I've decided I need a new computer. In the past couple of weeks it has progressed from a want to a need. It's not the speed that bothers me, but the instability. I've reinstallated my operating system, and swapped every piece of hardware out except the video card, CPU, and motherboard. In any case, it's as good a reason as any to need a new one.

But since I'm meant to be saving for a house, I'd feel guilty about going out and spending a big chunk of money on a new machine. So I have implemented a budget in order to justify the expense. (Would anyone other than a software engineer implement a budget?) Now I can happily wait a few months and then buy a shiny new machine without the guilt. And the longer I wait, the more I can spend.

I definitely need a computer before we get the house. There are guys at work with houses and mortgages, and to them budget is a dirty word. My tech lead is currently saving up for some new shoes. And we've changed our weekly food days to fortnightly because he can't afford a $6.50 schnitter every week.

Pink dinosaur

It's on slashdot now, so it's suddenly become less amusing, but anyway... in New Zealand they have webcams on some of their volcanoes to keep an eye on them. Someone has gone and stuck a pink dinosaur in front of one of them. They're not going to remove it either, they just plan to let the sulphurous environment take care of it. I look forward to checking back on the dinosaur's progress over the next few weeks/months.

Live webcam
24 hour archive

TODOs, FIXMEs and succession planning

At work they seem quite interested in succession planning at the moment. This means that if someone gets hit by a bus, they have a plan on who will take over their job. I am listed as the successor for our tech lead, so I'm meant to be learning how to do his job.

Today I grepped for TODO and FIXME in our code, and found 92 of them. Interesting. In true tech lead fashion, I've listed them all in an Excel spreadsheet that I've sent around to everyone in the team. Now everyone should focus first on removing the easy ones (in order to bring the numbers down, then it looks good to management). Those that are difficult or involve major changes can wait.

Work

I should be doing documentation at the moment, but I'm trying to avoid it. Traditionally, our documentation gets done the week before it's due to be delivered to the customer. Apparently we're going for a break with tradition this time.

Also, we have a code deadline on Friday. The following week they are having an HMI working group for this build. I mentioned to our software architect that I thought this was a bit strange. He pointed out "at least we have the requirements this time". Indeed.