Asking an AI

I asked Claude what it knew about me. It found my blog and had this to say: “Intellectual style: Opinionated and self-assured but self-aware about it.Personality: Independent thinker, pragmatist, skeptical of authority and institutional overhead. He’s a good explainer and … Continue reading →

Posted on: 4 March 2026 | 4:56 am

Explain like I’m five: Bitcoin

What’s bitcoin? It’s a fungible unit of value exchange backed by computer processing power and cryptographic proof-of-work. It’s a what now? It’s kind of like money powered by computers. What’s so special about that? Bitcoin is the first viable form … Continue reading →

Posted on: 9 April 2013 | 6:59 pm

The future of money

I heard about Bitcoin before it was cool. I read (well, skimmed) the paper. I thought, “that looks interesting” and went about my business. 2 years later and don’t I feel silly. I don’t know if Bitcoin will replace fiat … Continue reading →

Posted on: 8 April 2013 | 3:41 pm

10 years of blogging!

I really should get around to updating the theme on this thing.

Posted on: 24 January 2013 | 10:36 am

The futility of humility

There’s been a lot of chatter within my network about the pursuit, and virtue of, humility. Usually framed as ‘humility vs arrogance’ I don’t find the term ‘humility’ especially helpful. It’s an abstract concept and, as such, very subjective. I … Continue reading →

Posted on: 3 October 2012 | 7:22 am

Enterprise Deployment

Every organisation I’ve developed software for held the belief that their deployment situation was special, unique and complicated. Most of them came up with convoluted release processes involving multiple manual steps, hundreds of configuration variables, shell scripts and workarounds. The … Continue reading →

Posted on: 6 December 2011 | 9:21 am

But if I really ruled the world

My next software project would… Be written using node.js, Ømq, redis and riak.

Posted on: 24 June 2011 | 7:22 am

If I ruled the world

My next Java project would… Be built with gradle Use git for SCM Check in deployable artifacts Be an executable jar Use JPA annotations for persistence Would not… Use maven Use spring

Posted on: 24 June 2011 | 5:19 am

Lessons from memory

Every now and then I take a stroll down memory lane and read some old blog posts, both mine and colleagues’. After I stop cringing at how naive and earnest we all were I try and contrast my current opinions … Continue reading →

Posted on: 22 June 2011 | 5:43 pm

The future is noded

The future is noded. NOsql, Dynamic, Event driven, Distributed. A tipping point has been reached. The JVM is past its peak. Dynamic languages with a low cost of change and greater expressive power are in the ascendance. Scaling through multithreading … Continue reading →

Posted on: 10 March 2011 | 7:42 pm