The second system effect is described in Fred Brooks 'The Mythical Man Month'. It is simply defined as the tendency of the designers to over-engineer an existing simple elegant solution. The tired architect warns us to think a moment before we take the plunge and develop 'the second system'. For a long time I thought this was mostly rubbish and you can only do things better with experience.
That was till I witnessed an actual second(or rather third) system being built. The original system wasn't simple or elegant but, it got the job done (And if you had been mucking around its code for over 6 months you will intuitively know where to fix a certain bug). It opened my eyes to YAGNI but, then the reality of features selling products crashes the party. Hopefully I'm a little wiser from the experience.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
IRC woes
Recently I've realized my long lost love for playing trivia quizzes on irc. I started off on irc://irc.criten.net/#triva when I was with my previous company. I still remember 4 people crowding on my machine answering(guessing is more apt) questions and desperately googling for answers. This time around I did a bit of searching around and found irc://irc.thundercity.net/#exp-triv. Except for the music questions which I've no clue the questions are pretty good and offer superb entertainment. I think i'm already addicted !!
Weekend Hitchcock Marathon
Last weekend (Feb 23, 2008) I had the misfortune to be left alone in the apartment I shared with room-mates in Bangalore. And being my lazy self I planned to spend it entirely browsing and watching television. Well, fate had other plans and my broadband connection chose to give up and die. So, here I was alone, without internet access on a weekend. While most people would have chosen several creative and interesting ways to entertain themselves I chose to rent a DVD and watch a movie.
The idea by itself does pose some serious challenges. In addition to being a internet-addict I'm a movie buff too. Its is customary in our apartment to watch another movie after coming back from a night show...that should give you a fair idea :|. We have membership in 2 video rental libraries and just recently started frequenting another video rental library (simply because it was on the way home from our ususal weekend luncheon). So, on sunday I sauntered into our latest video rental library. Normally any attempt to rent classics or black & white movies will be met with sharp resistance but now that no one was around I chose to rent the 'Alfred Hitchcock Collection'!!
There were 5 movies on the DVD
'The Trouble with Harry' is about a corpse of an outsider in a small village. The story unravels itself as the characters reveal portions of their stories based on the information that is available to them at that particular point of time. Which interestingly leads to the corpse being buried and exhumed thrice. But, I thought the ending did not completely tie up all the lose ends. For e.g. Capt. Wiles flicks the deadmans shoes from the deputy sheriffs car and put it on the deadman later to be found by the the widow's son (Arnie Rogers).
'Torn Curtain' tracks the adventures of an American physicist defects to East Germany because the US government supposedly closed down his research on an anti-nuclear missile. Hell breaks loose when his fiancee insists on following him there. Then the physicist reveals that that he is deceiving the East Germans to get access to a brilliant East German physicist to pick his brain to solve a problem he was facing. An unfortunate murder upsets all plans and the rest of the story is how the couple escape to safety.
'Marnie' is about a pretty young girl who is a pathological liar and thief. Her usual mode of operation is to get a job and steal from the safe a few weeks later. Mark Rutland (Sean Connery) recognizes her, later falls in love and marries her. He tries to help her resolve her psychological problems which forms the rest of the story.
'Frenzy' is the story of an innocent man who is wrongly accused and sentenced as being the necktie murderer. Innocent circumstances incriminate him and he is betrayed by his own friend. The plot then revolves around how the actual killer is convicted.
'The Birds' is about an innocent weekend in Boedega Bay which turns into a nightmare when the birds begin attacking humans. The plot also has a dash of romance and a little unsavory family history. The movie ends with the Brenner family and Melanie Daniels leaving Boedega bay. But, the reason for the birds attacking humans is never explained.
The idea by itself does pose some serious challenges. In addition to being a internet-addict I'm a movie buff too. Its is customary in our apartment to watch another movie after coming back from a night show...that should give you a fair idea :|. We have membership in 2 video rental libraries and just recently started frequenting another video rental library (simply because it was on the way home from our ususal weekend luncheon). So, on sunday I sauntered into our latest video rental library. Normally any attempt to rent classics or black & white movies will be met with sharp resistance but now that no one was around I chose to rent the 'Alfred Hitchcock Collection'!!
There were 5 movies on the DVD
'The Trouble with Harry' is about a corpse of an outsider in a small village. The story unravels itself as the characters reveal portions of their stories based on the information that is available to them at that particular point of time. Which interestingly leads to the corpse being buried and exhumed thrice. But, I thought the ending did not completely tie up all the lose ends. For e.g. Capt. Wiles flicks the deadmans shoes from the deputy sheriffs car and put it on the deadman later to be found by the the widow's son (Arnie Rogers).
'Torn Curtain' tracks the adventures of an American physicist defects to East Germany because the US government supposedly closed down his research on an anti-nuclear missile. Hell breaks loose when his fiancee insists on following him there. Then the physicist reveals that that he is deceiving the East Germans to get access to a brilliant East German physicist to pick his brain to solve a problem he was facing. An unfortunate murder upsets all plans and the rest of the story is how the couple escape to safety.
'Marnie' is about a pretty young girl who is a pathological liar and thief. Her usual mode of operation is to get a job and steal from the safe a few weeks later. Mark Rutland (Sean Connery) recognizes her, later falls in love and marries her. He tries to help her resolve her psychological problems which forms the rest of the story.
'Frenzy' is the story of an innocent man who is wrongly accused and sentenced as being the necktie murderer. Innocent circumstances incriminate him and he is betrayed by his own friend. The plot then revolves around how the actual killer is convicted.
'The Birds' is about an innocent weekend in Boedega Bay which turns into a nightmare when the birds begin attacking humans. The plot also has a dash of romance and a little unsavory family history. The movie ends with the Brenner family and Melanie Daniels leaving Boedega bay. But, the reason for the birds attacking humans is never explained.
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