The SIMILE project has announced a new major release of the Piggy Bank extension for the Mozilla Firefox browser. Developer Stefano Mazzocchi has blogged about it here. I’ve only just now downloaded the new version, but it looks like they’ve made some substantial improvements over the original version (which itself was fun to play with).

To install this extension into Firefox, visit the Piggy Bank home page and click the get Piggy Bank link in the upper right-hand corner of the page.

A recent article from Mike Clark presents some good advice about comments:

1. Keep It DRY. The “Don’t Repeat Yourself” principle has wider application than the mere avoidance of code duplication. It’s also a mistake to duplicate knowledge about the intent or functionality of a method in the source code’s comments. As Mike notes, “If a comment already describes what the code does, then the comment is redundant and should be removed.” 
2. Make the Code Speak for Itself. That is, choose meaningful names for classes, methods and variables. If the purpose of a method isn’t fairly obvious from its name, there’s a good chance that it needs a new name. Invest the time and energy that you would have used writing a comment to “deodorize” that code smell, and use it to come up with a more descriptive name instead.
3. Write a Sweet-Smelling Comment. Use comments to tell why something was done: what purpose a class serves in the system, assumptions made by the code, and so so.

Would it be just completely pointless if I went to the local postmaster and asked him why the item that was originally shipped from The Sharper Image some six weeks ago has only just now arrived? Yes, I guess it would.

According to this E! Online article from Kristin Veitch, it looks “very likely” that Arrested Development has been picked up for not only one but two full seasons. That’s pretty good news, considering it’s Friday 13th. It’s also suggested that the show will move to a new time slot, which is probably a wise idea (maybe as a lead-in to House?).

P.S. I promise that I’ll come up with some topic other than the fate of Arrested Development for the next post.