Category: Revelation

Well, that felt good

At work, we had an operation that was taking too damn long. Looked at the code, looked at the query it was generating, and it was pretty horrible, but I don’t see any way to avoid doing it. Then used the SQL “explain” on the query. Hmmm, it’s doing a sequential scan on two different tables. Hmm… Put an index on one column on one of the tables. Suddenly it’s only doing a lookup on one table. Ran downstairs to the big 30-plex test machine. Did the test once. Took 1:31. Added the index. Ran the test again. Took 0:08.

I’m a fucking genius.

Opus

We went to see “Secondhand Lions” at the theatre this weekend. The movie starts in a cartoonist’s studio, and the first thing that lept out at me was that the Berk Breathed drew the cartoons. It was so incredibly obvious that we had to go home and check IMDB to make sure. (No, that doesn’t make sense to me, either, except that it’s nice to be right once in a while.)

A few days ago, I’d read this story (and others of course) about how Berkeley Breathed is bringing back Opus.

I have to wonder if he didn’t enjoy making those cartoons for the movie that he decided he missed it enough to want to get back into the business. If so, it’s another thing to love about this movie. And there was a lot to love about it, no matter how annoying you find Haley Joel Osment. A lot of people hated the ending, but I didn’t. Maybe I’m a sucker for closure, but I liked having that extra proof.

Oh my God!

I’ve worked in so many soul destroying cube farms, and a couple of places where a bunch of developers where stuck in a big echo-ey room, that this place looks like nerd-vanna to me.
Joel on Software – Bionic Office

Actually, I worked one place with semi-private offices. It was great because I shared an office with another bird lover and we used to bring our birds in and let them fly around the room. But that place was soul destroying in so many other ways that it couldn’t make up for the nice offices.