OT: One-liners #1

On this sunny morning I feel like this should be discovered by WeFeelFine.

OT:Report and a Trixie suggestion

I’m sorry to report that family illness, accidents and work schedules prevented me from posting any updates. In addition we’ll be going off-line for the next few days for maintenance (off to the Jadran sea!). I’m sure you’ll be seeing other geek baby blogs. Some of you will even indulge in brief affairs. I’m sure you’ll claim it meant nothing and I’m sure I’ll forgive you.

In the mean-time, all you newfangled (or soon to be newfangled!) geek dads might want to check out the TrixieTracker. It’s your web 2.0 online baby management site. I have only three tiny little issues that are preventing me from using it:

1. It offers only paid subscription (Subscription fee in this day and age!? What kind of business mode is that?);
2. I discovered it just a bit late;
3. It was my bloody idea and they stole it two years before I thought of it!

Qrio vs. David

Somehow I’ve missed the news about fare well of QRIO and AIBO. It’s a bit sad really. I’m a part of generation that grew up thinking we’ll be going to work in our flying cars and robots will do most of the household chores. We saw ourselves as the Jetsons and it never occurred to us that what we saw on our TV screens wasn’t (jet) real. Our future was to be the SF future we read about in stories the Futurians wrote (remember Amazing, Astounding? The titles themselves convey the optimism of the era!). Yet we lived to see year 2000 pass as by as uneventful as the year before. There was no space odysseys for us, no trips to the Mars (nor zero gravity … er you know). But no matter - with companies like Sony working on our stuff of dreams there was a chance the next generation might get there. That’s why news like this gets me down.

Anyways – let’s get back to the topic! You might want to take a look at the Aibo / David comparison table. However, David received some major upgrades in the last year so an updated comparison table between David and Qrio was inevitable (due to lack of technical data for Qrio, this one focuses on the features).

Qrio vs. David (Comparison table)

	Qrio	David
Development time	2.5 years	1.5 years
Power consumption	1 hour – fully charged	7.5 hours – fully fed
Height	0.6 m	0.85 m
Weight	7.3 kg	13 kg
Top speed	23 cm/s	40 cm/s
Transportation mode	ISA powered - independent and stable bipedal	Quadpedal / Bipedal modes
Features	Wireless network	Uses wireless network
	Precision mechanism	Ambiguous mechanism
	Pinch detection sensors	Pinch avoidance sensors
	Quiet construction	Lifelike construction
	Safety cover	Safety covers optional
	Shock resistant	Self healing
	Obstacle detection sensors	Obstacle removal operators
	Internal mapping of locations	External mapping of locations (mostly with crayons)
	Face recognition	Face and food recognition
	Own vocabulary	Shared vocabulary
	Autonomous behavior	Independent behavior
	Expressing emotion	Emotional being
Extras	Can dance to choreography	Can spin (to the right)

All in all - I have to say David rulez!

OT: Re-labeling and stuff

You might have noticed that old TDE posts are popping up in your newsreader. I’ve decided to go through the old TDE posts and label them. Blogger.com didn’t have this feature when TDE started so most of the posts haven’t been labeled. I think TDE readers will appreciate the fact they can now get all the random things posts with one click.

For those of you that haven’t done so pls. re-subscribe to the new feed.

Who broke the build?

Somebody (I say mom) messed up and David didn’t build (wake up) properly this week. Our CI server (crib) reported (loud cries) a failed build! It seemed like some (most) unit tests have failed and we’ll be able to fix him right up.
First of we identified the failed unit test and found it failing at:

Assert(this.Core.Temperature.ToCelsius() <= 37.5,
 "Core temperature to high!");

