US anti-kidnapping expert abducted in Mexico

A U.S. anti-kidnapping expert was abducted by gunmen in northern Mexico last week...



U.S. security consultant Felix Batista — who claims to have helped resolve nearly 100 kidnap and ransom cases — was in Saltillo in Coahuila state to offer advice on how to confront abductions for ransom when he himself was seized, local authorities said. Unknown assailants grabbed him on Dec. 10, said Charlie LeBlanc, the president of the Houston, Texas-based security firm ASI Global LLC., where Batista is a consultant.

How fast can you write code?

I am a dinosaur and one of the last remaining enterprise architect's on the planet that still knows how to write code...



I remember earlier in my career when I worked with folks in India in the last 90s, I would sometimes throw in the towel in frustration and simply write code myself instead of bothering to explain requirements and/or quality long distance. On more than one occasion, I would put my ego aside and just tell them to put their name on my code in order to move things along.

In the days of old, I used to pride myself on how fast I could write code and it was my own way of measuring my own productivity. Today, I have concluded that it is a poor measure, but it's not completely worthless. The level of productivity I achieved in these cases is clearly a lot higher than I normally achieve. I think it's important to point out that in the last two cases I had a very good idea of exactly how all the code should be written. You can write code very fast when you know what you're doing.

The rest of the world that attempts to measure this same notion has different starting points where some just measure the raw act of writing, while others at least count the time required to get a clean compile. Others still go one step further and count time including debugging vs sweeping things under the rug.

Peak programmer output is much greater than average programmer output. One conclusion that can be drawn from this is that the actual process of coding doesn't dominate development time. One implication of this conclusion is that writing more code won't necessarily slow you down much. This is one reason prototyping can pay off so much. You can spend a lot of time writing prototype code and then lose very little when you throw it away and start over from scratch. You can regain the functionality implemented in the prototype far more quickly than when you wrote the prototype because you are now programming (at least partially) in a problem space that you have just explored. This is exactly the kind of circumstance that one can achieve maximum productivity in.

So in one sense I am suggesting that writing a lot of mediocre code quickly is often a good idea, but I am also suggesting that you then fix it, refactor it, rewrite it, or start over from scratch as appropriate to get good code...

Martial Arts and Mediocrity...

In the past, I have blogged on martial art schools on my side of town that are worthy of attendance including Yousef Taekwondo, House of Kokondo and Igor Gracie along with a few in the mediocre category such as Avon Kempo and Aikido and Villari's which are suitable for children whose parent's can be classified as soccer mom's. Let's continue the dialog...



Most recently, I ran across Greater Hartford Bando which is non-profit (aka no price gouging) and of higher quality in instruction than most other schools in the area. It is noble to see that the instructors aren't just doing it for the money or to even cover expenses, but that they have a higher calling. This school is most certainly worthy of consideration and is perfect for both the soccer mom crowd as well as those who truly want their kids to learn a martial art.

Ultimately, the Martial Arts center around fighting. Everything else (discipline, philosophy, culture, etc) is not only incidental, but often disingenuously inflated in importance so as to cover up a school/instructor/student's lack of fighting skill, or in many cases, to make MA instruction "palatable" to soccer moms shopping around for after-school activities.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with going after substandard schools and giving them negative publicity. These schools harm the community by instilling their students with a dangerously false sense of confidence in their ability to defend themselves, which could lead to being raped or killed in a real threat situation.

If you're not at least occasionally doing hard contact, non-stop sparring as a part of your Martial Arts training, you're simply not doing Martial Arts. You might as well be attending an Asian-themed dance class, cultural seminar, or Tae-bo. You will not have a realistic understanding of whether your skills work in a live situation, and (in my experience) are very likely to have an overinflated, unrealistic, and unfounded belief that can and will get you hurt.

This is not kindergarten; all styles and training methods are not equally precious little snowflakes. Some are superior to others, and some are wholly inferior for preparing you to defend yourself. And it's by no strange coincidence that those who fit this criteria are typically those which throw up the most smoke about self-improvement and other marginally-related nonsense.

Schools that stay true to the essence of martial arts while not just talking about cliche practices around leadership need some amplification and I encourage all who read to encourage their kids to attend one of these programs just once and the difference will be immediately apparent...