I recently did a talk at JS in SA and this is it: Intro At a conference like this, I’m almost guaranteed that I’m not the smartest person here. That realisation doesn’t help my nerves at all, especially since most of my talk is based on opinion. Here’s some background on me to help show […]
On Authority, experience, and doubts
I’ve managed to cooerce my way into talking at a local Javascript conference next month and I am struggling to write up my talk. It’s only 10 minutes which means I have to find a way to summarise a lot of content into a short amount of time. But oddly enough, that’s not my biggest […]
Doing is believing
We’re always told that you need to change your thoughts to change your attitude, something along the lines of Mahatma Ghandi’s quote: Your beliefs become your thoughts, Your thoughts become your words, Your words become your actions, Your actions become your habits, Your habits become your values, Your values become your destiny Or the Christian […]
Feet and fitness
Around the end of 2012 (July/August), I started getting an interesting in getting fit/healthier again. My typical response is to over plan like mad, quickly end up not being able to meet my schedule/plans, and then give up. So I actively decided to not do anything like that – rather, my goal was “go run […]
Sharing is not always caring
This week I read an article that a friend posted on Facebook (http://moms.popsugar.com/Should-You-Teach-Kids-Share-27333250) which basically days that sometimes sharing isn’t caring. The world is not yours to take, you have to earn what you get and sometimes it isn’t fair. I have never been a fan of the idea that “participation prizes” … That somehow […]
Of operating systems, and stability
After upgrading my wife’s PC 2 weeks ago, mine went in for it’s upgrade. Coming home with a box that hardly has any remnant of it’s previous self inside means “Re-install ALL the Operating Systems!!!” So, off we go with my Windows 7 install… But no – that just doesn’t work right. I get a […]
Today I learned … about body temperature and sleep
A good friend showed me this site for Freeletics which is basically a bodyweight based exercise system that seems pretty much like “Bodyweight only CrossFit”… without the rabbid CrossFanatics. I’ve been reading around a little because I kinda like the idea of their workouts, and today I came across a blog post on the site: […]
Thoughts on Elections
We had our 4-yearly elections today and in the run-up to them I’ve had some interesting discussions with people over the merits of Voting, Not Voting, Spoiling ballots, etc. For those not “in the know”, we have a few major parties here: ANC, DA, IFP, EFF, Let me start with the “Not voting” camp because […]
Virtualization, Node, and Ubuntu
I have debated using small virtual machines for specific tasks for a while, but have found it hard to justify the cost or the time to understand the complexity of the offerings of various providers without incurring a cost to “figure it out”. I can see great use in firing up a Linux vm when […]
Thoughts after an absence
I have not posted to my blog in a very long time, mostly due to being “too busy” and a lot initially due to just not coping well with too much to do and too little focus on things that should be important to me. I have had an interesting past few months reading and […]
Data Access Layers
At my previous company we created a “data access layer” above all data access layers. One guy mainly built and maintained our templates for generating code. Another guy build complicated views for retrieving and updating data which applied business logic, etc. The database became a repository for metadata about the system. From then on, the […]
TopTV?
Being a guy and a geek, I tend to be rather gadget prone which can be quite frustrating when working on a limited budget. So when the 5 new pay tv licensees were announced about 3 years ago I rejoiced in the promises of lower cost pay tv and waited, and waited, and waited. From […]