New domain, new blog

After a long period of inactivity on this blog, I've decided that I need something better than blogger. My new blog is at http://www.apcjones.com/blog/.

I'm not moving any of the old posts across, so they will stay here indefinitely.
Bye bye blogger, it's been good.

Low-tech card storage

An unexpected "feature" of this system is that the sleeves don't go on so far if the pile is thicker; you get some idea of how many cards there are from the width of the overall package.

It's null-time

My phone line isn't working. I went to the faults website to check on progress:

You scheduled an appointment for: - null . An engineer arrived at the agreed time, however we were not able to gain access to your premises. Would you like to reschedule your appointment?

I wasn't at home at null o'clock, but it seems an engineer didn't turn up either; no card through the letterbox. Oh, of course, they put a null card through the letterbox...

Protect valuable assets

It was a T-shirt day. What better on a T-shirt day than to wear a T-shirt, and shorts, and cycle to work in the unusual London sunshine? I whizzed past cars. I felt great. What's he indicating for? Oh shit.
I found myself lying on the road, a few feet away from the Mercedes that had suddenly blocked my path. I looked for my bike; it was some way behind.
The driver was apologetic. He noticed my arm was bleeding. I said I was fine. I figured out I must have landed on my head. The bike was fine apart from a crushed saddle. I cycled off, bought bandages from Boots, and got to the office a little late.




Now everything is repaired and my arm and shoulder are healing well. I'm left amazed and relieved that my head is uninjured after a hefty collision with the tarmac of Southwark Street.
So, thanks to the cycle helmet people - mine did the job, and I've bought a new one exactly the same.

Monkey Work

I met a guy at a party who recently graduated in Computer Science, from the University of York. He has a job, starting this month, for one of the big-four accounting firms. I asked what he'd be doing. "IT Audit," was the department. Apparently this is mostly checking up on IT security, running through check-lists and then suggesting or taking corrective action. Trying to be as polite as possible (although I don't think it came out that way) I confessed that I wouldn't find that very interesting. I might even have used the word "boring". He didn't seem too bothered. "At least I'm not programming, that's just monkey work!"
Monkey Work! I went into shock. Was it just a joke? I don't think I'd told him by that point what I do, so little chance of retaliation for the b-word. At the end of the evening, I apologised in case I'd been too rude. He accepted my apology, but specifically said, "I don't take back that thing about programming being monkey work." Ok then, no joke.
What's my problem here? It's not that somebody else likes IT Audit while I like programming; that's fine. My problem is that a fresh graduate in Computer Science, a specifically technical degree, believes (or at least goes around saying) that programming is monkey work. Programming is not for everyone, and it's possible that students discover they don't like it during a Computer Science degree. But how can they graduate without appreciating some of the skill and ingenuity required to program well? If people who have been taught about computers don't understand what we do, who will?

how big is my potato?

This important question is answered by my new website, howbigismypotato.com. Check it out.

"Pairing": two's productive, three's a crowd

I find it productive and rewarding to have two people sitting at a computer. But if three people sit at a computer, things don't go so well. I get the feeling that we usually get less done than with two people, which is frustrating as well as wasteful.
So if somebody comes and joins your pair (probably because you wanted to show or ask them something) I suggest that one person should duck out. I call this "bump pairing" because somebody gets bumped out by the newcomer.

What should you do after being bumped out? You might well join somebody who is "odd" (sitting by themselves). It could be the person left behind by the newcomer who bumped you out: a straight swap. Or you could fill in for somebody missing through a natural break like having a smoke or taking an important call. A different option is to offer help to a complete pair. If your help is wanted then logically you should bump out one of its members. And so another person is free...

Bump pairing could result in faster pair rotation. I think of it as providing a higher frequency wave of pair rotation, overlaid on a more traditional slower wave of rotation. In this model each member of the team belongs to a single natural pair (the one that signed up to deliver a story, for example), but might also find themselves working in a number of short-term temporary pairs. I suspect something like this happens already in most teams, but it is useful to explicitly recommend that trioing is avoided.

Oh, the waste

How important is wine? In our world where thousands die needlessly each day, and with terrorism on the doorstep, I suppose it's not very important at all. But to throw away whole bottles of good, well-chosen wine pained me immensely.
This morning I experienced some of the new restrictions to UK-related air travel. Liquids are not allowed in the cabin. We heard about the worrying developments of last week while on holiday in Italy, but we thought it would be fine to carry the few bottles we had already picked up in a suitcase. It's been a few years, but bottles of spirits used to make it back fine from Ibiza. Sadly this assumption was wrong and we had to remove 5 bottles of wine from their carefully protected positions in my Oyster luggage and dispose of them. There was no way for us to have them sent separately, and we didn't hold much hope of finding a shipping office open at 9am on a Sunday morning. We gave a couple of bottles to some Germans in the next check-in queue, who were not subject to the same restrictions, and we drunk most of a third before going through security. That left two bottles to be added to the impressive pile of bottles left by other passengers in the same situation. Drinking a bottle of wine in the airport was a surprisingly rewarding experience. A barman at the land-side bar was obligingly removing corks for a long line of us - no British jobsworth here. Then we sat outside in the morning sun - great.



Now I have to prepare for my next planned flight, London to New York on Tuesday. I suspect this will be more challenging. Let's just hope that the new restrictions combined with other action of the security services is effective against the current threat.