Jamie's Blog
Ruby developer. CTO. Swimmer. Always trying to write more
I saved a man from drowning
But that’s not really the point I want to make. The important point is that I very nearly didn’t save him.
I swim a few times a week at a local hotel pool doing about 100 lengths. I recognise a lot of the other swimmers, mostly retirees getting some...
Why Rollbar is the exceptional Exception Tracker
I’ve used a few exception trackers over the years: first Airbrake (I won a lifetime account way back when); BugSnag for about a year; and Rollbar for the past few years.1
What does an Exception Tracker do?
We all make mistakes. Sometimes we forget...
Implementing HexGrids in Ruby
One of my favourite board games is Tantrix. I can be played as a puzzle like Solitaire or as a competitive game. We picked it up in New Zealand over 10 years ago (it was invented there) and we played it in the evenings as we travelled around. The rules...
Delegation for Founders
At last night’s “Built in Cork” event, an audience member asked the panel about growing a team and how they let go of doing all the jobs themselves (I’m paraphrasing).
There were some good answers on the night but here’s mine:
Scared / Proud
I’m about to do something really scary. Something that is scaring the crap out of me but which, in moments of logical clarity, I’m confident that I can do. This is what it’s like to have a fixed mindset.
I’m a few hours away from my first open water...
A Book Journey for Non-technical Founders
There’s a gazillion business books out there, everything from tactile guides to strategic visions, from dry textbooks to inspiration biographies. A lot of good books didn’t make this list1 but I think it represents a good “journey” from the fear and...
Show, don’t tell
Our 7yo started horse riding last summer and she really loved it but a fall, various sicknesses and bad weather meant she hadn’t been going regularly since December. Naturally, she’d built up some resistance to going back: horse riding is scary, tiring...
The key to my best swimming
I was pacing around the house this morning drinking a Berocca, looking for paracetamol and procrastinating about going to the pool. My back was really sore; I was tired; and was feeling sick (I’ve got some long-term stomach problems). When I arrived...
The Triangle Question
I’m currently entertaining myself by working through the Ruby Koans which I’d somehow missed over the last few years.
Most of the questions are fairly mundane like
def test_iterating_with_each
array = [1, 2, 3]
sum = 0
array.each do |item|
...Schema vs Query-based Multitenancy
Most SaaS application are “multi-tenancy” to some extent (i.e., host more than one customer on the same system) but typically the term is reserved for apps that have company accounts, each with multiple users, authorisations etc. These companies would...
When you hire them, their problems are your problems
As a young corporal in the Air Training Corps, one of the most valuable lessons I learnt was:
You can delegate responsibilty but you cannot delegate accountability
What does that mean? It means that when you delegate a task to a subordinate, you...
Can your entrepreneurial need be satisfied working for someone else?
I was listening to a recent episode of the Fizzle show where they announced the departure of one of their team. Caleb was a founding member of Fizzle but is leaving to start his own business, and it prompted them to ask:
Can you be satisfied, entrepreneurially...
The Ruby in Rails
Back in August I did a short talk at Corkdev about the features of Ruby that make Rails so easy to work with.
The aim was to show off Rails to a general tech audience but without being all preachy about it. So instead I flew through the actual Rails...
We killed them and didn’t even notice
We’ve killed 50% of the wildlife on this planet in the past 40 years. Does that disturb you? Probably not, I suspect.
Most people will walk past a rustle in the bushes not realising that a Blackbird is foraging in there. They’ll drive past the flock...
How to Build a Raspberry Pi Camera Trap
I started with a low-tech footprint tunnel to get proof of our local hedgehogs but that was never going to be enough. I had a Raspberry Pi sitting in a drawer that wasn’t getting much love so, after a little googling a Raspberry Pi Camera Trap, aka...
Don’t put me in one of those
When I die
Don’t keep me in a box Don’t put me in the ground Or mark my resting place with a giant granite headstone Don’t cover me with gravel hemmed in by a little granite wall
And whatever the fuck you do, Don’t arrange cheap tat on my grave I...
How your business model affects your hosting choice
I’ve mentioned this a few times in conversation recently so it probably deserves a blog post. Heroku is the go-to host for Rails applications but there are often complaints about how expensive it is. What these startups don’t realise, is that their...
Discovering Hedgie - Building a Hedgehog Footprint Tunnel
Last Friday I was out taking a photo of the sunset when I heard some shuffling around in the nettles separating our garden from the field. Sure enough, snuffling around in the undergrowth was the brown shape of a hedgehog. I couldn’t get a clear photo...
Every business is a lifestyle business
I don’t like the term ‘lifestyle business’ as it’s commonly used in a dismissive and derogatory sense. What does a ‘lifestyle business’ commonly mean when used this way?
- not “too big” (in every way)
- not “ambitious”
- probably bootstrapped not funded
Why I swam 2 miles this morning - the power of habits
Because I like it. True, although the first 1000m are pretty much torture and I can’t skip them. I have to swim the hardest lengths every single time. 30-60 minutes listening to the sounds of lapping water can be quite meditative and/or a bit like...
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