An example of a perfect article

To my shame I do useless articles, however this one by Stephan H Wissel is just perfect, it has everything a good article could want

1) Informative
2) Excellently presented and clear
3) Something for everyone in the target audience
4) Needs no re-formatting to show to other people

To prove the point, i just forwarded on the link to one of my managers, and got the response “Looks ideal, how long to implement”

Perfect.

A Small World

Sometimes i subscribe to the whole “x degrees of separation”, “only 100,000 people in the world kind of thing”, for example I’m doing Steve’s my fencing instructor’s web site and going through his portfolio, when i find the following image

The fact that a fencer (not a common sport) who has advertised a piece of IBM software on Unix, is having a website built on IBM software on a UNIX derivative (Linux), is quite frankly more than a little freaky to me.

enough of the random gibbering, back to work

London Developer Co-op update

Now that the London Developer Co-op has been up for a few months, I cant believe that i did not try and get into something like it before, admittedly its got big guns like Matt White , Ben Poole in it so I’m at the bottom of the heap, but to be able to point to a “support crew” and have proper branding and such when you are surprised with the chance of a big job or a posh client for whom you being a “single contractor” will just not cut the mustard, is amazing, you attract attention from areas you would not have had access to before, also you meet people like Andrew Magerman who is trying to do the same thing with http://www.notesnet.ch in Switzerland (pop over to see them), hopefully we can do some work together.

All in all, well worth the effort.

If I had a million dollars

This was done for LS09 but never quite finished (and i was never THAT drunk), any amendments welcome (even abusive ones)
EDIT: I should also point out that Ben Poole is jointly responsible for the wording.

If I had a million dollars – if I had a million dollars
Well, I’d buy you a server – I would buy you a server
And if I had a million dollars – if I had a million dollars
I’d buy you software for your server – maybe a nice os or anti virus
And if I had a million dollars – if I had a million dollars
Well, i’d install redhat – a nice reliable OS
But if I only had a few thou. I’d buy you IdeaJam

/ A E D – / / / / / / A E D – E – – – /

If I had a million dollars
I’d build a cool place to work
If I had a million dollars
You could help, it wouldn’t be that hard
If I had a million dollars
Maybe we could have a cage for all the managers in there

You know, we could just go up there and get stuff done — amazing
products, code a tonne.

There would be oodles of coffee, plenty of Jolt,
maybe beer at the desk so no coders revolt.

They’d have pre-poured vodka but no pre-poured beer.
Well, what do you reckon? Can you blame ’em? Uh, yeah!

/ D E A / F#m / D E A / F#m / D E A / F#m D… E… /

If I had a million dollars – if I had a million dollars
Well, I’d buy you Exchange (no, not really that’s kinda cruel)
But if I had a million dollars – if I had a million dollars
Well, I’d buy you an expensive flop – (yep, like OS2 or Workplace)
And if I had a million dollars – if I had a million dollars
Well, I’d buy you Steve Miller’s soul – (yeah, can’t cost that much)
But if I only had a few thou., then I’d buy you IdeaJam

If I had a million dollars
We wouldn’t have to write all that Java
If I had a million dollars
We’d write stuff in .NET ’cause it costs so much more
If I had a million dollars
We wouldn’t have to eat none o’that humble pie

But we would eat humble pie. Of course we would, more and more
’cause IBM Consulting would send in the bill and we’d be so poor

If I had a million dollars – If I had a million dollars
Well, I’d buy you Sharepoint (no, not really, that’s kinda cruel)
And if I had a million dollars – if I had a million dollars
Well, I’d buy you some top drawer content – maybe Ed or vowe-dot-net
If I had a million dollars – if I had a million dollars
Well, I’d buy you a nice client – haven’t you always wanted a nice client
But If I only had a few thou., I’d buy you IdeaJam

If I had a million dollars, if I had a million dollars
If I had a million dollars, if I had a million dollars
If I had a million dollars, I’d sell SAP

Back to fencing

After a long and boring absence, i am finally getting back to fencing, i had my first lesson with steve on Wednesday, and 2 things were obvious

1) I missed it HUGELY (Steve rocks hard as a coach, even if your not a fencer, go have a beginners lesson with him steve@battling.com )

2) I am so unfit its embarrassing (really really embarrassing)

I start training in earnest this Saturday (at the london fencing club), stickfight, STICKFIGHT!!