I don't usually read autobiographies, but recently a close friend of mine suggested that I read "Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman!" Being bored with the book I was currently reading, I decided to give it a go. In it there is a chapter title "A Different Box of...
Lately, I've been refactoring some code for a software engineering project completed earlier this year and for which additional work is expected. As a result, I've come to the conclusion that doing occasional refactoring is an absolute must for any programmer. I...
New software may not be something you want to use or look at, but if you are in the IT services field, it is necessary. Windows 8 has been a controversial release with many people refusing to upgrade and use it, stating that it is a mistake by Microsoft. Despite...
As part of our software engineering services, I work with a lot of developers taking finished websites and deploying them. When the developer codes, he or she uses what's comfortable to them or what works best with their department. After a number of times trying to...
Recently, we upgraded Confluence to 4.0, the latest revision and was pleasantly surprised by the process. The upgrade was seamless, well documented, and no major issues found. Upgrading confluence would have been really simple if we wanted to retain the same server....
Repeatability is a intuitive aspect of daily life. If you throw a ball up, it must come down. If you throw it twenty times, the same thing will happen, up and then down. When repeatability doesn't occur we get anxious. Repeatability is equally an essential quality in...
Whenever I get a chance to see any kind of motor racing I am amazed at how many displays the engineers use to watch and monitor all the data coming from the cars. Modern performance racing cars produce a lot of data about the engine, tires, fuel consumption,...
Macs running OS X have been around for quite some time, but only recently have they gained enough traction with our customers at SPK to be used as their day to day desktop environment. Historically, IT organizations have been reluctant to embrace this change. This...
What is an SSD? The term SSD (Solid State Drive), can refer to any drive that uses solid state components to store information, or more to the point - has no moving parts. When we hear terms like 'Flash Drive' or 'Thumb Drive', we typically don't think SSD, but...
Attitudes are important things -- they are the lens through which we filter everything life throws at us, and they can either be the secret to our success or our undoing. We've all heard the stereotype that says IT professionals have bad attitudes, and maybe your own...
Some time ago, I wrote an article about CPUID’s wonderful tool, HWMonitor. Today I want to follow up on that and give a few tips on how to make it more useful. Firstly, HWMonitor is a free tool, but CPUID publishes a Professional version of the product, predictably...
Automated development, rather than just automated builds, offers a more holistic approach to automating the development process including building, testing and deployment. It is the cornerstone of Continuous Integration (CI). CI uses a model of small incremental...