Long & Rambling
I was reading Hanselman's latest post about (paraphrashing) defining the level of 'expertise'. This got me to thinking, I've been a 'professional' developer since ~1997, and for most of the time I've worked in web agencies...this seems pretty unusual. Web Agencies are essentially companies which build bespoke websites for customers, over varying levels of complexity. What I got used to over the years was a process which became known as 'agile', these projects had VERY quick turnarounds (around 3 months max from starting the design to deploying the site), usually only involved a couple of devs + designers and were...
I had a comment on this blog the other day which I really got to thinking about following a discussion on a private list about how we market technologies. This is one area I'm really not qualified to talk about in any kind of 'semi-official' way but it's one of the things which bubbles under the surface of my day to day job.
It's a constant irritation working at MS...frankly some people hate us, with a passion. A fair number of the people I've talked to at work are confused by this...day to day we really do work hard to...
I was reading the excellent interview with Donald Knuth on InformIt and it led me to reflect on my own thoughts on programming. I learnt development under the gun...I wrote websites for a pure and simple reason, to make money for my employers. The best techniques to use when creating this software were those which led to the best result for my clients. Oh, sure I experimented with Patterns, read just about every book on coding and general techniques over the past 10 or so years and I've worked with some of the most inspiring designers, coders, scientists and business...
Well, it's the last day in my first week with the ASP.NET team (kind of, a few people are off to MIX) . It's been a pretty interesting week...lots to learn etc...I'm still getting used to the team dynamic and my place in that (I think everyone else is a senior...I'm not due to some dubious career choices over the years). Still, I have lots of responsibility and a lot of work to do over the next short while...mostly focused around releases and our process for some future work (I *did* come from Project remember ;-)). It has been a...
Up before midday on a Sunday...must be the first time in about 5 years. Went to see my doctor about the sleeping problems I've been having of late; which have had a huge knock-on effect for the rest of my day (4-5 hours sleep a night is not a good thing)...also led me to have marathon 12+ hours sleep sessions on the weekend. Anyway, long story short I'm trying Ambien for a couple of weeks (strictly short term only). This was my second night (normally I won't use it at weekends, just getting used to the effects). It's amazing the...
I just read this story, apparently 68% of Republicans don't believe in evolution...to paraphrase Eddie Izzard, "just because there's a few holes in your theory you don't just go...it's fucking magic mate" (clip is below). Not to defend the British political system but there'd be NOT a chance of a British politician getting elected if they claimed creationism was anything but religion. It just scares the crap out of me that religion has so much power in American politics and that power seems to be increasing year on year. My beliefs...to quote someone far more intelligent than myself:
"I do not believe...
I always found it interesting that there's a discipline called 'Software Engineer', the dictionary definitions for engineer are as follows:
design as an engineer; "He engineered the water supply project"
a person who uses scientific knowledge to solve practical problems
mastermind: plan and direct (a complex undertaking); "he masterminded the robbery"
the operator of a railway locomotive
I never really thought that this was a good fit for what I saw a person who creates software as doing, a few years ago I read the book Hackers and Painters (second link is to the original essay) by Paul Graham and the ideas...
I thought I'd share with all of you my obsession with all things Muji, for those who don't know Muji is a Japanese store which sells 'minimalist' items for everyday use. Now, they don't *seem* to be minimalist for any other reason that it makes the stuff cheaper, from the site's own 'What is MUJI?":
"Lower priced for a reason."
"This phrase encapsulates how we can provide our Muji products at lower prices. We
launched our Muji brand by designing and developing products that might almost be
regarded as substandard if based on traditional criteria, although they are, of course, actually
of...
I've been following a thread on Scoble's blog regarding the introduction of the rel="nofollow" tag for blog comments - some of the points Robert makes are interesting, including the one that irked me most: Developed in privacy. Um, not true. Webloggers have been asking for YEARS for a link that could tell the search engine spiders not to go there. Joi Ito and I have been asking for this repeatedly over the past four years. Certainly not in private. Sorry, but that's total bollocks - this 'innovation; was announced, not submitted for comment / improvement, those involved have included Blog...
I think I've made it pretty clear in the past that I think that one of the weakest areas of the Microsoft 'developer experience' is the Patterns & Practices area, don't believe me? OK, try and find an article about the Singleton pattern on the site; hint, don't use the Search feature, it returns a link to the Caching Application block for 'Singleton' and nothing at all for 'Singleton Pattern'! When you do manage to find it (here), you may notice a few things:1. It doesn't really explain where / why you'd want to use it, here's the 'Context' 'You are building an...
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