Mark Edgington

On June 12th Apple announced the release of Safari for Windows, in 2 days it had 1 million downloads. But why was it released at all. Allegedly Safari have near 5% of the browser market, not bad considering to date it only runs on a mac. So it could be they viewed the success of Firefox and thought there was room in the market. However, they could have done this before and if you take a look at browsers statistics by w3schools you find the figure is much lower than stated.  With a little more investigation you find that the IPhone (to be released end June) will have developer access using Safari. Now perhaps a release makes more sense, as most developers are on the windows platform and the IPhone will need these to gain momentum after its initial launch. Whatever the reason, it is worth downloading to see if it suits your needs.

Mind 42 have just released a free on-line mind mapping tool, The sign-up is fast and you’ll be mapping in no-time.   It’s easy to use, offering some basic functions, but more are on the way.  A great feature is the ability to collaborate by sharing your maps, coupled with other tools like basecamp (for project management)  and you can have great control and communication around your project, especially if it’s open source and the team is at disparate locations. collaboration.

Twice in the last week I have used a quick test to determine how well a team is coding and delivering projects. The test comes from Joel on Software and outlines twelve points to which you provide a yes or no answer:

1. Do you use source control?
2. Can you make a build in one step?
3. Do you make daily builds?
4. Do you have a bug database?
5. Do you fix bugs before writing new code?
6. Do you have an up-to-date schedule?
7. Do you have a spec?
8. Do programmers have quiet working conditions?
9. Do you use the best tools money can buy?
10. Do you have testers?
11. Do new candidates write code during their interview?
12. Do you do hallway usability testing?

A score of 12 is perfect, 11 is tolerable, but 10 or lower and you’ve got serious problems. Back in 2000 Joel wrote ‘The truth is that most software organizations are running with a score of 2 or 3, and they need serious help’. I would hope and expect that the industry has moved up the points scale since then. My Team scored an 11 (we move office soon so get number 8, quite working environment), its taken 2 years to get there and I would love to get to twelve, but cannot say that we fix bugs before writing new code, every time.

Take the test, its quick and it does give a good idea of weakness in process and provide you with simple, yet effective goals to aim for.

My team have just launched site to advertise the new Mazda CX-7 . Its written in .Net and has an Dynamic interface utilizing Ajax techniques. Its currently deployed in English and German, new languages will be added in the coming weeks.

I have had this book for many years and often use it for referance, but over the last week i read it from cover to cover (again). It really is a great book, with good insight for software professional. The posts printed within are mainly from 2000-2002, but none the less the messages and thoughts still hold true. Although he does amusingly get a few predictions wrong. If your into software this is a must have book. Also don’t forget to visit Joel on Software

My team have just launched site to enable pre-ordering of the new Mazda CX-7 . Its written in .Net 2.0 and integrated into a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system.

My team have just launched site for Essent Trading . Its written in Java and uses an open source CMS called incendiary blue.