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I spend much of my life sat in front of a computer, and for the last five or so years, those computers have – where possible – been those made by Apple. The main reason that drew me to Mac OS X was that, underneath the well designed user interface is the Unix command line that I like to think I know quite well.

I spent many years battling with Linux distributions – generally successfully I should add – but it was never quite the fluid, integrated, graceful and well designed experience I’ve had with Apple computers. I’d get things working, but all too often I was resorting to my years of Unix to get particular applications working. Since ’switching’ I’ve been very pleased and – I suspect – a bit more productive. Plus, I’ve found that I’ve actually stopped caring about getting the most out of every last bit of technology under my fingertips. I just want it to work, and let me get on my job (which is relentlessly technical as it is, without requiring me to go out of my way). Of course, I’m still able to fire up a prompt and ‘do stuff’ very easily indeed. The perfect match.

It’s mainly been Apple laptops to date, simply because I was (and still am) a consultant, flitting from client to client, in and out of the office, and not really needing a serious base system. That is until I moved up here to Scotland, and several years back now, bought the first revision of the flat-screen iMac. I didn’t want a big hulking computer given we were in a ‘temporary’ flat at the time (it lasted 15 months in the end!), and the iMac was great for somebody who is – at heart – a ‘console warrior’ – Terminal.app is frequently the main program I use.

Despite occasional problems, it’s served me well. But since Apple’s switch over to Intel, and the success of the Parallels virtualisation software, I realised I really needed to refresh my base computer. I now have my own office with space for it (presuming I have a bit of a tidy up), and do a lot more work these days in Windows for one of my main clients, all of which makes an Intel based Mac system a necessity necessary, rather than simply a nice-to-have.

So after waiting and waiting for the rumoured display refresh (I was hoping to get the integrated iSight to arrive in the professional display), I gave up waiting, and today ordered a scarily powerful Mac Pro. Geek friends will perhaps be disappointed that I didn’t go for the Eight core model (”just” the default quad core) but I really don’t think there’s either much use for that much power in my IT world, much less optimised software to take full advantage (other than backing up my DVD collection of course). But even benchmarks don’t show it to be the beast you might think. A slightly rushed Apple release perhaps? Four cores should do it for me, and last me a good few years more than an Intel iMac would.

I’ve certainly found that my consumer-focused iMac is struggling with all the things I need to run much of the time, and I now need to run remote desktop for windows access, so will need to run Parallels a great deal of the time. So yes, it’s a beast for a home computer. But, as my friend Adam put it, it’s also the single most important tool available to me, and it makes sense to get the best you can. Also a number of friends are still making good use of their equivalent PowerMac’s they bought years before I got my iMac. It’s a beast of an architecture that should last, and scale, over the following few years.

The only negative is it’s going to take a while to get here. At least a week. Mainly because it’s quite bespoke: for the first time I’m going to ensure my primary disks are mirrored (so I can survive a hard disk failure without losing any data), and I’ve selected a few other options (ie. wireless/bluetooth modules) that add a few days. But it should hopefully arrive next week!

Rest assured, dear reader, you’ll be hearing a lot more about the new toy when it arrives. Perhaps not unboxing pics (worry not, you get your geek pr0n here!!), but something… I’m sure I’ll think of something.

Now, what to do with my iMac G5… ?

Twenty years ago, finance in the UK changed fundamentally with the “Big Bang”, opening up and liberating the previously cosy world of finance in radical ways, leading it to become perhaps the biggest international marketplace. The BBC is marking the occasion with a great overview article about the changes, and the state of the financial market now. With finance dominating so much of the London economy, and the rest of the UK, and also having been a major part (and still is!) of my career, it’s a shame this sector is often viewed as dull, boring and irrelevant by many.

