21 Dec
2006

Office Dress: Suits

Suits are the friend of the office-dress-rule-constrained person. At a few places I’ve worked, its been shirt, trousers and shoes for guys, and “appropriate dress” for girls. That’s no help to anyone, its such a vague description. I want a uniform that comes in multipacks of similar pastel shades with no thought required as well!

For some reason I am significantly colder-blooded than most of my (male) colleagues. They seem to sit about in the office in shirts all year round, but after about October, I’m freezing! I’m not a big fan of knitwear as office wear – not in general, but for me personally. The soft, stretchy clothing bundles up around me and turns my curves (which never look great sitting down) into worse rolls than I really have! Jumpers and cardigans are never long enough either and they just stop at a really bad point, making me look heavier than I am.

The solution is simple: trouser suits1 are the way forward. They’re warm, comfortable, and are like wearing trousers and a coat to the office except they match. Its acceptable to wear normal t-shirts underneath a jacket. They don’t look bad with flat shoes. Actually the only downside that I can think of is that they reek slightly of power-dressing. I’m blessed with the ability to look untidy and uncoordinated in every possible situation though, so I doubt I look overdressed!

I have a series of similar black, mostly pinstriped, suits. Dorothy Perkins do a longer leg length in trousers which fits me fine. They are all machine washable and disintegrate after about two years of wearing one or two times per week each. I finally found my uniform and I’m happy … although I’m sure I would produce much better code in jeans, slippers and a pony tail :)

Does anyone else have any tips to share?

Edit: You can also read my thoughts on shoes and bags

1 Machine-washable trouser suits, to be specific.

20 Dec
2006

Meme Tagged

OK, so I’ve been tagged in a post by dotjay for this meme1. The idea is that you write five thing about yourself that people probably didn’t know, and then tag five other people to do the same.

So here goes:

  • When I was twelve, I wanted to grow up to be a concert pianist.
  • I still sleep with cuddly toys, even though I’m 26 and cohabiting. At the moment I have a cuddly gibbon in my bed, he’s got long gangly arms and legs that get wrapped around everywhere but he’s fab. I also have the cuddly tux from thinkgeek that my boyfriend bought for me.
  • My first job out of university was writing football games for gameboy and something called an N-gage which seems to have sunk without trace.
  • I would like to work for myself but I secretly know that I will never do it. I tell everyone I don’t have the confidence but really its because I can’t go for more than an hour without talking.
  • I touch-type at a rate of 70wpm.

I’m not tagging anyone because it feels like a chain letter and in the same way that I read the amusing story on the letter and then delete it, I’m going to join in the game and then stop. I am not superstitious and have never been afraid to break the chain.

If anyone would like to tag themselves and join in then go for it – and add a link in the comments below!

1 I was going to write about what a meme is but actually its best if you read the wikipedia link

20 Dec
2006

Worry About YouTube

I haven’t had a quote-of-the-day for a while, and I just fell across this which really made me think:

The big media companies shouldn’t worry that people will post their copyrighted material on YouTube. They should worry that people will post their own stuff on YouTube, and audiences will watch that instead.

Its from The Power of the Marginal , a long but riveting article that appeared in my RSS feed from joel.reddit.com

The point being made here is spot on. The problem with easily-available media isn’t the proliferation of existing material being accessed by people who haven’t paid for the privilege. The risk is that the “little people”, the non-corporate-financed underlings, will be able to tap into the same channels as the big guys and reach the same audiences. We live in interesting times, don’t you think?

18 Dec
2006

Office Dress: Shoes

This is the first entry in a planned mini-series on the issues relating to looking presentable at work when you have to walk there. The article mostly relates to women, since I am one. When I last moved jobs I went from stepping out of my house into my car and out again in the company car park, to a half-mile walk across an exposed section of park, so I’ve had to adapt quickly.

Shoes are all about aesthetics vs. practicality. High heels look great but I’m a programmer, not a model, so I don’t feel obliged to wear high heels for work. Also since I have large feet (a UK size 7), pretty shoes just don’t end up pretty when they get to this size and flat shoes become long – like a clown’s shoes! There are some lovely shoes out there this season but many seem to be soft-soled. That’s all very well but if you actually walk places in them other than indoors, the soles wear away in no time!

Smart office shoes are often rather uncomfortable and I do walk some distance in shoes each day. I love my berghaus walking boots but can’t get away with wearing them to work. In addition I like my feet the shape they are so I won’t wear shoes that hurt.

This winter, I’m wearing these hush puppies – they’re fab!

What do you wear on your feet for work? I’ll be jealous if the answer is “slippers” ….

Edit: you can also read about suits and shoes

18 Dec
2006

Cold Crisp Cotswolds

At the weekend I did a bit of a trip across the country as I was going to a party in Warwickshire (complete with ballgown and tiara – photos later if anyone sends me some). I popped down to Witney in Oxfordshire to catch up with some old friends as we lived there until about a year ago.

The weather was lovely, clear and cold but sunny, and it shows off the countryside in that area to its best advantage I think. The cotswold stone is sandy but somehow does look better in the frost so I think I was pretty lucky with that. As I was spending my last few weeks in that area of the world (we had a house near Burford), there were days of still, foggy weather where the frost seemed to condense onto the tree branches and hang there – very spooky and atmostpheric – and the conditions on Saturday reminded me of it.

14 Dec
2006

Houseless

We pulled out of our second sale1 yesterday. We can’t get a mortgage on this house unless we pay for more surveys, and we already know that the damp proof course has been breached and the whole house needs repointing. Spending money to prove that we can’t afford something we already can’t afford didn’t seem like a great plan so we’ve cut and run.

Feeling a bit sad about the whole thing but I’m sure its for the best. Something will turn up in the New Year I expect.

