Ben
Grandroids: Samsung Galaxy S4, Sony Xperia Z, HTC One
It’s bloody hard to pick a winner from this bunch. They each have their upsides and some very minor downs. The HTC One camera is a disappointment but it looks smashing; the Samsung feels cheesy but is incredibly light and has a fantastic camera; and the waterproof Z could come in very handy, while Sony have also done amazing things with the modding community.
Fixing Novopay (and other “Big IT” projects)
The key issue with Novopay, and the school payroll system, and many other huge black-box IT projects (yeah, I’m looking at you, $1.5bn IRD replacement system), is the approach of replacing the system as a whole. Forget about the elephant, let’s look for a system of interconnected components that – as a whole – gets us to where we need to be.
Novopay Technical Review for Dummies
I’ve worked on “enterprise grade” software for a large chunk of my career. Do not get me wrong: I could not build a payroll system capable of running the NZ School payroll without error, but I do know a grade-A clusterfuck when I see one. This post attempts to cut through some of the veiled [...]
Thoughts: Samsung Galaxy S4
I’m not sure when it was decided that electronic product launches had to be a) gaudy affairs in major event theatres and b) completely devoid of availability information; but nonetheless this is the currently accepted formula. Samsung’s announcement of the GALAXY S4 yesterday was nothing more than appropriately bizarre.
Double Review: Samsung DA-E750 and Logitech UE Boombox
These devices are definitely aimed at different markets and uses, but for me personally (not being a Lotto winner), the Logitech would be my choice if I was forced to select between the two. It’s easily portable, simple to use, and I kinda like the retro-cool styling.
Consultancy. Why?
What I do find vexing is the fact that software procurement, development, and maintenance is (or should be) an absolute core requirement of almost any modern government department. As such, the trend to outsource all aspects of the process bother me greatly. What we end up with is a world where all of the enterprise IT expertise is centralised in these consulting firms, who in turn can extract near-monopoly rents from the government because each department is forced to use the consultancies to cover their asses.
Windows Phone Killed My Children
There is one truism buried in Matt’s post that I will agree with (but which he unfortunately did not elaborate on clearly): the upgrade from Windows Phone 7 to Windows Phone 8 was less than it could have been, and is almost entirely due to internal Microsoft “strategy tax”. The move to an NT kernel was not necessary, and now puts Windows Phone under the crushing weight of the Windows Team.
New Zealand Police in Scary Drone Scare
It’s just some guys testing the range of their FPV hobby plane out to 7.4 km. It only looks sinister because we’ve been trained that the grainy view with an information overlay means we’re about to see an explosion and bodies flying.
500 Words and Sony Xperia Z
Lately, I’ve been playing with Android 4 variants, and last night I got to take a look at the new Sony Xperia Z (both phone and tablet). Wow! Android: you’ve come a long way baby.
Getting Active
I just listened to John Key’s 2013 opening speech. It was vacuous, condescending, and shouty. Listen to it again. It sounds like an opposition speech, belittling his opponents and complaining about their policies. Thing is John, opposition policies are irrelevant. It’s your policies and plans to help New Zealand we need to hear about. Apparently [...]
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