peeves

Timing

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"We're out of time so we have time for one more question."

If you're out of time, you don't have time for one more question. Out of time means no more time, not some indefinite time for a question you don't know.

Along with working in a meeting and arriving late to a meeting (because you were too lazy to show up, not because some unavoidable occurrence happened), I find deliberately causing a meeting to run over time even though you know you're doing it, disrespectful to the people who have the space booked after you.

If you're out of time, you're out of time, end your event. Follow up with email or schedule another meeting, don't run it over.

Newest Pet Peeve

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Okay, I have a new pet peeve. No, wait, this isn't new, but it is definitely a growing one.

Said pet peeve is when someone brings a laptop into a meeting and taps away on it all during the meeting, ignoring the meeting happening around him. Said tapping is worse when said "him" is a junior developer who needs to hear what is being said in said meeting.

Cornered

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Yeargh!

If I'm standing in the corner, please don't spread all of your crap out around me, then start moving in towards me.

My personal space is MUCH larger than yours.

Really.

And if I HAVE to pee? It's your laptop I'm running through on my way to the bathroom.

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The right way to write dates in files

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When I write dates in file names, I use the format YYMMDD. I picked this style up from Yosufi, who used it to name files when Windows was the popular operating system, and you had only eight + three letters for file names. He would use two letters and the date, for the eight letters, and three letters for the extension. The two letters were meaningful to him, usually about the contents of the files.

  mg050302.doc
  mg050303.txt

I continued the numbering scheme because the date lists correctly when sorted in a directory listing. If I named the files like everyone else, they wouldn't list correctly. As an example, how about a database dump from this month, last month and the month before. If I used the format that most people seem to use, they would list like this:

  dump_011009.sql
  dump_020809.sql
  dump_122208.sql

That is clearly not in the order I want to see them, which would be in creation order. Worse, what if I had dumps from this time last year, too?

  dump_011009.sql
  dump_011108.sql
  dump_020809.sql
  dump_042908.sql
  dump_122208.sql

Now, which files, at a glance, are the most current? I can't tell. I can't tell at a glance if the database dump for this month happened. Better to use the year first, followed by month, then day. All of the files list correctly:

  dump_080111.sql
  dump_080429.sql
  dump_081222.sql
  dump_090110.sql
  dump_090208.sql

So, next time you decide to write a date in a file name use the year, month THEN day in the filename. Trust me on this.