Author Archives: Richard Rodger

Rant: Functions Deserve Brackets Dammit!

I know brackets are parentheses, but bear with me, we're on the other side of the pond here. So what is the story with the functionName (param1, param2, …) style? Darlings, you are disassociating context! Huh? Well look, one of … Continue reading




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Big Data Dump at the Small Office

I'm a big fan of BigPictureSmallOffice, mostly because I don't work in one anymore! Apparently the IT department managed to entirely bork the company's database, including the list of oustanding orders. Yee Haa! Hey, I've been there. One month into … Continue reading




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Damned if You Document, Damned if You Don’t

My recent post about documentation writing and technical writers was a little off the cuff and quite easy to misinterpret. I suppose the phrase “throw some technical writers at it” didn't help either. To clarify: I think technical writers are … Continue reading




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Sudoku, Part Three

With the sudoku program I hacked together in the last post, I was able to solve the Irish Independent's Super Sudoku for three weeks running. But then, disaster! It turns out that sudoku puzzles can be pretty fiendish – they … Continue reading




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Documentation Damnation

I've been writing a lot (and I mean a whole lot) of JavaDoc lately. It's all for the new Ricebridge product, to be announced Real Soon Now. One of the things that I like to do with my components is … Continue reading




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Rolling On

Roller is working out pretty well. No road blocks so far for anything that I wanted to do. However, my approach is probably not the easiest way to do things. I have set up the main layout of the site … Continue reading




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Friday Fun: Cool Illusion

Take some time out to confuse your eyes: stare at the black + in the center. Hey, I got all the pink dots to disappear! More like this at: Visual Illusions · Optische Täuschungen. Yeah I know, now I have … Continue reading




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Sudoku, Part Two

Solving Sudoku algorithmically is actually a bit harder than it looks – as a previous commenter pointed out. But I'm with Richard Feynman on this one: If you want to learn something, make a mess of it yourself first, then … Continue reading




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Steve Pavlina’s Non-Objective Reality

Steve Pavlina points out that objective reality, well, ain't. Actually he's on even firmer ground than he thinks. Now I'm no Sapir-Whorf fanboy, but as it turns out, classical objective reality is also a logical impossibility. Good old Hilary Putnam … Continue reading




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Sudoku, Part One

A while back I was stuck in bed for a week or two due to illness, and after I got bored with mobile games (well your reactions aren't the best on pain killers), I decided to have a go at … Continue reading




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