Saturday 20 June 2009

ddj.com: Break Up and Interleave Work to Keep Threads Responsive

Link: Break Up and Interleave Work to Keep Threads Responsive

Stackless Python provides microthreading capabilities as a very lightweight alternative to threading. But whether threading or microthreading, the same considerations need to made when writing code that blocks. This article on threading written by Herb Sutter is a useful guide in understanding those considerations.

Friday 19 June 2009

Back in New Zealand

I resigned from C.C.P. two weeks ago.

Back in 2007, I was working at a small company in Iceland wanting to return to New Zealand, but the unknown logistics of a move in a country where English wasn't the primary language were slowing the decision. Then a friend asked if I would be willing to come work for C.C.P. again, but this time in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A. to work on another MMO. So I decided to make the move and live there for a year to see what life in the U.S.A. was like, open to the possibility of staying longer if it appealed to do so.

A year and a half later, it suddenly occurred to me that it was time to return to New Zealand. I was more interested in working on low level systems, and the type of work I was doing was on the level of high level gameplay functionality. After talking it over with my boss, despite his willingness and flexibility to alter my job to make it more appealing for me to stay, I realised that I had made a concrete decision to return to a country that felt like home. I was tired of sitting in an office, staring out a large window seeing blue skies and sunshine, wondering why I had to be inside for the best part of that day.

I'd recommend working for C.C.P. North America on their MMO project to anyone who might consider applying, the programmers there are among some of the nicest, easy going and competent people I worked with (except David Press - I kid David, since you'll probably read this).

It's so nice to be unemployed with no fixed abode.