I'm working on a new talk which aims to address some of the issues that face developers when it comes to running automated tests. Please take my super-scientific survey so that I can take a look at the real issues facing developers, and structure my talk around them. Thanks!
What do you mean, Backwards Compatibility? (YOW 2013)
YOW recorded me, yet again, talking about the adventure that is the design of the new Java Driver for MongoDB. This is the same talk I gave at GeeCON and DevoxxUK, with some updates based on our Journey So Far. In it, I cover the architecture of the new driver and some of our current thoughts around where we want the API to go.
Continue reading "What do you mean, Backwards Compatibility? (YOW 2013)"
Career Advice for Programmers (YOW 2013)
Since I have a tendency to bang on every now and again about how we, as developers, could do better in managing our careers (for example, by creating CVs that don't suck, and by staying ahead of the curve), Dave Thomas asked me to speak for a mere 50 minutes on the subject at GOTO Aarhus, a talk I wasn't enormously happy with as there was no way to cover a lifetime of hard-fought experience in such a short time. Dave seemed to like something in it though, as he gave me the opportunity to present the topic again at YOW last December, and this time I think I managed to distill the important points into the (still ridiculously short) time allotted.
Please give me any feedback you have.
I recognise there are many many more topics I could cover, so I'd better start making a list. Suggestions?
Sevilla MUG March Madness
Last night the Sevilla MUG had our March Madness event. This was our largest event yet, with 36 people signed up. Although the aim of March Madness is to have a MongoDB Engineer at all the user groups this month, that's not such a big deal for us as I live here, so this was also the first event where I wasn't the main attraction - [Javier] (https://twitter.com/JvrBaena) gave a really great talk about the lessons learnt at SocialBro after using MongoDB in production for the last couple of years.
The slides for my introduction to Replica Sets and Sharding:
And the slides for the main attraction:
Sevilla Mongo Developers Group - MongoDB: Cómo aprendimos que la culpa era nuestra from Francisco Javier Baena Ríos
The event went really well, everyone seemed engaged, and our first talk in Spanish seemed to encourage more questions than normal. We were also in a new venue, and although I love the central location of our previous venue and the friendliness of the owners, the menu of the new location seemed to be a massive win.
Sparking innovation in an established company
I’ve been running into BSkyB a bunch this week - firstly I was invited to kick off their innovation tech talks series last Monday, then I kept meeting Sky people (that makes it sound like they’re aliens) at QCon.
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YOW
December disappeared in a rush of vacation and a fleeting tour of Australia. It's hard to believe that it's the eve of Christmas Eve already, it's almost impossible to feel Christmassy when you're getting sunburnt on a boat and seeing people in swim-suits wearing santa hats. A mid-winter festival (complete with trees and fake snow) just feels very odd in summer.
First presentation at the Virtual JUG!
Yesterday I had the privilege of presenting the very first session for vJUG, a new virtual Java User Group that allows us to span geographies when sharing talks and stories. I'm really interested in the vJUG idea, especially now I'm not in London - if we can find good ways to share knowledge without having to travel, that will help us reach people who don't normally go to conferences or don't have a local user group to go to. Not to mention cutting travel costs and saving the environment.
JavaOne 2013
So, I thought a few months ago that my blog would become more of a travel blog than a tech blog because of the amount of conferences I was going to. Turned out that I was so busy writing / updating / practicing talks and workshops and, er, travelling, that I never got around to doing retrospectives on the events I'd been to.
The New 3.0 Java Driver for MongoDB
Information related to the currently-ongoing effort to redesign the Java driver for MongoDB.
JavaOne Shanghai
So, I was in China last week. It's not really what I expected, but then my knowledge of China comes almost entirely from visiting various Chinatowns and watching martial arts movies, so I guess I wasn't all that well prepared for a modern Asian city like Shanghai.