Software bugs don’t have to be scary

Software bugs aren't as scary as this one.

It certainly can be scary looking at a long bug list with a short deadline, but identifying and fixing software bugs can be manageable with a few strategies.

A second set of eyes.

Sometimes a very simple software error can be staring at us, but we miss it because we have been staring back so long. An example I faced was a section of code appeared to be setting a value used elsewhere in the code, but that value was never changing. When I finally had someone look at that code for me, the first question was “Isn’t that a pointer?”

Debugging: The Little Things

Not the offending USB drive

Recently I was working on some embedded software that someone else wrote. I needed to add some new functionality to the code, and I was working through how the existing code was working. In particular, the software was parsing a file, and the previous developer had done a good job of sending out diagnostic messages to the terminal, and the code was parsing a line of the file as a bad record.

Well as a good little developer, the first thing I did was

It’s April 1 and I’m still cold… So let’s destroy the North Pole!!! Ha Ha Ha!!!!!!

April 1, 2014. 22ºF (coldºC)

Happy April Fool's Day

Here in Iowa, we’re tired of waiting for spring. This winter was awful, setting records for snowfall and below-zero temperatures. Like Vanilla Ice said “too cold, too cold!” All caused by the Polar Vortex. That’s why at DISTek Integration we are pleased to announce that we are going to destroy the polar vortex by demagnetizing the north pole!

CONEXPO – CONAGG 2014

What is it like to come to the CONEXPO show for the first time? Well, it would be easy to be overwhelmed by the sheer size of the show and the distractions of Las Vegas. It is manageable by taking some time to put together a plan and to build a set of priorities for what you want to see.

The Caterpillar Display at CONEXPO.  Photo: Gary Honey