01 Nov 2017
At work, there is a discussion going on at the moment about
introducing Kotlin into our tech stack. We’re a JVM based team, with the
majority of our code written in Java and few apps in Scala. I don’t
intend to discuss the pros and cons of any particular language in this post, as I don’t have enough experience
of them to decide yet (more on that to come as the discussion evolves). Instead, I wanted to talk about
how you can decide when to introduce a new language.
Programmers, myself included, have a habit of being attracted to anything new and shiny. That might be a new
library, a new framework or a new language. Whatever it is, the hype will suggest that you can do more, with
less code and fewer bugs. The reality often turns out to be a little different, and by the time you have
implemented a substantial production system then you’ve probably pushed up against the limits, and found areas
where it’s hard to do what you want, or where there are bugs or reliability problems. It’s only natural to
look for better tools that can make your life easier.
If you maintain a large, long-lived code base then introducing anything new is something that has to be
considered carefully. This is particularly true of a new language. While a new library or framework can have
its own learning curve, a new language means the team has to relearn how to do the fundamentals from scratch.
A new language brings with it a new set of idioms, styles and best practices. That kind of knowledge is built
up by a team over many years, and is very expensive both in time and mistakes to relearn.n Clearly, if you
need to start writing code in a radically different environment then you’ll need to pick a new language. If
like us, you mostly write Java server applications and you want to start writing modern web-based frontends to
your applications then you need to choose to add Javascript, or one of the many Javascript based languages,
into your tech stack.
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25 Oct 2017
When we moved house earlier in the year I wanted to simplify our home theatre setup. With my son starting to
grow up, in a normal house he’d be able to turn on the tv and watch his favourite shows without needing us to
do it for him, but with the overcomplicated setup that we had it would take him several years longer before he
could learn the right sequence of buttons.
I’ve been a MythTV user for well over ten years, and all our TV watching
is done through it. At this stage with our history of recorded shows and a carefully curated list of recording
rules switching would be a big pain, so I wanted to try and simplify the user experience, even if it means
complicating the setup somewhat.
I had previously tried to reduce the standby power consumption by using an
Eon Power Down Plug, which
monitors the master socket and switches off the slave sockets when the master enters standby mode. This works
great as when the TV was off my Xbox and surround speakers would be switched off automatically. The downside
is that if I want the use the speakers to listen to music (they are also connected to a
Sonos Connect) then either the TV needs to be on, or I need to change the
plug over. Lastly, because I was running a combined frontend and backend it wasn’t connected to the smart plug
(otherwise it wouldn’t be able to turn on to record.) If you turned the TV off the frontend would still be on,
preventing the backend from shutting down for several hours, until it went into idle mode.
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18 Oct 2017
Since I received my Pebble Steel back in 2014 I knew I never wanted to go back to using a normal watch.
Having notifications and apps on my wrist was just too useful to me. I skipped the Pebble Time, but when the
Time 2 was announced I happily put in a preorder. Unfortunately it was not to be, and Pebble folded and was
sold to FitBit. If Pebble
wasn’t able to survive then as an existing FitBit user having them as a buyer is probably the the best
option.
The idea of FitBit’s scale and expertise in building hardware, combined with Pebble’s excellent developer
platform was an enticing prospect. Rather than switch to an Apple Watch (or Android Wear, although that would
have required a new phone) I decide to wait for the fruits of the combined company’s labour to be released.
I was getting a bit itchy, and my trusty Pebble Steel was showing it’s age, but eventually the
FitBit Ionic was announced. A few days before the official release date my
preorder arrived. It’s now been two weeks of wearing it nearly 24/7, so it seems like a reasonable time to
post my thoughts.
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11 Oct 2017
In my previous jobs, when I’ve been promoted to a leadership role it has been as a result of being the most
experienced member on the team. Having a deep knowledge of the business, the code base and the technologies
we’re using meant I was already an authority on most topics of the team needed to discuss, and could weigh in
on a discussion with a well formed and considered option.
When I changed companies at the end of last year I came to Ocado Technology as a team lead for an existing team, using a technology
stack I wasn’t familiar with. In fact Ocado are a Java based company, which I had never used before, so not
only was I not familiar with the frameworks and libraries used, but I wasn’t even familiar with language the
code was written it either!
Leading in a situation like this required a complete change in how I approached problems. When a stakeholder
or the product owner approached me with a challenge rather than immediately being able to respond with a rough
solution, and vague estimate or a timeline I need to defer to my team, and let them propose a solution,
estimate it, and then I could fit it into our schedule. I might challenge them on some points, but it was
their plan. I quickly needed to learn who knew the most about which systems, so I could get the right people
involved in discussions early.
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30 Dec 2012
For Christmas my wife and I brought each other a new FitBit One
device
(Amazon affiliate link included). These are small fitness tracking devices that monitor the number of steps
you take, how high you climb and how well you sleep. They’re great for providing motivation to walk that extra
bit further, or to take the stairs rather than the lift.
I’ve only had the device for less than a week, but already I’m feeling the benefit of the gamification on
FitBit.com. As well as monitoring your fitness it also provides you with goals,
achievements and competitions against your friends. The big advantage of the FitBit One over the previous
models is that it syncs to recent iPhones, iPads, as well as some Android phones. This means that your
computer doesn’t need to be on, and often it will sync without you having to do anything. In the worst case
you just have to open the FitBit app to update your stats on the website. Battery life seems good, at about a
week.
The FitBit apps sync your data directly to FitBit.com, which is great for seeing your progress quickly. They
also provide an API for developers to provide interesting
ways to process the data captured by the FitBit device. One glaring omission from the API is any way to get
access to the minute by minute data. For a fee of $50 per year you can become a Premium
member which allows you do to a CSV export of the raw data. Holding the
data, collected by a user hostage is deeply suspect and FitBit should be ashamed of themselves for making this
a paid for feature. I have no problem with the rest of the features in the Premium subscription being paid
for, but your own raw data should be freely available.
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