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December 2014

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Well, I got an XBOX One for XMAS and the first thing I was presented with when I went to turn it on was a screen asking me for updates.  Now this isn’t meant to be a blistering narrative against the hackers, XBOXLive or Microsoft – it’s a bummer it, it happened, everything is great now, I have all my updates and I can merrily play away.  However, when your first experience with a product…

No one has ever, ever shipped a piece of software and thanked the process.  Apologies to everyone that work with methodologies and ALM, but it’s true. Why? Because, processes don’t ship software, people do.  Do a mental back-check of the last few releases to see what really got them out the door?  Was it the check-in process, how bugs were logged or what happened at the last triage meeting?  Probably not.  No one ever ships a release and goes…

I live in Microsoft Outlook, not something that I originally had as a boyhood dream between being All-Star Cleveland Indians Catcher and Doctor, but hey such is life and I roll through a ton of email on a daily basis so it works.  With work and kids et al, I use my calendar for everything (primarily because it makes sure that I am where I need to be, when I need to be).  Over the…

Many years ago (too many in fact), I undertook the task of running a half-marathon (21km) and training for it in 7 short weeks.  At the time I had a friend who had run many marathons, New York and Boston to name a few, and she outlined a complete training regimen for me to get me in shape.  I still remember my time of 1:58:05 (primarily because I wanted to be under 2 hours). To this…

I have two girls that play ringette – fast game, great game – the older they get, the more intense it gets to the extent that after all these years of not being able to skate I’ve been lacing up my skates once a week to get on the ice with them (although let’s be honest… we are miles apart).  I’m one of those guys that cheers loud for his kids and sometimes I have the odd suggestion for…