Weblog by month (December 2009)
Happy new year!
So, time to look back on the year that was 2009. Rather than a turgid run-through of posts on the site (not that there were very many!), I’d like to offer some observations on the year that was.
I’m deliberately ignoring all talk of recession by the way. 2009 was the year that I truly learned to detest the mainstream media, and its hysterical reaction to, well, just about everything. This is so unhealthy; best not to focus on that!
Professionally, things have been good. The London Developer Co-op has really started to take off: we’re sharing work (which was always the primary intention), supporting each others clients and playing to our strengths. We’ve also landed our first clients for the Co-op in its own right, which is exciting.
As an aside, the Co-op is made up of a number of reprobates who enjoy the odd pint, so socialising was never going to be on the back-burner now was it? There have been a fair few LotusBeers this year—Herr Weber was able to join us for one particularly memorable one in October!—and the Co-op has also played co-host to two parties, one in the summer, and one this festive season. Great fun! Look out for more socialising when we hit Orlando next month.
Returning to the (vaguely) professional theme, of note is the fact that the Wookiee and I have spent the past five months at our main client writing nothing but Java day-in, day-out. The project is a killer, but we have some code and tips ready to spring on you in 2010—you have been warned! Eee, we’ve upped the ante when it comes to acronyms and Java-based technologies: Ant, JPA, Hibernate, Quartz, Flex, you name it, we’ve buggered it up and then fixed it again—and not a Domino agent in sight.
I could not perform a review of 2009 without mentioning UKLUG in Edinburgh. A fantastic event put on by fantastic people. Mark and I presented once again, and even garnered some pretty decent feedback (wonders will never cease). If you attended our session, you also saw my MacBook Pro crash! Yes! An Apple crash! As it turns out, this very public freeze was early warning that some of my RAM was on its way out—oh now, that was a fun Friday when it finally failed good and proper.
I digress.
Other highlights of the year included StackOverflow's inaugural DevDays session in London and a shhhhhhhhplendid tootle around the Yorkshire Dales in September. Also on the walking front (!), in late May / June, the Poole family hit Florida for a very welcome (if exhausting) holiday. Theme park-mungous it was.
Talking of StackOverflow, that site has become a great resource for me, and I’m even answering the odd question over there now (got my first negative vote this week, woo hoo).
And so to 2010. What gives? Well, this site is getting a make-over. More code will be forthcoming. The Co-op will be doing lots, and hopefully we will all hang on to our collective sanity for another year.
Happy new year one and all.
Merry Christmas
Goodness me, I have neglected this site so much this year. No excuses, I’m just a slacker with lots of things happening / diverting my attention! I shall do some sort of looking forward / looking back post afore the year is out. 2009 has been a strange one, full of ups and downs. Health, family, friends, solvency: all remain intact, and that’s the main thing eh!
I wish all five of my remaining readers a very merry Christmas / festive break of their choice, and thanks for hanging in there. Change is afoot at benpoole.com and I hope a couple of you will be around for the ride in 2010!
Sláinte! Salud! Prost! Skål! Maisha marefu! Jamas!
UK night at Lotusphere 2010!
If you’re attending Lotusphere next month (next month!!), then we have a party for you. The details can be found on Warren’s site, so head over there. The London Developer Co-op is proud to be a co-sponsor of what promises to be a splendid evening, so come and find one of us, or one of the other sponsors, and grab a sticker to get in!
Angry old man
Last week in the UK, Lord Myners (minister for the City of London) announced that he is most narked that bailed-out bank heads are proposing the usual bumper bonuses for themselves and their staff.
OK. And now the Copenhagen climate summit has kicked-off:
Ms Jorgensen reckons that between her and her rivals the total number of limos in Copenhagen next week has already broken the 1,200 barrier. The French alone rang up on Thursday and ordered another 42. “We haven’t got enough limos in the country to fulfil the demand,” she says. “We’re having to drive them in hundreds of miles from Germany and Sweden.”
Yep yep, a summit on climate change.
The Daily Telegraph: Copenhagen climate summit: 1,200 limos, 140 private planes and caviar wedges.
Our wondrous leaders eh? What a shower of hypocritical, gravy train-hogging pigs.