It’s always nice (sarcasm) to find a bug in your core library. So we re-built a debug version (washed, changed diapers, fed him), enabled tracers and run the standard tests again (went to the pediatrician). The results were inconclusive (“the lab results are inconclusive”) so our team (me and mom) decided (were told to) deploy the application (David) in the debug mode (closely watched) and see what happens (wait).
Of course we did some tweaks to the code (paracetamol, cough syrup, ventolin) and put other projects (work) on standby (dev null). This made a few project managers (bosses) happy (mad). They now had the time to reflect on (yell profanities) and improve (change beyond recognition) their project requirements (an e-mail) to better suit the reality (their imagination).
Eventually we resolved the temperature issue and our daily builds (mornings) are doing fine. The annoying thing is – we have no clue as to what went wrong and who broke the build! This is what they fail to teach you at parenting classes and this is what your parents never got around to tell you. Once your child is born - you will never know solid ground again. All that is certain from now on is the uncertainty. Sudden fevers will scare you, bumps and bruises will have you running to the ER. Coughs will put wild ideas in your head and most cries in the middle of the night will turn out to be yours.

OT: Vanity? Surely not me!

After reading Haacked vanity piece I decided to check up on you - my reader(s). I’ve moved my rss feed to FeedBurner so if you get the chance please re-subscribe.

Or just leave a comment detailing why you do not wish to do so…

Or whatever...

Or come back tommorow for an on-topic post...

Four phases of development

An interesting article (just follow on through tynerblain) articulating UX we all must have had being part of software development projects. And my current project is no different. The four phases of development are the following:
Oh it’s a Boy!
Great news! Lots of e-mails, SMS texts, quick phone calls, telegrams, oh joy, oh boy… - nothing gets done for weeks.
Oh Crap!
Baby and Mom get back from the hospital. Reality kicks in. Lots of “you get up”, “shut up”, “OMG”, “what is this coming out of his”… - nothing gets done for months.
Oh Ok!
Your baby finally breaks you. Lots of changing, bathing, cleaning… - that’s all that gets done for months.
Oh Cool!
Your baby gives you a hug. You faint… - you don’t feel like doing anything for a year.

Since Scott has put on such nice visuals I thought I should do as well.

Oh Boy!	Oh Shoot!
Oh Well!	Oh Wow!

You’ve been H4x0rd

Newfangled parents tend to worry – a lot. One of the top 10 concerns (now there’s a dig story waiting to happen!) we have is child-proofing one’s home. So you decide to try and outwit your baby with clever gadgets designed to prevent him (her) from accessing dangerous resources, while still allowing you unrestricted and easy access. As is the case with most bright ideas parents come up with – this one too is inane.
Surely by now you realize your child is more intelligent then you? Well, if you were half as smart as your kid, you’d know. Those ingenious devices are nothing more then funny little puzzles for him (her) to solve.
So you end up buying bigger, better and more complicated locks and eventually you end up locked out while your child reigns free. You need to face the facts – you’re out of your league n00bie.


Lock #1 was cracked after 4 months. It’s quite vulnerable to random pulls and presents a challenge only to entry level hackers.


Lock #2 is on the verge of being cracked. It offers little resistance to brute force attacks.


Lock #3 proved to be quite resilient but is still relatively new and has yet to see any real action.

A random thing you will want to, but probably shouldn’t must do as a newfangled dad #9

Buy your baby an expensive RC toy … you’ll end up playing with yourself!

Guiding system malfunction?

This weekend marked the beginning of a series of failures in David's navigation subsystem. It started out with an uncertain step or two and quickly escalated into serious collisions with solid state objects. Our development team (mom and me) was stumped. David was apparently turning into a danger seeking missile. After lengthly consultation with senior developers (grandparents) we decided to continue monitoring the situation and keeping an eye on trace logs.
After a while it became apparent that there was no bug in the subsystem module. All system are go. It seems David just got way to confident in his abilities. A busted lip, some bruises and a few head bumps are just warning signs of things to come. It seems David is definitely not one of those quiet, unassuming, modest children that play with their toys while mom and dad lovingly observe them with that serene look on their faces. He's more like... well this:

Teeth counter #2

Teeth count is now at ten!

