The need for continuous uninterrupted time

The Maker's Schedule. Why meetings are such a distraction to the creative process.

As someone who designs systems and writes code this is so incredibly intuitive but lacking from common knowledge. I can't believe I haven't seen this in writing before. Reading something like this behoves me to go at my calendar with a machete and fight back against the onslaught of meetings that impact my productivity.

| 30 Jul 2009 | #

Having a go

A dangerous video for a software developer to watch: Damian Katz on CouchDB and Me. The story behind doing something great.

Living the dream, making a go of it, stepping up to the plate, having faith in your own abilities. Being successful by taking risk.

I think that inside some developers[0] is an urge to do this. One differentiation between those who succeed and those who don't is that only some try. Talent and opportunity are other important differentiators, but without the 'try' it can't happen.

Note to self: Must keep trying.

More info on CouchDB and Damian Katz.

[0] Is developing software a job, or is it something you'd do even if you weren't paid?

| 23 Feb 2009 | #

97 Things Every Software Architect Should Know

Soon to be released book: 97 Things Every Software Architect Should Know. An open collaborative wiki, these are the 97 things that will make the printed edition. The whole site, especially the selected 97 axioms, is a fantastic resource. So many people claim the title, but so few walk the walk or even talk the talk. Technical leadership is so important, but so badly done in practice.

Best item: Communication Is King.

| 19 Feb 2009 | #

The Future of Software Development

Nice summary article on The Future of Software Development. Worth a read.

In summary, the article suggests that the future holds:

• Modern programming languages, with better abstraction,
• Awesome libraries allowing us to build systems quickly,
• Agile development methodologies, enabling quick development with certainty, while bringing the fun back for the developers.

Of course the thing that the article doesn't mention is open-source. That really adds to the libraries point well, but at a higher abstraction level. Building systems where dependable open-source components can be used for your infrastructure - allowing you to concentrate on your value-add - is a huge win for our industry. Commoditisation is allowing open-source systems to leap-frog proprietary offerings, and is better from an integration perpspective - tailor or fix to meet your requirements.

My new day job is far more about this than it has been previously - using open-source where it makes sense and building upon it. It's more than fresh air - it's a personal revolution!

| 18 Oct 2007 | #

Testing testing testing

So anyone who knows me professionally knows that I'm a big fan of test driven development, so it's no surprise that when the LCA2007 conference had some nice testing presentations I was pretty excited (even though it wasn't specifically about TDD, but rather about testing in general).

Unfortunately, I was unable to attend (but for very good reasons - the birth of Nathaniel).

Fortunately the video was released (paper video, tutorial video) soon afterwards.

So Erik has just put the paper online (which I promise I'll read soon). And there's also an (almost blank :) webpage specifying a mailing list too. Hopefully some traction will be built around this.

So I'd encourage people to think about testing their software. Even better, write your tests before you write your software, and watch the video, read the paper, check out some test driven development resources online (Kent Beck, Martin Fowler etc) and sign-up on the mailing list. Let's advance the state of software by building quality in at the start.

| 29 Jun 2007 | #

The Working Environment

Well, Martin Fowler agrees,  every developer should work on a 21 inch screen. These days I say that everyone should have at least two 20 inch screens .

Now that's settled, let's think about redesigning the office - morphing the workspace into a Bionic Office.

| 04 Jan 2007 | #