The Java Posse recently posted a podcast titled "Effective Communication" (it was a recording of a session of their "RoundUp" un-conference). I found it a fascinating discussion, all the more because it echoed many of the problems I'm experiencing right now. Primarily, how do you get a group of developers to work effectively together? Communication … Continue reading Communication Trumps Checklists →

A couple of weeks back I got myself a new toy: an ASUS Eee 1000 netbook. I tried to order one through Amazon, but it appeared to have been sold out everywhere I looked. A week later I was passing through a shop in Croydon, and I happened to mention to the sales assistent that … Continue reading My New Toy →

I saw a drawing today, oh boy! A colleague bought his daughter into the office for work experience last week. She sat through pretty much a day of solid meetings (I was in one of them), and she somehow stayed awake for all of them. After all of this, she was asked to draw a … Continue reading A Day in the Life →

In case you missed it, doodling is not a bad thing any more: The Guardian BBC This is lucky for me. As anyone who has sat next to me in a meeting can testify, my notebooks are filled with dubious pen scribblings and "artwork". My left hand features prominently in my notebook, mainly because it … Continue reading Doodling →

I've been tinkering with build systems lately, and the associated dependency graph between source artefacts. For anyone working on a system like this, you will eventually arrive at the algorithm for Topological Sorting. The Wikipedia page had a very good description of the algorithm, but I found another description that appeared clearer to me: Repeat … Continue reading Topological Sort →

I spent a chunk of last the week getting to grips with some agile project management software. It has some nice features - iteration planning, task tracking and a host of other functionality. However, I still found myself getting out the physical cards to work the estimate and planning. With the cards, you can sit … Continue reading Story Cards Versus Planning Software →

I was invited to the youDevise stately pleasure-dome on this night for what turned out to be  a fascinating event: a coding dojo. I had never been to an event like this, so it turned out to be gentle introduction to a number of new concepts for me. A coding dojo is an event where … Continue reading Groovy, ViPlugin and Pizza →

One of the staff at Lillifoot gave me a call yesterday - the iMac was doing strange things, and browsing websites all by itself. Was I remotely controlling it? No, but I immediately knew what had happened. Last month I had set up the Vine VNC Server to test out remote support. As an experiment, … Continue reading I Suck at Security →

It's a very scary moment when the manager three levels up from you (and you don't really know that well) walks up to your desk and says: "I've just been reading your blog..." (oh shit!) "... and I agree with your points" (whew) There are definitely pros and cons with having a fairly unique name … Continue reading Conversation With a Manager →

Here's a very quick web page I did  for my sister-in-law's new bookkeeping business: Bowood Bookkeeping. For any bookkeeping services around Salisbury, give her a call. (With this link, hopefully Google and friends will be able to find the site to index it.)