Toys

I've been going crazy trying to decide on which toy I want. There is the iPod Touch http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/specs.html and the Nokia N810 http://www.nokiahowto.com/A4626059. The touch caught my eye because of the full fledged browser and wifi capability. That's just cool. But then I found out about the N810 and it's really awesome too. It has the same bells and whistles, plus extra. Linux based OS, Mozilla as it's browser, and no iTunes! Plus it has a real GPS, not the jerry rigged one like the Touch. However, the Touch's UI is simply sexy, to say the least. Also it is a bit smaller, and size is up there on my check list. Then again the N810 is thicker by only 10ths of an inch, and has a full qwerty keyboard :-/

So after pulling my hair out for a few days over the matter, I finally decided what I was going to do. Try out both :) I placed an order for my N810 earlier today, and then left work and picked up a Touch. I have 15 days to play with each before I'll have to make a decision and return one. Hopefully THIS will help me make a decision already :)

TDD (cont)

Well I was going to come back to my last post, to clarify that I was talking about test driven development (because I hadn't exactly done that), but it looks like Alan already figured that out. :)

I don't believe a lot of "test" code is required to start. It seems like moreso you writhe a simple test of what you would like to accomplish (ie: I want a class Monkey() to take 1 parameter of type Tail() - to start.) So you write a test for it. Then write just enough code to get that test to pass. Add more details to your test, and repeat.

As far as the test cases being completely independent of each other, I always under the impression they should be. Hence our friends SetUp() and TearDown() for each class :) TDD is certainly attainable for large projects, I just don't know if I see a huge advantage for it.

All in all I"m still up in the air about it. I have heard though that once you DO have the mindset and once you are a test driven developer, it's impossible to go back...

TDD

I've very recently taken an interest, but can't say my mindset is just there. I'm looking for more articles defending their explanations of it, or reasons in certain projects for doing so, (or anything else that may related). I'm just not sold yet. But I am still open to opinions.. :)

Today's Big Event

My boss got fired. The one that I never thought too highly of. I'm still in shock because I never thought it would happen - McKesson doesn't fire anyone. Although this should have been done a long time ago, I'm still surprised (but quite content about it :-) ). I do feel a bit bad for the guy since he just adopted a baby, but by the same token, he was not management material, which is something I thought from the beginning... And I feel I can post stuff like that, now that he is gone :)

Speaking of work, we just hired a new guy, Tad, on our team, not too long ago. And I'm so happy that we did. This guy really knows his stuff, seems super intelligent, and super nice. (Good thing too, because with an un-named, not-so-bright person on this small team, it's good to know that there is some hope for meeting our deadline.)

DDR + Guitar Hero 3 = No time to blog :)

DDR Hottest Party is so hard to find as any Wii owner knows.. but, when I found it, it became a Christmas present to myself. And I've played it every day since I got it. I think I'm addicted. I so love that game. The boy also found a game that he loves, and that would be Guitar Hero 3. His nephew got it for Christmas and he tried playing it - and loved it. GH3 also happens to be another one of those "sold out everywhere for the Wii" games so I was a little skeptical about being able to find this one too. I think we lucked out though. Target had literally just gotten them in stock right across from where we work when we called. I was even there earlier in the day and they were out. Nonetheless, finding that out, we headed over and got it. The game is only a few days old and he has almost beaten it already!

Christmas on the way!

A week from yesterday and it's here. This year seemed to have just flown by! The good news is that I think I'm just about finished with my Christmas shopping. I went way over budget on my brother and sister, but that's pretty typical of me. Unfortunately. I just see so many things I know they would like and think "just this one last thing..." Which also reminds me that I made the nice mistake of telling my mom that I don't want any stuffed animals or any junk for Christmas. She's called John and mentioned to him that I said that, so I know she's ticked off about it. I probably should have worded it differently because I'm sure she ran to my sister and told her that I called all the gifts she ever picked out for me as "junk". You don't tell that to a 16 yr old girl, and especially not out of context like I'm sure she did. I just can't win. I probably should have just taken the stuffed animals and keychains..

The chowder was sort of a disaster at first.. lol. I had never made it before, so the first day I tried it out, I ended up making 3 different batches. The kitties loved me that day. The next day I decided to give it another go and ended up with something I felt was good enough to let John try out. He seemed to really like it, and I was quite proud myself, having never made it before. I still have some tweaking to do, but I wouldn't be ashamed of making it for, say, a party I'm going to the way I have it now.

Pens and Chowder

Well the Pens won the game we went to see. It was actually a really great game to watch. Especially after looking at the rankings and seeing that the Pens didn't seem to have a snowball's chance of winning it. But they did :) ..and the streak has kept up too - they've been playing rather well! I'm quite impressed! However, Fleury is hurt, which is no good. Poor dude. It almost seems like he'll never get to regain his confidence with how much Therrien was swapping him in and out, and now this.

Yesterday the boy and I went to the Hartwood Acres Festival of Lights. It was really cool. Over 3 miles of, well, Christmas lights! I wished I had brought a camera, but the cell phone had to suffice so although I have a bunch of pictures, they aren't the best quality in the entire world. We also stopped afterwards at a little restaurant called the Hardwood Cafe and had some of their "famous" clam chowder. John loves the stuff, and I was thinking, I have Thursday off so I'm going to try a little experiment. I'm going to attempt to mimic their chowder, although John claims that it's been tried by many and failed by all. I have a few ideas, but I'll have to do a little grocery shopping and then we'll see!