Tuesday 23 December 2014

2014 theme park

The aim for 2014 was to get back into some form of programming in some way. Which I did manage to some extent.

Had and excursion into IFTTT programming (if you can call it that) - probably the sign of 'the internet of things' to come I would imagine. Anyway it turned out to be ridiculously easy. Must come up with a better challenge for 2015!

I also got to actually look at the workings of some code as part of a software QA review. It was related to a cock up that cost a lot (and I mean a lot) of money to plaster over the cracks. Was an interesting activity all the same. Showed in gory detail how easy it is to slip into the trap of thinking you know what you are doing on code creation until the complexity of it all - like boiling a frog - takes you into no-mans land. Result being that you haven't a clue what the thing is doing and have no way of checking if its right - belief system engineering.

In fact I have just seen a recent post in Forbes magazine about learning to program in 6 months. Only slightly made my blood boil. I dread to think what level of programmer is being churned out. More work for the ones who can sort out the mess, so shouldn't complain.

Agile was another theme for 2014. I was pleased that I managed to actually figure out how to publish a book on Amazon (Agile Random Walks - check it out) - which was again ridiculously easy. Now just need to start work on the next one!

All in all a good year for me for touching base with what really matters.

Onward and upward ....