I suggest taking a very sharp knife and cutting the board traces at random until the thing either works, or smells funny! I gather you’re not asking the same question that led me to use the word changeineer in another column. I figure you have an ...

How many of us have not had the experience of sitting in a classroom wondering idly: "Is this really going to matter out in the real world?" It’s curious, and in no small amount humbling, to realize how many of those nuggets of knowledge really do ...

Three years ago, to the very tick, my first Curmudgeon column appeared in ACM Queue to the rapturous, one-handed claps of the silent majority. Since then my essays have alternated intermittently with those of other grumpy contributors. With this issue (...

This month Kode Vicious serves up a mixed bag, including tackling the uncertainties of heisenbugs -- a nasty type of bug that’s been known to drive coders certifiably insane. He also gives us his list of must-reads. Are any of your favorites on the list?...

Review of “Working effectively with legacy code by Michael Feathers”, Prentice Hall PTR, 2004, $44.99 ISBN: 0131177052

Designing for failure may be the key to success.