digitalBush

Let me preface this bash by saying that I use my computer to work. As such, I expect it to respond when I ask it to do so. If I click a button, I want an instant response.

We live in an interesting time in computing. We're finally getting to the point where we have excess CPU cycles to spare and gobs of memory. What is a developer to do? Well, any good developer would make sure to use the equipment to it's fullest potential. Instead of just showing a window, let's take 500ms to animate that window flying across the screen. Let's take 700ms to fade this object in instead of making it just appear. Of course the last couple of statements were intended as sarcasm and the numbers were made up. Still, there's a point to be made, and I promise I'm getting there.

Why in the world would we create hardware that's faster only to slow down the user experience? I'm sick of animations that make me wait for them to finish before I can do something. If I click a link to your web page, please don't fade the damn thing in. I clicked a link and traditionally the view port blanks out and new content appears. I'm already incurring overhead by requesting your web server to do something, please don't make me wait any longer because you think something looks cool. To me, to be cool is to give me what I want as quickly as possible. If I click on an item in the task bar, I'd rather not watch an effect while my window comes up and into the foreground (I'm looking at you Vista). It's just plain counter-productive.

I'm not totally against animations; they do have their place. I think animations are appropriate when the UI does something that's not expected. The digg website is a prime example. When you click the login link at the top, a login bar appears above the header bar. This isn't normal, and if it didn't fade in the user might miss the fact that the bar just appeared. In that instance, the login bar needs to draw attention to itself.

There are plenty of examples both good and bad here. I just want to point out that we as developers needs to be mindful of our users. Just because we can do something doesn't mean we should.

Who else is sick of the commercialism surrounding Christmas?  Retail stores are shoving it down our throats before Halloween even starts.  I have a problem with the exploitation of Christmas and then not even calling it by it's proper name. 

I'm a Christian and I celebrate Christmas.  Therefore whenever I see someone I'm going to tell them "Merry Christmas" and they better not be offended by it.  I certainly wasn't offended when a Buddhist co-worker wished me a happy Chinese New Year.  I won't be offended if I'm wished a Happy Hanukkah either and here's why.  Whoever gives me a greeting (regardless of religion) is feeling in good spirits because of a special time that they celebrate. They are extending that cheer to me in the form of a greeting.  How can I refuse that? 

I would like to expand on that thought a little.  I certainly wouldn't call a menorah a holiday candle stick, that would be silly!  Now, why do you have to go and ruin my Christmas tree and call it a holiday tree?  I do realize I'm griping about events that transpired last year for the most part.  I also realize that several companies have retracted last year's "goofs" and are calling it Christmas again.  There are a few (cough, cough Best Buy) that are continuing to try and be too politically correct. 

 What bothers me is the fact that they are saying "Happy Holidays" and yet are still using Christmas imagery in their ads.  I'm not seeing other religious symbols to justify their use of "holidays".  Nope, it's all Christmas symbols I'm seeing. Excuse me, but you're trying to take advantage of the Christmas season by selling me stuff so that I can give out on Christmas.  You are taking advantage of the spirit of the season in order to bring your books into the black, but you aren't going to call it Christmas? No thanks, I have and will continue to take my business elsewhere.  You can't have your cake and eat it too.  This is about good will towards men, not selling 1,000,000 more units.

Merry Christmas!

I drive 32 miles to work one way which takes me approximately 45m - 1h 15m depending on road conditions, construction, etc.  Now I know that people drive longer distances or have commutes that take longer.  To those that do, I must say that you are insane. 

At first I didn't really mind the drive.  It gave me time.  I had time to explore the deep innards of who I really am.  It gave me time to cool off when I was upset and time to think intricate problems through.  It gave me approximately 2 hours per day of time.  That's 10 hours per week or 480 hours per year (discounting holidays,vacation, etc).  For those of your that care, that's 20 freaking days out of the year I spend sitting my ass in the car.  After driving this same route for 2.5 years, I'm out of things to think about. 

With all of this seat time, I get to witness strange things.  I've also grown to loathe certain attributes of some of my fellow commuters.  So, consider this my introduction to a series of posts I'd like to title "Rules of the Road".

Last week, a guy in my business complex broke the mirror off of my car. He ran into it with his hip and it just popped off. I come back from a 2 mile run to find my mirror and a note laying on my windshield. I called him and we settled it like civilized human beings. I purchased a new mirror from the local parts store and he wrote me a check for it. Problem solved.

I can't help but think how many people would have just run away like a coward. I know a few people who have had scratches or dents come upon their car without someone owning up to it. I keep speaking in terms of autos here, but this applies to life in any aspect. If you do something wrong at work, own up to it. If you get a bad grade on an exam, just own up to it. There's no need to pretend like it didn't happen, because it did and someone will eventually find out about it. Just do the right thing, people will respect you more for it.