grahamm's comments

grahamm | 1 year ago | on: Ask for no, don't ask for yes (2022)

To me this is a key change in a direct reports development.

When they first start they need to be told what tasks to do; then they develop to asking for permission to do tasks that find or know need to be done; and finally they are telling me they are doing a task so I know we are going in the right direction. These changes give much better autonomy within the team and I am know longer the blocker to progress. It also means I can get on and do more interesting tasks myself while working with the junior members of the team.

grahamm | 1 year ago | on: An unusual Google Keyboard bug

it is full of bugs. on my tablet on YouTube I can't leave comments until I have tapped 20 odd smiley faces and waited 20 seconds to 2 minutes.

grahamm | 1 year ago | on: The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016)

Always have blue ink on the side of my hand where I have dragged my hand across the page and through my writing. Fountain pens were particularly messy.

grahamm | 2 years ago | on: North Korea TV Censors Alan Titchmarsh's Trousers

I am so glad Titchmarsh's trousers are a threat to the North Korean regimes hold on it's people. What else can we throw at them, Angela Rippon's legs?

grahamm | 2 years ago | on: Thames Tideway Tunnel super sewer completed

Not even comparable. The amount the water companies have been draining into rivers and the sea around the UK is embarrassing, especially when they still pay out dividends to share holders while claiming they need more money for investment in the infrastructure to deal with the sewage spills, while barely being able to service their loan obligations.

grahamm | 2 years ago | on: Thames Tideway Tunnel super sewer completed

In the southeast of England where would this storage reservoir be?

grahamm | 2 years ago | on: Unix Time reaches 1.7 billion

I filmed it on my phone so I can watch it roll over later...

grahamm | 2 years ago | on: Red Hat's open source rot took root when IBM walked in

Why am I not surprised.

grahamm | 3 years ago | on: The SCO lawsuit, 20 years later

Yes the days of SCOC were great but the days of SCOX were dark. I left just before the Caldera take over.

grahamm | 3 years ago | on: There’s no such thing as affordable housing

At last some sense. You also cannot build your way out of a housing crisis. Something the UK government and local councils haven't yet understood.

grahamm | 3 years ago | on: London’s historic Smithfield Market meets a new chapter

They (imho) ruined Spitalfields market when it was developed a decade or so ago. A similar large open space market that used to serve indoor independent food stalls; a market and indoor 5 a side football. Half of the market was lost to office buildings and most of the food became chain restaurants. The market does still exist but the overall elegance of the historic building has been desecrated.

grahamm | 3 years ago | on: You might as well timestamp it (2021)

Never really felt the need but I suppose there has always been an updated_when field, so for something that is deleted the updated_when provides the time stamp.

grahamm | 3 years ago | on: Aging programmer

I agree, programming is still fun. Problem is my job has changed due to my age and experience and has migrated into something I don't want to do or can't do that well, managing others and the project as a whole. I get to do less of what I do and what I do well.

grahamm | 3 years ago | on: Less is more agile

'A'gile is broken and should be stopped. I am seriously considering doing something else than the job I love for the reasons in this post.

grahamm | 3 years ago | on: Number of pubs in England and Wales falls to record low

I think it is as much as where you consume it. Supermarket prices for alcohol have increased but no where nearly as much as in pubs and bars. So the drinking is happening somewhere else and not in pubs.

The increase in prices can probably mostly be laid on product cost and business rates. This is also being reflected in other retail sectors. There are many store closures in both the high street and in out of town retail parks.

grahamm | 3 years ago | on: My students cheated... a lot

Probably get burnt for this but too many animated gifs.

grahamm | 3 years ago | on: Paginating Requests in APIs (2020)

Agreed, so many times I've raised paging with an internal API provider only to be told they can retrofit it later if needed. Then you start to use production data and bam the one call doesn't work.

grahamm | 3 years ago | on: Lessons learned as a software developer turned project manager

Seems to be the same story over and over. I am also a senior dev who was was taken in as tech lead which on day one turned in to scrum master but told to keep it light and develop at the same time. Then the team grew and the role became team lead, responsible for organising and team, time lines, deliverabes and recruitment, but I am not a project manager, we don't hire project managers, still need to code as well (fat chance). You get to hate it and start to envy the junior and mid level Devs.

grahamm | 4 years ago | on: It's often said that the Analytical Engine was before its time

"Babbage had the habit of trying to upsell his investors into a more complex, more risky, more academically interesting device without completing the last one." Omg the oracle business model was born....

grahamm | 4 years ago | on: How to manage software developers without micromanaging

I would love to do that but unfortunately every organisation I've been in demands that I set them at the start of the year. Then at the end of the year I can reflect on all the goals that were no longer relevant because plans change and being able change is agile.