Author: Amykate

Lent Experiment 2010

Posted on by Amykate

It’s almost lent – the year is rushing past, I can’t believe my last post was about Christmas!

Traditionally Lent is a time when people of a certain persuasion try and give something up for 40 days. No matter what your religious views are this time of year is a good excuse to give something new a try – whether it’s taking up something you’ve never tried before or giving a go at life without something.

Febuary 2010 Geek Night

Most years I give up chocolate and buying books. If you know me you’ll realise that not only is this a trial but it does save me a considerable amount of money – not to mention the effect it has on my piles of “books to be read” but this year I’m going to try something different.

I’m not going to buy anything. At all. Ish.

I am going to resist all new gadgets, domain name, flashy camera accessories, book and must-have do-hickies for the next few months.

I have everything I want, so why do I buy things? I have a wardrobe full of clothes (ok, 3), a house full of gadgets – is there really anything so spectacular that will appear in the next 40 days that I will just be unable to live without?! Even I, the most optimistic technology-lover in the world can’t believe that.

Why am I doing this? I wax lyrical about how I’m fed up by the advertising industry assuming I’m their slave, to be manipulated into buying everything new and shiny, by being made to feel that what I have isn’t good enough – and that is all true but quite frankly I also would rather like to save some money after the fun I had over Christmas and the joys of paying for my summer holiday in January!

02-04 Some days involve chocolate

There is another reason – I want to enjoy the things I have – I have an xbox game that I played for a weekend then haven’t touched because I bought another one and I’ve been playing instead. Acquiring new things doesn’t necessarily increase your happiness, it just points it in a new direction that may not be necessary at all.

So here are my rules

1.  I really DO need a new memory card for my camera, I’m going to Rome for a long weekend and not being able to take as many photos as I want would be criminal – that I’m allowed to buy

2. No randomly buying things I want today just so I don’t buy them next week, that’s cheating

3. Try and not order £3+ hot chocolate in Starbucks when I really do prefer the £1.50 Chai Tea

And the get out clauses –

1. If I NEED – truly NEED something then that’s ok – i.e. fixing my house if it falls down

2. Gifts as needed

3. if I NEED something for my trip to Rome later this month then that may be allowed to slip though

What is not covered:

1. Food – but try and be sensible girl,

2. Buying food and drinks whilst out

As my good friend Anthony often says to me, in his wonderful Scottish accent “What do you want Amy? What do you actually want? And is that what you NEED?”

So what do you think? Am I crazy? Do you think this is a bad idea – or do you think that perhaps, just perhaps having less crap in your life might help you focus on the things that need doing? Give me your thoughts, rants and ideas in the comments. I’ll be sure to keep you all updated 🙂

The Lot of the Geeks at Christmas

Posted on by Amykate

Well my fellow geeks – are you ready for Christmas?

No, I ‘m not refering to your shopping and cooking lists or even if you’ve wrapped everything – I’m talking about your mental preperation.
Yes, it’s the time of year where most of you will be “going home” to your beloved but perhaps not-as-tech-savy-as-you families.
You KNOW what that means don’t you? Oooh yes, time to become the 24-7 100% tech-support go-to guy or gal once moce.
Time for a deep breath.
You know the scene, Uncle Fred has bought little Sabastian the latest electronic do-hicky with bells, whistls, spinny bit and of course the requisit annoying electronic beep, and the only person in the house that will have an electronic screwdriver small enough to open the battery hatch is you – so that’s chrismtas morning 6am to 6:25am dealt with.
Then your mother wont be able to open the plastic packageing for her new suduko machine that father bought her after consulting you last week on your mobile – in the middle of a meeting with the seniour management at work, who also all had to break off to have similar convisations with their own elderly family members.
This also needs batteries inserted behind a little door held on with a little small screw. Which you have trouble dealing with as by this time you’ve cut your own finger on the evil-plastic-attack packaging.
Aunt Mable is now blaming you – and the sole representitive of the ‘technical’ industry for the annoying sounds coming from little Sabastian’s electronic do-hicky – a tirade that will only get worse as the sherry supply depleats.
9am and the phone goes, nephew 1 has got a tamagotchi for christmas – yes they still exist – and he can’t work out how to feed it. Luckily as a child of the 80s/90s you manage to tech-support this over the phone.
Time for a quck cuppa before dashing off to church, surely there wont be any technology to get in the way of some good solid carol singing? Ha!
On the way out the vicar shakes your hand and mentions that the church’s website needs some TLC and gosh darnnit isn’t that something you could perhaps help with in the new year?
Back home and you’ve bearly pulled off your new christmas gloves with the pom-poms on that great aunt florrance sent you before mother thrusts you the brand you oven timer and asks you to set it for 40 mins rather than 40 seconds.
And so it goes on…
But my dear breathren-in-tech, don’t dispare, take heart – as the sole techie you will get to play with everyone’s brand new technology over the Christmas period – and if that doesn’t colsole you, at least you know you’ll have a few days break before the family go out and buy things in the january sales!
Don’t roll your eyes at your less-able relations dear geek, be patient with them – to them all these things with buttons are a dark art and to them you apear as a worlock of great power, being able to command them to do your will… apart from getting that new toy of sabastian’s to shut up. That is a feat that’s even beyond you.
Merry Christmas one and all
Love Amy xxx

No, I ‘m not refering to your shopping and cooking lists or even if you’ve wrapped everything – I’m talking about your mental preperation.

