Maxwell's Daemons

Author: maxx

  • Business Models for Software Developers

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    Recently I’ve been reading Steve Blank’s articles on startups. One of the principles that Steve espouses is that a startup is an organization formed for the purpose of finding a profitable business model. He points out that most business plans are not successful, and the successful startup is ready to quickly iterate, adapt the plan…

  • Rethinking Virtualization

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    My first encounter with virtualization was in 1988, when a company called ReadySoft released a product called the A-Max. Because the Amiga and Macintosh shared the same Motorola 68000 based CPU, the A-Max allowed the Amiga to run the Mac OS as a virtual machine. The benefits were obvious, you could invest in a single…

  • Estimating Chaos: Complexity Levels

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    What I describe here is an augmented form of point based estimation designed to improve the precision of pointing, allow for faster and more effective resource transition onto the team, and improve the accuracy of the estimate.

  • There is no ViewModel

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    I’ve noticed a strong trend of using a ViewModel suffix for classes in the ViewModel of Silverlight and WPF applications. In practice, I discourage people from using the ViewModel suffix because it’s not logical, and tends to lend to more confusion than understanding. I’ve been trying to track down the source of the suffix to…

  • Using Windows in WPF

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    On our Manning book forum, I received a question from trifonius regarding the use of multiple windows in WPF: First of all, I’d like to compliment the authors with the book. It’s a great read, thorough explanations and clear examples. I’m working on an application that needs to be able to edit data as well…

  • Fine Tuning an LCD Monitor Connected to an Analog Port

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    Quite a while ago, I discovered the joys and productivity of using multiple monitors. On my current system, I have two identical Samsung 19″ LCD monitors connected to an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro. Unfortunately, the video card only has a single DVI connector so my second monitor is hooked up through the analog SVGA port.…

  • Exception Handling 101

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    I hate buggy software. However, as a developer, I know how difficult it is to write bug-free software and so I am always looking for new ways to learn how to write better software. One of those ways is exception based programming. Sadly, exceptions are often glossed over in samples and books so exception anti-patterns…

  • Eye Nutrition

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    A few years ago, I got a Mac. It started when I read about Apple jettisoning their entire operating system core and starting over with the UNIX-based NeXT operating system. Every day after work, I stopped by CompUSA and just explored all the OS X systems there. This all happened in late 2002 and, at…

  • Agile Development for Commercial Software

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    My development experience has primarily been in commercial software. As such, I am quick to recognize that some aspects of agile methodologies aren’t always practical for commercial software development, nor were they designed with commercial developers in mind. For example, sitting with the customer you have not yet won is not really practical (or even…

  • Cargo Cult Agile

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    I first came across the phrase “Cargo Cult” in the book Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! by Richard Feynman. In the book, Feynman warned researchers against fooling themselves and thus becoming cargo cult researchers. The term is from a 1974 commencement address given by Feynman where he talks about learning not to fool yourself, because…