Whilst I’m primarily an IT practitioner, I necessarily need to understand more about the companies I have worked for and supported along the way. Whether Banks or Hedge Funds, the flow of money, and the subtleties and distinctions between classes of product, either fixed income, equity, or the more complicated derivatives, all sounds high and mighty and out of reach. But all have interesting, and simple, underpinnings, and affect every one of us substantially in the products we buy, either savings accounts, ISA’s, insurance policies or direct share dealing (which is really a lot easier, and low-risk and tax effective, than many people think). Spend a little time reading the financial section of your weekend paper (I’ll confess, one of the first extra sections I go for) and anybody can pick up on the jargon, and therefore understand the products on offer better, and work out what’s best for their financial planning.

Whilst Dragons’ Den has an admirable aim, but (I feel) misses the mark, I think it’s still encouraging that finance is getting more serious coverage in the media, if you go looking. Working lunch, which I sometimes manage to catch if I’m fortunate with my timing, is also carrying some Big Bang anniversary coverage – and also has some excellent financial information for anybody interested in learning more about personal financial products and services than the best credit card deal (Although getting rid of debt, particularly ‘expensive’ ones such as credit cards, in invariably the best place to start)

I’ve just received a phone call from BT which I found really rather ominous. It seems, rather than sending out red reminder bills, they now pick up the phone and call to verbally harangue their customers about late payment.

It just happened that I recalled I’d not paid the latest bill this morning, and would have got around to it this weekend, but my hackles have very much been raised by this, I feel, rather sinister change in BT process. They argue (as I questioned that I’d not received the red bill) that some people complain they don’t receive them. Presumably they’ve been trialing this elsewhere, and have seen improved payments as a result. I imagine too the cost of calling people is cheaper for them than posting a letter

But I just don’t like being phoned up and talked to like I was back at School. Whilst it’s good that BT offer a £12 discount if you pay by direct debit (which is better than many companies who just suggest it’s more ‘convenient’ and don’t pass on savings or encouragement for my giving them my bank details. My Zen is doing this right now. Sorry, keep paying the credit card charges. It works fine for me), I’ve been left feeling like a naughty boy, and wishing I had somewhere else I could take my business.

OK, they’re entitled to chase their bills. I have to do the same with late paying customers, but just over two weeks is not (in my opinion) sufficient time before they start threatening “action” over the phone. Sure it’s been “deferred” because I’m a “good customer”, but the threat was there. And that my bill was only produced on the 13th September, and 16 days later I’m being implicitly threatened by a real live person at the end of the phone. That they then suggested “we can take payment now” was even more bizarre: Don’t ever give your bank details over the phone to unsolicited callers. Call them back so that you definitely know who’s calling (even if caller-id gives a clear clue).

Some folk might like the ‘personal’ nature of all of this. I don’t. I wish I had a genuine choice about who supplied telephone services. To some extent I do, but given I depend on a consistent telephone and ADSL service, I can’t (right now) uproot to another provider. For all their faults, it does work all the time at the right price. But BT have, to me, demonstrated they’re getting more aggressive in the competitive marketplace they’re now in, but in a bad way, that has left a very sour taste in my mouth. And I’m a “good customer”.

The Sunday Mirror has an expose on BBC2’s Dragon’s Den programme, listing various examples of promises of money that have simply not appeared after agreements were struck.

Whilst I admire the BBC’s attempt to make business and entrepreneurial skills a subject of interest, the format has deep flaws that undermine the very aim. Essentially, I don’t see how sensible promises of investment/involvement can be made by the Dragon’s – presented as leading business figures – based on a short pitch by frequently nervous wannabe entrepreneurs. In the grand scheme of businesses, one hundred thousand pounds is not a massive amount of cash, and perhaps they can afford to throw it away on deals with minimal facts. Presumably the BBC does a great deal of filtering and background research on the people and their plans, but the point is still it’s high-drama, make or break stuff, and whilst it might (for some) make great TV, it consequently undermines its very premise.

But that the money promised hasn’t actually appeared, or that contact with the Dragons is non-existant in many cases, just confirms to me that the format is seriously flawed, and – most likely – the Dragons themselves are merely in it for the ego/vanity. For me, at least, they wind up doing themselves few favours.

