tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67996222012-04-16T00:39:43.842+02:00This blog has moved. Please update your bookmarks.Mats Gefvertnoreply@blogger.comBlogger125125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6799622.post-1150201901087500022006-06-13T14:29:00.000+02:002006-06-13T14:31:41.100+02:00

Because of the way things are going, I've decided I might as well get a domain of my own.So through foresight and fortitude, I have now registered the domain www.matsgefvert.se; and I am now moving my blog to this location. This means that anyone who reads this site, will have to move over to the new one.Since it's ultra-brand-new, it may still take some 24 hours before the DNS servers throughout

Mats Gefvertnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6799622.post-1149757654128932202006-06-08T10:52:00.000+02:002006-06-08T11:07:34.776+02:00

Threading, as I've mentioned before, is hard. Especially in non-managed languages, such as Delphi for Win32.Various people, including Allen Bauer, is thinking about how languages can be adapted to support thread-based development easier:"This increases the need for the average developer to be become more adept at writing multi-threaded applications. What if the compiler and the libraries made

Mats Gefvertnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6799622.post-1149497649478437832006-06-05T10:53:00.000+02:002006-06-05T10:54:09.496+02:00

Yep. Can't stand it.

Mats Gefvertnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6799622.post-1149173493659664772006-06-01T16:41:00.000+02:002006-06-01T16:51:33.673+02:00

Serialization is the process of taking an object, and streaming the contents of that object into a file, or communications channel, or any other form of media; and then rebuilding that object on the other side, so that it takes up the exact same representation as it did on the sender side. Think of it as a Star Trek teleportation device, but for data objects - the data objects being

Mats Gefvertnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6799622.post-1148412859018450092006-05-23T21:27:00.000+02:002006-05-23T21:41:16.163+02:00

As I mentioned briefly in a previous post, I have a new job. Technically I'm not working there yet; I'll be starting the 19th of June running full focus on development in C++ and C#, which will be a difference for me personally, having worked with Delphi the past five years. We'll see how it turns out... I'm pretty confident I'll get up to speed quickly. I have a policy of usually not mentioning

Mats Gefvertnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6799622.post-1148126840752946082006-05-20T14:06:00.000+02:002006-05-20T14:07:49.626+02:00

I will from the 19th of June be working at TietoEnator. Who-hoo!It'll be lots of fun. Can't wait. :)

Mats Gefvertnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6799622.post-1148116354023027882006-05-20T11:06:00.000+02:002006-05-20T11:12:34.036+02:00

In a world that's increasingly being watched, monitored and put under surveillance, it's important to remember the basic right to privacy.Bruche Schneier sums it up in a very good article: "The Value of Privacy". Quis custodiet custodes ipsos? Who's watching the watchers?

Mats Gefvertnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6799622.post-1147699687059869982006-05-15T15:22:00.000+02:002006-05-15T15:28:07.073+02:00

The BBC made a wonderful blunder (Daily Mail article, video feed) yesterday when they tried to interview technology expert Guy Kewney and instead got hold of his cab driver.The poor cab driver, waiting to pick up his next fare (probably the technology expert in question?) raised his hand when the studio executive asked for Mr. Kewney, and he was quickly rushed in to the studio, put in front of a

Mats Gefvertnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6799622.post-1147004864745491892006-05-07T14:17:00.000+02:002006-05-07T14:27:44.760+02:00

I'm following a comic strip called Pearls Before Swine. I haven't quite figured it out completely yet, but it's a crazy strip about a rat, a pig, a zebra; and a couple of crocodiles who are intent on eating "da zeeba".The crocodiles way of talking is the killer. "Hullooo, zeeba neighba."It's sick, but I love it.

Mats Gefvertnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6799622.post-1146999612482231112006-05-07T12:50:00.000+02:002006-05-07T13:00:12.483+02:00

Last weekend, we completed the switch over to SourceGear Vault. Not being able to stand the abysmal VSS any longer (we threw out the 2005 update as quickly as it came in), we bought five licenses for Vault and migrated the entire VSS during the May 1st long weekend.Apart from a few strange quirks, the import worked very well. The entire database of 10-15 GB was imported straight into Vault with

Mats Gefvertnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6799622.post-1146998982019238182006-05-07T12:23:00.000+02:002006-05-07T13:02:09.636+02:00

A while ago, I said that I had made up my mind to learn Ruby. Alas, it did not happen. Instead, I find myself learning C# for the .NET platform. Obviously, a lot of what you learn these days is based on the requirements of your profession which guides you gently (or by brute force, in the case of the Novell Groupwise APIs) into new fields of learning and computation.The book I bought, .NET

Mats Gefvertnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6799622.post-1146391054948061002006-04-30T11:38:00.000+02:002006-04-30T11:57:34.960+02:00

Jeff Atwood over at Coding Horror posted a very uncommon take on the process of software engineering. For anyone who has ever felt "buried under umpteen zillion backlogged emails, feeds, books, articles, journals, magazines, and printouts", it is a delight to read.Among interesting things mentioned, the Java API has swelled from 200 classes in in it's 1.0 version, to about 3500 classes (and

Mats Gefvertnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6799622.post-1146388287662569222006-04-30T09:13:00.000+02:002006-04-30T11:11:27.733+02:00

I've gone on a book-buying frenzy the last few months. I suppose I've always wanted a library at home, but the only books I've had were random assorted books I'd found, along with all the books I bought during bible school. But no classics of any kind (well, except for Moby Dick).So, these are the books I've bought and currently on my reading list:Brothers Karamazov (Fyodor Dostoevsky)Crime and

Mats Gefvertnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6799622.post-1145718162071087672006-04-22T17:00:00.000+02:002006-04-22T17:03:13.180+02:00

Here's a really interesting site: Stuff On My Cat.It turns out that putting stuff on (or on top of) cats is incredibly fun. I don't know why.