1 In case you haven’t been keeping up, you can catch up with the whole story

11 Dec
2006

The mid-season break is in sight!

Well its been a couple of exciting weeks in the netball world, or rather exciting weekends as that’s when we usually play.

Two weeks ago I played two matches in one day. The first, for the second team, I played a whole match, we won, and it was generally good all round. I then had a three-hour wait with my packed lunch for the next match to start. It would have been tedious but I ran into the one other person I know that plays in the West Yorkshire league (a school friend) so I watched her match and then we updated each other on the gossip for mutual friends. The second match was a bit of a let-down as I didn’t get on court and my team lost.

On the plus side I learned to keep shooting statistics for the shooters! I have no idea how I came this far without knowing this but it was interesting all the same. You draw a circle each time they shoot and then put a line through it diagonally if the shot scores a goal. At the end you can count the total shots and goals and tell them their statistics. More than 80% is good (here in the Northern Hemisphere it is anyway!)

The weekend just gone was another two-matcher. The timing was bad as I just got my Nintendo Wii and didn’t really want to be separated from it. Saturday I played with the seconds and we lost … bit of a violent match as the umpires were on the quiet side and both teams were not afraid of throwing their weight around. I took a kick to one of my knees which is quite sore now! Sunday was an away match in Warrington, nice team but again we lost (are you spotting the pattern yet??). On a personal level though it was a victory as someone else couldn’t play so I got on court for the whole match and I don’t think I disgraced myself.

All in all its been a good couple of weeks, the main downside is that my dress has been washed so often that its going a bit baggy and getting shorter. Unless I’m getting taller and thinner which seems unlikely! We’re almost at the end of the season now with just one fixture next weekend, a funny play-two-matches-on-the-same-day arrangement which we’re putting out a team of whoever wants to play. Should be fun :)

11 Dec
2006

The First in Line

In the wider world of software development, supporting software is seen as the lowest form of employment in that field. I have to say that I totally disagree, working as a support developer needs quick thinking and expertise on every subject that might come up plus a whole raft of complimentary skills to understand how different users and environments can affect the outcome. The exception to this is first-line support, which is a different job altogether. Here are my thoughts on what the differences are, and why first-line support can be demoralising for a developer.

Different Levels of Support

First-line support is the initial point of contact for a user. This person usually knows what questions to ask to narrow down the likely cause of the problem, and can deal with common queries about functionality. They usually have access to a knowledgebase so that they can research simple problems and help the users. The first-line support person may also do some basic investigation into a fault, for example replicating the problem and investigating obvious causes. A good first-line support person is organised so that they can keep track of lots of calls/users/faults/tasks, and has good communication skills for dealing with non-technical users over the telephone or by email and for conveying information about technical problems to the next level of support as needed.

Second- and third-line support tends to have less clear boundaries. Usually second-line support is a skilled developer who will develop a solution to the problem, whereas a third-line support person might be a more senior person who designed that part of the system in the first place. Sometimes the distinction is not made at all. These developers will be looking at existing problems which have been verified and they will then apply their technical abilities to correcting the problem. Often they will have only limited contact with the user; their solution may be conveyed via the first-line support people.

Support as a Route Into IT

Having worked as a support developer I have to say its a great place to start in an organisation. You get an overview of every part of every version of every product and come into contact with large portions of the organisation itself and its user base – or at least that’s my experience from working in an ISV. As experience is accrued you can take on more and more difficult faults to fix and can also start to specialise in areas that you are now knowledgeable about. If there is a structure to move from first-line into second-line support, I think an intelligent person with an enquiring mind and a good attitude can thrive.

I could write at length about this, but I’ll save it for a(nother) rainy day.

Asking Experienced Developers to Work First-Line

If, as a manager, you ask developers who report to you to do support, you’ll normally get grumbles. Ask them to do exclusively first-line support and you’ll get a revolt (there’s a joke in there somewhere, about revolting developers, but I can’t quite form it). It might seem to you that they are lazy, don’t want to use the phone, or would rather surf with their headphones in all day like they do now when they’re supposed to be developing, but (for me anyway) there’s more to it than that.

I can’t speak for everyone but personally I find second-line support invigorating and rewarding. Users present problems or other unexpected experiences, and I’m able to make their lives a bit better by using my skills to help. I feel helpful and its rewarding – even if the users aren’t actually very grateful! First-line support is chaotic, my secretarial skills are good but its really hard to ignore the fact that you could probably untangle this user’s problem because you have to get them off the line and talk to the next one. The whole thing becomes a fog of error messages and phone numbers! Personally I’ve worked in first-line support before and my organisational skills are well up to the task – I’d even say that I’m good at it. But “invigorating and rewarding”?

Not at all. A bit like doing a good job when working in MacDonalds wouldn’t be invigorating and rewarding![1]

1 Actually I’m not sure that really conveys the depth of difference between an ordinary development role, even one which is mostly maintenance, and the front line of support. Any better metaphors are gratefully received!

06 Dec
2006

Birthdays

It was my birthday yesterday – hurrah! – and I had a lovely day. I’m a bit too old to get very excited about presents really, but this year was pretty good!! I’m getting a Nintendo Wii when they are released in Europe in two days time, and I can’t wait!

I had quite a few lovely presents to unwrap on the day (some of them cheque-shaped!) so big thanks to everyone – and to everyone who sent cards too, they’re beautiful. My sister bought me a pink toolbox which I’m well impressed with, best present I’ve had in ages :)

28 Nov
2006

Superleague Netball on Telly

There’s netball on TV! OK, so its on sky sports so I’m not sure how I’m going to be able to watch it, but at least its on. Sky are televising this year’s superleague (the star teams from the 7 regions plus a welsh team), which is fabulous news.

The news story is here