I long ago gave up with inkjet printers. Every one I’ve ever had the misfortune of using has had problems of one sort or another, mainly due to clogged heads, knackered print-head belts, or – and here’s a shock – extortionately expensive ink cartridges. I print colour so very rarely that I invested in a black and white laser printer from HP (A Laserjet 1200) about five years ago, which has so far proved extremely reliable. I use a site like Photobox to print pictures, and get a top-quality image on decent paper in a day or two, at a great price per page too, without the hassle of an unreliable, over-marketed, low-quality inkjet printer.

It’s also been very good on the cartridge front. I’ve only just bought a replacement ink cartridge, and that was only about £40. Whilst I’m not exactly a heavy user, I’m printing company invoices, documents, travel tickets, maps and all sorts, so I’d suggest I’m about average. Five years of printing for £40 is the sort of price point I think most inkjet owners would have a sticky dream about, long after having mortgaged their house once more for that small plastic box containing as much ink as a fountain pen cartridge.

Recycling of computer equipment is a subject that recently hit the headlines (I think Apple got a bad wrap due to it’s weighting, when they’ve led computer recycling for a few years), but it’s been a problem for some years. I’ve had no joy since wondering how to recycle laptop batteries three years ago.

As I finally installed my new ink cartridge, I was delighted to see that HP have a recycling programme that encompasses laser printer cartridges too. So I’ve boxed up my old cartridge to send off with my post this week. We recycle a lot of our household waste – as much as we can in fact – and it’s good to see that HP are doing their bit in encouraging recycling. Hopefully their efforts aren’t ignored by the big corporations that no doubt make up the biggest proportion of their client base.

The Guardian has an article by Richard Stallman on the threat posed by the European Patent legislation. A campaign website also exists giving guidance on how this issue can be raised with MEP’s.

This is a big issue in Information Technology, and if you’re not familiar with the subject, it’s worth a read to demonstrate the risks that are posed by this flawed legislation.

(Thanks to Ben for the link)

I’m pleased to publish an article I have been working on for the last few weeks. It is, in essence, an overview of version control, but I start from the premise that it is badly misunderstood by a large number of technology practitioners. Because it is badly misunderstood, I strive to address the “justifications” I have heard as to why version control has not been used, and why those arguments are largely incorrect.

I make no apologies for being perhaps a little aggressive in some of my arguments: I honestly feel that version/source control is as vital a part of the software development cycle as hiring good developers, making good backups, and delivering the requirements to the business. But many people, including senior employees, can put everything at risk when a version control solution is either ignored, not adopted, or – just as badly – not enforced.

Version control is not, and never has been a panacea. To the initiated, my arguments may well seem something of a statement of the obvious. But I’d simply ask that you conduct a straw pole of technologists in your organisation or social circle. How many of them, from programmers to system administrators to managers, are enthusiastic towards version control? If it’s more than twenty percent, I’d be surprised.

So my article provides arguments for and justifications towards version control. It will hopefully be a useful resource for both the casual reader as well as a help to any proponent of source control inside an organisation, struggling against the sort of apathy or hostility I have frequently encountered.

I look forward to any feedback of course. A big thanks are due to friends who helped with comments on the article.

A printable PDF version is available at the base of the article.

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I’m convinced that music is undergoing a massive change at the moment, and the BPI (equivalent of the RIAA in the US) are taking the fundamentally wrong approach in suing people who are downloading and sharing music. The reason they are distributing files “illegally” is no different from the practices of the past, when – as kids – we happily copied tapes and records and make compilation albums of our favourite music. Read the rest of this entry »

In a welcome return, Stefan Smalla has posted an interesting link and analysis of VC fund futures in Europe.

I’m not sure it’s all doom and gloom myself. Certainly the larger VC’s with larger funds and a larger business focus face tough times in the dot com hangover, especially in Europe. But smaller “business angels” focusing on small, niche, and sector specific companies, with smaller cash sums, with perhaps more realistic and achievable business models still place themselves in good stead.