Why is reading bad code so painful?!

January 31, 2025

2 minute read

I was reading some code recently that had a bunch of problems at various layers, and in spite of all my years of coding and the fact that it’s not even my project, I still find myself getting strong feelings of anguish and “pain”. I found myself wondering why. I...

Viewing git history for merged feature branches

January 26, 2025

13 minute read

I’ve been using git for nearly two decades now and yet I still seem to find new challenges and new things to learn on a regular basis. One of things that makes me scratch my head more than I would like, is when an inexperienced developer creates “interesting” history in...

Don't use Azure CosmosDB

January 14, 2025

2 minute read

Don’t use Azure CosmosDB for your next project. I know it’s tempting, because global-web-scale, and CV-driven development, but it’s a trap that will mire you and your team in yaks, expensive azure bills, and lost productivity until the end of your time / project / contract / company. I’ve been...

Older posts

The RAID Log: Your Guide to Surviving Chaos, Politics, and Petty Office Wars
November 22, 2024 (12 minute read)

Should you create tickets for tech tasks?
October 7, 2024 (8 minute read)

Why user stories should be shippable increments
September 12, 2024 (7 minute read)

Running xUnit Test Setup Only Once Across Multiple Test Classes
August 2, 2024 (6 minute read)

Running a beefy virtualbox dev server
June 7, 2024 (4 minute read)

Trunk based (mainline) development is (mostly) wrong
April 18, 2024 (10 minute read)

Why do automated tests matter?
March 27, 2024 (14 minute read)

Templated repos with dotnet new
March 6, 2024 (1 minute read)

New tool: sln-items-sync for Visual Studio solution folders
January 13, 2024 (7 minute read)

New rust and ssbf podcast episodes
October 26, 2023 (0 minute read)

Use kdiff3 for merge conflict resolution
October 20, 2023 (4 minute read)

git - what do 'base' 'local' 'remote' mean?
October 20, 2023 (1 minute read)

What is Hexagonal Architecture, aka "Ports and Adapters"
September 28, 2023 (27 minute read)

New podcast episodes - rust meetups and fast talkers
June 30, 2023 (0 minute read)

Enabling modern app security
June 14, 2023 (6 minute read)

Text-based tools - the ultimate format for everything
June 1, 2023 (5 minute read)

Zero-downtime website rewrite migrations
May 22, 2023 (4 minute read)

Maintaining software - a bare minimum
May 22, 2023 (3 minute read)

Website builders for non-programmers
May 4, 2023 (0 minute read)

Always Add Argument (Parameter) Names
April 18, 2023 (2 minute read)

The trap of two-stage commitments
April 6, 2023 (2 minute read)

Importing Slashdot Journal Articles by Yak
March 29, 2023 (2 minute read)

Finding a contractor accountants
November 11, 2022 (1 minute read)

Exceptions vs Wrapper Return Types
November 10, 2022 (5 minute read)

Taking an idea from business concept to software implementation
August 30, 2022 (2 minute read)

How to be a highly valued developer
August 24, 2022 (4 minute read)

Choosing a programming language for timslist
July 29, 2022 (10 minute read)

Single class per file
July 10, 2022 (3 minute read)

Tips for remembering names
May 19, 2022 (4 minute read)

Detecting bit-rot with md5deep
March 2, 2022 (2 minute read)

Upgrading indirect NuGet dependencies
February 15, 2022 (3 minute read)

Phone setup notes
December 17, 2021 (94 minute read)

Technical phone screen interview questions
December 10, 2021 (5 minute read)

Being a development team lead
December 10, 2021 (24 minute read)

Integrating ShipStation with QuickBooks Desktop
September 27, 2021 (2 minute read)

The death of custom software development
August 18, 2021 (11 minute read)

Why I want you to use slack threads
July 8, 2021 (5 minute read)

GitHub rebase and squash considered harmful
March 15, 2021 (12 minute read)

