is the TL;DR: Businesses want the benefit of low taxes (lower immediate expenses) with the benefit of high taxes locations (government provide services that the business would otherwise have to pay). But low … Continue reading →

Posted in political | 1 Comment

Yerka – a great innovation on making a bicycle unstealable!

Posted on August 22, 2014 by patrick

What a great idea! For a thief to really profit from stealing this bike they have to do extra work. Plus they have to be willing to do this extra work while stealing the bike. They can’t just cut a … Continue reading →

Posted in great ideas, random silliness | Leave a comment

Do not let client code pick ids

Posted on July 31, 2014 by patrick

I am having a discussion over on Meteor Hacks about how bad it is to let the client code pick ids. The meteorhacks post shows how to make new items show up in a sample Meteor program before the server … Continue reading →

Posted in technical | 8 Comments

In praise of Javascript’s undefined

Posted on July 17, 2014 by patrick

One of the unique[*] features of javascript is two different ways to represent ‘no value’: null and undefined. [*] = unique as many popular languages do not have both null and undefined. In my years and years of programming Java, … Continue reading →

Posted in software design, technical | Leave a comment

Code review #10: No emailed code questions

Posted on February 12, 2014 by patrick

[Update #1: below is added in response to Hersh’s comment] Developers have this: “I am too busy to comment” “Comments are a waste of time because no one reads them” “What should I say? (read this previous post about commenting … Continue reading →

Posted in code review, self improvement, technical | 2 Comments

Ask for code samples, skip the coding tests during the interview

Posted on October 21, 2013 by patrick

I always ask for code samples when interviewing a new technical candidate. I rarely ask for people to code during an interview. Asking people to code well can easily become an exercise in how well they have a language memorized. … Continue reading →

Posted in management, technical | Leave a comment

The Dangers of Knight in Shining Armor and Princesses who need them

Posted on October 20, 2013 by patrick

Some women want a Knight in Shining Armor to sweep them off their feet to rescue them. It all seems very romantic. Except, that the princess in the story usually is insecure, helpless and dependent. Fairy tales aside, helpless women … Continue reading →

Posted in self improvement | Leave a comment

Kitchen Experts of California: the official complaint letter

Posted on September 19, 2013 by patrick

Update: 6 September 2016 I have had a number of people ask me about Kitchen Experts since I posted this. I honestly am extraordinarily surprised that they are still around. Questions: Q. How did your case turn out? A. I … Continue reading →

Posted in rants | 29 Comments

Even for the web the pain of installed software exists

Posted on August 19, 2013 by patrick

Years ago I worked on code that was shipped to customers for them to install on their computers. THe amount of testing needed across all sorts of configurations was painfully and annoying. Then the web came along and life was … Continue reading →

Posted in amplafi, rants, software design, technical | Leave a comment

Google is not doing Mountain View any good.

Posted on July 24, 2013 by patrick

Mountain View must realize Google’s prestige is not paying the bills. Google does not generate the tax revenue Mountain View needs to pay for basic city services. For cities, sales tax revenue is the main commercial real estate benefit, both … Continue reading →

Posted in political | Leave a comment