Title: Can You Get Yourself Back to Normal After Psychosis?
Category: Diseases and Conditions
Created: 7/5/2022 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 7/5/2022 12:00:00 AM

Sooner or later, I'll get around to writing a proper review, but for now I'll just suggest that you run...

If you know what South by Southwest (SXSW for those in the know) is and if you continually wish you...

After an amazing amount of procrastination, I've finally managed to redesign the site. All old links still work (if they don't, please let me know by emailing me at 'bill at this domain name').

Why? Two reasons: 1) I found my old layout limiting for what I want to do and, 2) Something in my toolchain got borked and I wasn't able to update my main page. This last one was a godsend because I decided that - rather than troubleshooting the problem, I'd put that energy toward my redesign.

Notable changes:

• No more MovableType. I got a lot of mileage out of using MT, but in the end I hated having to use a database to store what is essentially static data. Furthermore, the templates and even writing of entries was a bit too much of a flow-mismatch. I wanted to write copy and edit layout in vim and just push the changes to the server. Now I'm using docpad and I have pretty much exactly that workflow

• My "Thoughts on..." blog is no longer the main page. Right now, the main page is pretty sparse, but as I add more projects (I have some in mind, it'll start to fill up some more. For now, it's an easy way to get at some of the more popular material on my site, and...

• My dabbling in Fiction. A few years back I started writing flash fiction under my middle name ("Edward"). I haven't in a while, but I hope to start again. So, now that's here too.

• Total style overhaul. Hope you like it, because I'm sticking with it for a while. My goal was minimalism. This site has always been about what I write. Therefore I want to make it easy to find the stuff here and read it with no distractions.

• No comments. This may change at some point (I had embedded Disqus but removed it) as I'm going with the Oatmeal Philosophy - I'm struggling against several years of writers block. Feedback can be great, but it can also demotivate. I need to avoid demotivators as I ramp this up.

That's it now that I have put everything I could see I needed in place, I'm outta excuses. Whether that means I'll be writing more, we'll have to see...

Programmers solve problems. How they solve each problem is a function of their skill, talent, knowledge & time. The resultant solution will resolve the problem with greater or lesser complexity in the design. Thus, I find thinking about how (and more importantly where) complexity is handled, a useful way to evaluate a design. For this I use the time-honored technique of having three levels:

Level Zero

(Below this level, the problem is not solved)

The programmer has provided a solution. However, the interface is a mine-field; click things in the wrong order, the program crashes. Or it works great, but you need to reread the documentation Every. Single. Time. Or the resultant surrounding workflow is a Rube Goldberg device. However it surfaces, the programmer has placed the complexity on the user.

Level One

The interface is well thought out and reasonably intuitive. Controls work as expected and the solution is robust - even bulletproof. The solution not only fits the larger context, it improves it. The code itself however, is hard to change (or even understand). It is not well-organized; Or is, but full of tricky, interleaved logic. Or over-engineered, over-patterned etc. Here, the programmer has placed the complexity on the maintainer.[1]

Level Two

The burden of managing complexity is on the current programmer. The person writing the code takes the time and employs the talent and skill necessary to find an elegant solution that reduces the code to the minimum complexity needed to solve the problem and does so in such a way that is understandable (and changeable) later: The user gains the benefits of a level 1 design, while maintainers are left with clean code to change.[2]

Implications

Level zero code is common; it's the default for new programmers and an uncomfortable amount of commercial software. The thing of it is: Too often this sort of code is derided (including by me) when there is both a de facto and a cost-benefit rationale for managing complexity this way. Short-term projects are one example; software written for one's own use is another.

Level 1 software can be very valuable and enduring. I tend to equate this type of code with the Hacker ethic in all senses of that term. And I don't mean that pejoratively - we all use hacked together solutions every day and much of the world's technology infrastructure is built on it. It is a practical and stable design level.

Having the skill (and the time) to write level 2 code is a rare and wonderful thing. Amidst the hyperbole, aspiring to be such a programmer is at the heart of the "Software as Craft" movement and is a worthwhile goal for anyone who aspires to be a professional programmer.

I don't believe level 2 is inherently better than a level 1 (or level zero!) - it's about context - however, I think that for regularly edited and changed code (i.e. much IT software), this level of skill is what's implicitly expected (if not gotten) by the customer. Ironically, the time needed is often the first thing that goes as a non-technical customer can only assess code quality based on level 1 considerations and so pushes for faster results because everything "looks" OK. Only later - when their investment can't be changed without major overhaul - do they realize there is something wrong. And so the cycle continues...

Summary

This model is handy in several situations including: Judging the quality of an actual solution; choosing among different solutions to a given problem; estimating - and even when to stop refactoring. And while I don't believe that all code should be worked until it exhibits level 2 quality, it is what I want others to think of the code I leave behind. And it is what I hope to encounter in theirs. That said, being a successful professional programmer requires (among many other things) the ability to write all three levels of code, and the judgment to know when each is appropriate to use.

---

[1] This may well be the same person who wrote the code. The essential characteristic of a level 1 design is that complexity is put off to future efforts, not the current one. Thus level 1 designs tend to be high in technical debt.

[2]How the programmer achieves this is a matter of personal preference and technique. I do not subscribe to the notion that any particular set of programming practices provides this - or inhibit it by their absence. It has always been the people, not their practices that is the essential determinant of quality. Anyone who says different, is selling something.

I just filmed a little unboxing-and-enthusing video. It's for the 25th Anniversary editions of Little, Big or, The Fairies' Parliament, by John Crowley. Illustrated (or rather, with Art by) Peter Milton. 

 I spent yesterday in Dallas, at the Heritage Auction headquarters -- I had decided to auction off some artwork and memorabilia to benefit two charities (The Authors Literary Fund and the Hero Initiative, which help authors/writers and comics creators who have fallen on hard times or who need help), and, just as importantly, I wanted to give something back to the artists whose art I was entrusting to new custodians. 

It seems to me fundamentally wrong and inequitable that art that artists sold for $50 or a hundred dollars thirty or forty years ago now sells for hundreds or thousands of times that amount, but the artists, most of whom are old, some of whom are no longer working or not working as they were, never see another penny. I decided the best way to change that would be to set an example, and show people another way of doing it.

Here's the New York Times article before the auction: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/23/arts/design/neil-gaiman-auction-collectibles.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Xk0.5PkB.9iQtuvn6Bwof&smid=url-share

And here's me in Dallas two nights ago, walking around the exhibition before the auction with Robert Wilonsky from Heritage, with guest appearances by my oldest friend Geoff Notkin, whose fault this all is: 

 

April 25th. DEAD BOY DETECTIVES. It's really good -- it's funny, it's smart, it's scary, and it even has a few familiar faces...

Title: Prednisone Side Effects (Adverse Effects)
Category: Medications
Created: 5/16/2017 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 7/29/2022 12:00:00 AM

Dieses Tool sing dir den Text vor, den du ihm eingibst. Leider funktioniert es nur mit englischen Lyriks ;)

Title: Bad Breath (Halitosis)
Category: Diseases and Conditions
Created: 12/31/1997 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/27/2022 12:00:00 AM

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Avoid

Good work van; terrible main dealer, prices and staff...

Title: Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT, Blood Clot in the Legs)
Category: Diseases and Conditions
Created: 2/15/2000 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 7/28/2022 12:00:00 AM