Programmer’s Paradox

I’ll keep this insanity short and sweet.
In PHP, if you have a define that you forget to actually define, it will default to true, not false.
Why is this?  Because in evaluating the define, if PHP cannot find anything else to evaluate it to, it will evaluate it to a string literal, which always evaluates to [...]

Construx has released the results from their 2008 software mistakes survey.  It’s worth reading the article to see their methodology and how they slice and dice the numbers.
Here’s the final list they’ve come up with for the 10 classic software mistakes with the highest mistake exposure (meaning they have the highest average occurrence plus the [...]

I enjoy Twitter and I think I’m addicted to Google Reader.  It’s become a game for me to make sure that I get the number showing my unread stories down to zero.
Both make it very easy to follow someone, and once you do, if you’re like me, you end up following them forever just because [...]

Recently, on Hacker News, this question was asked:
What do hackers think of PHP?
If you’re thinking about PHP, I suggest you read the comments.  You’ll notice there is a constant refrain:
You can use PHP, but you had better have discipline.
Sure, you can use PHP or any language, but of course you need discipline.  That isn’t unique [...]

Jay Fields has an excellent article up at InfoQ talking about software development.  He compares software development to playing poker.  It’s an analogy that works incredibly well.
In the article is this quote:
“Many programmers sit in cubes, tackling problems all on their own.”
While most of us don’t think about that statement often, if at all, it [...]