Published inIT Dead Inside·Nov 7Member-onlyThe Mysterious Art of EstimatingAnd what you can do to get better at it — “Have you seen their estimates for this work?” one of my peers asks me. It’s a rhetorical question. I’ve seen the estimates and he knows it. He’s mentioning it, because the estimates returned by the team in question are…inflated. I try to be diplomatic. “These feel like they’ve been padded…Software Development9 min readSoftware Development9 min read
Published inIntelligence Challenged·Nov 3Member-onlyI can’t stand newslettersIs it just me? — My publicist had to repeat herself a bunch of times before I understood. “A newsletter,” I asked for the fourth time. It wasn’t that I didn’t know what a newsletter was; I simply couldn’t believe that anyone still made or read such things. I thought newsletters went out with newsgroups…Writing6 min readWriting6 min read
Published inIntelligence Challenged·Sep 8Member-onlyHumanity is the Error Between the Chair and the KeyboardNo matter what we do or how we do it, humanity is the drunk at the wheel of the planet — PEBCAK Defined There’s a term in IT: PEBCAK. It means “A Problem Exists Between Chair and Keyboard”. IT people use this as shorthand amongst themselves that when someone calls up for tech support about a ‘problem’ with their computer, the computer actually turns out to be fine, but the person using the…Humanity8 min readHumanity8 min read
Published inMy Writer’s Life·Sep 8Member-onlyMedium Partner Program just became a scamHow their so-called improvements have hacked my writer payment down to 1/4 of what it was — Medium revealed a wee while back that they were changing the way they monetise and reward their writers. New Partner Program incentives focus on high-quality human writing Changes are coming in August to the way we pay writers for great stories and which countries we support.blog.medium.com It was (like all things big business) pitched to we writers as a good thing, that they had heard our voices and were looking out for us. It all sounded so lovely…Writing4 min readWriting4 min read
Sep 1Member-onlySheldon Kopp’s Escatological Laundry List(learned on life’s rocky road) — Famed psychotherapist Sheldon Kopp, author of If You Meet The Buddha on the Road,Kill Him, was a remarkable human being. His writing, his work as a therapist, all of his life was dedicated to helping others find a sense of purpose and wholeness through therapy and spiritual pilgrimage. Dr. Kopp…Spirituality3 min readSpirituality3 min read
Published inMy Writer’s Life·Aug 27Member-onlyFive More Amazing Words You Likely Never KnewThey caught me off-guard as well — Here we go again. Five more amazing words which you can casually toss into your daily vernacular, hopefully freaking out your friends and family. Compatibilism noun the belief that free will and determinism are mutually compatible and that it is possible to believe in both without being logically inconsistent My dedication…Words2 min readWords2 min read
Published inIntelligence Challenged·Aug 27Member-onlyI Have No Idea Who the F*** That IsTales of a Pop Culture Luddite — I read headlines on Medium or on the “news”. I see clickbait clips online telling me how so-and-so is getting married, how this famous person is now in the doghouse. I read about how everyone is mad at whozits for what they said on <insert social media platform of the…Celebrity11 min readCelebrity11 min read
Published inMy Writer’s Life·Aug 22Member-onlyFive amazing words you likely never knew(I sure know I never knew them) — Words rule. I love words. I’ve always loved words, how they tell us things, they can evoke emotions, thoughts, perspectives, imagery. I have spent my entire life studying words and wordcraft, and I’m still not even close to bored with the subject. I love to learn new words. I never…Words2 min readWords2 min read
Published inIT Dead Inside·Aug 10Member-onlyPlantUML: Adding Links to your DiagramsYou can hyperlink your PlantUML diagrams to drill to other pages and diagrams — So, in a previous article, I wrote about getting started with PlantUML, as I felt the tech is well worth engineers getting to grips with this awesome tool. A Beginner’s Guide to PlantUML The plucky open source plain-text diagramming syntax you never knew you neededmedium.com This was quite a while back, and since then, not only have I learned heaps more about PlantUML, but the tech itself…Architecture4 min readArchitecture4 min read
Published inMy Writer’s Life·Aug 8Member-onlyYour Creations are more than commoditiesThere is more to your work than a sale — I get it. First and foremost, let’s get that out of the way. I get it better than most. Trying to survive in today’s world, there’s good reason to do your best to make money any way you can. And selling your writing, your videos, your art or anything you…Writing4 min readWriting4 min read
