A Programmers Resolutions

The last week or two there was an article linked on HN about 12-month long resolutions for programmers - It was a nice read, so check it out

I would love to say Im gonna do them all, but there has got to be a very slim chance of that.. but there are a few i would like to complete, and some that I will complete just because it happens to match my other plans for the year:

(For more details, or examples of what the OP meant by each point jump through on the link)

1. Go analog- So yeah, I'm gonna do this one. I love cooking anyway, and always looking to do more of that, and it just so happens I got an awesome BBQ over Christmas, so just waiting for some dry weather to get that out and start spit-roasting some meat. I would love to start a cookery blog, but given how long it takes between posts here, that might be tough.
2. Stay healthy - would like to try, as always. But we will see.
3. Embrace the uncomfortable.
4. Learn a new programming language - Yes, Flutterby released I plan to sit down and learn. Probably a functional language.
5. Automate.
6. Learn more mathematics - would love to..
7. Focus on security.
8. Back up your data - Im sure I will do this, with so many cloud data offerings this is gonna happen (and already has in places).
9. Learn more theory.
10. Engage the arts and humanities- In another life there are loads of other things I would like to have been (wine taster, music producer, phtographer/film maker, movie critic) - and I try to embrace these other things when I get the chance, so maybe I will set up a movie blog for a month.. (watch this space!)
11. Learn new software.
12. Complete a personal project - Its on its way, Flutterby! this will hopefully be the January resolution hit at least.

 Check out the link. Has some interesting chat.

Formerly known as Butterfly

My side project, formerly known as "Butterfly", is approaching completion of its first beta approach, which is an exciting time. It has been in development in one way or another for some time, so its going to be great to see it finally getting an early release out there and (hopefully) seeing some feedback from real users.

It's in the final stages of getting together some slides to kind of show it off, sorting out a final URL and hopefully putting together a stand alone WAR file that will come bundled with Jetty/HSQL so users can just fire it up and test it out locally in an attempt to lower the barrier to adoption.

In the meantime, here is a bit of a blurb about what its actually all about..

Having worked in Enterprise software, on large scale projects spread across several geographic sites (often across several countries) we have seen and used several disparate, mediocre tooling to support collaboration and communication across the teams (even across teams on the same site), as an example of this, on my latest project engagement we have the following toolset:

1. A web application to track defects/bugs
2. A web application to manage work tickets (for example, requesting infrastructure team to patch/restart servers etc)
3. A web application to manage internal work items/ToDo lists within the team
4. An internal wiki
5. Email (of course)
6. Online chats

This was not unique to this project, but the obvious problem was that with all these disparate channels and mechanisms it made collaboration more difficult than it probably should be. For example, having multiple web apps to manage common tasks meant that most users were never "always on" any one tool, so to raise a ticket/defect/todo it involved opening app, logging in etc.  It also meant that knowledge was not easily centralised or searchable (searching for info across several web apps, email, and online chat archives is a pain in the ass) - The project attempts to tackle this inefficiency by building a single, user-centric web application that has these common communication and collaboration tasks at its heart whilst also borrowing metaphors and familiar mechanisms from popular social sites such as live feed "walls" for latest activity. Being user-centric it also means we can effectively capture the team/user relationships across the project.


Oh, and its called "Flutterby" now..


(there will be a more detailed write up shortly on the site once launched.. which is still pending the URL)