A change of direction for RottenCode

Alright, so this will be the first post here that isn't me pasting in a URL for a funny youtube video or other nonsense, and starting to use this domain for something at least a little bit towards how I originally envisioned it when I registered back in early 2005...

Back then I thought this would be a great place to post truly awful examples of the programming arts at my then-employer Sony BMG Music. The examples were numerous, the quality horrible. But they weren't really as funny as I would have liked, and really to me they were more painful than anything! An example I remember vividly was a mail utility written by a supposed senior java developer that had a signature that looked something like this (warning, may cause your eyes to bleed):

MailUtility.sendMail(String, String, String, String, String, String, String, String, String, String, String, String, String, String, String, String, String, String, String, String, String, String, String, String, String, int, String, String, String, String);

And then I found The Daily WTF, which was updated often, had exactly the same idea as I had, and had actual humorous content.

So no WTF's here, but hopefully some helpful examples as I bash my way through building the Lime Wire Store, a new-from-the-ground-up media store (like iTunes) that will cater to those who believe artists should be compensated fairly for their performances, and that MP3 is the right format for the future (ie Give the consumer what they want). With over 400 million downloads of the LimeWire client and 5-6 million users actively using the client at any time, our user base is pretty large, so the challenges for A) keeping most people happy and B) keeping the site from falling over are huge.

So you'll get to read about some of my mistakes, and some of my solutions, and just some things that took me a long time to track down, so that you don't have to next time.

Welcome to Rotten Code!