fornax.net

Weekend work...

andrew@fornax.net (Andrew Hill) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 06:35:06 +0000

Finally painted the window frame in the spare room on the weekend. That's just about all done now! Might take some photos once the masking tape comes off...

Shipping

andrew@fornax.net (Andrew Hill) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 05:59:57 +0000

From Joel on Software:

"Shipping is a feature. A really important feature. Your product must have it."

Too right!

On Change...

andrew@fornax.net (Andrew Hill) — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 13:51:16 +0000

From the Signal vs. Noise blog:

"There's a lot of talk about change being hard, but sometimes it's harder to keep your mind than change your mind."

I couldn't agree more. I've seen the fact that a development team is working in an "agile" environment used as an excuse for not making a decision so many times, it's crazy. The argument usually goes along these lines: "It's impossible to know what the right decision is, so let's just make any old decision. We can always change our minds later. After all, we're 'agile'."

I just want to scream when this happens -- just because you use an Agile development process is not an excuse for being lazy in your decision making. Think about the problem, discuss it, mull it over, sleep on it, and start all over again if you need to. But be confident, when you have made your decision, that it's the right decision.

Yes, you may need to change the decision later, when circumstances change or new information comes along ; but at least start out with confidence, and maintain that confidence until you find a compelling reason to change course.

iPhone

andrew@fornax.net (Andrew Hill) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 16:20:31 +0000

I finally decided that the 18 month budget forecast is looking good enough that I can afford to buy an iPhone, so I called up O2, and guess what? They are out of stock.

Oh well, next weekend!

Congratulations

andrew@fornax.net (Andrew Hill) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 20:07:18 +0000

As a result of recent tunnel vision with regards to tests, I'm running behind in terms of news, so I have only just seen that Anil, who I had the pleasure of working with at OpenX many years ago, has recently left last.fm, and started a Ph.D.

So,congratulations, mate! I am sure you will have a blast -- hopefully, we can catch up for a beer soon...

Life in the UK

andrew@fornax.net (Andrew Hill) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 19:17:16 +0000

Yay! I just passed my Life in the UK test.

Update: Since everyone keeps asking... 4 minutes.

That's science for you...

andrew@fornax.net (Andrew Hill) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 12:51:33 +0000

I don't understand why this is not against the law:

"Misleading journalism ... is becoming a public health problem.
"Healthy living advice hasn't changed at all for at least a decade – don't smoke, exercise, eat more fruit and veg. [Yet] a quarter of all respondents said that because scientists keep changing their minds, you might as well eat whatever you want, because it won't make any difference anyway."

isocket Funding

andrew@fornax.net (Andrew Hill) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 09:36:08 +0000

Congratulations to the isocket team on securing their funding!

I did a little bit of work with isocket a couple of months ago, and both John and Zak are great guys, so I am sure this will be the start of big things for them -- best of luck, guys, now that the really hard work will start!

Thanks David...

andrew@fornax.net (Andrew Hill) — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 09:14:22 +0000

CensorDyne Australian Censorship
by rasterblaster

Poverty

andrew@fornax.net (Andrew Hill) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 23:09:03 +0000

A recent post on TechCrunch talks about a backlash against micro-loan site Kiva's decision to open up its lending service to allow funding to be made to people in the US.

"Kiva’s stated mission is “to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty.” The anti-U.S. lenders claim that lending to U.S. entrepreneurs doesn’t alleviate poverty because Americans aren’t living in true poverty, compared to people in underdeveloped countries."

While I totally agree that in real terms, you can hardly say that there would be many (if indeed, any) people living in the US that are in poverty when compared to people elsewhere in the world, I don't think it's that simple.

I'd suggest that anyone that thinks that it is should read Paul Farmer's Infections and Inequalities before making any judgment.

(Kiva was kind enough to give me $100 credit a number of years ago, so I'm an active user.)

Effing Tradesmen

andrew@fornax.net (Andrew Hill) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 08:28:29 +0000

Took the day off as leave, as I have two sets of tradesmen booked in for 8am this morning. Got up early this morning to finish making sure the house was prepared for them to do their thing (all furniture moved out of the way, coats and shoes out of the hallway, etc.), and....

Nothing. No one has turned up, and I can't get either on the phone, despite having been calling them both for an over hour now.

Grand. Just. Grand.

Update: Just heard from one of them, fortunately, so the loft should still get insulated today, at least!

Update: The loft is mostly insulated. I'm now off to the hardware store to buy things, so that I can finish the job properly. Shame the company is dodgy, and it turns out the surveyor will happily say "yes" to whatever you want, and when the guy comes to do the work, he says "You're kidding, right? We don't do that..."