Ruby developer. CTO. Swimmer. Always trying to write more
I do all my development in a Vagrant VM and it’s mostly a seamless experience — except when using I was using guard. guard
listens to file changes and runs the matching specs — it’s invaluable when doing any test-driven development. But...
I’ve been thinking a lot about how we can measure the value of a service to its users recently. This has led me to look at some ‘engagement’ metrics which often boil down to “how much time does the user spend on the site / in the app?”. The goal, apparently...
There are lots of ways to characterise and evaluate engineers but I like to think of us along a single spectrum. At one end is electronics, binary code, assembler, registers and interrupts. At the other end of the spectrum is graphic design, art, photoshop...
About 2.5weeks ago I was ridiculously sleepy in the middle of the day, couldn’t think and was basically wiped out. It was like having the flu only without the fever or any actual sickness. I eventually realised that a lot of the symptoms pointed to...
Today, I was reminded of this passage from Jonathan Fields’ book ‘Uncertainty’:
In art, business, and entrepreneurship, there is no coasting. There is no neutral. No sideways. It’s a myth, an illusion. There’s only up or down. Leading or trailing....
Someone asked me today about the value of a piece of software and how we go about measuring that. Here’s my reply: Software is no different from anything else: it’s only worth what you can sell it for.
As such, software has no intrinsic value — the...
[box style=“notice”]This was written a few weeks after the incident but I’m publishing it now for the first time. I’ve left the content and tone exactly as written even though in hindsight I might have written it differently.[/box] [box style=“alert...
I’ve joined the exclusive Leica club!
Some people lust for months, years or even decades over a Leica camera due to the huge expense involved in buying into that system. The idea of getting a Leica occurred to me in town on Saturday and today, Tuesday...
This is my 2nd year of taking part in the Solo Photo Book Month (SoFoBoMo). This year I chose the topic “Broken Houses” — a look at the abandoned houses on the Co. Clare coast. You can download the low-def book PDF from the SoFoBoMo site, or view the...
I discovered Sugru just before Christmas and immediately jumped on the preorder queue hoping to nab a great present. As it turned out, lots of people did the same thing and they needed to ramp up production, so it was only recently that I finally received...
I was putting Norah to bed this evening and she was giggling away at me as we played. And then I realised something… that little baby giggle is what life is all about. I could be free-and-single with no responsibilities or in a dual-income-no-kids...
Along with thousands of other photographers across the globe, I participated in the Worldwide Photowalk by joining the Cork photowalk organised by Donncha O Caoimh. I’ve never participated in one of these walks and street/city photography is way outside...
Disclaimer: I’m not your doctor, I’m not a surgeon and I’m not a dietician. I’m just a guy with some gallstone experience.
I have gallstones, as did my wife, and there’s a 1 in 5 chance that you will suffer from them during your lifetime. Basically...
Firstly, I should mention that I wasn’t trying to push dualpricing.ie too hard. It’s just a side project and, frankly, thousands of visitors is probably going to cause me problems that I don’t want to spend money or time fixing. However, I was quietly...
There’s a fantastic thread on the JoS discussion board in which the original poster was considering leaving a career in programming for some other field. This spawned lots of comments (including from Joel himself) that touched on everything that it...
About 2 weeks ago I was thinking about the dual pricing issue in Ireland (whereby UK stores/brands markup their prices for the Irish market). There are many reasons given for this dual pricing (tax, wages, rent, transportation and most often, currency...
rating: 5 of 5 stars This is an inspirational book; not in that fluffy, chirpy plastic way of too many popular books but in the shear darkness of the author’s story and his attitude during it.
Part of the appeal of this book lies in...
rating: 4 of 5 stars A very interesting book about how an overabundance of choice creates stress and depression, particularly for a certain class of people (maximisers). Interestingly, it seems that I’m not a perfectionist but a maximiser...
My review
rating: 5 of 5 stars
A fantastic book that every PhD student should read.
The advice is obvious but presented clearly and simply, making it a very powerful message: Winners quit (the right stuff). Basically, you can either quit your project...
This post might be written in a tone that gives you the impression that this is advice about your PhD. It’s not. It’s overly pessimistic and specific to my situation. These are (largely unedited) notes I collected between 2003-2006 when I was working...
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