I had an email today entitled "Worst Bug Ever" -- it seems that the "Donate now" link at World's Simplest Code Generator (javascript edition) was not actually functional.

This was caused by a very tricky technical problem that we in the bit-shuffling industry like to refer to as "Copy Paste error." I'd copied the code for that button from the earlier 'Classic ASP' version of WSCG. And i guess i never once actually clicked on it, to test the damn thing.

It's sad to think that maybe, had that link been correct, the "World's Simplest Code Generator" fortune would be massive by now.

Not to worry -- I fixed the link, at the same time as said person used the donate now button on the old WSCG page, to peel off some dosh and send it my way.

However, once my awesome supporter had made his donation, he immediately 'complained' that the web site was broken, because the message 'Donations to date: $10' didn't update automatically.

I think it's fixed now. But some decent load testing is in order, and that's where you come in. It'd be swell if a few thousand people could organise to simultaneously donate amounts between $1 and $1000. We also need to do some boundary checking, so it would be appreciated if one of you could try donating increasing amounts starting at $1000 dollars, and doubling each time, until an exception occurs. Then back track and perform a binary search until the exact threshhold is determined.

Kthxbye.

Information Technology departments face global staffing cuts thanks to a staggering new invention that is taking the hard work out of IT.

The 'self-clicking' "next" button is set to revolutionize how computer users 'Get Things Done' -- but a wave of fear is sweeping an industry facing wide spread redundancy.

System Administrators are expected to be the hardest hit, with over 90% of their duties now offloaded to the clever button.

"This is a direct strike at the very heart of our profession," said James Curl, president of the commitee for SysAdmin Advancement. "Our members are deeply concerned. Many of them feel that this is undermining a skill that, in many cases, took years to develop."

The button, available in forthcoming hot fixes to Vista and XP, has recruitment firms recommending that now is the time for many IT 'professionals' to start broadening their skill base. "If you're a System Administrator," said Michael Jones of RecruitingPlusForce, "or if you're a Network Administrator, a Database Administrator, a Security Administrator, a Web Administator... basically if you work in IT and have the word 'Administrator' in your title, then this device is the wake up call you've been waiting for."

A developer we interviewed said that he was not personally worried about the invention. "There's two types of people in IT," said Eric McCall, "There's people who tell the computer what to do. And there's people who do what the computer tell them to do. It's only the second group who have anything to worry about. Well, I'd better get back to it. This coffee isn't going to drink itself... yet"

(Sorry sysAdmins... that one was dedicated to experienced Next-Clicker Ben Parker (C; )

I had this wacky idea... a useless idea, but maybe an interesting one to think about, just as a casual thought game, if you really apply the old grey matter.A kind of distributed badge service -- like twitter, but for awards.

You are familiar (I damn well hope) with Stack Overflow, the site where programmers ask questions, give answers, and vote on questions and answers.

Two important parts of the way users interact with the system are 'reputation' points and 'badges'. What I'm interested in today are the badges.

The badges on stack overflow are largely inspired by xbox live gamer cards. But all of this is really a product of Pavlovian psychology/Skinnerism -- Not to mention the pre-psychiatric system of 'war medals' (Napoleon tells us: "A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon" -- only he says it in french, so he kind of mumbles it.)

Now -- think about twitter for a moment: it's a kind of distributed conversation, where you talk to anyone who'll listen (whether you listen to them or not) and you listen to anyone you're interested in (whether they listen to you or not).

Combining the two ideas together, i've been thinking (for no good reason) about a kind of distributed awards program, where people give and receive (maybe by nominating and voting on) awards to others, to encourage behaviour that fits an individuals view of what behaviour is best.

In this idea, you can only accept an award if you're subscribed to the person/institution who gives that award.

So, if you love greenpeace, you'd happily accept a 'rainbow warrior' award from them. If you're a republican, you probably wouldn't accept a 'biggoted halfwit' award from the democratic party.

If you're a fan of... say... (what's some modern band? ah yes) Mungo Jerry then you'd probably be thrilled to accept an award for 'biggest fan of mungo jerry'.

