Caffeinated Coder

The November 2007 Caffeinated Codey Winners Are...

1. For Most Likely to Cause My Co-Workers Grief...Jeff Atwood's post Don't Forget to Lock Your Computer where he talks about the wonderful world of goating. Don't get excited, you'll have to go elsewhere for your daily dose of bestiality. However, this post does offer plenty of good ideas on how you can punish your co-workers the next time they leave their computer unlocked. I can't wait to replace someone's desktop with a screenshot of a desktop or replace their screensaver with the the bluescreen screensaver.
2. For Most Persuasive TDD argument...Max Pool for his post Don’t Unit Test? Start Counting Your “Oh Shits!". I had to quit counting my own exclamations after a few hours because I ran out of fingers and toes, but otherwise it is a very solid suggestion. It effectively drives home the point that the time wasted on tracking down stupid "collateral damage" bugs usually far outweighs the time it takes to simply write the unit tests that would catch those bugs for you automatically.
   
3. For Best Thanksgiving Parable...Rory Blythe for his post Here's how we're doing this thing... As you can tell from some of my recent posts, I've become a big fan of Rory's unique style of creative humor this last month so I had a hard time picking out my favorite. This winning post covers a wide gamut of deeply philosophical issues including Captain Bark-Bark's defecation habits, the unfortunate cultural demise of tar and feathering, innovative reading systems based on hydrochloric acid being injected into eyeballs, turkeynog, and traditional thanksgiving parables involving backstabbing, duplicitous sandwiches. For his award, I have special ordered the new turkeynog flavored blend of coffee from starbucks.
4. For Most Compelling Reasons to Hire a Software Repo Man...Steve McConnell for his post on Technical Debt. The iconic author of the classic tech book, Code Complete, explains how to distinguish between good and bad technical debt and suggests ways to make debt more visible to stakeholders as well as how to gradually start paying them down. Finally, a voice of reason that suggests an intelligent way to balance both the goal of staying in business with the desire to avoid software maintenance hell.
   
5. For Best Rant Directed at Non-Developers...Karle Moore for his post I'm a Software Developer, but I don't work with computers. If you've ever hesitated to admit that you're a software developer for fear of being asked to solve all forms of computer and electronic problems, then you'll appreciate this rant. My family and friends now all think that I am an adult video store clerk, but at least now I can blissfully focus on screwing up my own computer for a change.
   
6. For Best Mort Mugshot...Paul Vick for his post Is It Time to replace Mort?. Paul attempts to singe-handedly heal the collective VB.NET inferiority complex by attempting to replace the toothless, unkempt hillbilly version of Mort we all know and love with a Ben Franklin-like persona. Before any of you VB.NET programmers rush out to embrace this new Mort 2.0 image, let me ask you this. Who would you rather party with? Which Mort is more likely to have a spare bottle of Jack Daniels to help ease your pain after enduring another three hour HR meeting?
   
7. For Most Effort Spent to Make Fun of Microsoft...Philipp Lenssen for his post What If Gmail Had Been Designed by Microsoft? Philip pokes fun at Microsoft's questionable design sense by showing screen shots of GMail that he gradually transforms into something truly hideous by progressively adding some classic Microsoft design and usability touches.
   
8. For Best School of Hard Knocks Lessons...Scott Watermasysk for his post 7 of the Hardest Things I Learned About Writing Software. Scott offers some excellent and concise advice that covers some of the bigger mistakes that developers tend to make in their quest to create software. Pay attention, because these are the "oh crap, I just wasted 10 months of my life on something that nobody cares about" types of mistakes that you'll probably think are trivial until one of them swoops down and knocks you on your butt some day.
9. For Best Developer Origin Story...Oren Eini for his post Geek Scripture. Have you ever come back the next morning after a truly inspirational day of programming and you couldn't figure out what the heck you were thinking? I'm still waiting on my first truly inspirational day of programming, but as soon as it happens I will no longer feel bad when I come in the next day and can't figure out what I did. All you geeks who figure out how to procreate can now retell Ayende's parable to generations of your socially maladjusted offspring.

1. For Best Captcha Implementation...Frozenbear (I guess only bloggers give out their true identity) for his website hotcaptcha.com. I am seriously going to lobby John Alexander and Jeff Julian to consider using this HotOrNot-based safeguard against spammers for geekswithblogs. Just think of how many more comments would be left on bloggers sites if they got to choose hot looking women each time instead of typing in those stupid abstract letters every time they wanted to read a comment! I know the number of comments that I personally leave on my own blog would skyrocket.
   

Print | posted on Monday, December 03, 2007 7:54 AM