it never fails, whenever it fails

[sergebroom]

This week, I've been spending a lot of time, and late hours(*) on a project that has a very tight deadline. How tight? How about today? Anyway, things had been going well, except for one issue, where the discrepancy between expections and results turned out to have been caused by my modeling my changes on the program's existing logic instead of my doing it the way my instincts told me to. It took 24 hours of banging my head against it(**) to reach that conclusion yesterday, but I got it fixed. Then my user(***) found another discrepancy. I stayed up until midnight, poring at the program, but eventually realized I was going nowhere. Lack of sleep will do that you. So I logged off, let myself wind down by reading a comic-book, to minimize the possibility of my dreaming about that program problem. This morning, a few hours later and some coffee inside of me, I realized that there is no problem. The discrepancy was not a real one, but was instead generated by my user's test script.

My first assumption always is that there's something wrong with my work. I don't know why I do that, considering how many times this has happened.

Oh well.

Meanwhile, my poor user was very embarassed when I told him.

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(*) Which become early hours, when one goes to bed at 3am - then gets up at 6am.
(**) My forehead is now so lumpy that I look like a Star Trek alien.
(***) One program to another in TRON: "Do you believe in Users?"

Comments

[kouredios.livejournal.com]

I know that feeling, though not at all about programming. When I'm writing, I have to do a mind-cleanser after a while, otherwise I'm just too cloudy to get anywhere. My usual mode of cleansing is playing Civ III for a while. :D

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

A civil-war videogame after academia? Makes sense. The trick is to get something as far away from work as possible. Comics are it for me.

[kouredios.livejournal.com]

Civilization, actually, rather than civil war. But the difference from academic work is probably about the same. Except that taking a break from writing about postcolonial bias in order to build your own empire is...amusing.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

"Today the Faculty, tomorrow the World!!!"

[miltonthales.livejournal.com]

"My first assumption always is that there's something wrong with my work."

Tsk. It's always operator/user error. Always! (*)

(*) Except when you've got the wrong and/or statement

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Ye gods. How can you function with that little sleep?


Meanwhile, at my own place of work this is what's up.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

To be fair, it's not always the user's fault. But I do have a tendency to exhaust all other avenues (and my brain) before I find myself having to realize the user made a mistake. For one thing, our group's users are technically savvy. For another, it's much more diplomatic to make sure of something before making unfounded judgments. Not a very efficient use of one's time, but it pays off in high goodwill on everybody's part. That might be why the users like working with me.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

"I'll have one large Tanzania, with two shots of espresso."

That's how it's done. Coffee is the programmer's lifeblood. If you plod thru my entries of a few months ago, you will find one on that very subject.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Do you have any blood in your caffeine stream?

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

Amazingly enough, yes. Of course, that may be because I have cut down on my ingestion of the brew over the last ten years. When it's Saturday afternoon and, instead of resting, you find yourself with a headache because you haven't had any coffee in 24 hours, you know it's time to lay off the stuff as much as you can.

Meanwhile, here is what happened after Agatha Heterodyne, Girl Genius, had the first cup of coffee in her whole life:
http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/cgi-bin/ggmain.cgi

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Good. You had me worried there.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

Meanwhile, I wonder what programmers working in Europe do. Do they drink as much of the stuff as we do here? Maybe they don't need to, as it is my understanding that things are different over there, compared to Corporate America. Or so I've been told.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

They probably drink more espresso...

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

Oy... Maybe the Evil Rooster could tell us, if she happens to be wandering in these parts.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

That would be good. Currently, I am in northeastern Ohio, where my older son is about to get his bachelor's in physics (or fish-sticks, as I keep insisting).

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

Either way he's coming out a winner.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

That's certainly the case!