Awards only have meaning if you trust the person who gives them. (A given award would de-value quickly if given out too quickly, such as the awesome works on my machine badge' or the all-too-common 5 star awards' from a download site, that dowwnload sites caught handing out too freely a few years back (link missing, sorry... anyone?).

And maybe -- just maybe (it's only a thought game) -- other people's badges only appear at half-size, unless you subscribe/accept the giver of the badge.

So if you are viewing the Barack Obama's profile, then his 'president elect of the united states' badge is only half-sized to you, since you're not a subscriber to the united states democracy. But fidel castro's Cigar Chompin Legend badge appears full size because you subscribe to the institution for 'Cigar Chomping'.

Flair. Bling.

And the point of all these crazy awards would be to display them on your blog, or your mysite, your facebook, or perhaps even your resume.

Resumes are an interesting point -- this could be one part of the way that qualifications and certifications are actually dealt out. I'd be awarded a bachelor of engineering from an institution I care about. If I pass the right exams with microsoft I'd be issued the relevant badges.

All badges are of course 'click to certify' -- patent that, my son.

I'm thinking the 'openbadge' protocol, for federating the brokerage of such awards would be excellent. In web 3.0 it would be built on minimalist rest+json+microformats, and within 'enterprise' it would use the WS-(death)* plus federated-certificate-chain-hierarchy-taxonomies-for-authorative-something-etc.

My initial idea for this, by the way, was as an idea entirely within a large enterprise. In a big company I know they have sharepoint and they also have certification systems (for health and safety, and for other more rigorous disciplines). I thought to myself it would be nice if departments within the corporation could grant specific certifications to individuals, that were then displayed on that user's 'mysite' in sharepoint. Naturally, i want the whole world to get involved, not just a few lousy employees.

The internet has had 'badges' since the very early days -- so why not share them around somehow... any thoughts?

Part A:

1. Under the covers, a "Small Business" is usually run by a random collection of access databases and excel spreadsheets that are poorly implemented, terribly managed, and provide meaningless results.
2. An "Enterprise" is the same thing, but includes a batch file which checks if the other systems have crashed, and then restarts them.

Part B:

1. In a "Small Business" the random collection of access databases and excel spreadsheets are kept around because They Get The Job Done.
2. In an "Enterprise" the random collection of access databases and excel spreadsheets are kept around because they are jealously guarded by cranky middle managers who treat them as the precious jewels of their tiny land-locked fiefdoms, deep within their meaningless cubicle kingdom.

Part C:

1. In a "Small Business" the random collection of access databases and excel spreadsheets were written by the business owner, as he or she grew the business.
2. In an "Enterprise" the random collection of access databases and excel spreadsheets were written by idiot-nephews of dysunctional middle managers and are maintained by spineless, highly-paid consultants who should know better and will be first against the wall when the next round of redundancies arrive.

What did I miss?

'The question of whether P=NP has been occupying researchers since these two sets were first defined, having become the greatest unsolved problem in computer science...'
from Alan Turing: Life and Legacy of a Great Thinker

How important is the problem of whether or not P=NP?

'Does P = NP? This is undoubtedly the most profound question in computer science...'
from: Tutorial: Does P = NP?

How important is the problem of whether or not P=NP?

'The relationship between the complexity classes P and NP is an unsolved question in theoretical computer science. It is considered to be the most important problem in the field...'
from Wikipedia Article on 'P=NP' problem

How important is the problem of whether or not P=NP?

[If you can show that P=NP, then] 'most cryptographic algorithms are basically useless'
from comment by Charles on November 15, 2008 06:13 PM

How important is the problem of whether or not P=NP?

'The Clay Mathematics Institute has offered a $1 million US prize for the first correct proof.'
from Wikipedia Article on 'P=NP' problem

OMFG! They offered what!?

'The Clay Mathematics Institute has offered a $1 million US prize for the first correct proof.'
from Wikipedia Article on 'P=NP' problem

I thought that was what you said.

One MILLION dollars!

Problems sure can't get any more profound than that!

Thanks to an eagle-eyed journalist, there was a great write up about TimeSnapper published this week in Brisbane's main inner-city newspaper "City News".

