I Suck at Security

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 →

Ant Script Library

I always seem to re-implement the same Ant scripts where ever I go. To try an short-circuit this pointless bit of re-work, I've re-implemented the scripts (again) in my own time, and am packaging them up for generate release under the Apache license, allowing me to properly reuse these scripts. I've uploaded them here: You … Continue reading Ant Script Library →

IvyDE Rocks

If you don't want to read through the rest of this posting, here's the conclusion: if you're developing Java applications in Eclipse, you need to give Ivy DE a go. It very elegantly integrates any dependencies declared in a pom.xml or ivy.xml into the Eclipse classpath. (Yes, that's right: it handles Maven pom.xml files just … Continue reading IvyDE Rocks →

Conversation With a Manager

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 →

A Continuous Integration Tool is not a Build Platform

I was studying the code for a CruiseControl build schedule plugin today. Something was bothering me, and it finally occurred to me that the plugin was trying to do the wrong job: it was doing the entire job of running the build logic directly. A quick refresher: CruiseControl first checks for any modifications. If it … Continue reading A Continuous Integration Tool is not a Build Platform →

Bowood Bookkeeping

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.)

QA, QC, What’s the Difference?

I liked Jason Yip's posting: No matter how many times you say it, we still don't need a QA on the team - it really pins down the definition of the QA/QC terms. In summary: Quality Assurance (QA): The design and implementation of processes (roles + activities) to ensure quality in a system/product/service. Quality Control … Continue reading QA, QC, What’s the Difference? →

Ruby and Java in Eclipse on Ubuntu

I've been updating the development environment on my home computer. I'm running Ubuntu at home, and was expecting a pretty easy setup. I was rather surprised to find that the Eclipse environment packaged with Ubuntu 8.10 is actually pretty old (Eclipse 3.2). Given that Eclipse 3.4 has been out for quite a while now, I … Continue reading Ruby and Java in Eclipse on Ubuntu →

New Year, New Job

It's been an incredibly busy an interesting month for me. I've been on the lookout for a new job since the start of December. I was initially worried that the job market would be rather tight, given the large number of high profile banks and funds that have been going under, and the rest of … Continue reading New Year, New Job →

Renaissance Developer Redux

I just spotted a post by Dave Herren called "The Renaissance Developer". Given the title of my blog, it caught my eye. Nice posting (and blog, for that matter!)