thought for the day

As we come towards Inter Faith Week in the UK, I thought I would share this with you -

Religion is like pieces of coloured glass that people are holding. Some picked up their piece of glass, others were given theirs by their parents, whilst others had a piece of one colour but exchanged it for a piece of a different colour. Some become very attached to the colour of their glass and feel it is the only colour worth having, even arguing with others about what is the 'right' colour, but others feel there is no point in having any piece as they can see nothing through it.
But there are those who accept all colours as equally nice to have. And a few who realise that if everyone put their pieces together it would make a beautiful picture.

"Consort with the followers of all religions in a spirit of friendliness and fellowship" Baha'i Writings

back after enforced absence

It has been a challenging few months. I have been off with a hand injury after colliding with the road whilst cycling to work, back in May. Well the choice was either collide with the road or collide with the car that had suddenly appeared in the cycle track. Ho, well, the police say I lost control of the bicycle and are not taking any action. Several days in hospital, and several weeks of physiotherapy before getting use back in my hand.

At least with a cycle helmet, gloves and other safety measures it was not too bad. Broken hand, bruises and a lovely black eye.
Just as I was ready to get back to the computer, my home laptop died a death, so I had to select a replacement and then reload all the archives and other material from backups that I regularly take. (You *do* backup your computer, yes?)

So here I am again, with one of my favourite pastimes - sitting in front of a computer.

FUNdraising for charity

Just received a letter today, inviting me to take part again in a charity bike ride. I have taken part each year for a number of years, either on my own or with my family, and raised quite a bit of sponsorship (never kept a total, though).

Will seriously have to think before entering this year, as my health has not been too good of late after an operation earlier in the year. Apparently been eating too much of the wrong sorts of food (sugary cakes and things) and not enough vegetables and it has played havoc with my digestive system. I suppose I have been so concerned in helping others that I have not looked after my self.

Perhaps I should give it a go again this year, as long as I do not try to race round the 20 mile course. It has always been a fun time, meeting other cyclists, getting out in the country and usually a nice sunny day and finishing with a picnic in the park.

same office, new team

Well, one of the products being worked on in our office has been "put on ice". That is, a totally reasonable decision was made, in view of the current economic climate, not to continue with it.
Of course, it happens to be the one that I was working on. Anyway I was quickly "snapped up" by another team who needed more staff to cover their work load.
The old team had a 'wake' to mark the end, as we are all going to different projects and moving desks so we will not be sitting together. All down to the local hostelry to mark the occasion. Well, I missed it as I had other commitments that day - but no big deal. Everyone knows my view on alcohol, and I know theirs. Funny then that some are quietly coming to me and saying they wished they had my courage to say 'no'. For me, courage does not come in to it, as I was brought up in a family where there was never any booze in the house.

Now to start again, learning a new product, reading all the documentation, going through the 'new starter' training material. I have already found a number of omissions, created an updated introduction, corrected a couple of web pages and been thanked for my hard work by my new team leader. Not that I found it hard work; it was all rather fun and quite enjoyable. Next couple of weeks will be hard work though, as I have to devise and run some performance tests on the system to see the maximum load it can handle.

start of a new year

Well, the new year has come. We celebrated with a party at the weekend - hall packed with people and not a drop of booze anywhere. Fruit, rice, vegetable stew, bread, juices, tea and coffee, and cakes. Then music performed live by some talented young people.
That was the New Year party for members of the Baha'i Faith and their friends in Nottingham. New Year's day itself (March 21 in the Gregorian calendar) was a day for visiting the sick and elderly, hospitality and making new friends.

When a support team can make things worse

I have just had a bad experience with a support team. My query has taken over a week to resolve, and even then it was I who found the answer. Each time I sent in a question, it was answered by a different person. None of them answered the question I had asked. Instead they said it was a programming question and I should learn programming, or that the answer was in the FAQ that they kindly attached to their reply. (Needless to say, I had already read the FAQ and found that it was factually incorrect). They 'helpfully' offered suggestions covering questions on a completely different topic, or simply said that their support did not cover my question.

If as a computer programmer with decades of experience in user support I struggle with their help desk (no I am not going to shame the company), then I shudder to think what less experienced users are feeling. Is it any wonder that companies suffer high rates of "churn" when they put inexperienced staff on the support centre.

Business managers will come to realise that they need to have technically competent staff.

I just hope it is a long time before I have to call them again, and the staff have had a modicum of training in that time.

sharing the load

(or, not everyone can be expert at everything)

I began my career in computing by learning FOCAL, and then BASIC, FORTRAN and COBOL. Later on it was pascal and Delphi, then C and Perl. Now I am brushing up my skills in Java (first looked at about 7 years ago) and particularly threads. One of the comments in the book I am reading struck me, and got me thinking about 'sharing the load'. It is not just applicable to a multi-processor computer or a collection of computers. We people need, I think, to make use of this idea also.

