Monthly Archives: May 2011

How they found Lunokhod 1 – still contributing to science

Posted on May 29, 2011 by

Any article on the internet that contains a photo as brilliant as this deserves promoting – but this one by Ariel Bleicher on IEEE from September 2010 is especially amazing, and contains the story of scientists rediscovering the little moon … Continue reading →

Posted in Moon, Technology | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Charles Darwin – agile 150 years ago

Posted on May 29, 2011 by

Working at Lonely Planet has taught James and me a lot of lessons about the publishing business – not the least of which is the chasm between the product lifecycles enjoyed by the average travel guidebook and the average digital … Continue reading →

Posted in Agile | Tagged | Leave a comment

Lessons from a Martian Mission

Posted on May 27, 2011 by

NASA has just announced the end of the Spirit Rover mission on Mars after no successful contacts since it’s last communication on the 22nd of March 2010. Not a bad effort for what was planned as a 3 month mission starting … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Getting a job *should* be hard.

Posted on May 25, 2011 by

Today I gave a reference for a long time colleague and friend, most of the time the questions people ask when checking CV references are barely more sincere than the standard 4 questions real-estate agents ask when checking potential tenants. … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Great Agile Workspaces: Conclusions

Posted on May 13, 2011 by

This post is the conclusion to my series on creating Great Agile Workspaces, so if you just landed here, read these posts in order first: Introduction Physical Spaces Communication Distraction and Multitasking Conclusions Agile is a powerful methodology for building … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Great Agile Workspaces: Multitasking and Distractions

Posted on May 13, 2011 by

We tell ourselves lies about our ability to multitask and handle distractions, especially the younger generations.  Things like, oh kids these days have grown up with all that technology, their brains are wired differently as they chat, watch youtube and … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Great Agile Workspaces: How we Communicate.

Posted on May 13, 2011 by

There’s more to software productivity than the physical environment.  Communication is equally important. A developer may be in the zone and writing perfect code, but if they are writing the wrong code because they’re isolated then we haven’t done anything … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Great Agile Workspaces: The Physical Environment.

Posted on May 11, 2011 by

The physical space we work in impacts on the way we feel, interact and how productive we are. Jan Banning has captured these wonderful photographs of Government Officials in their office around the world.  Take a look at them and … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Great agile workspaces – balancing space, communication and distraction.

Posted on May 6, 2011 by

This is a sneak peek at some of the ideas I’m going to talk about at Agile Australia 2011 in June (I’m open to ideas and feedback of course) The core of Agile is all about communication.  Its routines and … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Luna Guest: “You are NOT a Software Engineer!” by Chris Aitchison

Posted on May 5, 2011 by

You are not a Software Engineer. You do not build skyscrapers. You do not build bridges. You grow gardens. You are a Software Gardener. Do you try to plan your gardens in such detail that you know where each leaf … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | 3 Comments