Just wondering if I keep this alive! So lashing this pointless update here :)
Workday has a range of openings over a number of our office locations. Check out the list of openings, and feel free to send me a message if you had questions or were interested?bit.ly/workdaytech
Tuesday 9 February 2016
Wednesday 25 November 2015
How to hire a product manager...
There was this blog post, about 10 years ago. The subject was "How to hire a product manager". Its one of those blog posts many folks read, and which ends up being referenced here, there and everywhere.
Interestingly, the author of it has done a retrospective post. He looks back 10 years, and examines the post and what is good and bad about it. Check it out, for the comments from some of the good and great from the world of PM, and related fields. Interesting to see folk being critical about logic puzzles. I have conducted hundreds of interviews and really always wondered what value you got by asking someone how many golf balls would fill the Aviva stadium or something. So I'm glad those questions are falling out of favour.
In open source news, Spotify have open sourced their internal monitoring solution. Now if you look into it, a large part of this solution is pulling together several different tools, mostly freely available. But it's still a great, proven enterprise toolset which is yours gratis!
Interestingly, the author of it has done a retrospective post. He looks back 10 years, and examines the post and what is good and bad about it. Check it out, for the comments from some of the good and great from the world of PM, and related fields. Interesting to see folk being critical about logic puzzles. I have conducted hundreds of interviews and really always wondered what value you got by asking someone how many golf balls would fill the Aviva stadium or something. So I'm glad those questions are falling out of favour.
In open source news, Spotify have open sourced their internal monitoring solution. Now if you look into it, a large part of this solution is pulling together several different tools, mostly freely available. But it's still a great, proven enterprise toolset which is yours gratis!
Tuesday 17 November 2015
A follow up to linux post..
As an interesting follow-up to the Linux post the other day.
I remember hearing about how Netflix were doing Continous Delivery a few years ago. There are a few videos out there about it. The one I link above is just one good example.
Last night Netflix open sourced their entire continuous delivery platform. Free. There is the code. Use it how and where you want. If we were to look back 15 years ago they would have spun it out into its own company and sold it as a product in its own right. But now, what companies are doing is sending the code out there. It's one part company prestige and another part a competition to get the best development talent. Not all financial decisions are just around yearly licence fees.
I remember hearing about how Netflix were doing Continous Delivery a few years ago. There are a few videos out there about it. The one I link above is just one good example.
Last night Netflix open sourced their entire continuous delivery platform. Free. There is the code. Use it how and where you want. If we were to look back 15 years ago they would have spun it out into its own company and sold it as a product in its own right. But now, what companies are doing is sending the code out there. It's one part company prestige and another part a competition to get the best development talent. Not all financial decisions are just around yearly licence fees.
Sunday 15 November 2015
Linux in the Public Sector..
I'm a bit behind here so pardon the catch-up post! I missed the last couple of classes due to aforementioned baby stuff. I was reading the kongregate case with interest. First, the gaming world thought that on-line games would go this way at the given time. But they have not really. Mobile came from nowhere and killed services like this pretty quickly. Oh, and the fact flash is buggy rubbish with more security holes than one of Tony Soprano's waste treatment facilities did not help one bit either. Yes they still exist I'm sure, but they are small beer.
Second, I asked to do Financial Management as one of my optional modules this summer. So I had a wonderful time locked in a class room on a series of wonderful sunny days! All the while having to take time off from work, it was great! I was learning about WAAC, Payback periods, bond yeilds and what not. As an aside, this is a subject which I *really* think should be mandatory for any masters course in a top business school like ours. If we are being groomed to be the next generation of business leaders, we need to be able to read and understand a set of accounts. I want to understand why my former boss loved capital expenditure and hated operational expenditure. Prior to doing that Financial Management class I had no idea. So we need to come out of courses like this with more than the ability to make a project plan and/or a set of slides!
The Linux paper is fascinating. I remember maybe 15 years ago [around the time this paper was written] and a tiny number of Linux-based companies had decent venture funding. A common question being asked is if "serious" companies take the risk of using Open Source software. If the software was free, how could it match up with something coming from Microsoft or Oracle. What happened is that Linux is not any kind factor in the desktop market [for home or for business]. But it a gigantic player in the world of "*.* as a service". I would think if we looked at data centers around the world, I would think a huge percentage run some kind of flavor of Open Stack. Which is built on Linux, totally open source, and as good an engine and set of tools for running your own cloud based system as exists. If you think big data, I think you are frankly insane to look beyond Hadoop and the related Apache Foundation Projects which work with it.
Yes Oracle is maybe faster and better, but it also will cost you a very serious amount of money every year...forever! The open source solutions are free. You can download them, and fork or branch your code and work away yourself. But you have the bonus that many companies with serious development teams pushing code into the open source code base.
So if you're a government or other public body, why would you go with anything else?
Second, I asked to do Financial Management as one of my optional modules this summer. So I had a wonderful time locked in a class room on a series of wonderful sunny days! All the while having to take time off from work, it was great! I was learning about WAAC, Payback periods, bond yeilds and what not. As an aside, this is a subject which I *really* think should be mandatory for any masters course in a top business school like ours. If we are being groomed to be the next generation of business leaders, we need to be able to read and understand a set of accounts. I want to understand why my former boss loved capital expenditure and hated operational expenditure. Prior to doing that Financial Management class I had no idea. So we need to come out of courses like this with more than the ability to make a project plan and/or a set of slides!
