On a whim, I joined some of my work colleagues going to XTC. Tonight was a special event: Not Agile 2010. For those of us who didn't/couldn't/wouldn't go to the Agile 2010 conference in Florida, we had an evening of lighting talks from anyone able stand upright and speak anything that sounded vaguely like English. … Continue reading Not Agile 2010
Airline Story
This is my flight from hell story (long posting!): after being delayed 11 days by the volcanic disruption, I finally got on a flight from Sydney to London via Bangkok. The flight from Sydney to Bangkok flew OK, but movie system wasn't working - not great with 2 kids (luckily they mostly slept). We stopped … Continue reading Airline Story
The Meaning of Guru
Today I met one of the managers of the development team I work with in India. I was chuffed to learn some people call me "The Guru" over there. The manager went on to mention the etymology the word: 'Guru' is composed of the syllables 'gu' and 'ru', the former signifying 'darkness', and the latter … Continue reading The Meaning of Guru
XPDay 2009
I've just registered for XPDay 2009. I last went to XPDay 2005, and had a blast. I regret not going back since, but I'll be there this year, at least!
Singletons are Evil 2: the Rant
I've wrote about this before, but singletons really are evil. It's worth repeating, as I'm finding out that the message hasn't really reached a lot of people yet. I've been helping out with interviewing candidates for a senior developer/technical lead/technical architect role at my current client. To my dismay, there is a very consistent problem … Continue reading Singletons are Evil 2: the Rant
Kanban at XtC
I've just noticed that the Extreme Tuesday Club is has Kanban presentations tomorrow (29th September). Given I'm a complete newbie on anything Kanban, I'll definetly turn up to that one.
ASL Compatability Policy
An astute reader asked if the Ant Script Library will be updated to make use of any of the new features that will be available in the upcoming Ant 1.8 release. New features include enhancements to boolean properties, the import element to support optional imports, and new features such as include and target group. Many … Continue reading ASL Compatability Policy
CITCON ’09: Better Ant Builds
The first session I attended (and partially ran) was Better Ant Builds. During the session proposals, Ivan Moore originally suggested a talk on better builds for Java programs. There were later proposals for sessions regarding improvements to Maven, so I proposed my own session "Better Ant Builds" to differentiate it from the Maven sessions. My … Continue reading CITCON ’09: Better Ant Builds
CITCON Europe 2009
As I type, I'm listening to the final session of CITCON Europe 2009, at ISEP in Paris. Without doubt, I find CITCON to be one the most energetic and fun conferences I've ever attended. I think this has a lot to do with the way that the conference is run. Probably two main features that … Continue reading CITCON Europe 2009
Ant Script Library 1.1.0 Released
It's been over 6 months since the last release, so I'm well overdue for this: I've just released version 1.1.0 of the Ant Script Library. There are quite a number of small enhancements throughout the library, and I've been filling in missing documentation, too. Here's a summary of the major changes between version 1.0.2 and … Continue reading Ant Script Library 1.1.0 Released
Renaissance Developer 