It was really exciting to be involved in this. The photo shoot was good fun, and luckily for me we were playing a "wear your suit to work" prank that day so I look flasher than I normally do.

The laptop in the photo belongs to Joseph Cooney -- he is probably writing a blog article just now, boasting "My laptop was in the paper this week." Damn show pony.

Whether or not this will lead to a massive influx of new TimeSnapper customers, I can only wait and see. It ought to hit the right demographic, with its inner-city distribution: these desk bound labourers are the perfect target for 'the consultant's best friend'. Fingers crossed, of course.

More on Iceland...

I get most of my news about Iceland from a site called Iceland Review. The site used to be all about the latest upcoming art or fashion shows in Iceland -- but is increasingly about the economic disaster. For example, the following statement:

"32.5 percent of participants, ages 18-75, have considered moving away from Iceland because of the current economic crisis"

This week they raised the local interest rate from 12% to 18%. Ouch!

Atli and his family are holding up very well, I think. With his awesome programming skills I think he's already got a few interesting options on the table.

I'm tinkering with Asp.net MVC in my un-spare time now. (top work Phil and team!)

And I have a recurring, whacky marketing/design/envangelisation idea:

The MVC Zen Garden

If you've installed Asp.net MVC, then you'll know that when you open Visual Studio and select:

"Create Project > MVC Web Appication"

...you get a rudimentary sample application.

It's blue. Simple. Nice enough.

I'd love if there was a website, modelled after CSS Zen Garden, where designers could offer alternative CSS files (with images) for your default Asp.net MVC application.

So the starting look of the MVC Zen Garden page is the default asp.net mvc sample app, something like this:

It is exactly like the default MVC app, but it offers a range of styles to select.

Once a style is selected you can download the stylesheet and images for that 'skin'.

Hence, the user can select way out options like 'default red':

And I imagine that there may be some other slightly more powerful creations.

Perhaps, given infinite time and unlimited budget, some team of powerful 'creatives' may be capable of unleashing what I think of as the ultimate expression of mankind's ability to wield superiority over the electronic pixels, and achieve a vision of artistic perfection not unlike my own dream theme, a skin I like to call, 'Slave Leia':

And in time, other great thinkers of our age may be capable of imagining more extreme CSS-based modications.

What do you think? MVC Zen Garden... thumbs up or down?

There could also be a visual studio plugin that lets you update your own sample app in one click, to any of those available at MVC Zen Garden.

There's the idea.

I think it's solid. And simple. And has a growing market.

I'd implement it but I am swamped in crazy ideas of my own.

I think that you ought to implement it -- or failing that, petition your local Hanselmember

There's a government ad posted all over the insides of many brisbane buses at the moment, that describes some tell-tale signs of an abusive relationship.

I took a dodgy photo of it with my camera-phone, in order to try and get this idea across...

In case you can't read it, here's what it says:

I think it's very easy to draw a parallel between each of these signs, and the behaviour of a typical Corporate (or Government) IT department.

Java's been nagging me to update it, and I finally relented. When it finished, here's the screen it showed me:

Now what does that remind me of?

What have I seen lately that this somehow conjures? Something in the wording...

"The java powered internet..." now you can "experience" the awesome firepower of... ahhh, Ah, now i remember (thanks Uncov.)

Why didn't they just show this?

(The closing words from a nature documentary about the life-cycle of a Unit of Business-Logic)

(the following is to be read in the voice of David Attenborough)

"And now, the Business-Logic is weary with exhaustion, tired, confused and surely close to death.

"It cannot go on much longer, but at last, the end is in sight, as it has just now reached its final resting place, the database.

"Here, at last -- many tiers from where it started, in the presentation layer of its infancy -- the Business-Logic has entered the sacred grounds in which it shall build its deep burrow, safe from the world, and from which it shall never again be shifted.

"Here, safely sheltered amongst the comforting tangle of stored procedures, the Business-Logic can begin to spawn its own generation of subtle bugs.

"And they, in their turn, shall drift, undetected, downstream, emerging as tiny pupa in the noisy pandemonium of the presentation layer where they too can begin the long journey back home, toward the database far upstream. A journey during which they too shall grow into powerful and sexually mature Business-Logic.

"And so, life begins anew."