jeudi 25 juillet 2013
The interpreted language trap
This is a small rant about programming languages.
Scripting languages are quite popular these days, and for a reason : changes you make to the source are reflected instantly, speeding up the development process; and thanks to Moore's law the performance hit does not matter as much as it used to.
But, it's a trap! The reason those should be avoided is because of code rot.
As the runtime depends on loading order, previous instructions, etc.; IDEs cannot reliably determine the type of an object or lookup references to it - unless, precisely, you are debugging..
IDEs (all I know of) cannot refactor reliably scripts.
It means that any change that will be made must be tested and validated under real-usage conditions, which makes people reluctant to make cosmetic changes : variable renaming, unused function removal, ...
So generations of programmers come and go. Codebase grows but never shrinks. Up to the point it becomes unusable and has to be rewritten/replaced! It is like a garden : unattended for too long, it cannot return to the pretty lawn state.
I have experience this several times with different scripting languages : PHP, bash, javascript, JSP EL, python... it all ends the same way. Even worse if the script does not output to the programmer but to the user, because there is a chance the programmer will never know what went wrong and since when.
So, if you happen to program and read this, do yourself (or your sucessors) a favour, and stay away from languages which sources you cannot easily refactor!
lundi 14 janvier 2013
Social Gaming
Hi reader(s). It's been a while.
So last summer I was job-hunted by a few social gaming companies, and that forced me to actually try to understand what that was about.
I used to be a social gamer, too. Not the kind that are being fed upon these days though, my expenses were more like server hosting, hardware and travel.
Now, what is the new social gaming revolution? It comes from 3 precedent revolutions combined :
- MMORPGs (Wow...)
- SNS (Facebook..)
- Mobile devices
And they combine the addiction powers of all 3.
- progression of the player. time sink. fantasy universe.
- group inclusion
- play anytime, anywhere
The combination is very powerful, and explains why the market is booming all over the world, even with games which are not fun to being with. The typical hooks are :
- beautiful ads (in other games, sites...)
- friends advertising on SNS
Once you try it, you are usually walked through a forced tutorial in which :
- you are more or less forced to spend whichever credits you started with
- you are strongly encourage to advertise and propagate the game
- you get slightly better levels and inventory quite easily.
Then, in a usually linear and boring progression, you get more inventory and XP, while being starved of credits. The point is to make you *desire* the credits so much that you are willing to put in real money. Sometimes, you even need a special kind of credits (which cannot be harvested in-game) for instance to remove in-game ads.
Think you are immune? Most of the customers thought that too... And then they wanted the next piece of armor, for which they could farm for 2h (with a lot of boring actions to do) or just spend 1$. Once the first dollar is spent, quitting the game is acknowledging that is was a waste of time AND money.
In most countries, gambling is prohibited or at least severely restricted, because it is known that people can be manipulated through psychology tricks to spend all their money (and their friend's too); but social gaming has not be deemed a threat yet. It is. Mostly because it targets people who are not prepared to face those strong addictions ; in other words : non-gamers.
In Tokyo, there are 2 industries that pay quite more than the average for IT workers : banks and social gaming. Birds of a feather....
So last summer I was job-hunted by a few social gaming companies, and that forced me to actually try to understand what that was about.
I used to be a social gamer, too. Not the kind that are being fed upon these days though, my expenses were more like server hosting, hardware and travel.
Now, what is the new social gaming revolution? It comes from 3 precedent revolutions combined :
- MMORPGs (Wow...)
- SNS (Facebook..)
- Mobile devices
And they combine the addiction powers of all 3.
- progression of the player. time sink. fantasy universe.
- group inclusion
- play anytime, anywhere
The combination is very powerful, and explains why the market is booming all over the world, even with games which are not fun to being with. The typical hooks are :
- beautiful ads (in other games, sites...)
- friends advertising on SNS
Once you try it, you are usually walked through a forced tutorial in which :
- you are more or less forced to spend whichever credits you started with
- you are strongly encourage to advertise and propagate the game
- you get slightly better levels and inventory quite easily.
Then, in a usually linear and boring progression, you get more inventory and XP, while being starved of credits. The point is to make you *desire* the credits so much that you are willing to put in real money. Sometimes, you even need a special kind of credits (which cannot be harvested in-game) for instance to remove in-game ads.
Think you are immune? Most of the customers thought that too... And then they wanted the next piece of armor, for which they could farm for 2h (with a lot of boring actions to do) or just spend 1$. Once the first dollar is spent, quitting the game is acknowledging that is was a waste of time AND money.
In most countries, gambling is prohibited or at least severely restricted, because it is known that people can be manipulated through psychology tricks to spend all their money (and their friend's too); but social gaming has not be deemed a threat yet. It is. Mostly because it targets people who are not prepared to face those strong addictions ; in other words : non-gamers.
