Very interesting article in the San Fransisco Gate online about Ron Patrick, a 50 year old Engineer who has put, very cleanly, a 1450-horsepower T58 Jet Engine on the back of his VW Bug. My favorite quote: He said that a jet-boosted run will “pin the speedometer and that’s at 140.” He thinks that when…
Upcoming Events
This Saturday, May 6th, is the long awaited St. Louis Code Camp. Some good sessions throughout the day, and I’ll be giving two talks: one on an introduction to Ruby for C# Developers, and the other Achieving Customer Zen with Fitnesse. Then, Wednesday May 10th I’ll be at the Mid Missouri XP User’s Group as…
Responsible Development
A couple of weeks ago, I was talking to a reporter about Offshoring and Extreme Programming. One of the challenges was the term, “Extreme Programming”. How do you get the ideas across as a whole unit without turning people off by the term? Turns out, even Kent Beck is having to do that. He is…
Test-First wrist band revisited
Bob Martin, on the TDD list expounded some more about the Green wrist band he wears: I wear a green wrist-band that says “Test First”. This green band is a symbol of my committment to a minimum standard of professional behavior. Part of that minimum standard is: “I will not release code that I have…
Brilliant thread on Slashdot
On a recent post on Slashdot perhaps one of the funniest comment threads ensued that I have seen in a while. It started with Jeremy’s post: So, they give me a laptop… I get multple T3 internet connections, pay me to work… free bagels on Fridays, free coffee every day, and they can’t fire me…
Great job posting
A brilliant job opening post came across the XP Jobs mailing list today. Shame it’s all the way in France, because how could you not want to work for a company whose job posting looks like: LEIRIOS is looking for 2 senior java developers for its R&D; department based in Besançon (France). (French-speaking and fluent…
Fitnesse DoFixtures for .NET – Part 1
Over the past few months, we’ve had the chance to explore getting up and running with Fitnesse and .NET and the chance to check out how to implement ActionFixtures. While both Column and Action fixtures are great ways to express requirements, there is another fixture which is extremely powerful, and allows your customer to write…
Presentation and Files from Mid-Mo talk online
Monday night’s talk at the Mid-MO XP User’s Group on Fitnesse and .NET was a great time. Some good questions and discussions came out of it. For those who were there, or those who weren’t and want to see it, I’ve put the presentation and code examples online. (Edit: I put the Fitnesse files below…
Continuous Development
One of the great things about Extreme Programming is that the customers get to decide exactly how to spend their money. We as developers work with our customers to create a set of stories, prioritize them according to the business need, and then go to work, getting constant feedback and course corrections as we go….
Fitnesse / .NET talk this Monday in Columbia, MO
I’ve been invited by the Mid-Missouri XP User’s Group to give a talk this Monday, April 10th on Fitnesse and .NET in Columbia, MO. We’ll be starting right at 6pm, and it should be a good time. Get all the details and RSVP info in Gary’s message.