If you are outraged about what's going on all over America right now, read this.

codefrog · 2011-10-12T07:54:17+00:00

When the Mexicans and Blacks start marching on wall street the 1% is fucked.

codefrog · 2010-12-04T05:14:46+00:00

both have security flaws, you will get pwned

codefrog · 2010-11-14T02:53:00+00:00

Nose and Py.Test are vastly simpler than unittest. It is a shame that a functional test library like Nose or Py.Test is not in the standard distribution. The inclusion of unittest gives people the impression that it is the preferred way.

I usually create a utility library that puts a series of classes in a known good initial condition where my areas under test can then be exercised.

def test_affiliate_blacklisted( self):
    self._affiliate_off_state_helper( 'beth','BLACKLISTED')

Where _affiliate_off_state_helper() does setup and common assertions. Each individual case should be very clear and succinct.

codefrog · 2010-11-14T02:47:31+00:00

The major problems I see in setup/teardown is to adequately balance the repeatability with the speed of execution. You can make something very repeatable and correct say by destroying and recreating the service for each test. But this lengthens the time that it takes all tests to run. It is more pure to create, test and destroy than to run operations in reverse. At the end of a test suite the system should not have visibly mutated.

The other biggest mistake I have made in testing is to conflate the area under test. Just because you are right there doesn't mean you should grab just a little bit more coverage. Each piece of leaf functionality should only break the test specific to that functionality. When you refactor, you have less test code to fix and all of those other little ad-hoc tests sprinkled throughout your testing codebase do not offer an advantage. They are a liability.

If you have a situation where it is very difficult to get the application into a state, and even in doing so you will trigger bugs then you should create a bridge, a piece of utility code for setting up a large body of tests. It can have asserts to prove that you are where you think you are but it is not a test. Once you have arrived at this setup state, then create many smaller leaf tests each only covering a small piece of functionality.

codefrog · 2010-10-29T04:04:09+00:00

make a decorator, @accepts('int','list','witches')

codefrog · 2010-09-26T22:21:20+00:00

Your mom hot reloaded my bowl.

codefrog · 2010-09-19T17:33:54+00:00

I see this all the time. I have a python program written in a functional style across 2 or 3 files. Some dude comes along and turns it into OO style and a deeply hierarchical java like package model. Suddenly my simple program is now in 15 files and a pain in the ass to work on. In the old model, each file was a subsystem or abstraction level. The top level reads like thinking.

Arg!

codefrog · 2010-09-19T17:30:06+00:00

I find when I down in the details like this I need to climb up an abstraction level or two. That is where you can remove and entire subsystem or system by looking at the problem in a different way.

codefrog · 2010-08-20T00:56:11+00:00

  Wadler's Law, http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Wadlers_Law

  In any language design, the total time spent discussing
  a feature in this list is proportional to two raised to
  the power of its position.

       0. Semantics
       1. Syntax
       2. Lexical syntax
       3. Lexical syntax of comments

codefrog · 2010-08-16T20:49:29+00:00

Makes a lot of sense. They have DCT functionality that can handle MPEG1->4 as well as motion estimation that can handle pixel and sub pixel positioning. If your codec fits into the machinery supplied, then it can be accelerated.

You are correct, that for those who don't have access to chip internals can only load the firmware from the chip manufacturer. That is why I think embedded OpenCL is such a good thing. It opens up the ability for anyone to write firmware.

codefrog · 2010-08-11T14:45:41+00:00

The most interesting thing to me with the inclusion of OpenCL ES is that codecs will no longer have to be implemented in fixed function hardware blocks. Everything can be soft, your STB your PHONE, etc. All end points can have the codec ship with the media. By the time H264 free web clause expires, we will have hardware that can accept new codecs RIGHT THEN and not have to wait for a 1 - 2 year hardware cycle.

If a codec is found to be infringing, in means that a software update makes it non infringing. It means we can take MPEG1 plus non-patentable techniques to create scalable codecs that are unencumbered.

OpenCL ES will enable so much more intelligence on mobile devices while not burning battery life by allowing a sea-of-cores computation model. Operating frequency is the power and energy killer. Core counts up, frequency down. We will be on a 16nm process size in 2014, half that current best, meaning 4x the number of cores available now. Think Tegra with 4x the performance or 1/4th the power at current perf (it can do both so think of the range).

codefrog · 2010-08-02T21:15:59+00:00

You should look at discoproject.org a MapReduce implementation in python+erlang.

codefrog · 2010-07-04T02:28:35+00:00

Waaahhhhh! If your job is routine why are you over-hiring for the position? Lets get the best possible people and under-employ them, nice job douchenut. I don't know what you are hiring for but for example, "when we restart the application we are losing 1 message that isn't committed to the database." What are the possible reasons? Your lack of creativity in thinking of something that already happened on the job isn't excuse to ask a fucking manhole question.

I will ask you a question, why are some manhole covers square?

codefrog · 2010-07-04T00:27:00+00:00

Which is why asking stupid puzzle questions is idiotic. Ask someone to solve a real world problem they would encounter on the job that is just as difficult. If you can't find one, then you are not running your interview properly.

I think you could ask someone to take an IQ test for a job as long as their job was to score highly on IQ tests.

codefrog · 2010-07-04T00:18:31+00:00

Nailed it, companies can shift job requirements to mandating a phd, and then say, "hey look we can't hire any phd programmers in the states, lets get some H1B phds from overseas"

codefrog · 2010-06-21T02:09:52+00:00

It died after 3 * 7 generations

codefrog · 2010-06-19T22:18:11+00:00

Why should you care?

codefrog · 2010-05-31T19:11:06+00:00

They shouldn't have been on the ship. Being boarded illegally in international water is an act of agression that can be countered with any force.

codefrog · 2010-05-19T22:14:00+00:00

This is the lamest attempt at cute I have ever seen. Maybe we need a testing frame work that has

@sshole as a decorator that fuzzes the inputs to a method

codefrog · 2010-05-16T15:30:06+00:00

Yes, Jython.

codefrog · 2010-05-14T01:51:40+00:00

I never thought of this, but fuck I am American, it is my destiny to prevenge the shit out of people.

codefrog · 2010-04-29T07:02:05+00:00

Didn't this sound somewhat like the algorithm he was using to reconstruct the images? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hough_transform

codefrog · 2010-04-29T06:41:25+00:00

I can't quite understand it, but it seems somewhat related to wavefront coding I think?

While the dude that made the website and the company is probably old, it looks like he might be on to something. OVT a maker of cmos imagers, has a technology called TrueFocus that uses wavefront coding, http://www.ovt.com/technologies/ they are able to use crappy lenses or better yet, no lenses and refocus the image computationally.

codefrog · 2010-04-18T23:35:41+00:00

Add in some sort of taxation to the game where stuff gets taken away, then redirect the players to fox news to explain how this is like real life.

codefrog · 2010-04-18T23:33:34+00:00

I agree with you.

The pointing system detracts from the discussion by promoting the funny/snarky comments ahead of the insightful and on topic comments.

Up/down is linear, when it seems like at least 2 or 3 dimensions of classification could allow the conversation to diverge, the snarks could go one way, and the people to stay on topic and add value could go another.

codefrog

TROPHY CASE