IT Security: YOU Are The Weakest Link

There is a single most important rule to IT security:

Always address the weakest link.

The Perfect Engineering Lie

Do you estimate the time it will take you to finish your task in the mythical unit called "perfect engineering day"? Have you ever wondered why?

Good Code: A Value-Oriented Approach

The first human beings had a hard time. When they weren't on edge due to the Neanderthals who constantly tried to get their unprofitable genes into the big pool again, they had to deal with a real challenge: self reflection.

When I exercise my introspectional skills I often think fondly of my ancestors. I imagine their first grunted discussions of values, time and the meaning of soccer. And I believe these discussions closely resembled those we see about good code nowadays. But without the discussion we'd probably still be fighting naked over the affection of women. Um...

In this article I'll try to define good code from a business value perspective. I'll come to this conclusion:
Good Code executes a set of features correctly in a specified time (present value) and maximizes future value (minimizes future cost) by adhering to the dynamic nature of code through an ROI-oriented design, a test suite, process automation and VCS-usage.

A Matter Of Time - Guesswork, Points And Yesterday's Weather

Ed carefully tiptoes towards Karl's desk. "Hey Karl", he cheerily announces: "I still need this time estimation for the Globster project!".

"Yea, right... That was the Irish Coffee feature for their coffee machines at the management offices, wasn't it? I just have to read some specs to figure out what I have to do - give me two days."

Ed hesitates for a second: "So, you tell me you need two days to give me an estimation?"

"Yeah, so?" Karl shoots Ed an inquiring look. He really hates time estimations. They always seem to come back at you. Mostly when you want to leave work in the evening. Looking straight into Ed's face Karl knows what's expected of him: "Ok, let's just say it takes 5 days".

Leaving Karl's desk Ed heads straight for the coffee machine. What on earth is the developer's problem with time estimations? Getting the coffee machine to deliver Irish Coffee can't be that hard, after all... and it would be a nice addition for their own machine. Somebody has to do the testing.

"Hey Ed, good that I meet you. I've got Mr. Globster on hold, how long will the changes for the project take?" - "Oh, hey Dave, Karl said it's about 5 days..." - "Thanks, Ed!"

"Mr. Globster? Yes, the new software will be ready at Friday, no problem. A manager password and taxi service will be included."

Information Overflow & Colinux WLAN Networking

In case you didn't notice: I've been away from my keyboard for two weeks. My wife and me had a beautiful vacation in Jamaica where I learned that reading and writing English doesn't help a lot to understand people actually talking. Ya Man!

Good vs. Evil: Abstraction

"What are those five lines of code for?"
"I put them there because ... wait, um, they're, let me see ... they sum up x, y and z and calculate some sort of squared nearest neighbor... yep..."
"So, what do they do?"
"I just told you..."
"See, I just found that I couldn't understand those lines in the current context, so I just wanted to rip out a new method for this stuff..."
"And?"
"Now how should I call this method?"
"Um... ... call it doCalculation!"

Reaching Programmer Level 2

Today was a beautiful sunny day. The warm sunbeams on my skin told a story of the oncoming spring. And while my body started up it's Vitamin B3 production line, I remembered a conversation I had yesterday with Bernhard, a rocket engineer, that evolved around two statements:

"With hardware, theoretically anything is possible." - This statement emphasizes the limits of hardware. Theoretically you can do whatever you want, but you're limited by the material the earth provides. I admit that human beings are highly innovative - memory chip designers happily use techniques today that were believed to be physically impossible not long ago.

"With software, practically anything is possible." - Software has no inherent limitations. The concept "software" consists of a bunch of algorithms neatly packed together into a structured specification of how to solve a problem. Of course, software is limited by the hardware it is run on, which is why I usually have a problematic relationship with hardware which sometimes leads to mutual physical violence.

There is a point in the life of a software developer when you realize this (the limitlessness of software, not my problem with hardware). That realization marks your promotion to Programmer Level 1. At that time you usually know a bunch of programming languages, acquired some basic algorithmic competence and finished some minor projects. You leave the hunting grounds of not knowing how to implement things and ascend to the heavenly plains of being capable of anything.

You're Turing Complete.