Entries Tagged 'Software' ↓

I like to encourage programming best-practices where possible. I also would like to encourage discussion about what is good programming practice. What might seem obvious to some may be completely new to others. I also find that there is very little in the way of advice on how best to program, especially for our more inexperienced comrades. Besides, you are never to old to learn.

As such, I am going to start by offering small pieces of advice, mostly related to Java but much can be considered good practice for any programming language. You may find that you disagree with what I have to say. If so, great!! Feel free to share your opinions.

The first topic of discussion are comments. This might seem like a very trivial topic but I can assure you it is one of the most important for programmers but is sadly the most often abused. Continue reading →

Well if you have been following my tweets recently, you will know that I have decided to move on to pastures new after nearly 3 years working for one of the largest financial services companies in the world. Having been off for a few days now I’ve had a chance to reflect on my experiences and what I have learned from it.

When I joined, I hoped that being at the technical sharp end of the high-pressure trading market would provide me with valuable experience. I wanted to learn what it took to build large scale, n-tiered, fault-tolerant and highly performant software. I thought I would be building software to strict specification and detailed designs as part of a water-tight software development methodology. I also was led to believe that I would be working with other teams, identifying common funtionality and building reusable services and common infrastructure. I also wanted to help in setting up an brand new technology centre. Unfortunately, things didn’t turn out as I had hoped. Read on to find out why. Continue reading →

I had my first crack at the latest in the Grand Theft Auto range today on the XBOX 360 and the one thing that struck me was the adult nature of the game. We all have a pretty good idea of what to expect from this francise by now, sex, violence and crime but this game takes a step further. Don’t get me wrong, I am not one of these people that believe that violence in games is to blame for the worlds troubles, in fact I thoroughly enjoy violent games and have done since I started gaming. But at one point, after I mowed down a bunch of people sitting on park benches and walking along the street as I tried to escape the police in my stolen car, I did feel a tad uncomfortable. Then when I got out of the car and noticed the blood splattered on my dinted bumper, I felt a bit guilty. It all seemed a bit too realistic. Add to that non-stop references to “titties” and threesomes and you have got a game you certainly wouldn’t want your kids playing.

That being said, it does look like a lot of fun, the city looks fantastic and really seems to be alive. The first car I stole was a pimped out Range Rover (I hope it wasn’t Wayne Rooney’s!) and was great fun to drive. After beating a guy to the ground, stomping on him and then driving over him, I eventually tried to hijack a cop car but got shot from point blank range. Its a great way to take out my Mario Kart Wii frustrations

I got my first taste of Mario Kart for the Wii today. I was never the greatest of Nintendo/Mario fans growing up but I am embracing them with my beloved Wii. I didn’t get a great deal of time with it but enough to test out the Wiimote steering wheel. I wasn’t sure if I’d like having to use gestures to control the steering, mainly as I would have to hold the wheel rather than use the traditional fixed steering wheel. But I have to say it worked perfectly. Really good and accurate steering and it was a lot of fun in two player. I would have to recommend the official “Wii Wheel” over Game’s 3rd party wheel as it has a bit more weight and a button cover over the B button making it easier to access. Other than that though it does look like every other Mario Kart in existence. Let’s hope Nintendo have added a bit more than a snazzy new control mechanism…

As we settle into the high-definition era of console gaming, we can bask in the warn glow of our 40″+  LCD TVs (even warmer glow of plasma TVs) and the crisp 710p/1080i/1080p graphics appearing before our eyes, safe in the knowledge that it just doesn’t get any better. Or does it… Continue reading →

Many web applications are hosted on Linux servers, making it difficult for those who are developing their applications on MS Windows (I know, shame on us!).  It can be a bit tricky and cumbersome to maintain two different environments for development and production.

There is a simple alternative, Virtualisation (or Virtualization ). Developers can set up a virtual machine running the same OS and software that their production server is using.  This reduces the likelihood of a configuration conflict and simplifies development and testing.

The following steps explain how I setup a Ubuntu JeOS VM to run a Django web application on Apache/mod-python. I am not saying its the best way (I’m not an expert) but it works fine for me. Feel free to offer any suggestions as to how I could improve this setup. (BTW thanks to Gareth for helping me set this up). Continue reading →

Soon after graduating and starting work for my first IT company, I realised that we, as software developers, are typecast. Our future careers are defined by what language we use, development tools we are given, the software we develop and even the type of company we happen to work for. The next job will probably use the same sort of skills, and so on. Before you know it, years have passed and you are stuck in a rut using the same skills as when you started out. Continue reading →

I have to admit I am struggling to fit in some quality game time on my Xbox 360, Wii and PC. Unplayed games are piling up beside my TV and my gamer score is starting to look pretty embarrassing. I have barely started PGR4; Halo 3 is languishing and I’ve still got 100 stars to collect on Super Mario Galaxy. Maybe its time to re-evaluate my priorities…