Link your outlook calendar with your google calendar
March 11, 2021 (0 minute read)

House buying and selling tip - make contact!
March 4, 2021 (2 minute read)

Podcasting hardware setup
January 26, 2021 (3 minute read)

A book list for my children
January 25, 2021 (8 minute read)

Remote code interview pairing tools
December 4, 2020 (0 minute read)

Database migration options for dotnet core
November 26, 2020 (0 minute read)

Running the CosmosDB emulator on Linux
September 17, 2020 (5 minute read)

Effective GTD with Trello
September 15, 2020 (11 minute read)

Approaches to refactoring, technical debt and legacy code
July 9, 2020 (15 minute read)

Personal backlogs
June 30, 2020 (4 minute read)

Fast backup to external drive with lz4
April 23, 2020 (1 minute read)

Question: where are we at with dynamic static sites?
April 14, 2020 (2 minute read)

What you should do between contracts
April 9, 2020 (4 minute read)

Time to "Shape Up" your SCRUM processes? The new thing from Basecamp
November 26, 2019 (2 minute read)

Should you rebase or merge to update feature branches in git?
October 14, 2019 (4 minute read)

Why I made SQL Schema Explorer open source
October 8, 2019 (3 minute read)

Laptop setup notes
August 20, 2019 (3 minute read)

Why every team needs a Delivery Manager (DM)
July 8, 2019 (4 minute read)

How to find contract developer clients
June 26, 2019 (4 minute read)

Setting up a static website/blog with jekyll
June 24, 2019 (4 minute read)

Blog refresh - bye bye wordpress, hello jekyll
June 21, 2019 (0 minute read)

Database tools I was surprised existed
June 10, 2019 (5 minute read)

Teardown of a landing page story
December 10, 2018 (5 minute read)

A Modern Digital Government Outsourcer
October 30, 2018 (5 minute read)

Always add braces
August 28, 2018 (0 minute read)

5 ways to make your database better - by Tim Abell
July 10, 2018 (4 minute read)

Building on my own just for you and your database
June 25, 2018 (1 minute read)

Building a Windows 10 Development VM from scratch
April 1, 2018 (3 minute read)

My Screencasting Setup
March 17, 2018 (1 minute read)

Regression Tests for ASP.NET / SQL Projects
March 13, 2018 (5 minute read)

Developers, Love Your SQL Database
March 12, 2018 (2 minute read)

My approach to my work
March 10, 2018 (7 minute read)

Contract developer to entrepreneur - resources
February 16, 2018 (1 minute read)

Down with SDV! long live SSE!
December 29, 2017 (4 minute read)

From contractor to entrepreneur - motivations
November 19, 2017 (2 minute read)

Looking for beta-testers for my new Free Sql Data Viewer tool
November 18, 2017 (0 minute read)

Why SDV could be a billion dollar business
November 17, 2017 (0 minute read)

Git for TFS users
October 27, 2017 (0 minute read)

Choosing wordpress hosting for a new idea
October 22, 2017 (2 minute read)

Home server docker-compose
August 29, 2017 (0 minute read)

Home server backups
August 29, 2017 (1 minute read)

Running sdv in docker
August 13, 2017 (1 minute read)

Patreon open source funding
June 3, 2017 (2 minute read)

Dustbin of ideas - IT Contractor Buddy
May 12, 2017 (2 minute read)

IT Contractor buddy
May 3, 2017 (2 minute read)

New home server with Xen and docker
March 10, 2017 (3 minute read)

New year new blog
January 17, 2017 (0 minute read)

Startup competitors - Data Viewer
January 17, 2017 (1 minute read)

New year new blog, happy 2017
January 17, 2017 (0 minute read)

javascript dates in firefox and locales
September 27, 2016 (0 minute read)

Yet another good-commit-messages post
March 18, 2016 (7 minute read)

Starting up a startup
December 24, 2015 (11 minute read)

Sql Data Viewer - preview release
October 27, 2015 (0 minute read)

