The Merry Dance We Do
Oct 2021: I figured it’s been a while - let’s update the blog. How hard can it be to crank up the old motor?
2021
Tech Solution Deep Dives
Aug 2021: Beyond ‘hello world’ and technology intro material, hearing about experiences from others in the real world can be a great way of really learning ...
2018
Building Better Teams
Nov 2018: If you’ve been building teams for a while and you’ve got the hang of identifying “Smart” and “Gets things done” candidates, consider using Belbin’...
Success Criteria: 21 Years of Software Engineering
Oct 2018: The fact that people - well, companies mostly - have been doing me the great courtesy of paying me to produce software for them for more than 21 e...
Building Blocks of Enterprise Solution Design
Sept 2018: Coming up with a solution design fit for use in large organisations can be a big ask - but breaking it down and spending time planning your appro...
Common Language Mistakes That Undermine Great Writing
Aug 2018: Watch out for these common misuses to avoid compromising otherwise great content.
Make it Fast: The Underrated Rewards of Performance Tuning
Jul 2018: Optimising software needn’t be a chore or a drudge - consider it an opportunity for some rewarding detective work!
Joining the Cloud Revolution
Jun 2018: Disclaimer - it’s mid-2018, and “Cloud” started a long time ago. Many years ago. I know this; I’m a relative latecomer to the party. Here, then, I...
Supporting the Ten Thousand
May 2018: A confession: when someone emails to a large technical list a “simple” question, I’ve sometimes in the past felt a sense of “how can you not know ...
Colourblind in a Software Driven World
May 2018: Being colourblind isn’t a terrible disability. It’s not a daily struggle, and while it does preclude certain career choices (electricians playing ...
Rational Ignorance and Technology Learning Challenges
Apr 2018: “Rational ignorance” is where the cost of arriving at a suitably informed, educated position outweighs the benefit of doing so. In other words, it...
The Privacy Storm
Mar 2018: For many of us that work in technology, the Facebook / Cambridge Analytica crisis currently unfolding (March 2018) is getting attention not just b...
Blogging for Hackers
Mar 2018: Blogging: simple enough, you have an idea of potentially at least _some originality, and write about it a bit. Easy. Wordpress and a bunch of othe...
2017
A Software Engineering Theory of Mind
Jul 2017: In developmental psychology – i.e. how we as children develop – there’s a thing: a Theory of Mind. A stage kids go through, very early on, where th...
The Joy of Specs
Apr 2017: Specifications that is, not spectacles. You see after a heated pub debate (really) about the need for “a spec” in the face of almost universal Agi...
2016
The PC is Dead, Long Live the PC!
Aug 2016: Personal Computer. Big, beige, boxy. So called, because it was your personal property I suppose, rather than that of the firm you worked for.
The Struggle for a Design Balance
Jun 2016: It’s surprisingly hard, producing software in teams, to get a consensus on “detailed design”. And by that I mean the fine-grained, nitty-gritty, a...
2015
Enterprise Application Quality
Aug 2015: One widely known benchmarks of “software team quality” is The Joel Test, and nitpicks aside it’s still an entirely sane bunch of questions 15 year...
Yes, Programming Does Suck
Apr 2015: Trying to explain, as a programmer to a Normal Human, why one’s day sucked can often lead to “you know what, never mind”.
A Dark Knight
Feb 2015: Sometimes puns are too obvious to even consider not using. It’s not big or clever though. I’m not proud.
2014
Weak Men Are Superweapons
Oct 2014: We all enjoy a good debate. Sometimes even “down the pub”. Be it football, politics, or religion (i.e. Apple vs Android), nothing beats falling ou...
Oh Go On Then
Sept 2014: Two weeks to go to the big vote. Lots of heat and noise in the past 2 years, very little light. Recent weeks have seen a real improvement in the ...
Java’s Golden Handcuffs
Aug 2014: Is Java dead? Ask Google that question via the Chrome bar, and you get the feeling that this is an oft asked question.
ORMs
Aug 2014: I’m not sure I’d agree that ORM is the Vietnam of Computer Science, but the topic is like tech recruitment: it keeps popping up for people to argu...
Hammer Factory Factories
Jul 2014: The seminal piece on hammer production in the enterprise environment…