2 weeks wasted because someone cant take 5 mins to read an email!?

Grrr! Why are some people soooo unhelpful!!

For the last 2 weeks, me and my co-worker have been looking into a bug that our customers found. We traced the bug all the way into some low-level code that we arent allowed to touch, and is the biggest heap of hacked up-confusing-ridiculous-uncommented-spaghetti code you'l ever see!!

So we phoned and emailed the ppl in charge of this code on many occasions, and kept getting told that they are either a)too busy b)dont know enough about our customers code or c) this isnt their code thats the problem. They never even took the time to read what the problem was. Soooo unhelpful and annoying!!!

But anyway, I had no choice but to carry on into the over-grown jungle of code, armed with nothing but System.out.println (it was one of those bugs that worked everytime you stepped through it). And finally (oh happy happy times), I found the problem. And, surprise surprise, it was in "their" code.

I cant tell you how happy i felt writing yet another email with proof that it was in fact their problem. And yes, I had to do it over email because these unhelful ppl stopped picking up their phone.

Soooo, 3 hours after writing them this glorious email, I get a reply. Now, Im not one to get pissed off easily (well, not too easily :) ), but after reading this email, i turned off my pc and left the building. Which, I admit, would have been a lot more impressive if it wasnt already 15 minutes after my home time, but still. The reply I got, was saying that this was a known about issue, and that this guy has been looking into a similar problem, and that we would jsut have to tell our customer this cant be fixed!!!!!!!!

AHHHHH!!!! If they knew about this problem, they could have told us about it 2 weeks ago!!! And, it wasnt even an old issue that they may have forgotten about, nooooo! He was currently working on a similar thing!!!!! And, their answer is that it jsut cant be fixed!!!!

(breath in, breath out)

Right, there's my ranting done. At least now it really is no longer up to me to do something about it. This little bug can be handed over to my project manager who can deal with the bigger human bugs that dont want to fix it. Phew! I feel better now.

Peekaboo's pole dancing game, my dream game (and dream job!)

OK, hmmm, not really sure what I think of this...

In case you didnt know, I love pole dancing (for fitness only, after doing gymnastics for 10 years, I got addicted easy). And I also love the Wii. So when i first heard about this, I was so excited! I spent nearly a whole work day trying to find out how I could get on the dev team. How awesome would that be!? Think it may even get close to qualifying for my dream job.

Anyway, I was talking about it with my co-girl-programmer-also-pole-dancer-worker, and we just couldnt see how on earth this game could be done (done well that is). We thought of things like maybe having wrist and ankle bands so the game can tell where the feet and hands are. And we were thinking that the pole could of course send info back on where pressure was etc. But would that be enough to really be able to tell if the user is "doing it right"?

Im imagining it would be similar to the All Star Cheerleaders game. Which, of course, I have. :) But, sadly, is c**p. Dont get me started on how sad this makes me, could have been such an awesome game! But alas...

Anyway, back to peekaboo's attempt. There is already a lot of negativity out there about this idea. And fair enough too, I gotta admit. But because of this, and because I sooo want pole dancing to drop its slutty reputation, I would absolutely love love love this game to work!

For that to happen, I reckon it would have to at least cover the following;
1. An accurate way to tell where every body part is, specifically feet, hands, hips
2. A strong pole that can be easily set up and taken down, and hidden!
3. Good game play, eg. decent routines, great music, variety of skills.

So, here's hoping! And, Peekaboo, if I can lend a hand in any way, Im sure I will find the time. :)

The First

Wow! My first ever post on my first ever blog! I cant help but wonder where this will lead... an invitation from a top glossy magazine (ahem, Glamour?? you there??) to do a weekly (or maybe monthly, Im fairly lazy really) column, a la Carrie from SATC?? Or maybe invitations from big IT companies around the world to come to their wonderful city and do a short speech on being a girl programmer? Or, in all likelyness, me getting bored very quick and running out of ideas, and this all fading away. hmmm...

Anyway, I guess I should introduce myself, briefly, I know this can be boring to read. Since I like lists so much, I will do this in list form:
1. Im 24 years old.
2. Im a girl
3. I have a diploma in beauty therapy
4. I have a science degree in computer science
5. I have a slight obsession with getting my hair to curl, cupcakes and pole dancing

I think thats it. So, next important topic... What is this blog gonna be about? Well... I dont really know. I was taking a nap the other day, and while I was in that state of half asleepiness (?word), I came up with HEAPS of things to write about, but now I cant think of any of them, and Im not even sure if any of them made any sense. But I guess mainly, it will be about things that are both girly and kinda geeky. And maybe annoyances or triumphs that come with being a girl programmer.

Im sure there must be more of us ( girly programmers) out there than we realise. I hope so anyway! So feel free to drop any comments to say hi, or suggestions of things to write about.

In the meantime, I will leave you with some things that may (or may not) come up in future posts:
- Where are all the girly laptop bags!?!?
- j2me programming, and why I really want to get into this!
- Is it possible to get into games programming even if you dont like the games?

See ya!