No one can be an expert in everything, and no one person can cope with all the demands modern life puts on us. We have to learn to share. Call on our support network. (What do you mean, you don't have one?) In these days of world encircling communications, you may get help from someone thousands of miles away, even someone you have not met.

Social networking websites are great for keeping in touch with friends, and the open source model of software development means we can share work with others.

"God loves those who work together in groups" - Baha'i Faith

In praise of knowledge

I have just been seeing some of the unkind comments made regarding the young lady who showed herself to be so clever and knowledgeable on the TV quiz show "University Challenge".

Why are people so afraid of learning, that they have to attack those who have made efforts to do so? I would much rather meet, or read about, those who have put knowledge to use for the benefit of society - the scientists and engineers whose efforts have shaped much of the world around us. Not for me, speaking personally, the pop stars and media 'celebrities' who seem to seek only fame and fortune.

But then, I would say that, as I have been a teacher of science and continue to take an interest in promoting science.

"Regard Man as a mine rich in gems of inestimable value. Education can, alone, cause it to reveal its treasure, and enable mankind to benefit therefrom." Baha'i Writings

Work and personal development

OK, it was not censorship that stopped me letting a posted comment get added to the blog. It was sleep! I added a comment of my own to the site, but forgot to click the 'publish' button on the comment that was waiting.

I seem to be involved with so many things at the moment, that access to the computer for my own personal activities is left to late at night, and the occasional weekend. I do use a computer at work, but I would never put it to my own personal use. I am being paid to work, and taking time during work for my own activities is just like stealing.

My employer does allow time for personal development, and even allocates time for the staff to undertake charity activities, but that does not include time to use personal email or social networking sites.

At the moment, at work, I am developing a training program for staff involved in automated testing> At home I am spending time setting up a family archive, going through family history - not just records of births and marriages, but also old photographs, and even trying to convert/rescue some old audio recordings made on a reel-to-reel tape recorder. Wonder what digital recording format to use? No question with the written material of course - the paper records and old photos have survived intact for over 100 years.

Freedom of speech or moderation

A comment added to my previous post wondered why my blog is moderated, and if my "cult" requires it?

It is so sad when you meet someone without the courage to give their own name, and who seems unable to operate the 'cut and paste' as they could not spell the name Baha'i correctly. There is a world of difference between cults, and those great world-shaping, revealed religions. I hope sometime that 'anonymous' discovers the truth.

As for freedom of speech and moderation, well the Baha'i Faith teaches us "moderation in all things" but that is not the real reason for moderating posts to this blog. I have sadly been inundated with spam advertising, some indecent and I therefore took the decision, reluctantly to moderate the posts. You are all quite welcome to post comments - and I promise to read all of them. But can I make a plea that you add your name?

I realise that even being able to post my thoughts about, and quotations from, the Baha'i Faith is much more than my fellow believers in other countries can do, and that handling spam is a minor irritation compared to the imprisonment and torture being suffered by Baha'is elsewhere.

Economics of greed?

Well we have seen the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, where the leaders of nations and businesses met to look at the shape of the economic climate, and a lack of agreement as to exactly what to do to solve the problems.
This week has seen a report about the way we as a nation bring up our children in Britain, and it too paints a gloomy picture - but it also suggests some actions we can take.

It is not surprising to me, as I have long believed that we have collectively abandoned a moral and ethical basis for much of our national life. Politicians and business leaders have over the years put much emphasis on 'ownership', what we possess being seen as an indication of our status. This has led to the massive levels of debt being taken on by many people, who now that times are getting hard are unable to pay back - with such damaging consequences for all concerned.

It seems self-evident to me, that we should first live to a moral code, and teach it to our children. As long as we deny this, we shall never get out of the mess we are in.

"Be generous in prosperity and thankful in adversity" - Baha'i Writings

program development and documentation

Had an interesting discussion with one of my colleagues the other day. He said that the team he is working in has adopted a 'sprint' approach. I thought that was good, until he went on to say that he had no time to document the work that was being done. That is not at all good, and goes against one of the main principles - "Done means done". In my view, if work is not documented, then it is not completed. It becomes impossible to maintain, and hard for someone else to deal with when the originator goes on holiday (or is ill).

It is something I will bring up at the monthly staff discussion group next week.

testing and Agile

One of the problems regarding how to test in an agile development team is the area of system integration and I include performance testing as well. It is all well and good getting the designers to write tests for their pieces of work, but who can write the tests that cover those units being integrated into a working whole?
The plan we have come up with, and one that seems to work reasonably well is to have the integration testing done "one sprint behind" the development work. Of course, it is mostly automated scripts so that regression testing can be performed easily.
The difficulty of writing tests whilst the code is being developed can best be seen when trying to test user interfaces. It is quite possible that the position of buttons, selection lists and text areas changes whilst the program is being worked on, so writing tests that check for the operation of those items is best left until the work is done.