In Tokyo, there are 2 industries that pay quite more than the average for IT workers : banks and social gaming. Birds of a feather....
mardi 15 mars 2011
Nuclear scare
The situation at Fukushima Nuclear Plant #1 seems to be getting out of control. The release of radioactive materials by venting, followed by hydrogen bursts in reactors 1 and 3, seemed tame. But then a fire started in reactor 4, which should have been stopped for maintenance; and this morning the suppression pool (a doughnut-shaped coolant part, under the core) exploded in reactor 2, causing a large amount of radioactive materials to be released. This is the story that was (quite well) explained on TV.
This is not far from the truth; it cannot be. But how dangerous it is for the people around, the people in Tokyo, or even the people close to other plants in other countries, this is where the media and the authorities go astray and spread some scare. Not that they can help it, because under-estimating will cost them their jobs; while over-estimating only brings a few critics.
The right attitude in this situation is to stay away from mail chains, twits, cable channels... and ask someone you trust to get the real information. There are sources all over the net but often too technical to be understood without a scientific background. And don't spread info without its source!
This is also true outside Japan. And whatever the topic.
This is not far from the truth; it cannot be. But how dangerous it is for the people around, the people in Tokyo, or even the people close to other plants in other countries, this is where the media and the authorities go astray and spread some scare. Not that they can help it, because under-estimating will cost them their jobs; while over-estimating only brings a few critics.
The right attitude in this situation is to stay away from mail chains, twits, cable channels... and ask someone you trust to get the real information. There are sources all over the net but often too technical to be understood without a scientific background. And don't spread info without its source!
This is also true outside Japan. And whatever the topic.
lundi 14 mars 2011
Blackouts
We have a scheduled blackout today from 15:20 to 19:00. It is part of a rolling plan to save power in the Tokyo area. Excepted Tokyo downtown, all areas are affected and divided into 5 zones.
The blackouts are scheduled to last until end of April.
For houses, it only means no electricity, but in our condo it also means no gas nor water.
So, people in our area rushed to buy : flashlights, water bottles/tanks, dry food, gas cannisters, portable toilets...
The fact that the branch shops sent the stocked supplies north to Sendai is a good thing overall, but it made the goods even scarcer here. There were long waiting lines at the nearest appliances store, Yamada.
Trains will also have to stop to cope with the blackout, so going to Tokyo for work can mean a really painful way home, since the segments are in different blackout zones.
Anyways, my office is being checked for cracks, if there is any I'd rather not be there as the next aftershock strikes.
Once again, I am very impressed by the calm and solidarity people display in these circumstances. Elderly give money, most services are volunteered-powered and don't stop, and the TV is spouting only a little scare : there were no commercials over the weekend for instance.
This nation being strong is not due to chance.
The blackouts are scheduled to last until end of April.
For houses, it only means no electricity, but in our condo it also means no gas nor water.
So, people in our area rushed to buy : flashlights, water bottles/tanks, dry food, gas cannisters, portable toilets...
The fact that the branch shops sent the stocked supplies north to Sendai is a good thing overall, but it made the goods even scarcer here. There were long waiting lines at the nearest appliances store, Yamada.
Trains will also have to stop to cope with the blackout, so going to Tokyo for work can mean a really painful way home, since the segments are in different blackout zones.
Anyways, my office is being checked for cracks, if there is any I'd rather not be there as the next aftershock strikes.
Once again, I am very impressed by the calm and solidarity people display in these circumstances. Elderly give money, most services are volunteered-powered and don't stop, and the TV is spouting only a little scare : there were no commercials over the weekend for instance.
This nation being strong is not due to chance.
samedi 12 mars 2011
Earthquake
東北地方太平洋沿岸地震, meaning North-East Pacific-side Big Earthquake, hit Japan on 2011-03-11.
Most of the casualties were caused by the ensuing Tsunami, but some people actually died crushed by falling roofs.
I was in my office, near Shibuya, when the first (and biggest: Richter 8.8) tremor hit Tokyo at 14h46.
There had been a "before-shock" two days before, but people shrugged it off.
With this one, it looked serious, so people started evacuating buildings. To be honest, Tokyo buildings are quite safe as long as nothing sharp or heavy falls from cupboards, but it still depends on the magnitude of the earthquake (which was still unknown).
There were big aftershocks all afternoon, but past the first scare, there were 2 problems :
1) getting in touch with relatives and friends. The mobile networks were awfully clogged and mails often came a few hours late.
In this sense I was lucky, because I could get information from my dad in France, and it was really precious info since we have no TV in the office.
2) going home. All trains in the area were stopped, an the roads awfully jammed too, with motorways closed.
