Not too long ago, I had an interesting discussion about how to troubleshoot performance problems in large procedures. By “large procedure,” I’m talking about something which can be thousands of lines of code, or a procedure which might have dozens of potential choke points. This is not an exhaustive article, but instead gives an idea…
Buffalo At 2-1
With a satisfying demolishing of the Miami Dolphins, the Bills are now at 2-1. Here are a few thoughts on the team thus far: - Tyrod Taylor has been as good as the Bills could hope. He did well enough in week one, came back from a disappointing start to end up with a respectable…
Get To The Greenways
This year, I’ve been doing a lot of rides with Cycling for Health, a Meetup group based out of Raleigh. Most of our rides are on the greenways in Wake County. I wanted to write this post to spread the word ever so slightly and get more people out walking, jogging, and cycling on these…
Next Year’s Talks
This year, I’ve focused on two talks: one of the APPLY operator and one introducing Hadoop. I had a chance to give my Working Effectively with Legacy SQL talk as well, but only once. I’d love to give my Legacy SQL talk more frequently, but here are my plans: New Abstracts I have a few…
Upcoming Events And Current Happenings
I haven’t posted lately to this blog. I am remiss in not doing so, but I have been looking at a jam-packed schedule lately. Here’s a quick summary of big events. Speaking and Conferences Right now, I’m in Louisville, Kentucky for Derbycon. This is year #5 of the event, and my 4th appearance. Right after…
The triumphant return (?) to UD, or Ten Years Later
While Kevin is in Louisville, I have been in Dayton. I was invited to give a lecture on Russia's fleet performance in World War I, and I enjoyed the experience. I also got to stick around for the Phi Alpha Theta induction; it was gratifying to see they had a ceremony and food and everything…
At Derbycon
Today marks the end of my Derbycon training. This year, I ended up taking the basic Android hacking training. I learned a good bit about the Android permissions model and we started to look into reverse engineering code from APK files. Tomorrow will be the first day of talks. Derbycon is a great conference, and…
Clarification on stats in Madden NFL 16 and one possible bug
One thing that has not, sadly, changed from 15 is that it's practically impossible to get stats from your defensive players commensurate with the top players in the NFL. While the offensive stats are realistic, the defensive ones are not -- specifically things like number of tackles. The reason? The stats are generated based on…
Scouting in Madden 16
As we all know, EA has a compulsion to tweak scouting every season. This year, it's finally solid, I think. It's simple: you get 175 points every week, starting in Week 2 (maybe Week 3). For a total of 30 points (5/10/15) you unlock their top three skills. Once you get those, the game tells…
A true example of greatness
I have to think that Julio Franco will make the Hall of Fame if he plays until he dies on the field, right? RIGHT?