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Showing posts from October, 2010

Prevent Burnout : Continuous Integration 2.0

Into - What am I talking about now ? In a previous blog post , I talked about burnout from my own perspective of having experienced it, an overview of it after the fact, and some techniques for getting though it. The two main pieces of feedback I received were firstly “get a proof reader” and secondly “ how can one stop or mitigate burnout in the first place ?”. The first I've done (and I’ve also signed up for a writing class), so hopefully my writings will get better and be easier to read. The second point I have been thinking about for eons, and performed as a job, so will share my thoughts in this post. To frame the topic and post, I'd like to share an anecdote from my counselling schooling: --------- I remember discussing the ethics of being a counsellor in class, and causing some commotion as I stated "Surely it's our aim to put ourselves out of a job". I didn't mean that I wanted to see the whole class (or profession) jobless an

Healthy creation of technology

After the last posting I received a challenge from a reader ( Shane Simpson ) who happens to be the hosting company I've worked with on a few project and continue to do so as well as recommend. The tweet was this one , which made me think of words by Ben Harper, “what good is a critic with no better plan.", a valid comment I thought, so I tried to summarise (some of) my ideas. Now this is going to take some thought, and answering ....... I think I will try and answer the question opposed to being too exploratory, so " what you feel is a better way of running a technical company " which to me infers, "how to be successful, happy and sustainable as an individual at work, as group of people (the team) and ultimately commercial organisation, after all there are bills to pay". A short answer of the top of my head, is healthy relationships between people and a common purpose, the long answer on the other hand is a journey though systems analysis, confli

This code has no value

"This [any] code has no value" Since I've been encountering the games world and how they deal with software this is a term I've heard a few times, along with "Oh the tech is always messy, it's just the way it always is". It's rare you see such a good example of "truth by constant assertion" or a system that is in a race to the bottom. Opposed to answering a claim that is little more than an excuse not do to a decent job, it's likely better to figure out what is the "value" that is being talked about as there are a few kinds. Firstly there is the cost of the end product, how many hours at what salary rate etc, plus over heads and what ever added and draining costs unnecessary suits are going to add. That at least will give you a raw currency cost. Misleading most of the time I've found (i.e. oh it's expensive, it must be good), though some what necessary in the world of commerce. Once there is a product, there