In this kind of situation the golden rule is : stay safe, don`t move. But, the office did not feel that safe (and, in case of blackout, we have no stove), and with shops closed and supermarkets empty (most work with low stock), should the situation last, a bad-looking situation would arise.
I could have stayed at a friend's in Tokyo, but with the fact that my lovely pregnant wife was waiting for me, I decided to try and go home anyways.
Even leaving my laptop and books in the office, I was still in formal shoes and spring-wishing light coat. Also, Tokyo is a big city, and I live in Yokohama.
But I was not the only one. My colleague B., who lives not too far from my home, gave it a try too. And we noticed that the sidewalks were crowded all the way home, over 20km far.
On the way, people looked calm. The waiting lines for buses and taxis were often over 200m, and the lines for the toilets in convenience stores were often more than 30 people long, but no violence or panic.
Some zones were blacked out, pitch black, but we spotted a delivery man trying to give his package anyways. Some people were wearing safety helmets - but we did not see any building crumbled.
Reaching home, tired but happy, I could discover the extent of the disaster in the North-East of the country. The area of Sendai is utterly destroyed...
We are expecting more aftershocks during all the week... So will be limiting all unnecessary movements.
People around me had it rough too...
My wife was in a station department store, having lunch. All the store area was evacuated following a local blackout, and she had to stand in the rain for a while, with no possiblity of going to the toilets or buying warming stuff in the store. At least, the restaurant is never getting its bill footed!
Her big sister, working in a hospital in central Tokyo, played it safe and stayed there. The trains started running again around 3h30, and she came home in the morning. It was a senseful decision since the risk of a long blackout in a hospital is low; but she still had to skip dinner!
Her little sister's company building had cracks in the roof and was evacuated. It probably means forced vacation for a while...
Many people on the west coast, where there is a lot of snow, lost their roof.
And most scary, the Sendai area (including an airport and a nuclear plant) were devastated by the tsunami.
Most of the casualties were caused by the ensuing Tsunami, but some people actually died crushed by falling roofs.
I was in my office, near Shibuya, when the first (and biggest: Richter 8.8) tremor hit Tokyo at 14h46.
There had been a "before-shock" two days before, but people shrugged it off.
With this one, it looked serious, so people started evacuating buildings. To be honest, Tokyo buildings are quite safe as long as nothing sharp or heavy falls from cupboards, but it still depends on the magnitude of the earthquake (which was still unknown).
There were big aftershocks all afternoon, but past the first scare, there were 2 problems :
1) getting in touch with relatives and friends. The mobile networks were awfully clogged and mails often came a few hours late.
In this sense I was lucky, because I could get information from my dad in France, and it was really precious info since we have no TV in the office.
2) going home. All trains in the area were stopped, an the roads awfully jammed too, with motorways closed.
In this kind of situation the golden rule is : stay safe, don`t move. But, the office did not feel that safe (and, in case of blackout, we have no stove), and with shops closed and supermarkets empty (most work with low stock), should the situation last, a bad-looking situation would arise.
I could have stayed at a friend's in Tokyo, but with the fact that my lovely pregnant wife was waiting for me, I decided to try and go home anyways.
Even leaving my laptop and books in the office, I was still in formal shoes and spring-wishing light coat. Also, Tokyo is a big city, and I live in Yokohama.
But I was not the only one. My colleague B., who lives not too far from my home, gave it a try too. And we noticed that the sidewalks were crowded all the way home, over 20km far.
On the way, people looked calm. The waiting lines for buses and taxis were often over 200m, and the lines for the toilets in convenience stores were often more than 30 people long, but no violence or panic.
Some zones were blacked out, pitch black, but we spotted a delivery man trying to give his package anyways. Some people were wearing safety helmets - but we did not see any building crumbled.
Reaching home, tired but happy, I could discover the extent of the disaster in the North-East of the country. The area of Sendai is utterly destroyed...
We are expecting more aftershocks during all the week... So will be limiting all unnecessary movements.
People around me had it rough too...
My wife was in a station department store, having lunch. All the store area was evacuated following a local blackout, and she had to stand in the rain for a while, with no possiblity of going to the toilets or buying warming stuff in the store. At least, the restaurant is never getting its bill footed!
Her big sister, working in a hospital in central Tokyo, played it safe and stayed there. The trains started running again around 3h30, and she came home in the morning. It was a senseful decision since the risk of a long blackout in a hospital is low; but she still had to skip dinner!
Her little sister's company building had cracks in the roof and was evacuated. It probably means forced vacation for a while...
Many people on the west coast, where there is a lot of snow, lost their roof.
And most scary, the Sendai area (including an airport and a nuclear plant) were devastated by the tsunami.
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