By: SethCardoza - Published: 2009-03-24 12:38:39 in Category: General
In case you don't know, the Wii Fit is an exercise game for the Wii. There is much debate as to whether or not it is a viable source for exercise. Today, I will explain why both sides are correct.
Why It Works:
- Allows you to set goals for BMI and body weight, and track your progress toward those goals
- It provides a variety of Aerobic, Isotonic, and Isometric exercises.
- It promotes competition, whether it be to beat your own high score, or beat those that also use your Wii Fit
Why It Doesn't Work:
- It is easy to "cheat" at the games, meaning you can still do well but with minimal physical effort.
- If you spend most of your time playing the Balance Games, you will not get much exercise.
- You have to use the Wii Fit for it to work. Just like any other exercise, it only works if you do it.
The Wii Fit should not be seen as a replacement for a full exercise regiment. In my opinion it is best for times when you cannot make it to the gym, or the weather prevents you from running or biking. It is definitely better than no exercise at all though. Just remember to stay motivated and set achievable goals.
By: SethCardoza - Published: 2009-03-16 20:27:10 in Category: General
I found this nifty little application that lets you generate a custom animated "loading" GIF. There are over 30 different images to choose from, with the ability to customize the color.
Animated Loading GIF Generator
By: SethCardoza - Published: 2009-03-06 21:04:02 in Category: Version Control
So you've created a branch for one reason or another, mainly to make sure that the trunk stays stable and doesn't create chaos for the other developers on your team. You've committed several changes to this branch and thoroughly tested them to make sure everything is in working order. Now how do you get them back into the trunk? This is how.
You should have a local copy of the branch since that is where you have done the development.
/local/path/to/repository/branch
Now, if you don't already have a copy of the trunk locally, get one. Navigate to your local copy of the trunk.
/local/path/to/repository/trunk
You will need the revision number of the revision when you created the branch. For the sake of this example, I will say that the branch was at revision 100. Now run the following command to merge the branch into your local copy of the trunk.
svn merge -r 100:HEAD https://svn.example.com/path/to/repository/branch/my-dev-branch
You should now see that the files modified in your branch have been merged in your local copy of the trunk. Some files may be in conflict, and will have a "C" next to them in the file list after the merge command was run. You can also run an svn status to see if any files are in conflict. Resolve all conflicts, manually if necessary. Now make sure everything is working on your local copy of the trunk. If so, check your changes into the trunk.
On a side note, I like to tag the trunk before I merge a branch back into it. It just puts my mind at ease knowing I have a snapshot of a known working copy of the trunk.
By: SethCardoza - Published: 2009-02-27 23:18:27 in Category: Book Reviews
Watchmen is a graphic novel based in an alternate 1985, where Richard Nixon is still President. Costumed heroes have been outlawed, except for those sponsored by the government. The fear is that people with that much power can wreak havoc if unchecked. The story starts off with the death of The Comedian, a costumed hero that has done a great deal of work for the government. Rorschach, another costumed hero, one that is not government sponsored, finds his death very suspicious. He investigates his death, and the eventual deaths of other costumed heroes. The character profiles and personalities are not particularly original, especially to those big into comic books, but they are based on tried and true characters that work.
The time setting is obviously dated, but story itself could easily be adapted to the present day. There is plenty of detail, both in the writing and the artwork, that will make you want to read this over so that you don't miss anything. There are some excerpts from an biography written by one of the characters that do give some important details to the back story, but they can be a bit long and dry. It would have been nice if these details were worked in more seamlessly with some artwork, rather than the excerpts used.
Overall, the book is a great work of art. With the movie due out in less than a week, I recommend reading it before seeing the movie. I think the movie will be good, but will not do the book justice. It will be a tough story to adapt to film. The excerpts I mentioned earlier will have to be told instead of read. Something I neglected to mention, the comic within the comic, will hopefully make it into the film in some way or another. It is not key to the story, but it is one of those little touches of detail that makes the book great.
By: SethCardoza - Published: 2009-02-26 21:28:50 in Category: Agile Development
If you're building for the future, you're doing it wrong. That isn't to say that you should cut corners wherever possible. The key is to spend your time building what you need now. If you concentrate on building what you need now, you will be able to do a better job. You will be able to refine every subtle detail, catch most bugs (create fewer bugs in the first place), and finish on time.
Building for the future rarely ends well. Time and resources are spent on building for something that might never be used. Can you guarantee that your product will make it to the future for which you are planning? Can you guarantee that the features you are prepping your system for will make it to fruition? How often to specifications and requirements change during a product's life cycle? There is a chance your product will fall. It is highly likely that new ideas will come about and features you planned on building are no longer wanted.
