April 27, 2010 at 1:46 pm
dbowlin (4/27/2010)
I find it interesting that you show a picture of a collapsed concrete structure. I was reminded of the recent earthquake in Haiti. A real tragedy. There is a movement among some architects to use shipping containers as a form of modular housing. They can be welded together, and can create very modular, and ultimately flexible design and very strong housing. I think this has a direct correlation to code. Overall modular design with a bit of thought given to flexibility goes a long way.In Haiti, if they had shipping container buildings their foundations would not have mattered, because the buildings were strong enough to withstand the shock. The human cost would have been substantially lower. So, forget about concrete, use steel boxes....in your buildings and your code.
Funny that you mention shipping containers. I have been advocating using shipping containers to build data centers with each container having everything needed for a mini datacenter: racks, backup power, fire suppression, routers, SAN, etc.
As your needs grow, just add more containers. When it comes time to move, load them on a truck or plane and move to a new site.
April 27, 2010 at 4:14 pm
Mike Hinds (4/27/2010)
Still, rebar in concrete won't crumble, unlike its T-SQL counterpart.
RBAR in TSQL won't crumble either. It just may never end.:-D
Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
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April 27, 2010 at 4:31 pm
Michael Valentine Jones (4/27/2010)
dbowlin (4/27/2010)
I find it interesting that you show a picture of a collapsed concrete structure. I was reminded of the recent earthquake in Haiti. A real tragedy. There is a movement among some architects to use shipping containers as a form of modular housing. They can be welded together, and can create very modular, and ultimately flexible design and very strong housing. I think this has a direct correlation to code. Overall modular design with a bit of thought given to flexibility goes a long way.In Haiti, if they had shipping container buildings their foundations would not have mattered, because the buildings were strong enough to withstand the shock. The human cost would have been substantially lower. So, forget about concrete, use steel boxes....in your buildings and your code.
Funny that you mention shipping containers. I have been advocating using shipping containers to build data centers with each container having everything needed for a mini datacenter: racks, backup power, fire suppression, routers, SAN, etc.
As your needs grow, just add more containers. When it comes time to move, load them on a truck or plane and move to a new site.
I know the military has begun to do this. It also seems like a great idea for private enterprise. The only concern I see is physical security. If someone can roll a truck up to your data center and drive away with it in 20 minutes time that could be a problem.
April 28, 2010 at 1:37 pm
dbowlin (4/27/2010)
Michael Valentine Jones (4/27/2010)
dbowlin (4/27/2010)
I find it interesting that you show a picture of a collapsed concrete structure. I was reminded of the recent earthquake in Haiti. A real tragedy. There is a movement among some architects to use shipping containers as a form of modular housing. They can be welded together, and can create very modular, and ultimately flexible design and very strong housing. I think this has a direct correlation to code. Overall modular design with a bit of thought given to flexibility goes a long way.In Haiti, if they had shipping container buildings their foundations would not have mattered, because the buildings were strong enough to withstand the shock. The human cost would have been substantially lower. So, forget about concrete, use steel boxes....in your buildings and your code.
Funny that you mention shipping containers. I have been advocating using shipping containers to build data centers with each container having everything needed for a mini datacenter: racks, backup power, fire suppression, routers, SAN, etc.
As your needs grow, just add more containers. When it comes time to move, load them on a truck or plane and move to a new site.
I know the military has begun to do this. It also seems like a great idea for private enterprise. The only concern I see is physical security. If someone can roll a truck up to your data center and drive away with it in 20 minutes time that could be a problem.
HP already has a product:
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April 29, 2010 at 8:07 am
Minor spelling quibble. I believe the spelling is "shear forces," not "sheer forces."
Thanks for the editorial, though - it really got me thinking again about the construction metaphor for software development. I read a little about it in Steve McConnell's book Code Complete.
- webrunner
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A SQL query walks into a bar and sees two tables. He walks up to them and asks, "Can I join you?"
Ref.: http://tkyte.blogspot.com/2009/02/sql-joke.html
April 29, 2010 at 9:00 pm
webrunner (4/29/2010)
Minor spelling quibble. I believe the spelling is "shear forces," not "sheer forces."Thanks for the editorial, though - it really got me thinking again about the construction metaphor for software development. I read a little about it in Steve McConnell's book Code Complete.
- webrunner
Sorry to say in this round, the spelling bee goes to Steve.
shear = to shave hair off (like what you do to a sheep in the spring)
sheer = pure, unmixed, OR, see-through
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Your lack of planning does not constitute an emergency on my part...unless you're my manager...or a director and above...or a really loud-spoken end-user..All right - what was my emergency again?
May 3, 2010 at 5:05 pm
No reason not to have both flexible and strong code in place to support the changing needs. If you've done enough investigation at the start of the process you will have some idea of the longevity of the project and whether it needs you to build an adaptable framework that allows you to plug in modules that adhere to common design criteria. It then becomes easy enough to swap modules in or out.
There are many ways to skin this cat by planning for the future without necessarily knowing what that future involves. Above all - be pragmatic!
May 4, 2010 at 8:11 am
webrunner (4/29/2010)
Minor spelling quibble. I believe the spelling is "shear forces," not "sheer forces."Thanks for the editorial, though - it really got me thinking again about the construction metaphor for software development. I read a little about it in Steve McConnell's book Code Complete.
- webrunner
You are correct, it's "shear" forces, those that are applied in a direction that would produce a slice.
BTW, McConnell had a great experiment here: http://blogs.construx.com/blogs/stevemcc/archive/2007/09/23/building-a-fort-lessons-in-software-estimation.aspx
May 20, 2010 at 1:19 pm
The project I've been working on far many, many years lies somewhere between off-the-shelf and 100% custom software. That is to say that while we as the developers try to control the product, the clients that use it each have their own ever changing needs and priorities which we strive to meet. This often means making custom changes for two or more clients simultaneously between official "releases".
My junior developers would prefer to build an all-inclusive foundation, the equivalent of the giant unmovable slab of concrete. In an ideal world, with total control over the release of new features and a crystal-clear vision of the future, this might be a wonderful idea.
But that's not the real world. Modularity and configurability are essential ingredients required to balance the needs of many clients with a single code base. Our foundation is more like a medium-sized slab of concrete combined with some solid building blocks. Even so, there are times when there's just not quite enough flexibility in some particular part of the product.
In the end, it's a matter of weighing unknown probabilities against each other to determine the right mix of concrete and flexibility. The best you can hope for is to be right more often than you're wrong.
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