Coding Horror: Rube Goldberg Software Devices

April 04, 2005

Rube Goldberg Software Devices

Rube Goldberg software design is the meme of the month, after being parodied by Rory Blyth and Scott Hanselman in this brilliant short video, and oddly enough, also currently appearing in Microsoft advertisements:

Microsoft Rube Goldberg style ad

Now compare that to an actual Rube Goldberg device:

Rube Goldberg device

You can't talk about Rube Goldberg these days without mentioning Honda's amazing 2003 'Cog' advertisement for the Honda Accord. If you're curious, snopes has more detail on how the commercial was filmed.

Incidentally, one of my favorite old PC games is The Incredible Machine circa 1993, although newer versions are available (and still just as fun):

The Incredible Machine

Any resemblance between any of the above and actual software development is, of course, completely coincidental. We're professionals, dammit!

Posted by Jeff Atwood View blog reactions

« Better Presentations through Practice The Prototype Pitfall »

Comments

If you want to get your TIM and TIM2 on, they can be downloaded from here:

http://www.abandonia.com/genre.php?genre=puzzle&page=0

Runs great under DosBox..

http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/

..just be sure to set the CPU cycles to something like 10,000 from the ultra-low default of 3,000.

Jeff Atwood on April 5, 2005 01:38 AM

Perhaps sadly, Rube Goldberg means nothing to me. The artist best known in the UK for such crazy contraptions was Heath Robinson.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Heath_Robinson

Dominic Cronin on April 5, 2005 02:41 AM

Reminds me of DTS packages in SQL server: Set it up, click the button, pray :-)

Dan F on April 5, 2005 03:53 AM

How to turn on a flashlight the hard way...speaking of Rube Goldberg devices...

http://news.com.com/Photos+How+to+turn+on+a+flashlight--the+hard+way/2009-1041_3-5666394.html?part=rss&tag=5666394&subj=news

Brian Swiger on April 13, 2005 03:41 PM

Some amusing macros that are Rube Goldberg-esque. Eg, using Microsoft Word automation to determine the state of Scroll Lock. Funny stuff:

http://www.mvps.org/scripting/rube/

Jeff Atwood on July 14, 2005 02:34 AM

Here's a great desktop set of toys with 2D physics, almost exactly like "The Incredible Machine" -- but purely as a sandbox:

http://www.souptoys.com/index.php

Jeff Atwood on March 14, 2006 08:12 PM

Even more Rube Goldberg madness of various types

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/07/27/japanese_rube_goldbe.html

Jeff Atwood on July 29, 2007 12:52 AM

OMG I lIke This GAME!!!!!!! DAMMIT so HARD To FIND, and honestly i dun even know the name of this game... i played like 13 years ago.... OMG Thank yo for this INFO!!!

Husen on November 2, 2007 02:43 AM

Anyone remember the board game Mousetrap? I never learned how to play the game...just always had fun setting it up and watching it execute.

Mike Brown on December 20, 2007 06:54 AM