100 reasons I hate ssrs
August 12, 2015 (10 minute read)

LibreOffice mail merge - "data source 'SOURCE' was not found"
January 12, 2015 (2 minute read)

throw vs throw ex vs wrap and throw in c-sharp
May 10, 2014 (1 minute read)

Why publish open source when you are commercial?
March 8, 2014 (1 minute read)

Bash command line editing cheat sheet
February 10, 2014 (0 minute read)

Converting kml to gpx with python
February 3, 2014 (1 minute read)

Returning to commercial ASP.NET from Ruby on Rails
January 7, 2014 (2 minute read)

Getting rails 4 up and running with rbenv on Ubuntu 13.10
December 4, 2013 (1 minute read)

Unfinished hyperlinks - add a todo
May 25, 2013 (1 minute read)

Installing ruby 2 + Rails 4 on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
May 13, 2013 (3 minute read)

Java checked and runtime exceptions and how to transition
April 2, 2013 (3 minute read)

Subversion to git - the pain retold
December 5, 2012 (6 minute read)

AA Gold member benefits, the real cost
July 10, 2012 (1 minute read)

Configuration confusion in visual studio
July 10, 2012 (0 minute read)

automatic mysql backups
June 14, 2012 (0 minute read)

Connecting to smb shares on a domain in gnome
June 11, 2012 (0 minute read)

Debugging stored procedures in VS2010 / SQL Express
May 22, 2012 (1 minute read)

Enabling TCP/IP in SQL Express 2008 R2
May 22, 2012 (0 minute read)

Running IE Application Compatibility VPC under Virtual Box
April 18, 2012 (0 minute read)

Poll svn server for changes with git clone
April 5, 2012 (0 minute read)

Announcing the Communication Book project
March 21, 2012 (0 minute read)

Quote of the day - scrum progress updates
February 14, 2012 (0 minute read)

The BBC and the bouncing emails
January 25, 2012 (2 minute read)

The trouble with agile is it's a bit too good
January 17, 2012 (9 minute read)

Git, Windows and Line endings
January 11, 2012 (4 minute read)

Multiple working folders for git on Windows XP
November 16, 2011 (1 minute read)

GpsPrune file matching
November 9, 2011 (0 minute read)

LVM + ReiserFS for the win
October 25, 2011 (0 minute read)

share your test data for your project
October 3, 2011 (0 minute read)

Simple water butt level meter
August 5, 2011 (0 minute read)

Auto-expanding django formset with jQuery
July 7, 2011 (2 minute read)

Data driven test in NUnit with csv source data
May 23, 2011 (1 minute read)

Reliable javascript checkbox events
May 18, 2011 (0 minute read)

Using Pidgin for IRC
December 15, 2010 (0 minute read)

configuring kdiff3 as a mergetool in msysgit
September 3, 2010 (0 minute read)

openlayers svn into git
February 4, 2010 (1 minute read)

backing up Vista
December 18, 2009 (2 minute read)

MCTS in ASP.NET 3.5 - Mission accomplished.
December 18, 2009 (0 minute read)

getting supybot to announce new bugzilla bugs
November 16, 2009 (1 minute read)

bugzilla upgrades and user tokens
November 8, 2009 (1 minute read)

life update - software learning
October 24, 2009 (0 minute read)

backuppc and windows vista
October 23, 2009 (1 minute read)

git-svn imports for open source projects
April 11, 2009 (0 minute read)

mini police eye in the sky
April 11, 2009 (0 minute read)

format all documents in a visual studio solution
January 29, 2009 (1 minute read)

password-free ubuntu login with facebrowser
December 18, 2008 (1 minute read)

error "Not a valid object name" filtering an ex-svn git repo with renames
September 10, 2008 (0 minute read)

reseting home folder permissions in ubuntu linux
August 24, 2008 (1 minute read)

Don't trust audible.com, it's drm infected and they don't tell you
July 23, 2008 (1 minute read)

work at emapsite
July 16, 2008 (0 minute read)

