Why so serious?

I STARTED with a blog dedicated to programming some time in 2003, dabbled with other blogging projects, and now appear to have settled with the present incarnation. Looking back, it is strange to see how my blogging preference has shifted so much.

Although I still do a lot of programming, I have given up on writing about it. I feel that programmers, or those who write about the profession, are being too liberal about throwing acronyms, patterns, and what-nots around, and I do not want to be part of that.

Just yesterday, I came across a blog post about “a new Locator pattern”. Well, here was me thinking that the purpose of a pattern was to describe a distinct and recognised solution to a common programming problem. Let’s get this straight, you have ONE Locator pattern with VARIATIONS in implementation. Someone claiming “a new Locator pattern” is missing the point, surely. Imagine this, in the middle of a technical discussion, you suggest that a developer uses the Locator pattern. “Err, which one already?” Yep, that’s how ridiculous pattern abuse has become, all thanks to self-proclaimed programmer-blogger-gods!

And, this is why I prefer to post pictures. Like this one.

Eddy.

Random thoughts

GRATUITOUS use of swear words in a foreign language does not make one become more proficient in it. Why do so many feel that they need a “f*ck” in every other sentence? How can the worst of a language make you better at it?

This is a reaction to bad taste wall posts seen on Facebook from mauritian “friends”.

Now, for the sake of completeness, a random picture.

Eddy.

Farnborough car boot sales

I try to always have a camera on me when I go out looking at shops or visit markets as these outings present many opportunities for candid photography. This picture is part of a series (view the complete set) made at the Farnborough Sunday car booty a few weeks ago. On that occasion, like most these days, I used my Nikon FM2 film camera with Fujifilm Superia XTRA 400 expired some time in 2005.

Eddy.

Awesome!

A PICTURE, well, three actually, is worth three thousand words. That’s how much it would take to put my joy in writing.

Wait for it…

Wait for it…

AWESOME!

Eddy.

Disaster!

THERE ARE a couple of things wrong in this picture.

First, obviously, the ASDA photolab messed up the film completely, so much so that when I turned up to pick it up, the two teenagers staffing the counter did not know how to give the bad news. While the boy was forthcoming and ready to acknowledge the mistake, the girl insisted that the “film was just a bit wet”. Yeah, right!

Anyway, most of the pictures of the roll were taken to test the incident mode of my Sekonic L308S, and I was going to scan the negative and get the best of it from post-processing, so I was not too fussed although I was rather upset by the girl’s persistence in finding an excuse. Long story short, I walked away with a refund and vouchers as compensation.

The other thing that is wrong in this picture, which is not so obvious, is that THIS IS NOT MY NEGATIVE! I only noticed when I took it home and started cutting it into strips. At the shop, I had not bothered to check because of the state it was in.

I am thinking of putting it on lost negatives website (or whatever the name is). Maybe, I should have returned it, but from what I gathered, they would have simply binned it.

Eddy.