Yes, it’s the time of year where most of you will be “going home” to your beloved but perhaps not-as-tech-savy-as-you families.

You KNOW what that means don’t you? Oooh yes, time to become the 24-7 100% tech-support go-to guy or gal once moce.

Time for a deep breath. You can do this.

You know the scene, Christmas Morning. Uncle Fred has bought little Sabastian the latest electronic do-hicky with bells, whistls, spinny bit and of course the requisit annoying electronic beep, and the only person in the house that will have an electronic screwdriver small enough to open the battery hatch is you – so that’s Christmas morning 6am to 6:25am dealt with.

Then your mother wont be able to open the plastic packageing for her new suduko machine that father bought her after consulting you last week on your mobile – in the middle of a meeting with the development team at work, who also all had to break off to have similar convisations with their own elderly family members.

This also needs batteries inserted behind a little door held on with a little small screw. Which you have trouble dealing with as by this time you’ve cut your own finger on the evil-plastic-attack packaging.

Home

Aunt Mable is now blaming you – and the sole representative of the ‘technical’ industry for the annoying sounds coming from little Sebastian’s electronic do-hicky – a tirade that will only get worse as the sherry supply depleats.

9am and the phone goes, nephew 1 has got a tamagotchi for christmas – yes they still exist – and he can’t work out how to feed it. Luckily as a child of the 80s/90s you manage to tech-support this over the phone for a device you’ve never seen or used. You are just THAT good.

Time for a quck cuppa before dashing off to church, surely there wont be any technology to get in the way of some good solid carol singing? Ha!

On the way out the vicar shakes your hand and mentions that the church’s website needs some TLC and gosh darnnit isn’t that something you could perhaps help with in the new year?

Back home and you’ve bearly pulled off your new Christmas gloves with the pom-poms on that Great Aunt Florrance sent once again this year you before mother thrusts you the brand you oven timer and asks you to set it for 40 mins rather than 40 seconds.

And so it goes on…

But my dear breathren-in-tech, don’t dispare, take heart – as the sole techie you will get to play with everyone’s brand new technology over the Christmas period – and if that doesn’t console you, at least you know you’ll have a few days break before the family goes out and buys the latest gadgets in the January sales and calls you to set them up!

Don’t roll your eyes at your less-able relations dear geek, be patient with them – to them all these things with buttons are a dark art and to them you apear as a worlock of great power, being able to command them to do your will… apart from getting that new toy of Sabastian’s to shut up. That is a feat that’s even beyond you.

Merry Christmas one and all

Love Amy xxx

BC Christmas Do

Is the customer always right?

Posted on by Amykate

“It makes my eyes hurt, but this is what the client wants”

This plaintiff cry was heard drifting over the office from the front end team last week. Nothing that unusual about that – they are not the most reticent of teams at Collaboration Towers, but it was the content of the cry as well as the resigned and world weary tone that irked me.

If the idea / request – in this case an interface design for a web app – is that bad, should we really agree with the customer and tell let them continue in the belief that they are right?

Where, in fact,  do you draw the line between providing service and being a glorified automotron?

A large part of me thinks that these people – clients – are paying us for our expertise and our experience – shouldn’t we then give them the benefit of that experience? Are we doing a bad job but actually doing what the client would think of as a good job?

We should respect our clients enough to treat them like adults rather than toddlers who will throw a tantrum if their every mad whim is not served immediately – surely this is the different between employing a code monkey and a true craftsman?

Would you draw a circuit diagram and tell an electrician to wire you your house using this self-drawn circuit diagram?

ok, bad example – a lot of you would be capable of this without causing your house to burn down in an electrical fire but go with the metaphore people!

If you don’t want to do it for the client, do it for yourself – do you really want to be the person that has to always explain the lemon in your portfolio as “This wouldn’t be how I would have done it, but this is what the client wanted” with a shrug of the shoulders? How do you think that makes you look – does it make you look like you care about your client’s user experience?

The client almost always had the right idea for their particular problem – and lets face it, they (hopefully) know their industry / team / department / space better than you do – but the nuts and bolts of the implementation and execution should be left to the experts – that’s they pay you for.

Please  – don’t let your clients accept sub-standard implementations

Ladybirds in Chains

Some bugs in the wrong environment