Teaching software development the right way

Patrick Work Related

Not having worked in industry for all that long I still have many memories of the way software engineering was taught at University. I had an awesome time and experience at University but I think there’s something about academic institutions that severely affects their ability to keep up with industry. I would definitely like to go into teaching one day as I had ball tutoring but I don’t think I could ever become a real academic because their velocity (forgive the poor agile pun) is too slow for me.

Andy blogs about this far better here than I could in any post. Definitely good reading!

The Stench Of A Backport

Patrick Work Related

Yesterday I came in close contact with the horrible stench of a backport. No one really likes backporting code (all good programmers can identify the risks involved) but this one turned into a real stinker when a few other volatile elements were added to the mix. A poor release plan resulted in a day-before-the-release backport, and the release cycle that has been slipping further away from development cycles meant that the code required backporting into multiple branches! Why a stench?

Read more “The Stench Of A Backport”

Open source projects that just worked!

Patrick Work Related

Some open source projects (especially those that don’t have a critical mass for usage just yet) are notoriously bad for documentation or just getting it up and running. Over the last two weeks I have had a pretty good experience with a number of projects. So thanks to the following projects for being useful and easy to use:

  • WordPress.org – The blog software I am using. Installed in less then 10 minutes.
  • ViewCVS – Awesome tool for a graphical CVS repository browser. Also useful for doing nice visual diffs and retrieving deleted files out of the Attic without knowing their names! After getting the only prerequisite that not been met (RCS) installed, running a start up script got it going straight away.
  • Mambo Server – Currently playing around with it as my CMS. Fantastic documentation and installed in less than 5 minutes.
  • Subversion – A replacement being developed addressing issues with CVS.

Can someone OD on a meeting?

Patrick Work Related

The last couple of days at work have been physically and mentally draining because of the large amount of time that we have spent in iteration planning. The time devoted to these activities are well spent, but I was stunned to think of how little time I have spent in a formal meeting that has lasted for more than hour or two since leaving my former job. It doesn’t surprise me that I have been more productive with having spent less time in meetings, but what does surprise me is how low my tolerance for long, drawn out meetings now is.

Here are a couple of reasons why:
Read more “Can someone OD on a meeting?”

Anarchy and a bit of BIFF

Patrick Entertainment, Music

BIFF
Last night was the viewing of my first two movies at the Brisbane International Film Festival (otherwise known as BIFF). The first was a Korean film called Samaritan Girl (Samaria) directed by Kim Ki-duk who is infamous for his controversial films. I was literally lost for words at the end of the movie because I had not prepared myself for the depressing and graphic nature of this film. Perhaps it would have helped if I had read more about the plot summary) or had read more about other films Kim Ki-duk has directed.

The other movie I saw (starting at 11pm!) was produced by the famous Japanese anime company Studio Ghibli called Pom Poko. Centred on the story told by the Tanuki (Japanese for Raccoon), it continues the studio’s common ‘human-vs-nature’ theme in the light-hearted and quirky style that is only Studio Ghibli. Having seen two other films produced by this company (Spirited Away and Princess Monoke), I can only whole-heartly recommend any of their movies. UQ’s Schonell Theatre is still showing a special showcase finishing on Ekka Day (Wed Aug 11) featuring some of Hayao Miyazaki’s films.

Anarchy
To top off the night (or shall we say morning?) we headed to Rockafellas to support my mate Aaron Blishen (AKA Anarchy) at his debut DJ gig, Resonate. Anarchy’s entire set was extremely well received by a decent sized crowd (especially considering that it was at a time when the taxi queues were at their peak – i.e. 3:30am) . An awesome selection of tracks was enjoyed by all for another hour and a half as the laser show went off in sync with all of the music. Unfortunately the misty haze created by the smoke machine for all the lasers meant that none of my photos I took turned out. Can’t wait for the next gig!

What’s in a name let alone a website?

Patrick Website News

Selecting a domain name is such a tough business… especially when all of the ones you want are taken. Initially setting out to get one associated with my last name, I found that they were all taken up as acronyms for a number of completely unrelated associations. These included:

Another alternative domain, www.patkua.com, had been considered but was turned down as I thought it would be good to have it generic so that other Kua family members could host their own areas in the future. It was only when an old work colleague of mine referred to me as “the kua” to some current work colleagues that I thought that would make a great domain name for because of its brevity and appropriate generality (not to mention it was not taken!) and so www.thekua.com was born.

M&M (Michael and Marie)

Patrick Food

Well last night I had Michael and Marie over for dinner. I really enjoy cooking, so it was quite fun having them over and planning dinner. I haven’t seen them for quite some so it was good to catch up with them.

I wouldn’t have normally posted this, but Marie wanted to see it published, so here are the details of the dinner just for Marie.

A la Lemon Tart