CodeSOD

Jonathan did a double-take when he glanced over this function:

When I'm creating a function, I try to make sure it passes two simple tests: Using the function should require less code than just duplicating what the function does, and whatever the function does shouldn't be the same as a built-in operator

If I had a dollar for every time I've seen someone doing custom date and time parsing, I'd have somewhere between eight and ten dollars. It's just not something you see much of these days. All major programming languages have built-in support for parsing dates, times, currency, etc., and programmers are pretty good about using them.

Call it confirmation bias, call it superstition, but as developers and human beings, we're all susceptible to it. Say you're working on a particularly tricky bit of code, so you've fallen back on the "try all kinds of crazy crap until it passes the specific test case" method, an invaluable tool for all developers. You find an approach that works, and while you're not sure exactly why it worked, you keep it in mind for the future.

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I can't imagine a world without content filtering. Just think of all innocent children, parents, and grandparents that would be irreparably harmed from seeing those certain vile combinations of letters that we call "swear words." While I've been forever changed by seeing such words, I long for the days when I thought that "f...ing" was just a short way of writing floccinaucinihilipilificating. And I truly believe that it's my duty to protect the innocent from being exposed to those dastardly words and let them believe that an f-bomb simply refers to a friendly-bomb, as in, a shower of hugs and kisses.

 

As the seasons change and years pass, trees accumulate rings that can be used to determine the age of the tree. This is a result of seasonal growth — the inner section of each ring is formed in the early part of the rapid growth season; this wood is called "early wood" (*snicker*). Then as the temperature changes and growth slows, the darker outer portion of the ring forms ("late wood"). And who can forget the classic scene from Vertigo in which Kim Novak's character hints at a passion for dendrochronology as she finds the years of her birth and death on the rings of a tree. Why do I bring this up? Because seeing bits of the past frozen in time is fascinating.

For several years, Clint's company has been working on a game that's undergone several engine and tool changes. And I'll stop you right there- it's not Duke Nukem Forever because this game exists, and has been released.

Michael F. arrived to an ugly sight — an inbox full of messages with the same subject line. "ERROR: Invalid data near '<Carrier '" And that could only mean one thing. The shipping software company had released a patch to their web service. Having suffered through updates of ClearPath Logistics' software before, he knew exactly how this was going to go.