I recently bought a copy (based on a recommendation) of Michael Feathers’ 2005 book Working Effectively with Legacy Code. This excellent technical book is largely a compendium of refactoring strategies to help software developers insinuate unit tests into existing code. What I found most striking, though, is a position stated right at the start of… Continue reading How Much Legacy Code Have You Written This Week?
Year: 2012
The Great North Run
Following my first attempt at competitive (well, timed anyway) running, the Marathon of the North in Sunderland in May, last weekend I ran in the Great North Run. This was described in Wikipedia as the world's largest half-marathon until a recent edit demoted it to second behind Göteborg. Still, it's big. I'd heard some of the… Continue reading The Great North Run
A batch-processing system replies
In response to "Ode to a Preemptive Multitasking Kernel" I do things right, that's what I say. I take a thing: I let it run: It finishes, then off it goes. I take the next thing when it's done. My advantages are clear to see: Clarity, sureness, crispness, ease. I march on, forge ahead, in my… Continue reading A batch-processing system replies
A Watery City
A striking thing about the venues for the 2012 Olympics in London is that their locations make more sense when seen as connected by water rather than by road. The Olympic Park sits on the River Lea and a couple of its former working branches, and is bounded on one side by the Lee Navigation… Continue reading A Watery City
iPads in schools
Fraser Spiers remarks, in a review of the Google Nexus 7 tablet: My experience with two years of iPad in school is that the iPad can cover 99% of everything we want to do with a computer in school... the iPad can replace the computer suite I think the radical nature of his observation has… Continue reading iPads in schools
Good and bad of the Olympics, so far
Good The family and I went out to watch the Olympic women's cycling road race yesterday. We watched them zip past on the way out of town, and then I stuck around to wave them back again in the hammering rain. I really enjoyed it—you don't get to see a great deal, but cheering people… Continue reading Good and bad of the Olympics, so far
The Breakfast Post 