After dipping my toe in the water a number of times, I've finally taken the plunge. Over the last couple of weeks I've been migrating a private project from Java to Kotlin. This is a report of how it's been going... Firstly, my main interest in Kotlin was the cleaner language design, the clear Java … Continue reading Converting to Kotlin →

Charlie Stross has written a series of blog posts which extrapolates current events into the next 12 months. It's a glorious imagining of the future, but I'm afraid it doesn't end well for humanity... Part 1: Things can only get better Part 2: You're only supposed to blow the doors off! Part 3: And the … Continue reading Charlie Stross Predicts 2017 →

This is just an administrative announcement: I have moved exubero.com to be hosted by wordpress.com. It was previously hosted on a EC2 server and database. At the time I moved exubero.com to AWS, I felt it was an interesting project to learn the AWS tools and infrastructure. In that sense, it was a good way to … Continue reading The Hosting of exubero.com has Changed →

There is a view that software development is a craft; that "Software Craftsmanship" is a better metaphor for software development than is engineering or science. I'm going to argue against this view: software development is an engineering discipline, and relies strongly on scientific principles. Firstly, what is an engineering? Here's one definition of the engineering method: … Continue reading Software Development is an Engineering Discipline →

I recently saw a reference to Devops 101 on Twitter. It looked interesting, so I bookmarked it, and forgot about it for a few weeks. Last night I finally got around to trying the exercises - it was a bit of an eye-opener. There's a huge amount of functionality on AWS that I'm not really … Continue reading Devops 101 →

Well, I finally received an invitation to join keybase.io. My Keybase profile is: https://keybase.io/tumbarumba. I first heard about Keybase from a post by Tim Bray in March. I've been quite interested in crypto stuff since forever, but I've never been able to use it consistently in all my communications. Given the increasing surveillance issues on-line, it seems prudent … Continue reading Keybase →

So, I recently took management training course. There was some useful stuff taught in the course (such as delegation, coaching, and performance management, among other things). I learnt a lot, most of it useful. I'm not here to talk about that, though. I'm here to rant... First problem: the feedback method they were teaching was the "shit … Continue reading Management Training for the Twentieth Century →

I'm a career technologist. Building software systems that people find useful (as possibly love) gives me a great thrill. I've spent more than 25 years learning many arcane bits of knowledge that makes it possible for me to contribute to the construction and maintenance of these software constructs. Historically, I have mainly focused on technical skills and … Continue reading It’s the People, Stupid! →

Some musings on professional software development... I'm a software developer with 20 years of professional experience. I've make all the classic mistakes, and learned a few lessons on the way. I've sought out better ways of creating software that really delights users, creates value and solves problems. I'm continually making use of the experiences and … Continue reading I am a Thought Follower →

Well. That was a bit longer than expected. I've finally retrieved the slime-covered remnants of my blog, attached bolts to its neck and re-animated it with lightning. For something that I took down for "a few weeks" while I changed hosting providers, it ended up lying pretty much dead in a ditch for nearly 3 … Continue reading A dark and hideous thing re-emerges →