Well that’s my weekend screwed!

Slashdot | Ubuntu Feisty Fawn Released

Ubuntu Feisty Fawn Released

The new release of Ubuntu is out and I’m keen to upgrade – I’m hoping for much better Wi-Fi support (I have a BMC card) and some fancy 3D desktop effects.

As I have messed my system around so much I think the sensible option is to reformat my disk and re-load from scratch. (thank goodness that most of my work is on  a SVN server and my email is still the servers).

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Not enough women on computer courses

The New York times is running an article on how few women are taking up computer science in tertiary education:

According to a 2005 report [deletia...], when high school girls think of computer scientists they think of geeks, pocket protectors, isolated cubicles and a lifetime of staring into a screen writing computer code.

The article implies that fields such as engineering and mathematics do not have this problem. Why not? To my mind there is nothing more nerdy (or geeky) than the study of mathematics, which of course is perfectly OK. The question is why don’t women (and many men) want to become geeks? What is wrong with being a geek?

Surely the answer is not have less programming and related geek activities in our computer courses, but to make society respect the geek more.

Let us cast off our chains of social stigma! We have nothing to lose except our future programmers.

I can feel a new slogan coming on: “It’s cool to be a geek”

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Using Thunderbird and Google Calendar

Jonny posted a useful article about integrating Thunderbird email, Lightning calendaring and Google Calendar together.

bfish.xaedalus.net » Stay in Sync with GCal and Thunderbird.

It’s a very tempting combination.  Unfortunately it does not support off-line calendars and of course Google Calendar does not support task management. I guess we need a Lighting integration to Hiveminder…

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Software Development: Managing in the dirty trenches

When you talk to many consultants about managing projects then they tend to offer the ‘helicopter’ view of the world. The conversation is based around concepts like vision, planning, delivery, scope etc etc. Whilst this is key to project success — you can’t complete a successful project without a clear roadmap, there is often a disconnect between the management view of a project and the work that is going in in the trenches.

The reason? The devil is in the detail and someone needs to be down in the trenches tracking activity and issues on a daily basis.

What does that mean? It means someone needs to:

1. Understand (the relevant portion of) the project plan at the detailed task level
2. Identify and track all issues and risks
3. Monitor daily progress (this can be a lot easier when using test driven development and testable features style approach)
4. Have a good grasp of the technical and project impacts that issues create when they occur (NB — The business impacts are the job of the project manager and customer)
5. Have the courage to describe things as the really are and suggest unpalatable options

Now in my view that should be a major portion of the activity performed by a senior team lead. However in my experience team leads rarely have the inclination or authority to fulfil this vital role, they seem themselves as ’superior’ developers focused primarily on technical and architectural issues (which are also important of course).

So it’s up to the project manager to either do this work themselves or identify suitable individuals who can take on this role. It is important to think outside of the box and consider all possible options when looking for these people, they usually don’t jump and down saying ‘Oh me sir, please sir!’.

If you do find people with such potential then mentor them and nurture them well. They will become future project managers and will help save your bacon on the current project.