Please note, this role is to start ASAP. There would be a chance to start earlier.

• EuroDisney is smaller than DisneyWorld.
• EuroDisney rides are more extreme than DisneyWorld.
• EuroDisney queues are quicker than DisneyWorld.
• EuroDisney seems more expensive.
• DisneyWorld staff are way more friendlier.
• DisneyWorld has more varied rides.

Apart from the oppressive Florida summer heat (92°F/33°C with 85% humidity) you could of been on Main Street in EuroDisney: Every other shop was merchandise and if it wasn’t merchandise it was food.  Still dollars but Euros instead of USD.

Anyway, I work in Manchester. Therefore I will not be in during the week.  And unable to collect my books. So I have nothing to read and HDNL will probably send them back before next week end like they have done in the past and the first I will know about it is the credit note I will receive.

Please Amazon, stop using HDNL or give us the option.

Taking the former first, to me a toilet filled nearly to the brim is blocked.  In America (or Florida at least) the toilets are full to the brim by default and then flushing drains the water away (in a nice whirlpool effect) at which point it refills.  Seeing a full toilet is disconcerting. Also I wonder what sort of evaporation occurs: The room I was staying in listed the temperature as 75° F on the wall (which is 23 in UK money and felt a lot less). Surely that body of water with that much surface area must loose quite a bit?

The latter is to do with taxes. Take when I was moving into a new ‘apartment’ (self catering). I ask how much per night. The lady says ’49 dollars’. I say I would like 3 nights and hand over $150 in travellers cheques.  She looks at me like I am mad and asks where the rest of it is. Apparently it is $49 plus taxes.  And this is not an isolated incident.  This happened a lot of times (even for a bottle of water).  Why can’t you tell me what the cost is including taxes? I have to pay that amount anyway, and not being from around those parts I haven’t got the foggiest what the tax rate is and therefore have no idea what the final amount would be.

Finally the joke used to be that as soon as an American found out you were British they would immediately say Monty Python and ask if you knew the Queen.  Now they mention Monty Python, Will & Kate and finally Jeremy Clarkson.  Jeremy Clarkson?! As one of my American friends said: It’s a weird cultural niche that man has carved out for himself.

(And my apologies for not updating for such a long time.)

Initially:

1. Move all source code from VSS into TFS.
2. Ensure all code needed to compile is within the workspace.
3. Ensure all dependencies are correct so compilation of any one module will automatically compile needed dependencies for that module.
4. Add UnitTest++ (or CppUnit – whatever floats your boat) to project.
5. Add Log4Cxx to project – more man-hours have gone into writing this than your own system.

As you develop new code or extend older code:

1. Move the logical projects into folders. Create another physical project alongside this project. Usually you will call this Test or Tests.
2. For each module you are editing in add a c++ source file in the test project. Format for this will be Test.cpp.
3. Write the test for the part you are changing, this should be as concise as possible. See Feathers “Working Effectively with Legacy Code” and Kerivsky “Refactoring to Patterns” books for tips.

And eventually:

1. Use Msbuild for automated building of source. This will build all code, every time, and warn of errors and can even bundle things into installers, etc.
2. Turn on treat warnings as errors and fix.
3. Get a static analysis tool and slowly fix the errors (only about 20 are relevant – the rest are pedantic).
4. Make everyone use “Convert tabs to spaces” and set to 4. (HICPP)
5. All if and else statements must be enclosed in braces, even if a single line. (HICPP)
6. Apply SOLID principles to code (Single responsibility, Open/Closed, Liskov Substitution, Interface, Dependency Inversion).
7. Evangelise to others in team.

Others:

• You should be able to get ~1,500 unit tests per second.
• Some things you can’t test (UI, threading) so try to separate code from logic at test that (DoSomethingUI and DoSomething, and read The Humble Dialog Box).
• It will seem at first you will be writing a lot of extra code with tests and refactoring, but stick with it.

Did I miss anything?

I am writing this on my HTC Desire phone which less than 24 hours ago deleted all my text messages, some 6,000 in total. Most were boring ‘What time will you be home?’ type messages but some were important (pictures of my cat that passed away earlier this year, addresses, etc.).

This fault has been around since 2009 and if you do a Google search for ‘android deleted all text messages’ the amount of results are frightening. The issue on the Android issues forum has 760 (at the moment) posts complaining about this problem but it has only been given Medium priority. Part of the problem is that people don’t have the sdk installed to get the debug info once it occurs and since it seems entirely random it is nigh impossible to reproduce.

So I now have a backup plan in place (shouldn’t the message system have that to begin with?) but no way of recovering those lost memories.

I think I have been burnt too many times by Android now. Apple have had a few problems but nothing as major as deleting all a users texts and when Apple do have publicized issues the are fixed fairly quickly.

They’ve had 4 hours so far to get part 2 online and even less to get the forum uploaded – yet they managed that.  Where is part 2?

Update 15:14: Part 2 is now online but not available to download – and my Sky broadband is appalling at streaming video.