Monthly Archive for February, 2005

Open Plan Productivity

Published
by
Callum
3 years, 4 months ago
in Ideas and Personal
. 2 Comments

I’m in the process of writing a functional spec, and one of the things I read while researching it is Joel on Software - The Joel Test: 12 Steps to Better Code.

It’s an article that lists 12 steps to better software development teams. Question no 8 is do your programmers have quiet working conditions? Question no 9 is do they have the best tools money can buy?

Right now, I’m working in an open plan office where all the staff have very old computers. There’s such a fantastic parallel between the two.

Talking to people who’ve worked in this office for some time, they say productivity just disappears because of the constant interruptions (see q8 in the Joel Test). It’s the age old problem of the constant interruptions. According to Joel’s article, on average it takes 15 minutes to get to maximum productivity, or get yourself “in the zone”. However, it can take only a few seconds when someone asks you a question to take you out of the zone, and you’ve got another 15 minutes to get back into it.

I experience this problem myself for probably the last two years, sharing an office with 1 to 3 other people. We tried various things, but they didn’t last. However, I have an idea which I’m going to try the next time I’m in that environment again. I think they key is to have time blocks. For example, everyone in the office agrees that there are no interruptions between 9:30 and 11:30, and between 14:00 and 16:00. These are the two “productivity zones”. If you need to speak to someone during that time, you have to email or IM them and they’ll get back to you when they can. I’ll talk more about email productivity later.

Obviously this wouldn’t work everywhere, but it could make a huge difference in some offices.

Coming back to the office I’m currently working in, the cost of running the office of about 70 people is in the region of £500k/month. However, there are 70 people working on computers that must be 3 years old. It’s ridiculous, a quick check on Dell reveals a new PC of good spec will cost around £600 including a flat panel monitor. So compare, 70 x £600 = £42k, less than 10% of the monthly running costs and everyone would have brand new PCs. Exactly like Joel Test q9.

The world is a crazy place.

Writing a Functional Spec?

Published
by
Callum
3 years, 5 months ago
in Techy
. 0 Comments

I’m in the process of writing quite an involved functional spec, and I found some excellent resources that are a great help.

Alan Smith has written a great introductory tutorial on what a functional spec is and how to start writing one available online in HTML (web page) format or in PDF format so you can download and read or print it.

Another great site is Joel on Software with a great article on Painless Functional Spec and another great one called the Joel Test, 12 tick check to see if you’ve got a good software team or not.

Firefox Search Engine Plugins

Published
by
Callum
3 years, 5 months ago
in Techy
. 0 Comments

If you use Mozilla Firefox, you’ll know how useful the search box is. If you don’t use Firefox, www.getfirefox.com!

However, you might find that the search features are not quite as you would like them, for example, I don’t like the fact that when you use Google as the default search, it automatically redirects you to the country it thinks you’re in. I’m in Malta right now, and it’s automatically redirecting me to Maltese Google.

I installed Google UK so that I can search in the UK directly. However, it automatically flags “only sites from the UK”. I don’t want to search only sites from the UK, I want to search on Google.co.uk, but for all sites, so I can narrow it down if necessary.

So I hacked the main Google plugin to work as I would like it to. You can read the documentation at mozdev if you really want to know how it works!

The next thing I did was change the order. That’s quite a bit easier, you simply enter into your address bar about:config or drag the link to you’re address bar if you’re in Firefox now. Then Filter by “browser.search.order” and you’ll see about 5 listings. To change the order, simply edit “browser.search.order.1″ and “browser.search.order.2″ by double clicking on them. Enter the names of the search plugs in as they appear in the drop down list, restart Firefox, and you’re away.

easyDesks

Published
by
Callum
3 years, 5 months ago
in Ideas and Techy
. 0 Comments

Standing in the shower (as you do at 12:30 when you’re a self-employed, home worker!) I’ve just had one of those “bing!” moments.

I’m travelling to Malta on business Thursday and it involves a 3.5 hour stop in Gatwick. Being an infrequent business traveller, I don’t have BA executive club membership and so don’t have access to their lounges while travelling alone.

However, it struck me that if there were a desk by the hour service at Gatwick, it would be perfect. I’m travelling on expenses, so the cost wouldn’t be critical, and it would hugely improve the trips productivity. A simple, small desk with a computer, internet access, and a phone would be great. I could pay by credit card, or open an account, potentially even have a stored profile if I have an account. If it had WiFi and ethernet access included for laptops that would be even better.

