Friday, July 5, 2013

ThereIFixedIt: Knockoff 360 Controller Thumbstick Fix

A while back, I was given a third party xbox 360 wired controller as part of a gift. (thanks bro!)

After a short while of use, it developed an issue where one of the thumbsticks was very difficult to use because its cover had ripped. During the most critical part of whatever game was being played, the cover would choose that moment to strike. It would flap around like a useless appendage, mocking me and ensuring my doom in that game was sealed.

At first I tried gluing it with super glue, which failed miserably. The rubberized material is just too flexible, and I don't think the glue ever adhered properly.

Then I hit upon an idea; an idea which not only works perfectly, but looks so gloriously haphazard that I had to post it: I sewed it shut.

ThereIFixedIt

There, I fixed it! Or, perhaps more appropriately: #ThereIFixedIt.

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Why I Chose To Defy The Linguists

When working on a recent post, I came across a little bit of trivia: rack vs wrack.

Particularly interesting was this item: http://grammar.about.com/od/alightersideofwriting/a/rackwrackgloss.htm

Though the general advice of linguists appears to be to use the form Rack and Ruin or Nerve-Racking, I chose to use the form Nerve-Wracking. The reason is simple; rack is an overloaded verb, whereas wrack is not.

When I think of "to rack" something, I think of organization. Racking billiard balls, primarily. What I don't think of is the destructive term which is primarily associated with the medieval torture device "The Rack". We don't have that kind of rack anymore, so it seems silly to use that as the basis for the modern verb.

Should I wrack my brain, or rack it? The answer seems simple to me: one is [thinking so hard you're] hurting it, whereas the other is [thinking so hard you're] placing it into some kind of organizational box; at least if you go by the primary meaning.

That said, such a rule would go counter to accepting that most people cannot remember when to use "except" versus "accept". I think the linguists have just given up, and are desperately picking their battles, hoping that "sumday were not left wit nuthin but a shell of english that we should of protected".

First StackOverflow Answer Posted (Consuming RESTful Services in C#)

I've been meaning to do this for years, but its nerve-wracking* to put yourself out there, even when you feel you have something valuable to add to the discussion. This is especially true for me in places such as Stack Exchange/Overflow, where the prevailing social norm is to post under your Real Name.

Anyway, after circling round the Internet for a while on the correct way to consume a RESTful web service in C#, I finally bit the bullet and decided to answer a question with the updated information that I eventually found.

Here's a link to my response:
http://stackoverflow.com/a/17459045/2548115

I figured, the best thing I can do is post the answer I wished would have been there when I first found the question, because that would have saved me time. Hopefully it does just that for anyone else that stumbles across it.

*Interesting tidbit I ran across when researching how to spell this phrase. Here's a blog post on nerve-racking verses nerve-wracking, just for fun.