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Chiron Codex: helping software engineers become centaurs. APPropriate Behaviour
The book about all the things software writers do that aren't writing software.
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Author Archives: Graham
Week Two
As week one featured an observation of how post-work life was similar to working life, this week’s post is a catalogue of differences. Not all of these differences are huge. No watch I own five watches (three wrist, two pocket) … Continue reading
Posted in advancement of the self
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Tempus Fugit
A common concern programmers have when I talk about my year off is that I’ll be unemployable at the end of it. After all, the industry moves really quickly and if I’m off thinking about things that aren’t programming, I’ll … Continue reading
Posted in advancement of the self
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Week One
Nearly eight days ago I stopped working to have a break. I’ve been describing it as a “gap year”, because I’ve arranged my finances to last at least that long with some contingency. Also, I want to set a year … Continue reading
Posted in advancement of the self
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Criticising the Four Freedoms
The core principle of Free Software is that people who use software retain certain freedoms, unlike the situation with proprietary software in which all of the freedom associated with the software remains with the vendor. Those are the Four Freedoms: … Continue reading
Posted in freesoftware, Responsibility
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Improving a presentation with slides
Take a look at your slides. For each slide, think how you would present the same information if you didn’t have the slide. Practise that, so that you can give the information on the slide without using the slide as … Continue reading
Posted in performance, Talk
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“When I had that problem”
A common lie in programming is that every project is new, that no problem has been seen before. This is the reason given for estimates being bad, for plans being bad, for design being bad…for anything other than diving in … Continue reading
Posted in advancement of the self, edjercashun
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PL personality theory
An analysis of programmer personality traits inferred from their answer to the question “which is your favourite programming language?” Algol About to re-enact that scene in Jumanji where Robin Williams has a huge beard. Basic Remembers a time when you … Continue reading
Posted in whatevs
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The paradox of scripting
But how can scripting be dead? There’s bash, and powershell, and ruby, and…even Perl is still popular among sysadmins. There’s never been a better time to be a programmer or other IT professional trying to automate a task. True, but … Continue reading
Posted in script
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The death of scripting
Back in the day, when programmers knew that they couldn’t possibly think of everything somebody might want to do with a computer, there were scripts. If somebody could find enough of the pieces of the thing that they wanted to … Continue reading
Posted in architecture of sorts, script
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On having things to say
I enjoyed Jaimee’s discussion of preparing her public talks, and realised that my approach has moved in a different way. I’ve probably talked about this before but I’ve also changed how I go about it. This is my technique, particularly … Continue reading
Posted in Talk
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