Mats Gefvertnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6799622.post-1145198124782475422006-04-16T16:31:00.000+02:002006-04-16T16:35:34.166+02:00

By popular request, I have now released my not-so-aptly-named slide-show viewer "Yaargh" to the unsuspecting public.It is a small program which allows you to display JPEG pictures on the screen, slowly fading between them, instead of - as Windows does it - brutally cutting between them.While it draws a certain amount of CPU, it is exceedingly tiny, very simple, can read Zip files, folders and the

Mats Gefvertnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6799622.post-1144608340901106372006-04-09T20:15:00.000+02:002006-04-09T20:45:40.973+02:00

I have an answering machine at home.Answering machines are great and wonderful miracles of the 20th century. They are, in short, little bright and happy devices that answer the phone for you. This one, a digital model, comes in bright silver color, and with a digital display on top that blinks in friendly LED digits, to inform me that I have new messages.The trouble is, I never have any new

Mats Gefvertnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6799622.post-1144332260887878512006-04-06T16:02:00.000+02:002006-04-06T16:04:20.900+02:00

If I ever own a cat again, I have just determined I shall call him (or her) "Kaiser Wilhelm".On second thought, it had better be a "him", not "her".

Mats Gefvertnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6799622.post-1143545752744207632006-03-28T13:24:00.000+02:002006-03-28T13:38:04.356+02:00

There's this part of winter that I dread; the time when everything starts melting and April rolls around. It's some strange weather phenomenon, I suppose, where everything turns gray: The sky is gray, the ground is gray, as is everything in between. The sunshine that manages to filter through the heavy, swollen clouds merely highlights the monochromatic world.They say that when God first created

Mats Gefvertnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6799622.post-1143121860962345012006-03-23T14:44:00.000+01:002006-03-23T14:51:01.013+01:00

We backed down from VSS 2005 down to VSS 6.0 again on our systems. And, in doing so, cut the time for a Get Latest Version on our dpm folder down from 6 minutes to 11 seconds. A remarkable improvement, I'll say. Finally I can use the source code repository again without banging my head bloody against the wall.I'm thinking, we must have missed some kind of fatal setting somewhere in the VSS setup.

Mats Gefvertnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6799622.post-1142845889779827292006-03-20T09:52:00.000+01:002006-03-20T10:11:29.840+01:00

I'm sitting here waiting for our telephones to come online again after a power failure down in Stenungsund. It's remarkable how sensitive we are to power: Without it, our entire business would be gone and everyone would be back in the 1930's. Hooah.In the meantime, I'm listening to Cat Stevens' version of Morning Has Broken, one of my favorite hymns or songs of all time.Morning has broken, like

Mats Gefvertnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6799622.post-1142499317163836122006-03-16T09:52:00.000+01:002006-03-16T09:59:32.580+01:00

I went into Gallerix the other day, and I found some wonderful photographs of two of my heroes. Of course, I couldn't resist buying them, frame them and put them on my desk.So beautiful. *snif*

Mats Gefvertnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6799622.post-1142431164406522502006-03-15T18:25:00.000+01:002006-03-15T15:04:48.986+01:00

I enjoy watching Star Trek from time to time. I fell in love with Voyager and Captain Janeway, and I've lately been going through Episode I of Star Trek Enterprise with Captain Archer.One thing always amazes me, though. The crew of the Enterprise is so blatantly naive. They never hesitate to send a tiny away team to board an alien vessel. When they go down on an alien planet, they never recon

Mats Gefvertnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6799622.post-1142239780389911682006-03-13T09:45:00.000+01:002006-03-13T09:49:40.403+01:00

I feel happy today. Happy, happy happy. I'm not sure why. Just a random incident of joy, I suppose. The sun is shining, the sky is blue, the birds are singing. And all the children are playing and laughing, the beer is extra good, and the policemen are holding hands, dancing down the streets and singing "Släpp fångarne loss, det är vår!" ("Release the prisoners, it's spring"; although the

Mats Gefvertnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6799622.post-1141818152501945642006-03-08T12:33:00.000+01:002006-03-08T12:46:03.510+01:00

If there's one single thing that new programmers should learn, as quickly as possible, it is to code defensively.That means: Expect that things go wrong. Expect that things will fail, spectacularly, at random occasions. Expect to get garbage over the serial port. Expect random disconnects over the network. Expect programs to get access violations. Expect houses to burn down, presidents to get

Mats Gefvertnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6799622.post-1141732968859609832006-03-07T12:58:00.000+01:002006-03-07T13:04:27.456+01:00

We recently upgraded from Visual Sourcesafe 6.0 to 2005.In retrospect, that may have been a major mistake.The abysmal performance of VSS 6.0 over VPN lines has now decreased even further. It took me over 30 minutes today, to run a "Get Latest Files" on our 2.0 branch of our main project. It usually takes, like 5 minutes or so. You really have to admire Microsoft for taking a produkt like VSS 6.0

Mats Gefvertnoreply@blogger.com0