At the end of January 2015 I will allow my membership of the Australian Computer Society (ACS) to lapse. It's true that for the last couple of years I was only paying discount membership rates because of my employment/health status, and during that time I rarely if ever attended branch events. But before that I was an active member of the society, ( Read more... )

This evening I was wildly overjoyed that I managed to go to an Australian Computer Society (ACS) branch meeting. It's been a very long time since I've managed it, and have missed some really great topics/lectures. But tonight's "The Art and Science of Diagramming: Communicating Effectively Using Diagrams" was a subject very close to my heart, so I ( Read more... )

Am most happy to report that I got to attend this evening's ACS (Australian Computer Society) meeting featuring a presentation/workshop by Dwayne Read of Strategic Systems re Agile methods of estimating for software development projects. It's close to a year since my last one.

( Read more... )

In this post I'd like to deconstruct (and thus ruin) a joke, and as a bonus briefly (ha!) analyse a lesson learned about shamelessly exploiting harnessing social media for fun and you've got to be kidding profit ( Read more... )

The Daily WTF is a website of "Curious Perversions in Information Technology" and I read it every day. I also count this reading towards the professional development hours^ I am required to compete every year to maintain my certification as a Computer Professional via the Australian Computer Society (ACS). You may ask how I could possibly justify ( Read more... )

Quick medical update to say that unless provoked by excessive exercise (see below) the shingles is all cleared up. Is that what illnesses are supposed to do? Go away? 'Cause I like it.

( Read more... )

Yesterday I managed to do a bit of work from home, and while today's spoons were being hoarded for an ACS meeting, I did a bit more work during the day. Tomorrow I may combine the two and actually make a functional appearance at the office. Fingers crossed!

( Read more... )

The subject for this evening's ACS meeting was the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA, pronounced "Sophia"). It's a framework for determining the type of skills an individual has and level at which they operate. It seems to be a reasonably practical sort of system, somewhat akin to outcomes-based curriculum. Part of the intent is to ( Read more... )

I've been living too much in the last couple of days to blog about it properly. ( Read more... )

The "Communication Risks" talk for the ACS went down well, although with a smallish audience of 20-30 and only two blokes. Everyone misses our regular venue and easy parking in West Perth. Many thanks to rabbit1080 for coming along for (im)moral support. I'm sorry, but I just can't swear effectively in cold blood. Ah well, I gave it a try.

( Read more... )