Category Archives: Business

After WNC/COVID-19

Posted on March 20, 2020 by Gaius

Our dear leader Boris has stated that if everyone follows the guidelines, we might stand a chance of dealing with the local outbreak of Wuhan Novel Coronavirus in 12 weeks. I think it’s pretty safe to say that that is … Continue reading →

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Blockchain 101

Posted on July 22, 2018 by Gaius

If you are a developer who uses Git and knows what fast-forwards are and when and when not to use them, you already know literally everything there is to know about distributed/decentralised ledgers. A blockchain controlled by a single organisation is … Continue reading →

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What is Experience?

Posted on January 25, 2015 by Gaius

Like many people of my generation, I started programming at an early age. At 10, I was writing 6502 assembly language. My beloved BBC Micro lacked built-in flood fill, circle and ellipse drawing, and other graphics commands, and I spent … Continue reading →

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Form vs Function in Applications

Posted on January 7, 2015 by Gaius

When you have been around the industry for a little while, you will see that nearly all applications, especially user-facing ones, are made of only three kinds of things: Forms, Reports and Workflows. A Form is simply an interface, a … Continue reading →

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Can anyone learn to code?

Posted on January 3, 2015 by Gaius

Anyone can learn to code, we are constantly told these days, but is it true? Yes… in the same sense that it is true that anyone can learn to play a musical instrument. Many people do, and many of them … Continue reading →

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August

Posted on July 31, 2013 by Gaius

As of today I am on gardening leave, and I intend to spend the time productively (after taking a long-planned and well-deserved holiday next week!). In no particular order: Update this blog more regularly, I have some posts that I … Continue reading →

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How To Interview

Posted on October 18, 2011 by Gaius

One of the things I do at my present job is interview candidates for my team, and occasionally other teams too. I estimate I’ve seen ~150 people over the last 5 years. Of those very few that I do say … Continue reading →

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Two Analogies and An Observation

Posted on October 13, 2011 by Gaius

In the Army, there are basically two kinds of soldiers: enlisted and commissioned. Enlisted soldiers fire weapons, drive vehicles, guard checkpoints and go on patrol and so forth – they are the “hands-on” bit of the Army. You would start … Continue reading →

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Scrum

Posted on September 28, 2011 by Gaius

Perhaps fittingly during the Rugby World Cup I am now a Certified ScrumMaster. As much as you can be a master of anything after a 2-day course đŸ˜‰ While I fully agree with the overall Agile strategy of aiming for … Continue reading →

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Failing Gracefully

Posted on September 22, 2011 by Gaius

Let’s say you have a high-performance system, operating beyond it’s design capacity already, and the workload is increasing. What would you like it to do? Keep running, but slow down. This is the default behaviour for most applications, as in, … Continue reading →

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