Then it struck me that you could operate offices on that basis. Walk in, find a desk, punch in your details and start working. Calls are billed to the account, internet access and the desk is included, if there’s enough demand, printing services billed to your account, etc. It’s just like easyInternetCafe but with a slightly bigger desk and an extra service or two.

There could be a huge market for it, anyone out there fancy exploring it?

Your online identity

Published
by
Callum
3 years, 5 months ago
in Ideas and Techy
. 0 Comments

Following on from my earlier Treo post, I’m at my PC (as I was then, just checking if it worked! :)) and figured it was time to let the cat out of the bag on my wee idea.

Currently there are a number of “trusted” organisations that issue things online. Nominet is a good example. Nominet manage all domains that end in .uk (.co.uk, org.uk, etc). When you register a domain name, they send you a letter which lets you confirm your legal status (are you a company, a person, etc) and then download a certificate if you like. Another good example is VeriSign, a company that issue SSL certificates.

Most people probably don’t know this, but the process of getting an SSL certificate is quite involved. The issuing authority (the company that sell you it) have to be satisifed that you are actually who you claim to be. This can involve faxing a copy of your passport, confirming codes received by mail, confirming codes received by phone, and so on. The rationale behind it is that when you put your credit card details into a web site, you want to be sure you know who you’re dealing with.

This explains a bit of the background to the non-techies out there. Another concept I should introduce non-techies to is that of public and private keys. A strange one to get your head round at first, but it does make sense in the end! Emails, files, credit card details, and so on, can be encrypted using what’s called a “public key”. The public key allows you to encrypt something so that only the person with the matching private key, can decrypt it. This is the basis of most encryption online. You issue a public key to anyone who wants it, they encrypt whatever they’re sending, and then only you can read it.

Ok, so you’ve got the background, well my concept is very simple. If a standard protocol was designed, it would be possible to issue Personal Identity Certificates, similar to SSL certificates, which could be used to confirm your identity online.

As an example, you could visit your bank’s web site (Smile if you’re an ethical, UK consumer) and instead of having to log in, you could use your Personal Identity Certificate (PIC) to verify who you are. Then you could visit your electricity supplier’s web site to check your bill, and again, your PIC would do all the security checking for you.

Then you visit a new web site you’ve never seen before, and they ask you to register. Then you give them your PIC details, and tell your issuing company what information you’d like that web site to see. For example, you could only allow the web site to see your email address and name, not any other information. It could even go a step further, and if you receive an email from that web site, it could come through your PIC. So if that site started spamming you, you could easily revoke their access to your PIC.

The concept is very simple, but it could become huge. It could allow you to legally sign documents electronically. You could apply for a mortgage without having to see any printed paperwork whatsoever. As technology develops it could be linked to biometric information so your fingerprint or retina scan would confirm your identity.

The fundamentals are this:

  • Certificates issued by trusted companies
  • Individuals identity confirmed by traditional means
  • Your data easily accessed by any web site you authorise
  • An open standard that anyone can use

I’m not really sure how to promote this idea, so if there’s anyone reading who’s interested, post a comment or drop me an email and let’s get chatting.

The Trouble With EM ’n EN

Published
by
Callum
3 years, 5 months ago
in Personal
. 0 Comments

Have you ever wondered where to correctly use a dash? Did you know the difference between a dash and a hyphen? Interested in the history of the printing press? Do you know what an em is?

If you’ve answered yes or no to any of these questions, you need to check out this article, it makes for wonderfully indulgent reading!
The Trouble With EM ’n EN (and Other Shady Characters): A List Apart

The nightmare of registering

Published
by
Callum
3 years, 5 months ago
in Ideas and Personal
. 0 Comments

I’ve had an idea…

There’s a great requirement to register with web sites these days. To download a software demo you have to register, set up a username and password and then receive and respond to an email in order to confirm your email address. I would guess one in ten web sites gives you the option to register.

Of course if you’re like most people, you use the same username and password with every site and you give every site the same email address. Then you end up with a load of spam you can’t get rid of. Or, you’re like me and obsessed with preserving your email address, so you get a domain name (something.com) and you give web sites their own name at your domain as your email address, so each site has a unique email that can be individually blocked if necessary.

Either way, soon enough you end up on a site and someone’s already got your username, or your password is rejected because it’s too short, or too long. After a while you end up with hundreds of accounts you’ve forgotten about, passwords you can’t remember and a big mess.

Well I’ve had an idea that could solve all that, but I’m typing on my treo, so I’ll tell you my solution a bit later on… :)

–
Sent from my Treo