Get fit – 10 reasons to go walking…
So, I have been walking 2-3km most days for the last couple of weeks. It is really helping my back to recover. But I think that you should all follow my example and go walking. Here’s why:
- Loose weight
- Get Fit
- Reduce cholesterol
- Meet your neighbours
- See the world from a different perspective
- Enjoy the fresh air
- Reduce pollution (esp if you combine the walk with an errand)
- Time out from your busy life
- Inexpensive
- It’s Fun!
34 things to do when stuck in bed
Ok, so I have been stuck in bed for over two weeks now, and while Lois and everybody is being really wonderful, I am board!
So, here are 34 things to keep you busy when stuck in bed!
- Catchup on your reading
- Surf the net
- Catchup on your newsfeeds
- Phone all your friends
- Cleanup your mailbox
- Download and play with virtual lego
- Arrange your MP3 collection and create new playlists
- Try to understand what the globs on your MRI scan actually mean
- Create lists of things to do when stuck in bed
- Check your e-mail about 100x per day in case anything interesting has happened since the last time you checked
- Change the colour scheme on your computer
- Figure out if downloading the 3gig installation for the trial version of Warcraft is really worth it
- Read more books
- Play online tetris
- Google everybody you know
- Play on Facebook
- Play on LinkedIn
- Create Christmas Shopping Lists
- Research every medical procedure known to man – just in case
- Write aimless blog posts
- Update the layout of your website
- E-mail all your friends
- Stare out of the window
- Google your doctor
- Shout at the cat for "bathing" on the bed
- Read even more books
- Wonder which book to read next because by now you have read all the good ones
- Cleanp your desktop (on your pc)
- Sleep
- Play every game that came free with your computer, and realise why they are free
- Defrag your harddrive
- Read even more books…
- Google your pets
- Order warcraft online because the download is too big
What have I missed, I am sure I will be adding to this list shortly…?
Watch out for the next installment of this exciting drama – alternative treatments recommended to me (by non-experts) for a slipped disc!
The Ten Lies Software Developers Tell
1) My code is better that yours. Writing code is very much like writing a song or painting a picture. Artists and song-writers have different styles of painting or song writing. Writing code is similar, different software engineers have different coding styles. So, unless your code is really badly written, my code is no better than yours, it is simply different to yours. If my code works and does not require any enhancements, leave it alone, no matter how different to yours it is.
2) It works on my machine…well, if it works on your machine and not mine, then clearly it is not a robust application, or your installation procedure does not work very well. Remember that you wrote it on your machine, so of course it works on your machine. Now get it to work everywhere else.
3) I’ll comment the code at the end. The end of any development cycle is always chaotic, that is a simple fact of software engineering. So, if you have not got time to comment your code while you are writing it, how are you going to have the time at the end? Besides, if it is a large project with a long development time, are you going to remember what some of the earlier written (uncommented) code does!
4) I’ll add the error handing at the end. Error-handling is part of the basic design of a system, not something you slap on at the end when you have time.
5) The programme is complete – but I just need to quickly finish off…..This is a very common one. The development is not complete until you have finished writing all of the code. If you have a single line of code to write, it is not complete, and not ready for testing.
6) It is a small bug – it will only take 5 minutes to fix. By the time you have load the development environment, identified the bug, fixed, tested and rolled out the change to production, it will be much longer that 5 minutes. There is no such thing as a 5 minute to fix bug.
7) I only have to change one line of code to fix the bug. To the customer, it does not matter weather it is one line of code, or one hundred lines of code. All the customer cares about is that the application is not working. Fix it!
8) It’s not my problem. If your application is not working – it is your problem. It does not matter if RightFax is down and you cannot print faxes, or you cannot connect to the FTP server. The fact is that if your application is not doing what it should be doing, you had better find out what the cause is, and resolve it. While different people may have ownership of different portions of a software system, you are ALL responsible to ensure that everything is working.
9) The application works fine with my test data. Yes it might, work with the test data, but the live system does not run on test data. It runs on live data. Best you get your application to work with live data.
10) It’s a user error. If the user is clever (or stupid) enough to break your application, it is not robust enough. You need to anticipate all user inputs, and cater for them. If at a later stage you find another user error, modify your code and test cases to check for it.
And a bonus lie…
11) Of course I test my own code. Do you? Really? Promise? Ok, then let me try to break your application.
The 10 Differences between Running and Cycling
For the last couple of years, I have been running in the evenings and on weekends to get some exercise. Recently, I converted to cycling, partly to see if I could actually complete the Argus cycle tour again, but mainly to raise funds for the John Whiffen trust. So I can with honesty say that I have a little experience in both. While both are sports that you can participate in by yourself, or with a group of people, there are a few interesting differences between the two:
| Running | Cycling | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | You don’t need to exercise for very long to get benefit – so it is easy to go for a quick run before/after work. | You need to exercise for a long time to get benefit, so its better to exercise on the weekends (or get up early). |
| 2 | You don’t run very far. | You cycle very far. |
| 3 | You don’t have to worry about traffic. (much!) | You do have to worry about traffic. (a lot!) |
| 4 | The sport is not expensive – all you need is a decent pair of running shoes. A cheap pair of shoes is about R500, and a good pair about R1000. | The sport is as cheap or expensive as you like – depending on what gear you use. You can also spend lots of money constantly upgrading your bike. A cheap, entry level bicycle will cost about R2000, and you can spend far more that that (R20000+) on a really good bike. You can spend anything in between, depending on your budget. |
| 5 | You just wear a pair or running shorts and a vest. | You wear the brightest, most garish clothes that you can find. |
| 6 | You can listen to your iPod while running | You can (but shouldn’t) listen to your iPod while cycling. |
| 7 | It is more strain on the body, and you are more likely to injure yourself. | It is very little strain on the body, and you are far less likely to injure yourself |
| 8 | It’s just you and the road! | You can carry your own food and drinks with you. |
| 9 | When you finally get to the top of a really steap hill, it’s just as much work to run down the otherside. | When you finally get to the top of a really steap hill, it’s freewheeling all the way down! |
| 10 | It’s fun! | It’s fun! |
And yes – I did complete the Argus Cycle Tour!!!
My top ten traffic dislikes
Schools have just gone back after their Christmas break, which of course means that the rush-hour traffic is getting back to its normal levels. For me, it means that my 20 minute drive into work now takes about 40 minutes. The universities go back in about two weeks, so I am waiting with great trepidation until then.
So, in honour of the increased traffic flow, here are my top ten traffic dislikes:
1) Drivers that hoot at you from behind as soon as the robot (traffic light) changes to green.
2) Pedestrians that walk in the road when there is a perfectly good pavement. The same applies to joggers.
3) Cyclists that don’t ride in single file and insist on riding abreast of each other.
4) Slow drivers that insist on driving in the fast lane.
5) Unroadworthy cars and trucks that spew out black smoke into your face.
6) People who take up two parking bays when parking.
7) Perfectly abled people who park in disabled parking bays.
8) People that slow down and ‘rubber neck’ at an accident scene.
9) Drivers who think that switching their emergency indicators on makes it legal for them to park directly under a no stopping sign.
10) And finally, Cape Town drivers who forget how to drive every time it rains.
You can donate once-off or monthly.
Donate once-off
Donate monthly The more you donate, the more I can shoot, and the more photos you get to see. And of course you get to feel great by doing so!
Recent Comments