Rich Takes on the World

Over the last few years I have really pushed teams I work in to use TDD as much as possible and find myself having similar conversations about it with other developers. I really enjoy passing on knowledge the same way I also enjoy learning from others. So, this blog (I hope) should detail TDD and how to use it for maximum benefit. Test Driven Development (TDD) refers to the technique whereby the developers writes their unit tests first before writing the code that will actually "do" something. This means the developer can think about how the code should flow in normal circumstances, edge cases and on error. It also means that writing small, bite-size unit tests allow the developer to simply break the work down by working through their unit tests one at a time and get each one to pass. (Please note that the example used is simple and just to illustrate, please do not assume this is a correct design or correct implementation of the class) What does that actuallly mean in ...

So it's been a while since I have written something for my blog. But today I was talking to a colleague about how my transition into my new job over the last 9 months has gone. I mentioned to him that the although adjusting to the culture and methods of working took some time one of the challenges for me has been on the technology side. At this point I should note that a lot this blog will be geeky and techie. In all my previous development roles I have been using Microsoft Sql Server as the database backend and feel confident in writing very complex database scripts and looking under the bonnet when issues occur. However, in my present role we use Oracle as the database. Oracle's flagship product is established as probably the leader in enterprise size databases and although I have used it in the past – I was surprised how much difference there really was. I have still a lot to learn about Oracle itself and the PL/SQL language that sits on top of it. A lot of the difference...

“It was as I was stumbling home at 5am, alone, tired and very, very drunk that it dawned on just how funny licking the dirt off the floor in the bar, actually was. “ Was that any good? I doubt it. What was wrong with it? It offers nothing out of the ordinary, nothing that differs from most young people in the UK. There is nothing says to the reader, I, Richard Jacobs, have lived a different and varied life such that others really want to invest a month of the spare time reading about it. But what if that was written by a premiership footballer reminiscing about a team Christmas party? I bet that quote would be all over sky sports news like an alcoholic at a free bar. So what does make a good autobiography? What makes a page turning, can’t put down, can’t go to sleep yet, introspective tale of person’s life. For me, what makes people first pick up an autobiography, read it cover to cover and then retell the stories and insights they have learnt to their friends is that th...

I am zapped. I am drained both emotionally and physically. I love a good meeting like the next person but spending half my working day in them has killed me. I've been having a good 4 -5 hours a day of meetings recently. I wish I could say they were all useful and worthwhile, but when we had the meeting to discuss the next series of 6 meetings come up, I nearly lost the will to live. But, I pushed on through. I kept reminding myself about the silver lining and that there IS a light. However, today I wanted to take a pair of very blunt scissors and hurt someone, badly, repeatedly, drawing a lot of blood and making them drink it and then stabbing them again. After completing the series of six 2-hour long meetings, I got invite to a "group discussion" so that we can understand what came out of the meetings. Seriously, wtf?! I thought it was only the public sector that wanted a meeting to discuss the meetings that was arranged in another meeting???

7.5 hours! It took 7.5 hours today for a so-called help desk to confirm the very first question I asked them! Lets back up a little here...this morning one of our systems that talks to a vendor's product stopped working. After a quick play around with it, I figured the password for the account that our system uses must have expired. So I rang the vendor's help desk to ask for said expired password to be reset. Having done a lot of support related work in my current position I know the danger of making presumptions about the problem without at least informing the analyst at the other end of the full details of my problem. I walked him through the issue and explained why I felt it was an expired password. He then asked me to repeat everything I done to try and fix the issue already, he made me repeat it three times. Next he didn't believe me when I said it still wasn't working. His next step was to webex into my machine (remote in over a secure connection over the web) ...

Just read an article how a British designer (Mark Noad) has redesigned the London Underground tube map. His aim was to move away from Harry Beck's classic version with straight lines and 45degrees and 90degrees bends  and move towards a map that shows how the tube lines actually fit into London at street level. In theory, this sounds great as people can actually get a realistic impression of the layout of London. But then I looked the map - see here . I've stared at the picture for a while - off and on - and am still unsure whether this is a good, modern redesign or whether it is in fact, ugly and awkward. What do you think, friend or foe?