New wiki, mostly for car pc
July 14, 2008 (0 minute read)

Nightly Shutdown, a new product from Proven Works
July 3, 2008 (0 minute read)

A vision of open in-car computing systems
June 6, 2008 (2 minute read)

sharing work between computers with a usb flash drive and git
May 29, 2008 (3 minute read)

Removing the execute flag from many files
May 17, 2008 (0 minute read)

My bash prompt
March 31, 2008 (0 minute read)

stop motion animation on linux
March 27, 2008 (0 minute read)

Tech support at its worst
January 30, 2008 (3 minute read)

Preparing photos for a digital picture frame
December 28, 2007 (5 minute read)

Enabling TV-Out on Ubuntu Linux 7.10 on a Dell Inspiron 8500
December 9, 2007 (5 minute read)

Making money with free software
November 4, 2007 (9 minute read)

xsession sold out
November 4, 2007 (0 minute read)

OSS Contribution Number One!
October 27, 2007 (0 minute read)

Creating a blogroll
September 3, 2007 (0 minute read)

Taking a Microsoft Learning course - my experience so far
August 16, 2007 (2 minute read)

Blocking web adverts
July 2, 2007 (0 minute read)

Ubuntu screen locking
July 2, 2007 (0 minute read)

backing up your home folder
June 20, 2007 (2 minute read)

My mum and her super ceramics
May 28, 2007 (0 minute read)

Get emailed Tim's blog and photos
May 27, 2007 (0 minute read)

starfighter
May 27, 2007 (1 minute read)

running partimage in batch mode
April 10, 2007 (7 minute read)

bad geek joke: the bourne shell
March 30, 2007 (0 minute read)

partimage + stdout, existing code
March 30, 2007 (0 minute read)

compiling partimage
March 26, 2007 (1 minute read)

tim; now available with flickr pics
March 23, 2007 (0 minute read)

Multi-room music at home
March 16, 2007 (2 minute read)

Today's project - partimage enhancement
March 13, 2007 (1 minute read)

new blog, take two
March 13, 2007 (0 minute read)

tim's new blog
January 7, 2007 (0 minute read)

mountain bike stolen
November 24, 2006 (0 minute read)

a manual? for £££££?!
July 19, 2006 (0 minute read)

sailing pics
July 9, 2006 (0 minute read)

M4 J11 Reading plans
July 7, 2006 (0 minute read)

comedy email circular
May 25, 2006 (1 minute read)

Ian & broadband
May 23, 2006 (0 minute read)

Get with the (music) program - podsafe radio
April 28, 2006 (0 minute read)

bad websites
March 11, 2006 (0 minute read)

bicycles
March 10, 2006 (0 minute read)

gimp trouble
January 4, 2006 (0 minute read)

article: Windows rapidly approaching desktop usability!
December 7, 2005 (0 minute read)

cv
November 30, 2005 (0 minute read)

colds. ugh
November 29, 2005 (0 minute read)

read a book today - without leaving your chair
November 18, 2005 (0 minute read)

article: micro$oft battles for survival of office
November 10, 2005 (0 minute read)

geek here
November 9, 2005 (0 minute read)

warning: geek entry - vim
November 4, 2005 (0 minute read)

Hurricane Wilma
October 21, 2005 (0 minute read)

trackback
October 11, 2005 (0 minute read)

copying all (hidden) files in linux with cp
September 29, 2005 (0 minute read)

microsoft office clipart
September 6, 2005 (0 minute read)

marketing? grrrrrrr! oh, and greenbelt this weekend
August 22, 2005 (0 minute read)

funky technology
August 19, 2005 (0 minute read)

google wos ere
August 10, 2005 (0 minute read)

tim's technical ramblings
August 10, 2005 (0 minute read)

funky flash game
July 30, 2005 (0 minute read)

corolla
July 27, 2005 (0 minute read)

yacht
July 27, 2005 (0 minute read)

post-relational databases in the real world
July 20, 2005 (0 minute read)

no patents on software!!
July 6, 2005 (0 minute read)

i still hate sundays
July 3, 2005 (0 minute read)