The Linux paper is fascinating. I remember maybe 15 years ago [around the time this paper was written] and a tiny number of Linux-based companies had decent venture funding. A common question being asked is if "serious" companies take the risk of using Open Source software. If the software was free, how could it match up with something coming from Microsoft or Oracle. What happened is that Linux is not any kind factor in the desktop market [for home or for business]. But it a gigantic player in the world of "*.* as a service". I would think if we looked at data centers around the world, I would think a huge percentage run some kind of flavor of Open Stack. Which is built on Linux, totally open source, and as good an engine and set of tools for running your own cloud based system as exists. If you think big data, I think you are frankly insane to look beyond Hadoop and the related Apache Foundation Projects which work with it.
Yes Oracle is maybe faster and better, but it also will cost you a very serious amount of money every year...forever! The open source solutions are free. You can download them, and fork or branch your code and work away yourself. But you have the bonus that many companies with serious development teams pushing code into the open source code base.
So if you're a government or other public body, why would you go with anything else?
Friday 13 November 2015
Video & Project Submitted..w00t!!
Since I knew I would be having the baby I was a bit ahead of the game in terms of, coursework and project. So I submitted my video last night. It's nothing fancy. Its original text recorded on my laptop from my kitchen. Pixar alas were busy making movies which won't be quite as good as back in the good old days!
Today I submitted my project. It is based on an upgrade for a heavily modified CRM system. I tackle some of the issues which arose from that. It's always good to have a project like that completed. When you are doing something like that, over 5000 words. There is a lot of research involved and doing yourself justice requires work. But that is the whole point. It's like a triathlon or a marathon, if it was easy, everyone would do it!
Today I submitted my project. It is based on an upgrade for a heavily modified CRM system. I tackle some of the issues which arose from that. It's always good to have a project like that completed. When you are doing something like that, over 5000 words. There is a lot of research involved and doing yourself justice requires work. But that is the whole point. It's like a triathlon or a marathon, if it was easy, everyone would do it!
Tuesday 10 November 2015
Regarding the babies part of blog title
I mentioned babies in the blog title. Well my son Aengus joined us last Friday night. I have attached a picture of him here.
What is interesting is that there was very little interaction with computers through the pregnancy process. You have a huge manual file, which contains all your test results and all doctor comments. If that file is lost, so are you basically. Its amazing our health system runs on this ancient technology. What computers we did see looked to be running Windows 2000 or XP, and we're deathly slow. We were getting blood test results and they used telnet to get to a text based server, which only could hold results for a few months. So clearly a crappy AS400 on a garden shed somewhere!!
Would there not be a huge business there for the computerisation of hospital processes!
Wednesday 4 November 2015
An interesting point of view...
I'm currently reading The Innovators, by Steve Jobs biographer, Walter Isaacson. It really is a brilliant book. The story in the book is that each chapter is a different evolution step in the history of computing. Where I am at now is that the computer has been invented. We are in the 70's and about to leap forward.
What I read last night is that Nolan Bushnell is starting to play about, and starting an evolution which shall soon end up with his developing Pong and founding Atari! The first thing he does is get a Data General Super Nova machine and tries to play about with them, to get his first game working. Keen readers will know, our friends in Soul of New Machine are trying to build a successor to this machine. [Im skipping over the Eclipse, as that is basically vaporware IMHO!]
This Super Nova machine is described by Isaacson as looking like a fridge. But he said that the Super Nova was slow and hard to use. So Bushnell moved on, and eventually came to the idea that he would build hardware, and go the coin-op route, and put the arcade machines in bars. Before he did this, the idea of computer games at homes and also of arcade machines basically did not exist.
This evolution is huge for the modern world of computing. Games and Graphics become a new driver of hardware and software. The computer begins to evolve beyond offices and databases. It's interesting in that light, our friends at Data General lost their battle before they even started. Their machine was doomed to fail for reasons outside of their control. This is a touch harsh, as the machine they built did well. But the market is served and the company themselves was already doomed.
What I read last night is that Nolan Bushnell is starting to play about, and starting an evolution which shall soon end up with his developing Pong and founding Atari! The first thing he does is get a Data General Super Nova machine and tries to play about with them, to get his first game working. Keen readers will know, our friends in Soul of New Machine are trying to build a successor to this machine. [Im skipping over the Eclipse, as that is basically vaporware IMHO!]
This Super Nova machine is described by Isaacson as looking like a fridge. But he said that the Super Nova was slow and hard to use. So Bushnell moved on, and eventually came to the idea that he would build hardware, and go the coin-op route, and put the arcade machines in bars. Before he did this, the idea of computer games at homes and also of arcade machines basically did not exist.
This evolution is huge for the modern world of computing. Games and Graphics become a new driver of hardware and software. The computer begins to evolve beyond offices and databases. It's interesting in that light, our friends at Data General lost their battle before they even started. Their machine was doomed to fail for reasons outside of their control. This is a touch harsh, as the machine they built did well. But the market is served and the company themselves was already doomed.
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