Steve Rowe's Blog
Ruminations on Computing - Data Science, Programming, Test Development, Management and More
E-mail Is Not A Good Motivator
Another conversation I find myself having over and over is telling people that e-mail isn’t a...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 03/17/2009
10 Papers Every Programmer Should Read
I’m always on the lookout for good reading material. Michael Feathers over at ObjectMentor has...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 02/28/2009
Now, Discover Your Strengths
This is the title of the follow-up to First, Break All the Rules by Marcus Buckingham. The...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 02/23/2009
Check Out Stack Overflow
I’ve recently become quite addicted to the website stackoverflow.com. It is a joint venture...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 02/16/2009
Why We Conduct Bug Bashes
My team recently finished what we call a “bug bash.” That is, a period of time where we tell...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 02/13/2009
Managing Humans
I just finished reading Managing Humans by Michael Lopp, aka Rands in Repose. Michael is a...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 02/12/2009
Alan Kay on User Interface Design
As part of the Berkeley Webcast project, a pair of presentations by Alan Kay (of Smalltalk fame) is...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 01/26/2009
James Whittaker Netcast
James Whittaker is the author of books like How To Break Software. He ran one of the few...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 01/09/2009
10 Programming Languages Worth Exploring
Now that I've completed the final class toward my Masters Degree I have the time to explore some...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 12/24/2008
Why You Get Nothing Done When You Have So Much Free Time
Interesting musings on a subject I can attest to be true. Why is it we get so much done when we're...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 12/21/2008
Modern Computing Began 40 Years Ago Today
Modern computers all utilize the same user paradigms: interactive computing, mouse, windows,...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 12/09/2008
Improving Task Estimation Accuracy
In my opinion estimating how long it will take to write a piece of software is difficult if you...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 12/05/2008
Happy Thanksgiving 2008!
Here's wishing everyone a happy Thanksgiving day. It's a great time to reflect on the past year and...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 11/27/2008
Using Perl for Mass In Place Editing
Have you ever wanted to update some text in a bunch of files all at once without a hassle? I had...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 11/26/2008
More Win7 Previews
Previews of some specific parts of Windows 7 which are of interest to me: Audio Media Center
Author: SteveRowe Date: 10/29/2008
Win7 Previews Starting To Appear
Windows 7 is being unveiled for the first time at PDC and the initial previews are starting to hit...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 10/28/2008
The MUD is 30 Years Old
Back before World of Warcraft or even Everquest there existed an entity called a MUD or Multi-User...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 10/22/2008
Some useful traveling gear
I just returned from a trip to the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. I brought some items...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 10/18/2008
Change Your Environment
As people grow in maturity in their jobs, the way they interact with their environment...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 10/15/2008
Windows 7 Will Be Officially Called... "Windows 7"
After Millenium, XP, and Vista comes... Windows 7. Yep. Not a lot of imagination in this one. As...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 10/14/2008
22,500 Paper Airplanes
Rainn Wilson (Dwight K. Schrute from the Office) was the MC at this year's Microsoft company...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 09/27/2008
Test Suite Granularity Matters
I just read a very interesting research paper entitled, "The Impact of Test Suite Granularity...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 09/26/2008
This Blog Makes Top 100 Software Development Management Blogs
Just barely, but I made the list. It is determined by Technorati authority, Alexa rank, Google...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 09/26/2008
Metallica's Death Magnetic Poorly Mastered
Metallica's new CD, Death Magnetic, is pretty good. Certainly it is better than St. Anger...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 09/18/2008
Not Everyone Has the Same Definition of "Done"
Years ago I had an employee, let's call him Vanya (not the real name). He was struggling a bit so I...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 09/05/2008
My PAX08 Experience
Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) is an annual gaming convension in Seattle put on by the guys at Penny...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 09/02/2008
Code Review Options
There are many ways to conduct a code review. Here are a few ways I've seen it done and the...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 08/15/2008
Code Review Rights and Responsibilities
Code reviews are an important part of any project's health. They are able to find and correct...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 08/13/2008
The Company You Work For Matters
In an episode of Stack Overflow Podcast, Jeff Atwood made an interesting point. He spoke of...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 08/08/2008
Test Code Must Be As Solid As Dev Code
All good development projects follow certain basic practices to ensure code quality. They use...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 08/08/2008
Cause of "Internet Explorer cannot open the Internet Site" found
Perhaps you, like me saw a rash of sites giving the error "Internet explorer cannot open the...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 08/03/2008
Loving My Eee 1000H
I was attracted to the "netbook" market with the release of the initial Eee PC from Asus. The laptop...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 07/31/2008
10 Pitfalls of Using Scrum in Games Development
Interesting article about using scrum to manage game development. Many of the pitfalls are true...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 07/15/2008
Becoming a Manager: Losing Direct Control
When my wife was expecting our daughter, someone gave me this advice, "When you have your first...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 07/10/2008
Get Out of E-mail and Walk Down the Hall
I was about to write this article anyway when XKCD posted this comic which reinforces my...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 06/23/2008
Vim Tip: My .vimrc File
.vimrc is the config file for Vim. It can be stored in the Vim directory or in your user directory....
Author: SteveRowe Date: 06/21/2008
June Netcast Update
By popular demand (seriously), here is an update of the netcasts I'm listening to on a regular...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 06/16/2008
Windows Home Server Power Pack 1 Beta Is Available
At long last, there is a preliminary fix for the corruption issue that has dogged WHS since its...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 06/11/2008
Vim Tip: Better Searching
Two things I discovered about searching: * will search forward for the word under the cursor. No...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 06/07/2008
Better Writing
The Manager Tools podcast has an interesting series on better writing. This isn't a...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 06/06/2008
Test For Failure, Not Success
We recently went through a round of test spec reviews on my team. Having read a good number of test...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 06/04/2008
What Won't Our Kids Ever Know?
A friend of mine just posted an interesting anecdote about the difference in the world we grew up in...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 06/04/2008
Refactor To Make Immediate Change Easier
Jeremy Miller gives his reasons for refactoring. He gives two over-arching reasons. The first is "To...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 06/02/2008
Taking Advantage of Vim
Once you have mastered using Vim to replace Notepad.exe, it is time to starting taking advantage of...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 05/31/2008
We Need A Better Way To Test
Testing started simply. Developers would run their code after they wrote it to make sure it worked....
Author: SteveRowe Date: 05/30/2008