Java!=javascript (geek entry)
June 30, 2005 (0 minute read)

firefox bookmark synch extension
June 23, 2005 (0 minute read)

eBay / iRiver
June 23, 2005 (0 minute read)

and paypal aren't looking too hot
June 12, 2005 (0 minute read)

I hate ebay because...
June 12, 2005 (0 minute read)

Pay as you drive won't work because...
June 6, 2005 (1 minute read)

how to destroy the earth
June 3, 2005 (0 minute read)

google funds open source development
June 2, 2005 (1 minute read)

waaaah!
May 31, 2005 (0 minute read)

What's your political persuasion?
May 25, 2005 (0 minute read)

some things I'm happy about
May 23, 2005 (0 minute read)

more raucous laughter
May 17, 2005 (0 minute read)

laughing my behind off!
May 13, 2005 (0 minute read)

pointless acronyms
May 13, 2005 (0 minute read)

unblocked!
May 13, 2005 (0 minute read)

April showers came early. MS vendor lock in.
March 31, 2005 (0 minute read)

shock! timwise.co.uk home page updated!
March 18, 2005 (0 minute read)

new year? when was that?
March 8, 2005 (0 minute read)

ebay - buy my stuff
March 7, 2005 (0 minute read)

email security / lack of
January 25, 2005 (0 minute read)

update
January 18, 2005 (0 minute read)

let the selling begin
December 27, 2004 (0 minute read)

i don't do forwards
December 25, 2004 (0 minute read)

moved
December 23, 2004 (0 minute read)

busy
November 30, 2004 (0 minute read)

xmas flash animation
November 15, 2004 (0 minute read)

why am i here
November 13, 2004 (0 minute read)

Urgh. Not such a toothy grin now.
November 12, 2004 (0 minute read)

Weekend
November 8, 2004 (0 minute read)

workworkworkworkworkworkwork...
November 4, 2004 (0 minute read)

mmmm cake
November 1, 2004 (0 minute read)

mourn
October 26, 2004 (0 minute read)

b3ta teddy
October 24, 2004 (0 minute read)

woo!
October 17, 2004 (0 minute read)

website stats
October 16, 2004 (0 minute read)

Offline friends
October 15, 2004 (0 minute read)

Nothing much
October 15, 2004 (0 minute read)

Lecture, 19th Oct
October 5, 2004 (0 minute read)

Weekend / Talent? / Sport / Theatre
October 4, 2004 (1 minute read)

no cycling for me
September 29, 2004 (0 minute read)

Play / 14th Oct
September 28, 2004 (1 minute read)

weekend update
September 27, 2004 (1 minute read)

Guitar Book
September 22, 2004 (0 minute read)

Mr C
September 21, 2004 (0 minute read)

Tonight
September 20, 2004 (0 minute read)

Curiosity did _not_ kill the cat. That was the car >:|
September 20, 2004 (0 minute read)

more stats!
September 15, 2004 (0 minute read)

Now I'm annoyed
September 14, 2004 (1 minute read)

I know where my towel is.
September 13, 2004 (0 minute read)

stats
September 11, 2004 (0 minute read)

life continues
September 10, 2004 (1 minute read)

roxio
September 2, 2004 (0 minute read)

life update
September 1, 2004 (0 minute read)

So what _is_ the "internet"?
August 22, 2004 (0 minute read)

Morzine
August 22, 2004 (0 minute read)

more pics
August 19, 2004 (0 minute read)

Picture-skew
August 17, 2004 (0 minute read)

Facial Fuzz
August 16, 2004 (0 minute read)

Bonjour
August 16, 2004 (0 minute read)

Biking
August 14, 2004 (0 minute read)

