Why I Use AI
Let me start with one critical point: I am NOT an Artificial Intelligence evangelist. We clear? Got it? Good. Moving on… I use AI. I am an AI user. I leverage AI in (not quite) my daily activities to address the …
Topic
Programming
23 posts tagged with this topic.
AI is a wrench
Well, it’s vise grips for pliers, and pliers for a wrench A wrench for a hammer, hammer’s everything else It just don’t seem to make much difference I sure do like him but he’s hard on equipment …
Senior Developer Shiny Object Syndrome
Senior Developer Shiny Object Syndrome (noun) ˈsiːniə dɪˈvɛləpə ˈʃaɪni ˈɒbʤɪkt ˈsɪndrəʊm A condition wherein a developer, usually far too proud of their own abilities, uses technology and/or tools inappropriate for the …
Software Patents are Pointless
You’ve heard me rant about software patents before. Today’s stupid thing comes from a news release that Nikon is buying RED, which has been making excellent digital film cameras for years, now. The news …
Why AI is a Long Way from Human
For over a year, now, I’ve been watching the hype-panic that AI was “going to take over my job” die down to “this can barely produce a believable image” only to reemerge as …
The Famous Lethal Weapon Quote
Several times in the Lethal Weapon movie series, Roger Murtaugh (played by Danny Glover) says: “I’m getting too old for this shit.” I’ve joked about that line on several occasions, especially when …
Generative AI is at the Jurassic Park Moment
A lot of people are concerned about Generative AI right now. We’re looking at a very wide swatch of “intelligent” tools that are taking people’s jobs away. Or at least that’s what …
Go Hugo!
A few years back, this website ran on WordPress. I genuinely like WordPress, not just for blogging but also for some general (simple) content needs. What I don’t like about WordPress? The size of the server …
Evolution of my Website
The Wayback Machine and I go … well, way back. It’s got versions of my website dating back 20 years (as of February 2022, anyway) and through more than a few variations on the theme. I bought sowrey.org a …
20 Years a Web Developer
Twenty years ago this month — and very possibly this week, though I’m not 100% certain of that — I entered into the very nascent industry of digital marketing. At the time, the project had been little more than a simple …
How to be a Technical Writer
It’s surprising how often I’ve been asked this question over the last few months. Once upon a time — some dozen years ago — I was a technical writer. I wrote manuals, technical documentation, and various forms of other …
The Annual Review
Sorry for the long silence, folks. I’ve been a very, very busy boy the last couple of months, and … well, writing hasn’t really been a high priority for me. Family, as always, comes first, with my job (which …
The need for the Big Picture
On Saturday, my wife Alex and I went out on our own. (We manage to do this every couple of weeks thanks to Alex’s mother, who comes over to watch the kids so we can behave more like adults for a while.) On our little …
New life at Evans Hunt
A year ago, I was a “free agent” of sorts. I had gone self-employed, and had started to live in the world of contracts, invoices, expenses, and running around without adequate amounts of personal injury …
The fork in the road
Not so long ago, when I managed a team, I used to coach people in their career directions. (How well I coached people is another matter, and I can only leave it to those people to assess my real effectiveness.) I’d help …
The development in my life
If I were to summarise the last ten years of my career prior, specifically from about June 2000 to June 2010, it would look something like this: web developer, specialised web developer, senior web developer, junior …
Get Geeqee
Back at the beginning of the year, I took a different direction in my career. Until December, I’d been a career man — work for one company. Work your butt off, be the cog in the machine, and do the best you could to stay …
What makes a Senior Developer
Every so often, someone asks me what I need to see in a senior developer. Why people ask me this is a mystery. I mean, besides the fact that I’m a Know-It-All, could it really be that several years of being a manager …
A good programmer is lazy, not stupid
I say this, in one form or another, to developers I manage. I’ve said it for years, and I’ll continue to say it until I’m proven horribly, horribly wrong. Which, until I leave this industry, is not likely to happen.My …
I wouldn't have done it that way
I’ve recently run into a common programming problem. While turning a development project over to another development agency, we heard that worst of comments: Why did you build it that way? It seems like a simple …
How to do offshore software development
North Americans are relentless at wanting things as cheap as possible. This drive is what has led many companies to look at using less expensive resources from other countries help bring down the costs of products and …
First crack at my own theme
After years of using other people’s themes — some very good and some that left a bad taste in my mouth — I decided it’s high time to get off my arse and build my own. Especially after seeing Schiller’s most recent …
Topics
My evolving job
When it was first proposed that I would come to Costa Rica and start up a new office, there were a lot of questions about how all this would be done. Starting a new office means running without the infrastructure that …