Blog
Thursday, November 27. 2008PHP, minimalism and Occam's razor
Occam's razor is a principle that upholds simplicity. In a pragmatic manner, it can be interpreted as advocating that the simplest solution is best. This principle, historically attributed to William of Ockham (a real village in Surrey, and hence the name Occam's Razor) is often extensible to minimalism in software design and related decisions. Occam's razor is widely, and albeit implicitly, used in almost all scientific and engineering endeavors as a tool to scope and analyse complex systems, to 'shave off' the frills, noise and variables that are are irrelevant to the proper visualisation of the context in the pursuit of forming the best solution for a defined objective. The idea of decomposition with object-orientation is a kind of razor for software engineering. Building on this principle is the philosophy of software minimalism which adds an extra dimension by requiring that software be built to conform to its role while striving to consume the least resource in its execution.
For a feel of Occam's razor, and consequently, minimalism in action, consider the following situation in a game of Pingus: Continue reading "PHP, minimalism and Occam's razor" Wednesday, November 12. 2008Life at the Support Team
In February 2007 I started to work at Ibuildings, at the servicedesk. At that time the servicedesk was moving from our Sittard to our Vlissingen office, and after an intro week in Sittard together with fellow newcomer Rué, we started to work for the servicedesk.
Now, about one and a half year later, there have been a lot of changes. Ibuildings is growing larger and larger, from a software development company with 30 employees to a much larger company which has over 80 employees that not only create software but also provide security audits, training and consultancy. We are not only located in the Netherlands but also in the United Kingdom. Continue reading "Life at the Support Team" Friday, November 7. 2008International PHP Conference 2008
Last week I attended this year's fall edition of the International PHP Conference in Mainz, Germany. Aside from speaking there, I attended quite a few sessions, and met up with a lot of people from the community. I had a great time, and definitely learned quite some interesting stuff.
I made a schedule up-front and even though usually I hardly follow such a schedule, at this conference I actually did for the most part. The reason I usually don't follow the schedule is because I want to meet people and tight conference schedule's make that impossible. The International PHP Conference luckily offers enough and long enough breaks to meet up with people and talk to them. Continue reading "International PHP Conference 2008" Monday, November 3. 2008PHP Showcase: Kieskeurig.nl
With more than 1 million visitors a week Kieskeurig.nl is the largest dutch product comparison platform. Kieskeurig allows users to do a product and or price comparison on almost any type of product on the (Dutch) market. Users are able to review and rank both products and shops. Its main goal is to help other users to make the right purchase. Kieskeurig recently launched their renewed website.
If you're familiar with the site you'll notice the difference immediately. Not only the design has changed but also the interface got many improvements. The new interface is more consistent and well-organized. Continue reading "PHP Showcase: Kieskeurig.nl"
(Page 1 of 1, totaling 4 entries)
|