Rather than spend your time building for the future, build for what you need now, and spend the time to do it right. Making a small, but robust, set of features work properly will give your product a higher success rate than building for features you might add later.
By: SethCardoza - Published: 2009-02-21 23:18:35 in Category: Agile Development
Note: If you are completely new to the Agile Development methodology, I suggest you read up on it first as I will use quite a bit of terminology particular to the methodology.
While I think Agile Development is a better approach to web development when compared to the waterfall approach, and loosely practice it in my personal projects, we only just recently implemented it at work. We finished our first sprint this week, and completed a block of work in 9 days that I thought would take months with our old process. To be fair, we doubled our team from 3 developers to 6. While we did greatly increase the size of our team, the biggest factors were having a concrete set of tasks for the sprint, and not wasting hours per week in status meetings like we had in the past.
The best thing about the switch to the Agile Development process was that fact that everyone is happier. We are a large publishing/media company with limited web development resources. The business units are constantly fighting to get their work done. Now, they get to pick what gets done within a given sprint. In the end, there's no reason for them not to be happy anymore, and they are much happier now. I have been working on this project for 9+ months, and only recently have started to receive praise from the business units for our hard work. On the other side of things, developers are equally as happy, if not more. We are not being constantly pulled in every direction, our highest priorities no longer change on a day-to-day basis. We are able to concentrate on a specific set of tasks during the sprint, and are able to see those tasks completed. We can see the fruits of our labor. And, if there are interruptions, it is understood that a change in priorities will affect the time of completion for our tasks.
Another great thing about this methodology is that it is understood that no one get 8 hours of work done in an 8-hour day. There are interruptions, meetings, time is taken to help team member solve their tasks, and etc. Currently, it is assumed that we can complete 6 hours of work in an 8-hour day, and we plan the work items in the sprint accordingly. If at the end of the sprint, it is determined that we can complete more or less work in a given day, we plan accordingly for the next sprint.
It has only been a couple weeks since we started implementing Agile Development, and there will be plenty of kinks to work out, but it has already made a tremendous difference. The business units are happier, and are in more control of their products. The developers are happier and in more control of their code and how things get done. Realistic expectations are set, and goals can finally be met.
By: SethCardoza - Published: 2009-02-06 22:28:56 in Category: General
If you don't know, Last.fm is an internet radio station. You can learn more about the general stuff on the website. This post is about how to discover new music now that you are using Last.fm. Here's a list of some ways to discover new music with Last.fm
- Last.fm recommended music station
- Listen to an artist
- Listen to friend's radio stations
- Listen to tags
The easiest way to discover new music is to listen to the Last.fm recommended music station. This is tailored to you based on the music you already listen to. Depending on how diverse your taste in music is, this will play music from numerous genres
Selecting a specific artist will usually play at least one song from that artist, and then similar artists, usually in the same, or similar genres. So if I were to start listening to Rolling Stones, this station would most likely not play Ludacris.
You can befriend people on Last.fm and listen to their radio station. This is a great way to discover new music, especially if your friends have different tastes than you do.
Last, but my favorite, is tags. You can type in a tag, and listen to music that has been tagged with whatever you've typed in. This can be as general as basic genre like, rock, rap, hip-hop, techno, and etc. The really interesting thing is putting in more obscure tags. Some of my recent favorite are, progressive metal, video game rock, mega man, and underground.
By: SethCardoza - Published: 2009-02-01 20:00:02 in Category: General
I had to do a bit of searching to find this, so I figured it would be useful for others. If you're newer to OS X and Quicktime, and are used to using the K-Lite Codec packs for Windows, you're probably wondering what to do for your Mac. Download Perian, and install it. It will be all that you need.
By: SethCardoza - Published: 2009-01-31 14:08:50 in Category: General
Having a hard time losing the weight? Just can't seem to find the time to start learning a new programming language? Make it a contest. Find a friend that wants to achieve a similar goal, and make a friendly competition out of it. Set a goal, lose 5 pounds in a month, write a basic application in the new language in a month's time, the loser buys lunch. It's enough of an incentive to want to beat your friend, but nothing that will ruin the friendship*.
*Seth Cardoza provides no warranty as to the status of your friendship at the end of the contest.
By: SethCardoza - Published: 2009-01-26 20:54:26 in Category: General
It's that time of year again. Yep, time for some office gambling. I whipped up a quick sheet and figured I would share it with the world. I'm sure someone will need one, and this will look somewhat professional. Click here to view and print, and see below for a preview.
