Shenanigans – Page 5 – Software and Other Shenanigans

How to (correctly) do a murder mystery reality show

Aug 252013

Whodunnit has been my guilty pleasure show all summer. It had a cool premise, 12 “guests” went to a mansion to play a murder mystery game, only to find a guest “murdered,” and be told that 1 of them is the “killer” (obviously a TV show isn’t going to actually kill people, but if you suspend the disbelief, it was a fascinating concept). It was reminiscent of another “reality” show that was also a guilty pleasure of mine, Murder in Small Town X (same basic idea, except the suspects were all a separate group of actors and not the contestants). The finale just aired not long ago, and when it was all said and done…my wife and I spent a solid hour and a half, ranting, raving, and coming up with a better version of that type of show.

Wedding planning tips from a software developer (part I)

General Commentary, Shenanigans 1 Response »

Jul 312013

Having just gotten married recently, I tried a lot of stuff to help make the planning process easier, and had a few thoughts on things that did (and didn’t quite) work that I wanted to share. The first thing I wanted to mention were thoughts about planning and organization. As it turns out, wedding planning isn’t just a 1-person process, and so some degree of organization and coordination winds up being needed. Continue reading »

Software is awesome, but it’s not going to save the world

General Commentary, Shenanigans No Responses »

Apr 162013

I love software, and I love writing software, but these days there seems to be a belief amongst developers that software and good programming can solve all humanity’s problems. Don’t get me wrong, software can solve a lot of problems, especially problems that involve keeping track of a lot of stuff, tasks very repetitive, and doing lots of math. However, as good as software is, some problems are systemic, people problems, and no clever coding can make that disappear.

Maybe one day Google will finally get mobile

General Commentary, Shenanigans 1 Response »

Feb 122013

Originally when I cooked up this idea, it was going to be all about how Google didn’t really get mobile, and how they were getting sidetracked by Android. I still think Android is more of a distraction than Google shining at mobile, but I do think they’re at least starting to understand what they need to do to continue to be successful and relevant as people leave the computers at their desks and turn more to phones and tablets. Continue reading »

A Christmas script to brighten your holidays

Programming, Python, Shenanigans 2 Responses »

Dec 252012

In honor of Christmas, I wanted to put up a little script I wrote for a family holiday tradition. Every year, we each pick a name at random and fill their Christmas stocking. There’s a few rules to this little game, but the one that applies for the purposes of this script is that you cannot be assigned your own stocking. While this script randomly assigns someone a stocking, you can use the same code to dole out Secret Santa targets if that’s more your thing. Continue reading »

Want to unleash innovation and jump-start the economy? Hire drug cartels!

Shenanigans No Responses »

Nov 262012

Well, obviously, this is going to fall in the “Shenanigans” portion of “Software and Other Shenanigans”, but with the election over and the country’s attention (presumably) turning back to spurring innovation and economic production, I’d like to offer my humble suggestion. Namely, we need to start hiring, encouraging, drug dealers. I’m not talking about the shady-looking, ill-reputed people on street corners. I’m talking about the people making drug dealing work on a more corporate and organizational level. These guys are innovative, resourceful, and they get things done. In other words, they’re exactly the kind of people we keep saying we want to unleash in our economy. Well, they would be if we weren’t so busy trying to put them in jail. Continue reading »

Phone season 2012

Shenanigans No Responses »

Sep 212012

So all of the new phone line announcements are in and the comparisons, snarking, and general smuggery are underway in earnest. Apple and Android fans are still Montagueing and and Capuleting each other, and Microsoft fans totally understand how Rodney Dangerfield felt. Since Apple and Nokia (aka Microsoft’s phone division) recently had major press events (I think Motorola, aka Google’s phone division, made an announcement right around the same time, but apparently that didn’t seem to be a big deal). Continue reading »

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