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© James Whinfrey 2007—2012. All rights reserved.
I started trading as a Sole Trader under the name of Conceptric about 6 months ago. I’ve been doing web development work for small clients, but software development is a relatively recent diversification. I originally trained as a Chemical Process Engineer, later specialising in concept design and product development, and I’ve got to admit that [...]
I’ve always loved pipe following: the practice of getting to know how chemical process plants work. Get yourself a set of process flowsheets, a few engineering drawings and get out on the Plant. You trace the flow of feedstocks as they turn into products through the network of pipes, pressure vessels and other process machinery.
I’ve just watched a Bloomberg piece on the sequel to “Wall Street” and the “Greed is Good” culture that surrounded it. They interviewed a number of the leading characters of the real Wall Street at the time, and most called the prolonged Bull market of the ’80s and exciting time. I was too young to [...]
I’ve grown to appreciate using Bundler to manage dependencies for all my Rails and Sinatra applications. I also combine it with RVM to generate a dedicated gemset for each application bundle and an associated .rvmrc file. Create the Gemset, an application Gemfile defining the dependencies and issue bundle install, simple.
My wife ordered an Amazon Kindle 3 a couple of months ago, but recently decided that an Apple iPad was much more to her taste. When the Kindle finally turned up last week it was all mine, and I’d been very much looking forward to it.
This is a problem I came across recently as a client who’s an artist explained that she wanted to grow her online presence. However, when I explained that we needed to present a consistent image of her work, she expressed concern.
Package dependencies are always a nightmare and with multiple applications on my server, each with their own set of Ruby gems, controlling the version they’re using has become important. I’ve been using Sinatra for more and more projects, but there came a point this week when I realised that I was in danger of accidentally [...]
I’ve established a strategic investment style with which I’ve become very comfortable. Even the recent Market angst hasn’t fazed me. But the time came to rebalance my portfolio, and I’m here to report that I’ve learned something new about my tactical approach: there’s a right order for trades… and a wrong one.
I’ve often wished I was more mathematically talented, particularly when I sat my ‘A’ levels. My frankly mediocre performance isn’t due to disinterest, I’ve always found mathematics to be fascinating. But it wasn’t until I watched the BBC series “Story of Maths” presented by Marcus du Sautoy that I realised why.
From a historical perspective the Conservative Party has always been out on it’s own, first opposite the Liberals and later the Labour Party. Is it any wonder they’re less than keen on Proportional Representation (PR) when they’ve never polled more than 49.7% of the vote?
What is the meaning of “strong government”? I’ve heard the term bandied about by many people over the last couple of days, but no one’s tried to define it for me. It appears that it’s just one of those things we must want without knowing what it actually means.
Are job descriptions worth the paper they’re written on? The modern workplace changes rapidly. Keeping these documents up to date for every employee is a full time job and my experience is that most companies don’t. But is it a viable basis for structuring and managing an organisation anyway?
I’m trying to renovate my bathroom at the moment, it’s looking and feeling a bit run down. I don’t want to replace everything, just those parts that are beyond repair, so that I’m not needlessly adding to landfill. Who’d have thought it would be so hard on my wallet and my time?
The huge cloud of volcanic ash that’s sweeping over Europe from Iceland has had a devastating effect on air travel. Personally when I saw the story on the news last night it struck me as wonderful. It’s true that I’m a little strange, but it really is an event full of wonder.
The terms ‘Carbon Neutral’ and ‘Sustainable’ are often found invoked in the same context, but they’re not necessarily compatible: carbon neutrality can be achieved without, or even at the expense of sustainability.
I attempted to describe what being a Professional actually means to me in a recent conversation with my brother. I have to admit it started me examining the concept more closely.
Everyone else has had a go, so it’s my turn to give my impressions of the Apple iPad. I believe that the future is about Human–Computer Interaction (HCI) or it’s non-computing equivalent, making continually more complex functionality simple enough for everyone to use, and I think that Apple are of the same mind.
It’s coming up to 6 months since I announced my transition from PHP to Ruby and I’m really getting the hang of my new web development toolkit by working on a personal project.
I understand that if your working life depends on effective transportation all the snow chaos around the Country isn’t fun. But what if modern life wasn’t so dependent upon travelling, could life become more relaxed? Travel could be something of choice, not obligation, and our lifestyle might be a little more robust at times like this.
Further to my shock revelation about the Government and climate change — OK I realise it’s been obvious all along — I’ve come up with another idea to focus our personal efforts.
Hosting by Memset Dedicated Servers
Constructed by Conceptric to be Powered by WordPress.
© James Whinfrey 2007—2012. All rights reserved.