This Space for Rent

eXtreme Programming sucks

We've been trying to clean up the thrice-damned Linux 2.4.18 memory manager at work (if we switch to a different version of the kernel, a huge wad of applications have to be revalidated against the new kernel, but if we use the current kernel and just patch it into oblivion, the QA people will be happy just to test the patches instead), and I've ended up working in harness with another programmer while a member of the sysadmin team has been patching away by himself.

If I had even the slightest bit of interest in eXtreme Programming™©®, this would be a nice bit of filler for my résume, but it sucks dead bunnies through a straw as far as actually being able to get anything done; while we've been able to determine that the linux 2.4.18 memory manager is horrible, the sysadmin has put in and experimentally verified a couple of patches that, um, seem to actually work on our test systems. But I'm sure that I've got a much better rating for buzzword compliance now.

At least I'm able to work at home over the July 4th holiday, so I've not managed to be a complete waste of company resources.