Real IT Stories
August 14, 2004 (0 minute read)

Busy busy
August 10, 2004 (2 minute read)

paris who?
July 30, 2004 (0 minute read)

swimming
July 28, 2004 (0 minute read)

an evenings work
July 27, 2004 (0 minute read)

taff tour
July 24, 2004 (0 minute read)

Commuting by Bike
July 12, 2004 (0 minute read)

Wow. I've never had it so good.
July 11, 2004 (2 minute read)

Another rung on the ladder
July 5, 2004 (0 minute read)

Pringles
July 5, 2004 (0 minute read)

SBR
June 23, 2004 (0 minute read)

**No Title**
June 18, 2004 (0 minute read)

Windsurfing
June 16, 2004 (0 minute read)

This is a local village
June 14, 2004 (0 minute read)

Blollogs
June 14, 2004 (0 minute read)

The Wall
June 12, 2004 (0 minute read)

Photos
May 13, 2004 (0 minute read)

swimming
May 11, 2004 (0 minute read)

sleep is for wusses
May 2, 2004 (1 minute read)

Own a domain? Then Fear the "Joe Job"
April 8, 2004 (0 minute read)

File manager of fun
April 5, 2004 (0 minute read)

swimming
April 2, 2004 (0 minute read)

beer, linux & aaar.
March 24, 2004 (0 minute read)

Swimming
March 20, 2004 (0 minute read)

Dodgy DELL drivers
March 17, 2004 (0 minute read)

Swimming
March 15, 2004 (0 minute read)

This weekend
March 14, 2004 (0 minute read)

Cycling
March 8, 2004 (0 minute read)

good for nothing script kiddies
February 26, 2004 (1 minute read)

swimming
February 26, 2004 (0 minute read)

morning
February 26, 2004 (0 minute read)

M$
February 16, 2004 (0 minute read)

Star gazing
February 16, 2004 (0 minute read)

Balls!
February 14, 2004 (0 minute read)

swimming
February 13, 2004 (0 minute read)

Hulloa
February 5, 2004 (0 minute read)

You, yes you, reading my /. journal
January 29, 2004 (0 minute read)

Things + lycra swimwear & goggles
January 29, 2004 (0 minute read)

Swimming
January 20, 2004 (0 minute read)

Morning
January 20, 2004 (0 minute read)

Drama
January 19, 2004 (0 minute read)

Swimming
January 15, 2004 (0 minute read)

Bloody Banks
January 13, 2004 (0 minute read)

Swimming
January 13, 2004 (0 minute read)

Swimming
January 8, 2004 (0 minute read)

Swimming
January 6, 2004 (0 minute read)

Swimming
January 3, 2004 (0 minute read)

Music - bad response
December 28, 2003 (0 minute read)

Swimming
December 23, 2003 (0 minute read)

Swimming
December 19, 2003 (0 minute read)

Swimming
December 16, 2003 (0 minute read)

Also - music
December 12, 2003 (0 minute read)

Anargams
December 12, 2003 (0 minute read)

Swimming
December 11, 2003 (0 minute read)

Eddie Izzard
December 5, 2003 (0 minute read)

WhoIs Privacy
December 4, 2003 (0 minute read)

Splash
December 4, 2003 (0 minute read)

sooooo long
December 3, 2003 (0 minute read)

Swimming
December 2, 2003 (0 minute read)

Nigerian Scam
November 29, 2003 (10 minute read)

Yawn
November 27, 2003 (0 minute read)

bluetooth headset & old pc with new cable modem
November 22, 2003 (0 minute read)

motorola
November 17, 2003 (0 minute read)

message to motorola support
November 17, 2003 (1 minute read)

light
November 17, 2003 (0 minute read)

warble
November 14, 2003 (0 minute read)

Hello reader
October 15, 2003 (0 minute read)

Wrinkly hands
October 13, 2003 (0 minute read)

Vodafone - sucking
September 16, 2003 (1 minute read)