General

If I want accounting advice, it’s unlikely that I’d ask my dentist for that advice.

Many years ago, I created applications for food wholesalers. When the owners of these businesses decided to get a new or better computing system, invariably they’d speak to their accountants. I understand the reasons why that might seem logical to them at first, but what I saw when these clients did this, is that they invariably ended up with the wrong systems.

2017-12-12

Just after I was born, my mother and father called me Gregory. Ever since then, everyone has called me Greg. And that included my parents. To this day, my mother calls me Greg and so did my dad while he was alive (miss you dad).

However, every time I need to fill in an official form, I have to write Gregory. I could change that to Greg if I changed my name legally but I’m not going to do that. People who have had previous names will tell you that can add even more complexity.

2017-12-11

I’ve pointed out in previous blog posts that I’m not a fan of ORMs. What I’m even less of a fan of is code-first design, particularly in combination with an ORM like the Entity Framework.

It might seem cool and shiny and if you are just whipping up a small proof of concept or test app, please feel free to do it, but the minute you think of doing it for enterprise systems, just don’t. And if you have colleagues wanting to do this, please just say no.

2017-12-05

Many years back, I was invited to chair a course accreditation panel for a local TAFE (Technical and Further Education) course. They had started to offer a computing-related 3 year diploma, and the hope was that it wasn’t too far below the 3 year degrees offered at local universities. One part of that accreditation process involved me discussing the course with the staff members who were teaching it.

After talking to almost all the staff, what struck me was how similar they all were. In the requirements for the course, there was a standard that each staff member needed to meet, but there was also a requirement for the group of staff to be diverse enough to have broad knowledge of the industry. There was no individual staff member that you could identify as not being at the appropriate standard, but almost all of them had exactly the same background, career progression, etc.

2017-11-28

I work with data. I understand that for most organizations, that the data they own is the most valuable asset the company owns.

One thing I’ve learned from working with data is that unlike application software, data generally outlives generations of applications, is often used by many different applications, and typically just morphs from shape to shape over time. It almost never gets totally refreshed.

This is a good thing.

2017-11-21

Very proud of my daughters this week. As some of you will know, one of my daughters has Rett syndrome. It’s a rare chromosomal disorder that basically only impacts girls. (Boys can get it but they usually do not survive long after birth). Girls develop fairly normally up to about 12 to 18 months of age, then regress markedly. As it affects only about 1 in 10,000 girls, it’s not the sort of thing that gets much research funding.

2014-11-25

One of the things that I’ve just come to accept is that the designers of Windows 8 and I think very differently.

It’ll take a long time to convince me that shutting down the computer is a “setting”. Even after using Windows 8 for quite a while now, I still find that I struggle nearly every day, just trying to do things that I previously knew how to do. That’s just not a good thing.

2012-12-10

I’ve also been looking around for a new phone. It became much more urgent last week after I dropped my iMate.

After trying lots of phones, I ended up opting for an iPhone 3G. And after using it for a few days, couldn’t be happier with it. Well, not quite true, if it worked as a NextG modem as well, it would be even better as the data plans are quite costly here in Australia.

2008-07-22

Well I was called out by Tibor Karaszi’s meme, so here goes:

How old were you when you first started programming?

I’d say I was about 19 when I started. I remember in 1976 that I was at University of Queensland. I was doing an honours degree in physics and maths and didn’t have the slightest interest in those computing people that spent their lunch hours looking at great piles of 15x11 listings. By the next year, I was one of them.

2008-07-08

It was great to see an announcement from Francesco Ballena today that his VB to VB.net conversion tool has finally hit the market. It’s at www.vbmigration.com and looks like the sort of tool that was needed when VB.NET was first released. It sure would have avoided a lot of angst in the community. I was particularly impressed by the discussion in Carl’s podcast . I’d have to say I could definitely relate to the sentiment expressed in it. Congratulations Francesco!

2008-05-28