Refactorizar

I always keep the quote by Ron Jeffries, from the Refactoring book close at hand:

"The lesson is: Even if you know exactly what is going on in you system, measure performance, don't speculate. You'll learn something, and nine times out of ten, it won't be that you were right!!"

How true - I've always thought about putting that on the wall somewhere prominent..!

Stop thinking of objects as procedural code or data with behaviors attached. Think of them as trusted employees who have well defined jobs. Tell ‘em what to do and let ‘em do it. Don’t muck about in their desk drawers or tell them what mop to use. Just let them do it. You’ll find your OO systems much cleaner as a result. (Curtis Poe)

from Jack Herrington by jherr

I found a really cool visualization utility that allows you to compare data from all of the countries in the world. Data include; birth rate, economic growth, mortality, etc. You can track a single country and see how it trends over time, or watch all of the countries move together.

Some interesting take homes for me. First, it's always interesting to note how we are still well behind other first world countries in terms of life span. You would think with our first class medicine, supposedly the envy of the world, we would be number one. But we are consistently around the #23 spot in terms of mortality. The number has been tracking upwards, but so have all of the other countries. Though it's interesting to note that during the Clinton years we gained about five years of, while during the Bush presidency it's only increased a little. Guess it really is better for you to vote Democrat.

Another interesting note was the sharp decline in contraceptive use after about 1998 in the U.S. It was slowly trending upward, then it shot down like a rocket. Could be the abstinence education crap, or the rise of the moral majority?

These are just a few of the things I noted as I played with this tool. It's really just very fun and very slick.

On things political, it's interesting to me, as the flood of scandals pour out of the White House, how many conservatives are distancing themselves from Bush. All the conservative pundits (and there are hordes because it's free money) always point back to Reagan. Ronnie was the last President they actually liked. Which is sad because everyone else loved Clinton. Bill's administration keeps looking better and better as the years roll by.


Spark Parking Lands Emeryville Deal
from Ted Wallingford by Ted

The City of Emeryville, CA has selected Spark Parking, the innovative company that’s using Asterisk and other software to create automated public parking solutions, to track parking utilization and length of stay in a rapidly growing mixed-use neighborhood. Better parking data will enable Emeryville officials to understand the impact of new housing and retail development in the area, supporting recommendations from a parking management plan process expected to begin shortly