О вреде Test-Driven Development
(какой-то функциональный тест написанный таким образом падал и разработчик решил проблему использованием datetime2).
Подписался на Spotify Premium по наводке, заплатил 10 евро…
The continuation of the HTC saga

Sorry state of HTC hardware and warranty support


I bought a Desire S smartphone a little more than 2 months ago, but did not have a chance to really use it, yet. It came with an elusive and odd bug. The touch screen stopped responding once in a while. This could occur any time, but seemed to happen less frequently after 5-10 minutes of active use.
The first time I sent the phone to repair, it came back with flashed ROM, but the problem stayed.
The second time I sent the phone for repair, it came back with a new touch screen, but the problem stayed.
The third time, the repair shop replaced the motherboard. The initial problem disappeared, but the phone gained a new one. Part of the screen was not reacting to touch. Or rather, every time you touched a certain area on screen to select an item, items around it were selected or nothing happened.
I filed a 4th support request today.
Overall, I took no less than an hour talking to the call center, wrote several emails and paper notes to HTC and to the repair shop, recorded a video to demonstrate the bug and uploaded it to HTC, filed two complaints online and took a good hour each time it returned from the repair shop to setting it up and find ways to reproduce the problem.
I am a Mobile Viking now
My first request for number porting from the Proximus mobile business acount of my former employer to Mobile Vikings dates from 6th of June. A few dozen emails, several phone calls and one complaint to the Telecom Mediator later, I had my phone number ported to MobileVikings today, July 29.
Everything you can not do with a Windows Phone 7
Three days ago, I got my hands on the HTC Trophy 7 running Windows Phone 7. Until now, I played occasionally with Android, but never used a smartphone.
Here's a list of things I'd like to do on the smartphone:
- Transfer the contacts from the old Nokia phone
- Listen to music and audio books from the local collection
- Read books from Flibusta
In the process, I'd rather not to reveal too much personal information to Microsoft. The wishlist looks simple, huh? Let's see what I managed to do.
Saving the private notebook

Liars, big liars and risk managers



This is how the Belgian public credit risk insurance body evaluates risks in select world countries. The country that has the world record of being without the government is rated best, the other, buried down in a full-fledged civil war, is just marginally worse, and the most stable political regime on earth is very risky.
ESA fingerprint?

Is it just me or the ESA logo indeed looks like a fingerprint? Turns out, they wanted to represent a planet. I learned this while reading the ESA Visual Design Guidelines. Do you see a planet on the picture?