Distinction Driven Design

One of the most frustrating issues I have with doors (and apparently it’s genetically inherited by David!) is their inherent direction ambiguity. Looking straight at a garden variety door- can you tell me which way it opens? Does it open towards you? Away from you? Does it swing both ways? The only practical way to determine the direction of this interface is by testing.
Would you care for an Api in your programming language of choice that contains such vagueness? Consider a series of DataAdapters with methods like Process, Do, OpenOrSave… Now some consider putting a label on a door a good enough solution. But that’s just like plugging a hole in a dam with your finger. Another one will spring right up. Some people can’t read, some don’t understand your language and most of us don’t bother to read. When was the last time you read code comments? When the damn thing stopped working, right? Sure I read those– right after I crash my head against the “pull” label.
So I’m watching David successfully navigating all sorts of door handles (push, pull, turn or raise handles) while still having problems figuring out which way the door swings and it got me thinking. There’s something inherently wrong about out door designs. If David can figure out how to turn off my computer he should not have problems with 19th century doors should he?

Multiple inheritance issue

It turns out I was wrong about baby class inheritance. In addition to the abstract baby class (,which is responsible for most of your problems!) babies inherit a few things from both you and your partner. It’s a classic case of multiple inheritance and all that jazz.
The most important feature of any MI system is conflict resolution. How does the inheritor decide which inheritee implementation of a common method to use? Predictably – it tends to use the worst possible configuration it stumbles upon. What does that translate to?
For example: Mom likes to keep it neat while I like to crumple paper before throwing it in the tin can. The resulting combination at breakfast time is David keeping his part of the table neat by crumpling his toast and eggs and throwing them in the direction of the tin can.
I guess we have a few bugs to iron out here…

Something to think about

According to this list of strange facts (boy if there’s anything internet was invented for – it’s the strange fact lists!) “The average four year-old child asks over four hundred questions a day”. What does that mean?
Well if you subtract 8 hours of down-time, than your average answer-server (you) is responding to requests 16 hours / day. That averages to about a question every 2.4 minutes. Considering the time it takes for your child to finish his question and for you to answer it – I’m guessing - by the time David hits four, I’ll stop doing pretty much anything.
So please enjoy this blog while it lasts! And don’t bug me if I skip a day or two – I might be busy answering questions…

Meta

As a project lead of a 14 month old toddler you get to answer a lot of questions. While most of them start with “What is …” and end up with a little finger pointing at the red fire truck – they are in no way superfluous. Your consistent answers will let your child know that red items are frequently called red something. He will start to understand what a fire truck is. Fire trucks come in many shapes and sizes but they are still called fire trucks (and toddlers have an uncanny ability to grasp the Aristotelian model of fire trucks!).
Yet there’s another important piece of information hidden within your answers. It’s a tiny little common sense rule that object rarely change their names. If something is called a fire truck it will probably still be called a fire truck tomorrow. Now you may think that is obvious but it really isn’t. It’s a common sense rule you picked up in your formative years. And that is what common sense is. A collection of tiny rules you never think about but use everyday. You might call them meta rules, as they are frequently used as rules about rules. They are kinda like David asking a “What is …” question while pointing at his pointing finger. What is this thing I use to find out about things?
It is your first meta question David and I’m glad I was there to answer it.

David’s Toribash

At toddler stage you’ll see a rapid development of your baby’s mobility. Early stages of motion control will seem uncanny like Toribash. Each movement is overdone, each countermove over amplified and the end results wonderful and often scary. There is no gradient of control, if a limb needs extending - it is extended to the full. Whether your head is in the way or not.
Toribash effect isn’t limited to physical movements only. The same effect can be observed in your baby’s psyche. If laughter is required - it’s as loud as a train, if there is cause for tears -they flow a waterfall.

Your DNA?

An interesting visualization project is up on baekdal.com. What does your DNA look like?

A new book

Comming out soon!

Marry Christmas

And a happy New Year!

Where have you been?

I've been getting my life back. David reached his first year milestone and passed all the tests with flying colors. We had a small party afterwards with lots of developer friends showing up (more on this later).

In the mean time a new web 2.0 site popped up and I just couldn't resist testing it. And here's the result: