[crouton] Nathaniel Trost: Sleepy, but Confused Sleepy

[crouton at lists.powerblogs.com]

Posted by Nathaniel Trost:
Sleepy, but Confused Sleepy
http://crouton.powerblogs.com/archives/archive_2006_03_12-2006_03_18.shtml#=
1142470388


   This is turning into a week of inexplicably bizarre happenstance.
   In software development, it=E2s frequent that you run into crashing bugs
   that happen on a =E2Release=E2 build of the software but not a =E2Debug=
=E2
   build. This is almost always really annoying. However, it is rather
   odd to get a crash bug which only manifests on the =E2Debug=E2 build and
   not on the =E2Release=E2 build. Climbing further down the rabbit hole, we
   can then wrangle a bit of version control regression magic yet still
   be unable to ascertain when exactly the bug was introduced.
   Reevaluating the situation, we then make the discovery that the code
   above the crash point doesn=E2t work correctly. In fact, it has never
   worked correctly, however due to voodoo magic bits, the database
   engine previously didn=E2t crash but now does. Naturally this means that
   the previous version of the software actually shipped with this bug,
   and in fact had a functionality bug assigned to it that somehow got
   closed out as =E2Known Shippable=E2. Not that anybody really noticed unt=
il
   now when the voodoo magic bits changed and things started crashing.
   The offending routine has been fixed, but since it was never working
   correctly and it=E2s actual behavior has never been tested, we shall see
   if we have fixed two legacy bugs at the expense of introducing a
   couple dozen new ones. Fortunately, QA is pretty sharp so if it makes
   obscure things explode, I will soon know to hide under my desk.
   At least I was a bit better rested today in order to tackle this
   head-scratcher. Yesterday I was a bit of a zombie after the
   bizarreness of Monday night which involved some missing car keys. This
   would have been a minor irritation had the car in question (not my
   car), been parked in a spot that was inviting a tow. The situation was
   rectified by an expensive locksmith visit, but the affair didn=E2t
   resolve itself until nearly 2 in the morning.
   The bizarre came into play the following day. As could be anticipated,
   the keys did turn up the next day. The bizarre was in true =E2Purloined
   Letter=E2 fashion, three adults managed to somehow miss car keys sitting
   in plain sight on a kitchen counter at its end where it met up with
   the kitchen wall. My working theory is a visiting fifteen-month old is
   secretly one of the [1]Baby Geniuses and put the keys back on the
   counter in the wee hours of the morning.

References

   1. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?link_code=3Dur2&tag=3Danit=
rouscrout-20&camp=3D1789&creative=3D9325&path=3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com=
%2Fgp%2Fproduct%2FB00000J2KA