The upcoming event organized by British Computer Society's Software Practice Advancement specialist group seems interesting: "An Adventure in Agile Planning Innovation" - presented by Zühlke Engineering Ltd.
It's on September 3rd 2008 - in central London. And it's free :)
(...at least to BCS members)
Thursday, 21 August 2008
Wednesday, 21 May 2008
A Little Something for Charity
Did a little something good for charity. Managed to get IT 4 Communities a session on the upcoming Dot Net User Group / MRM event. Anne Stafford will be introducing the organisation and explain how they help IT and web people to get involved in pro-bono work for charities.
Sunday, 18 May 2008
DNUG at MRM & First company blog post
Next week, the company I work for (MRM Worldwide) is hosting the Dot Net User Group's May event on REST and ASP.NET MVC, by Sebastien Lambla. I am very pleased, as I feel like we're contributing something back to the community that I've thoroughly enjoyed for the 5 years I've been in London. It triggered my first company blog post.
Wednesday, 30 April 2008
Intel Studio - Proud Camden
On Monday, we launched Intel Studio. A site for unsigned bands & artists to promote themselves, upload tracks and get voted in to play at the Proud Galleries in Camden. Seems there's a good reason for people to participate ... Intel says "a gig at Proud is just for starters. The prize itself is a record contract plus promo, production and PR to push your first single."
The site/app is standard asp.net2, with a bit of dynamic Flash which retrieves/saves data via the web-server. Of course a little admin interface. A nice aspect is the integration with Akamai's CDN to ensure high-bandwidth/high speed even when visitors increase and video/audio would fill up our otherwise respectable bandwidth; supposedly there's "25,000 servers in 900 networks across 69 countries" in their EdgePlatform. It works surprisingly well and seamlessly; their network pulls all static data from our designated 'origin' server; dynamic content is served from our own hosting environment.
Actually, I believe the first event was on tonight. But instead of Free Party & Champagne, I was hacking away on some legacy asp.net application.
The site/app is standard asp.net2, with a bit of dynamic Flash which retrieves/saves data via the web-server. Of course a little admin interface. A nice aspect is the integration with Akamai's CDN to ensure high-bandwidth/high speed even when visitors increase and video/audio would fill up our otherwise respectable bandwidth; supposedly there's "25,000 servers in 900 networks across 69 countries" in their EdgePlatform. It works surprisingly well and seamlessly; their network pulls all static data from our designated 'origin' server; dynamic content is served from our own hosting environment.
Actually, I believe the first event was on tonight. But instead of Free Party & Champagne, I was hacking away on some legacy asp.net application.
Sunday, 27 April 2008
Brushing up on science
A guy from work just gave me a copy of Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything". So, while enjoying Saturday's summer-warm sun, I was learning & smiling as I went through the first 90 pages, of what so far seems to be a great primer in all things science. Very Good Stuff. Might put my daily web projects into a suitable perspective
Selenium & CubicTest
I'm getting back into Selenium (a great open source tool for automation of web-based UI-testing). I checked their main site, hosted on openQA - and it seems they have finally released a beta (beta 1, on March 5). I wasn't able to find the release/change log, so not quite sure what has changed since my latest code-cut which worked beautifully (v 0.9.2 of server/RC and 0.8.7 of the IDE). I'll try it out, and shout out if anything interesting has been added (- like maybe video-capture of test-runs?).
Much more surprising, and fantastically intriguing is the addition of CubicTest to the OpenQA portfolio of test tools. Supposedly it's Norwegian based - I've certainly never heard of it before - but it looks absolutely amazing!
It's open source, of course, and is a plugin for Eclipse. And it's based on Selenium and Watir. CubicTest themselves say:
Much more surprising, and fantastically intriguing is the addition of CubicTest to the OpenQA portfolio of test tools. Supposedly it's Norwegian based - I've certainly never heard of it before - but it looks absolutely amazing!
It's open source, of course, and is a plugin for Eclipse. And it's based on Selenium and Watir. CubicTest themselves say:
- CubicTest is a graphical Eclipse plug-in for writing Selenium and Watir tests. It makes web tests faster and easier to write, and provides abstractions to make tests more robust and reusable.
- CubicTest's test editor is centered around pages/states and transitions between these pages/states. The model is intuitive for both Ajax and traditional web applications and supports most user interaction types.
- CubicTest features an innovative test recorder and test runner based on Selenium RC which are fully integrated with the graphical test editor. Tests can also run standalone from Maven 2.
Sunday, 20 April 2008
CITP with the BCS
The British Computer Society (BCS) decided to grant me Chartered IT Professional (CITP) status.
Who and What is the BCS?
BCS is a/the leading professional body for people working in IT. It's got ~64,000 members worldwide. BCS works to increase professionalism in IT and to establish an IT profession which is respected in the same way as older established professions. Read more on BCS's Professionalism in IT initiative. I guess the BCS is the IT-focused version of the IET - and similarly, CITP is the IT-focused version of the CEng.
Why Bother?
Being a member of the BCS represents support for professionalisation of our industry. And you agree to a Code of Conduct and Code of Good Practice.
BCS claims that ... “Chartered IT Professional (CITP) is the hallmark of a true IT professional. Achieving Chartered IT Professional status demonstrates that you practise the highest professional information technology standards” and continue to say “CITP is a professional credential that demonstrates both competence and a commitment to keep pace with advancing knowledge and the increasing expectations and requirements of the profession.” ... of course, that sounds all good.
And, I do actually that the CITP validates a significant level of competence, experience and enthusiasm; through a fairly rigorous application process, requiring recommendations from peers and colleagues who can validate the claims you make about your past work.
BCS maintains an online listing of members of various grades. Here's the one that includes me.
Call To Action?
If you're involved in IT, you too should join the BCS. Of course, it costs money ... here's the key grades & fees:
Who and What is the BCS?
BCS is a/the leading professional body for people working in IT. It's got ~64,000 members worldwide. BCS works to increase professionalism in IT and to establish an IT profession which is respected in the same way as older established professions. Read more on BCS's Professionalism in IT initiative. I guess the BCS is the IT-focused version of the IET - and similarly, CITP is the IT-focused version of the CEng.
Why Bother?
Being a member of the BCS represents support for professionalisation of our industry. And you agree to a Code of Conduct and Code of Good Practice.
BCS claims that ... “Chartered IT Professional (CITP) is the hallmark of a true IT professional. Achieving Chartered IT Professional status demonstrates that you practise the highest professional information technology standards” and continue to say “CITP is a professional credential that demonstrates both competence and a commitment to keep pace with advancing knowledge and the increasing expectations and requirements of the profession.” ... of course, that sounds all good.
And, I do actually that the CITP validates a significant level of competence, experience and enthusiasm; through a fairly rigorous application process, requiring recommendations from peers and colleagues who can validate the claims you make about your past work.
BCS maintains an online listing of members of various grades. Here's the one that includes me.
Call To Action?
If you're involved in IT, you too should join the BCS. Of course, it costs money ... here's the key grades & fees:
- Member (MBCS) - generally 5+ years of experience, or an IT honours degree accredited by BCS; £88 / year
- Associate Member (AMBCS) - just starting out in IT; £44 / year
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